Needless to say, he was actually able to catch up with me and it seem that I had never had the chance to shake him off my trails even after all this time .
No, I actually beginning to believe that he always had kept an eye on me, that explain why I didn't hear him cursing before when I tricked him, I didn't think that my plan was foolproof, but I didn't expect that his strength was already this strong, even when he is being suppressed, or was the suppression on his strength failing .
Anyway, now wasn't the time to be asking these kinds of questions, I now need to think of someway to make him let me go first, I'm beginning to feel my vision getting all blurry due to being short of breath .
I was still detained by him, before I heard a loud ~bang~ and almost thought that my head cracked open, but it seemed that this sound came from the tree trunk, some layers broke down from it due to the powerful impact .
Then without giving me a chance to really wake up from my shocked and injured state, he directly held me by the neck instantly, almost crushing it in the process .
So I currently was being choked to death by him and even though he was asking me to hand over the Elixir and seemed to be waiting for a response from me, he wasn't giving me a chance to do so, that made me realize one thing clearly .
He was actually toying with me, I had witnessed similar scene before back in my previous world, stray cats tend to play with the mice they hunted until the later gave up on resisting completely, some snakes tended to do the same thing with their preys, not so that they can sharpen their instinct, not because they wanted to send a message, their reason was simply because they can .
Since they are stronger than their preys, then why would they care about their prey's opinions regarding how they dealt with it or how they humiliate it, maybe because we were in a similar situation I can't help but feel sorry for the mice and for myself as well .
My body currently was in an endless pain, in fact this pain was what was keeping me conscious all this time, conscious enough to experience pain over and over again in a cursed endless cycle of torment and misery .
Just barely trying to think of anything to say or do to make that guy release his hold on me seemed to be costing me the most valuable thing that I currently lacked, Air .
Seeing that this seem to be the end of me, I couldn't help but become bolder with my actions, since I'm already going to die, then hope the original Tian Long can bear witness to my final seconds in his body and in this world, I'm once again helping in granting him one of his wishes .
Since I'm dying soon, I will die on my own terms and I will die standing in the face of the tide like how the original Tian Long wanted, clearing my head of any other distractions, I tried hard to adjust my eyes angle to stare directly into the eyes of that guy, even though by doing this my neck was squeezed even more .
But in this crazed state of mine, I seem to be lacking of air, but I'm compensating for the lack of air to breathe with a profound aura of brilliant confidence, air has no worth for me in my current state, looking at the evil grin of the guy in front of me made me burst out laughing as well .
Due to my current state the laughter sounded more like a muffled groans of pain, but the smile on my face can't be said to be the smile of someone whose life or death was in the hand of others, the smile on my face had one meaning and that was gloating, yes it was a gloating smile .
I was gloating at him, seeing him arching his eyebrow at me, the smile on his face solidified and began turning into a deep frown as he was began to sense that something was wrong with me laughing, bewildered even .
Seeing him like this, I slightly lowered my gaze, surprisingly I felt that the powerful hand squeezing my neck actually began loosing slightly, giving me a freedom to move but not too much room for me to breathe still, that's what allowed me to succeed in lowering my gaze down towards my waist .
Seeing my actions, the confused enemy decided that he need to follow my gaze and understand what was going on here, so he looked down as well, seeing where my gaze kept lingering and the playful smile on my face, his eyes become fierce in an instant and as if already seeming to have understood something .
He directly removed the two pouches from my waist and no longer cared about me in the slightest, he threw me aside and directly began to empty every item in those two pouches, the floor instantly was filled with a lot of items, but the item he wanted to see the most among all those items was actually nowhere in sight .
His aura and killing intent rose soon after and he released a roar towards the sky, then turned towards me and didn't dare to act as reckless as before, he yelled at me like a mad person and was saying :
Where, where did you hide it ? .
Seeing his reaction I was still out of breath so instead of answering him directly, I was still engrossed in coughing in try of regulating my breathing, forcing the turbulent Blood Qi in my body to calm down, it took me a while but luckily with the help of the Panel, it finally subsided .
Still kneeling on the floor, a bottle kept turning all the way from him to where I was kneeling on the ground, as the the bottle touched my hand, I suddenly saw the scene around me change in an instant, I appeared in a place where the color white was the perfect description for it .
It looked similar to the Enlightenment Hall back in the Dojo, the similarities stopped at the two places looking like as if I was standing among clouds, this time I was really beginning to believe that I might have died and ascended to heaven, after all the pain I was feeling just now completely disappeared after I arrived in this place, so it should be right .
Well, this is both heaven and not .
Suddenly without a warning, I heard a very familiar voice say this, looking around for the source of the familiar voice, then surprisingly not very far away from me, I saw the shadow of a figure that seemed to be hiding behind a cloud or whatever these weird blocks of white smoke were .
Just as I was wondering who was the owner of that voice, I saw a person that I had never expected to see, I saw myself, no to be more accurate, I saw Tian Long !!! .
You are indeed correct, I'm Tian Long, the original Tian Long .
" Huh ? .
That was my honest reaction, was I really dead or had I gone crazy ?.
You are neither dead nor crazy, I'm indeed Tian Long, just what remains of him at least .
Even though this was difficult to accept, I surprisingly found it very acceptable for some reason, but even if this guy was Tian Long, why would he suddenly appear here like this ? .
I too wonder about the reason to why am I appearing here, the last thing I remembered was helping you take the first step in your Martial Path not so long ago and I disappeared directly after, but suddenly here you are and you have become a full fledged Flesh Tempering expert in the 3rd Layer, congratulations .
" Thank Brother Tian Long for his help .
I directly cupped my head and bowed down expressing my gratitude to him, he shook his head and helped me up then said :
You don't need to do this, even if I weren't to have interfered, you would have still been able to succeed, it might have taken a bit more time that's all, how do you find my body, I'm interested in your opinion as a customer service I want to know whether you are satisfied with it or not .
Hearing him say this, I couldn't help but be dumbstruck, someone from this world shouldn't have access to these terms, yet here I was hearing them from the mouth of the residents of this world, wait could he have read my... .
Yes, I did and I can hear your thoughts quite clear to, I hope you won't be offended and struck me with 10,000 Soul Annihilating Lightening, that's the ultimate move you wanted to create, right hahaha, you are quite funny guy, yet you have a lame sense of naming .
Hearing this, I couldn't help but sense that my face was suddenly burning red from embarrassment, I did imagine myself creating a move like this in the future, but I never said it out loud, just let my imagination run wild for a little bit .
But I liked the name, so it being called lame made me feel quite embarrassed, but at least with this I confirmed that he indeed have access to my thoughts and even imagination, but I still can't help but wonder what is the meaning of this sudden appearance of his .
I don't have an acute answer for that, my soul should have dissipated by now, yet, here we are, but my guess would be related to the actions of that purple eyed friend of yours, I had awakened since then, but my soul is still to weak to come out of your Sea Of Consciousness, this is the name of this place .
You don't need to ask me about it, I didn't know much regarding this place as well, all I got after waking up was the name of this place and the fact that souls seem to be staying in this place, it's also related to your Mental Strength, these were all the memories I got after I opened my eyes here .
It seem that in this dire situation, your mental strength seemed to have a breakthrough due to the strain you were forced to bear just now, as for the reason you and I are here you should have some clues similar to mine .
" So was this place created just so that I can bid this world a farewell and you get back your body ? .
As I asked this question, I saw that he actually stepped closer to me until we were directly opposite to one another, then he stretched his hand and I almost flinched, but thinking that this was for the better, I after all wasn't suited for that kind of hellish world, it was better to let all of it finally go .
So I closed my eyes and got ready to whatever that is going to happen next, but I then was forced to wake up again after feeling a hand patting me on the shoulder a few times, then I saw that he was looking at me with a smile on his face and said :
You are not right, but you also not wrong, someone is bidding the other a farewell today indeed, but it won't be you, it would be me bidding farewell to you, I just want you to remember one thing, I'm you and you are me, we two are one, we two have the same aspirations and the same responsibilities, from now on, you also will need to work extra hard for the both of us sake .
I know that I'm being quite vague, I will tell you why I'm determined to disappear, well, my story consisted completely around a feeling in my bones and the feeling was that I'm Bound for greatness .
But pity that feeling also made me become blind to the conspiracy circling around me at that time, thinking that everything would be fine and that everything would work in my favor in the end so ended up dying under the hands of Lu Si .
I gave up my dreams after dying, the reason was that I realized that even though I wanted to live my life as a grand figure in the Martial Arts World, I no longer had the desire to struggle much to reach it .
So with the first obstacle that met me, the loss of vitality I gave up on my dreams and allowed myself to sink into despair, then due to my anger and hatred mixed with unwillingness, I ended up dying and you know what happened next .
You might be thinking that I'm here to take back my body while in essence, during my talking with you here, I'm actually beginning to understand why I appeared here and why you did too .
Giving you a greeting gift and a farewell gift that's what I'm here for you today, also I wanted to cheer you up, even though I had given up in front of the very first obstacle that happened to me .
You on the other side decided that you would do your best and leave the rest up to fate and this probably what allowed you to achieve this much success already, so I'm here to root for you and tell you not to give up this easily on living, for the sake of your dreams and mine, I need to instill some of survival instinct into you .
This World is no longer for me, I also felt my own demise was quickly approaching soon after I appeared, so there really no need for you to blame yourself for this, but if you wanted to thank me, I then would like to see you fighting until the last breath, only with such a vigorous battle spirit can you fight your way towards the Heavens And beyond .
If you no longer wanted to pursuit Martial Arts after overcoming this obstacles, I would have no issue with that as well, as I told you whatever you choose for your that is completely up for you to decide .
My desire for you to ascend and reach the top is nothing but the result of that selfish feeling of mine about being bound for greatness, but what can I do, someone had to inherit this and I believe that no one is more suitable to do this than you, I hope you successfully able to pass this obstacle and really achieve your dreams and if still possible mine .
Hearing him say all this in one short breath, I wasn't able to deal with the swirling mix of emotions currently inside me, all that I was able to think was that I will be saddened with his departure, but with this thought of mine, I saw that his corporal body began to disintegrate into light particles from his legs up while he had quite the warm smile on his face, one that was quite painful for me to see .
But I felt that as these light particles began to sink into my body, that there was something strange happening to me, my mind seemed to be much more clearer than before, my body was beginning to be much lighter as well, even the clouds in my vision seemed to be dissipating one after the other .
So this was the gift he wanted to give me, my eyes seeing him like this couldn't help but tear up, him seeing me like this he continued to say :
Death is merely the beginning, as I told you before, you don't need to feel so bad about it, you should be the best example for that and who knows maybe after leaving this body for good, I might get the body of a dying emperor or something like that, hahaha, that would be quite epic, won't you say so ? .
I dried my tears and nodded towards him, seeing that only his head remained, I hurriedly cupped my fist and bowed down more greatly than before and said :
" Thank you brother Tian Long for Healing both my Heart and Physical worries, thank you for the Healing Pills, Thank you for your gracious gift, thank you, thank you, thank you .
He nodded his head and even though he disappeared before I was able to see his mouth moving, I still heard the words that escaped his mouth in my mind, he said :
Live well, Tian Long .
The moment those words were said, I found myself transported back to the woods, seeing the familiar scenery of the dim lit area filled with trees, I couldn't help but think that what happened before was nothing but a mere illusion .
But that thought was directly knocked out of my mind after inspecting my body and feeling that I was actually on the verge of achieving yet another breakthrough, not only that but my body seemed to be hollowed out of Blood Qi and crazy lusting for it .
But that wasn't the most shocking thing that happened, instantly after I came back to my senses, I saw that the bottle of Azure Wood Pill at my fingertips just now was actually now hovering off the ground and right before my eyes .