Chapter 319: Fairy Pei, You Didn't Want This Either...
On the other side, Ye Linyuan rubbed the back of his head and woke up groggily, with no memory of what had just happened.
Ye Linyuan looked at the unfamiliar surroundings—the endless stretch of golden sand dunes under the scorching sun—somewhat bewildered. He pushed himself up from the ground, sand falling from his robes. After he came to his senses, he quickly checked for symptoms of poisoning. He pressed his acupoints and circulated his Qi, finding no blockages.
Realizing he was fine, he chuckled, a relieved grin spreading across his face. "Fortunately, this young Master is immune to all poisons; I'm fine. Those cowardly attackers must have fled when they realized their tricks wouldn't work!"
He had been poisoned once before in his youth, by a rare venomous snake in the valley. At that time, his Master thought Ye Linyuan was beyond saving and had even started preparing a coffin. But miraculously, he woke up perfectly fine the next day, stronger than before.
From then on, Ye Linyuan firmly believed he possessed a [Myriad Poison Invulnerable Body].
It was just that he had symptoms of sleepwalking, occasionally waking up in a different place, sometimes miles away from where he slept, often surrounded by destruction he couldn't explain. Ye Linyuan had grown accustomed to it, dismissing it as a quirk of his genius.
"Eh? What's that?"
Suddenly, Ye Linyuan looked up, his eyes widening as he saw a dark red talisman floating towards him in mid-air.
It wasn't falling; it was hunting.
The talisman was etched with twisting, bleeding runes that seemed to writhe like living worms. It radiated an aura of pure malevolence, a sinister coldness that pierced through the desert heat.
With a whoosh, it shot directly towards Ye Linyuan, accelerating its speed like a viper striking its prey.
Ye Linyuan's expression changed drastically. His instincts screamed at him to run, to flee, to escape this ominous thing. He tried to dodge, utilizing his supreme movement technique, [Cloud-Treading Step].
But he couldn't evade it. The talisman locked onto his soul signature. It moved faster than thought, bending through the air to follow his desperate maneuvers.
Even the indifferent and majestic divine light that burst forth from his eyes—the automatic defense mechanism of the [Sword Saint's Remnant Soul]—couldn't stop it. The remnant soul sensed a threat, but not a lethal attack. It was a curse, a debilitation, not a death blow, so the full power of the [Land Immortal] did not trigger to obliterate the surroundings.
Slap!
The dark red talisman directly affixed itself to Ye Linyuan's glabella, right between his eyebrows.
It didn't just stick; it burned. It melted into his body like a drop of ink in water, disappearing instantly.
"Argh!"
Ye Linyuan fell to the ground with a thud, unconscious. His body twitched as dark energy ravaged his meridians.
...
In the Demon Capital, thousands of miles away.
Shen Anyu sat in his luxurious penthouse, watching this scene through a drone's remote monitoring device projected onto a holographic screen. A satisfied smile appeared on his handsome face.
"This [Divine Rank Cursed Talisman] indeed has miraculous effects. It lives up to its reputation as a one-time [Divine Rank] item; it's formidable."
Also [Divine Rank], one-time items are more than ten times more powerful than permanent items. They burn all their conceptual power in a single usage, achieving an effect that defies the laws of cultivation.
Even a [Land Immortal] cannot resist it!
This [Divine Rank Cursed Talisman] possesses several astonishing curse effects, drawn from the darkest depths of the Netherworld.
First, [Cultivation Severance]. After being afflicted, one loses all cultivation. The connection to the Dantian is sealed, and the Qi Sea dries up. One becomes weak and fatigued, their physical prowess reduced to that of a mortal. Even a [Heavenly Human Unity] expert immediately turns into a cripple, powerless to even truss a chicken.
Second, [Age Regression]. It can cause one to revert to childhood, shrinking the body and sealing away physical maturity. It's the ultimate humiliation for a proud warrior.
However, there were restrictions. To activate the full potency of the curse, one needed the target's precise name and birth date.
Shen Anyu had written 'Ye Linyuan' and his current birth date. If he could have written 'Lin Xuanyan'—the name of the Sword Saint from five hundred years ago—the curse might have been even more devastating, perhaps erasing his existence entirely. But Lin Xuanyan was a figure from several centuries ago, and his precise birth date and time were impossible to investigate, lost to the annals of history.
Although this [Divine Rank Cursed Talisman] was not a treasure that guaranteed a one-hit kill, it was still extremely precious. It was a strategic weapon, designed to neutralize threats that couldn't be killed by brute force.
It was just a one-time use item, which made Shen Anyu feel a bit of heartache. He hated consuming resources.
But soon, Shen Anyu smiled as the system notifications chimed in his mind.
[Ding! Child of Destiny Ye Linyuan encountered an ambush and was severely injured. Plundered +49,999 Destiny Points.]
[Ding! Child of Destiny Ye Linyuan's destiny has undergone a significant change. Plundered +1,000,000 Destiny Points.]
..."A million Destiny Points earned back again. Ye Linyuan is quite the fat sheep..."
Shen Anyu's handsome face carried a smile, but his eyes were cold, calculating.
A Child of Destiny like Ye Linyuan posed too great a threat. He was unpredictable, powerful, and protected by the world. He had even dared to scheme against Aunt An Zhiyue before, trying to trick her into a bet. Shen Anyu had no intention of letting him live.
Although Shen Anyu was currently far away in the Demon Capital, he still had backup plans. He never relied on a single method.
Near the desert, several figures emerged from the dust. They looked like ordinary rocks or sand dunes until they moved. These were the [System Guards] that Shen Anyu had ordered to lie in wait.
The [System Guards] had no aura, no heartbeat, no killing intent. They were like inanimate objects, biological machines created by the system. As long as they lay dormant in the dust, motionless and silent, they were almost impossible to detect, even by a [Heavenly Human].
Under Shen Anyu's mental instructions, a [System Guard] walked towards the unconscious Ye Linyuan. It moved silently, drawing a vibro-blade from its arm, preparing to strangle him or slit his throat.
Kill him while he's weak.
But the next moment, just as the blade was inches from Ye Linyuan's neck, a terrified instinct triggered deep within the boy.
BOOM!
A terrifying [Sword Qi] suddenly burst forth from Ye Linyuan's body. It was an automatic defense mechanism, a backlash of the soul.
The [Sword Qi] expanded like a dome of light, instantly disintegrating the [System Guard] into dust.
Ye Linyuan's eyes suddenly opened. But they were not his eyes. They were pitch black, void-like, radiating an aura that was indifferent and majestic. It was the gaze of a god looking at insects.
The [Sword Saint Lin Xuanyan] had awakened momentarily.
Seemingly realizing something was wrong with his body—the shrinking, the sealing of cultivation—the entity frowned. He swayed, his form flickering. Then, he broke through the air, traversing space with a speed that blurred reality, and rapidly shot towards the south.
In a few blinks of an eye, he had already disappeared from the drone's surveillance range.
Shen Anyu narrowed his eyes, watching the scene intently, his expression thoughtful. He wasn't angry; he was analyzing.
"Ye Linyuan's body contains the remnant soul imprint of the former Sword Palace Master Lin Xuanyan. It will appear whenever he encounters a life-or-death crisis. If he doesn't encounter a life-or-death crisis, it won't appear."
"It actually has no limit on the number of times, or rather, the number of times is too many to test out in a short period. It's truly outrageous. A reusable panic button."
"Without absolute strength that surpasses the [Land Immortal] realm, or obtaining powerful thermal weapons capable of obliterating him before the soul reacts, I can only kill him after plundering all his Destiny Value."
"I'll plan for the long term. The game has just begun."
"Fortunately, Ye Linyuan is already crippled. The curse has taken hold. Unless the remnant soul imprint of Lin Xuanyan in his body erupts, he's not worth mentioning. He is a tiger with no teeth."
Shen Anyu was quite satisfied with this point; as long as he didn't trigger a power burst, the current Ye Linyuan was a cripple, a child lost in a dangerous world.
Shen Anyu thought for a moment, then ordered the remaining [System Guards] who were still hidden and alive to erase all traces from the scene—footprints, energy signatures, blood—and then quickly retreat.
The wind swept the dust, burying everything. No one could tell that a great battle had occurred here.
...
Seventy li north.
Ye Linyuan slowly woke up again. His head throbbed, and his body felt strangely light.
He rubbed his eyes, recalling his memory from before he fainted:
"...I remember, a dark red talisman suddenly floated from the sky... it looked like a ghost talisman..."
"Eh? Eh?"
Ye Linyuan tried to stand up, but his balance was off. He looked down at his hands. They were tiny. Soft. Pudgey.
Ye Linyuan's eyes were filled with terror. He tried to summon his internal energy. He found that the powerful [Martial Dao True Essence] in his body, which usually surged like a river, had completely vanished; he couldn't circulate it at all. His Dantian was empty, a dry well.
Then Ye Linyuan discovered the most horrifying truth. His hands, feet, and body had all shrunk. His clothes were now massive on him, dragging on the ground like a blanket.
"How is this possible? Am I having a nightmare??"
He pinched his cheek. It hurt.
Nearby was an oasis with a small lake. Ye Linyuan stumbled, tripping over his oversized robes, walking with difficulty towards it.
He looked into the water.
Reflected on the surface was not the handsome nineteen-year-old youth, but a child of perhaps six or seven years old. He had big eyes, a round face, and skin as tender as tofu.
Seeing his current appearance in the water, Ye Linyuan's delicate, almost feminine, small face turned pale with shock.
[Ding! Child of Destiny Ye Linyuan is in a panic. Plundered +9,999 Destiny Points.]
[Ding! Child of Destiny Ye Linyuan's mentality has collapsed. Plundered +9,999 Destiny Points.]
...
After a long while, sitting by the lake and splashing water on his face, Ye Linyuan finally calmed down a little. He forced himself to think.
"Could it be a [Great Master-level Spell Master] who attacked me? Does the Martial God Hall, besides top Martial Artists, also have spell Masters comparable to the [Heavenly Human Unity] level assisting them in their evil deeds? Only a curse of that magnitude could do this."
"Damn the Martial God Hall!"
Ye Linyuan gritted his teeth—his baby teeth—his eyes filled with hatred.
"Wait, why didn't the Martial God Hall experts who ambushed me kill me? If they turned me into a child, why leave me alive?"
"How did I end up here, seventy li away from the blast zone? Did someone save me?"
"Or did I sleepwalk through the ambush again?"
This had been his confusion for many years, the gaps in his memory whenever danger struck. He couldn't figure it out, so he stopped trying.
"What to do now?"
"Go back to the deep valley and find Senior Sister?"
"With Senior Sister's strength, the Martial God Hall won't find it easy to deal with her. She can protect me."
Ye Linyuan had full confidence in the strength of Senior Sister Pei Changli; the title of [Female Sword Immortal] was not an empty boast. She was invincible in his eyes.
"But... to go back so disheveled?"
Ye Linyuan's expression became troubled. He looked at his tiny hands and imagined Pei Changli's reaction. She would laugh at him. She would treat him like a baby.
Wouldn't that be completely losing Face in front of Senior Sister? How could he still marry the famous Fairy Pei as his wife if she saw him like this? Didn't he care about his Face? A man's dignity was paramount!
"Also, my body's current state needs to be resolved. Senior Sister is a genius of the sword, but she doesn't understand medicine. She can't solve a curse."
"Right, I'll find Third Senior Sister Murong Jieyu. Third Senior Sister is a [Goddess Doctor]. Master said before his death that Third Senior Sister's medical skills surpassed his own. She can cure the living and revive the dead. She can definitely help me solve my current troubles."
"When I recover, Martial God Hall, I won't let you off!!! I will burn your headquarters to the ground!"
Ye Linyuan had never suffered such a great loss; he was furious. He clenched his tiny fists and vowed revenge.
...
On the other side.
Shen Anyu gently stroked the head of his little maid Ruan Lingshan, who was kneeling beside him, peeling grapes.
While enjoying the service, he pondered his next move.
"Ye Linyuan's two most likely destinations now are either to return to the deep valley to find Female Sword Immortal Pei Changli, or to find Goddess Doctor Murong Jieyu to cure his condition."
"I have already grasped Murong Jieyu's whereabouts through the intelligence network."
"As for Female Sword Immortal Pei Changli, she is powerful, but she also has a weakness. She cares for her junior brother too much."
"Fairy Pei, you wouldn't want your Junior Brother to be in trouble, would you...?"
Shen Anyu's lips curled up, his smile unrestrained and wicked.
"If I control the Junior Brother, do I not control the Senior Sister? The game is set."
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