Chapter 457 454- Chosen Tournament (1)
*Sniffle*
*Sniffle*
Li Shen was seen with tears streaming down his face, he couldn’t control it. But he wasn’t sad, in fact he had a broad smile on his face.
“I finally remember, I remember…”
Li Shen couldn’t stop saying he remembered.
He just couldn’t help it. One moment he was completely lost on who he was, but all of a sudden he remembered. It was a strange and surreal feeling he could never put into words.
The amount of relief Li Shen must be feeling right now must be sky-high. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen if he had never regained his memories.
Just thinking back on how he behaved towards the others like they were strangers, Li Shen blushed and chuckled awkwardly.
However, he suddenly sat in a hurry.
“Wait! The others! I need to-”
Before Li Shen could raise himself, he felt his head buzz and all the strength in his body left him. He fell onto his back as a result.
“Ugh…”
Li Shen began to whine. The pain was unbearable, and not just his soul but even his physical body was hurting for some reason.
"Oh right, I was sliced by that bastard Shiming."
Li Shen decided to lie there for a moment to reduce the pain he was feeling.
While looking up at the starry night sky with the full moon, Li Shen muttered.
“So I’m on the Star Bound Continent? And the Chosen Tournament is… wait what?! It’s two days away?!!”
Li Shen was going through his memories as if it was the first time. It was strange, up until now it felt like he was in darkness but all of a sudden he was him again.
Li Shen soon went through his memories with a new perspective.
“Oh, so the others helped me get this pill?”
Li Shen’s head shifted to the pill that dropped from his hand in the snow next to him.
“They found out it was me and helped me get it. Were they hoping the pill could restore my memories? You guys, I couldn’t ask for better friends. I can’t even imagine what you’ve all been through since I was gone. It was…”
A warm smile was on Li Shen’s lips as he spoke, but his voice soon trailed off.
“Haha… half a year, I was missing for half a year. Not just Yang Su and everyone, how were father and mother handling my disappearance? And that little troll, how is she doing now?”
A hint of sadness washed over Li Shen. He must have worried a lot of people.
“I want to see everyone, I want them to know I’m fine. Yang Su and the others should have left, but I sense the connection with Tai. I can contact him to find… to find…”
Li Shen’s voice suddenly trailed off once again.
He then looked up at the sky and remained silent for some time.
“I probably shouldn’t come in contact with them right?’
Li Shen suddenly asked himself aloud.
“Since I have the Soul Nourishing pill and the Nascent Formation pill, I’m walking around with a massive target on my back. If I get too close to them then I might put them in danger. But…”
A pained expression appeared on Li Shen’s face.
“I really want to see them. No, I need to see them to let them know I’m alright. They went through so much effort to find me, even coming to the Star Bound Continent. However, is it worth placing them in danger? Maybe this is me being too selfish.”
After saying that, Li Shen went silent once again. But a moment later, he suddenly smacked his cheeks full force.
“What… Just what am I saying? I specifically remember saying that if I were to live through that Heavenly Calamity I would live how I wanted without restraint. Without anything holding me back. I need to be a bit selfish, plus, can’t the others handle themselves? I’m sure they must have grown way stronger since I disappeared. Even if every one of those geniuses came after us, we can hold our own.”
Li Shen desire to see Yang Su and the others triumph over his overprotective nature. It was a sign of his growth.
But still, there was a problem.
“Ugh…”
Li Shen groaned from the sudden movement of slapping his face.
“Maybe I should recover first before I meet them. In my current condition, I’ll just drag them down. For now… let’s see what’s going on with this body.”
Li Shen said as he slowly raised himself into a meditative position with crossed legs.
After several inhales and exhales, Li Shen sent his consciousness inside his body. He observe his soul that no longer looked like fragments, but another version of himself with numerous cracks running over its soul body.
“Looks like something helped condense my soul. But what’s with my dantian?”
Li Shen’s dantian looked pretty normal at first glance with his golden core inside, but a white spec was floating inside of it along with…
Li Shen’s eyes flew open and confusion could be seen in them.
After thinking for a moment, Li Shen raised his hand and concentrated. Suddenly the void around his hand began to distort before a formless black sword slowly materialized in his hand.
This was the other thing that was inside his dantian. A Sword Spirit made of his Time Qi.
While looking at this with dumbfoundment Li Shen asked.
“Just what happened for this to appear inside my golden core? Wasn't my soul suppose to be the thing that fuse with my golden core? If it hadn't then how did I manage to enter the Core Formation Realm?”
The strangeness of Li Shen’s current body baffled him. However, as he was examining his Time Qi Sword Spirit, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“This formless sword, it isn’t a Sword Spirit, is it? Isn’t this similar to the Martial Spirit Lu Yue had shown me? So I formed, no, I somehow awaken my Martial Spirit? I see…”
Li Shen scratched his chin in thought.
“Now this makes sense. From what Lu Yue had told me of Martial Spirit cultivation, the Martial Spirit not only acts as a bridge between the Spiritual Qi in heaven and earth and someone’s body, but it also acts as a bridge between their souls, their physical body, and their minds. So rather than fusing with the soul when one enters the Core Formation Realm, it is the Martial Spirit that is fused with it. The Martial Spirit is truly the foundation of a Martial Spirit cultivator’s strength. Internal Qi cultivation, Soul Power, and Spiritual Sense. It covers all aspects of cultivation relating to Internal Cultivation, just that it dismisses External Cultivation entirely. So I still don't think it's better than what my research created, though this Martial Spirit cultivation took some liberties from the principals of my Qi Cultivation system.”
As Li Shen was deciphering the situation his body was in while looking at his Martial Spirit, he suddenly frowned.
It was good that he cleared up this confusion, but there was another problem. How did he awaken a Martial Spirit when he was originally a Qi Cultivator?
No, not even that, since his Time Seed was with him he could speculate that it might be the cause.
What truly confused him was how he survived.
“I was so distracted that I hadn’t even thought to question this. How… How am I even alive right now?”
Li Shen’s Martial Spirit faded away and his face slowly turned solemn. He was scrolling through his memories trying to find the answer.
He knew he must have gone through a spatial tear with his soul, but he had no memory of before or after he went through the tear.
Li Shen's face began to turn uglier by the second as he realized there was a dark spot in his memories, and it was that during the moments before he entered the spatial tear.
This was extremely weird.