Guangren saw through my hesitation and let out a resigned grunt. "I'm just taking your pulse. Left hand for men, right for women..." Noticing I was still reluctant, he added, "Relax. You saw what I looked like after taking that punch. I just want to figure out what exactly hit me."
Judging by his demeanor, he didn't seem capable of pulling anything funny, so I finally extended my left hand. I kept my eyes on his expression, ready to yank my hand back at the slightest sign of trouble. Luckily, all he did was place two fingers on my pulse point, without making any extra moves.
The pulse check didn't last long—just a few breaths. Then he withdrew his fingers, looked at me, and said, "Wu Mian gave you his Seed… Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
There was a faint tinge of green on his face when he mentioned the Seed, and even a slight tremor in his voice.
"You never asked," I replied innocently. "Besides, I don't really know how to use it. That punch just sort of... happened. Pure coincidence. Otherwise, I wouldn't have hit so hard."
"You don't know how to use it?" Guangren looked genuinely surprised. "Wu Mian didn't explain what the Seed really is?"
"Nope," I said. "He just told me that whether the Seed turns into grass or a tree, it's my own business and has nothing to do with him."
Guangren twitched slightly at my words. After taking a deep breath, he said each word slowly: "He really said that?" Once I confirmed, his face turned ashen.
"That Seed was supposed to be mine…" he said grimly.
Just when it seemed like he was finally going to unravel the mystery of the Seed, he abruptly changed the subject. "Since Wu Mian didn't teach you, I will. I was still deciding what to teach you, but now that this Seed's involved, that's settled."
As he spoke, Guangren crossed his legs and sat down on the floor. He pointed to the space in front of him, motioning for me to sit across from him.
With a grave expression, he said, "The Seed in your body is a source of power. From this Seed, various paths of strength can emerge. But this varies from person to person—some Seeds produce immense power, some less so. You're not without talent, but don't expect to reach Wu Mian's level. He's an anomaly among anomalies."
He paused here, narrowing his eyes slightly. After looking me over from head to toe, he added, "Unfortunately, you have no foundation in spellwork or cultivation. That makes the first stage of refining the Seed especially difficult. But if you can get through this initial hurdle, the path afterward will be much smoother."
He furrowed his brow again, seemingly unsure how I even managed to get past the first phase. Trying to be helpful, I offered: "Didn't you say the Seed was supposed to be yours? Can't we just follow the same method you would've used to refine it?"
I recalled the grudge he held against Wu Rendi, and how he bullied him for years until the tables turned. Judging from that, Guangren should be vastly more powerful than most. If I could just have a fraction of his skill, I'd be more than satisfied.
But his response caught me off guard. Without even lifting his head, he glanced up at me and said, "Correction: the Seed should have been mine. I never actually possessed it..."
He paused again. Then his eyes lit up, as if a thought had just clicked into place. "Lucky for you, that little detour jogged my memory. I've thought of a method you might be able to use to refine the Seed."
He took my pulse again—this time, much longer than before. Just as I was about to ask how much longer this was going to take, he suddenly spoke, as if to himself: "The Seed hasn't been in you for very long. It's already protected you through a few crises, but you still haven't grasped its rhythm. Luckily, there's no rejection between you and the Seed, which means refining it won't be too difficult."
As he said this, Guangren removed his fingers from my wrist and pressed them against my chest, right over my heart. "The Seed is here. Try to sense it."
I had known it was in my chest, but I'd never been able to pinpoint it. Now, with Guangren pressing down, I really did feel a slight heat at the spot he indicated.
Watching my expression closely, Guangren smiled faintly. Without needing me to confirm, he continued, "Now try to move the Seed—pull it out from within your heart."
His words stumped me. Move the Seed? How the hell was I supposed to do that? It's inside my heart—was I supposed to reach in and yank it out? All I could do was close my eyes and focus, imagining the Seed rising out of my heart.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard I focused or visualized, the Seed remained right where it was, stubborn and unmoved.
Guangren showed no impatience. "You don't have any foundation in spellwork, so it's normal that your first attempt at moving the Seed is difficult. Take your time. Once you succeed even once, it'll come easier."
I kept trying—over a hundred times—without the slightest progress. Eventually, I couldn't help but ask Guangren for tips, but he just shook his head. "Everyone's constitution is different. There's no experience that can be shared. You'll have to rely on your own fate."
Helpless, I pushed through another few hundred tries until my clothes were soaked in sweat. Still, the Seed didn't budge an inch. I was just about to give up. On what I decided would be my final attempt, my heart gave a strange, irregular thump. A wave of heat suddenly surged out from my heart.
As this scorching heat began to move, Guangren's fingers followed its trail, and he raised his eyebrows. "Hm? That's quicker than I expected. Alright—try guiding the Seed along the direction of my fingers."
Just like Guangren had said, once you succeed once, everything becomes easier. Under the urging of my mind, the Seed began to move—sometimes fast, sometimes slow—but it circled around my chest and eventually returned to its place in my heart.
"You're more gifted than I thought." A faint smile crept onto Guangren's face. "While you still have the feel for it, try dissolving the Seed. Let it flow out from your heart into the rest of your body."
With the experience just now, I didn't hesitate. I focused, imagining the Seed dispersing. Almost immediately, it began to loosen and melt. I was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when the Seed suddenly contracted sharply. My heart convulsed violently—and then stopped beating entirely.
My mind went blank. I collapsed backward. The last thing I saw was Guangren's face twisted into a peculiar smile...
I didn't know how much time passed before I slowly regained consciousness. My mind was still blank—I couldn't recall what had happened. A white-haired man, his limbs shackled with chains, was squatting next to me, staring. When he saw me awaken, he gave a crooked smile and said with a hint of malice, "Pretty fun, right? That's exactly how I died earlier."
It took a while for me to recognize who he was. "Guangren? Why am I on the ground?"
He gave me a bizarre look and blinked innocently. "Your explanation: you had some wine, couldn't handle it, and passed out."
Wine? I struggled to recall anything like that, but the memory was gone. And those words sounded awfully familiar—weren't they what I'd told him earlier? Something felt off, but before I could press further, my memory slowly came back in flashes, like scenes from a movie.
I remembered everything. Guangren had been guiding me to move the Seed—that's when I collapsed. Realizing what had happened, I turned to him and asked, "You did that on purpose, didn't you? Was that payback for the punch earlier? And what do you mean by 'died once'?"
Guangren smiled oddly and met my gaze. "Revenge? Don't lump me in with Wu Mian—I'm not that petty. Since we're talking about the Seed, feel it again. See how it's changed."
Reminded by his words, I focused inward—and sure enough, the Seed in my chest had changed. It had grown larger. Just like Guangren said, the Seed had "opened." But rather than spreading throughout my body, only a small portion of its energy had flowed into my right arm. Maybe because the energy had been split, I could faintly feel the Seed's heat pulsing through the blood vessels in that arm—but it was far less intense than before. Without Guangren's prompting, I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.
"What happened?" I stared at Guangren in disbelief. "Did you do something? Did you make me 'die' just to move the Seed into my arm?"
"I'm not as capable as you think." Guangren's tone was flat. "And it wasn't a 'faint'—it was real death. Same as what happened to me earlier. But because of the elixir of immortality we took, our bodies are… different. As long as we're not decapitated or obliterated, we can basically come back. But the more severe the injury, the longer the recovery takes."
His words suddenly made everything click. That time I fell off the cliff two years ago—so I really did die back then? Those two glowing shadows I saw in the coma weren't hallucinations—they were underworld escorts, here to take me away. And the voice that stopped them—was it Wu Rendi? The memory was hazy, but… it felt like him.
Seeing my dazed expression, Guangren smiled faintly. "Today was just step one—and faster than I expected. From now on, every time you dissolve the Seed and let its energy flow through a new part of your body, you'll go through the same process. When you've let it spread throughout your entire body and then re-condensed it—when it's taken root, sprouted, and grown to match your form—only then will this little game of dying and coming back end."
I stared at him for a while before asking, "So how many times will it take? How long before it fully takes root and sprouts?"
"That depends on your fortune," Guangren said. "You have no background in spellwork, and like Wu Mian, you're an anomaly. I only know about this method of refining the Seed because of him. But the two of you are different. As for how far you'll go—no one can say."
I wasn't ready to give up yet. "And Wu Mian? How long did it take him to finish the process?"
Guangren gave a dry chuckle and looked past me. "He's right behind you. Ask him yourself."
I spun around—and sure enough, about fifty meters away, someone was walking toward us. That face, that unbothered, disdainful look—who else could it be but Wu Rendi?
He moved silently. Even with my heightened awareness, I hadn't sensed him approach. When he reached us, he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and gave a snort, clearly unimpressed with how far I'd gotten in refining the Seed.