Vegetative.

—

"Understood, Master."

Letting Ying Yue go, Tian Xing began to jog and run, following Curie's lead once more. As he ran, he also employed his Butterfly Echoes as much as possible to help the citizens around him affected by the law of the jungle and the survival of the fittest events. Seeing that a boy from the cat race in front of him would soon be hit by a stray attack and die, Tian Xing instantly dashed forward to save him.

Employing his Shen martial arts Soul Separation Technique, Tian Xing first used his false souls, which emerged from his body, to guide the boy to move in a certain direction. Then, he allowed his body to automatically catch the boy in his embrace, while his physical manifestation soul poured out all of its Shen energy to redirect the trajectory of the stray attack with a tangible assault.

Boom!

As his soul returned to his body, Tian Xing immediately felt his back being slashed ten thousand times over by the Sword Intent. Enduring the attack, knowing this moment of his life was a good opportunity to refine his Dao Heart, Tian Xing remained curled up, shielding the boy in his embrace from the blast of their neighbor's sword. After what felt like an eternity, the attack finally ceased, and he sighed in relief.

Releasing his protective hold, Tian Xing affectionately rubbed the boy's head before turning towards Curie and nodding. He resumed running, seeing that his beloveds were not deterred by the sight of his back, which was now a gory mess with his spine visible for all to see. Tian Xing nodded, pleased that they shared his mindset, understanding this was not the time for emotions that could cloud their judgment and lead to unfavorable situations.

Spotting the gigantic cave in the amusement park in the distance, along with the portal to the Blessed Lands, Tian Xing's Jing energy was nearly depleted, barely keeping his bodily functions running. With a loud thud, he collapsed to the ground, now on the brink of death. Yet, he continued to use the trickles of Jing energy that kept reproducing to maintain his conscious mind, not wanting to allow his body to become truly vegetative.

Noticing that he was just seven hundred meters away from escaping the Yin Confusion, which caused numerous calculation errors due to the many parameters of the butterfly effect, Tian Xing opened his heart to his beloveds for the first time, completely surrendering his trust to his women. He realized he had not chosen them wrongly, seeing each one doing their best to ensure his safety while crying nonstop, calling him foolish for sacrificing his body to save a single boy.

Unable to respond to their sadness because his physical body was now paralyzed, Tian Xing sighed in his mind, knowing it was just in his nature to be like Yoriichi, with a warm, virtuous spirit to help others when he saw them in need. As he was dragged into the Blessed Lands of the kingdom, he noticed from the corner of his eye that the place he was transported to was an area filled with spiritual grain fields stretching far into the distance.

Now understanding where the mortal people worked, given that they lived in a gigantic city with no visible farmland, Tian Xing admired the view, which was obstructed by Ying Yue's tear-streaked face, as if he were dying.

Although, from a certain perspective, that was true, as the stray attacks also affected his false soul body, rendering him vegetative and unable to do anything, even lift his fingers. Thus, because of that, this body, which would have made his previous self despair, is a good opportunity to exercise willpower. He decided to use this moment in his life as a lesson to strengthen his Dao Heart, making it firm enough not to easily fall into despair, even when given only a grain of hope to recover.

Thinking about his false soul body and with nothing else to do but calculate without affecting anything, Tian Xing felt suddenly grateful he had created his Golden Branch Artifact on a whim years ago. Although he couldn't perform Butterfly Echoes as skillfully as before, he could still use it, albeit in a limited fashion, because artifacts have restricted functionality. When asked if it would be better to create an Artifact Spirit that could perform better, he preferred an artifact that remained just an inanimate object, worried that if his weapon had a spirit, it might be exploited in moments like this.

Trying his hardest to move his pupils to indicate that he wanted the Golden Branch, currently held by Yelena, to remain in his hand, Tian Xing sighed internally after many attempts, realizing even his eye movements were paralyzed. However, his trust in his beloveds once again proved fruitful. Due to the entanglement of their quantum minds, they somehow sensed his desire without him saying anything.

Seeing Ying Yue, Yelena, and even Curie gaze at the Golden Branch simultaneously, he once again felt the effects of his Butterfly Echoes, which continued running to save as many people as possible from the stray attacks outside this dimension. Even though he couldn't feel the wood texture as if holding the branch, the fact that he could see the Butterfly Echoes' progress meant his beloveds had somehow ensured his treasured artifact remained in his hand.

Able to perform the martial arts he once cherished and adored again, Tian Xing decided to refine the existing Butterfly Echoes instead of creating a new one of subpar quality. As for his passive Tian Ming Dao, which made him and his loved ones invisible and granted them some immunity from world karma, he sighed, knowing there was nothing he could do but watch as the passive became useless. The reason was that his soul body was in such disarray, at risk of being snuffed out of existence, that the passive, which could deflect karma from affecting him personally, became broken and unusable.

To keep anxiety and fear from entering his mind and to further refine his Dao Heart, Tian Xing reactivated and refined the Butterfly Echoes he had placed throughout the multiverse back when he left his legacy in Undvik, drawing it on the ground. This was to distract the lustful cultivators in the sky from looking at his Ying Yue, diverting their attention with a series of events, thereby providing him with a trump card should things truly go south. Realizing this would happen more often now that his passive Tian Ming Dao was broken, he sighed again at the fact that he had once more entered the world of fate and karma.

—