4 04. Return

More than 20 years later.

In a cave, Roy lay on the floor coughing up blood.

After recuperating for a year, Roy entered cultivation again, through the spoils of his war he started formulating his own body refining technique.

This was a crazy move. No one would want to try this, this was simply just a death sentence. Experimenting with incomplete body refining techniques could seriously injure oneself and in most cases even cause death, above all Roy only had the incomplete written experience of three novice body refiners.

Through his extensive knowledge which he got from his previous reincarnations, he gained understanding of the cultivation system of this world. 'Body Refining' was split into different levels— 'Novice Refiner', 'Blood Refiner', 'Flesh Refiner', 'Bone Refiner'. Till now, Roy only knew of this much. Only these four levels were written in the experience of those three.

Body refining used prenatal energy, which resides in the core of human body, as a means to strengthen it. Prenatal energy was inherited. Thus, body refining was heavily dependent on talent.

Humans with near no prenatal energy might not be able to cultivate it at all. The body which Roy possessed was born from commoners, thus had had near no prenatal energy. What Roy cultivated was internal energy, which was an inferior version prenatal energy. He theorized that, if he condensed and refined the internal energy that he cultivated, he would be able to attain prenatal energy.

Over the two past decade, he had to slowly refine and condense his internal energy into prenatal energy. His daily life included only going out of the cave to hunt for food or going to the nearby city to buy herbs and medicines. He had moved away from his previous lair quite a long time ago after his fight with Tianu.

He sometimes even worked as a rogue bandit and killed rich people to obtain resources. Staying away from human settlement, Roy solely focused on cultivation.

Though body refining is refinement of the physique through using prenatal energy, it was much easier said than done. He had to circulate the condensed prenatal energy in a certain pathway through different meridians present in the human body, this pathway is what is defined in a cultivation technique. But Roy had to experiment with his own body to create his own cultivation technique.

A wrong pathway would make him spit out blood certain times. Cutting up cadavers were his daily job. He would record his findings on slates and animal parchments as paper was quite expensive.

Even though his body got visibly stronger to almost reaching the intermediate level of 'Bone Refiners', and his own technique got refined, his injuries worsened too. Stacking up with the past hidden injuries that he got from cultivating internal energy, he was now at the ends of his rope.

...

Over the past two decades, the kingdom also went through major changes. For starters, the illegitimate prince Elvas challenged the then crown prince and won, as he took the latter's title. The queen was also sentenced to the Royal Dungeon for conspiring against the prince. A decade later, the king died and Prince Elvas had to ascend the throne, he was then renamed the new King of Sorailles. The Royal palace went through a cleansing, as even the Queen was executed.

Roy had witnessed the rise of a new king after the fall of another, with his own two eyes. He had lived for a long time, he was now 45 years of age. Even though, 45 seemed like a young age for dying, it was long enough for Roy. He had used up whatever potential his body had to offer.

As Roy lay on the ground, all the memories from after coming to this world flashed by in front of his eyes— the people whom he killed, his so-called companion's death. At the moment of their death he didn't feel a single sliver of guilt but now as he was facing death, even though a temporary one, he felt a pang of regret in his throat. It seemed subconscious but very real, even though they were bandits, they trusted Roy, but just used them as a means to accomplish his goals.

'It seems that as a person dies his whole life flashes by, all his guilt, regrets, everything that he has experienced reoccurs to him. This is the natural process of death. No matter how evil, benevolent or heartless one is, they all feel it.'

The reason he didn't feel it in the deaths before might be because, they weren't inherently Roy's memories. As of now, these were Roy's own experience, not that of 'Kruel'. Roy breathed his last as he sunk into river of his life.

...

A few years later.

In the cave where Roy died.

All that was left of Roy's corpse were some bones, weeds and wild plants grew all over it. Even his clothes were eaten away.

At this moment, a flicker of light came from the entrance of the cave.

A young man with a burning torch in one hand, walked in the cave. He looked around at the cave curiously and the corpse covered with weeds and plants. He was a little scared at first but soon gathered up the courage to walk forward.

There were books, a whole bunch of scribbled stone slates and parchments and some bottles seething with medicinal aroma kept in a corner of the cave. An unlit campfire laid nearby.

The young man, frowned as he walked up to the books and the stone slates. Looking down, his sight was soon attracted to the stone slates which were covered with dust. He kept his burning torch in one corner of the cave and then roughly dusted the stone slates.

As he read through the stone slates, his expression froze after soon turning into one of disbelief and soon that disbelief turned to into an expression of joy. As he went through the stone slates one by one, his expression turned into one of seriousness.

He gripped tightly on to the slates, stacked them up and put them into his bag. He soon crawled to the animal parchments. The light from the torch fell on it as the structure of a clearly drawn human body was shown and small scribblings were written beside it. The young man even packed up the parchments along with the books beside it into his bag. The bag which looked empty at first was now puffed up and full of weight.

He then bowed to the corpse three times as a sign of respect and walked out of the cave, while dragging his now heavy bag outside. Looking at the cave once more, the lad gathered up stones and wood from the surroundings and covered up the cave's entrance.

The cave was now sealed, as the young man walked away with his bag.

...

After what felt like an infinity, Roy saw the familiar yet unfamiliar void.

Everything was the same, the 9 worlds still remained. Roy breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed strange returning after such a long time. Now, he would be able to reincarnate again.

Suddenly, Roy felt a strange force come over him, it was surging from the depths of his soul. A few moments later, it ended.

Roy felt his existence become stronger, 'Where did this strength come from? Is it that whatever I cultivate in the real world shall be transferred here?'

It seemed that his ability wasn't just limited to reincarnation, he had yet to know the full extents of his ability.

'If I get whatever I cultivate into pure power in here, then will I have this power even after reincarnation?'

Roy felt like testing this thought of his. As he looked at the 9 worlds, he thought of entering the world of body refining again. The most knowledge at present Roy had about was this world.

Turning into a flash of light Roy rushed towards the world second to all. The drill was the same, but the sense of rejection that he face before was no more. His senses soon faded away as he was sucked into the spectre of the world.