I, Li Muchen, lived two lives.

  That’s one hell of a way to start a conversation, isn’t it?

  My first life was in an ordinary world. I lived a simple life till my uneventful college days. On one rainy day, a traffic accident claimed my life before I was reborn in the world of Cultivation.

  Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

  These words helped me come to terms with my second life. Although it took me some time, I decided to understand my circumstances and continue forward in this cutthroat world.

  Now, the third chance came after my second death.

  “It can’t be……” A chill washed over me.

  The calendar slipped out of my grasp and crashed on the floor with a thud. My head throbbed with flashes of memories passing by.

  The ground beneath my feet slipped as I found myself 200 years in the past.

  This is impossible…

  Messing with the flow of time shouldn’t be possible. I have neither seen nor heard anything about it till now. But this happened right after my disciple fed me that pill in my last moments.

  What was it? He never told me about having something like that.

  One second I had a course set to meet King Yama and the next instant I found myself in the past before the war.

  As far as I knew there wasn’t anything on my person that could’ve done this. A golden finger or system definitely didn’t activate upon my death. The pill that kid fed me remained as the only anomaly.

  I have tried everything in my knowledge to check if this was an illusion, a dream, or some elaborate formation to trick me. Yet, nothing came of it.

  Not like anyone would gain anything from doing that on a dying man, but there were some questionable folks out there.

  Many questions whirled in my head. But if I really did regress…

  I walked into my courtyard to the familiar sweet scent of Xing flowers dancing in the air with the colorful Xiaoru butterflies fluttering about the five Spirit cherry trees with my family. The warm sun rose in the distance and shined over the Azure Sky Sect, bringing a new beginning.

  The sect still stood tall with its seven peaks piercing the clouds as if nothing had challenged its mightiness till now. Demonic Cultivator’s attack on the sect destroyed half of it in the future, including this very residence of mine.

  But now I had woken up in the past.

  It was impossible, yes. Ridiculous even, but It wasn’t like I hadn’t experienced the impossible before. A reincarnator like myself shouldn’t talk about what’s impossible or not.

  “As expected, it looks best when all the peaks are standing together.” It seemed like my mantra would come in handy once again.

  But there wasn’t time to contemplate my current situation. The problem arose when I passed by the ice mirror in my room.

  Retracing my steps, I came in front of the wide mirror. The crystal clear reflection made my eyes widen. My clothes looked spotless albeit the loose belt, my long black hair was as lush as ever, and even my skin looked fair and healthy without a single blemish.

  Everything was as it should’ve been. The usual handsome man stared right back at me…… aside from a Black Lotus imprint in the middle of his forehead.

  “What the fuck is this?!”

  Leaning close to the mirror, I examined the imprint, rubbed it, scratched it, and tried to erase it. But no matter what I tried, it stayed there. Was this some joke someone pulled on me while I was out cold? No chance.

  As I focused on it with my mind, the previous thoughts vanished up in smoke. The imprint led me to my Mind Realm Gate and entryway to the Mind realm. Considering my realm, It shouldn’t be possible right now.

  It appeared on the body without the person’s knowledge, cannot be wiped off, and leads to the Mind realm gate regardless of the cultivation realm.

  It took only a few breaths to understand what caused this.

  A Divine Grade Spiritual Root? Having seen such a case from close, this was true with 99% certainty. How it appeared on me remained unanswered.

  Earth Grade Spiritual Root was all I had before this. Now, after waking up in the past a Divine Grade Spiritual Root appeared? If my Golden finger arrived, it was 589 years late.

  Regardless, investigating this right now became my focus as it should lead me to answers about this situation atleast.

  Sitting on the floor, I closed my eyes and focused on the imprint on my forehead.

  Spiritual roots resided in the soul of the cultivator. Something like that wouldn’t be open to cultivators until they reached halfway through their journeys.

  But, if one had a Spiritual Root of Divine Grade or higher they could enter the Mind realm and interact with the Spiritual root from the get-go. For anything lower, one would need to enter the Nascent Soul Realm at the very least, a realm I hadn’t reached at the moment.

  Deep in focus, I felt an irresistible itch on my forehead, but instead of scratching, I zeroed in. An uncomfortable feeling settled in my stomach, drawing in the nearby Qi through my mouth in stable intervals as the fog cleared up. The path appeared, a straight and clear one that moved up.

  Even with my eyes still closed, the light in the distance was still visible. To access the Spiritual Root, one needed to enter their Mind realm. That was but the start.

  To enter the mind realm, one needs to reach the end of the tunnel, a test of sorts. The light shone on the other end, but even if it hung before your eyes, reaching it would take a long time for a first-timer.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Not for me, having climbed higher than the Nascent Soul realm before regression I knew the ins and outs of this place like the back of my hand. Without wasting any time I moved, rather than moving it was close to flying through the air without the pull of gravity, the only thing to help my control were the streams of qi coming out from my feet, sending me forward like a small submarine.

  It took me no time to reach the light and I dived in with no hesitation. The blindness only lasted for a second as my destination came into sight. Unlike my expectation, the mind realm didn’t change much.

  With mountains taller than the sky acting as a boundary, a city floated in the middle of a lake as vast as a sea, like a leaf on a calm pond. But something that shouldn’t be here, had appeared.

  Grrrkkkkk….

  Its low snarl sent shivers down my entire body. Even in soul form, I felt the goosebumps rising. Behind me, this thing tried to eat the mountains, chomping away at the rocks with its teeth like it was a chunk of meat.

  A form as huge as twenty elephants combined yet it had no proper body. The obese, deformed black head floated in front of me. Tongue the color of fresh blood swayed around licking the crooked, blackened teeth. Mouths in place of eyes, more in place of nose, and ears lined up with teeth bore smiles with tongues hanging out.

  It was a lump of flesh with nothing but mouths that snapped at empty air, trying to devour the world itself. Now, it turned towards me.

  Disaster God of the West. Taotie, the Insatiable.

  Why is a Disaster God in my mind realm? If the time period was correct, the current Taotie should be sealed deep within the Illusive Dream Palace of the Western Continent. If anywhere, it definetly shouldn’t be here.

  Sensing my unease, the tongues of its numerous mouths pointed towards me. The flaky lips of the main mouth stretched into a crooked smile that made my stomach turn.

  The intimidation from it wasn’t a joke, it felt as if a mountain pressed down on my shoulders slowing me down. But before it could bite at me, I moved away, no I was already backing away when it spotted me anticipating its lunge.

  His pressure is weaker than the one I fought, so my speed shouldn’t drop too much even in with my current realm. It came as a surprise to me, Taotie that the report talked about was much stronger, strong enough to kill a Human Sovereign and eat him.

  But it couldn’t suppress me in this form. If it had been in top form, I would’ve long ceased to exist. He would’ve eaten me from inside already, ripping apart my mind realm before consuming my body.

  This was but a part of the Disaster God from the future. How and why he appeared in my mind realm had to wait as it was trying it's darndest to have a bite of me.

  If it succeeded in doing that inside the Mind Realm, my fate would be sealed. My current state was akin to a major chunk of my soul. It was pure intent and my entire consciousness. If it ate me here, the strength of my soul would drop and the defenses around the Spiritual Root, the second major part of the soul, would lower making it vulnerable. Against someone else, getting off with damage to my soul and Spiritual root wasn’t the worst case, although life-threatening it could get treated in time. But with its special constitution, Taotie refined everything it eats and made it a part of itself. If it ate me or the spiritual root, only death awaited before this monstrosity was let loose in the middle of my sect. Understanding that, it chased after me like a starved beast.

  Simply leaving wouldn’t cut it either, it would go after the spiritual root. Given its abilities, he might eat his way through the defenses, and giving it time to recover was also out of the question. Something had to be done, and now. Even if weaker, this was still a Disaster God. These beings defied reason and testing that wasn’t the brightest idea.

  It is placing itself between me and the city below.

  It still had impressive speed to cut off my attempts at reaching the city. As long as I tried to find a way to the city below, a giant maw lined with black teeth welcomed me. With that, Taotie’s attention had zeroed in on me, the tastier and easier meal.

  A smile appeared on my lips. Dealing with this thing in such a disadvantageous situation wasn’t a good move? But, it was possible.

  This was my Mind realm, so what lies within it and how to use it to my advantage, no one knows that better than me.

  “Come at me, you Giant ballsack!” Beckoning it with my finger, a fall of trust ensued. With each passing moment, the lake below came closer like an old friend.

  If it didn’t let me go to the City from the front, I’d create another way to get there. It was as simple as that. Of course, the method wasn’t.

  His low growls rang in my ear. My eyes went to the serene surface of the Lake. It was like a clear mirror in which Taotie’s reflection closed in. But the water reached me first and pulled me in. Like a fish, I swam further below as his large body crashed into the body of water.

  The impact traveled below as the calm waters surged, destroying the peace of this place. But the one who disrupted the place moved forward towards its prey. That was me.

  I won’t let you end this chance. I still have a lot to do. I want to meet my disciple again. I need to stop the oncoming War to save the people I care about… I have to keep the promise to my Master. I… I have so much more left to do!

  My mind remembered everything that the bleak future held. It replayed the moments I dreaded the most, the things that kept me up at night, the scene I wished I never saw. It all kept repeating in my mind, allowing that to happen again wasn’t an option. That was why I cannot die here.

  Diving deeper just extended a few seconds before the inevitable. A desperate attempt really. But that’s how my life has always been, a desperate attempt against fate itself.

  The dark shadow loomed over me. Soon, the welcoming mouth swallowed me whole. As Taotie’s teeth sunk into me, my vision blurred.

  I was certain of it…… certain of my victory.

  Gotcha!

  A silent cry of victory that I shared with none other than myself.

  “I am getting chills.” Hovering above the disturbed lake that roiled in anger much like my body, a sigh escaped my lips.

  The feeling of my clone being crunched under those jagged teeth burned through me like smoldering iron rods through each of my veins.

  But, sacrificing a part of my intent was necessary for this plan to succeed. Taotie wouldn’t had let me through from the front. Thus, I created a clone to draw it in the water while the real body arrived at the location.

  The reason it worked was because of Taotie’s disposition.

  It ate anything that came before it. It didn’t matter if it was a living being or the land itself. It chomped on anything with Qi like a starved wolf at meat. To confuse it further, I jumped into the lake made of condensed Qi and blended myself into the environment.

  Diving head-first into the water I split myself into two parts. The 25% clone lured Taotie deeper into the water, catching his attention like a bleeding fish to a shark. I, the original version headed for the city at the moment of the split, taking advantage of the cover provided by Taotie’s splash, and exited the lake.

  Without any other senses aside from taste, Taotie used two things to locate his prey. The Qi is its target and their emotional state, both he could taste with his elongated tongue. For that, my Clone went through emotional and fear-inducing thoughts, and I stayed calm to reduce my presence.

  Hiding my intent and making a clone in the Mind Realm. Mastering these techniques took years of practice and real battles. But I could say with certainty that the efforts paid off. They always do.

  Still, it wasn’t every day that someone could enter one’s Mind realm and put them in such danger. No cultivator was foolish enough to let it happen. Even if it did happen the Spiritual Root provided an extra layer of protection that was independent of the person. But I wasn’t given that this time around.

  Landing in the grandest estate of the city, what awaited me was a wide garden at the back of this lavish palace. Lines of flowers adorned the tilted path, they filled the place with their sweet and alluring scent as dozens of Spirit cherry trees scattered their vibrant crimson petals in the soft breeze.

  Among that beautiful view, a lone ordinary plum tree stood out like a sore thumb.

  Its trunk, sturdy and textured with the scars of the seasons that passed. The branches reached out in graceful arcs adorned with delicate green leaves. This used to be my Spiritual Root before regression, but now I feel nothing from it. It was just another tree here, an imitation.

  The connection I had with it had latched onto something else. Like a thread extended from it and wrapped around my body, it pulled me to the right. It was a delicate yet strong bond that drew my steps to the pond nearby.

  In the middle of the clear water pond, a solitary lotus floated on the surface. The twelve velvety, deep black petals were wide open as a deep crimson hue rose from the center. It spilled over the dark brown leaves onto the pond to create a fog that hung low on the water’s surface.

  “A Black Lotus, huh.” My Spiritual Root had changed.