"I... I am Ning Taisu? No, that's not right. I'm Feng Taisu?" the boy muttered under his breath.
Images flashed through his mind in quick succession. He saw scenes from the Ning clan, where he was Ning Taisu, considered by everyone trash who barely qualified to cultivate to the 1st layer of Qi Condensation. His whole clan, aside from his immediate family, looked down on him, but he didn't seem to understand their disgust. Layered on top of these memories of growing up as Ning Taisu were the vague experiences of someone else. This person was young, but his talent was great. His personality was unyielding. He was loved by his clan until some disaster struck. The details of this catastrophe were unknown, as was what came afterward.
He felt a splitting headache as he tried to piece together his competing thoughts. If one were to look within him, they would see that his soul appeared as a mass of scarlet with random white streaks fighting one another for supremacy. Finally, after the time it took an incense stick to burn, the scarlet won out over the white.
The boy's eyes gained a newfound clarity, and the piercing pain in his head subsided. He smiled faintly and muttered, "I am both Ning Taisu and Feng Taisu. Somehow, another soul resided in this body, and the events of last night awakened it. Although this body originally belonged to Ning Taisu, it seems as though I now have at least some of the memories of Feng Taisu, and they are becoming more and more clear."
He pondered for a bit trying to make sense of it all, but there were too many questions. How did Feng Taisu's soul get into Ning Taisu's body? What disaster befell Feng Taisu's clan? Not to mention, who were these people trying to kill him?
As he was thinking, the sounds of the forest surrounded him. Flowers bloomed after the previous night's rainfall; everything seemed peaceful.
Within the clearing where the mysterious temple was only a few hours ago, there was only the young, handsome boy and the unconscious black-robed man. While the boy was lost in his thoughts, the assassin stirred. His eyes fluttered open as he peered around him. Upon seeing his target just standing there less than twenty feet away, he quickly climbed to his feet and began strutting toward the boy. Realizing something was off, the youth turned his gaze toward the assassin.
Filled with confidence, the man shouted, "Boy, you have caused me many problems! Because of you, my two comrades died! I'll refine your soul and torture you until you beg for mercy!" With that, he took out his censer and began swinging it while chanting. White smoke poured out of it and slowly filled the area around him. He was confident this move would kill the boy where he stood. After all, he witnessed the boy permanently damage his own dantian. In his eyes, this child was simply cattle waiting to be slaughtered.
Although I no longer have meridians and my dantian is damaged to the point of being unable to hold spiritual energy, my flesh is filled with a mysterious power. It seems that my body was refined by the horn. This is a perfect time to test this new power of mine! The boy sighed softly and stretched his muscles. Crouching down, he prepared for the incoming attack.
At this point, smoke stopped pouring out of the censer. The man looked up and grinned viciously. He shouted, "Kill!" and the smoke turned into tentacles that stretched out toward the boy. In his mind, he could already see the boy being pierced by the smoke as it drilled into his flesh. His life force and soul would be sucked out, leaving behind only an empty corpse. Clearly, he thought this would be enough to kill his target.
The reality of the situation was far different, though. The youth easily saw through this clunky attack and quickly dodged to the side. The smoke tentacles hit nothing but thin air. Grinning, he charged at the bewildered assassin. He covered the twenty feet quickly and arrived in front of the man. Spiritual energy gathered in his fist as he threw a punch at the assassin's face. With a meaty thwack, the man's face seemed to crumple. He stumbled backwards for a few steps before forcibly halting himself, nearly dropping his censer in the process.
"Haha, your treasure must have made you like this! Otherwise, how would you be able to fight without spiritual energy? Be a good boy and hand it over." The man's greed overflowed. He couldn't sense any spiritual energy in the boy's fist because it hadn't leaked out of his body at all. Thus, the assassin began circulating his own spiritual energy throughout his body to quickly crush his assailant.
A flash of light appeared from the folds of the man's robe. The assassin now wielded the censer in his right hand and a dagger dripping with poison in his left. He lunged forward and swiped at the boy in front of him.
The youth swayed out of the dagger's reach, retaliating with another fist. He felt the rest of his body become noticeably weaker as the spiritual energy in it rushed to his arm and hand, granting it more strength. Although the assassin tried to block, his arm was smashed out of the way, and the fist landed on his chest. Despite this hit, the arm absorbed too much of the blow's power, causing him to grunt and cough up blood, and he was able to continue with a counterattack.
Regrouping from his first attack, the boy thought to himself, Although the power of my body is great, it uses too much spiritual energy. That dagger is poisoned, too. I need to end this quickly. He retreated carefully as his opponent pushed on the offensive. Although it was clear this man used a dagger often, his technique did not appear overly refined. Evidently, he had never trained in fighting this way, instead learning through combat.
Seeing that the boy was holding off his attacks, the assassin sneered and muttered a word. The white smoke twisted and formed tendrils, which then shot at the boy. Facing this familiar attack, the boy dodged what he could while focusing on the poisoned dagger. The tentacles he couldn't dodge struck him and began burrowing into his flesh like parasites. This time, a wave of spiritual pain coursed through his soul, nearly causing him to black out in agony. The assassin took advantage of the youth faltering to stab at his heart.
Suddenly, a strange yet gentle force radiated from within the boy's soul, suppressing the smoke and the pain. Clarity returned to his eyes, and spiritual energy surged to his legs as he quickly turned to the side and let the dagger slide by him, tearing his clothes as it went. He grabbed the assassin's wrist and wrenched it upward, causing him to cry out and drop his weapon.
Without giving his opponent any time to recover, the boy grabbed the man's head and pulled it down, smashing his knee into it. Blood sprayed from the assassin's nose as he stumbled backward and fell on the ground in a crumpled heap. At the same time, he lost his grip on the censer, and the white smoke disappeared. Panic in his eyes, the man scrambled after the censer.
The boy picked up the dagger and dashed to the censer, kicking it away before the assassin reached it. He took a deep breath and raised his fist once more. He could tell that he could only throw one more punch before his body became completely devoid of spiritual energy. He had to make this one count.
"Do you want to continue? I can end this with one more strike," the boy threatened. He didn't want to use the dagger, because it was poisoned. Although the man most likely had an antidote on him, he didn't want to take the risk of killing the man. There was also a chance that this assassin would lose the will to resist if he was able to beat him once more.
"You only got lucky, boy!" Seeing the boy hesitate, the assassin quickly stood up and prepared his defenses. He raised both arms in front of him as he gathered his own spiritual energy. He snorted, clearly thinking, "I only need to defend this last attack, and then the welp will be out of energy. We'll see who is standing afterward!"
Internally, the boy was surprised by his body's strength. His meridians were completely gone; not a single trace of them existed after being pushed to the point of disintegration. His dantian also couldn't store spiritual energy in it. Despite this, the power of his body alone was enough to fight against this assassin at the 3rd layer of Qi Gathering.
It had to be known that before, his own cultivation was only at the 1st layer of Qi Gathering, and his body had been weak since birth. Although the other clan members in his generation had already at least reached the 6th layer, with the strongest being at the 9th layer, he had been unable to compete with them. His cultivation was not only weaker than theirs, but the concentration of the spiritual energy within him could not be compared to the others at the same level as him. Due to all of this, he was considered the weakling of the Ning Clan, and was openly ridiculed by all of the other children.
Now, even though his meridians were gone and he couldn't circulate spiritual energy from his dantian throughout his body, the strength of his flesh was far greater than it had ever been. In fact, he suspected it was even stronger than the bodies of the others in his generation when they were at the 3rd layer of Qi Gathering. Not to mention them, this assassin, who was clearly a rogue cultivator sent to do someone's dirty work, was much weaker in terms of physical strength. All of that being said, he couldn't circulate spiritual energy. If he tried using a magical item like the censer, he wouldn't be able to push his spiritual energy into it.
The boy's eyes became fierce. He pushed all of his thoughts out and focused on the man in front of him. With his fist raised, he slowly drew it back and charged the assassin. The sneer on the man's face melted as this punch full of spiritual energy slammed into his arms. Its force traveled through them and into his chest, shattering the already injured arm, fracturing the other, and smashing his sternum. He could feel his organs shake as he staggered back from the surprisingly powerful blow. Losing his balance and coughing up blood, the assassin collapsed.
This time, the assassin understood that it was not through sheer luck that this boy had beaten him time and time again. Fear filled the man's eyes as he stared at the weak-looking boy. He couldn't understand how the boy he was tasked to kill turned into someone who could so easily overwhelm him in battle. Even after several rounds of attacks, he could not gain an advantage.
"Who, who are you? You can't be the same child from yesterday!" The assassin's voice trembled as he coughed out more blood before passing out.
A wave of relief washed over the boy even as weakness and hunger nearly overwhelmed him. He paused and took deep breaths to stabilize his weakened body. After thinking for a bit, he raised his head to the sky and said, "I am Feng Taisu."
