Chapter 182

  Eternal Lament (VIII)

  Light returned about an hour after she left, except this time she had some random horn in her arms.

  ... what?

  Anyway, she never bothered to explain it, walking over to Long Tao, who briefly inspected her, did something with his fingers, which summoned a few traces of Qi that flew over to the back of her left knee, and nodded at her. She nodded at him, and then they both went their separate ways.

  Wait--for the love of God, will either of you explain anything?!

  Guess not.

  Shrugging, I retired to my little corner, too, and resumed cultivation--I can actually feel the progress, and I know I'm approaching the peak of the Spirit Manifestation Realm. In a month, at most, I will reach that vaunted hill that I thought I never would when I first understood the severity of this body's, uh, shortcomings.

  So much has changed, though, in over a year I've been here--me more so than most other things.

  And yet, I also... haven't. There's that stubbornness inside of me that's trying to keep me as unchanged as possible, as though to spite this world, but it's stumbling.

  And it's stumbling hard.

  The morning came rather swiftly, and with it something staggering--a system window pop-up... with a quest.

  Quests have sort of faded into the background, to be honest--6 identical ones have been swapping in and out ad nauseam ever since we left the sect, and I can really only complete one a month, if I'm lucky.

  So far, in the past seven or so months, I've earned a total of 145 points off of the monthly quests.

  I'm fairly certain that the limitation in place is mostly because of my current realm, and I have this sneaking suspicion that my breaking through into the Revolving Core Realm will change it all, at least slightly.

  Nonetheless, this wasn't a 'monthly' quest but rather a 'Circumstantial Quest', per the system's very own description.

  [--Circumstantial Quest triggered]

  [Circumstantial Quests: a type of quest that requires a number of circumstances to align within a specific timeframe and location.]

  Perfectly vague, as always.

  [Eternal Lament]

  [Quest: an ancient magic is slowly being used to empower a deeply hidden Blood Vessel in an attempt to resurrect the dead. The Laws of Heaven can never be unmade or tampered with--what is dead cannot come back to life by a human hand. Discover the culprit attempting the resurrection, and eliminate them as well as the Blood Vessel before the ancient magic succeeds--not at resurrecting something alive, but spawning something... unnatural]

  [...]

  [Rewards: the remainder of your Body Purification Process will be finished, and your body will be renewed]

  [Reward 2: A new subsystem for creating Alchemy Recipes will be unlocked]

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  [Reward 3: You will automatically learn the 'Touch of Enlightenment' Special Art, allowing you to cast one of your Disciples into a state of Enlightenment for a brief period once every three months]

  [...]

  [Due to the quest's nature, it is time sensitive]

  [Time before the magic is complete: 87 hours, 44 minutes, and 32 seconds]

  [Failing the quest will result in the unleashing of a terrible thing and a permanent loss of one random art created by the system. Both you and any and all of your disciples who've learned the art will forget it and be barred from making a similar one for 30 years]

  [...]

  [Good luck!]

  ... Okay, what the hell?!

  There are only a few other times in my life where I went from happy to miserable so quickly. I mean, yes, it's a free quest with amazing rewards from the sounds of it, but the punishment for failing it... is rough. Imagine if it took away Dai Xiu's body art, or even Heart-Stitching Art--or, hell, losing any of the arts I created for at least 30 years would put a massive dent into our future.

  The best-case scenario would be actually it taking away the Endless Steps, or perhaps even my own cultivation art, or one of the attack arts, like the one I made for Xi Zhao that I haven't given over yet.

  But there's no way I can risk something like that.

  Which means, come hell or high water, we somehow have to finish this quest.

  I'm guessing that the reason it triggered was because of us--us being here has somehow accelerated a plan that was definitely already in place.

  Regardless, none of my previous hang-ups matter--as such, I immediately went over to Long Tao's little corner and roused him from meditation.

  "It's rather rude to come inside someone's room unannounced, Master," he said, yet didn't seem particularly bothered. Probably because he sensed me coming from a mile away...

  "Can you track the Blood Fiend?" I asked, dropping all pretense.

  "Oh? I thought you wanted to do this without me."

  "I did, though that's... changed."

  "... why?" He picked up on the subtext.

  "Because I'm pretty sure he's trying to do something that should not be done," I said, quickly making up a 'believable' scenario. "That trace on Light," how do I know about it? Her status window, that's how. "I noticed something quite unstable about it, so I looked back into some of the old books my father left me." The mention of my father seemed to perk him up quite a bit, likely signaling that this wasn't anything 'ordinary'.

  "And what'd they tell you?"

  "In it, I sensed something... off, like a swirl of chaotic energy fighting against nature itself. One of the possibilities, according to one of the book, is that it's a telltale sign of Life Energy being used to do... the unspeakable."

  "To resurrect someone?" he supposed with a rather calm expression.

  "Uh..."

  "I noticed that the moment we came here," he said. Nuh-uh. He's lying. There's no way. "You don't believe me?"

  "Not for a second."

  "Good call," he smiled. "But, like you, I noticed it when Light returned--not because I, uhm, 'sensed some chaotic energy.'" Can somebody roll their eyes with their words? "But because I traced the trace back to its origin and found such an amalgamation of blood energy that it really can't be anything else besides a misguided attempt at resurrecting someone."

  "So, you know where he is?!"

  "No."

  "..."

  "What I know is that he's nearing the 'completion'," he added. "A few days to a week, perhaps. But, according to my father," he added with a faint smirk. "There's one crucial aspect that he'll need in order to attempt it. I mean, he won't succeed either way, but ancient tomes that imply some succeeded speak of one necessity that cannot be substituted."

  "Which is?"

  "An able, physical vessel with perfectly aligned characteristics," Long Tao added. "And I mean, perfectly. The vessel has to be aged to the exact second the original body died, they have to be the exact same sex, height, and weight, have to share any unique aspects such as bloodline or physique, and have to be related. They would also have to replicate any of the scars or missing organs that the original body lacked at the time of death. Again, even with all of that, the resurrection will fail, but if he's trying to give himself as much of a 'fighting chance', he would likely do all those things to ensure it."

  ... wow.

  I mean, the system already mentioned in no uncertain terms that resurrection was impossible, but even Long Tao seemed beyond certain of it. The question is... why?

  I mean, he reincarnated--while it's not a 'resurrection', technically, he did come back from the dead. Why would this attempt fail, then?

  As always, as though reading my mind, he responded in a perfectly vague way.

  "Let me put it simply," he said. "Even if the original body does come back, the Heavens themselves will immediately smite it. Only they can arrange for something so law-defying, and they will either allow it or deny it. No, let me rephrase that--they will deny it." Just as I thought that was the end of it, he added one last nugget of his riddled wisdom.

  "That is," he smirked. "If they are aware of it."