Reincarnation Girl Becomes Immortal

But no matter what, it's none of her business. She doesn't believe that this madman who uses his relatives to refine spirit stones can suddenly repent and become a good person.

Zhao Qianyuan announced the end of the court session, and all the civil and military officials left in an orderly line. A few minutes later, only a few palace maids, a few guards and eunuchs standing to the side, and Xi Heng and Zhao Qianyuan remained in the hall.

The emperor slowly breathed a sigh of relief, picked up a grape from the plate on the table, put it in his mouth, and Hulun swallowed it, then drank a cup of wine.

Then, he turned his gaze to the side and softly called Xi Heng's name.

The voice wasn't strained, but it was still quite noticeable in the empty and desolate court.

Seeing Xi Heng looking over, Zhao Qianyuan stood up, leaning on the dragon throne: "Follow behind me, I will take you to see something."

"Ah."

Xi Heng was already prepared.

As he walked, the vivid color of bloodstains was faintly visible beneath his pale red clothing.

Xi Heng stared at the other party's broad back and the ferocious dragon pattern printed on the back of his clothes, thinking to himself that he only needed to make a single finger seal to kill the mad emperor who had no martial arts skills.

Even if there were hidden expert guards nearby, they shouldn't be able to react to this supernatural magic.

Xi Heng could take the mad emperor's life at any time if he wanted to.

However, there's no benefit in taking action now. As long as Zhao Qianyuan has a skilled bodyguard around him, he will die after he murders the emperor.

Xi Heng's plan was to refine the other party into a spirit stone, and he couldn't rush into action along the way.

Now she still needs to find the secret alchemy chamber that the other party is hiding. Although she was captured in her previous life, she didn't know the exact location, so she has to wait for Zhao Qianyuan to lead her there before she can make a move...

As Xi Heng was pondering this, Zhao Qianyuan's voice came from ahead:

"Was the poem you just recited in the hall a satire of me?"

"Your Majesty is overthinking it." Xi Heng didn't want to see any unexpected changes before killing anyone, and simply said, "It's just a poem describing the scenery."

"Ha, poets and writers always use metaphors to imply my faults, I'm used to it." Zhao Qianyuan didn't believe it at all: "I know and understand that you are dissatisfied with me, most writers are like that."

Xi Heng shook her head; she would never admit it.

"Don't rush to refute me. The place I'm taking you to today is the root of my current state, the reason why I'm called a tyrannical and incompetent ruler by the world."

He suddenly turned around and stared at Xi Heng with a strange, intense gaze:

"You and I are quite alike, both born with pride, possessing exceptional literary talent, and... we both aspire to become immortals. I ask you, why do you wish to become an immortal?"

"For immortality," Xi Heng said.

"Immortality~" Zhao Qianyuan chuckled softly and sighed deeply, "Everyone desires immortality, eternal bliss, and the nectar of the gods. My fate is in my own hands, not subject to heaven and earth..."

"Those Taoist books speak so beautifully, but how can one become an immortal?" He sighed as he walked. "When I was young, I heard that there were methods for achieving immortality and ascending to heaven. In a great dream, I saw myself riding a white crane, wearing a feathered robe, and flying to heaven to become an immortal. Looking down, I saw the mortal world, my homeland, and green fields. Looking up, I saw a group of immortals leading me, with the Jade Emperor wearing a crown. The Jade Emperor said that I had the talent to become an immortal and that I must work hard. In fifteen years, I could ascend to the Jade Capital and join the immortals..."

"After waking from the dream, I thought that immortality was attainable, and that I could ride a crane to become an immortal and live as long as heaven and earth. Therefore, I fought for fame and fortune, and did my best to kill three brothers and one sister before sitting on this cold dragon throne."

"I once thought that if I became an immortal, I would live forever, and all the sins I committed in these mere hundred years would be nothing more than a wisp of smoke, vanishing with the wind..." he murmured.

"I think that even if it takes all the power of the Great Zhao, I must make myself embark on the path to immortality... As long as I can become an immortal, what does it matter if the Great Zhao is destroyed? Many dynasties rise and fall, and the cycle of birth and death continues. The Great Zhao is just one of them. How can the fleeting lives of the millions of people within the dynasty compare to those of immortals who live as long as heaven and earth?"

"Therefore, I followed these thoughts and ideas, sat on the dragon throne and collected the benefits of all the people to make myself an immortal... I followed the calendar of heaven and earth, the time of yin and yang, the changes of the four directions, swallowed mercury pills and lead pills, did not eat meat or blood, did not deplete my essence, and diligently cultivated myself."

"But I have been waiting in vain for eighteen years... My teeth and hair are decaying, my hearing and vision are becoming blurred, and I have not yet seen the celestial chariot and crane that the Jade Emperor spoke of in that great dream. In the end... it was all for nothing."

His voice grew weaker as he spoke, and he finally let out a long sigh, his figure appearing even more dejected.

Xi Heng, following behind, overheard that the mad emperor seemed to have repented.

Whether the other party repents or not is none of her business; she just needs to do what she needs to do.

"Alas, the Immortal Dreamer, a dream that ruined his life!" Zhao Qianyuan slapped his chest with a muffled sound.

"If it weren't for that great dream, if I had repented along the way and no longer desired to become an immortal, my empire wouldn't be in such a state of turmoil, you wouldn't have suddenly disappeared when you were young, and I wouldn't have to listen to you reciting such poems in this court today..."

"I regret it."

"..." Xi Heng listened silently from behind.

During this conversation, the two of them had already left the imperial court and walked for a long time on the wide road outside.

Now, a vast hall, composed of gray-blue and dark red hues, stands before us.

Stepping through the courtyard gate outside the main hall, one can see that the green tiles are like green feathers covering the eaves, and the two ends of the ridge are carved with dragon heads and fish bodies, and there are five small crouching beasts standing there.

Above the white jade railings and the imperial road, dark red beams and pillars are symmetrically rooted in the earth, and dozens of imperial guards in bright red armor stand guard around the white jade railings, their postures as stable as pagodas.

Xi Heng accompanied the emperor up the dark stone steps, then across a flat area of ​​the same color, and into the grand hall.

The three characters "Fuqing Hall" are prominently displayed inside the hall, their strokes flowing gracefully and naturally.

The sounds of greetings echoed around Xi Heng after she entered the hall, but neither she nor Zhao Qianyuan paid them any attention, their expressions both quite serious.

After entering the hall, the Mad Emperor led Xi Heng to a wide and long corridor on the side and said, "I brought you here to tell you about becoming an immortal."

As expected... Xi Heng's gaze grew even colder.

This mad emperor just said so many nice things, saying he regretted it and would change his ways.

But in reality, he still led himself here.

It seems that, just like in the previous life, she will be turned into a spirit stone.

Knowing full well that they are wrong, yet still continuing to commit evil deeds, it truly shows that old habits die hard.

In short, Xi Heng had no good impression of this mad emperor.

"Yesterday, in that flower-filled pavilion, you said you wanted to become an immortal," Zhao Qianyuan said.

"I have taken your words to heart and pondered them all night. I have finally decided to tell you the path to immortality, how to become an immortal, and why some people fail to become immortals."

"You want to tell me the method to become an immortal?" Xi Heng answered hesitantly.

Only now did she realize that this mad emperor did indeed have a tiny bit of a chance to change his ways.

"Because you resemble me." The other person repeated, tilting their head back as they spoke.

"I can see that you were serious about becoming an immortal when you spoke of it yesterday... I don't want you to waste your energy and resources on that elusive path to immortality like I have, only to end up with nothing. So I must tell you the truth."

After a few seconds of thought, Xi Heng bluntly stated his thoughts: "I am different from you, and no one can compare to me."

"Young." Zhao Qianyuan shook his head like a reclusive sage.

"All living beings in this world, even emperors, are merely part of the cycle of human reincarnation. In the next reincarnation, there will always be people like you, people like me."

As they talked, they walked to the end of the hall, where a heavy wooden door blocked the end of the corridor.

Once again, the white-haired eunuch stood by the door, bowed, and greeted the emperor, saying:

"Your Majesty, the items you mentioned yesterday are all in the room."

“We don’t need it today either,” Zhao Qianyuan replied simply, then pushed open the heavy wooden door.

The wooden door swung open with a long, sharp sound, and the familiar dim scene reappeared before Xi Heng.

The room was covered with stone slabs, unlike the other rooms which were bright and clean. Only the walls where they met the eaves had some gaps for ventilation.

This angled gap prevents sunlight from entering, making the entire room dark, gloomy, and eerie.

Only a few dim, reddish embers glowed beneath the large cauldron in the center of the stone house, serving as a light source.

By the dim light, Xi Heng saw five round, plump things on the floor inside the room, which looked like beggar's chickens and were tightly wrapped in several layers of lotus leaves.

Judging from their size, Xi Heng guessed that these were the five heads of the Five Elements Destiny needed to condense the Blood Spirit Stone.

She then looked at the stone table to the side and saw many neatly arranged porcelain bowls, which probably contained various rare treasures ground into powder.

In addition, Xi Heng also noticed several pieces of extremely pure white jade on the table, which were reflecting light slightly.

All other materials are ready...

The final material for the Soul-Draining Technique is blood relatives and flesh, and she and the mad emperor beside her are both considered materials.

Just as Xi Heng was contemplating whether to quickly deal with Zhao Qianyuan to prevent him from sending people to subdue her first—

A middle-aged man dressed in a dragon robe suddenly spoke up:

"This stone chamber is where I refine pills and gather spiritual energy, and the various materials on the table are what I use to refine spirit stones."

"Last night I pondered and pondered, constantly thinking that I should try this one last time today... I even ordered the eunuchs to search for all the necessary materials, but after a grueling night, when I woke up this morning and saw the sun rise again, I was suddenly at peace..."

He lowered his head and gave a few bitter laughs, as if he himself didn't quite believe it.

"It turns out that everything is just like the sun rising and setting, nothing more than a cycle," he said.

"This is true of every dynasty. In the end, there are always a few emperors who seek immortality. I am just one of them."

"I quit."

He waved the long sleeves of his dragon robe.

Xi Heng listened to the other person's sighs, but his mind was not on the other person; he was still staring at the materials for the Spirit Absorption Technique in the room.

It doesn't matter what profound insights this mad emperor may have; what she wants to do will not change.

"Come in. Today I will tell you the method to become an immortal, and also tell you why the method is unsuccessful." Zhao Qianyuan stepped into the room first.

Xi Heng responded with a yes, following behind like a well-behaved daughter, her gaze fixed on the other's vital point in the back.

Zhao Qianyuan picked up a candle, walked to the stone table where various powdered materials were placed, and pointed to them one by one, explaining:

"The powder on this table, from left to right, consists of: Dendrobium, Tian Shan Snow Lotus, three ounces of ginseng, 120-year-old Polygonum multiflorum, 60-year-old Poria cocos, wild Ganoderma lucidum from the deep mountains, pearl from the seabed, Cordyceps sinensis, Cistanche deserticola... These are the nine great immortal herbs in the Taoist canon, things that accumulate spiritual energy."

"And this mutton fat jade is a beautiful stone that gathers the spirit of the deep mountains."

"I have gathered these spiritual items in order to refine the legendary spiritual stone used by immortals."

He then led Xi Heng to the large gold and silver cauldron in the center of the stone room, pointing to the five heads placed in five different positions: "The things wrapped in lotus leaves are the heads of condemned prisoners of the five elements, arranged according to the five elements and their corresponding positions..."

After he finished his introduction, he glanced back at Xi Heng, skipped over the last and most important material, and sighed, "I have spent a lot of effort and used many treasures to refine this so-called spirit stone."

“But…” He picked up a piece of mutton-fat jade: “After I refined the spirit stone, I realized that the so-called spiritual energy could not enter the body at all.”

Zhao Qianyuan suddenly let go, and the jade stone fell to the floor with a thud.

"Just as water flows downhill and stones fall to the ground, as soon as something appears, the spiritual energy will spontaneously fly up into the sky."

"I thought spiritual energy was like wisps of smoke, rising to the purest state. So I sealed off a completely airtight underground chamber to try to lock in spiritual energy and cultivate it. But the spiritual energy could not be blocked. It passed through layers of earth, stone and wooden planks and flew into the sky. No matter what I did, it was difficult to restrain it."

"Even if you use all your strength to absorb spiritual energy into your stomach, it will still pass through your body and fly away, as if something in the sky is attracting it, or as if it should not exist in this mortal world."

"I think it's probably because the celestial palaces in heaven are absorbing the spiritual energy, and the immortals don't allow mortals to walk the path of immortality."

His gaze seemed to pierce through the dim rooftop, reaching the vast sky above, and he said with self-mockery, "How pitiful I was back then, in my great dream, believing the Jade Emperor's words to be true, little did I know that the immortals and mortals had been separated, and the two realms were now one."

"Even if I were to use another spirit stone today, it would only lead to repeating the same mistakes," he said, shaking his head.

“Spiritual energy can rise and also penetrate objects directly…” Xi Heng frowned slightly. She also wanted to become an immortal and achieve longevity, which was clearly a problem she would have to face later.

Even electromagnetic waves and radiation cannot penetrate all matter directly, right?

What exactly is spiritual energy? Dark matter? Quantum entanglement? Anti-entropy? Subspace energy? Hyperdimensional matter? High-energy particles? Or microorganisms? Free quarks?

Xi Heng pressed his temples.

Spiritual energy, being a supernatural phenomenon, may be difficult to grasp using scientific theories, and Xi Heng is not a scientist.

Seeing Xi Heng deep in thought, Zhao Qianyuan frowned and exclaimed, "Stop thinking about it! Quickly let go of this obsession with cultivating immortality! The Heavenly Palace is sealed off, and spiritual energy is hard to preserve! Mortals cannot cultivate immortality!"

"You are a mortal, but I am not." Xi Heng was a little angry, his thoughts were in disarray.

"Stop talking nonsense!" Zhao Qianyuan admonished, "As the princess of the current dynasty, you should abide by the rules and regulations, be loyal to the country, learn the ways of governing the country and bringing harmony to the world, and in the future, be a virtuous and capable wife, fulfill the virtues of a mother, be a role model for the people, uphold the country and serve the public, serve the ancestral temple above and look after all the people below!"

"What I think and do is none of your business!" Xi Heng said coldly. "You dare to say such things to me?"

Zhao Qianyuan's eyes widened, his anger rising as well: "I am your father!"

"Very well, Father." Xi Heng immediately drew her longsword from her waist, and with a whoosh, the sword flashed: "Your daughter has come today to show her filial piety!"

"You! What are you doing?" Zhao Qianyuan, dressed in a dragon robe, gritted his teeth and took a step back.

"To become an immortal!" Xi Heng's waist and wrist suddenly twisted, his mind never having felt so free.

A flash of red light appeared at the tip of the sword, like a white rainbow piercing the sun.

With a soft thud, the longsword pierced the opponent's chest and emerged from the dragon eye section of his robe behind him, stained with blood.

The longsword pierced through flesh and blood, then suddenly turned—

Zhao Qianyuan wanted to call for help, but before he could even utter the word "help," most of his neck had been severed.

The girl flicked her sword, and countless drops of blood splattered in the dimly lit room.