A Farmer's Journey To Immortality

Kalina lay motionless on the broken ground.

Her chest no longer rose and fell normally. Each breath had become slower than the last.

Her heart had already been reduced to a ruined mass by the Void Gu. Serya’s venom had almost completely paralyzed her body. The poison mist continued invading her from the outside while the venom ravaged her from within.

She could do nothing but watch.

Watch...

...as Aksai slowly walked toward the severed arm lying several meters away.

He extended his remaining hand. The severed limb trembled. Then, as though pulled by invisible threads, it floated into the air and flew toward him.

Kalina’s eyes narrowed. She thought he simply wished to retrieve it before dying alongside her. After all, Aksai was not in a much better condition than her. Unless he made use of the healing-type talisman she had in her inventory, the chances of Aksai dying after her were quite high. At least that’s what she thought.

Even if Aksai were to survive this battle, he would be little better than a crippled Lord in the near future. After all, no matter how talented a Lord was, losing an arm was almost impossible to recover from without priceless treasures or years of treatment.

Being a half-crippled Lord in the chaotic times of the subcontinent was not only inconvenient but also risky. At least the other Lords from the imperial factions would have a much better time dealing with Aksai.

Aksai did not care about Kalina’s schadenfreude thoughts. He calmly caught the severed arm and raised it toward the bloody stump on his shoulder. His expression remained completely calm.

[ Innate Spirit Spell: Druid’s Healing has been activated ]

[ Bloodline resonance with the spell detected. ]

The moment the Innate Spirit Spell was activated, the surrounding Spirit Essence stirred violently. A warm green-gold radiance blossomed from Aksai’s body.

Unlike ordinary healing spells, this healing light did not simply gather around his wounds. It stimulated something deep inside his bloodline. The essence of nature and life energy.

’What the...’

Kalina’s pupils contracted.

Aksai’s appearance began changing before her very eyes.

His black hair gradually turned crimson. Not an ordinary red but a deep, living crimson, like the color of ancient tree sap mixed with fresh blood.

His black eyes slowly transformed into brilliant golden ones. Their pupils became sharper. Almost inhuman.

His ears stretched slightly before becoming long and pointed. The pressure surrounding him also changed. It no longer resembled that of an ordinary human cultivator. It felt wild and ancient, filled with the aura of endless forests and boundless life.

"What... you... you are..."

Kalina’s voice came out as little more than a whisper. She would have had even more profound reactions had it not been for the poison’s effects and her current state.

She finally understood. This man had never been completely human. Before she could think further, the severed arm touched the bloody stump.

Instantly, blood-red vines burst out. They erupted from both the severed arm and the wound on Aksai’s shoulder. The vines intertwined like living creatures searching for their missing halves.

They wrapped around muscles, tendons, and broken bones. Then they pulled everything together.

Snap.

The arm reattached itself in a single movement. The blood vines continued weaving beneath his skin, transforming into normal veins and Spirit essence channels.

Broken bones fused together. Severed muscles knitted themselves back into place. The remaining torn blood vessels reconnected. Even damaged nerves rapidly regenerated. Fresh flesh grew where pieces had been missing.

The horrifying wound disappeared before Kalina’s eyes.

The healing did not stop there.

The countless cuts covering Aksai’s body also began closing. The deep slash across his waist rapidly shrank.

Within moments, the man who had looked as though he would collapse from blood loss and seemed to be in the same boat as her stood upright once more.

His breathing steadied, and his complexion regained its color. His Spirit fluctuations became stable again. Although he had not fully recovered, his condition had improved so dramatically that he looked ready to fight another battle if necessary.

Kalina’s breathing became even more uneven than before. Perhaps witnessing this transformation was an even greater shock than accepting the fact that she had been defeated by a native Lord of this subcontinent.

Disbelief completely filled her eyes.

Impossible.

Even the highest-grade healing talisman she had carried before being robbed could never have healed someone this quickly.

Kalina knew far more about the world beyond the Shinayin Boundary. As such, her perspective was broader, allowing her to accept things that the natives of the subcontinent had not even begun to imagine.

She knew that many other races existed in the Dadangar World beyond the Eternal Sea. The number of small and large clans with demon beast bloodlines alone was too great to count.

Furthermore, the territory expansion campaigns were almost always led by the Overlord Association of the Eternal Sea. And sometimes some news related to such grand expansions even reached the borders of the empire.

Even though Kalina had never personally seen the greater world beyond the Shinayin Boundary, she was aware of many things that remained inaccessible to ordinary cultivators of the Empire because of her connections with the impartial faction.

As such, she could accept the possibility that Aksai was not a pure-blooded human.

However, there was a limit to the racial talents that could be displayed by various races in the Lord Realm.

How could a race possess such an exaggerated healing ability? It had to be noted that this was Aksai’s own Innate Spell and not the effect of some precious treasure or one-time-use Spirit resource, which meant Aksai could make use of it repeatedly as long as his Spirit essence reserves allowed it. This was the most threatening aspect of a druid’s healing innate healing ability.

No healing technique she had ever witnessed could reattach a severed arm within mere moments.

If a race like that truly existed in sufficient numbers, with enough powerful experts among them, wouldn’t they have conquered the Eternal Sea long ago? They would be akin to undying cockroaches, which would eventually make other races getting united together to face their threat.

Kalina could only let go of those thoughts as death slowly approached. With a wry smile that couldn’t be visible on her face, she could not help but focus on her current condition instead of dwelling on the greater implications of the truth about Aksai’s identity that she had just uncovered.

Her gaze remained fixed on Aksai’s restored shoulder.

"...Not.... Not bad..."

Her voice trembled.

"...that was your plan...It’s genius. You... you... are certainly too overcautious for someone with that level of ability as your backup."

She finally understood why he had fought so recklessly. Why he had willingly exchanged injuries. Those attacks had never been suicidal. They had been calculated.

Every injury he accepted and every gamble that he took part in had been made because he knew he could recover from them.

Aksai slowly lowered his restored arm. He clenched his fist once. The fingers obeyed perfectly. No stiffness. No lingering pain.

Only a faint soreness remained, reminding him that his Innate Spirit Spell had accelerated the healing process rather than erased the cost completely.

He released a long breath.

"...Finally."

Only now did he allow his tense body to relax. This battle had pushed him further than any battle before. Even the clash against Arkaal had not forced him into such a miserable state.

His gaze then shifted toward Kalina. She was still alive even though only barely. Her eyes remained open, burning with unwillingness.

’Damn. She sure thought herself to be the main character, huh?’

Aksai suddenly remembered something.

’Wait! Main character? Luck factor!’

His expression became thoughtful.

"...This should be a good opportunity."

He slowly raised a finger before performing a peculiar Mudra. In the next moment, the skin above his eyebrows split apart. A vertical eye that looked real and ethereal at the same time quietly opened.

His Astral Third Eye. The mysterious eye rested directly above his Third-eye Chakra Gate. A faint glow spread from within it.

Kalina watched everything silently. She no longer possessed the strength to ask questions.

Aksai ignored her gaze. He focused entirely on his Third Eye to find something that he hoped Kalina would have. He needed to act fast before she died.

The Spirit farmer had already tested this ability once before. On Arkaal. Unfortunately, the results had disappointed him.

His Aether Clone had recently grasped a peculiar ability while studying the Fortune Telling Arts.

Although Aksai himself did not cultivate those arts, the Aether Clone shared his understanding. Anything the clone comprehended could, to a certain extent, be borrowed by the original body.

Aksai could use almost all the abilities and powers of his Aether Clone. The effects and energy expenditure efficiency varied but he could still use the clone’s abilities.

Combined with the Astral Third Eye that understanding had produced a completely new ability.

Fortune Flames Plundering.

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AN: Fortune Flames were first explained in Chapter 570.