Eternal Life: I Have the Favor System

Just as he was about to call out to the figure, his head tumbled to the ground.

Before the man in black, the three were utterly helpless.

The mighty officials from the Governor’s Office of the Demon Suppression Bureau were slain right then and there.

BOOM!

The man in black struck out with several more palm attacks, incinerating Lin Jiangkun and his two companions.

The commotion frightened many people nearby.

Screams erupted outside the Martial Arts Hall.

Countless people fled in a panic.

Guo Fang, Lin Yuanfu, and Guo Xiaotian, who were strolling down Wine Street, heard the commotion as well. The ripple of power that spread out was so immense it felt suffocating.

The three thought something had happened at home.

They rushed back immediately.

Having killed Lin Jiangkun and his men, the man in black stood in the Outer Courtyard and turned to look at Guo Wei.

Spear in hand, Guo Wei hurriedly bowed to him in salute.

The man in black returned the bow. Without a word, he shot out of the Martial Arts Hall and swiftly left Baiyang County. He knew Guo Wei would know what to do next.

The man in black sped onward.

Soon, he arrived at Cyan Cloud Mountain, at the stronghold Big Saber Hong had once founded.

The stronghold was now deserted.

It was overgrown with weeds, a picture of decay.

The man in black removed his mask.

He walked over to a well-tended grave on the mountain.

The tombstone bore three words: Big Saber Hong.

The man who removed his mask, revealing his true face, was none other than Yan Zhen.

Years ago, Yan Yusheng had been taken hostage by Big Saber Hong.

He was later freed through Guo Wei’s intervention. The matter should have ended there, but the proud and arrogant Yan Yusheng used his family’s connections to have Magistrate Li lead troops up the mountain to exterminate the bandits.

Big Saber Hong disbanded his stronghold and snuck into Magistrate Li’s home, slaughtering everyone inside. Afterward, he looked for an opportunity to take revenge on Yan Yusheng.

For his brother’s safety, Yan Zhen had his men establish the Big Saber Gang near Wine Street to lure Big Saber Hong back. The plan worked. Big Saber Hong fell for the trap and was slain by Yan Zhen, who had rushed over from Qiling Prefecture.

Before he died, Big Saber Hong, fearing the Yan Family would go after his former loyal followers, told Yan Zhen about a strange hillside he had discovered in his youth while traveling the world. This was his part of the bargain.

Yan Zhen respected him for his deep sense of loyalty and honor, so he didn’t think much of the strange hillside. Instead, he had a grave built for Big Saber Hong on Cyan Cloud Mountain.

It wasn’t until he became a Martial Champion Scholar and joined the Demon Suppression Bureau that he recalled Big Saber Hong’s words while he was out hunting for demons.

That strange hillside was located within Qiling Prefecture, near Fishing Town.

When Yan Zhen arrived, he immediately sensed an unusual aura.

The first time he approached, he was enveloped by countless vines.

He managed to break free and was about to report the vines to his superiors when the Blood Wolf Cave incident happened. Hu Yanlin told him and Qin Yu everything he had witnessed there.

When Hu Yanlin spoke of the power of the experts from Yuanchu Mountain, both their eyes lit up with desire.

Unable to contain himself, Qin Yu led some men back to Blood Wolf Cave to investigate. By a stroke of luck, he found the heart inside. With Chu Lingguang’s help, he fused with it. His power broke through to the Qi Refining realm, and he became a Wolf Demon.

And that led to everything that followed.

The three of them had formed an alliance.

When a Wolf Demon suddenly appeared and helped Chu Lingguang destroy the Turkic Headquarters, Yan Zhen immediately suspected Qin Yu. His suspicions grew as Qin Yu had been acting strangely, always cutting their conversations short and leaving in a hurry.

Growing more suspicious, he began to investigate cautiously.

He hadn’t expected to receive news so soon of Chu Lingguang’s demotion to the West Warehouse. What’s more, he saw his own superior leading men to Baiyang County in search of Guo Wei.

Yuanchu Mountain forbids the presence of any demon Within the Great Yuan Territory.

To eradicate the demon, they went so far as to have the Court demote Chu Lingguang to the West Warehouse. They forced his two thousand soldiers to lay down their arms and return to their fields, stripping them of their military status and pay.

This was tantamount to forcing Chu Lingguang to reveal the Wolf Demon’s identity.

The three officials from the Governor’s Office must have gone to Baiyang County to make Guo Wei order Chu Lingguang to reveal the Wolf Demon’s identity.

Yan Zhen knew the characters of Chu Lingguang and his master well.

So he set out ahead of them.

He had intended to ensure Lin Jiangkun and his men found nothing.

While passing through South City and near Fishing Town, he once again thought of the strange hillside.

They say demons are devoid of humanity. Once someone becomes a demon, they will bring disaster to the world and plunge all living things into misery. This was the motto of the Demon Suppression Bureau.

Everyone who joined the Demon Suppression Bureau took it as their sworn duty to eradicate demons.

But Yuanchu Mountain’s actions made Yan Zhen’s faith waver. ’What in the world are these demons,’ he thought, ’that Yuanchu Mountain would become so obsessed with eradicating a single one at the Qi Refining realm?’

They were willing to sacrifice Chu Lingguang’s future and stir the resentment of ten thousand troops.

And the Court had simply complied. No one spoke up for Chu Lingguang. Even his own master had told him to stay out of it.

Yan Zhen seethed with indignation.

He remembered how Chu Lingguang had turned back for him during the final round of the Martial Arts Examination.

’I have to know,’ he thought. ’What kind of demon could frighten even the experts of Yuanchu Mountain?’

And so, he allowed the vines on the strange hillside to drag him inside. There, within the hill, he saw another heart—brand new and dripping with blood.

But this heart was different from the one Qin Yu had fused with.

It didn’t carry the aura of a Wolf Demon.

When the vines tried to pierce his body, Yan Zhen resisted with all his might. He even considered uprooting the vines entirely and taking the heart back to his superiors, hoping it would divert Yuanchu Mountain’s attention.

However, getting in had been easy; getting out was another matter entirely.

Trapped within the hill, he was forced to fuse with the vines.

But upon successful fusion, he didn’t become a Wolf Demon like Qin Yu.

He held out his hand and watched as his palm grew transparent. His flesh and blood became a clear, flowing stream until finally, Yan Zhen’s physical body vanished, replaced by a form made of water.

With a shake of his head, however, he returned to his original form.

’Lose my humanity and become a demon?’

’Will I become a demon?’

Yan Zhen muttered.

Two tendrils extended from his palm, sprouted a few leaves, and then retracted back into his body.

Ever since the fusion, Yan Zhen had gained the ability to easily perceive the Awakened Power in others. He could even make his own power seep into another’s body like water, leaving a tendril behind to help them awaken their own power.

’The greatest virtue is like water.’

’Water benefits all things and does not contend.’

’Could the strange entity I fused with be related to water?’

’But what about these vines?’

Yan Zhen was filled with questions.

As a member of the Demon Suppression Bureau, everything he had ever read about demons was negative. In fact, vine-type demons were classified as the most powerful and bizarre of all.

They were to be eradicated on sight, no matter the cost.

And yet, these same vines could manifest different kinds of power.

The power of the vines that fused with Qin Yu carried the essence of a Wolf Demon, turning him into a Half-human, Half-demon. But the vines he fused with carried the essence of water.

He had even been able to use this watery essence to help Guo Wei awaken his power.

When he appeared behind Guo Wei, he could even hear the blood flowing through Guo Wei’s veins. The sound felt strangely familiar. He sensed several blockages impeding the flow, and he felt an irresistible urge to clear them.

He never imagined that by clearing those blockages, he would indirectly help Guo Wei awaken his latent powers.

’Master, if I helped you awaken all your powers and truly reach the Qi Refining realm, would you stand with me?’ Yan Zhen thought to himself.

Guo Wei’s unyielding defiance, even in the face of death, was just like Chu Lingguang’s. Their master-disciple bond moved Yan Zhen. It made him wonder: if the Court discovered he had fused with a bizarre entity, would his own master, Wei Yongguang, protect him as staunchly as Guo Wei protected his disciple?

Yet even so, he lacked the courage to reveal his fusion to anyone.

At Wolf Valley Pass, he had once told Chu Lingguang that they must never, under any circumstances, fuse with one of these entities—that they both had to enter Yuanchu Mountain to train. Yet, when faced with that terrifying power, he, like Qin Yu, had compromised.

Both he and Qin Yu were prodigies.

But they were also just ordinary men.

Faced with the temptation of immense power, their desperate desire to grow stronger left them powerless to resist—unless, of course, the power offered wasn’t great enough to begin with.

WHOOSH!

Yan Zhen didn’t linger on Cyan Cloud Mountain. He had only come to pay his respects to Big Saber Hong. If not for the bandit’s dying words, he might never have come upon this strange destiny.

The future was full of uncertainty.

It could be an immense opportunity, or it could be a path to endless peril. He, Qin Yu, and Chu Lingguang had once dreamed of Yuanchu Mountain, determined to train there, but now they were drifting further and further away from that dream.