Darkness.
Not the darkness of sleep. Something deeper.
Part of Pu Shi Wu's consciousness—the seventy percent of his first brain that had been destroyed—drifted in an impossible space.
'Am I... dead?'
The thought formed slowly. Without his full brain, thinking felt wrong. Sluggish.
Then awareness returned.
He could "see" now—not with eyes, but with soul perception.
Two roads stretched before him, diverging from a single point. One led downward into deeper darkness. The other led upward toward distant light.
Between them stood a door.
The Door of Life and Death.
'I've read about this.' The memory surfaced. 'In Reverend Insanity. The Legends of Ren Zu. Where souls go after death.'
[From The Legends of Ren Zu]
His fragmented memory recalled the passage:
"Self Gu laughed: 'All living beings in this world will die, this is because Fate Gu entered the door of life and death, and left a trace behind when searching for Fairness Gu. Oh human, you can enter the door of life and death, and walk on the road of life and death, as long as you do not walk on the traces of fate, you will step on a road that belongs to you solely.'"
"The road of life was filled with Suffering Gu while the road of death had three obstacles: Dang Hun Mountain, Luo Po Valley and Reverse Flow River."
[His Current State]
His partial soul drifted closer, pulled toward the Road of Death—pure darkness with flickering lights like yellow fireflies.
'If I go down that road, I'll reach the end. Reach Fairness Gu. Reach rest. No more pain. No more fighting just to survive another day.'
For thirty years, he'd lived in the Gu world. Thirty years of constant pain, constant degradation.
'Maybe it would be better to just... let go.'
The Road of Death called to him.
But something held him back.
'Wait.'
His consciousness hesitated.
'Do I actually want to die?'
The question hung in the void.
He thought about the fight. How he'd severed his own tendons. Burned parts of his brain. Mutilated himself repeatedly just to survive a few more seconds.
'Why did I do that? If I wanted to die, I could have just let him kill me cleanly.'
Memories from Reverend Insanity surfaced—fragments he'd read obsessively:
Fang Yuan's words: "I would rather let the world down, than be let down by the world."
'Five hundred years of being betrayed, used, discarded. And he chose to live anyway. Chose to fight anyway. Chose to pursue eternal life even when the odds were impossible.'
Another quote crystallized: "Benefits are eternal."
'He didn't live because life was pleasant. He lived because living meant he could still pursue benefits. Still pursue his goals. Still act according to his will.'
More memories flooded in:
"Man is the spirit of all living beings, Gu are the essence of heaven and earth."
"Without emotions, only benefits exist."
His consciousness flickered, thoughts becoming clearer.
'Have I been living? Really living? Or just surviving?'
He thought about Ren Zu from the legends—another memory surfacing:
"Ren Zu did not have a body as strong as mountain rock, nor did he have the sharp teeth and claws of a wild beast. How could he fight with the Predicaments? His source of food was unstable and he had to hide all day. He was at the bottom of nature's food chain, and could barely survive."
'But Ren Zu survived. Not because he was strongest. Because he refused to give up. He found Hope Gu. Gave his youth, his middle years, his old age—all to keep living. Keep fighting.'
The realization hit slowly, like dawn breaking:
'I don't actually want to die. I've been depressed, worn down, tired—but underneath all that, I still want to live. Not just survive. Live.'
His consciousness pulled away from the Road of Death.
'What benefit is there in dying? None. Death is the end of all benefits. The end of all possibilities. The end of choice.'
The thought solidified: 'I want to live. Really live. Find out what I can become. Stop drinking to numb pain and start using it as fuel.'
'I'm going back.'
The Door of Life and Death pulsed.
Then—a presence.
Fairness Gu's attention turned toward him.
"Interesting. A soul bearing two foundations. Part of you thinks it's dead. Part of you knows it's alive."
Pu Shi Wu's consciousness trembled but held firm.
"You choose to return."
'Yes.'
"Then return."
The presence withdrew.
His consciousness snapped backward—
Time had passed.
How much? Unclear.
Pu Shi Wu's body lay on frozen ground, blood pooled beneath him. The rank five cultivator sat thirty feet away, breathing heavily, his body visibly aged—no longer appearing in his prime, but elderly, frail.
'The killer move,' Pu Shi Wu's second brain processed, still maintaining emergency healing. 'He used something that made him fully mortal again. Rank five, but mortal. No immortal foundation. That's why he's recovering instead of finishing me immediately.'
His first brain had been working overtime during this period. The seventy percent that was destroyed—the part that had drifted to the Door of Life and Death—was still gone. But the remaining thirty percent had healed the physical damage, sealed the wounds, stabilized the organ functions.
Both brains were operational again. Diminished. Unbalanced. But functional.
Deep within his aperture, something stirred.
Hope Gu.
Pu Shi Wu hadn't consciously activated it. Hadn't even thought about it.
But the Gu responded anyway.
[The Nature of Hope Gu]
From what he remembered of the legends: "But when Ren Zu gave it his heart, this Gu suddenly gave out endless light. In this light, the Predicaments screamed in horror: 'This is the Hope Gu, withdraw! We Predicaments are most afraid of hope!'"
Hope Gu didn't respond to commands. It responded to genuine emotion. To genuine will.
And Pu Shi Wu, for the first time in thirty years, genuinely wanted to live.
His aperture pulsed.
The Gu emerged—not physically, but its effect spread through his dying body like warm light suppressing Predicaments.
His body began changing.
Age reversed. Not completely. Not back to childhood. But thirty years looking fifty became... twenty-two. Twenty-two looking twenty-five.
The transformation cost him instantly—half his remaining lifespan burned away. From maybe fifty years to twenty-five. The price Hope Gu demanded.
His muscles filled out. His skin tightened. His organs strengthened. The broken body, worn down by three decades of constant damage and healing, rejuvenated to its prime—to the age before the degradation had become catastrophic.
His destroyed brain tissue didn't regenerate. Seventy percent was still gone. But the remaining thirty percent integrated better with his second brain, compensated more efficiently, adapted to the new configuration.
The rank five cultivator's head snapped up, sensing the primeval essence fluctuation.
"What—"
Pu Shi Wu's eye opened.
One eye. The right was still gone, destroyed with the brain tissue.
But his left eye was clear. Sharp. Focused.
He stood slowly, body responding properly for the first time in years. No constant pain. No grinding degradation. Just functional strength.
The cultivator stared, his aged face showing shock. "Your body... you reversed aging? What Gu is that?"
Pu Shi Wu said nothing. His hand moved instinctively, checking his aperture.
His Gu were still there: Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus, Ivory Armor Gu, Sky Canopy Gu, Nine Leaf Vitality Grass Gu, Clear Mind Gu, Phantom Gu.
And Hope Gu, now dormant again after its activation.
The cultivator struggled to his feet, his mortal rank five body clearly exhausted. "Doesn't matter. You're still rank three. I'm still rank five. The gap remains."
Pu Shi Wu exhaled turbid air. His voice, when it came, was steady
''Between life's door and death's cold gate I stood, Two roads diverging—darkness, distant light. My shattered brain thought death would bring me good, But stubborn heart refused to yield the fight.
Frozen wasteland where three clans met their end, My flesh destroyed, my organs torn apart. Yet Hope Gu rose when I refused to bend— Youth purchased dear with half my mortal heart.
Like Ren Zu facing Predicaments alone, Like cockroach king who will not cease to crawl, Through every life, through flesh, through blood, through bone, This moment's clarity—I'll recall.
I do not seek to win, but to persist. Death's door I've seen—yet still, I choose to exist.''
Pu Shi Wu opened his eye, looking at the aged rank five cultivator.
''Thank you, senior.
Without your fist that shattered brain and bone, I would not have found the door between life and death.
Without facing true extinction, I would not have learned what living means.
This lesson—I will remember it through all my lives.''
"Thank you, senior. Without your fist that shattered brain and bone, I would not have found the door between life and death. Without facing true extinction, I would not have learned what living means. This lesson—I will remember it through all my lives."
The cultivator's eyes narrowed in confusion. "What—"
Pu Shi Wu moved.
Not the jerking, unpredictable movements of his damaged body. Not the desperate flailing of severed tendons and burnt brain matter.
This was different.
His rejuvenated body—twenty-two years old, at its physical peak—moved with fluid precision. Both brains working in perfect tandem despite the missing seventy percent. Clear Mind Gu already active, perception sharpened to maximum clarity.
The cultivator was exhausted. His killer move had rendered him fully mortal rank five—no immortal foundation, no enhanced recovery. His aged body was slow to respond, muscles stiff from the transformation.
Pu Shi Wu closed the distance in three steps.
The cultivator tried to raise his arms defensively, blood essence flickering weakly around his fists.
Too slow.
Pu Shi Wu's hand—not enhanced by Gu, just the natural capability of a young body pushed to its limits—drove forward in a spear-hand strike.
Target: throat.
The strike connected cleanly.
His fingers crushed through the cultivator's windpipe, bypassing the weak blood essence defense. Cartilage collapsed. The trachea ruptured completely.
The cultivator's eyes went wide, hands clutching at his destroyed throat. Blood poured between his fingers.
He tried to speak. Tried to activate a Gu. Tried to do anything.
But his primeval essence was depleted. His body was mortal and aged. His throat was crushed.
He dropped to his knees, drowning in his own blood.
Pu Shi Wu watched impassively as the light faded from the man's eyes. Watched as the former rank six immortal, reduced to mortal rank five, died on frozen ground from a simple strike to the throat.
No grand technique. No Gu battle. Just targeting a vulnerable point when the enemy was too exhausted to defend properly.
The body hit the ground with a dull thud.
Pu Shi Wu stood there, breathing slowly, his rejuvenated body barely winded.
'But really fuck you for nearly killing me 82 times but also thank you.'
He knelt down, checking the corpse's aperture. Empty—the killer move must have destroyed most of his Gu when forcing him back to mortal rank five.
But the body itself remained valuable. A former immortal's flesh, even reduced to mortal, still held properties worth harvesting.
'Later. First, I need to stabilize. My brain is still seventy percent destroyed. My lifespan is halved. I'm rank three in a body that looks twenty-two but has maybe twenty-five years left to live.'
He looked at the frozen wasteland around him—the remains of three clans, thousands of corpses preserved in ice, and now one more body added to the count.
Pu Shi Wu exhaled turbid air, watching his breath mist in the cold air.
'I chose to live. Now I need to figure out what to do with this life.'
He turned and began walking away from the carnage, leaving the rank five cultivator's corpse behind.
The continuous spring rain had returned to Qing Mao Mountain.
And the King of Roaches walked on.