Chapter 215: Samsara, Once More!
Chapter 215: Samsara, Once More!
“Argh! It hurts!”
A boy of fifteen or sixteen gripped his head, seeming to have endured enormous pain. As he groaned, his eyes fluttered open.
“Young Master! Young Master… Madam! Madam… The Young Master, the Young Master has woken up!”
The moment the boy showed any sign of movement, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl by his side immediately cried out. She simultaneously raced out of the room.
While groaning in pain, the boy began observing the room he currently occupied.
The furnishings inside were simple but exceptionally refined. A bed roughly ten feet long and seven feet wide occupied only a small section of the room. Gold thread embroidered the crimson bed curtains, depicting incredibly lifelike flowers, birds, mountains, and water—clearly the handiwork of a wealthy family.
In the very center of the room stood a large, dark wood table and several chairs, which the boy was now continuously touching. A jade incense burner rested on the table. Waves of delicate fragrance wafted from it, and upon smelling it, one’s spirits couldn’t help but lift.
Across from the window, the other side of the room held a bookshelf and a study desk.
Dense piles of books filled the bookshelf. However, upon seeing those books, the boy’s face, already contorted in pain, suddenly twitched. He seemed to realize something was wrong, his expression instantly darkening.
“Wrong, wrong, this place…”
Realizing his disorientation, the boy seemed lost in strenuous recollection. But just then, rapid footsteps echoed from outside.
“Biao’er! Biao’er!”
A somewhat urgent male voice carried into the room. Immediately afterward, a middle-aged man urgently pushed open the door and entered. Seeing the dazed boy already sitting up, the gloom instantly vanished from the man’s face, replaced by immense joy. “Hahaha… Hahaha… The Heavens have not abandoned my Tang Family! The Heavens have not abandoned my Tang Family…”
“This…”
Seeing the middle-aged man, the boy involuntarily started in shock, an expression of utter awe crossing his face. He found himself completely speechless. Yes, that expression was precisely awe.
The middle-aged man’s appearance was far too handsome and imposing, giving an almost unreal impression. The boy struggled to find words to describe him; if forced, he could only be described as an unparalleled beauty surpassing mortals.
Who the hell is your ‘Biao’er’? I’m Tang Jinbiao, Brother Biao the Great Demon King! Huh? Brother Biao the Great Demon King? The boy cursed silently in his heart. He didn’t dare voice it—his current, frail body probably couldn’t withstand a single punch from the man. Yet, the moment he cursed, he felt confused. Why had he instinctively named himself Tang Jinbiao?
“Hmm?”
The middle-aged man had a square face, sharp eyebrows, and an overwhelmingly imposing presence. If not for the deep scar near the corner of his eye, he would have been utterly handsome. But even with the scar, his looks weren’t diminished; it only added a fierce intensity. However, the man seemed to have perceived the boy’s inner turmoil, his brow slightly furrowing.
“Master, Master…”
After the man entered, the girl who had run out earlier to deliver the news followed him back in.
“Haha, Biao’er, are you alright? Don’t worry! Those scoundrels who troubled you—I’ve already drawn out their souls and Sealed them! You can torment them whenever you like! I can even refine them into puppets with a single word from you!” Seeing his son awake, the middle-aged man cast aside other concerns and burst into hearty laughter.
Nothing was more exhilarating to him at that moment than his son still being alive. The boy, however, wore only an utterly baffled expression, sitting there stupidly as if he comprehended nothing.
“What? Is Biao’er still not satisfied? Very well! Your father promises you: once you’ve recovered, I shall take you to the Eastern Sea to capture a Level Six Sea Dragon to be your mount! When that time comes…” Seeing the boy’s expression remained utterly blank, a sinking feeling hit the man’s heart, Has my Biao’er lost his wits?
Wrong, wrong, where is this place? Why does my head feel so chaotic?
The boy was beginning to emerge slightly from his initial daze, his expression turning strange. He paid no regard to the middle-aged man, clutching his head with both hands, looking very distressed.
Despite the pain, he managed to glance at the girl standing behind the man. The girl wore no makeup, yet her delicate features held a clear, pleasing charm. Her figure was slender and well-proportioned. While not a breathtaking beauty capable of toppling kingdoms, she had a distinct radiance that caught one’s eye.
Faced with such a maiden, he felt no stirring in his heart. Instead, the pounding headache in his skull grew only more unbearable.
“Agh, ooh, agh! My head! My head hurts so badly!”
The youth clutched his head, groaning incessantly.
“Eh? Mister? Filming a movie?”
Hearing this, the middle-aged man frowned and muttered. But seeming to recall something, he then smiled and said, “Heh, it seems Biao’er hasn’t fully recovered yet. Fine, Father won’t disturb you any longer. Let Little Lv take care of you. When you’ve recovered, I’ll visit you again. Little Lv, take good care of Biao’er. Should anything go wrong, you will be held accountable…”
The middle-aged man’s expression instantly turned severe, almost threateningly. The young girl shuddered but didn’t protest. Submissively, she answered, “Little Lv understands. There’s no need for the Master’s reminder.”
“Good. Biao’er is entrusted to you. I must attend to a batch of elixirs awaiting refinement. There are already pressures from above—if I fail to complete them this month, trouble will follow. Keep these jade vials. Use them to aid Biao’er’s recovery.”
The man took out several jade vials and tossed them to the girl. Without another word, he departed immediately. After his abrupt exit, the girl stood frozen in place, visible fear lingering on her face.
Clearly, though their conversation centered on Tang Jinbiao, neither genuinely registered his presence.
“Agh, it hurts! What’s happening? Why are there so many chaotic memories flooding my mind?”
The youth felt thoroughly confused, overwhelmed by fragmented recollections, and groaned in agony.
“Young Master… have you truly lost your wits?”
Ignoring his suffering, the maid named Little Lv hesitantly posed the question in a faint voice.
“Hurt… hurts… What’s this? What in the world is happening? Somebody tell me!”
Yet the youth only groaned about his tormenting headache.
“Spare me, Young Master! Spare me! Little Lv dares not disobey!”
Without any hostile action from him, the girl flinched as if frightened, dropping to her knees and begging for mercy. Inside, though, she cursed bitterly, “Truly, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Turn face faster than flipping pages!”
“Hurts! It really hurts!”
Unable to endure, the youth buried his head into the quilt and groaned loudly.
“Tang Xiaohu? Young Master, no such person exists in the Tang Family. Could the Young Master be mistaken?”
In the blink of an eye, Little Lv resumed speaking as if nothing were amiss.
To an outsider, this jarring exchange would have seemed ominous, their words utterly disconnected.
The youth was wracked with suffering while the girl responded mechanically to each utterance as if pre-programmed.
“Brother!”
Moments later, a clear, childish voice called from outside the window.
“Hurts… so much…”
The youth only pressed the quilt tighter against his head, groaning weakly.
“Hmph, worthless trash! The Tang Family has no need for rubbish like you!”
Just then, another voice spoke midair outside the window.
Suspended there on a flying sword stood a young man. They seemed near in age—perhaps a year or two older at most.
The youth stood disdainfully aloft, peering downward through cold eyes. Yet what truly shocked the afflicted boy wasn’t the sword-flight itself, but the intensely glaring sun suspended high in the sky behind the figure.
“Hmph, trash!”
The flying youth frowned, betraying brief confusion, yet promptly dismissed the matter. With a cold snort, he executed the art of Sword Flight and vanished.
“Brother, I’m going out to play now!”
After that young man had left, a voice sounded again from outside the window.
“Young Master, Young Master, are you alright?”
Little Lv’s eyes held confusion, but she still asked.
“Ah, ah, it hurts, it hurts!”
The youth was entirely unaware of all that had happened outside.
A moment later, Little Lv sat quietly on the chair with a gentle expression, looking tenderly at the empty space beside her as if someone were there.
…
She sat like this for five hours. The sky had gradually darkened…
…
In the distant sky, the moon slowly rose, hanging in the air!
“Young Master, it’s time to eat!”
Little Lv, who had set the meal on the table unnoticed, said with a smile.
As for the youth, he had long since passed out from the pain without any movement.
After calling out, Little Lv simply continued gazing softly at the empty place, quietly watching from the side.
Approximately a quarter of an hour later.
“It seems the Young Master suffered quite a blow this time… cough!”
Little Lv finally moved. She turned towards the bed, sighed with a trace of pity in her expression, then walked over mechanically. Acting purely out of instinct, she adjusted the quilt and began tidying the room.
“Huh? Young Master, what’s wrong?”
However, as soon as Little Lv turned back, she seemed to sense a hostile gaze fixed on her back. Instantly spinning around, her eyes wide with panic, heart skipping a beat, she timidly inquired.
Clearly there was nothing there, yet fear filled Little Lv’s eyes.
“Young Master, you…”
Little Lv’s body gave a slight tremble. She backed away slowly, fearfully, towards the door.
“Young Master… Ah…”
Sob sob!
A short while later, Little Lv, her clothes disheveled and weeping uncontrollably, burst out of the room.
…
In a house about a hundred meters away, a beautiful woman in her early thirties and a middle-aged man were talking. The man was the very one Wang Feng had seen during the day.
“Tang Ge (Brother Tang), it seems Biao’er suffered a severe setback this time? Not only did his Spiritual Root vanish, but his Foundation Building Cultivation dissipated entirely. He will likely find cultivation impossible for the rest of his life. Worse still, his temperament has become so… so… cough!”
The woman spoke to the man beside her but couldn’t help sighing repeatedly. It seemed she had witnessed everything that occurred in Wang Feng’s room.
“Wanyu, do you still think he is our Biao’er?”
A trace of doubt appeared in the middle-aged man’s eyes as he asked, also seeming regretful.
“Tang Ge, you felt it too?”
The woman’s face also showed confusion as she asked uncertainly.
The man shook his head somewhat helplessly. “Mm, it feels as though Biao’er has entirely changed. If it weren’t for the soul aura still being Biao’er’s, I might even suspect he’d been subjected to Soul Possession.”
A profound, almost unfathomable weariness surfaced in the woman’s eyes as she sighed. “Alright, perhaps you’re worrying too much about Biao’er. The fact that he survived this calamity is, for us, immensely fortunate. Though he’s not our flesh and blood, we… we truly haven’t cared for him all these years.”
She continued, her voice thick with sorrow. “If this problem hadn’t arisen, we might never have realized it. We pursue the Heavenly Dao, seeking immortality, yet when the one closest to us faced disaster, we were utterly powerless…”
“Perhaps we were mistaken all along… cough!”
“Haha, perhaps…” the middle-aged man replied with a similarly helpless smile.
If the youth could have been awake to see all this clearly, he might have gone mad completely.
Because everything here felt cursed.
No matter what he said, they responded the same way.
No matter what he did, they always acted the same.
His existence seemed utterly irrelevant to this world.
Horrifying. Terrifying. This was true terror!
Life felt like a grotesque monologue, and all the seemingly essential parts had dissolved into it.