Chapter 574 Memory Loss

"Says the guy who was dead…" I replied being awfully cautious.

"Dead? Don't go on cursing people like that, who are you?" asked the old man.

"I'm… Shen Mo," I replied.

"LIAR!" the old man, shouted his voice was loud enough that I was physically pushed to my knees, bleeding from my nose and mouth.

"Bloody hell!" I cursed back.

"Don't lie to me! You must be a spy! Yes! That damn bastard sent you! He must have. Of course, you're not going to get anything from me!" the old man said, his anger boiling up.

'Shit, he's strong, absurdly so.'

"No one sent me old man!" I replied as I stood back up.

"Old? I'm not old, why do you keep speaking nonsense, I'm barely a hundred years old!" he snorted.

'Huh? Did you take a look at yourself in the mirror? Even your clothes are rotting.'

"What is this?" the old man mumbled as he noticed the wrinkles on his hand, "Why do I look like this?" he said.

He then looked at me and said, "Did you do this to me?"

"I just got here," I replied as I was trying to figure out a way to leave this place, being with this deranged-looking guy was not a good idea.

"You dare think of leaving this one and running away!"

'You read fucking minds now?!'

"Wait… what's my name," he asked rhetorically.

"Who am I? Something isn't right," the old man seemed physically and mentally perturbed as he tried to remember his origin.

I could understand, that being asleep or comatose like him for a long period of time is bound to cause some mental issues.

Soon the old man began groaning, and then it turned to a full-on blown-out wail of agony and pain, with every howl he made trying to remember, the whole palace shuddered and shook.

"WHO AM I!" the old man shouted more and more, his voice gaining more sonorous octaves that the very fabric of space began tearing, me included.

"Calm down!" I shouted as my body began tearing up from his shouts.

My flesh and muscles were actually resonating with his shouts, causing internal damage.

"CALM THE FUCK DOWN OLD MAN YOU'RE KILLING ME!"

The old man soon quieted down.

He looked at me and said, "Junior brother,"

'huh?'

"What happened to you? Why do you look like that?" he said.

"…"

"You must be shocked, I remember you, you're the last brother to join our abode. Although we didn't get to meet more, I can still recognize you. All our brothers had died, only you remained junior brother.

"…"

"Master had a lot of praise for you, he told us that you were a once-in-a-million-year talent so you must practice harder, but here look at you, you've fallen below the Void Stage. How did that happen? Oh, I see you're injured," he said.

'That's because of you!'

"You must have been hurt badly, who was it? Did the Darkest Sun send his goons again? Does he not know that we're not bowing down to him?"

"What do you mean?"

"Junior brother, you can't go on in the world like this," he said as he tapped my shoulder, that simple tap almost ripped my shoulder apart.

"Hmm, my apologies, I tend to forget that your cultivation dropped, but even though your cultivation is weak, your body is still sturdy, and good, keep practicing. I need to handle the forces of the Darkest Sun, wait for me junior brother I'll be back soon!" he said and went out of the palace.

"COME AT ME YOU VILE FIENDS!" he called out. And instantly waves upon waves of those black shadows came at him.

The old man flexed his body and almost doubled in size as he charged forward.

He struck down and with each blow, hundreds of those shadows perished and dissipated. He swung again and again, killing them in droves not missing a beat as he swung his fists left and right.

"COME YOU VILE THINGS! I Protected the Heavenly Abode for all my life! Darkest Sun! you will not get what you want from us!"

The old man went on an extensive rampage, wreaking apart every creature he found, dismantling them as a child do to a castle of cards.

Nothing remained after the old man went through it and he continued doing so until every piece of those shadows turned to sludge that could do nothing but bubble on the ground.

The lucky ones ran away in utter terrorized fear. The rest fell down the ground to whimpering wailing sludge as they were slammed against the ground or torn across it, shredded and devastated.

And this was all physical prows, the old man didn't even use any spell or technique, it was all pure brutality.

An hour is all it took for him to turn the innumerable hoards of those black shadows to a pool of stagnant black substance that couldn't dare to move.

He came back inside and stood up next to me, both his hands on my shoulders, and said, "This is how we should treat them! The fiends of the Darkest Sun shouldn't be allowed to live! He oppressed our family for too long, we must fight back! Once we're back to the Beyond we'll be able to reclaim our prestige and honor!"

'…'

"What's going on Junior brother, you seem at a loss, do you think that our master had given up on us?" he asked.

"No, I'm confused about how are we going to go back to the beyond," I had to play along, because I had no idea if this deranged man was friend or foe, might as well not piss off or aggravate the crazy guy, especially if he's far fucking stronger than you are.

"I do, but we need to clean up this place first, the leader of these fiends, I've yet to capture him. Once I've done so our mission will be complete and we can then go back! I'll open up the path myself."

'he must be talking about the shadow that ran away.'

"Well that should be simple, I know where it went," I said.

"You do!" he replied his grip tightening harder on my shoulders to the point I felt them about to break.

"Ah I keep forgetting, you're too weak!" he said.

'What a joke, how am I too weak?! Well compared to this monster it must be true…'

"Here have this!" the old man said as he pulled up a pill bottle from his holding bag.

The pill bottle looked simple enough, and I didn't smell any scent from any pills coming from inside it, I deduced that since such a long time had passed whatever pill was inside that bottle must have already turned to ash.

Just as I opened the bottle something shot out of it. But the old man's hand was faster as he grabbed it in mid-air.

A whiff of the scent from whatever was in his hand passed by my nose, and almost instantly I felt my whole cultivation base roiling as if it was advancing.

And that was just its scent, he then showed me the pill and the little bugger was actually trying to escape from between his fingers. It wasn't glistening, shiny, or looked any more different than a small ball of dirt, but the energy within it was astonishingly high.

"Hmm, I guess a long time indeed had passed, it already gained sentience, good, good this should help you recover your cultivation base. You dropped all the way to the Emperor rank, but I fear if you consume this pill you'll blow up. Sit down, I'll help you digest this pill, this is what a senior brother should do!" he said.

I didn't have a choice as he forcefully sat me down.

"I think that pill is too strong for my body."

"Don't worry, if the energy is too much I'll help in expunging it. You just need to consume the energy… huh, what is this? Why are all your meridians destroyed? I didn't think that the damage to your meridians was this much, I see your Dantian is still functioning… what is this? Why do you have so much poison in you? No, you're basically poison at this rate…"

'he'll probably realize I'm not the junior brother he's thinking of, I need a way to run away…'

"No wonder master said you're a talent that is rare to come by. You recreated your own meridians, these look intricate… but I could deduce and understand how they function, your body consumes Qi, transforms it to Poison Qi, and then uses it to cultivate. You must need an absurd amount of cultivation materials to go up in cultivation rank… I see, no wonder even when you fell from the Void Stage, you were unable to climb back, because there aren't many cultivation resources here, but worry not, with this senior brother here, you shall lack nothing! Eat this pill!" he said.

"I can't, It'll destroy me," I said.

"You have nothing to worry about, I'll assist you in transforming it to Poison Qi, he said and pressed his palm on my back. A surge of bountiful and surprisingly gentle Qi rushed through my meridians, it felt far more optimal than my own personal method of Qi circulation.

"Ingest the Pill!" he said

Just as I did, I felt like I had opened my mouth to a floodgate. But the old man instantly used his qi to stop the flood from bursting me open.

"Follow my lead, this is how you can further optimize this path of cultivation, watch closely!"

and so I watched as an ancient cultivator began showing me how to use my own cultivation better than even I could...