842 Undying

"The third stage of the Undying God Physique lets you heal your body from any sort of damage, so long as your nascent soul is still alive. The more developed your soul, the faster you will heal."

The transparent Undying god continued. Alex had died nearly 70 times now.

He knew. He kept count.

Somehow, even through all the pain, all the deaths, he was able to keep a sane mind. Was it because he had gone through so much pain already in his life that this wasn't anything new? Or was it because that counting his deaths was the only thing he could do to keep himself sane?

At this point, Alex didn't even care as he counted the deaths he suffered.

75, 76, …81, …86, …95.

As the deaths went on more and more, Alex no longer had trouble counting his deaths. In fact, he was starting to assess what the illusory soul outside had spoken about all this time.

That wasn't to say that he wasn't spooked by all the deaths. The trauma he just suffered was something he wouldn't forget for a long time, but it didn't affect him as much at the moment as he was actively ignoring his experience of dying.

At some point, the Undying God said something about the fourth stage of the Undying God physique as well. Alex listened to it with a calm mind, but waves of shock reeled in his mind when he heard it.

100.

Alex counted his hundredth death and waited for the lava to consume him again, but it didn't. Instead, the lava simply pooled around him, its heat affecting him, but not daring to touch him.

He stood up straighter and looked around. Only then did he see the nearly transparent, illusory figure of the Undying god.

"If you can understand what I'm saying, pour your Qi onto the medallion," the demon said.

Alex felt drops of water on his head that immediately vaporized from the heat of the lava around him.

He looked up and saw that the night was cloudy. The walls of the ceilings of the mountain had caved in and everything above him was empty as even the lava was slowly flowing out of the hallway down the mountainside.

He saw the dark sky with snow drifting across it as a blizzard moved throughout the secret realm.

Snow fell through the open gap in the sky, and some of them even managed to fall onto him.

As the lava moved away more or cooled down and solidified around him, the snow fell more and more, which caused the lava to cool down even faster.

Alex ignored the happenings of his surroundings and moved away a little to show the medallion that had somehow survived the lava.

He poured Qi into it as per the spirit's order and suddenly the spirit grew brighter and brighter until he was nearly opaque.

"Now that you have been through so many deaths, I hope you have cultivated a will that can withstand what you will go through next."

The illusory body placed his hands on top of Alex and said, "This is the inheritance passed down throughout time. Inherit this and become the Undying God."

As soon as he said it, a massive amount of information poured into his brain, and Alex immediately started cultivating the new technique he had acquired.

Even as he started cultivating it, his body started splitting apart on its own, and healing once again.

The Undying God's physique cultivation almost became automatic as the massive amount of information he gathered slowly invaded his mind and started settling down as if they were his own memories.

Even as Alex tried to fight them, he soon found himself lost to those very memories.

* * * *

Alex saw the massive moon in the sky and the eternal cold that was all around him.

He was freezing to death in a cold night in a forest. That didn't mean anything, however, as it was always cold around here, and it was always night.

The young man, despite having a strong body felt the coldness grow so much that he felt like his horns would fall off.

The sturdy plants that had learned to live in the cold and eternal night did nothing to shelter him, and the harsh wind blew on him even this deep in the forest.

The dying young man was Alex, and Alex was the dying young man.

Alex found that he, the young man, did not possess any cultivation at all. Was that true? Did he not have any cultivation?

He thought he cultivated. Was that just a dream he saw before dying?

The young man wanted to find something to eat, to get some energy so he could stand up and walk away. But, he was already freezing to death, and there was nothing he could do about it.

He tried to fight it of course. He tried to fight death. His mother was back home, waiting for him to bring something, anything back to eat. If he didn't, she would die of hunger, just like he was right now.

He tried to move, even when his body was frostbitten and had no way of moving.

Even until his last breath, he kept fighting.

As his eyes closed for what was the final rest of his eyelids, a large glowing light illuminated the forest.

The three distinct lights made him feel warm again, but of course, the warmth was just an illusion.

Still, that gave him the will the fight again. He opened his eyes and stopped them from closing again.

But of course, with all of his body lost to frostbite, the young man had no chance of survival.

Then, he saw something. A foot slowly stepping on the snow, not sinking even the slightest bit as if the person didn't weigh even the tiniest bit.

His eyes slowly moved up as he saw a woman in a bright white dress stare at him with a curious eye. The young man couldn't tell if the dress was shining on its own, or if it was reflecting the light from the moon.

Alex saw her face and realized that she was a demon herself, with her skin-colored horns and pale silver eyes. He wondered if there was anyone in this world that was more beautiful than her. He certainly had yet to see someone this beautiful himself.

"Are you okay, my child?" the woman's voice sounded as sweet as the ringing of many bells in harmony.

The young man couldn't speak at all. His lungs were frozen by now and even breathing was hard. The young man was surviving because of his sheer will.

The woman kneeled in front of him and touched his forehead with a single finger. Suddenly, all of the death aurae around him moved away from him and he could feel life flowing back to him in its absence.

He wasn't healed at all, but he did have enough energy to speak.

"I… I don't want to die," the young man said with what little energy he had now.

"I see," the woman said, her voice still the sound of singing bells. "Then you shall not die."

Qi flowed into Alex and he was forcefully made to channel it in a specific pattern. The woman made him channel the Qi for a few times before he himself was able to continue with it.

Alex felt his body break and fit itself in many parts. The frostbitten parts healed, and the parts that were frozen, thawed.

Then, as if a miracle, he acquired a cultivation base. The young man stood up to thank the woman, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Since he didn't see the woman, he turned toward the moon and thanked the moon for sending someone to his aid.

Alex returned back to his mother with the food that he brought from the forest. He then started cultivating and slowly got strong enough to move his mother out of this place to one near a volcano.

He slowly grew as well. He fought many opponents and every time they hurt him, he healed his wounds. Every cut closed up on its own and even limbs grew back when he was cut off.

In fact, later on when he was destroyed completely with nothing but a nascent soul remaining, he still managed to grow back his body.

The people around him gave him a name. They called him the Undying.