Rebirth of a Quasi-Immortal Spirit

How long has it been since she last saw Gao Zhun's genuine smile? Not long ago, she thought she would never see her daughter again. Now, only half a year has passed, and her daughter has entered the Gao family's direct line in a way that many people cannot reach. Now, with such a small request, how could she not grant it? Almost without thinking, Madam Zhu nodded.

"Thank you, Mother." Gao Zhun smiled, his eyes crinkling, and reached out his right index finger to tease the baby girl's face. Unexpectedly, the baby girl's little hand grasped his. She was so small; his whole hand could only hold one of her fingers. Looking at the baby girl's face, her little face was tightly scrunched up, as if she had grasped something extraordinary.

"It seems this child likes you very much too." Looking at the baby girl, Madam Zhu felt as if time had rewound to Gao Zhun's childhood, when Zhun'er had also been holding onto her father's finger so tightly.

Before Gao Zhun could notice, Madam Zhu immediately suppressed her sorrow and chuckled, "How can such a lovely child not have a name? Zhun'er, you brought the child back, so why don't you choose the name?"

"Huh?" Gao Zhun was a little surprised and waved his hands repeatedly: "I'm not good at naming things at all. Wouldn't it be unfair to the child if we named him something like a cat or dog? Let Mother do it."

Upon hearing this, Madam Zhu felt that Gao Zhun's concerns were not without merit. Looking at the baby girl's delicate and rosy face, she had a flash of inspiration and suggested, "How about just the single character 'Ling' in her name, Gao Ling, and her nickname would be Little Ling'er? What do you think, Zhun'er?"

“Gao Ling, little Ling’er?” Gao Zhun pondered the name repeatedly and felt that Madam Zhu’s name was very fitting. The child was already lively and cute, so having the character “Ling” in the name was perfect.

"Then let's name her Gao Ling. What do you think, little Ling'er?" After deciding on the baby girl's name, Gao Zhun reluctantly handed her to Madam Zhu: "Mother, please take care of little Ling'er. Before the guide arrives, I have something I want to say to Ah Zhong alone."

"Then I won't disturb your serious discussion any longer." After taking Gao Ling, Madam Zhu gave Ah Zhong, who was standing quietly to the side, a meaningful look before slowly leaving and returning to her room.

“Master…” Ah Zhong lowered his eyes, knowing that Gao Zhun had too many questions about him. Now that he had left Yongcheng and Gao Zhun had achieved the Nascent Soul stage, it was time to say many things.

"Ah Zhong, I only have three questions for you, and I hope you will answer them truthfully." As soon as Madam Zhu left with Gao Ling, the smile on Gao Zhun's face was replaced by a serious expression. Just as Ah Zhong thought, she had too many questions that needed to be answered at this moment.

Ah Zhong nodded: "Ah Zhong will definitely speak frankly and without reservation."

Seeing that Ah Zhong was willing to be honest, Gao Zhun's expression softened. He tapped the coffee table beside him with his right index finger from time to time and asked, "First question, was your so-called former owner my father, Gao Zhilin?"

Although shocked by the accuracy of Gao Zhun's guess, Ah Zhong, who had already decided not to hide it anymore, nodded and admitted, "Yes."

After receiving Ah Zhong's affirmative answer, Gao Zhun nodded and continued, "Second question: Are you a member of the Yun family?"

"Yes." He nodded without hesitation.

Taking a deep breath, she realized that the answers to the two questions above had connected the guesses that had been swirling in her mind these past few days. Now, only one question remained unanswered.

"Who placed the spirit-locking seal on you?" This was Gao Zhun's last question.

Ah Zhong chuckled upon hearing this: "Master, Ah Zhong has to admire how well you asked these three questions, especially the last one. If Ah Zhong were to answer it, he would have no secrets left in front of you."

Gao Zhun merely raised an eyebrow at Ah Zhong's words, neither confirming nor denying. The Soul Locking Seal was the biggest mystery surrounding Ah Zhong, and also the last mystery she discovered. She was certain that the Soul Locking Seal had nothing to do with her father, Gao Zhilin. If Gao Zhilin knew the Soul Locking Seal, he wouldn't have left with regrets, leaving behind many clues for her to uncover the final answer.

"The Soul-Locking Seal was placed on me by the Yun family." Ah Zhong closed his eyes; it was a painful memory for him.

At that time, Ah Zhong was named Yun Zhong. He was a talented member of a collateral branch of the Yun family. When he was eighteen, his cultivation had reached the peak of the upper-grade Golden Core stage, only one step away from the Nascent Soul stage. However, on the eve of his breakthrough, an unexpected event occurred.

That day, he had just finished a three-day intermediate-level secret realm trial, laying the final foundation for breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage. Exhausted, he unusually chose to sleep. However, a group of people dressed in Yun family attire broke into his courtyard, where he was alone, in the middle of the night, their intentions clearly hostile.

When Yun Zhong woke up in the middle of the night, he found that his body was imprisoned and his cultivation, which was about to break through, had stalled. He did not understand why such a change would happen after he had just taken a nap.

Yun Zhong could vaguely hear people talking outside his house.

A man whose voice sounded like a middle-aged man said, "Eighteen years ago, when I found his mother on the verge of giving birth in the Advanced Trial Forest, I knew that this child would be a bastard who would defile the bloodline of our Yun family. I never expected that eighteen years later, I would find that he is still such a bastard!"

Bastard? Mongrel? Are they talking about him? Yun Zhong's eyes stung. His mother died in childbirth when he was born, and his father was nowhere to be found. The word "bastard" had been a constant companion throughout his life, but "mongrel"... these people were really going too far!

The other voice sounded much younger, probably around his age, but the venomous words made Yun Zhong's heart skip a beat.

"That's right, it's actually the bastard born from that slut's affair with the demon eighteen years ago. No wonder she didn't dare to give birth openly in the family, but instead ran to the Trial Forest. Our Yun family has been taken advantage of, helping that demon raise his son for eighteen years."

"Ha, isn't that right?!"

The keywords "demon race" and "illicit affair" struck Yun Zhong like a thunderbolt, unleashing a torrent of thoughts in his mind. How could this be? How could he possibly be a human-demon hybrid? There must be some mistake. He tried to explain, but found that his acupoints had been sealed, rendering him unable to speak.

However, even if he could speak, how could he explain? Those people spoke with such conviction, they must have already obtained evidence. He had never even seen his biological mother once, so how could he defend himself? Even if he uttered that weak explanation, he probably wouldn't be able to fool even himself.

He's actually a human-demon hybrid; no wonder people outside call him a bastard.

Yun Zhong gritted his teeth. So, his life was over. Although he didn't know what awaited him next, given the irreconcilable conflict between the human and demon races, he was bound to be rejected by the world.

At that moment, Yun Zhong could never have imagined that what awaited him was not death, but a dark, filthy, and disgusting prison life.

The Yun family was not authorized to handle the case of the human-demon hybrid privately. When Yun Zhong was discovered, the case was reported through multiple levels of government. After several transfers, it was finally handed over to an organization that specialized in dealing with human-demon hybrids by an elder of the Yun family who was in charge of this matter. Everything was done independently and in secrecy. Those at the lower levels who knew that Yun Zhong had been arrested thought that he had been secretly executed, while those at the higher levels did not even know who Yun Zhong was.

Yun Zhong thus vanished from the world. In a dark prison, a test subject codenamed 107815 was born. The thirty years he spent in this prison were perhaps the thirty years Yun Zhong least wanted to recall in his life. All the guards were cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage or above, each wearing the same mask—blue faces and fangs, extremely ugly, repulsive and terrifying. Contrary to this, these people seemed unconcerned about exposing their family's power. Over the thirty years, the guards in the prison changed again and again, and the clothing Yun Zhong saw encompassed almost all the major forces of the human race on the Immortal Spirit Continent. Clearly, the power of this mysterious organization was beyond Yun Zhong's imagination.

Thirty years of dark life, with fellow inmates only going in and not out, and their numbers growing ever larger. Strangely, these people did nothing to them, only guarding them to prevent them from escaping. It's unclear what the point was of numbering them and labeling them as experimental subjects.

Just when Yun Zhong felt hopeless about escaping and his will sank lower day by day, the demon army attacked, and their target was none other than their prison. After that, Yun Zhong's memory became fragmented, and he couldn't remember anything. However, he managed to escape in the chaos and finally met Gao Zhilin, who was traveling, just as he was about to die from exhaustion. This saved his life.

"Later, my former master, who was also your father, took me back to the Gao family. From then on, I lived in anonymity, adopting the surname Gao and calling myself the servant Ah Zhong. After that, my former master took me with him to Yongcheng. He carried half of the Yun family bloodline and later, by chance, awakened it on his own. Before being sent away by the laws of Yongcheng, he activated the power of a priest, which can only be activated three times in his lifetime. He foresaw that decades later he would have offspring, and that his offspring would also choose to step into the mysterious land of Yongcheng. So he made many arrangements, including leaving me there. After all, the laws of Yongcheng are only slightly lenient towards the Yun family bloodline that once bore the surname Yun. As long as one's cultivation does not break through to the Nascent Soul stage, one will not be rejected and driven away by the laws. As for why I left Yongcheng with you in the end, I suppose it is because Yongcheng's time is running out, and it can no longer tolerate even one outsider cultivator, including the Yun family."

At this point, Ah Zhong seemed to remember something and added, "Miss Yun and Miss Wuya specifically instructed me that there is something I must tell you when Master wakes up. I had forgotten about it before, but I just remembered it now. They asked me to tell you that Bai Wenxuan arrived in time and saved Weng Yewei, so you don't need to blame yourself too much."