After being reborn, the villain comes with a spoiler tag.

To verify this question, Long Yucheng asked the system a few questions, and the results left him speechless—the system's answers were still nonsensical and even somewhat illogical.

This completely confirmed Long Yucheng's suspicions: the system's intelligence was indeed low, and it wasn't just pretending to be stupid.

However, this low-intelligence system was programmed with its underlying logic from the very beginning: to help the host ascend to immortality. Once the host ascends, the Heavenly Path Assistant's mission is complete.

In fact, it was Tiandao Assistant who told Long Yucheng this.

Given the system's usual near-idiotic behavior, Long Yucheng was inclined to believe the truth of this statement.

Long Yucheng also casually asked what the Heavenly Dao Assistant's number meant. Was its number the number of hosts who had successfully ascended with the help of the Heavenly Dao Assistant? Or was there another Heavenly Dao Assistant like it?

The system only answers this question:

[This serial number was assigned to the Heavenly Path Assistant upon its manufacture. You are the first host of the Heavenly Path Assistant.]

Long Yucheng was already used to the system's irrelevant answers. Whether the system didn't understand his question or was just pretending to be stupid, Long Yucheng was more inclined to believe the former.

So he changed the question:

[Where will the system go after the host ascends to immortality?]

The system answered instantly:

This issue is not covered in the built-in help manual of Tiandao Assistant.

Long Yucheng eventually gave up asking further questions.

He decided to adopt a "do what you can, and ignore the troublesome ones" approach to the system and the tasks it issued.

Ultimately, he still couldn't ignore the good stuff in the system's shop.

Although his desire to ascend is no longer as strong, his determination to become stronger has not diminished at all; on the contrary, it is stronger than ever before.

Therefore, he can skip system tasks, but he will never give up the system store.

Not to mention the "Record of Spiritual Objects" which seems to have a full-map cheat, the Supreme Ascension Life-Protecting Talisman alone is enough to make Long Yucheng miss the system shop.

He had inquired about the value of the talisman from his senior brother, and the answer he received was:

"The legendary talisman is priceless."

The look his senior brother gave him as he answered made Long Yucheng break out in a cold sweat. He was terrified that his senior brother's next question would be, "Where did you get this talisman?"

Fortunately, his senior brother didn't ask anything in the end, otherwise Long Yucheng really wouldn't know how to explain it.

Getting back to the main point, after thoroughly exploring all the white dots marked on the "Record of Spirits of Izumo Province," Long Yucheng decided to do some tasks to earn points.

Now his system account has accumulated seven thousand points, which is undoubtedly a huge sum of money compared to when he first entered the path of cultivation.

However, as his cultivation level improved, the prices of newly unlocked items in the system shop also rose sharply, and these seven thousand points were not even enough to buy a copy of the Spirit Item Record.

Although he could ask the Heavenly Dao Assistant for credit, just like when he bought "The Record of Spiritual Objects of Izumo," and pay later, with less than two years left until the opening of the Ancient Immortal Realm, Long Yucheng decided to temporarily restrain his spending impulse and accumulate more points for any unforeseen needs during his trip to the Ancient Immortal Realm.

Without hesitation, Long Yucheng immediately flipped through the task list. Over the past year, the system had refreshed his task list considerably. Before long, Long Yucheng had selected the two most cost-effective tasks from the pile:

[Important Task: Get to know Shen Xinyue. Task Reward: 10,000 points.]

[Important Task: Get to know Snow White. Task Reward: 10,000 points.]

Both of these acquaintance tasks have important follow-up tasks, but Long Yucheng has already decided not to fall for the system's tricks and will run away as soon as he gets the 20,000 points.

Even if the system tries to lure him into participating in some event, as long as he is not tempted by the reward, can the system possess his body and do the task itself?

After quickly finalizing the next steps, Long Yucheng put away the items that hadn't caught Huo Yu's eye and said to Huo Yu with great interest:

“Senior brother, it seems there are no more auras of rare and precious treasures around here. Why don’t we go to the Chu Kingdom next? I’m getting tired of dealing with those demonic cultivators who use magic weapons at the drop of a hat in this Chuyun Kingdom every day.”

Huo Yu glanced at him, but didn't ask any further questions, only nodding:

"what ever."

As expected, his senior brother did not express any doubt about his sudden idea!

Long Yucheng felt a sense of relief and immediately took out an object shaped like a miniature wooden carving from his storage bag. With a thought, it transformed into a carriage.

This carriage can carry several people. It is entirely white, carved with intricate cloud patterns, and has bells hanging from its four corners that jingle softly in the wind.

"Senior brother, you've always been the one to guide me, so let me do the work this time."

After taking out the car, Long Yucheng looked at Huo Yu with anticipation.

"Although this vehicle is far slower than yours, senior brother, please don't look down on it because of my good intentions."

Huo Yu did not refuse and stepped onto the carriage with a light leap.

Seeing this, Long Yucheng grinned, then leaped onto the carriage shaft, pulled on the reins, and shouted:

"drive!"

In an instant, three illusory figures resembling white deer appeared out of thin air in front of the chariot.

These three white deer were pure white and flawless, with four antlers on their heads, all as clear as crystal. However, the tails growing from their hindquarters were not deer tails, but snake tails that were longer than their bodies and covered with fine blue scales.

Guided by these three illusory figures, the chariot instantly transformed into a white streak of light, piercing the sky and disappearing into the horizon.

This flying artifact was obtained by Long Yucheng several months ago in a secluded cave. Its speed far exceeds that of Long Yucheng's sword flight.

However, it is still much slower than Huo Yu now, because in this year, Huo Yu has completely repaired the "injury" that does not exist in his soul, and his strength has recovered to the original mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm of this body.

However, for some reason, Huo Yu always felt that his soul had not fully integrated with this body. Occasionally, a fleeting sense of unease would quietly emerge, as if his soul had not fully adapted to the body.

The feeling is subtle, like an over-worn coat that fits well but is never quite right in some places.

Huo Yu had examined his soul many times, but he could not find anything unusual. This was exactly the same as when he was reborn—although the feeling of weakness from his soul was strong and real, everything seemed normal.

He could only attribute this strange sense of incongruity to his rebirth: perhaps his soul underwent some changes during the rebirth process; perhaps it was because he had come into contact with the Gate of Heaven in his previous life that his soul underwent some subtle changes.

Another possibility lingered in Huo Yu's mind: perhaps his current soul was still at the Mahayana stage of his previous life, but his physical cultivation could not keep up with his soul, which was why he appeared to be at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul stage.

This also explains why there is an indescribable, subtle barrier between his soul and body.

Thinking of this, Huo Yu frowned slightly. If that were the case, then his current situation was somewhat dangerous.

—Or rather, he was extremely dangerous to those around him.

Less than twelve years until the next Bingwu year, which coincides with the Nine Purple Fire Luck and Mars guarding the Heart, is the time when the Fire Virtue is at its most prosperous.

Huo Yu slowly lowered his eyelashes, a shadow passing over his eyes.

It was at this very moment in his previous life that Bai Xue broke into his secluded cultivation area, was burned to ashes by the flames, broke the oath he had made, and left an irreparable crack on his Dao intent.