"Cough, cough, cough!"
Violent coughing jolted Chen Yan awake from his slumber.
The first thing he did upon waking was lick his parched lips.
So thirsty.
Then, Chen Yan began to observe his surroundings.
He was half-lying behind a large boulder.
Before him flowed a clear river, about ten feet wide, stretching into the distance.
Where is this?
Chen Yan questioned himself inwardly.
In the end, only one final obsession remained.
To die.
To let it all end.
The Black Flood Dragon Remnant Soul had granted Chen Yan this wish, and after that, he knew nothing more.
Chen Yan licked his lips again.
Then, propping himself up, he struggled to rise from the ground.
He began to feel astonished at his own body.
Compared to his previous self, his body was noticeably much thinner and frailer, with weak and shaky legs.
And he was incredibly thirsty.
How could he, a Peak Qi Sea Realm cultivator, feel thirsty so easily?
But there was no time to ponder this now.
Water.
He desperately wanted water.
Staggering, Chen Yan walked towards the clear river flowing before him.
He then crouched by the riverbank and drank like an animal, lapping up the water.
He drank until he began to feel a slight fullness in his stomach.
He lifted his head, panting heavily, and when he saw his own reflection in the river water, Chen Yan froze.
This face...
It was his own, but from a younger time, around fifteen years old.
Chen Yan could distinctly feel the vast true qi hidden within his body;
this was indeed his own Peak Qi Sea Realm cultivation.
Yet now, he couldn't mobilize even a single trace of the true qi within him.
Because the meridians in his body were completely sealed shut.
As if he had never cultivated at all.
He was now just a mortal. Chen Yan realized this immediately.
At the same time, he quickly thought of a solution.
He had to break through to the Qi Circulation Realm as soon as possible.
Once he reached the Qi Circulation Realm, he could use the vast true qi sealed within his body to shatter all the blockages in his meridians.
In an instant, he could restore his Peak Qi Sea Realm strength.
"A new cycle record point..."
Chen Yan muttered to himself, recalling a voice he seemed to have heard faintly before regaining consciousness.
Everything would start anew from this very moment, beginning again in the form of a mortal.
As for how to cultivate from zero to the Qi Circulation Realm, it was indeed a significant challenge for Chen Yan.
He truly had little talent for immortal cultivation. In his first life, it took him a full sixty-three years to go from the Body Forging Realm to the Qi Circulation Realm.
Even though starting over as a mortal to reach the Qi Circulation Realm would be much easier than his first life, it would still undoubtedly require a considerable amount of time.
So, where exactly was he now?
After drinking from the river and resting for about the time it takes half an incense stick to burn, Chen Yan felt his body had regained a bit more vitality compared to when he first woke up. However, this was immediately followed by an unbearable pang of hunger.
Is this what a mortal body is like...
Chen Yan couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
He needed to figure out where he was first, and then find something to eat.
Having made up his mind, Chen Yan began to walk, following the direction of the river's flow.
This was knowledge he had learned from a survival skills course back in his previous life's school.
Following the direction of a water source's flow often increased the chances of finding human settlements.
As Chen Yan expected, after walking along the river for about two or three li, he arrived at the edge of a cliff roughly a hundred feet high.
From the cliff's edge, he gazed into the distance. About less than five li from his position, there was a clearly visible road. Following its winding path, a sizable city appeared on the horizon.
The distance was probably around sixty li.
Just looking from afar, the style of its walls and buildings differed greatly from what Chen Yan remembered of the northwestern region of Chenping Continent where the Kongshan Sect was located.
Chen Yan didn't even know if he was still on Chenping Continent.
He'd try his luck in that city first.
Chen Yan thought to himself.
The clothes he wore now were not the typical robes of a cultivator, but a coarse cloth garment of very rough material.
Whenever he sweated even a little, the coarse cloth would stick to his skin, and the chill from the evaporating sweat made Chen Yan feel extremely uncomfortable.
Although the straight-line distance between Chen Yan and that road was less than five li, getting from his current cliff position to it was not easy.
Especially for a hungry fifteen-year-old body, it was quite a strain.
"Hah..."
Chen Yan stumbled along the road. The soles of his worn-out shoes were extremely thin;
with almost every step, the uneven gravel on the road surface painfully jabbed the soles of his feet.
His heart rate began to quicken, his breathing grew more rapid, his entire face turned pale, and he looked on the verge of collapse. Large beads of cold sweat streamed down his forehead.
Chen Yan knew exactly why he was like this.
Low blood sugar.
Need to rest a bit...
Thinking this, Chen Yan moved towards the roadside, intending to sit down for a while and recover some strength.
Suddenly, his foot caught on something, and then it was as if his entire body refused to obey him. He fell heavily onto the ground.
Motionless.
He didn't know how long he lay there. Just before losing consciousness, he seemed to hear the sound of horse hooves and the rumbling of wheels approaching from behind.
Then came the sound of footsteps drawing near.
A strong, powerful hand grabbed him and hauled him up from the ground, turning him over.
"How is he?"
"Still breathing, Steward Yin. What should we do?"
The voices reaching his ears belonged to an old man and a rough-sounding middle-aged man.
However, Chen Yan's eyelids felt incredibly heavy;
he couldn't open them no matter how hard he tried. Even if he could, he probably wouldn't be able to see anything right now.
"His clothes are tattered, but this little fellow doesn't look like a beggar or a child from a poor family."
The old man's voice spoke, then fell silent for a moment before continuing.
"Take him back to the city first. He might be the young master of some wealthy merchant family who was abducted."
"Yes, Steward Yin."
The rough middle-aged man's voice replied.
Immediately after, Chen Yan felt himself being hoisted onto someone's shoulder. Then, he completely lost consciousness.