The continuous spring rain silently nourished Qing Mao Mountain.
Night had fallen deep, and a cool breeze carried the fine rain.
Qing Mao Mountain was not dark; from the mountainside to the foot, many faint glows shimmered, like a brilliant belt of light.
These lights came from numerous stilt houses—not quite a myriad of twinkling lights, but still numbering in the thousands.
It was the Gu Yue mountain village, nestled on Qing Mao Mountain, adding a rich human presence to the vast, quiet mountains.
Even through its numerous trials and tribulations, it stood firm and tall with endless vitality.
Both the mountains and village were truly tranquil. However, disturbing this tranquility, the snoring of a certain man could be heard. He quickly got up as he heard the rumble of lightning.
Letting out a series of tsks, the man rose. His chest was bare, his body without a speck of hair, his upper garments completely nowhere in sight even in such weather. Most peculiarly, even in such dreadful weather, the man's upper body glistened with sweat.
Exhaling turbid air from his mouth with a frown, the man stood while picking up a bottle of fine liquor, showing off a compression sleeve-like adornment on his left arm.
Smiling in apparent satisfaction, the man sat down on the ground, legs crossed, before letting his right leg stretch out as he drank the fine liquor.
'That little devil in the making should be twenty-one to twenty-three by now, correct? Hah, the time flies. I remember when he was just fifteen, awakening his aperture. Caused me to be excited, then disappointed...'
Upon such thoughts, the man's smile didn't even falter as he took another swig of liquor. Yet his eyes stayed clear, without the slightest sign of getting drunk, even though in truth he hadn't eaten for three days and had drunk exclusively liquor.
'Gu Fang Yuan... oh, Fang Yuan, why couldn't you have been on your second life already? Then I could at least try and lead you toward destroying Destiny Gu—after, of course, letting Fate Gu be destroyed first.'
Uncaring about sitting upright any longer, Pu Shi Wu slumped onto the ground. Finally feeling a tingle, he quickly focused his mind onto his first brain instead of his second as he started healing the damage he had done to it.
His expression became neutral.
'I guess it could be considered a perk to be born with two brains instead of one, along with gaining a pseudo second soul. Though it's annoying most of the time outside of battle—as I have a constant clear mind on one end, focusing on nothing else but healing my body, or at least keeping it at peak condition. Or at least what can be considered peak for a thirty-year-old who looks like he's in his mid-forties.'
He took another swig.
'But at least I made myself able to survive what is coming. After all, I have Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus, Ivory Armor Gu, Sky Canopy Gu, Nine Leaf Vitality Grass Gu, Clear Mind Gu, and Phantom Gu—making myself a cockroach who can survive most mortal calamities.'
His gaze drifted to the distant lights of the village.
'Plus, even though I don't have A-rank talent, I have peak B-rank of 79.97%, and I have exactly double the primeval essence I should have due to my unique constitution.'
A bitter smile crossed his lips.
'Makes me wonder, though, how much I would be mocked by that side of the community for only being able to reach peak rank three after thirty years in this world. But what else can I do? I'm not some genius, even though, yes, I have more than one brain.
What does that matter when I only remember about seventy-six to eighty percent of the story at most, due to my body now instinctively using my second brain to—'
Pu Shi Wu's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of stumbling footsteps outside his dwelling.
His first brain remained focused on healing. His second brain instantly assessed the situation—someone was approaching, their gait uneven, their breathing labored.
The door burst open without ceremony.
A figure collapsed across the threshold, pale as snow, blood seeping through torn white robes. Long black hair was matted with sweat and grime, and those distinctive phoenix eyes—once sharp and cold—were now dimmed with pain.
Bai Ning Bing.
Pu Shi Wu didn't move from his slouched position, merely taking another swig of liquor as he observed the intruder with detached interest.
"Pu Shi Wu..." Bai Ning Bing's voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. Blood trickled from the corner of those lips. "You... you're the only one who wouldn't... immediately kill me or turn me away..."
The Northern Dark Ice Soul physique holder was dying. That much was obvious. The energy fluctuations around Bai Ning Bing's body were chaotic, violent—the telltale signs of a failed Gu refinement that had backfired catastrophically.
'Interesting. I didn't think they would come to me. Then again, I was the one who told them about Yin Yang Rotation Gu.'
He exhaled turbid air, his gaze lingering on the dying figure before him.
"You failed?" he asked simply, making no move to help or hinder, his voice steady and frivolous, the same as it had been his entire life.
Not acknowledging his words, Bai Ning Bing came into his abode, swiftly taking the fine liquor from him and gulping it down before spitting on the ground in disdain.
"As expected of you, drinking liquor hard enough to cause drunkenness in most Gu masters below rank five with ease."
Though the tone was arrogant, it seemed at ease at the same time, causing Pu Shi Wu's curiosity to be piqued in something other than healing his very much ill body, since he couldn't rely on his second brain currently.
"So why did you fail, Ning Bing? Yin Yang Rotation Gu would be very easy for someone like you to create. I even gave you pointers for it, so why?"
With a light smile, a frown, then a sigh, then a chuckle, Bai Ning Bing simply said, "Rank six Yin Yang Rotation Gu has already been refined by someone...."
Pu Shi Wu's eyes widened for a split second before he burst into laughter.
"Little Bai, don't tell me you weren't satisfied with a mortal Gu at your level, even when about to die, so you—"
However, his arm was swiftly twisted out of place, causing Pu Shi Wu to no longer speak, as he felt talking more was not the right thing to do—not because he was a coward afraid of death, no, he just couldn't think of an excuse for the moment.
"Pu Shi Wu, be honored. You get to drink next to someone who attempted immortality before they die." In a tone as if trying to be arrogant but not having the strength, Bai Ning Bing spoke.
Seeing them act in such a way only made Pu Shi Wu smile, not angry at their attitude, as he crushed the floorboard beneath him with a stomp, retrieving more fine liquor as he spoke in a dreamy tone, his second brain no longer burnt out.
"I remember when you were just this little brat, not the Frost Demon of Bliss. You used to try and kill me whenever you had the chance, always calling me the king of roaches and a coward. Do you still think the same, Little Ning Bing?"
Turning away from him, Bai Ning Bing said nothing in response but instead asked in a somewhat quivering voice, "Is it true what you said—that even if I wanted to survive, Heaven's Will wouldn't allow it and would use Fate Gu to... well, you know?"
Staying silent for a while, Pu Shi Wu merely pulled Bai Ning Bing closer and said, "Who knows? Legends are legends. Thinking about it too much will just hurt you in the long run and fill you with nihilism."
After saying so, he handed another bottle to Bai Ning Bing.
With a smile, Bai Ning Bing accepted, and they talked on and on about the past.
The two sat in silence, drinking under the sound of continuous spring rain. The faint lights of Gu Yue village flickered in the distance, thousands of people carrying on with their lives, unaware.
"Thank you," Bai Ning Bing whispered. "For letting me be delusional."
Pu Shi Wu said nothing. He simply sat beside the dying Bai Ning Bing, his first brain focused on healing, his second brain calculating survival odds.
Fifty percent. Maybe.
The explosion started at Bai Ning Bing's core.
A brilliant white light erupted from their body, followed immediately by an overwhelming wave of cold. The Northern Dark Ice Soul physique's power, unable to be contained by a dying mortal aperture, spread outward in a devastating ring of absolute zero.
Everything it touched froze instantly.
The wooden floor. The walls. The air itself.
The explosion expanded outward, consuming the stilt house, then the neighboring houses, then entire sections of the village. Thousands of people died in an instant, frozen solid before they could even scream.
Qing Mao Mountain itself groaned under the assault, the spring rain turning to ice mid-fall, creating a cascading crystalline structure that blanketed everything.
At the epicenter, Pu Shi Wu felt his body begin to freeze.
His first brain shut down immediately, unable to function in the extreme cold.
His second brain lasted three seconds longer.
'Well,' he thought distantly as the ice claimed him, 'at least Fang Yuan survived. The timeline can proceed. I just need to—'
His consciousness faded.
For the first time in his thirty years of life, both of Pu Shi Wu's brains stopped functioning simultaneously.
Three months later.
The continuous spring rain had returned to Qing Mao Mountain.
Where Gu Yue village once stood, there was now only a frozen wasteland. Massive ice formations jutted from the ground like crystalline tombstones, each one preserving the final moments of those who'd died.
At the center of it all, in what remained of a certain stilt house, something stirred.
Pu Shi Wu's eyes opened.
He was still frozen solid, encased in a tomb of ice. But his second brain had restarted, and with it, his healing function. Slowly, painstakingly, warmth began returning to his body.
It took seventeen hours for him to fully thaw.
When he finally stood, his legs trembling, he looked around at the devastation. Three clans. Thousands of people. All gone.
"Well, shit," he muttered, his voice hoarse. "I actually survived that."
He checked himself over. Both brains functional. All organs intact, though strained. His body looked even more aged now—he was thirty, but appeared to be nearing fifty.
Letting out a sigh, he plopped down onto the ground, wondering, "Should I try and visit more places before I die, or find a Gu to reverse some of this aging?"
And within moments, killing intent radiated from a certain direction.
'Hmm, I guess traveling around and dying from some random bullshit it is. I mean, given the fact I'm in Reverend Insanity, maybe that cheat I was supposed to get kicks in after I die properly.'