Chapter 121: Chapter 121: Reverse Growth
In the quiet mountain, apart from the sound of the wind and Ji Chen’s heavy breathing, there was no other sound.
Ji Chen continued to penetrate deeper into the mountain. Initially, he would estimate how far he had walked.
But as time went on, with the life force within him continuously draining, by now, Ji Chen had long forgotten these calculations.
He didn’t know how far he had traveled, but what he did know was that it had been two days and nights since he entered the Immortal Burial Forest.
During these two days and nights, Ji Chen walked and stopped intermittently. If he was tired, he would rest for a moment under a big tree; if thirsty, he would drink some mountain spring water or dew.
It had only been two days, but in Ji Chen’s perception, it felt like months or even years had passed.
It was an extremely agonizing process, and the mountain was so quiet it was terrifying.
Now, Ji Chen could see varying degrees of changes happening to his body.
His arms’ skin appeared dead and dry, having lost all moisture, as if they had become pieces of dry wood; his whole body was emaciated, just skin and bones.
This was due to the massive loss of life force within him.
His head full of black hair had now turned completely white, and his face was lined with wrinkles, resembling an elderly man on the brink of death.
Yet, even in this state, Ji Chen had not given up.
He continued to press deeper into the mountain, though his pace had slowed significantly compared to the beginning, and his body trembled slightly, as if a gust of wind could knock him over.
"Huff..."
Ji Chen panted heavily. By now, his consciousness had become hazy.
Staring at the endless mountain forest ahead, his vision was blurred due to his rapid aging.
At this point, there was no turning back for him.
Even if he turned around now and walked out of the Immortal Burial Forest, the remaining lifespan he had would not be enough to support him.
"A hallucination..."
In this muddled state, Ji Chen trudged forward with difficulty.
Finally, after another two days, while trudging forward with his head down, he inadvertently looked up.
There, a majestic mountain came into view.
This mountain was extremely grand; its midpoint was enveloped in a mist of immortality, making it impossible to see the peak.
Initially, Ji Chen thought it was a hallucination caused by his blurred consciousness.
But as he moved forward, he eventually reached the foot of the mountain.
Standing before the grand mountain, Ji Chen realized that it was no hallucination; it was a real mountain, like a divine pillar holding up the sky and earth.
"Could this be the legendary Divine Mountain?"
He licked his dry lips, revealing a joy not seen in a long time.
The forest in the mountains was ancient and overgrown with weeds, with no paths for climbing.
But fortunately, the mountain wasn’t steep. Ji Chen picked up a dry branch from the ground to use as a cane to carve out a path for ascending the mountain.
"Huff..."
Panting heavily, although the mountain wasn’t steep, Ji Chen, in his current state, couldn’t help but gasp for breath after just tens of steps.
He climbed laboriously upward, and when his cane accidentally fell, rolling down the mountain, he was left to grab at ancient trees or weeds with bare hands to continue his climb.
The weeds in the mountain were dense and grew somewhat sharp, like scythes that cut Ji Chen’s palms open, yet no blood flowed out.
Because at this moment, he was nothing but skin and bones; his body’s moisture and blood seemed to have dried up long ago.
He felt extremely hungry and parched.
Because his Cultivation was sealed, Ji Chen couldn’t rely on ingesting Spiritual Qi to sustain his life.
Throughout his time entering the mountain, he had been relying on drinking mountain springs to quench his thirst and eating wild fruits to satiate his hunger, but it was never enough, and by now, he had almost reached his limit.
Yet, Ji Chen still didn’t give up; no longer able to stand, he could only continue climbing up the mountain in a crawling manner.
"Food..."
He didn’t know how long he had crawled until in front of him, amid a patch of weeds, he noticed a peculiar green plant.
This green plant seemed out of place amid everything else here.
Since entering the Immortal Burial Forest, everything he had seen was purple.
Now, amidst his sight appeared a tender green plant, which was evidently unusual.
But Ji Chen didn’t think much of it; the green plant bore some red berries, each about the size of a thumb, numbering over a dozen and looking quite luscious.
He swallowed saliva, and without hesitation, picked off these red berries, devouring them ravenously.
"Ugh..."
But just as the berries entered his mouth, after barely a few chews, Ji Chen couldn’t help but retch.
Because he realized that these seemingly delicious red berries were extremely bitter upon entry.
Yet Ji Chen knew that in his current state, he had to eat something to fill his stomach.
Enduring the bitter taste, he eventually forced himself to swallow down all the berries.
"Ugh!"
Another wave of nausea surged, rendering Ji Chen unable to suppress a fit of dry heaving.
After the berries entered his stomach, though the bitter taste was gone, a rotting stench kept wafting from within his stomach.
He could perceive that all the organs within him seemed corroded by some potent toxin, inside out, and in just a few heartbeats, this corrosive sensation spread throughout his entire body.
"Ah!"
An intense pain emerged, forcing a cry from Ji Chen, yet he no longer had the strength to writhe.
He could feel that his body, from within to outside, was rotting at an astonishing speed.
In just a handful of heartbeats, Ji Chen ultimately lost all consciousness and fell to the ground, motionless.
Within him, no life force trickled away, as if truly dead here, with a bloody fluid oozing all over his body, creating a terrifying appearance of death.
...
Time elapsed.
Everything in the mountain remained as always, unchanged.
Occasionally, rain fell.
In the blink of an eye, a month passed.
Within the Divine Mountain, Ji Chen’s corpse remained, astonishingly unchanged over the month – it retained the same appearance as before death, and the body hadn’t decayed.
Six months later.
One could notice slight differences in Ji Chen’s body.
Yet it was a state of reverse growth.
No longer a dried corpse, his muscles regenerated.
A year later.
Lying on the ground, Ji Chen finally opened his eyes slowly.
By now, he had already restored to his original appearance, and his hair, once turned white, had returned to its previous black hue.
The wrinkles on his face vanished, and the body that had become gaunt from the rapid loss of life force had completely recovered as though reborn.
He sat up, his eyes bewildered, looking around at everything like awakening from years of slumber.
"I’m not dead?!"
He quickly came to his senses, and beyond surprise, an uncontrollable joy appeared on his face.