The side effects of the splitting were, overall, still within Yu Sheng's tolerance.
If he had suddenly become deaf, mute, and blind all at once, he would probably have turned into a useless person, devastated. But since the problems were distributed among his three avatars, it somewhat eased the situation.
He was a cultivator, not an ordinary person. Losing one sense wouldn't kill him. Even if someone came to fight, he could likely rely on his cultivation level to protect himself.
Then, the three Yu Shengs suddenly realized that something seemed off.
At first, they just felt that the surroundings were unfamiliar. They wanted to leave and look for nearby towns or roads to inquire about the whereabouts of the protagonists.
Yu Sheng had always thought that someone of his level wouldn’t need to worry about getting lost. Wherever he wanted to go, he just needed to remember the general direction, and then fly straight there without a second thought.
Since he could travel a thousand miles in a day, why worry about getting lost?
But today, he had really gotten lost...
He couldn't even travel a thousand miles anymore.
He, Yu Sheng, and his three avatars had all experienced a sudden drop in cultivation!
To be precise, the cultivation levels of each of them had dropped to around thirty percent of their original level.
The Yu Sheng in the human world had a headache. He still had his whisk, but now, when he met the protagonists again, it would be troublesome. What if the three of them fought again? How could he mediate?
Cultivation and magic weren’t as simple as addition and subtraction. It wasn’t like three ordinary people could stand in for a genius strategist. Rather, it would be like one strategist sweeping through a crowd of ordinary people.
He once again called out to the system in his consciousness, hoping for some help.
This time, the system didn’t stay silent but instead sent a vague, distorted message, as if the signal was being interfered with.
System: ...Time and space... past...
Yu Sheng: What?
Too many words had become unclear, whether he listened or looked, it was hard to decipher. Yu Sheng spent a long time trying to make sense of it, before he could barely figure out the system’s meaning.
What the system meant was: The space-time disturbance at the Three Realms Cliff resonated with the side effects of the artifact, sending you to the past.
As for the past, it was naturally before the three protagonists fell off the cliff.
The Yu Sheng in the human world suddenly had a bright idea.
Well, this is great! Does this mean he could see his disciples when they were younger?!
Imagining things was always fun, but the next moment, Yu Sheng became worried again. If this was truly the past, he couldn’t act rashly. What if his unintended actions caused the protagonists to fall further into corruption? That would be troublesome.
The most important thing was that his face wasn’t suited for meeting the protagonists head-on. What if they remembered him? That would be even more troublesome.
If ordinary protagonists from novels were suddenly transported to the past, they would definitely try to change history, right?
Yu Sheng shook his head, thinking it was naive. He didn’t want to take that risk. It would be better to find a deep mountain forest to hide in, waiting until the future versions of himself finished splitting, and then appear, pretending nothing happened.
Hmm... after thinking it through, this seemed like the safest option.
Compared to that, even calling the system or searching for a way to return seemed like an insufficient plan.
He had patience. He could wait, he could guard, and he didn’t even mind using this time to train his three avatars, restoring their previous cultivation levels.
It seemed that due to the space-time glitch, the system repeatedly tried to reconnect with Yu Sheng but always failed. There was always some vague interference, so Yu Sheng simply blocked it, planning to wait until the system recovered fully.
Having made up his mind, the three Yu Shengs remained united. After notifying each other, they each began searching for a place to hide.
This was his specialty.
The Yu Sheng in the human world surveyed his surroundings. He chose a desolate and sparsely populated area to head toward while also inquiring about the current year.
Although the system had malfunctioned, the things in his consciousness were still intact. Referring to the original story about the protagonists, he could deduce when the story had started.
Yu Sheng then realized that he was at a time point that was way too early—directly before the story in the original novel had even begun.
This discovery relieved him. Since the story hadn’t started yet, it meant the three protagonists weren’t yet active in the Three Realms. They hadn’t faced setbacks or conspiracies, hadn’t leveled up or slapped faces. They didn’t have a presence yet. No presence meant a very low chance of running into them.
Even so, Yu Sheng still wanted another layer of protection. He decided to use an illusion technique to alter his appearance and minimize the risk.
Unfortunately, his cultivation had dropped significantly. Things that were easy for him before were now a bit troublesome. It wasn’t impossible, but it was hard to maintain for long without revealing any flaws.
He walked to a riverbank and looked at his reflection in the water. As expected, he looked the same as before, unlike the three protagonists, who had split and become uniquely handsome in their own ways.
The last bit of hope was shattered. Yu Sheng sighed. If it were a magic artifact, it would be easy to change his appearance. However, since he couldn’t use one, he had never collected one or bought one with points...
Helpless, Yu Sheng had no choice but to give up.
He wandered aimlessly for an unknown amount of time and soon encountered a new problem.
The regression of his cultivation and the drop in his realm led to a direct and terrifying consequence—not that his illusion techniques were hard to use, or that flying on a cloud had become difficult, but rather, he was hungry.
His stomach hurt from hunger. Yu Sheng puzzled over it for a long time before remembering that he was no longer a cultivator who had perfected the art of abstaining from food; instead, he was now an ordinary cultivator who would starve and die of thirst without proper nourishment.
However, he had already ventured deep into the mountains, far from any food sources.
Yu Sheng looked around and sighed inwardly. Fortunately, his avatar in the Ghost Realm didn’t need to eat or drink; as long as there was Ghost Realm’s Yin Qi to nourish him, he would be fine. As for the Spirit Realm avatar, there was no need to worry about food either.
There were no wild fruits, and he was too lazy to hunt, so he simply followed the fragrance of some wild flowers, identified the non-poisonous ones, and picked those that were about to bloom. He plucked them and drank the nectar directly.
It was sweet with a floral fragrance. Though it didn’t quite fill him up, it was quite enjoyable. It was now the warm spring and summer season, with flowers blooming everywhere across the mountains.
Yu Sheng continued picking flowers and drinking nectar all along the way. When he came across flowers that he recognized and could make into a snack, he would pluck a few tender petals and chew them down. Some tasted like lilies, others like leafy greens.
He ate happily, not thinking about the beauty of the flowers as his stomach growled. At one point, he encountered a bunch of edible red fruits but found them so sour that his face contorted. He had to eat ten or more flower nectar servings to recover and decided not to touch wild fruits again.
The first day passed like this. When night fell, Yu Sheng intended to take out a soft mat from his spatial ring and sleep in a cave, but he realized that the space could no longer be used.
Helpless, he had no choice but to find a tree with a natural fragrance that could drive away insects and was clean. He climbed up and sat cross-legged to meditate under the moonlight. He didn’t open his eyes again until the sun was about to rise.
In the early morning, with the mountain dew heavy in the air, Yu Sheng jumped down from the tree, feeling thirsty, and started collecting dew from the flowers and leaves to drink.
Though his cultivation had dropped, his mental state remained stable, and he didn’t find life that difficult. On the contrary, he felt quite content and found the situation rather fresh and new.
While drinking the dew, fog began to rise in the mountains, and it became hard to see far ahead. Yu Sheng paid it no mind. After all, he still had life-saving artifacts, and with his whisk in hand, ordinary flying beasts, poisonous insects, or snakes wouldn’t be able to harm him.
This place didn’t seem like one where anyone else would be.
But then, just as he was about to quench his thirst, an unexpected event occurred.
Yu Sheng, with his hair down, was walking barefoot in the woods. Thanks to his spiritual energy and the protection of his magical robe, he didn’t have a speck of dust on him, and his steps were light. It seemed like he was walking on the ground, but in reality, he was so light-footed that not even the fallen leaves beneath his feet crunched.
He noticed a good tree with clean dew on its petals. The branches were low enough that he could reach them with his hand, causing the flowers to bow and drop the dewdrops. Most of the droplets fell into his palm, which he had temporarily fashioned into a small dish using leaves. However, a few droplets were about to fall elsewhere. In a rush, Yu Sheng tilted his head back and quickly caught them in his mouth.
His pink tongue flicked out, catching and rolling the three droplets, and they entered his mouth, carrying the fragrance of the flowers. Yu Sheng licked his lips in satisfaction, a faint smile spreading across his face.
Then, he sensed a gaze.
He thought it was a mountain beast approaching and immediately became alert. He loosened his fingers, and the branch shot back up, making a "smack" sound as it hit the other branches above him, causing a brief rain of leaves to fall above his head.
He looked around and, when turning to see the source of the gaze, his nose was right under a droplet of morning dew. His almond eyes, bathed in the warm light of dawn, looked particularly bright and sparkling.
In the mist, not far away, there stood a person.
It was someone who should have had no presence, someone who hadn’t even appeared in the original story—Zhan Xiaotian.
Yu Sheng stood frozen in place.
He saw Zhan Xiaotian, who was only a few steps away, open his mouth and say something, but because of his deafness, Yu Sheng couldn’t hear what was being said.
What was even stranger was that this Zhan Xiaotian seemed exactly the same as the one he had found at the bottom of the cliff all those years ago—the same height, the same age, the same appearance, all unchanged.
But that had been decades ago…
Yu Sheng quickly remembered that Zhan Xiaotian was no ordinary person; he was the incarnation of a walking god, so it made sense for him to have a long lifespan.
Ah, he had even fantasized about how cute Xiaotian must have been when he was a child…
"No, wait... We met?!"
Only then did Yu Sheng realize, panic setting in as he instinctively took a step back.
Just as he feared, something had happened!
Zhan Xiaotian seemed to notice that Yu Sheng wasn’t responding, and appeared to say something again, his lips moving. Yu Sheng, unable to understand, gestured to his ears, then waved his hand, indicating that he couldn’t hear.
Since they had already met, running away wasn’t an option...
Just as Yu Sheng finished his gestures, he noticed an unusual beast behind Zhan Xiaotian, which was preparing to ambush them.
The main character’s death from his accidental crossing was nothing compared to the consequences of accidentally encountering his past self! Yu Sheng’s face turned pale with fright, and he rushed over.
Zhan Xiaotian was suddenly knocked to the side by Yu Sheng’s swift movement, and by the time he reacted, Yu Sheng had already used a few stones to strike the beast, driving it back. His movements were swift and decisive, executed flawlessly. However, Yu Sheng’s arm bore two scratches from the earlier action.
The beast seemed to carry some kind of spiritual energy, though Yu Sheng didn’t have time to consider whether it was a spirit beast or something else. After standing up, he reached out to help Zhan Xiaotian, only to notice that the latter had some minor scratches as well.
When Yu Sheng instinctively began to treat the wounds, Zhan Xiaotian suddenly stopped him.
Yu Sheng:?
Zhan Xiaotian shook his head, then quickly wiped the scratches with a handkerchief, showing that they had already healed. He said something else.
This time, Yu Sheng understood—Zhan Xiaotian was saying, “Don’t worry about me.”