Chapter 262: I Say, You Do

“Have you ever reached the Nascent Soul Stage?”
“Yes, right before dying the first time. I reached Nascent Soul Stage the first time.”
“How did you die?”
“Chose the wrong place. Two Soul Formation Stage cultivators were fighting and I got caught in the crossfire. I had just broken through and hadn’t stabilized my foundation, so I died in the aftershock. If I choose another place next time, I should be able to successfully break through to Nascent Soul Stage.”
Just like last time, when Yu Feng arrived in town, he was starving and collapsed onto the ground.
The kind old granny appeared again, helped Yu Feng up and offered him a bun.
Yu Feng refused, and a greedy little beggar eagerly volunteered, saying he wanted the bun. The old granny beamed with joy.
The black cat was drawn by the smell of meat. Yu Feng took the chance to grab it by the scruff and walked into town.
“That old hag isn’t a good person. She’s not running a bun shop—she’s running a human meat shop. The bun filling is human flesh!”
Thinking of this, Yu Feng’s face turned grim. He would never forget that death.
Just one bite of the bun, and he passed out. When he woke again, his clothes were stripped, hands and feet bound, thrown on the chopping block.
There was another person beside him, someone who had arrived just before him.
Like slaughtering a pig, the old granny slit that person’s throat first, steaming blood pouring into a wooden bucket below, then scalded him with boiling water, sliced him open from the stomach…
Yu Feng watched in despair as the person was chopped into eight pieces. The old granny, still wearing that kindly smile, walked toward him with a knife…
Since then, Yu Feng never ate food offered by others.
“I came here penniless. First thing I need is money,” Yu Feng explained while holding the black cat.
“This black cat belongs to a noble lady. It often goes missing, so she offers a large reward. Whoever finds the cat gets paid generously.”
That cat reward was Yu Feng’s first source of funds.
Yu Feng pointed to an alleyway and said, “This town looks peaceful on the surface, but it hides deadly dangers. In this alley, there’s a gang of human traffickers. Never go near. Especially someone like me, wearing rags—I easily catch their attention. If I get close, someone will jump out, cover my mouth and nose, and gut me for organs.”
Yu Feng had died several times because of this.
Previously, after cultivating to the Nascent Soul Stage, he had blurred memories of the early events. When he passed that alley, he only remembered too late that it was off-limits.
To get his first source of money, Yu Feng had already faced two death tribulations: the old granny and the traffickers.
Returning the black cat to the noble lady, Yu Feng received his start-up funds: ten taels of silver.
“Come in. You’re dressed so poorly, I’ll have a servant bring you a change of clothes,” said the noble lady, her tone carrying a hint of command.
Yu Feng firmly refused.
He knew the noble lady was kind, but her servant was petty. If he entered the mansion, he would be resented, schemed against, and eventually die outside, corpse left in the wild.
The noble lady, seeing Yu Feng ungrateful, let out a cold snort and turned back home.
Yu Feng didn’t leave immediately. Instead, he found another black cat near the noble lady’s home, grabbed it, and walked away.
After walking some distance, he cursed and threw the cat aside: “D*mn cat, wrong one. Got my hopes up for nothing.”
The people watching from the shadows dispersed.
“Someone saw me take a black cat to the noble lady’s house and wanted to rob me. I’ve been robbed several times.”
“They don’t dare spy too close to her house, so they didn’t witness the transaction. I pretended I found the wrong cat and didn’t get paid, to make them lose interest.”
“Now I can cultivate.” Yu Feng said, like a puppet, avoiding over ten death tribulations, and finally became a First-Level Qi Refining cultivator.
Jiang Li, who had been watching all along, suddenly asked: “Do you want to save your parents?”
Yu Feng didn’t respond.
“Do you want to cultivate?”
Yu Feng didn’t respond.
“Do you have a goal?”
Yu Feng still didn’t respond.
“You—”
“Stop talking! Are these questions fun for you!” Yu Feng, expressionless, suddenly roared, “Of course I want to save them! But their deaths are set in stone. I’ve tried hundreds of times and failed every time! How am I supposed to save them?”
“I’m only fourteen, chronically malnourished—how am I supposed to fight off hundreds of bandits?”
“And cultivation? If it weren’t to survive, who would want to cultivate this crap!”
“If I don’t cultivate, I face even more death tribulations! Once I reach Foundation Establishment, the dangers only come from those stronger than that. At Golden Core, only threats above that realm.”
“If I don’t cultivate, danger is everywhere! Cultivation is the only way to reduce how often I die!”
“I used to dream of cultivation, but now I just want to live.”
“Why do I have to face so many death tribulations? Why?”
“Is staying alive really this hard? Huh!”
Yu Feng broke down crying, smashing his head into a tree—bang, bang, bang.
A hundred-pound fruit on the tree was knocked loose, falling and striking Yu Feng’s head.
Yu Feng was killed.
As the scene reversed around him, Jiang Li let out a soft sigh. Poor kid.
Commander Mu may be unlucky, but he at least escapes death every time. Yu Feng, on the other hand, dies every single time.
Yu Feng’s experiences proved that even one wrong step would lead to a violent death.
He was the unluckiest person Jiang Li had ever seen.
Just like in the Zombie World, Jiang Li couldn’t directly affect the Tongu World.
Jiang Li had once asked Ji Zhi about time reversal and received an almost incomprehensible theory.
Ji Zhi used Luo Ying’s experience as an example. Rewinding ten years on the river of time meant the water from ten years ago was still there, so was the water ten years later, but the ten-year stretch vanished, exposing the riverbed.
As time moved forward, that section of the river would reappear from nothing. Once the gap was filled and connected with the future, time would return to normal.
During the disappearance of that stretch of river, people from other worlds couldn’t interfere in this one.
This theory didn’t align with common understanding or physical laws. Jiang Li struggled for a long time before he barely grasped it.
If the goal was just completing the system task, whether or not he could influence Tongu World didn’t matter much. Jiang Li could’ve ignored Yu Feng and waited in the Nine Provinces.
As long as Yu Feng cultivated step by step, he would eventually reach the Nascent Soul Stage.
But Jiang Li wanted more than just to complete the task.
Watching someone see their parents die with no reaction, remaining expressionless from beginning to end, like a walking corpse.
Yu Feng was already on the verge of collapse.
Repeated deaths had completely stripped him of any desire to live. Rebirth had become a series of tortures.
Jiang Li wanted to give the boy a hand.
…
Sunlight streamed through the paper window, landing on the boy’s face. His eyelids twitched, and he struggled for a long time before opening his eyes.
“Who are you people? What do you want?”
“Get out. Outsiders aren’t welcome here!”
Still the same dialogue, so familiar it made Yu Feng sick.
“Willing to make a few changes?” Jiang Li asked beside him.
Yu Feng nodded instinctively, though he didn’t know what to do.
“I say, you do.”