After what seemed like an eternity, Zu An was awoken by distant sounds of birds chirping.

The blades of grass around him, the flowers, the trees… he began to notice them all, one after another. The grass was still the same grass, and the trees were still the same trees, yet everything somehow seemed a little different.

He didn’t know exactly how they were different, but it seemed as if he could sense the life force and ki within them. He’d had the same reaction when he first became a cultivator as well.

He slowly looked around him. His gaze fell upon an old, sinister and creepy-looking corpse. It was Old Mi!

Zu An shivered in fear. He immediately leapt off the ground. He had jumped instinctively, yet he instantly soared more than a dozen feet into the air. It took him a while before he finally landed again.

He was stupefied, and looked at his own hands in disbelief. He quickly gathered his racing thoughts.

His final memory was the one in which he had used up all of his trump cards, yet was still no match for Old Mi. He’d been captured, the shining purple sunflower finger was pressed against his forehead, and then he blacked out.

Zu An grew alarmed. I’m done for! Did Old Mi succeed in possess me already?

Even though he still had his own consciousness, he was surely about to vanish soon.

He couldn’t help but think of that movie from his previous world, ‘Alien’. The aliens in that movie laid their parasites within a human body, but the infected humans would still look perfectly fine on the outside. Only when the parasites matured would they suddenly burst out from within the body of their hosts.

He felt just like a human incubator.

“You’ve finally woken up,” a lazy voice said by his ear.

Zu An was immediately overjoyed. “Big sis empress! Shouldn’t I be the one saying that? You finally woke up!”

Mi Li’s projection gradually appeared by his side. Her fiery red lips, paired with her red phoenix eyes, made her look just as classy and stunning as before.

Mi Li snorted. “I was already awake a long time ago. You were the one who was sleeping like a pig.”

“Why didn’t you help me if you’d already woken up? I was screaming my head off calling for you!” Zu An felt resentment rise within him immediately as he recalled his previous despair.

“Forget it, let’s not talk about this right now. I really need your help! I was possessed by a damned pervert, and his consciousness is probably still hiding inside me. He might take over any second now,” Zu An said in a panic. Afraid that she wouldn’t treat this as a big deal, he hurriedly added, “You and I signed a life-and-death pact! If I really get possessed and die, you’ll be a goner as well!”

Mi Li rolled her eyes. “Relax. That Old Mi or whatever failed in his attempt at possession.”

“Failed?” Zu An wasn’t even close to being done with what he wanted to say, but he immediately stiffened when he heard her words. It took him a long while to gather his wits again. “What do you mean, ‘failed’?”

“Are you dumb? Failure is failure—what else can it mean?” Mi Li said in annoyance.

Zu An was in disbelief. “Then where is Old Mi’s soul?”

“Extinguished, obviously,” said Mi Li. “Strictly speaking, however, you actually absorbed a large portion of his soul, just not his consciousness.”

Zu An was stunned. “Did big sis empress help me get rid of him?”

This was the only plausible explanation.

“Nope.” Mi Li shook her head. “That Mi guy is a eunuch who was probably castrated at a young age. As such, he never experienced much of what it’s like to be a man at all. After occupying your body, his soul suffered a powerful backlash from your yang energy, and it eventually burned away to nothing.”

Zu An was bewildered.

“It was that simple?”

Mi Li snorted. “You’re the only one who would think that it's simple. Possession techniques have always been dangerous. They only work when you find a vessel that is suitable in every way. If my suspicions are correct, he chose you as his vessel firstly because of your status as the Chu clan’s young master, and secondly, because of your previous seal down there. That way, your body would be rather similar to his own castrated self. There was hope in removing your seal as well, so he could have truly become a complete man further down the line after he unsealed himself.

“You were, by all accounts, the perfect vessel. Unfortunately, there was no way he could have deduced that you would undo the seal on your own ahead of time. That was why his cold yin soul was set ablaze by your fiery yang body. The possession failed, resulting in his death.”

Her explanation helped Zu An finally understand the entire sequence of events. He was shocked and overjoyed. “I didn’t expect that being a real man would have such a benefit! Haha! Thank you big sis empress! Not only did you grant me the chance to become a man again, you’ve even indirectly saved my life…”

Mi Li blushed from his blabbering. Scenes from her possession of Chu Chuyan, and everything that happened afterwards, continuously flooded her mind.

Zu An came to a sudden realization. “Big sis empress, you should’ve told me this earlier. You don’t know just how much fear and despair I was in!”

“Why did I have to tell you about this?” Mi Li scoffed. “I already knew that Old Mi’s possession wouldn’t work. I just didn’t feel like helping out.

“I’ve warned you before not to depend on me too much. It won’t be beneficial for your own growth,” Mi Li said with a serious expression. “This was a rare opportunity for you to temper yourself. Only then can you grow stronger in the future.”

Zu An was stunned. He was just about to grumble and complain about her lack of help, but he now understood that she had done this for his sake. He was incredibly moved. “Thank you big sis empress. You’re so good to me!”

Mi Li turned her head away when she heard the sincerity in his voice. “You don't have to thank me. I didn’t do it for you. I just don’t want to be dragged down with you.”

Zu An chuckled. “Regardless, I’m still going to thank you. By the way, I discovered something strange when I woke up. The ki inside of me is so powerful! I managed to jump to such a height with a random hop. There’s a strange feeling inside me, almost as though I’m far stronger than I was before. What the heck is going on?”

Mi Li said, “In order to possess you, Old Mi poured all of his cultivation into you. Of course you’d feel the way you do.”

“Something like that could actually happen?” Zu An’s eyes went round. What cultivation did Old Mi have? He was a ninth-ranked big shot at the very least, wasn’t he?!

Didn’t this mean that he’d already reached the very peak of his life? Couldn’t he do whatever he wished and go wherever he wanted now?

“Don’t get so worked up. It’s not as easy as you think.” Mi Li dumped cold water on his excitement. “You have two paths in front of you. The first is to completely inherit Old Mi’s cultivation and become a master level expert. However, walking this path will leave you completely reliant on Old Mi’s dao. There is too great of a cultivation gap between the two of you, so jumping straight to master rank will destroy your own fundamental dao. Your cultivation will be frozen at his level forever, and you won’t be able to make any further progress.

“The other path requires me to temporarily seal his cultivation away. This way, you’ll climb the ranks yourself. Each time you level up, you will slowly dissolve a portion of his cultivation. Even though this process is comparatively slower, you will be able to stabilize your foundation. Your future accomplishments will definitely be higher than Old Mi’s.”

After saying all this, Mi Li gave him a curious look. “So, which path shall you choose?”

Zu An showed no hesitation. “Of course I’ll take the first one! Hello? I’ll be at the master rank right away! That’s instant success!”

When did such a young cultivator ever manage to reach master rank? Did such a person ever exist in history?

He was on track to become a huge winner in life!

As for that capped potential or whatever, he’d worry about that later.

From what he’d learned in the academy, few cultivators could even reach master level. Moreover, almost all of them were old men, with one foot already in the grave. Only a small handful could reach that level while they were still in their middle age.

Bluntly speaking, by the time he reached that age, there would be no point in bragging about his cultivation anymore.

Just ask those shut-ins from his previous world! Would they choose to start from scratch, work hard, and enjoy their wealth when they were in their fifties or sixties, or would they rather be wealthy second-generation kids from birth, and enjoy their youth surrounded by young beauties and endless luxury?