Pov: Vik
We walked out of the prison block and made our way up to the cultivation chamber on the sub's main training deck. As the automatic doors slid open, the high-density ambient spiritual energy inside swept over us like a cool wave.
I kept thinking about how to train Noah, as I need to devise a new teaching strategy for Noah cause he is different from my other disciples; actually, all of my disciples are different from each other, and each has their unique talent and powers.
I decided first I need to heal Noah. I can do that with my Prana energy, but that would just be restoring him to his previous self. I want more, so like LU Xiaoran, Roman, and Lina, I decided to make him practice the Nirvana Qi refining technique. While walking, I also asked the system to show me my status.
"DING SHOWING HOSTS STATUS."
"Name: Vik
Age: 100 years
Bloodline: Poison Overlord Naaga
Physique: Void body, Cosmic stellar body, Quantum magic circle, prototype World-seed foundation.
Affinity: Omni element, #!?unknown fire, Void element, #?!unknown
Realm: Void traveling realm (Regressed), 7th circle magic realm (Regressed), 7th stage body refining realm (Regressed), 1st stage of Root Chakra (Muldhara) in Kundalini#@$$@#, Prana energy level 1
Spiritual fire: unknown fire
Cultivation techniques: Nirvana Qi refining technique, Chaos titan body refining technique, Nuclear spirit gathering technique, Void magic technique, Abyss soul refining technique, Maya manifestation technique, Quantum magic technique.
Special powers: Shape-shifting, Poison mastery
Accepted disciples: Lu Xiaoran, Roman Blackwood, Lina Rosewell, Noah Bloodborn
System reward: Not available
System mall: Not available
Teaching building: Anonymous hall
System mission: Not available
Evaluation: a mysterious and arrogant snake.
So, using that gate I took him to Great fire forest. More particularly in the Anonymous hall's cultivation hall,
Noah looked around, looking around a hall that itself is a small forest, with many trees and grass plains. Despite his calm demeanor earlier, his fingers twitched slightly. To a former Soul Formation expert, standing in a room overflowing with energy while completely unable to store a single drop of it in his broken Dantian was an agonizing form of torture.
"Sit," I commanded, gesturing toward the center of the chamber's array.
Noah walked to the center, crossed his legs, and sat down on the metallic floor in a standard meditation stance. "Master, where do we begin? Do I start by trying to re-condense my Qi pathways? Tell me what I need to do to regain my old strength and talent?"
"Nothing," I replied dryly, walking in a slow circle around him while Pushpa rested her chin lazily on my shoulder. "I can't help you regain what you lost; the lost is lost, forget about it."
Noah widened his eyes, taken aback by my words; he said in a scared voice. "What are you saying master, Master? You definitely have the power to heal me back to my previous self, right?"
"No", I calmly said, and then continued, "Noah, you have to understand, the things you lost will always be lost. No one can pull back time; even if you were somehow able to pull back time, even then that thing remains lost in your memories."
"So forget about your past self and become something new, something that can break even the bounds placed on your fate, someone who can take control of their own destiny."
Saying this, I simply touched his shivering head and transferred the Nirvana Qi refining technique, and said, "This is the path you need to walk; I can only show you the way. Following it or getting lost on sideline this completely depends on you."
Saying this, I went back away from Noah, as now he just needs to circulate the Nirvana Qi refining technique, which is why I did not teach him how to circulate it, cause it is different for every person.
Yes, by researching my insane technique like Maya manifestation, I got some more knowledge about the Nirvana QI refining technique.
Although I created this technique, I can't completely master it, even though I have only completed my first Nirvana Transformation.
Even if I try, I can't recreate this technique; it is a mystery as to how I was able to create this and other techniques.
So coming back to the topic, the Nirvana refining technique is a technique that works differently for different person, from its path to circulate Qi and spiritual energy density is different for every person, which depends on that person.
The only thing I can teach is that while circulating this technique, try forgetting your past and becoming something new; that is also a partial meaning of Nirvana.
The humid air of the submarine's cultivation chamber settled on my skin, but inside my mind, the temperature plunged back into the bitter past.
Sitting cross-legged on the cold steel floor, I closed my eyes, letting my thoughts drift past the crackling energy in my marrow, all the way back to West Oak City. Back to a time when I wasn't a broken young master with a shattered Dantian, but the shining prodigy of the Bloodborn family.
I remembered Ruby. Not the monster who wore her skin today, but my Ruby.
I could still see her sitting by the window of her family's small, neglected courtyard, her fingers nervously picking at the hem of her simple dress. She was the illegitimate daughter of a minor noble family—talented in nothing that mattered to the world. She had no grand bloodline, no high-tier Qi reserves, and no powerful lineage to boast of. In a world that measured worth by strength, she was practically invisible.
Except to me.
I loved her with a quiet, fierce devotion. But every time I held her hand or spoke of our future, I saw the quiet hesitation in her eyes. It wasn't that she didn't love me back—I knew she did. The way she stayed up to brew soothing teas for my training sessions, the way her eyes softened whenever I walked into the room—her love was gentle, selfless, and deep.
Yet, she always pulled back.
"Noah," she had whispered to me one evening, her voice barely audible over the rustle of the autumn leaves. "Look at your family. The Bloodborns have produced literal monsters throughout human history—heroes who carved their names into the continental wars. You are an invincible prodigy. If you marry me, I will only be a dark spot on your reputation. I'll be the weakness your enemies target, the useless wife who holds you back."
"I don't care about my reputation, Ruby," I had told her, gripping her shoulders tightly. "I care about you."
She had merely smiled—a sad, heartbroken smile—and shook her head. She went so far as to beg me to take talented, high-born maidens as my main wives, pleading with me to let her just stay in the shadows as a quiet concubine or a secret lover, so long as she could stay by my side without dragging my name through the mud. She loved me so much that she was willing to erase her own standing just to protect mine.
And then... that horrifying day arrived.
It happened after she fell ill with a strange, high fever. For three days, she drifted in and out of consciousness. I stayed at her bedside, holding her cold hand, praying to every deity I knew to save her.
On the fourth morning, her fever broke. She opened her eyes.
I smiled, overwhelmed with relief, reaching out to cup her cheek. "Ruby... thank God you're awake."
She didn't lean into my hand. She didn't look at me with the soft, gentle warmth I had known for years.
Instead, she slapped my hand away. She looked around the modest room with a cold, disgusted glare, her eyes scanning the simple wooden furniture as if inspecting a garbage dump. When her gaze finally landed on me, there was no affection, no hesitation, and no warmth. There was only a sharp, arrogant condescension—the look of a human staring down at a bug.
That was the exact moment the Ruby I loved died. Someone—or something—else had taken over her body.
In the months that followed, "Ruby" changed completely. She suddenly possessed a mysterious ring that absorbed high-tier Qi effortlessly, displayed sword domain techniques that defied the laws of our realm, and looked at the entire world like it was nothing more than a simple game designed for her amusement. She treated the ancient traditions of the Western Continent like cheap jokes, discarding her family, stealing my lineage's retainer contracts, and looking down on everyone as "lower realm trash."
When I confronted her, trying to find a trace of the gentle girl who once worried about being a burden to me, she simply laughed. She challenged me to a duel, used her cheat ring to drain my Dantian dry, and had her new followers beat me until I was coughing blood on an engine room floor.
She didn't just break my body—she trampled on the memory of the girl who had loved me enough to shrink into the shadows for my sake.
'She isn't Ruby,' I thought, as focusing on circulating the technique given by Master Vik. 'She is an intruder wearing my lover's face.'
My Master had given me a second chance. I will not let that down; I will become stronger than before, stronger than I could ever be. And when the Great White finally reached the Western Continent, I wouldn't just reclaim my family's honor—I would drag that arrogant transmigrator off her high horse and avenge the soft, gentle girl she stole from me. More importantly, I will get my Ruby back. I know she is there somewhere deep beneath that body, because when I was defeated by her, she clearly intended to kill, but somehow she stopped not because of external reasons, but because of some internal thoughts, as her own body doesn't want to kill me.
But to this I need to do something that is far more painful than any physical pain. He clearly said that I need to forget everything about my past, even myself and my dear Ruby, but if that is the path to gain strength, then I will accept it, cause only then will I be able to get my Ruby back from that imposter.
So, I decide to be born again, through forgetting everything or burning everything related to myself.