Heaven's Devourer

Yang Fan's judgment was correct.

As Yang Chen grew day by day, he was not afflicted with any major illness, and yet his body was weaker than other children. He would often come down with fever or other minor illnesses, and his bones were weaker than others.

It was a difficult reality for Wu Yu to accept.

If this was but a test, it was all too real. Even a simple fever had him tossing and turning in agony. The frailties of this body were difficult to bear.

Compared to Wu Yu at Dong Yue Wu Kingdom, Yang Chen was much, much weaker.

Wu Yu, who had been a martial artist himself back then, could probably defeat a hundred Yang Chens without breaking a sweat.

The disparity was torture for Wu Yu. Physical and mental torture. To his current senses, even a light fever felt even more agonizing than cultivating the Invincible Vajra Body.

Of course, the two inflicted completely different levels of pain, but it was all relative to what one's body felt. Even the slightest pain would leave Wu Yu in unbearable agony.

Day by day he grew, and slowly he began to get used to the new identity of Yang Chen.

He still had no idea what had happened to him. Was he truly dead and reincarnated? Or was this all but an illusion?

When he was five, he felt that he had already been through a lifetime. He knew every neighbor, every relative, every business partner of his parents. And all of them knew of Yang Chen.

Yang Fan and Liu Yue's relatives and friends would occasionally come to call on Yang Chen, but he sat reticent and glum. He could already speak now, but he very seldom did. Ultimately, he felt that he had no need to interact with these people.

After all, this was but a test to him. Once he left the test, all of these people and things would vanish into smoke.

It was just a dream. Just a test. Wu Yu constantly reminded himself of this.

It had only been five years since his birth. They felt like an eternity, even if they were but a short span of time.

Their perceived length was what made him get used to his new identity as Yang Chen.

Within those five years, everyone called him Yang Chen. He got used to his frail body and living with Yang Fan and Liu Yue.

Of course, Wu Yu still felt nothing for them. After all, they too were just illusions.

There was a niggling feeling in his mind. Could he really have died in Graveguarding Palace and then reincarnated in Willow Town? But there was one piece of evidence which seemed to break this theory.

If he had truly reincarnated, then he should not have memories of his past life. Therefore, he felt that this was likely a test.

While he could remember most of his past life, including becoming immortal, Luo Pin, the Demon Immortal Realm and many others, he could not recall a single word about cultivation.

He had once beaten the 10,000 words of the Invincible Vajra Body into his memory, and now not a single word was coming to him. That was very disconcerting.

"If I want to cultivate, I must get to the Heavenly Sword Sect!" That was Wu Yu's goal, and yet it was a very far one.

It was even more difficult than dealing with Heavenly Immortal Hao Tian back when he had been the prince of Dong Yue Wu Kingdom.

A prince, even if mortal, had many resources at his disposal. He had some martial arts basics. But now he was a frail child who would even struggle with that, let alone dao cultivation.

One simple example: of the tens of thousands of people in Willow Town, not a single one had ever been to Capital Wu before.

Some had left for Capital Wu, but not a single one had come back. There had been no message that ever reached Willow Town from them either. The distance from this sleepy hamlet to the capital was insurmountable for these people.

Wu Yu had a vague impression that Willow Town was near the periphery of Dong Yue Wu Kingdom. Even the finest of the Wu Kingdom guards would have to traverse mountain and river, and spend good many months, perhaps even a year, to get here.

There would also be many dangers along the way - natural disasters, beasts, and the like. It was not something anybody could accomplish.

Many of the Willow Town villagers who had wanted to go to Capital Wu had died along the way.

If Wu Yu wanted to get to Heavenly Sword Sect, he had to go to Capital Wu first. Otherwise, he could not possibly reach the Bipo Mountain Range. The road was too far.

Wu Yu, as five-year-old Yang Chen, lived a moderate life in Willow Town. Although it was nothing special, but both Yang Fan and Liu Yue doted on him.

However, he found it hard to reciprocate their kindness, as he could not feel anything for them.

"This illusion is scarily real. It doesn't seem like an illusion...... But if, just if, this is not an illusion but reality instead... What should I do?" This doubt began to nag at Wu Yu recently.

If the situation was real, and he had truly become Yang Chen for some reason, what was he to do?

This was a depressing outcome. Trapped in a frail mortal body, and even reaching Capital Wu was a Herculean feat. It seemed an entirely impossible mission to accomplish - to regain all that he had.

Ruyi Jingu Bang, Great Sage, Heaven's Equal's legacy, all of it seemed incredibly far from him.

Even the most basic of martial training seemed way beyond him. There was only Master Yang Bai in Willow Town. He was an old martial artist, beloved in Willow Town since his defeat of the mountain bandits at the time of Wu Yu's birth.

Master Yang Bai had accepted quite a few disciples, but they all had some potential. At the very least, they had strong bodies, not like the feeble Yang Chen.

"What if this is real?" haunted Wu Yu, and he began to grow into his identity as Yang Chen. It was coupled with the fact that he could not leave even if he wanted to.

Rather than spend time over-thinking about the impractical, he might as well look constructively at his situation.

Whether illusion or reality, his goal was the same - to get on the path of cultivation.

"I'm only five. That's too young. I can wait until I'm a little bigger to start. See if I can get to Capital Wu." Wu Yu thought. He could not wait for such a day to come.

All this while, his cultivation had been a race against time. He always wished time could just stop. But now it was the reverse. Wu Yu wished that time would move a little faster, and he could grow more.

As he wrestled with his inner torment, it only made Yang Chen appear even more morose and melancholic to those around him.

He was not willing to talk to those around him. Even his parents Yang Fan and Liu Yue did not understand him.

He could not possibly speak his mind, or he would be deemed a lunatic.

But Wu Yu did not realize that from the moment he was worried about being deemed a madman, he was already worried about what those around him thought. Which meant that he had taken another big step towards immersing himself into this world.

He grew more in tune with the identity of Yang Chen. Yang Chen was everything that he was experiencing. If he was not Yang Chen, then who was Yang Chen?

He finally began to grow more rapidly after the age of five.

Children grew quickly. Each time those around him saw him, they would exclaim: "The child has grown so much. Time flies!"

5 years, 7 years, 9 years old......

When he was 10 years old, others felt that Yang Chen had grown so much, so quickly.

But to Wu Yu, these 10 years had been eternally long. He was almost driven mad by it.

His first thought was of course to head for Capital Wu, and then on to Heavenly Sword Sect to begin cultivation. But it was too difficult. He could not even train martial arts.

His frail body held him back, unable to even sustain the injuries of martial training, let alone meet the much higher physical resilience that cultivation demanded.

In Dong Yue Wu Kingdom, there were at least 100,000 martial artists, but those with the potential to become cultivators did not number more than 100.

All these years, Wu Yu had been thinking about how he would begin cultivation. But now it was finally sinking in that it was impossible as Yang Chen. No one could reach it from this starting point.

He was already 10, and the always silent Yang Chen had become a freak in the eyes of others.

When he was younger, they had thought him intelligent, able to do many of the small things that other children could not. But as he grew older, he became a problem child. He did not like to speak, made no friends, and was often the subject of bullying.

At first he did not mind. But these things wore at him, and made him irritated.

Wu Yu was sick of being Yang Chen. Of course, deep down he was still convinced that this was all but an illusion, although he still could not prove it for certain.