Am I actually a Three Corpses Doppelganger?

This sudden revelation struck Li Xuanxiao like a thunderbolt.

After comprehending the full implications,

his body trembled uncontrollably as if his entire world had collapsed.

He stood frozen in place, his mind utterly blank.

All this time, he had believed himself to be a real person with his own life, experiences, and emotions.

Yet now he was told it had all been an elaborate deception.

He was merely someone else's substitute, an illusory existence.

Li Xuanxiao staggered unsteadily.

He slowly moved aside and sat down carelessly.

His eyes became vacant and lifeless, staring blankly at nothing as if all vitality had drained from him.

Images of Mount Shushan kept flashing before his eyes.

The familiar figures of fellow disciples passed through his mind one by one.

He remembered the old master's teachings, the days spent cultivating with his martial brothers...

Yet all of it suddenly felt illusory.

The loves and hatreds he once held dear now seemed like mere fantasies.

At this moment, everything appeared utterly ridiculous.

He suddenly felt like a lonely ghost drifting through a world that didn't belong to him.

However, after just a brief moment, clarity returned to Li Xuanxiao's eyes.

He slowly stood up, straightening his back.

"What the original self refuses to do, I shall accomplish in his stead."

His voice was calm yet resolute, as if he had seen through all these illusions.

What does it matter if it's fake?

Both reality and illusion are merely superficial appearances.

In this world, good and evil are both illusions - only power is eternal.

Li Xuanxiao took a deep breath, feeling unprecedented determination well up inside him.

Now that he knew his true identity, he would no longer be bound by this false world.

He would face everything in his own way and pursue true power.

"..........."

In the Jiangnan region, vast waters stretched endlessly as the river flowed steadily.

Beneath these unfathomable waters lay the Pure Water Palace.

Its towering walls were carved with exquisite patterns - coiling dragons, dancing phoenixes, rolling clouds - yet it stood like an impregnable fortress.

The shrimp soldiers and crab generals guarding the entrance stared ahead.

Suddenly, one water demon rubbed its eyes in disbelief at what it saw ahead.

A massive host was charging toward them.

Li Xuanxiao's figure appeared.

"Who dares trespass the forbidden grounds of our Dragon Palace?"

"Hah, laughable! A mere little flood dragon dares call itself a Dragon King?

A water dwelling presuming to be a Dragon Palace?"

With hands clasped behind his back, Li Xuanxiao swaggered forward, slaughtering the palace guards and barging straight into the forbidden water domain.

With the old Dragon King having led most elite forces away only to be blown apart by Li Xuanxiao,

the Pure Water Palace now had no one left who could threaten him.

As Li Xuanxiao stomped his foot,

the entire water palace suddenly trembled violently as if about to be torn apart.

The Myriad Soul Banner came crashing down upon the palace with thunderous force.

The shockwave from the impact swept outward in all directions.

"BOOM—!!"

"Hahahaha!"

Li Xuanxiao laughed wildly as he watched the souls driven by his banner slaughter the water demons within.

Now, it seemed only bloodshed could calm his turbulent heart.

The Pure Water Palace, Spirit Sword Temple, Revival Sect, and Extreme Demonic Hall - Jiangnan's four great factions fell one after another to his massacre.

An endless tide of spectral soldiers surged toward each stronghold.

With the Myriad Soul Banner in hand and his army of spirits,

Li Xuanxiao feared nothing, not even besieging Nascent Soul cultivators.

Through this harvest, his cultivation quickly reached the Golden Core peak.

This soon alarmed factions across the land.

"..........."

The current situation was undoubtedly

the worst possible for Li Xuanxiao.

Mount Shushan destroyed, himself just awakened.

His final trump card, the Myriad Soul Banner, lost.

And now he had a Three Corpses Doppelganger.

Adding insult to injury!!!

From current indications, this doppelganger was most likely the Self Corpse.

The most troublesome among the Three Corpses.

He needed to eliminate this Self Corpse quickly.

Otherwise his inner demons would grow stronger - with the Myriad Soul Banner now at Golden Core cultivation,

its power increasing visibly by the day.

Alone, he stood little chance. He needed an ally to help sever the Three Corpses.

This was both opportunity and challenge.

Success meant transcending karmic bonds;

failure meant eternal damnation in obsession!!

If he succeeded in severing the Three Corpses, he might even break through to Nascent Soul.

Li Xuanxiao had long been troubled by this bottleneck,

haunted by trauma from his last failed Nascent Soul tribulation.

This unexpected emergence of the Three Corpses might be his breakthrough opportunity.

Having reached this conclusion, Li Xuanxiao already had his potential ally in mind.

The candidates were actually few.

Powerful enough to be useful.

There was really only one.

".........."

"Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!"

Horses galloped down the imperial highway.

Wanted posters of Li Xuanxiao, the Mount Shushan disciple, now plastered the cultivation world,

nearly one in every hand.

The Extreme Demonic Hall had issued an exorbitant bounty,

shaking the entire cultivation community.

Disguised as a silver-haired elder, Li Xuanxiao traveled with a merchant caravan.

Seeing the ubiquitous wanted notices covering streets and alleys, he frowned slightly and sipped tea to suppress his displeasure.

This Three Corpses alter ego was far too conspicuous!!

Not only acting so brazenly, but not even bothering to conceal his appearance,

openly proclaiming himself a Mount Shushan disciple.

Li Xuanxiao sighed helplessly.

He pocketed one of the notices.

His merchant group was cooperating with the Tian Sha Hall.

Their current journey would take them to the cult's headquarters.

In today's world, the Tian Sha Hall no longer needed to hide.

Not just them - cults everywhere had reinvented themselves as orthodox.

With demons and monsters running rampant, only well-protected caravans could survive.

The flying ship caravan stopped to rest at a prosperous town.

This territory was controlled by a Nascent Soul-level demon.

The local ruler was an escaped demon from Mount Shushan's Demon Subduing Pagoda.

Absurd - a spirit beast establishing its own kingdom

on human lands in Zhongzhou.

Having traveled extensively, Li Xuanxiao had grown accustomed to such sights.

Currently powerless to intervene,

he quietly waited for night to pass and the flying ship to resume tomorrow.

While meditating indoors, he noticed flickering shadows outside his window.

Extending his spiritual sense, he saw it was their host family's youngest son, about twelve or thirteen,

practicing with a wooden sword in the courtyard, clumsily mimicking moves from some street-stall sword manual.

Li Xuanxiao pushed open the window.

Hearing the noise, the bright-eyed youth turned with a grin.

Li Xuanxiao silently met his gaze.