A New Start (2)

"Well?" Hei Su frowned at the dazing eagle. 'Stupid animal. How could you understand my pain. At least follow my orders!' The red-feathered abyss eagle woke up from it's daze and hurriedly nodded it's head in acknowledgment.

Afterwards Hei Su didn't bother with it any longer. Lots of preparations had to be done and he couldn't wait to start! So he left the study and quickly went to his experiment lab.

The room was dark and cramped with all sorts of medicinal herbs and precious materials. Heavy curtains fended off any outside light and only the faint glow from various runes, pills and tools dimly lit the room.

It only took him a few large strides to cross the messy room and with an energetic sway he pulled the dark red curtains to the side. Bright sunlight immediately flowed in through the big windows and illuminated the entire room. What was hidden in darkness before was now clear in daylight.

Piles upon piles of books, loose recipe papers and notes covered tables and the floor. Precious herbs were scattered around carelessly as if thrown aside like trash, weapons so sharp they could cut stone like butter lay between the rarest and most precious metals and spirit stones. Even some materials unknown to the world, experiment results, were mixed in between the mess. Dozens of holy-grade pills rolled around on tables and floor like forgotten candy. One entire sack of them was hanging half off a table, most of it's contend rolled over the floor, obviously ignored. At a backside wall a living plant covered the entire wall and lazily coiled it's tentacles-like vines around anything nearby. When it sensed Hei Su, it happily reached out for him and lovingly coiled around his long hair and feet.

Hei Su ignored it and directly went to a table. With one large swipe he simply threw books, papers, pills, weapons and other countless treasures to the floor. On the now somewhat empty table, he placed some pills he took out of his pocket.

"I can't possibly go out like I am now. My looks alone are enough to make mortals worship me on the spot, let alone my strength."

While his words sounded incredibly narcissistic, he wasn't actually that far off. He was an immortal! What kind of existence was that?! For a normal human, that was a god! His appearance naturally followed his prowess and reached their peak together.

Hei Su casually pulled on a large piece of silk in front of him and uncovered a body-high mirror.

The face of the man in the mirror was the one he was most familiar with. He had a peerlessly handsome face with soft lines, with skin as fair as white jade and as soft as silk. The clear, green eyes that gave of an elegant glow seemed to be able to see into the very soul of every living being. His lips had a rosy color and a slight smile from them was enough to hypnotize every female into a soulless puppet. His tall and slender body was covered by a large white robe with many layers. The long, black hair was lazily bound together behind his back so it wouldn't touch the floor but some naughty strands still found their way out onto his shoulders and softly flowed down his chest. He gave off a pure, yet sinister charm that enshrouded him like a halo.

His appearance simply surpassed humanity. For an immortal, that was normal.

He expressionlessly glanced over his image and then faced the table again.

Changing ones appearance was easy. There were several spells, techniques or even disguises too freely choose from but Hei Su decided against all of them. Spells and techniques had to be maintained and weren't exactly unbreakable. While he didn't expect to run into other immortals along the way, who could see through him, slip-ups were possible. He didn't want to waste any energy on this. As for normal disguises….let's not talk about immortals, even mortals had a chance to see through that.

A wry smile appeared on Hei Su's face.

Fortunately, he was an alchemist who specialized on concocting pills.

He picked up a rose colored pill. The rose-pink pill had a white stripe pattern on it, like a white river flowing around it. The medicinal smell was heavy and the formidable spiritual force betrayed it as a holy-grade pill. The Rosewater Body-Changing Pill.

This pill got it's name from the faint rose smell that lingered on the body after consuming it. Still, the effect was miraculous. After consuming the pill, for a certain time period, one could freely change one's body to their likes. Be it changing size, looks or even reconstructing lost limbs, everything was possible. And this was not superficial. Afterwards the body would stay like this, changed down to the skeleton.

After the effect of the Rosewater Body-Changing Pill was over and his new body had stabilized he didn't bother to look in the mirror and directly picked up a second pill. This one was his secret. He only called it the Downfall Pill. That was because this golden and translucent beauty, which gave off almost no spiritual energy, had the ability to push an immortal back to being a mortal. If the other immortals had known about this, they would long since have massacred him as a traitor for concocting such disgusting poison.

Naturally Hei Su wasn't afraid of it. He had long since prepared an antidote for it. Furthermore, the effect wasn't permanent, after some time, the pill would be fully digested and it's effect wore off. As for why he had taken that pill?

The spiritual energy of an immortal was visible to the plain eye. Even after the Rosewater Body-Changing Pill, the spiritual energy couldn't be hidden and would undoubtedly betray him.

As a little bonus, Hei Su's smile deepened, he wouldn't be able to accidentally use too much strength.

After his spiritual energy adjusted and stabilized, he felt different. Heavier. Way heavier. Together with his spiritual prowess he also lost much of his physical strength, agility, stamina et cetera.

As for the final touch, he changed from his majestic, white robes into black, worn out and simple ones, like traveling alchemists would wear them. Only now did he dare look into the mirror again.

When he turned around, the man staring back at him from the other side was a stranger.

While still looking handsome for a mortal, he was nothing extraordinary. His elegant, softly green glowing eyes had turned into moss green ones. They looked wake and witty but no longer soul shaking. His fair as jade skin got a tan as if he had been wandering outside for month or even years, even some freckles could be seen around his nose. The gently flowing, long, straight hair had changed into messy curls that barely covered his ears. His body had changed into one of a fighter who was used to fight for his life. His spiritual energy was that of a Spiritual Emperor which was the sixth out of the nine stages before ascension. That was enough to avoid most trouble in the mortal realm but also low enough, to not attract any unwanted attention.

If comparing the before and after, nobody would believe them to be the same person.

Satisfied with his own work, Hei Su nodded his head, put the rest of the pills carelessly in his pocket and headed out of the room. He stopped by the kitchen and stuffed some food into a worn-down brown-green bag. After all his body needed food and water from now on.

A Qiong Qi lazing in the sun saw him rushing by and was deeply shocked. The big beast knew that it was it's Master by instinct but still couldn't find a trace of him when looking at that clumsy human running about. What was the Master planning this time? Long after Hei Su already left the room, the Qiong Qi finally snapped out of it's daze. It put it's massive head back on it's big paws, flapped it's wings once and decided: 'This time it'll be something big again…..'

After he hurriedly packed everything necessary Hei Su left the manor with vigor. He didn't even feel the slightest doubt. A light breeze hit his face while he observed the path ahead. This is a new start.

He took a deep breath. Suddenly, he opened his eyes wide, flashed a radiating smile as beautiful as fields of flowers and started running towards the edge, never looking back even once.

'First thing first, let's search for my new archenemy!'