Cultivating in Reverse: My Sign-In System Wants Me Dead

Before the blinding light completely swallowed the altar, Su Bai suddenly remembered something important.

He was still naked.

His expression changed immediately.

Meeting ancient Immortals for the first time while covered in dust, blood, and absolutely nothing else seemed like a terrible way to leave an impression.

Su Bai reached into his storage and pulled out one of his emergency robes.

Fortunately, after spending months inside the Fallen-Star Sanctuary, he had become remarkably skilled at putting on clothes quickly.

By the time the golden radiance began to weaken, the robe was already properly secured around his body.

Su Bai adjusted the collar once.

’Much better.’

The ancient weapons accompanying him remained completely silent.

Perhaps they understood the solemnity of what was happening.

Perhaps they had simply decided not to comment on how urgently Su Bai had dressed himself.

The golden light gradually receded.

Su Bai raised his gaze toward the colossal figures surrounding the altar.

The ancient Immortal statues were still motionless. Yet something had changed.

Soft points of light began emerging from within them.

At first, Su Bai thought they were fragments of the formation.

But then, the lights moved.

One after another, luminous orbs drifted away from the colossal figures and descended toward the altar.

They were not particularly large. Compared with the enormous bodies behind them, each orb looked almost insignificant.

Yet the spiritual presence contained within them made Su Bai instinctively straighten.

Something ancient lingered inside each light.

Su Bai’s expression became solemn.

’The Immortals.’

The orbs floated several dozen meters above the altar.

Faint threads of golden light still connected each one to the colossal body from which it had emerged. Whenever an orb moved too far, the thread tightened slightly, as though reminding it that what remained could no longer exist independently for long.

Su Bai understood immediately.

They had awakened, but they had not returned to life.

A hearty laugh suddenly rolled through the clearing.

"HAHAHA! So we finally meet properly, young man."

The voice came from one of the brighter orbs.

It carried age, but little of the arrogance Su Bai had expected.

"To think that after all these years, the ones we failed to destroy would finally meet their end in the stomach of a junior."

Another orb flickered gently.

"When I first saw him wandering near the altar, I knew he was unusual."

A third voice answered with obvious amusement.

"You thought he was going to die."

The first orb became quiet.

"...That was before he started eating them."

Several of the lights trembled.

Su Bai realized they were laughing.

Even the ancient saber beside him released a faint spiritual vibration, although it wisely remained silent.

Another Immortal spoke.

"We exhausted our strength, sacrificed our bodies, and bound those creatures here for ages. Yet in the end, a young cultivator arrived and solved the matter in a way none of us would have dared imagine."

There was no resentment in the voice, only deep relief.

"The Great Dao has strange ways of balancing what remains unfinished."

Su Bai looked at the glowing figures for several breaths.

He had expected something very different.

Perhaps ancient Immortals looking down upon him despite being reduced to remnants.

Instead, what he heard was gratitude.

Su Bai cupped his hands and bowed.

"Seniors, there is no need for such praise. Those creatures were enemies of everyone inside the Sanctuary. Since I had a way to deal with them, helping was only natural."

The lights became quiet for a moment.

One of them sighed softly.

"You speak as though you merely cleared beasts from a road."

Another Immortal chuckled.

"Young man, you do not yet understand what you accomplished."

Su Bai raised his head.

The first Immortal continued.

"Those things survived our strongest methods. Their bodies returned after being burned to ash, their roots endured every destruction, and the connection behind them was beyond our reach."

A trace of bitterness entered the ancient voice.

"We could not kill them."

"So we sealed them."

Another orb drifted slightly closer.

"This altar was never meant to be a victory."

"It was a delay."

Su Bai’s expression became more serious.

The Immortal continued.

"Our bodies became part of that delay. Our essence sustained the formations, our strength fed the weapons, and what remained of our spirituality endured only because the seal had not yet completed its purpose."

Su Bai glanced toward the colossal figures.

The enormous bodies suddenly looked different.

They were not statues carved in the likeness of dead Immortals. They were the Immortals themselves.

What remained of them had simply been petrified, exhausted, and transformed into part of the sealing formation over the passing years.

One of the lights noticed where he was looking.

"If you had arrived a little later, perhaps you would never have spoken with us."

Su Bai looked back toward the orb.

"Our spirituality was already fading. A few more years, perhaps a few decades at most, and even this much awareness would have disappeared."

Another Immortal spoke with a quiet laugh.

"At that point, our bodies would have continued serving as pillars of the seal, but there would have been nothing left within them capable of remembering why."

The words carried no complaint.

That somehow made them heavier.

Su Bai finally understood why they were so grateful.

The sealed sources were gone. The seal no longer had anything to suppress.

For the first time in countless years, the remaining spirituality of these Immortals was no longer being consumed merely to maintain a prison.

Su Bai looked at the thin golden threads still linking the souls to their colossal bodies.

"But Seniors cannot recover your bodies?"

A faint silence followed.

One of the Immortals answered gently.

"No."

"Our flesh has long since ceased to belong to us in any meaningful sense. The seal consumed too much, and what you see now is little more than the final spirituality that survived within it."

Another light drifted.

"If we forcibly separated ourselves from these bodies before the formation completely releases us, even these remnants would scatter."

Su Bai nodded slowly.

"So once the seal finishes collapsing..."

"We will leave."

The answer came calmly.

Su Bai understood what that meant.

Departure.

One of the Immortals seemed to notice the question forming on his face and continued before Su Bai needed to ask.

"Do not mistake our condition for despair, young man. A path still remains."

"Reincarnation."

Su Bai’s eyes sharpened slightly.

The orb flickered.

"Our bodies are gone, but enough of our souls remain to enter the cycle. We may no longer return as the people standing before you now, yet existence does not necessarily end simply because one lifetime has reached its conclusion."

The words settled into Su Bai’s thoughts.

Reincarnation was not merely legend to these Immortals. It was something they spoke of with certainty.

That immediately gave Su Bai far more questions than he had intended to ask.

Still, he restrained himself. There would be time.

For now, he bowed once more.

"Then I am glad I could help Seniors reach that path."

The lights trembled softly.

One Immortal laughed.

"You truly are an interesting junior."

Another agreed.

"You killed what we could not kill, ate what should not have been eaten, and now you stand here speaking as though you merely happened to lend us a hand."

Su Bai smiled modestly.

"Seniors exaggerate."

Internally, he was considerably more cautious.

These might only be lingering souls, but they were lingering souls belonging to Immortals.

Su Bai had survived far too many ridiculous situations to become careless now.

He had spent enough of his previous life dealing with important clients to know one very useful principle.

When speaking to someone capable of ruining your day, politeness was free.

The Immortals naturally knew nothing about any of that.

They simply found the young man’s manner increasingly pleasant.

The conversation became easier after that.

Su Bai asked about the Fallen-Star Sanctuary, the ancient battles, and several things he had encountered during his journey.

The Immortals answered what they could.

Some memories had already faded. Other matters seemed too complicated to explain in a short conversation.

But whenever they remembered something clearly, they showed little hesitation in answering him.

For them, knowledge was one of the few things they could still offer.

Eventually, one of the brighter souls released a long sigh.

"Our duty is complete."

The other lights gradually quieted.

"We have little left with which to repay you."

Su Bai immediately shook his head.

"Seniors do not owe me anything."

"Whether you desire repayment or not does not erase a debt."

The response carried the unmistakable tone of someone who had lived long enough to stop arguing about certain principles.

Su Bai wisely remained silent.

The Immortal continued.

"Our physical possessions should still remain where they were sealed with us. Whatever survived these years is yours to take."

Su Bai’s eyes flickered.

"That includes our storage rings."

The flicker became slightly brighter.

"And the weapons that once bound those creatures."

Su Bai almost forgot to maintain his expression.

He suddenly felt that refusing too strongly might actually be disrespectful.

Another Immortal chuckled, apparently amused by the tiny change in his face.

"We can also leave behind our inheritances."

That immediately erased Su Bai’s excitement.

"Prepare yourself. What remains of our understanding can still be passed to you before we enter reincarnation."

Several of the glowing souls began gathering spiritual power.

Su Bai’s scalp nearly went numb.

"Please wait!"

The Immortals stopped.

The ancient weapons beside Su Bai remained quiet, although the saber shifted slightly as if curious.

Su Bai quickly produced several empty jade slips from his storage.

"Seniors, could you place your inheritances inside these instead?"

Silence spread across the altar.

Su Bai could almost feel several ancient gazes resting upon him.

For a moment, he wondered whether he had just insulted multiple Immortals at once.

He immediately continued before anyone could misunderstand.

"Seniors mentioned that reincarnation may erase the memories of this life."

The glowing souls remained still.

Su Bai raised the jade slips.

"If I receive your inheritances directly, they become mine."

"But if they remain here..."

His expression became sincere.

"Perhaps one day I can return them."

The atmosphere changed. None of the Immortals spoke.

Su Bai continued.

"If I ever encounter Seniors after your reincarnation and can confirm your identities, I swear that I will return your inheritances to you."

The silence became deeper.

For several breaths, only the fading hum of the ancient formation could be heard.

Su Bai began wondering whether he had said something strange.

"Seniors?"

A weary laugh finally came from one of the lights.

"Young man... do you know how vast existence is?"

Su Bai blinked.

"The possibility of meeting again is already small."

Another Immortal continued more gently.

"Perhaps we will meet. Perhaps we will not. Our karma is not light, but neither is our accumulated merit small."

The orb rose slightly.

"If the cycle judges that merit kindly, some among us may enter the Deva Realm."

Su Bai’s expression shifted.

’Deva Realm?’

He had never heard about that.

The voice continued.

"Others may return as humans. Some may walk entirely different paths. Reincarnation does not promise that we will retain these faces, these names, or even the memories that made us who we are today."

"If you stand before us in another life, we may pass beside you without knowing you."

Su Bai fell quiet.

Another Immortal suddenly laughed.

"Still, perhaps this young man should not be judged by ordinary probability."

Several lights turned toward that soul.

The Immortal continued.

"Someone who can turn beings even we could not kill into a meal might eventually find traveling between realms no more troublesome than crossing a mountain."

The altar remained silent for a heartbeat, then several ancient souls began laughing.

"That is true."

"I withdraw my earlier doubt."

"If there is anyone ridiculous enough to encounter us again after reincarnation, it may indeed be him."

Su Bai’s mouth twitched.

He was not sure whether he had just been praised.

Still, the Immortals’ mood became noticeably lighter.

One of them looked toward the empty jade slips floating before Su Bai.

"Very well."

"If fate allows us to meet again, you may return what once belonged to us."

Another light pulsed.

"And if fate does not?"

Su Bai answered naturally.

"Then I will make sure your inheritances are not wasted."

The Immortal laughed.

"A satisfactory answer."

The jade slips rose from Su Bai’s hands.

Ancient spiritual light began flowing toward them.

Unlike the violent inheritance transfers Su Bai had feared, the process remained entirely outside his body.

Characters appeared within the jade, patterns formed, and fragments of understanding accumulated.

One inheritance after another settled inside separate slips.

Su Bai watched carefully and finally relaxed.

The memories themselves were not the problem.

What worried him was something else.

These were Immortals, and they were clearly grateful to him. If one of them suddenly decided to leave him a blessing, strengthen his foundation, or bestow some other benevolent gift directly upon his body, Reversal might turn that kindness into something disastrous.

Keeping the inheritances inside the jade slips at least removed one possible misunderstanding.

While the inheritances were being recorded, Su Bai found his thoughts drifting back to what the Immortals had revealed.

Reincarnation was already surprising enough, but what truly caught his attention was the mention of that Deva Realm. The way they spoke about it made it sound neither mythical nor unreachable, but simply another possible destination within the cycle.

That meant death was not necessarily an ending, and reincarnation did not always return someone to the same world or even the same kind of existence.

The sealed sources had already spoken of things beyond the world he knew, while the Root Organ connections had shown him a place where he could not sense the Heavenly Dao at all.

Now these Immortals had casually revealed that reincarnation itself could carry souls into entirely different realms.

Su Bai looked at the glowing figures before him.

There was still far too much about this world that he did not know.