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

After finishing their examination, the Immortals withdrew their spiritual senses from Su Bai’s body.

Their moods were considerably better than his.

Several luminous souls floated around the altar with the distinct air of people who had just encountered something fascinating, while Su Bai stood below them with more questions than he had possessed before allowing them inside.

The Immortals knew something about his origin but refused to speak about it.

By comparison, learning that his ten Dantian-like centers somehow worked perfectly together almost felt ordinary.

One of the ancient souls gave a satisfied hum.

"Your foundation is absurd, but there is nothing unstable about it."

Another added, "That is the important part."

A third Immortal seemed less willing to let the matter go.

"I still want to know how so many incompatible things are peacefully occupying the same body."

"Do you?"

The Immortal fell silent.

Several of the others laughed.

The first speaker continued, "After what we already saw concerning his origin, I am no longer certain that questioning what should or should not coexist inside him has any meaning."

That ended the discussion surprisingly quickly.

Su Bai said nothing.

There were things even these Immortals had not seen.

His Reversal Body was one of them.

He had deliberately kept any thought of it away while they examined him, and there was no reason to change that now.

They might be preparing to enter reincarnation, but reincarnation did not necessarily mean everything would be forgotten forever.

Su Bai himself was proof of that.

He had lived another life before this one, and those memories stayed with him.

If it could happen to him, he would be an idiot to assume it could never happen to anyone else.

Perhaps these Immortals would be reborn without a single memory of today.

Perhaps one of them would wake up a hundred years later and suddenly remember everything.

Su Bai had no intention of gambling one of his greatest secrets on the assumption that reincarnation conveniently erased all problems.

The fewer people who knew about the Reversal Body, the better.

Only those he trusted completely deserved that knowledge.

Fortunately, the Immortals seemed content with what they had already discovered.

Su Bai allowed the subject to die and finally turned his attention toward a much more practical problem.

"Seniors, there is something else I need to ask."

One of the luminous souls turned toward him.

"What is it?"

Su Bai glanced around the enormous underground altar.

"How do I leave the Fallen-Star Sanctuary?"

For a moment, nobody answered.

A laugh suddenly came from above. Another followed. Within seconds, several of the Immortals were laughing.

Su Bai’s eyelid twitched.

"I feel like that was a reasonable question."

"It is."

The Immortal who answered was still laughing.

"It simply sounds rather amusing after everything you have already done."

Su Bai looked at it silently.

The ancient soul finally calmed itself.

"Young man, the greatest reason this place had to remain sealed is already inside your stomach."

Su Bai’s expression became strange.

That was difficult to argue with.

The Immortal continued.

"Once we depart, the remnants of our spirituality will no longer sustain the formations tied to this altar."

Another ancient soul took over.

"The ancient arrays have survived for far too long already. Without us maintaining what little remains, they will begin collapsing on their own."

The Immortal’s spiritual fluctuation spread toward the surrounding formation lines.

"After that, you only need to remove the remaining Sealing Pins."

Su Bai froze.

’The Boundary Pillars.’

Most had already been pulled out by the enemies, while the remaining ones were scattered through the Outer Area.

An idea that had remained at the back of his mind suddenly became much clearer.

"So they really are the final locks."

"At this point, yes."

The Immortal sounded amused.

"Originally, removing them recklessly would have been disastrous."

Another ancient soul gave a cold snort.

"But the prisoners are gone now."

The luminous soul drifted slightly higher.

"Remove the remaining Sealing Pins after the internal formations fail, and the Fallen-Star Sanctuary will no longer remain separated from the outside world."

Su Bai slowly released a breath.

In the end, the way home was something he had already suspected.

Su Bai felt a weight he had carried for months finally loosen.

He could finally leave.

Before he could enjoy the thought for long, one of the Immortals spoke again.

"However, we have one request."

Su Bai looked up.

The amusement among the luminous souls had faded.

"What is it?"

The Immortal’s attention shifted toward the darkness beyond the altar.

"The Ashen-Blood Miasma."

Su Bai immediately understood.

Another ancient soul continued.

"The corruption covering this Sanctuary accumulated because of those creatures. Once the boundary completely opens, there is no guarantee it will remain contained here."

"It may spread outside."

"If enough escapes at once, ordinary cultivators outside will suffer before anyone understands what happened."

Su Bai understood immediately.

"You want me to absorb all of the remaining Ashen-Blood Miasma before I remove the last Boundary Pillars."

"Yes."

He agreed without hesitation.

The request was reasonable, and for him, the miasma was hardly a burden.

...

Soon, the Immortals returned their attention to the empty jade slips floating before them.

Their inheritance had not yet been completely recorded.

Golden strands of spirituality extended from the luminous souls and entered the jade slips one after another, carrying memories, techniques, comprehensions, and whatever else each Immortal had chosen to leave behind.

Su Bai remained nearby and waited.

He did not interfere.

The process had seemed effortless at first, but after some time, he began noticing something different.

The luminous bodies were flickering.

At first, the changes were subtle.

Their light dimmed for a heartbeat before recovering.

As more information entered the jade slips, the Immortals’ fluctuations became increasingly unstable.

Their luminous forms dimmed little by little as the remaining spirituality within them was drawn into the inheritances.

Su Bai noticed it immediately.

One of the Immortals gave a faint laugh.

"Do not worry. What remains of us was never meant to last forever."

Another continued sending its inheritance into a jade slip.

"If we are leaving, we might as well leave everything properly."

Su Bai said nothing more.

There was nothing he could say to that.

These people had sacrificed their bodies to maintain the seal, remained tethered to their corpses for countless years, and now used what little spirituality remained to preserve their inheritances.

Even at the end, they were still spending themselves on things that would remain after them.

...

Time passed quietly.

The last golden strand finally entered its jade slip. The ancient markings covering the slips flickered once before settling.

One by one, they floated back toward Su Bai.

He carefully stored them away. The exact contents could wait.

When Su Bai looked up again, none of the Immortals had moved.

Their luminous forms hovered above the altar.

The atmosphere had changed.

The tethering threads connecting the Immortals to their enormous petrified bodies had grown noticeably thinner.

One ancient soul released a long sigh.

"If the Immortal Path were not sealed, perhaps we would still have another way back."

Another Immortal responded quietly.

"There is little meaning in speaking about that now. It has been countless years since we last felt the connection."

Su Bai went quiet.

The Immortals, however, had already moved on.

"Besides, reincarnation is not such a terrible ending," one of them said with a softer laugh. "Starting over might even be interesting."

Another luminous soul turned toward Su Bai.

"Especially when someone is already keeping our belongings for us."

That drew several laughs from the others.

Su Bai managed a faint smile, but his thoughts remained caught on what they had said moments earlier.

The Immortal Path was sealed.

He had never known that.

Before he could sort through what it meant, one of the ancient souls addressed him again.

"Young man, we have left what remains of our inheritances with you. If fate allows it, look for us after we reincarnate."

Another immediately added, "And do not arrive empty-handed."

"He already promised to return our inheritances."

"I am merely reminding him."

Their bickering earned another round of laughter.

Su Bai finally shook his head.

"I’ll remember."

One of the Immortals drifted closer, its light already noticeably weaker than before.

"If you truly manage to find any of us in another life, a little help would be appreciated."

It paused before adding almost casually, "And if you happen to find a way to unseal the Immortal Path along the way, that would be even better."

A deeper voice immediately cut in.

"Do not speak as though you are asking him to repair a broken door."

The first Immortal laughed.

"I know how absurd it sounds."

Its tone softened slightly.

"But if you ever reach that point, young man, open the path again. If some of us are reborn in the lower realms, perhaps we can walk it once more."

Su Bai did not answer right away.

He wanted to ask what had sealed it, when it had happened, and why nobody in the world seemed to know.

Before he could choose which question to begin with, the golden threads binding the Immortals to their ancient bodies trembled.

The change silenced everyone.

Several threads had already become so faint that they were difficult to see. As Su Bai watched, one finally dissolved completely.

One of the Immortals looked back toward the petrified body it had been tethered to for countless years.

"It seems this is it."

Another laughed quietly.

"I expected the end to be more impressive."

The remaining threads began fading faster.

One of the Immortals turned toward him.

"Young man, thank you."

Another followed.

"Do not forget us."

A familiar rough voice laughed.

"And if you do, this great one will find you after reincarnating and beat the memory back into you."

Laughter echoed across the altar once more.

It did not last long.

The final threads disappeared, and the luminous souls slowly separated from the enormous bodies that had imprisoned them for so long.

For the first time, nothing bound them to the altar.

A strange force descended before Su Bai could fully understand what was happening.

There was no Qi fluctuation, no spiritual pressure, and no disturbance in space. He could not even tell where it came from, yet every Immortal recognized it immediately.

One of them laughed softly.

"So reincarnation finally remembered us."

Its luminous form began to blur.

Another looked toward Su Bai.

"Until we meet again, young man."

The first soul vanished almost soundlessly. The others followed.

Their lights disappeared one after another as though something beyond the world had gently drawn them away.

Silence settled over the altar.

Su Bai remained where he was for several breaths.

The ancient formations beneath his feet were already beginning to dim now that the spirituality sustaining them was gone, but his attention barely touched them.

The Immortal Path was sealed.

The words finally settled properly in his mind.

Until today, he had never even known there was something preventing cultivators of this world from reaching the Immortal Realm.

Yet these people had spoken of it as something they had personally felt happen.

Their connection had been cut. The path had disappeared. And just before leaving for reincarnation, they had casually asked him to open it again someday.

Su Bai rubbed his forehead.

He had entered the Fallen-Star Sanctuary to find opportunities and survive long enough to leave.

Somehow, the trip had ended with him eating what ancient Immortals had failed to kill, discovering an Origin he still did not understand, growing nine additional Dantians, learning that his Spirit Root was not actually Wood, and being asked to deal with a sealed path to immortality.

A long silence passed.

"Fuck."

The curse echoed across the empty altar.

Su Bai felt it summarized the situation rather well.