Chapter 31: A Lifetime’s Relic

After everyone from the Immortal Sword Sect’s secret realm swore their oaths, the nun who led them gave an embarrassed laugh. “So you are fellow disciples from the same sect. We were rash indeed! Please forgive us. We shall take our leave.”

With that, the group vanished in flashes of light.

The young man in blue from the Hidden Cloud Sword Sect returned his long sword to its sheath and cupped his hands. “I am Yun Tian of the Hidden Cloud Sword Sect. Greetings, fellow cultivators.”

Li Chen returned the salute. “Li Chen of the Kunlun Immortal Sect, along with my family, thanks Brother Yun Tian for your assistance.”

Yun Tian smiled. “I merely lent a hand when I saw injustice. It was nothing worth mentioning. I acted only because they were bullying the few with their numbers and were vicious and murderous. Seeing that all of you are kindhearted and filled with righteous spirit, I felt an instant sense of kinship.”

Seeing that this sword cultivator, Yun Tian, possessed such uprightness and chivalrous righteousness, Li Chen warmly invited him and the man in blue armor into the estate for tea and conversation.

Li Chen and Yun Tian briefly recounted what had happened at Spirit-Seep Peak in Guilin City. After listening, Yun Tian warned them that those people were arrogant and vicious, and that they would need to be especially careful in the future.

After exchanging means of communication, Yun Tian bade them farewell and departed.

Li Chen then spoke with the man in blue armor about the treasure within the cavern dwelling he had been guarding. The man’s name was Gui Shan. He was frank, straightforward, and full of heroic spirit, and the two sides enjoyed one another’s company immensely.

During their conversation, Gui Shan mentioned that the destined heir would eventually arrive to receive the inheritance. In truth, the process was simple: whoever could inject the power of their soul into the cavern’s seal and break it would be the chosen one.

They talked and laughed, ate and drank, and only after everyone was both sated and warmed by wine did Gui Shan, seeing that the family inspired a natural sense of closeness and trust in him—and that they were all intensely curious about the cavern dwelling—wonder whether the destined heir might be among them. He immediately agreed to take them there to try their luck.

Before long, Gui Shan led the family to the bottom of a vast mountain valley, where an utterly ordinary cliff face stood before them. He instructed them to step forward one at a time, place a palm against a concealed recess, and channel their soul power into it.

All five tried, but nothing happened. Li Chen then had the artifact spirits Ling Tian, Zi Cai, Cai Ling, and the flower spirit Hua’er try as well, but they also failed.

Gui Shan told Li Chen to give it a try himself. The instant Li Chen placed his hand into the recess, a rainbow glow flickered into existence. When he began channeling his soul power, a seven-colored radiance suddenly shot into the sky. Amid a sharp cracking sound, a cavern entrance emerged from the cliff.

Gui Shan was overjoyed. “I had a feeling you might be the destined one!”

Dense spiritual energy, like mist and smoke, surged outward. After their initial delight, the group followed Gui Shan into the cavern dwelling. Its interior was plain and unadorned, revealing that its former master had pursued solitary cultivation without attachment to worldly possessions.

At the very depths of the cavern stood an offering table bearing a statue. Its features bore a striking resemblance to Li Chen, leaving everyone astonished.

Gui Shan then said, “Place your palm over your chest and channel your soul power.”

Li Chen did as instructed. Suddenly, a strand of seven-colored light shot into the center of his brow. With a deep rumble, memories from his past life surfaced one after another in his mind.

In his first life, when he had reached the Immortal Emperor Realm, Li Chen obtained a Heaven-Ascending Token within an ancient ruin. The five Immortal Emperors of that era pursued him relentlessly in an attempt to seize it, leaving him gravely wounded and on the verge of death. In the end, he relied on a secret treasure to flee to this place. Yet his vital meridians had suffered irreparable damage, and his strength gradually withered away.

Shortly after accepting a successor to inherit his mantle, he passed away, entrusting his final wishes and arrangements to his disciple. He hoped that his reincarnated self would one day come here to obtain his remaining treasures and inheritance.

What he could never have imagined was that every subsequent incarnation would meet an early death through catastrophe. Only in his third life did Li Chen finally fulfill that uncompleted wish.

A surging force erupted within Li Chen, swelling through his body until it seemed ready to burst. Blood flowed from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Even the remnants of an Immortal Emperor’s power were far beyond what the present-day Li Chen could easily endure.

He immediately sat down cross-legged and circulated his ancestral cultivation art, the Heaven-Refining Formula. His cultivation rose with unstoppable momentum, breaking successively through the Nascent Soul, Deity Transformation, Spirit Severing, Soul Refining, and Soul Fusion realms—five major breakthroughs in succession.

Ten days later, when Li Chen rose to his feet, the bones and tendons throughout his body crackled loudly for quite some time. Then he threw back his head and let out a deep, exhilarated roar, causing the surrounding mountains to echo without end.