Lu Shimming's breath hitched as the world around him began to dissolve. The familiar landscape faded, leaving behind only a sense of weightlessness. Before him, a stone table materialized, ancient and imposing, as if it had stood since time immemorial. It bore an uncanny resemblance to a tombstone.
Drawn closer by an invisible force, Lu Shimming's gaze fixed on the tablet. Deeply carved words, imbued with a terrifying might, adorned its surface. The weight of those words would have suffocated anyone else, but for reasons unknown, Lu Shimming felt a strange sense of ease wash over him as he stared at them.
[Nirvana Tablet]
**Inheritor: 4th Generation**
[Authority]
**Eyes of the Reaper**: Grants the ability to see the Dead.
**Soul Collector**: Allows the collection of souls of the deceased within a 10-meter radius.
**Unbind**: Permits the soul to break the chains of fate and rise from the dead. {Requires Soul}
**Corpse Collector**: Enables storage of the Dead.
"What is this?" Lu Shimming murmured, reading the inscriptions. Could this be his reward? His chance at redemption?
Calling upon the dead? Collecting souls?
"Does this make me a Corpse Cultivator?" He frowned deeply. On the Profound Myriad Continent, Corpse Cultivation was considered an evil art, despised by all—whether they were Orthodox, Unorthodox, or from the Demon Clan. Such a path was nothing short of heresy.
He wasn't some kind of heretic.
"What am I supposed to do with this… I can't…" As Lu Shimming grappled with his newfound reality, the world around him began to darken once more.
"The next trial will begin within a year. If you fail, you will be stripped of your position as Inheritor and consumed by the Yellow River for eternity."
The ancient voice rang out, echoing in the void as everything turned pitch black.
"Wait a minute! Did you just say something ridiculous in passing?" Lu Shimming shouted, his voice swallowed by the darkness, with no one to hear his protest.
"Ahh!" Lu Shimming groaned as he jolted awake. His eyes fluttered open, only to be met with a blinding light that overwhelmed his vision. For someone who had lived in darkness for so long, the light was almost unbearable. But as it slowly subsided, a new world emerged before him—one unlike any he had ever seen, even when he still had his eyesight.
"What is this?" he muttered, raising his hand and inspecting it with a mixture of awe and confusion. The world around him had transformed into a vibrant tapestry of colors, impossible to describe with mere words. He could see beneath his own skin, down to the bones and muscles. A strange, radiant blue light flowed through him, as well as the surrounding environment.
"Is this Qi?" he whispered, his voice tinged with surprise. But it wasn't just Qi. He could see much more than that—wisps and orbs of different colors floating all around.
Suddenly, Lu Shimming remembered one of the [Authorities] mentioned on the [Nirvana Tablet].
"Is this the Eyes of the Reaper?" He raised his fingers, gently touching a white wisp of light. For a brief moment, the image of a stranger flickered before him, only to dissipate into nothingness. "What was that?"
As he pondered aloud, he began to stroll through his surroundings, scanning the area with newfound clarity. He had fallen into the Rotten Valley, a place infamous for its mounds of decaying corpses. The air was thick with darkness, but within his sight, the lack of light was irrelevant. He saw the world through a lens far beyond normal human perception.
"Hmm?" Lu Shimming suddenly felt a chill crawl up his spine. A cold, sinister presence brushed against him, sending icy tendrils down his back. His instincts kicked in, and he spun around, his feet skidding against the ground, leaving deep marks.
There, standing before him, was a figure—human, yet not human. An Undead Corpse.
It was enveloped in a murderous red aura, with a crimson wisp of light embedded in the center of its forehead.
"Are you kidding me? Am I going to die again?" Lu Shimming's mind raced as he frantically searched for a way out of this predicament. He knew nothing of his powers. Even though he sensed Qi coursing through his body, something about it felt off. He hadn't even reached the Qi Refinement Realm yet.
"Roar!!!" The Undead Corpse let out a blood-curdling roar, sensing Lu Shimming's fear. It sprang into action, dashing towards him with maddened ferocity, dragging its broken ankle that twisted at an unnatural angle.
Desperate, Lu Shimming grabbed a femur bone from a nearby pile of corpses and swung it with all his might like a makeshift club.
"Thud!"
The bone struck the Undead Corpse's ribs, cracking them with a satisfying crunch. But before Lu Shimming could revel in his small victory, the corpse thrust its palm into his stomach with brutal efficiency, piercing through flesh and bone.
"Y-You!" Lu Shimming's eyes widened in shock. Only then did he realize that his opponent felt no pain, no fear—it was a mindless, relentless Undead.
"Shnk!" The corpse retracted its hand from Lu Shimming's stomach, clutching his intestines in its deathly grip. Blood spurted out, drenching the corpse's white skull in a crimson cascade, making it even more menacing.
"Y-You… not again…" Blood gushed from Lu Shimming's mouth as he collapsed to the ground. The world around him spun, but a mocking smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
All these years, he had believed that with even the smallest chance, he would fight back. The dreamland, the hundred steps, all the struggle—what was it all for? When he finally achieved his goal, he hesitated, balking at the nature of his newfound powers. And what was the result of that hesitation?
'If only I had one more chance…' he thought, his fist clenching in regret. The concepts of right and wrong no longer mattered. In the face of death, he finally understood that.
"Unbind.." A weak mutter escaped from his lips as if his last struggle, he just wanted to use the power that he had desired for so long.
'What a pathetic end…' This final thought swirled in Lu Shimming's mind as the pool of blood around him continued to expand.