So What If You’ve Been Reborn? - CH 42

After shouting at them, the cultivator in golden armour raised his bow and shot down more Luoluo Birds. Only then did the beasts leave the barrier alone and head towards the cliffs being guarded by that cultivator.

Which happened to be the same place where Elder Long-Brows was standing.

The Heluo monks below were so worried that they nearly ran out to help him, but they heard someone bark, “Wait! Don’t go outside!”

Everyone looked back, and:

Who’s this youngster? Giving orders even though he’s only Foundation Establishment-level, what is he playing at!

“He was sticking with Elder Huiji! Maybe he’s the Elder’s disciple.”

Everyone was shocked. A disciple of Elder Long-Brows, which meant he was in the same generation as their sect leader!

In the present day, many sects of the cultivation world went by an odd hierarchy where the cultivation base decided a person’s position in the sect. For example, one could become martial brothers with Golden Core-level martial uncles after forming a Golden Core. Some sects were unhappy with this system, for they felt it placed too much emphasis on power and ability while losing sight of morals and common sense. More importantly, it was too much trouble to keep track of every single time a person went from being your martial nephew to your martial brother or martial uncle. The Heluo Sect believed in the latter.

If this young Daoist really was the Elder’s disciple, they felt it would be better to maintain their silence.

—the Enlightened Huiji was not protective of his disciples, but he had an odd temper.

As for why he was odd, even the Heluo Sect monks who knew everything despite not leaving their homes (eternal shut-ins) could tell you. Among those who chose to enter Black Depths Valley and managed to stay there for so long, there could never be anyone normal!

When the Enlightened Tianyan was faced with such danger, he nearly forgot that he was still a young outer-circle disciple at the moment. After blurting those words out, he became nervous, but he regained his courage when he saw no one coming to beat him up.

He stood on the bough of a tree, trying to make himself look solemn and mature.

“Things don’t look right outside. It might be an illusion!”

Oh?

Including Chen He, everyone had turned to look at the Enlightened Tianyan.

The latter held his head high and spoke confidently, “The thirteen lanes of the western end suddenly appeared in this valley, but somehow they weren’t the least bit curious, and they haven’t even asked us where we come from!”

As they listened to the faint growls coming from outside, the Heluo Sect’s monks looked uncomfortable.

“Maybe they’re just busy,” someone muttered.

“How bad is the situation that they aren’t taking issue with this place that clearly isn’t part of the ancient world, and this group of people they’ve never met before?” The Enlightened Tianyan frowned.

“Perhaps the situation is so bad that—as long as you’re human, you’re immediately considered an ally to them,” Chen He suddenly spoke up. “They aren’t asking anything because they don’t have any time to spare.”

“…”

He had said quite the harrowing thing.

The Heluo Sect cultivators were rendered speechless, and then they felt chills running down their backs.

During the ancient times when the lands were full of monstrous beasts, humans had it tough.

All types of cultivation practices existed throughout the land. Every member of the tribe would be at least Qi Fostering-level. Since they did not have much time to cultivate, they used crude practices that eschewed mental state and focused on connecting with the spiritual energy of the heavens and earth, which could only get them to the Foundation Establishment stage. This was most suitable for common people who just needed enough strength to hunt in the mountains and fend off those monstrous beasts.

Picture this: an era where even slaves could be at the Foundation Establishment stage—need one say anything more about how dangerous the ancient world was?

“No, this can’t be!” The Enlightened Tianyan’s mind was quite flexible during crucial moments.

Dimension fragments were one-time items that could not be recovered after being unlocked with a blood sacrifice.

No one knew how large this fragment of the lost ancient world was. Could it be that the monsters and ancient cultivators inside this fragment had been fighting all this while, after being sealed for eight thousand years?

The length of the battle depended on the resources each faction had.

In order to support a war like this, how large would this dimension fragment have to be?

Unable to figure it out, Chen He decided to keep quiet.

Fortunately, Elder Long-Brows soon returned to the barrier, his expression dark.

“It’s a beast wave!”

Everyone drew a sharp breath.

Even people with little knowledge of the ancient world could guess what those words meant.

“This place is surrounded by high cliffs, and there are thousands of ancient cultivators camping on the cliffs. The situation there is dire. There’s hundreds of monsters, and some of them aren’t even in our records! Previously we only saw the Luoluo Birds because they flew high enough to cross the perimeter.” After saying all this, Elder Long-Brows flicked his duster. “Half of you will stay here. The other half will come with me to help them.”

“Noble Elder!”

“When you’re up on the cliffs, don’t go off on your own. Be cautious and listen to the ancient cultivators.” Elder Long-Brows looked solemn.

“Elder Huiji, have you already explained the situation to those cultivators?”

“The situation is bad. There’s no time for any talk up there.” Elder Long-Brows shook his head.

“But!”

Everyone exchanged uneasy looks.

“Should someone…be placating the citizens here?” someone stammered.

“If they break through the mountain cliffs, we’ll all be dead, let alone those citizens!”

“And there’s a fox spirit…”

Elder Long-Brows did not waste any time thinking. Ignoring the residents of the thirteen lanes who were peeking outside, he hovered in midair and looked around him, declaring in a sonorous voice, “Listen, fox spirit! Once the beast wave breaks through this barrier, you too will perish; you are on your own! Our sect’s founder, the Enlightened Tianyi, has always preached that all cultivators are part of the Dao. I will spare your life if you are willing to repent.”

All the Heluo Sect cultivators had their eye corners twitching.

Chen He saw that odd young Daoist put on a serious expression and become solemn after hearing those words. He sensed that something was off, but he could not put a finger on it.

Elder Long-Brows waved his hand at them.

“Half of you will leave the barrier. Don’t let everyone stay behind.”

Even without any discussion, the hundred Nascent Soul-level cultivators were perfectly in sync. At once, all of them—

Rushed out of the barrier together!!

Even Chen He and the Enlightened Tianyan were picked up by Elder Long-Brows and carried out of the barrier in a flash.

“…”

Not only did it surprise Chen He, but it also stunned the eight-tailed fox spirit who was hiding under a roof: What was that about leaving half of them behind!

The fox spirit was in disbelief. So these darned Heluo monks would really be leaving those six hundred-odd mortals behind! Did they not fear the karmic debt dealt by the divine order? Even if the dimension fragment had no divine order within, all these mortals should not have gone missing if not for the Heluo Sect coming to capture him in the middle of the night.

On the other hand, the eight-tailed fox spirit was not feeling any pressure despite having been the one who caused it. Beast cultivators did not aspire to achieve immortality. After all, they were content with being able to live without fearing anything. And fox spirits believed religiously in the legend of the ninth fox tail’s ability to defy the heavens.

While he was still puzzling over it, the Heluo Sect cultivators had already scattered around the valley to cast barriers. They were preparing to cast a larger barrier. There was empty land in the valley, along with fruit trees and springs.

They had already surveyed the area. This seemed to be a place inhabited by humans during the ancient times, but it had long since become nothing but ruins, and the land had been uncultivated for a long time.

Chen He tilted his head, thinking about something.

The Enlightened Tianyan’s eyes lit up. “Indeed, this is an illusion!”

“Hmph!” Elder Long-Brows laughed coldly, saying to the young Daoist, “You only know part of the whole truth.”

On the other end, the eight-tailed fox spirit rushed out furiously.

As soon as he broke through the first barrier, the golden-armoured cultivator on the cliff turned around, nocking an arrow in his bow. It was aimed right at the eight-tailed fox spirit.

Fearing for his life, the fox spirit attempted to flee.

A silver arrow shot through the air. With a pitiful howl, the eight-tailed fox spirit was forced into his true form, spewing mouthfuls of blood. He fell onto a cliff and moved no more.

The golden-armoured cultivator put his bow away and left without a second glance.

Chen He: …

The Enlightened Tianyan: …

And just like that, a wily fox spirit with Immortalisation-level strength was dead?

Elder Long-Brows gave a dry cough.

“Don’t just stand there, keep moving! I’ll take a look at that.”

Only then did the stunned Heluo Sect cultivators gather their wits and go about setting up barriers around the entire valley. As long as they could let the citizens of the thirteen lanes leave their houses to gather fruits and draw water, it would be enough.

Soon, Elder Long-Brows returned with the fox spirit’s corpse.

He tossed the snow-white fox to the ground. Those eight fluffy tails made Chen He’s cheeks redden again when he saw them.

No one had to ask if the eight-tailed fox spirit was still alive. The fox spirit’s entire head was gone, the edges of his severed neck wildly uneven and blackened. One could easily imagine the sheer force of that arrow.

Chen He and the Enlightened Tianyan were dumbfounded.

It made sense for the former to be stunned since he had little experience. But the latter had his previous life’s experiences, and had even been the leader of the entire orthodox faction. He knew very well how powerful a person would be if they could shoot down an eight-tailed fox spirit and reduce it to such a state—after eight thousand years, no one would be able to find someone this fearsome in the entire cultivation world!

Chen He took a few steps forward and uncovered a weathered, broken stele. He looked up and said, “We’re in big trouble.”

“Nonsense, it’s all just illusions out there!” the Enlightened Tianyan disagreed with him quite enthusiastically. “Look at those wastelands under the cliffs, there’s ruins everywhere, and this broken stele. This place has gone under for many years, the beast wave and ancient cultivators are just illusions.”

Chen He nodded and pointed to the fox spirit’s corpse. “The problem is, these illusions can still kill people.”

Unwilling to accept this, the Enlightened Tianyan wanted to argue that they had no way of discerning what they saw.

But he saw Elder Long-Brows put the fox spirit corpse into his mustard seed storage treasure and use his divine sense to examine it. Elder Long-Brows gave everyone a solemn nod.

The fox spirit was truly dead.

“I was only trying something. Looks like we have no other choice.” Elder Long-Brows sighed as he looked to the sky.

The eight-tailed fox was crafty by nature, and it would have been detrimental to keep it around.

Elder Long-Brows said to leave half the cultivators behind to put the fox spirit at ease while having all of them leave the place. If a fox spirit ate a cultivator, it could imitate the cultivator’s aura and demeanour, which would make it much harder to kill the fox spirit—that was right, this was a trap where the ancient cultivators would aim to kill the fox spirit as soon as it went outside.

With the beast wave causing such devastation, any non-human would be mercilessly slaughtered by the ancient cultivators as soon as they exposed themselves from behind.

“Immortalisation-level cultivators can live up to a thousand years. As far as my divine sense can tell, this dimension fragment is only as big as all of Yuzhou City. How can it still have so many ancient cultivators and monsters after eight thousand years?”

It was indeed an illusion.

But even so—these were illusions with the power to kill. The fox spirit’s death had proven this fact.

“Whether or not this is an illusion, we will die to those beasts as long as the defences atop the cliffs are breached,” Elder Long-Brows sighed.

Chen He and the Enlightened Tianyan nodded heavily.

The Heluo Sect cultivators were bamboozled. It was fine if their noble Elder understood the situation, but why did these two youngsters look like they also understood everything? Other than Elder Long-Brows’ coded message, they hardly understood a thing.

Yes, the coded message began from that quote by the Heluo Sect’s founder, the Enlightened Tianyi.

‘I will spare your life if you are willing to repent’ was something the Enlightened Tianyi would always say before killing someone. After the opponent’s consciousness was shattered by a strike of the sword and their Nascent Soul escaped the body, they would even hear the Enlightened Tianyi’s next line: ‘Even if you repent, I will not wait for you’.

After that, some sect leader along the line invented a whole string of secret codes for whatever reason.

For example, one of them stated that every order given after saying the founder’s signature quote would mean the opposite. ‘Not killing’ would mean ‘kill’, and ‘leave half the people behind’ would mean ‘do not leave a single person behind’.

After an hour, they had the barrier up once more. The faint sounds of war and the scent of blood disappeared abruptly.

Elder Long-Brows led everyone up the cliffs. The ancient cultivators, the monsters, all of them had disappeared without a trace. All that was left were the wall-like cliffs and the empty wastelands.

CLUNK.

Chen He stopped and looked at his feet.

He bent down and scraped at the dirt, uncovering a magic item shaped like a round shield.

This magic item had already become tarnished and useless.

The Heluo Sect cultivators also found other things, like pieces of armour, broken swords…and the scattered fangs and horns of monsters.

This battle likely happened eight thousand years ago.

Monsters attacked the valleys inhabited by humans, and the ancient cultivators held the fort on the surrounding mountain cliffs. Out of nowhere, calamity befell them, the ancient world was ripped apart, this fragment was sealed away, and the battle had raged on since then.

Both factions were dead, but their souls had nowhere to go, and the spiritual energy of this dimension fragment could not dissipate.

And so—

A strong wind blew the dust below them towards the horizon.

The shield Chen He was holding suddenly had a hand attached to it. The sand and dust solidified into a young, handsome ancient cultivator who was about Golden Core-level. For a moment he was surprised, then he smiled at Chen He.

“Young lad, you seem a bit unfamiliar.”

Chen He slowly let go. The man leaped to his feet.

“Rest assured, we will win,” he told Chen He.

Where the wind touched, a large group of ancient cultivators reappeared on top of the cliff. Their leader was the golden-armoured cultivator who had shot the eight-tailed fox spirit. He stood there with a cold, stern expression.

On the horizon, countless fearsome beasts swarmed towards them.

“Men, behind us is Colossal Waters Valley, our homeland, where thousands and thousands of the western people live! The immortals are fighting in the north, the Nanhe Sect and Beixuan Sect have no time for others, and we will not receive any assistance,” the golden-armoured cultivator bellowed. “Today we fight to our last breaths for our family, our people, our tribe! We will not retreat!”

“We will not retreat!”

“Kill them!”

As the beast wave hit them, the ancient cultivators on top of the mountainous cliffs wielded their weapons and magic items, releasing spells without rest. Their bellows shook the very ground. The stench of blood filled their noses.

After eight thousand years, Colossal Waters Valley had dried up, and their homeland had long since been reduced to rubble.

Even after everything had returned to the earth, after bones had crumbled into the sand, even after they no longer remembered their own deaths, they were still neck-deep in this battle.

“We shall fight!” Elder Long-Brows ordered. “The vengeful energy of both factions has spread throughout the entire dimension fragment after thousands of years. Only the complete loss of either faction can resolve this stalemate, which will give us a chance to break the dimension fragment and escape.”