So What If You’ve Been Reborn? - CH 43

C43. Lost World (Part 3)

A bright-red drop of blood slowly trickled down Chen He’s forehead.

His vision in the right eye was somewhat blurred. His fist had sunk deeply into the neck of a monster with red fur, while its claws had left scratches on his right arm. These monsters’ fangs had been full of venom while they were still alive. Their souls had remained after their deaths, and their bodies had reformed into their pre-death appearances. Though they had corporeal bodies that looked normal, there were things that could never be the same.

They could only attack and bite cultivators’ necks, ripping the bodies open, but they could no longer eat anything.

And they no longer had any venom in their claws and fangs.

Because of this, the Heluo Sect cultivators had narrowly escaped with their lives on many occasions.

Behind the cliffs, injured people lay on the ground everywhere. Those with lighter injuries sat cross-legged, while the more heavily injured people were already unconscious. Others had to stuff pills in their mouths.

Some wounds were particularly hideous. Luckily, all these cultivators were at the Nascent Soul stage, and they were far from being mortal. If they did not receive fatal blows, they could still move their blood vessels and meridians around in a pinch to keep themselves from bleeding out.

Worn robes, hideous wounds, suppressed cries of pain…The Heluo Sect cultivators looked utterly miserable.

What made them even more ashamed was that Chen He and the young Daoist brought in by Elder Long-Brows were still holding out on the cliffside. All of them were of higher levels than those two, yet they would always retreat much earlier. There were only a few still left on the frontlines.

After all, the cultivation world had not seen such appalling battle conditions in many years.

The Heluo Sect cultivators had been taken by surprise. Unlike Chen He who gained insight into the Dao through martial arts, and the Enlightened Tianyan who had a wealth of experience from his previous life, they were not as well-suited to the battlefield.

During the ancient times of eight thousand years ago, simply using a hand seal or casting a powerful spell was not enough. The ancient cultivators on the cliffs all had weapons in one hand and magic items in the other. Even as they casted spells, they had to keep moving around to avoid being dive-bombed by the monstrous birds above, or the attacks of the monsters who climbed up the cliff faces.

Things were very difficult for Elder Long-Brows, for he could only use about half of his full strength. Not only did he have to ensure Chen He’s safety, he also had to keep an eye on the young Foundation Establishment-level Daoist.

“This won’t do.”

Elder Long-Brows summoned a bolt of lightning to strike several Luoluo Birds out of the way, then picked up the Enlightened Tianyan, who had been casting spells in between dodges. On the way, he also dragged back Chen He, who had been struggling with some beasts.

Seeing the wounded people lying at the bottom, Elder Long-Brows stomped about, disgruntled.

“All of you are an embarrassment to the Heluo Sect.”

Everyone hung their heads limply.

The Enlightened Tianyan wanted to speak, but he realised he could only recognise about half of these cultivators who were generations above him. Most likely, the others had long since perished on the battlefield of the Orthodox-Demonic War before he became sect leader; this thought made him sorrowful, and he kept his silence.

“And you!” Elder Long-Brows yelled at Chen He. “What are you doing, climbing up onto the cliffs instead of staying put at the back? Any of these monsters could kill you with a single bite!”

Chen He wiped the blood off his forehead and looked to the cliffs.

There was much difference between the ancient cultivators’ abilities. There were Golden Core-level cultivators, and there were many Foundation Establishment-level cultivators as well. Lower-level cultivators would never stay protected in the back; clearly, on that day, the people of Colossal Waters Valley had had their backs against the wall.

“Daozhang, I will be very careful,” said Chen He.

“You—” Elder Long-Brows was so annoyed that he nearly said, ‘What use are you if you go out there, you can’t influence the situation?’ However, when he thought about how the Heluo Sect’s Nascent Soul-level cultivators were nowhere as good as Chen He due to having been cooped up indoors all the time, he fell silent at once.

“Senior Brother is waiting for me outside, I won’t die,” Chen He said earnestly.

“Go cover that wound on your arm!” Elder Long-Brows yanked Chen He angrily.

Having said that, he turned around and continued to scold everyone else.

“The ancient cultivators have been guarding these cliffs for countless years, and they charge and retreat so systematically. Meanwhile, all of you fire off spells willy-nilly as soon as you see the monsters. What are you trying to do? I didn’t bring you here so I could arrange your funerals! Use your heads!”

As he spoke, he thumped the Enlightened Tianyan on the shoulder, nearly bowling the young Daoist over.

“You lot aren’t even as good as this young Daoist here!”

Forced to become an example for the rest, the Enlightened Tianyan felt pressured by the various gazes focused on him.

“Ahem, I made a living catching lesser demonic beasts in Yuzhou City. I had no instruction nor allies, my cultivation base is poor, I’m just used to observing the state of w…mm, observing the situation.” Since the Enlightened Tianyan knew very well what his fellow Heluo Sect cultivators were like, he quickly gave a humble explanation.

This satisfied many of the other cultivators. It was quite mortifying for them to be scolded so harshly by a sect elder, after all.

“Noble Elder…Do we really have no other way to break this dimension fragment?” a heavily injured Heluo cultivator asked weakly.

“What other way would we have?” Elder Long-Brows retorted.

The eight-tailed fox spirit who unlocked the dimension fragment was already dead. All they had to do was destroy the balance of spiritual energy in this piece of the old world—

This should have been such an easy thing to do. If they dug up all the magic plants, mined all the special ores and jades that could be used to forge magic items, killed all the monsters—that would have destroyed the spiritual energy cycle and caused the dimension fragment to fall apart naturally.

Who would have known that it contained two warring factions whose souls would not dissipate?

“All those with heavy injuries will stay behind. The rest will go up the cliffs. Don’t fight. Stay near the ancient cultivators and help them fend off attacks.” Elder Long-Brows pulled at his beard impatiently. “Eat your food one bite at a time, tread paths one step at a time. If you can’t learn how to save your own life, hurry up and go join the mortals in the valley.”

Not a sound could be heard from the rest.

“Move!”

A Heluo cultivator silently scratched a mark onto the cliff face.

The dimension fragment’s sky held a blazing sun that made it impossible to distinguish day and night. In reality, that was a ball of sunlight essence which hung in the sky permanently along with this broken world. It made the weather swelteringly hot.

Within the barriers cast by the Heluo Sect, things were not peaceful in the valley either.

This situation had begun at the beginning of the new year, when every household would already have some food stores. Many of the people in the thirteen lanes of the western end were commoners who owned properties. Though the wells had dried up, there were many mountain springs in the valley, which provided them with enough water. They did not have to worry about basic necessities.

Unfortunately, people would be frightened by such unexpected changes in life. Moreover, with all the killing and howling outside, all these immortals flying around, and the occasional monster coming in, even if the monster was killed at once, it still shocked many people into illness and left them bedridden.

No one could tell whether the seasons were passing. In the end, the people accepted that they would never be able to leave this place.

Large numbers of people died, countless fights had broken out, and finally, everything became peaceful once more.

After the fruit trees in the valley were picked clean, cultivated fields appeared.

Many graves appeared along the edge of the forest. Without enough candles to go around, they could only stack rocks on top of the graves. They formed a stark contrast with the neat, closely packed rows of scratch marks on the side of the cliff.

Every time the sand and dust from the monsters’ bones was blown towards the end of the sky by strong winds, the silent cliffs would be filled with the ancient cultivators. Though they were dead, they still lived, forever unable to see the next day.

“Young lad, it’s time to get up.”

The ancient cultivator with the round shield woke Chen He up.

Though he did not remember Chen He well, he was already accustomed to this person who lay near him.

Every time they appeared, these undying souls would always think this was the night before the beast wave arrived. They gathered on top of the cliffs, waiting for the battle that would decide the fate of their homeland.

The Heluo Sect cultivators ended their meditations, getting to their feet.

Everyone’s robes were full of holes. The clothing and elixirs in their storage pouches were running low.

Chen He had never counted the number of scratch marks on the cliff face, but he knew that the role of recording the number of beast waves had already been taken up by four different Heluo Sect cultivators to date.

None of the deceased cultivators had been buried.

Every cultivator had their own storage pouch. In life, it was used to store their belongings; in death, it served as a temporary morgue where they waited for their fellow cultivators to bring them back to the Heluo Sect.

—no matter how careful they were, misfortune would always befall them.

The first time they saw the souls of the deceased, many Heluo Sect cultivators broke down crying, unable to control themselves.

Previously, nothing had escaped from the eight-tailed fox spirit’s body when his entire head had been severed by the silver arrow. Because of this, they had forgotten that even if they died, they would be unable to leave this ancient lost world.

As the only Immortalisation-level cultivator they had, Elder Long-Brows’ eyes were bloodshot and underscored with greenish-black shadows. Every day, he had to scold the Heluo Sect cultivators a great many times to bring them back to their senses.

Those unable to snap out of their dazes were made to go back down the cliff.

It seemed that Chen He was the only one who had yet to crumble. Even the Enlightened Tianyan had become exhausted.

Once, Elder Long-Brows had spent many days staring anxiously at Chen He before he remembered that Chen He had the clambeast pearl Shi Feng had stolen for him. If Chen He wished to forget, he just had to seal the clambeast pearl away, and every day would seem brand-new to him.

Elder Long-Brows was relieved by this realisation. Little did he know that Chen He, who had been keeping mostly quiet, had not forgotten a single thing.

Chen He stood atop the cliff, gazing at the beast wave approaching from afar as he thought of the improved Primordial State Palm he had polished up the day before. His clothes were just as tattered as everyone else’s; his entire body had been tanned a shade darker, and his limbs and back were covered in wounds of various degrees.

Those wounds could be healed with high-quality medicinal pills. Before Chen He would be able to get out there, he did not even think about those.

Today, he was just as cautious as ever. He stared unflinchingly at the monsters that crawled up the cliff, choosing targets he could take on, working to defend the ancient cultivator with the round shield.

The howls and cries never seemed to end. Sharp claws sent flesh and blood spattering all over.

Ancient cultivators were constantly collapsing and turning to sand. This sight was a common one.

—he had to stay alive. Senior Brother would be waiting for him outside.

Chen He pursed his lips, dodging an attack from a rhinoceros-like monster. The spiritual energy from his palm had become a rich golden colour; this was a sign of imminent Golden Core formation, but he had been in this state for a very long time.

Even the Enlightened Tianyan had formed his own Golden Core a while back, but Chen He still showed no signs of such a development.

Chen He alone knew that his vast stores of spiritual energy had not gone towards the formation of his Golden Core. All of it had been consumed by the slumbering Stone-borne Flame within him. Every time he awoke from his meditative trances, he would find that another section of the Stone-borne Flame’s seal had disappeared.

Soon, very soon…

Chen He kicked a human-faced spider to the side and twisted its pincers off, stabbing them towards a huge fanged monkey.

The cultivator with the shield slipped out from under the monkey, stabbed his hook-shaped weapon into the monkey’s chest, and kicked it off the cliff. Then he turned to Chen He and smiled.

These terrible battles with no victory in sight had caused many Heluo Sect cultivators immense despair.

The only impact of their efforts seemed to be a slight decrease in the rate of the ancient cultivators’ deaths—until those battle-driven souls felt the presence of the Heluo Sect cultivators and began to cooperate with them. The rare smiles they showed, unchanged even after eight thousand years, made it seem as if they were still alive.

Who would get along best with these souls who would never be able to see the next day?

Everything was reduced to sand once more. The round shield fell to the ground at Chen He’s feet.

After many hours, that ancient cultivator would smile and ask, “Where are you from, young lad?”

“Is that so, you want to hear about the Beixuan Sect, young lad? That’s a very big sect, I hear it’s produced many immortals. Too bad it’s too far from us, we won’t last long enough for help to arrive.”

“The war between the Beixuan Sect and the Nanhe Sect? Who knows. We Golden Core-level cultivators are just regular old cultivators out in the wilds. We’re not qualified to join them.”

Every time, he could only say a little something as they waited for the beast wave to arrive.

And Chen He only had time to ask one question.

Chen He was not the only person who did this. Elder Long-Brows had already led everyone to ask the other ancient cultivators about things. Though the process had not been as smooth as Chen He’s, they had learned the names of nearly all the ancient cultivators.

Including the Immortalisation-level cultivator with golden armour and silver bow.

Ji Changge of the Sky-Covering Mountain. Eight millennia ago, the Sky-Covering Mountain had been a formidable sect, but after the Great Calamity Wars, they, who had been allied with the Nanhe Sect, disappeared without a trace.

Ji Changge returned to his hometown, Colossal Waters Valley, after the war broke out. It became his final resting place.

His silver bow and gold armour fell into the dirt, leaving him no different than any other.

Elder Long-Brows rubbed between his brows as he watched the cliffs go silent around him.

“What ideas do you have? If no one has any good ideas, we can only keep camping here. I still have another three hundred years left to live; I can probably wait until some of the Nascent Soul-level ones get to Demigod-level, then you’d be able to give me a hand.”

Everyone was silent.

Chen He suddenly swayed as if he were about to fall over.

Elder Long-Brows got to his feet in surprise, only to see a column of flame erupt towards the sky. Flames shot out of Chen He’s orifices and pressure points. If not for the fact that Chen He’s own clothes were already gone and he was wearing borrowed Heluo Sect clothes, these flames would have torched his remaining clothing.

“What’s the matter?”

Chen He redirected the flow of spiritual energy within his body. The flames left his body and formed an oval-shaped ball.

“Chhhh.” The Stone-borne Flame bounced around excitedly in midair.

Ignoring the Stone-borne Flame’s antics, Chen He ran down the side of the cliff.

“Chen He?” Elder Long-Brows craned his neck in concern.

“It’s nothing, I’m about to form my Golden Core.”

“Oh!” Elder Long-Brows was as puzzled as everyone else. There was nothing odd about forming one’s Golden Core. Why was he in such a hurry?

Chen He did not explain himself. There was no way he could tell them he could not hold it in—the moment the Stone-borne Flame left his body, so much spiritual energy filled his dantian that his meridians were going to burst.