Damn it, is this something a human would do? A 20,000-word self-reflection, and no copy-pasting allowed?!
And it has to be exactly 20,000 words.
If I don’t finish it, I’m dead?
“You have to write one too!”
Facing Sen Daluo, whose calf was broken at the knee, I showed no sympathy. I even said, “You’re writing 40,000 words! Or I won’t save you!”
“……”
Sen Daluo was filled with deep regret.
But the instinct to survive still made him grit his teeth and pick up paper and pen.
“Where did this stinky beggar come from? You think we don’t exist?”
Seeing me ignore them and “chat” so casually with my classmates, the thugs could no longer tolerate it.
“You’re asking for it!”
The lion-headed bandit boss threw a sneak punch at the back of my head.
Blink~
“……”
Under everyone’s speechless gaze, I blinked right back into the cage.
Hey~ You can’t hit me~!
“I don’t believe you can keep blinking like that,” said the lion boss without concern.
Blink might be a rare psychic-type spirit skill, but it’s not unbeatable.
The psychic-type pavilion master of Magic City had once publicly explained the traits of psychic-type spirit skills— Blink among them.
The skill costs a huge amount of energy.
Even high-level spirit tamers can only use it three times a day, tops.
This brat already used it twice. The lion boss didn’t believe she could use it again.
“Let’s keep going.”
The lion boss no longer cared about the little interruption.
He dragged the entire iron cage with brute strength, kicked open the massive stone door deeper in the cave, and officially entered the tomb.
……
In fact, they had already explored the outer parts of the tomb.
Only one obstacle remained— a narrow passage full of traps.
The classic floor trap: if you step on the wrong tile, beams of light will shoot across the entire corridor. With how densely they fire, no creature could possibly dodge them.
Which is why the kidnappers needed students to clear the traps.
Let them trial-and-error with their lives, and eventually they’d find a safe path.
“Heh, children of privilege raised in greenhouses… it’s time you prove your worth. Go on, with your lives, uncover the path forward…”
“Blink.”
“???”
Standing at the end of the trapped corridor, I waved at the kidnappers.
“I’ll go check it out first. If I find anything good, I’ll call you.”
With that, I strolled straight into the final treasure room of the tomb.
“……”
The lion boss felt his blood pressure rising.
How could the gap between people be so huge? A tomb that cost him several men and required the trouble of catching people to test traps— she just blinked through it?!
Is this fun to you? What happened to the thrilling mind games? The suspenseful puzzle-solving? Lady, if this were a tomb-raiding movie, how are you not ruining the plot?!
“Don’t panic. At least… she can’t keep blinking. She has to come out eventually. Whatever she finds, she won’t be able to take it.”
……
At least they got one thing right.
My Blink had indeed entered cooldown.
Given my current cultivation level, using law-based skills burns too much energy.
Overusing them could damage my foundation.
And for the perfect Foundation Establishment I’ve dreamed of, it’s best not to blink again this week… or I’ll have to walk the path of blackening again.
“Huh?!”
After entering what was supposed to be the end of the tomb, the treasure vault, I didn’t find any of the treasures I had imagined.
There weren’t even any corpses or coffins.
Only a small, pitch-black stone, casually tossed on the ground.
“The aura… the sheen… the texture of this stone… no way, this can’t be what I think it is?!”
I’ve seen a fair share of rare and exotic items, and from years of experience, this is no ordinary stone.
“The mural at the cave entrance said those ancient cultivators lured the Bifang with the essence of the Divine Tree and sealed it in here.”
“I didn’t find any traces of the Bifang’s presence… but this black stone, now that’s something big!”
“Essence of the Divine Tree…”
The ancients here called it the essence of the Divine Tree.
But in the cultivation world, it’s known by a different name—
The Reincarnation Stone.
The Reincarnation Stone, if used correctly, allows one to break free from the cycle of reincarnation and recall and comprehend experiences from past lives.
In simpler terms, it’s like “account recovery.”
Think about it— those life lessons that most people have to learn the hard way, through years of hardship and pain? With the Reincarnation Stone, you can re-experience and grasp them much faster.
So many regrets, so many lessons only learned after loss. If you’ve already felt that pain in a dream, you won’t make the same mistakes in this life.
Just imagine how many detours that would save you!
And not only that— skills, techniques, even whole professions from past lives could slowly come back to you.
And you don’t even have to worry about messing up your personality.
“Although the proper use of the Reincarnation Stone hasn’t been publicly revealed, it’s still considered a divine artifact— the only legal and legitimate way to nullify the effects of Meng Po’s Soup.”
Even when I held the title of Immortal Lord, I had only ever heard of this divine artifact in legends— never once laid eyes on it.
Let alone knew how to use it.
“Well, whatever. A treasure’s a treasure— just stash it for now~”
After storing away the Reincarnation Stone, I tried searching the cavern for more treasures, but unfortunately, it was so clean there wasn’t even a bone left behind.
There were, however, some murals.
These murals were completely different in style from the ones outside the cave.
They lacked any color, and were carved in crooked lines, as if etched by something sharp and crude.
They also told the story of the Bifang—
[In the primitive age of raw meat and blood, ancient humans suffered from the cold.]
[One day, a one-legged crane flew out from the embers of a forest fire, holding a burning branch in its beak.]
[Whether by intention or accident, that crane dropped the burning branch onto a pile of discarded animal pelts left by humans.]
[That was the first time ancient humans ever felt warmth.]
[From then on, they worshipped the one-legged crane as a deity, calling it “Bifang” and offering it food.]
[And Bifang remembered those two-legged creatures.]
[From that point on, Bifang became the source of fire for humans. The two sides benefited each other, forming what seemed to be a very close alliance.]
[And so it went, for thousands of years.]
[Until one day, humans learned how to make fire by drilling wood.]
[They stopped offering food to Bifang.]
[But Bifang couldn’t understand—why had its former food source suddenly begun ignoring it?]
[So it brought more fire.]
[The fire burned down their homes.]
[The furious humans drove Bifang away. But Bifang thought they were angry because it hadn’t tried hard enough.]
[So it brought even more fire, and burned down all the houses.]
[Eventually, this led to the Yongzhou fire disaster. After that, Bifang disappeared from the world.]
“…So in the end, it was just a one-track-mind dumb bird. Don’t feed it, and it burns your crap!”
The reason Bifang was cast out and hated turned out to be a total misunderstanding caused by a language barrier.
“Can’t deny, this dumb bird’s IQ is way below that of Qilin.”
“Mya-hmph!” Qilin proudly raised its little horn.
“Look closely. The murals here were clearly drawn by someone different from the ones outside,” I said, running my hand along the carvings on the wall. “The ones outside were made by human hands—single perspective, aged, the paint has even flaked off.
But these murals… are obviously recent.”
The contrast between the two was stark.
The murals outside depicted a single event: a battle to seal Bifang. A single point in time.
But the ones inside told a story spanning from ancient times all the way to Bifang’s disappearance—a chronicle of multiple events across multiple time periods.
Thinking back to the Reincarnation Stone I had just found, the answer was already clear to me.
“The earlier murals were left behind by the ancient humans who sealed Bifang. But these ones inside… were drawn by Bifang itself. It must have awakened memories of its past lives through the Reincarnation Stone, which is why it understands so clearly what happened in the distant past.”
“This Reincarnation Stone really is something else.”
Who wouldn’t be curious about their past lives?
I’m curious too. Was I once a mighty emperor? A valiant hero?
Surely I wasn’t just some brainwashed little idiot who almost ended up killing her own sister, right? Ha… haha… hahaha… sob sob sob sob sob…
I refuse to believe that!
……
Meanwhile—
The lion-headed bandit boss walked out of the cave and pulled out his satellite phone.
[Have you tracked down Bifang yet?]
“Reporting, young master. We’ve already found the tomb where Bifang was sealed, but we haven’t entered it yet.”
[Didn’t you already find it last week? Why haven’t you gone in?!]
“There’s a tricky mechanism on the final level of the tomb. We needed some extra hands to explore the path, so we captured some cannon fodder… students from Kangcheng No.1 and No.2 High Schools.”
[Kangcheng No.1 and No.2?] The voice on the other end sounded surprised. [Among those students from No.2 High, is there one with an octopus spirit?]
“Yes! Young master, how did you know?”
[Heh. So the rumors were true.]
The man chuckled coldly.
[She’s been missing for so many years, the family thought she was dead. Who knew she’d dare to show her face again… Looks like our little “Evil God” is finally ready to acknowledge who she really is~
Daring to return… and even enroll in a spirit academy? What, she thinks she can grow stronger and take revenge?
Who gave her the courage?!]
“Little Evil God?”
[Since she’s out in the open, we might as well eliminate the threat for good.
Go, Lion King. Bring me her head. Now. Immediately!]