Cultivating with Bragging System-Chapter 678 - 325: Three Lives Stone (3000)_1

This ancient method violated the laws of life and death, conflicting with the principles of heaven. Its side effects were extremely terrifying. At first, it would seem normal, but over time, it often led to the reincarnated clansmen either going insane or becoming demonic, which had once caused a catastrophic tragedy. Many mysterious and ancient clans were ruined because of it, vanishing into the long river of history long ago. To think it could be seen here!

Is this place… could this be the true nature of the forbidden land?

A thought stirred in Wang Xiu's mind. His eyes emitted a unique glow as he looked toward the center of the formation.

The world ahead was shrouded in twilight haze. The phantom of the Yellow Springs, which seemed to stretch through the entire world, constantly flowed and ultimately converged there, hazy and indistinct, concealed by a radiant glow.

With a light tap on the void beneath his feet, his figure disappeared.

「A hundred miles away.」

Wang Xiu appeared in the sky, looking down with amazement. Below was a small, square lake, one hundred zhang across. The water wasn't clear; it was a murky, yellowish color, appearing extremely similar to the waters of the Yellow Springs.

This was the center of the vast formation.

Wang Xiu's eyes shone with a strange light, piercing through to its essence. He clearly saw an almost endless torrent of dense death qi gushing from beneath the lake, spreading out in all directions. That death qi was the unique power that permeated this world, preventing all living things from rotting or decaying.

At the same time, one end of the majestic phantom of the Yellow Springs also flowed through here from high in the sky. An immense number of living souls and resentful spirits were continuously transported here, falling into the lake. This caused gusts of chilling wind to whip across the lake's surface, accompanied by incessant, heart-trembling shrieks.

If someone with a lesser cultivation level stood here, a single gust of wind from the lake would be enough to shatter their soul and blow their spirit away.

Wang Xiu slowly walked forward and stood on the gravelly shore, looking down. A thick fog rose to meet him, obscuring the lake's surface. With a light point of his finger, Wang Xiu enveloped a single drop of water in pure mana imbued with the aura of the Ming Emperor's Prison-Suppressing Sutra and had it float before him.

He stared at the droplet. It was murky and seemed unremarkable.

Suddenly, a sinister laugh echoed out as the droplet transformed, revealing a ghastly and terrifying face that howled at Wang Xiu. "Death, life… Ha ha ha! Can't live… can't die… Another one has come! Another one!"

The voice was shrill and piercing.

Wang Xiu looked on, his expression unchanged.

The droplet twisted again, and a new face solidified—that of a seductive woman. Despite having no body, a mere flick of her eyebrow exuded more charm than countless women in the world. She was either a Great Demon of the Fox Clan or a paramount master of The Demonic Path who had perfected her Charming Skill.

"My handsome young man… I'm so lonely… so cold… Won't you come and keep me company?" she giggled, her voice tantalizingly soft.

Wang Xiu merely watched.

In an instant, the faces on the droplet changed continuously. After hundreds of different visages had appeared, the first shrill voice was heard once more.

DRIP.

With a flick of his finger, Wang Xiu sent the water droplet back into the lake.

He murmured to himself, "The water is indeed from the true Yellow Springs, but it's dead water. Its rules are incomplete, so it cannot function properly. This place is too ancient. After countless years, the soul-cleansing effect of the Yellow Springs has long since vanished, leaving only an endless accumulation of resentful spirits."

He was beginning to vaguely understand the situation in this world.

Long ago, someone had used some unknown method to set up a Reincarnation Great Array here, even intercepting a section of the true Yellow Springs from the Netherworld, intending to create a minor cycle of reincarnation. Their goal was to revive a certain person… or perhaps, a group of people.

Or maybe this was just an experimental ground in preparation for an ultimate resurrection. Wang Xiu leaned toward the latter possibility.

Later, for some unknown reason, the project was abandoned or interrupted. The one who had arranged everything was gone. The rules of this place were never fully perfected, leaving it to operate on the lingering instincts of the residual formation, which was full of flaws. Then… a problem arose.

This place must have once been a small world with a considerable number of living beings. Because it was sealed off, they couldn't enter the normal cycle of reincarnation. After death, their souls could only be drawn by the phantom Yellow Springs and the incomplete laws into this formation. The result was a one-way trip.

Initially, this situation wasn't obvious, as this place clearly still had contact with the outside world. People came and went continuously. Even as the number of beings here dwindled, no one thought to investigate it seriously.

Until… the souls and death qi within the formation accumulated, growing ever thicker, until one day they exceeded the formation's capacity and erupted completely. Boundless death qi spread throughout the entire region, affecting every living being within it.

"All paths in the world are composed of yin and yang. They are interdependent; a solitary path cannot be sustained. 'Death' approaches 'life,' and 'life' constantly nears 'death'; this is reincarnation!"

That pervasive death qi, though without consciousness, could find any living being. They didn't harm creatures directly; they merely exchanged themselves for the vitality within them. This was simply one of the most fundamental principles of the universe in operation; the death qi had no concept of harm! For living beings, however, the complete loss of vitality meant death.

This was the result of incomplete rules leading to an imbalance in the workings of heaven and earth. In fact, many Cave Heavens, blessed lands, and small worlds have similar situations, though they aren't manifested in terms of life and death. The most common are often restrictions on cultivation level, resources, and so on. After all, very few things in this world can affect the rules of life and death.

Among the Three Thousand Great Daos, life and death are absolutely the most supreme. Cultivators practice for the sole purpose of attaining immortality. But throughout the ages, how many peerless geniuses have fallen on the path to immortality?

Who can truly achieve eternal life?

A seemingly endless lifespan is not true infinity! Appearing immortal is not the same as truly never dying!

Those great figures with Divine Skills can topple mountains and drain seas, reshape heaven and earth, and even create galaxies and worlds with their bare hands. But what can they do about their own life and death? Not being dead doesn't mean you've conquered death. It just means your time hasn't come yet.

Death is always there, watching the world with a cold eye.

Therefore, even though the number of small worlds in this vast universe is as numerous as the stars, very few can even slightly affect the operation of the laws of life and death. Even when they do, the impact is very limited. But a situation like this, where the reincarnation of an entire world was destroyed and turned into a forbidden domain, is exceptionally rare even in the history of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.

"The person who orchestrated this must have accidentally obtained the secret techniques of some ancient, powerful clan, then integrated them with their own Daoist Divine Powers, hoping to achieve the resurrection they envisioned! If they had succeeded, it would have been enough to shake the world and leave a mark on ancient history!" Wang Xiu couldn't help but sigh.

It's a pity that such Ancient Methods were themselves rejected by heaven and earth, and the rules of life and death are not so easily shaken. In the end, it was a failure!

Then again, maybe not. After all, the cycle of life and death here was ultimately destroyed and has remained so for countless years. If one had to judge… it could be considered a partial victory against the heavens! A thought stirred in Wang Xiu's mind.

But regardless, the person who laid out this grand scheme was undoubtedly a master of immense talent, the likes of which are rarely seen throughout history.

Wang Xiu walked along the lakeshore when his gaze was suddenly drawn to something. In the middle of the lake stood an ancient stele, erect in the mist, which he hadn't noticed before. He released his Divine Sense to scan the inscriptions on it.

"Hungry Ghost Path?"

Wang Xiu was slightly startled, then laughed lightly. Are they trying to emulate the true Six Paths of Reincarnation?

His gaze traveled far, falling upon the distant ancient peaks.

Presumably, the other five ancient peaks held similar sights?

Punishing all departed souls according to their deeds in life and assigning them to different paths of reincarnation—that was the Netherworld of legend. And don't be fooled by the simple description; the Divine Skills required to achieve such a feat are simply unimaginable, hardly any less complex than completely altering the rules of life and death. If the mastermind behind this could truly create a new Six Paths of Reincarnation, why would they have turned a perfectly good world into this ghostly mess?

The truth was just as he suspected. As Wang Xiu's Divine Sense swept over the many ancient runes inscribed upon the stele, he immediately discovered that while it possessed some profoundly mysterious aspects, it was still a far cry from the true Six Paths of Reincarnation.

"Hmm?"

Wang Xiu's expression changed as he suddenly focused on the stele. "This material… this is strange!"

His brow shone with a silver light. A tendril of pure Divine Sense landed on the stele and permeated it. Instantly, his vision filled with a gray haze as a series of fragmented images poured into his mind. It was not his own memory, but a fragment of someone else's life.

The images flashed continuously. The scenes before him changed rapidly, and the owner of the memories also shifted in quick succession.

Sometimes male.

Sometimes female.

In that single instant, Wang Xiu felt as if he had lived through tens of thousands of lifetimes, spanning countless years.

STEP. STEP.

Wang Xiu took two steps back, his eyes flashing with surprise. "That was close. Even with the strength of my Divine Soul, I was nearly lost in it, unable to break free."

He stared at the stele.

Now, he could finally confirm it.

Three Lives Stone! This was a true Three Lives Stone!

Folk tales say that in the Netherworld, there is a River of Oblivion, and beside it stands the Three Lives Stone. On the stone are characters written in a script as red as blood, which read, "Ascend to the Other Shore Swiftly." If a soul passes by during their reincarnation, they can engrave the name of the person they can never forget. At the same time, they can see their past and future lives.

But this was merely a folk legend about the Three Lives Stone, colored too heavily by beautiful, romantic fantasies.

Wang Xiu, who possessed the Ming Emperor's inheritance, knew clearly that the common world's understanding of the Three Lives Stone didn't even scratch the surface of its true nature. The Three Lives Stone, just like the Netherworld's other treasures—the Judge Pen and the Book of Life and Death—were all supreme treasures formed from the rules of the world itself.

It is the physical embodiment of the law of causality!

It could not be judged by any ordinary system of grading. If one had to classify it, it would be ranked above even Immortal Artifacts, surpassing all other treasures in the current Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.

"No… it's not a complete Three Lives Stone!"

After the initial rush of excitement, Wang Xiu calmed down and murmured to himself, "This… must have been crafted from a fragment cut from the true Three Lives Stone!" 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Although it wasn't the complete Three Lives Stone, and its power couldn't compare, it was still a supreme treasure nonetheless, far surpassing any divine weapon Wang Xiu had ever seen. Its grade was at least comparable to a Quasi-Emperor Artifact.

But what truly excited Wang Xiu didn't end there.