Chapter 3: Awakening Memories
1578 Words
In the final moment before his consciousness faded, Xu Qingxuan’s heart was filled only with endless regret and venomous hatred.
He hated his father’s cold indifference.
He hated Liu Yanran and Zhao Ye for their despicable shamelessness.
And more than anything, he hated his own ill-fated fortune—his talent lost, his cultivation destroyed…
Just as he thought he was about to be buried in the Demon Abyss, a faint, almost imperceptible glimmer of golden light suddenly appeared in the deepest reaches of his soul sea.
Then, a dragon’s roar that shook the very soul erupted!
“Buzz…”
A vast, overwhelming will surged forth like a volcano that had slumbered for hundreds of millions of years, suddenly erupting with terrifying force!
Countless shattered fragments of memory poured into his mind like a flood bursting through a dam.
That invincible figure who had swept across the vast worlds.
That peerless bearing of pointing a sword toward the heavens.
Those earth-shaking battles against the mighty beings of the myriad realms.
That supreme glory of standing at the pinnacle of the Dao of the Sword.
“I… am Ling Chen! Ling Chen, the Sword Emperor who reigned across the vast worlds!”
An ancient and majestic voice, like the tolling of a great bell, thundered deep within his soul.
Xu Qingxuan’s consciousness instantly cleared, and an unprecedented brilliance burst from his eyes.
At last, he remembered. In his previous life, his name had been Ling Chen—the Ling Chen Sword Emperor who stood at the summit of the sword path.
Back then, in the first forbidden land, the “Godfall Abyss,” he had found the supreme treasure known as the Chaos Cauldron.
Legend said that this cauldron concealed a great secret. It could refine all things and evolve chaos itself.
Unfortunately, despite studying it for many years, he had gained nothing from it.
In the end, news of the treasure had somehow leaked, drawing powerful enemies to join forces and seize it.
He had fought alone for three days and three nights, slaughtering countless foes, yet in the end, he was outnumbered.
In that hopeless situation, he detonated his primordial spirit, intending to perish together with his enemies!
The light of the explosion tore apart the entire void, and countless powerful enemies were reduced to ashes by the force of his self-destruction.
Yet no one expected that amid that world-destroying aftermath, a wisp of his divine soul had somehow escaped into the chaotic currents of the void.
After endless years, it had reincarnated as Xu Qingxuan of the Yanwu Dynasty.
And the loss of his cultivation at the age of sixteen had not been an accident.
It was because the awakening of his memories required the fusion of his divine soul, and that process demanded an enormous amount of spiritual energy.
Now, at the edge of life and death, the memories of his previous life had finally awakened completely.
The supreme inheritance of the Ling Chen Sword Emperor had also revived!
“Boom!”
An unimaginable force of divine soul power suddenly erupted from Xu Qingxuan’s body.
The miasma around him was instantly torn apart, and his falling body was forcibly halted in midair.
Relying on the power of his divine soul, Xu Qingxuan finally landed safely, narrowly avoiding death.
He slowly opened his eyes, and a sharp sword-like glint flashed through them.
The humiliation and despair of the past had already transformed into icy killing intent and an unwavering resolve for revenge.
“The royal family of the Yanwu Dynasty, Liu Yanran, Zhao Ye…”
He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white, his voice cold enough to pierce bone.
“The humiliation I suffered today—I will repay it a hundredfold in the future!”
“As for those enemies from my previous life…”
“The day I return will be the day your blood debts are repaid, and your souls are annihilated!”
This time, the power of his divine soul had spared him from being smashed into a pulp.
However, the consumption of his soul power had also been extremely severe.
Right now, the most important thing was to heal his injuries.
The meridians within his body had been badly corroded. If he did not expel the poison soon, death was certain.
Just as he used the last of his strength to struggle to his feet, tremendous waves suddenly surged in the depths of his soul sea!
The soul domain that had been as still as dead water was suddenly pierced by a dazzling golden light, which broke through the chaos and slowly bloomed at the center of his soul sea.
It was a radiant golden sword lotus.
Upon the lotus platform, nine transparent petals gleamed as clear as ice crystals.
With every unfurling motion, they released a sword Dao pressure that made the heart tremble.
And at the very moment the sword lotus bloomed, a palm-sized black cauldron rose from the bottom of his soul sea.
Though small and delicate, it radiated a heavy pressure as steady as a mountain, as if it could suppress all falsehoods in the world.
The miasma of the Demon Abyss forbidden land was as dark as ink, coiling around the jagged rocks at the bottom of the cliff.
The roars of demonic creatures echoed throughout the abyss, yet none dared approach the suddenly clear area around Xu Qingxuan.
He sat cross-legged on the cold stone ground.
Waves of tearing pain coursed through the meridians in his body, while the poison of the Meridian-Corroding Powder continued to madly erode what little vitality remained.
Yet at this moment, Xu Qingxuan’s mind was entirely focused on his soul sea.
The golden sword lotus hovered at the center of that sea.
Its nine ice-crystal-like petals slowly unfurled.
With every tremble, strands of sharp sword Dao aura escaped, slicing the chaotic mist within the soul sea into fragments.
“This sword lotus…”
Xu Qingxuan’s consciousness stared at it, his eyes filled with contemplation.
In his previous life as the Ling Chen Sword Emperor, this sword lotus had already been hidden deep within his soul sea.
It had existed since the moment he stepped onto the path of the sword.
Back then, the sword lotus had also possessed nine petals, but it had been entirely different from its current state.
In his memories, eight of the lotus petals had been transparent like ice crystals.
Only one petal had been a dazzling golden color, as if a miniature sun had been forged into it.
It had emitted a warm yet majestic sword Dao pressure, serving as the core where the sword lotus’s power was most concentrated.
He had borrowed the power of that golden petal countless times to escape life-and-death crises.
When he swept across battlefields, the golden petal would bloom with ten thousand zhang of golden light, breaking myriad laws with a single sword strike.
But now, the sword lotus within his soul sea had nine petals, all of them transparent.
They were as thin as cicada wings, faint and insubstantial.
It seemed as though they might merge into the chaos of the soul sea at any moment, disappearing without a trace.
That iconic golden petal had vanished completely.
“Why has it become like this?”
Xu Qingxuan frowned slightly, his heart filled with confusion.
In his previous life, even until the moment he detonated his divine soul, he had never managed to uncover the origins of the sword lotus.
Now that he had reincarnated, the sword lotus had undergone such a strange change. Could it be related to his rebirth?
Or perhaps the secret of the sword lotus had always been connected to the Great Dao of Reincarnation?
He tried to touch those transparent petals with his consciousness, but gained nothing.
The sword Dao aura had become far more restrained than in his previous life, as though it had fallen into some kind of dormancy.
Just as he was pondering this, a violent tremor suddenly came from the bottom of his soul sea.
The palm-sized black cauldron slowly rose upward.
Its body was covered in blurred ancient patterns—some resembling mountains and rivers, others like stars in motion.
It emitted a heavy, mountain-like pressure. It was none other than the Chaos Cauldron he had risked his life to obtain in his previous life!
“The Chaos Cauldron!”
Xu Qingxuan’s heart trembled, and memories from his previous life surged forth like a tide.
He clearly remembered that when he detonated his divine soul, the Chaos Cauldron had been swept into the chaotic currents of the void together with a wisp of his remnant soul.
He had never expected it to reincarnate along with him, lying dormant within his soul sea.
The Chaos Cauldron circled once within the soul sea.
Its mouth tilted slightly, and a powerful suction force suddenly erupted.
The chaotic mist deep within the soul sea was continuously drawn into the cauldron.
The ancient patterns on the cauldron gradually lit up, releasing a dark golden glow.
Then, a scene that shocked Xu Qingxuan unfolded!
The Chaos Cauldron abruptly broke free from the restraints of the soul sea, transformed into a streak of flowing light, and instantly rushed into his dantian!
Inside his dantian, his once-dried spiritual power meridians had already been corroded beyond recognition by the Meridian-Corroding Powder.
The entrance of the Chaos Cauldron immediately triggered a violent surge of energy.
“Buzz—”
- Writer
