Chapter 77: Chapter 77 - The Gravekeeper’s Bonus and the Extended Expiration Date

With the Grand Foundation and Beast Taming peaks checked off his list, Su Bai found himself staring at the remaining peaks of the sect.

The Silent Orchid Peak was manageable, yet he lacked a legitimate excuse to enter. The Slumbering Ancestor Peak, meanwhile, was a different beast entirely.

The Slumbering Ancestor Peak was a heavily guarded, solemn mountain where the sect’s graveyard is located.

More importantly, it is where the "half-dead" Patriarchs (ancient elders nearing the end of their lifespans) sleep in sealed ice coffins, waiting to be woken up only if the sect faces absolute destruction.

He needed an excuse to get in, and "signing in" wasn’t exactly a valid reason to disturb the dead.

Su Bai walked towards Lu Canghai’s with a look of extreme, manufactured piety. "Master, I feel that our sect’s glorious history is being neglected. The Ancestors who sacrificed everything for us deserve to be honored. I wish to volunteer for the duty of cleaning and kowtowing to the ice coffins of the Patriarchs."

Lu Canghai, who had been sipping tea, nearly choked. He set the cup down with a clatter. "Cleaning? My disciple, do you think I was born yesterday? That peak is lethal. Even with your Reversal Body, it’s a gamble I’m not sure you’d win."

Su Bai awkwardly scratched his cheek. But his curiosity was piqued rather than dampened.

"Lethal, Master?"

"The Ancestors have reached the end of their mortal cycles," Lu Canghai said. His voice dropped to a grave whisper. "They radiate the ’Five Decays of Heaven and Man.’ It is the inevitable rot of a cultivator who has lived too long."

Lu Canghai leaned forward. "It manifests in five ways: The wilting of the celestial flowers on their crown, the soiling of their heavenly robes, the sweating of their pores, the stench of their body, and the anxiety of their departing spirit. This isn’t physical poison that your Forest Canopy Breath can filter out. It is the rot of Fate and Karma itself. It will wither your soul long before it touches your lungs."

Su Bai listened intently. He knew that if his Reversal Body couldn’t handle the decay, he would be a corpse within minutes. But if it could...

"I understand the risks, Master," Su Bai said softly. "If the aura proves too much, I will retreat immediately. I give you my word."

Lu Canghai stared at him for a long time, searching for a sign of madness, but found only the calm determination of a man who didn’t know the meaning of overtime. With a heavy sigh, he flicked his sleeve, tossing a jade token to Su Bai.

"Go, then. But if you notice so much as a tremor of unease, you must leave immediately. Do not linger a second longer."

Su Bai offered a respectful bow of gratitude, then immediately set off toward the graveyard.

...

It didn’t take long for him to arrive.

He approached the two guarding elders, then offered a polite bow.

"Greetings, Elders. I am here by the order of my master Lu," Su Bai said as he presented the jade token.

The elders froze. It was unheard of for a disciple to be sent here, let alone one carrying the personal token of Lu Canghai.

With a silent nod of acknowledgment, they immediately stepped aside, granting him entry to the restricted grounds.

The Slumbering Ancestor Peak was a place where light went to die. As Su Bai climbed, the air grew thick with a gray, suffocating haze.

He passed rows of weathered gravestones. They belonged to the brave disciples who had given their lives for the Radiant Sky Sect. As he approached the central mausoleum where the ancient Patriarchs lay, the aura of the "Five Decays" hit him like a physical wall of pressure.

To any other cultivator, this was the smell of extinction.

But to Su Bai... his Reversal Body suddenly hummed in delight.

Instead of the nauseating stench of spiritual rot, Su Bai caught the faint, fresh scent of blooming flowers. The Reversal Body didn’t just filter the decay... it processed the "rotting fate" as high-density, necrotic nutrient paste.

"It appeared that my Reversal Body was indeed on another level."

He didn’t just feel better. He felt invigorated. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Su Bai stepped into the inner sanctum, where rows of ice coffins lay in solemn, frozen silence. He stood before the nearest one, bowed respectfully, and triggered the system.

[Ding! Signed in at Slumbering Ancestor Peak.]

[Reward: Gravekeeper’s Rot-Iron Lantern]

[Description: This lantern is designed to vacuum up "Twilight Qi" (the toxic exhaust of decaying power) so it doesn’t pollute the surrounding environment. Warning: The wielder suffers extreme spiritual radiation. Concentrated decay will rot their meridians and permanently degrade their cultivation.]

A wave of excitement washed over Su Bai as he absorbed the details of the description.

He didn’t even hesitate. He summoned the lantern. It was a rusted, heavy iron piece that looked like it had been salvaged from a scrap heap.

He clicked the latch.

The lantern didn’t produce a flame. Instead, it produced a violent, rhythmic suction.

The thick, gray fog in the mausoleum began to swirl, funneled by an irresistible force into the iron lamp. The "Five Decays" that had been leaking for centuries were being ripped out of the air.

Su Bai held the lantern, then his eyes closed in bliss.

As the lantern vacuumed up the toxic Twilight Qi, it didn’t harm him. His body translated the extreme decay into an explosive, raw foundation. His meridians began to stretch and howl with new energy.

Crack. Boom.

His internal aura surged. The bottleneck of the 2nd stage of Foundation Establishment shattered like glass.

Foundation Establishment: 3rd Stage.

He didn’t stop. He sat cross-legged on the floor, running his Void-Sunflower Supreme Method. The more rot the lantern pulled, the faster he grew.

Because he had bypassed the method’s brutal requirement to "sever his manhood," the energy didn’t just pool in his Dantian... it refined his physical body. He could feel his physical body toughening.

He was turning into a body-refining monster without even picking up a heavy dumbbell.

Su Bai felt that if this continued, his weaknesses regarding external attacks and kinetic energy would soon be overcome.

He smiled, allowing himself a moment to imagine the possibilities of the future.

...

Su Bai was so engrossed in his "professional growth" that he didn’t notice the atmosphere of the mausoleum had changed.

The gray haze was gone. The ice coffins were no longer sweating rot. The "Twilight Qi" that had been slowly killing the Patriarchs had been completely purged.

In their coffins, the ancient legends of the Radiant Sky Sect began to breathe easier. Their natural lifespans, which had been hemorrhaging due to the toxic environment, were suddenly stabilized. By vacuuming up the pollution, Su Bai had accidentally added centuries of "shelf-life" to the sect’s ultimate deterrents.

Su Bai opened his eyes, feeling like he’d just finished a triple-shot espresso. He looked at the clean, pristine mausoleum. He was completely unaware that he had just inadvertently saved the sect’s greatest assets from a slow, agonizing death.

"Well," Su Bai whispered, feeling the power vibrating in his marrow. "That was a productive afternoon."