Cultivating in Reverse: My Sign-In System Wants Me Dead

Su Bai walked toward the nearest white jade cliff.

Lu Canghai had mentioned it before. The walls of the Ancestral Sanctum contained the original inheritance of Radiant Sky Sect.

At first, Su Bai had thought those words were impressive.

Now, standing before the cliff itself, he realized Lu Canghai had not exaggerated.

The white jade cliff towered above him like a wall that held up the sky.

Its surface was covered in carvings. Some were words. Some were diagrams. Some were handprints, sword scars, fist craters, claw marks, spear holes, and strange glowing symbols that did not look like language, yet clearly carried meaning.

Every mark seemed to have been left behind by someone powerful.

It was an entire mountain of inheritance.

Su Bai stood at the base of the cliff and slowly raised his head.

His eyes brightened at once.

’No wonder the sect treated the Ancestral Sanctum so seriously.’

If this cliff was placed outside, countless cultivators would probably fight until blood flowed like rivers just for the chance to stare at it for a single day.

Su Bai suddenly felt deeply moved.

Radiant Sky Sect was truly generous.

He clasped his hands toward the cliff, then he began looking.

The first carving he noticed was a stance technique.

The words were ancient, but still readable.

[Unshakable Mountain Stance]

Su Bai read the inscription beneath it.

[Root your feet. Become the mountain. Let the enemy break their fists against your absolute stillness.]

That sounded profound.

Then Su Bai continued reading.

[Warning: Once activated, do not attempt to walk. The grounding force is so heavy that careless movement may tear the leg meridians, shatter the pelvis, and collapse the lower foundation.]

Su Bai froze for a moment, then he nodded. This was indeed a proper founder inheritance.

The carving beneath the warning explained the circulation path. It described how to sink Qi into the lower body, connect the meridians to the earth, draw force through the bones, and become unmoving under pressure.

The wording was ancient. It was full of layered phrases such as "press the mountain soul into the mortal root" and "allow the lower gate to borrow the stillness of buried stone."

Su Bai stared at it. Then, his scalp tingled slightly.

Not because he could not understand any of it.

He could.

But if he tried to dissect every sentence manually, his remaining days here might be gone before he finished one stance.

And so...

Su Bai slowly activated the hidden seal between his brows.

The Dao-Shattering Jade.

The small dark-purple vertical mark appeared.

In the next instant, a large chunk of his Qi was devoured.

Su Bai’s eyelids twitched.

A moment later, the reversed effect arrived.

A wave of absolute clarity washed through his mind.

The ancient words on the jade cliff changed in his perception.

They did not physically change, but the meaning behind them became clear.

The founder’s layered, profound, difficult phrasing was stripped apart by the Dao-Shattering Jade and rebuilt into something Su Bai could understand instantly.

Su Bai read the Unshakable Mountain Stance again.

This time, his mind translated it neatly.

"..."

Su Bai stood silently, then his eyes slowly widened.

The Dao-Shattering Jade had just... simplified the technique. It had converted the ancient cultivation jargon into clear structure!

Everything appeared in his mind like an organized manual.

Su Bai almost laughed.

This was wonderful.

Before, when he studied in the Grand Archives, he had to personally pull apart all the profound nonsense line by line.

Some seniors wrote as if understanding them was a crime.

Others clearly knew what they meant, but insisted on saying it in the most mysterious way possible.

Now, the Dao-Shattering Jade did the cutting for him.

A few breaths later, the purple mark faded.

The clarity disappeared.

But the technique remained in his memory.

Su Bai stood there for a while, feeling moved.

The Qi cost was high, but compared to the benefit, it was acceptable.

He looked again at the Unshakable Mountain Stance.

This technique was not suitable for him as a main method.

He could learn the principle, but standing still and letting enemies attack him did not match his survival habits.

However...

"This is perfect for Qin Baoshan," Su Bai murmured softly.

A shield cultivator would benefit greatly from a stance that made him truly immovable.

Su Bai silently decided to teach him later, provided Qin Baoshan could not understand the ancient wording by himself.

Then Su Bai continued observing the cliff.

Not far from the Unshakable Mountain Stance, there was a deep sword scar. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

It cut diagonally across the white jade, but strangely, the scar looked... lazy.

That was the only way Su Bai could describe it.

Other sword marks on the cliff looked sharp, furious, domineering, or elegant.

This one looked as if it had barely wanted to exist. Yet the pressure coming from it was very heavy.

Even staring at it made Su Bai feel as if an invisible blade was resting near his throat.

Su Bai narrowed his eyes.

Sword intent.

He was not a sword cultivator. Normally, sword intent would not be very useful to him. He could appreciate it, but using it directly would be difficult.

Su Bai was about to move on, then he paused.

A thought appeared.

A sword was a weapon.

A needle was also a weapon.

A sword intent could travel through sword Qi.

Then could a similar principle be carried through needle Qi?

Su Bai’s eyes slowly brightened.

Even if he could not copy the sword intent completely, understanding its principle might still be useful.

He sat cross-legged before the sword scar.

The pressure descended.

Su Bai activated the Dao-Shattering Jade again.

The purple mark appeared. The reversed clarity returned.

Su Bai stared at the sword scar. Just then, the pressure in the scar surged toward his mind.

For an ordinary disciple, comprehending sword intent without being a sword cultivator might injure the spirit.

For Su Bai, the pressure was filtered through the Dao-Shattering Jade and Reversal Body.

The attack became understanding. The killing intent became focus. The obscure intent became structure.

Su Bai’s mind followed the sword scar deeper.

Then his expression changed.

He leaned forward, then he saw it.

At the base of the sword scar, there were several tiny characters.

They were so small that they were almost hidden within the uneven edge of the cut.

Su Bai read them.

[Sloth Sword Intent]

Su Bai became silent.

The three words sat together in his mind like they were perfectly normal.

They were not.

Su Bai continued comprehending, then his expression became stranger.

This sword intent did not pursue speed in the normal way.

Instead, it made the sword aura so unwilling to travel through empty space that it searched for the shortest possible result.

Why fly across distance?

Too tiring.

Why cut through air?

Wasteful.

Why chase the enemy?

Unnecessary.

The sword intent condensed, skipped the useless process, and appeared near the enemy’s weak point.

Su Bai almost choked.

This was not laziness. This was laziness that had cultivated until it became profound.

He stared at the sword scar for a long time, then his eyes widened.

If he could integrate even a small part of this principle into his needles...

Enemies would not just be caught off guard. They might question their entire battle experience.

Su Bai’s heartbeat quickened slightly.

This was very useful.

This was also dangerous, which meant it was useful.

The purple mark faded again.

Su Bai immediately closed his eyes and reviewed everything he had understood.

Learning was not mastery.

He knew that clearly.

The Dao-Shattering Jade could help him comprehend and memorize, but it did not turn him into the founder who had left the scar.

He still needed practice.

But the seed had been planted.

That was enough.

Su Bai opened his eyes.

Then he looked at the cliff again.

There were more carvings. Many more.

His gaze moved from one inheritance to another.

Su Bai’s breathing slowed. His eyes became focused.

He activated the Dao-Shattering Jade again.

Qi was consumed. Clarity descended. He studied.

The purple mark faded. He recovered his Qi. Then he moved to the next carving.

Again.

Activate. Comprehend. Memorize. Recover. Move.

Again.

The cycle repeated.

At first, Su Bai was careful, then he became absorbed.

Time seemed to blur.

The other four disciples were still cultivating in the dense ancient Qi, but Su Bai had already begun walking along the white jade cliff, wearing the Glacier-Lung Bone Mask while a purple mark appeared and disappeared between his brows.

To an outsider, he looked strange. Like a polite ghost browsing an ancient wall.

But Su Bai did not care.

He was in a zone.

The Ancestral Sanctum was too rich. Every step revealed something new.

Some were too specialized. Some were dangerous. Some were not suitable for him at all.

But all of them were knowledge.

And Su Bai liked knowledge.

He had once emptied the Grand Archives of everything he could reasonably read.

Now, standing inside the Ancestral Sanctum, he felt the same old hunger return.

Only this time, the books were cliffs. The ink was battle scars. The authors were founders and ancestors.

Su Bai smiled behind the Glacier-Lung Bone Mask.

He could not master everything immediately, but he could memorize.

Even if he did not use a technique now, it might become useful later.

Everything had value.

The entrance cliff section alone contained more inheritance than many small sects possessed in their entire history.

Su Bai slowly moved to another part of the cliff.

The Dao-Shattering Jade activated again.

Su Bai continued like this for a long time.

Eventually, the nearest entrance cliff section had been thoroughly examined by him.

Su Bai stood before the final carving in that section and let out a slow breath.

The Glacier-Lung Bone Mask released a faint white mist.

His forehead mark faded again.

His Qi had been consumed many times, but his eyes were bright.

He had not even entered the elemental biomes yet.

And yet, he had already gained this much.

Su Bai looked toward the deeper paths of the Ancestral Sanctum.

The white jade cliffs continued into the distance.

This was only the start.

In the Grand Archives, he had been a reader.

Here, he felt like a walking cultivation knowledge buffet had been placed in front of him.

Su Bai adjusted the Glacier-Lung Bone Mask and walked toward the next section of the cliff.

There was still so much to learn.