Below Qingyun Mountain (Azure Cloud Mountain), the small courtyard was silent.
A young man held a wooden stick, wildly gesturing in the courtyard.
Sweat dripped down his forehead, but he seemed not to notice.
“Brother…” A weak call came from inside the house.
The young man dropped the wooden stick and hurried into the inner room.
Sitting up in bed was a pale, hollow-eyed young girl.
Seeing him enter, she laboriously raised her hand, offering a neatly folded cloth garment, a faint smile gracing her lips.
“Brother, try this one… does it fit?”
Lu Fan looked at his sister’s emaciated hand, his heart clenching.
“Silly girl, this is the fourth one. How could I wear them all?”
He said in a hoarse voice, “Don’t make any more. Taking care of your body is what’s important.”
Though he said that, he still took the clothes and carefully put them on.
The fabric was coarse, but the stitches were tight; every stitch was his sister’s painstaking effort during her illness.
He spun around, grinning, “It fits better than anything bought in town, and it’s comfortable.”
But as if reluctant, he quickly took it off, carefully folded it, and put it into the wooden cabinet.
Inside, three new garments were neatly stacked, all sewn by her own hand after she fell ill, and he hadn’t worn a single one.
“Come, I’ll carry you out for some fresh air.”
Since her illness worsened, his sister couldn’t even walk.
So he carried her out every day, unwilling to let her be cooped up indoors.
Lu Lan lay on his back and whispered, “Brother, I want to visit Father and Mother.”
“Alright.”
Not far behind the courtyard, two old graves stood silently amidst the weeds.
Lu Fan gently put his sister down and began clearing the surrounding weeds.
Suddenly, she chuckled softly, “Brother, if I also die, bury me between Father and Mother, okay?”
Lu Fan’s movements paused, and he quickly “bah”-ed twice, “Don’t talk nonsense! Father and Mother will bless you to get better.”
Before he finished speaking, Lu Lan suddenly coughed violently, spitting out a mouthful of blood, and then softly collapsed.
…
The graveyard behind the courtyard.
Lu Fan put on the new clothes he had never dared to wear, his eyes red, the iron shovel in his hand rising and falling heavily.
Tears mixed with soil, little by little piling up a new grave.
When he could no longer shed tears, a small mound had appeared between the two old graves.
Lu Fan knelt before the grave and heavily kowtowed three times.
“Father, Mother… your son is useless, I didn’t take good care of my sister… From now on, I entrust her to you.”
“Lan’er, your brother promises you, he will definitely become a Cultivator… the strongest kind!”
After his parents passed, his sister was his only concern.
Now, that concern was gone too.
Since he had promised her, he had to achieve it.
This was her last wish.
After the last kowtow, he raised his face, but suddenly froze.
A snow-white fox had appeared on his sister’s grave at some unknown time.
It had appeared when his parents were buried;
Now, it had come again.
The white fox quietly looked at him, then suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a half-finger-tall black miniature tower, after which it turned and vanished into the forest.
Lu Fan dazedly picked up the miniature tower; it was cold to the touch, with a faint glow swirling within it.
“This is…”
Before he finished speaking, the miniature tower suddenly transformed into a streak of black light, directly entering his Dantian!
Boom…
A bell chime, as if from ancient times, exploded in his mind:
“Nine Nether perishes, Six Daos all fall… Era restarts, all beings revive, myriad Daos originate, Reincarnation is supreme…”
Amidst the booming of the giant bell, he looked inward.
He saw six Chaos whirlpools floating in his Dantian, with a majestic black giant tower suspended above them.
The tower body was carved with five profound and eerie characters.
He had never seen such characters, yet he inexplicably recognized them: Nine Nether Reincarnation Tower!
The moment his mind touched the tower body, his vision blurred, and he found himself in a strange, boundless gray space.
“Where is this?”
Just as he was filled with doubt and surprise, an old man with white hair and a green robe silently appeared before him.
“You have finally come.”
Lu Fan’s heart tightened: “Senior… do you know me?”
The old man smiled: “I know, and I don’t know, but the one I’ve been waiting for is you.”
Lu Fan became even more confused: “What do you mean by that? And where is this place?”
“This is the first layer of the Nine Nether Reincarnation Tower, and I am the Spirit of this tower,” the old man said.
“Since you have been recognized by the Reincarnation Tower as its master, some things will become clear to you in the future.
My time of awakening is short, so listen carefully…”
The Tower Spirit said no more, guiding Lu Fan to sit cross-legged, then pointed a finger at his glabella.
In an instant, a vast amount of information flooded his mind, forming a supreme Cultivation Technique named the Reincarnation Creation Scripture.
At the same time, the blood within his body roared and boiled like a surging river!
“Do not panic. Calm your mind and concentrate, follow my guidance to circulate the Cultivation Technique, to cleanse your meridians and refine your marrow.”
Two hours later, the transformation was complete.
The Tower Spirit’s figure had faded like thin mist, as if it could dissipate at any moment.
“Tower Spirit, you…” Lu Fan felt uneasy.
“It’s fine.” The Tower Spirit’s voice was much more ethereal.
“I have exhausted my accumulated power to help you transform, and I am about to fall into a deep sleep.
From now on, you will need to seek out resources for the Reincarnation Tower to refine, using this to cultivate and improve.
Remember, you must never reveal the existence of the Nine Nether Reincarnation Tower to anyone, otherwise, you will surely face great disaster!”
With that, the Tower Spirit imparted the incantation for entering and exiting the Reincarnation Tower to Lu Fan, and its figure vanished like smoke.
Lu Fan returned to the graves, looking at the three earthen mounds before him, his heart a blank, feeling both helpless and bewildered about the future.
Just then, a sharp whooshing sound suddenly came from the sky.
Whoosh!
A white figure, like an immortal descending to the mortal world, gracefully landed before him.
It was a woman in white, cold and ethereal, with a stunning beauty he had never seen before.
Lu Fan stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly.
The woman, however, frowned slightly, her gaze sweeping around, her eyes full of confusion…