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

Chapter 156: Chapter 156 - The Skull Runes and the Old Map

A little later, Su Bai opened his eyes.

The hall returned.

The skeleton was still in front of him.

The skull rune had dimmed completely.

A thin crack had appeared across the brow bone, splitting the faint mark that had once hidden inside the bone.

The Vanguard’s Entropy-Detonator was still in his palm.

For a moment, Su Bai did not speak.

He was still sorting through the fragments.

They were incomplete.

The skeleton had not belonged to a great commander or a high-level expert.

It had been a soldier.

Perhaps not weak by the standards of ordinary cultivators, but weak in the scale of the battlefield he saw.

His memories were limited.

Most of what remained belonged to this outer area.

Still, it was enough.

Su Bai’s gaze shifted slightly.

Mystic realm?

No.

He had been right.

The Fallen-Star Sanctuary was not a mystic realm in the ordinary sense.

It was an ancient battlefield. One buried by time, sealed by formations, eaten by miasma, and later mistaken for an opportunity ground.

Su Bai’s eyes changed.

The memory fragments did not reveal the full truth.

They did not explain the deepest parts.

They did not show what had truly fallen here.

But one thing was useful.

The outer area had once existed before the Ashen-Blood Miasma swallowed it.

And this soldier had known most of its routes.

In Su Bai’s mind, pieces of the outer area slowly connected.

Su Bai slowly looked toward the infirmary.

There were more skeletons there. Possibly more curse-runes.

If one ordinary soldier’s fragments could give him this much, then more memories might help him reconstruct a larger part of the outer area.

But before he could stand, several voices called out.

"Brother Su."

"Brother Su, are you all right?"

"Did you gain something?"

Su Bai turned.

Only then did he notice that Luo Shenshui and several others were awake.

The atmosphere in the hall was different from before.

Su Bai blinked once.

Then he looked at the awakened victims.

After a short silence, he said, "Good. You woke up."

For some reason, that simple sentence made Luo Shenshui’s eyes redden again.

He tried to bow while sitting.

"Brother Su... thank you for saving my life."

The others followed weakly.

"Thank you, Brother Su."

"Thank you."

"If not for you..."

Their voices were not loud.

But every word was sincere.

Su Bai felt the familiar discomfort of receiving too much gratitude.

He coughed once.

"You survived because everyone helped."

Qiao Wen smiled faintly.

Chen Feng looked at the cracked skull in front of Su Bai.

"What were you doing?"

The hall quieted slightly.

Several gazes fell on the skeleton.

Su Bai glanced at the cracked skull rune.

Then at the Vanguard’s Entropy-Detonator.

Then toward the infirmary.

His expression became solemn.

"Praying for the dead."

Everyone froze.

The words were simple.

The hall was full of skeletons.

The place had once been used to treat the wounded and contain corruption.

Su Bai had nearly died, at least in their understanding, to cleanse the miasma below.

Now he had quietly gone to an old skeleton and said he was praying for the dead.

For a moment, the young cultivators looked at him with something close to reverence.

A Radiant Sky Sect disciple.

Truly worthy of the name.

Even some of the awakened victims stared at him with trembling eyes.

Su Bai maintained a calm face.

Deep inside, he sighed.

Unfortunately, he was not holding the Soul-Scorching Interrogation Mirror.

A good lie at this moment might have strengthened his soul considerably.

’What a waste.’

Chen Feng stared at him.

Then he gave a soft, irritated hmp.

No one knew why he sounded annoyed.

Perhaps even he did not know.

Qiao Wen stepped forward and said, "Brother Su, while you were meditating, they woke."

Su Bai’s expression settled.

"What did they say?"

Qiao Wen summarized everything.

Su Bai listened without interrupting.

The more he heard, the colder his expression became.

When Qiao Wen finished, the main hall was silent.

Su Bai lowered his eyes.

The fragments from the dead soldier shifted in his mind.

He still did not understand the full extent of the enemy.

But after hearing the victims’ testimonies, some pieces began to fit together.

Su Bai spoke slowly.

"The borrowed faces may not be complete at first."

Everyone looked at him.

He continued, "At the beginning, they may only imitate. Voice, face, habits, fragments of memory. Enough to deceive someone in mist."

The awakened victims turned pale.

Luo Shenshui’s fingers tightened around his sleeve.

"But if they keep refining the stolen soul fragment," Su Bai said, "the imitation may grow deeper."

The hall became colder.

Mu Qing’s voice was soft.

"Deeper?"

Su Bai nodded.

"More memories. More reactions. More habits. More emotional traces. If it reaches a certain point, the false body may not simply act like the person."

He paused.

"It may believe it is the person."

No one breathed for a moment.

Even Chen Feng’s expression changed.

Su Bai continued, "And if that happens, outsiders may not be able to tell the difference through ordinary means."

The awakened victims looked as if the blood had drained from their faces.

For them, the thought was worse than death.

One rescued cultivator covered his mouth as if he might be sick.

Qiao Wen’s expression tightened.

"Brother Su..."

Su Bai shook his head.

"This is only theory."

His voice was calm.

"There is not enough evidence yet. Do not treat it as certain."

The group did not relax.

Because after everything they had seen, Su Bai’s "mere theory" felt more reliable than many elders’ solemn conclusions.

Su Bai knew this as well.

He did not have enough evidence.

But his instinct told him he was not far from the truth.

That meant he needed more information.

From the dead.

He looked toward the awakened victims.

"You are still weak. Do not move around yet."

Then he took out the original jade slips from his system inventory.

The group looked surprised.

Su Bai placed them near Qiao Wen and Mu Qing.

"Those who woke later have not copied the records yet. Let them copy when their spirits are stable enough. Do not force them now."

Qiao Wen nodded.

"I understand."

Luo Shenshui looked at the jade slips in surprise.

"Brother Su..."

Su Bai said, "You suffered because of this hall. At least take back knowledge of what harmed you."

The awakened victims fell silent.

Some lowered their heads.

Others clenched their fists.

They had nearly lost themselves here.

Now, they would at least leave with proof.

Su Bai stood.

"I will go to the infirmary first."

Everyone immediately looked at him.

Chen Feng asked, "Why?"

Su Bai’s expression remained solemn.

"To pray for the other dead."

The hall became quiet again.

Several cultivators looked moved.

The awakened victims looked even more grateful.

One young cultivator whispered, "Radiant Sky Sect is truly different."

Another murmured, "I suddenly want to join them."

A third glanced at him.

"If you defect from your sect, they definitely will not accept you."

The second cultivator froze.

Then lowered his head.

"You are right."

Su Bai nearly choked.

He kept walking.

Behind him, Chen Feng muttered, "Annoying."

No one knew whether he meant Radiant Sky Sect, Su Bai, or the person who wanted to defect.

Perhaps all three.

Su Bai entered the infirmary again.

The room was quiet.

Rows of stone beds lined the walls.

Earlier, this place had felt somber.

Now, it felt like a sealed archive.

Su Bai walked to the nearest skeleton and crouched.

He gathered spiritual sense into his eyes.

After a moment, he saw it.

A faint mark beneath the brow bone.

Then another on the next skull.

Then one more near the back.

Not every skeleton had one.

Some skulls were too damaged.

Some runes had faded completely.

But several remained.

Su Bai took out the Vanguard’s Entropy-Detonator.

He sent a trace of will into it.

The tool responded.

One by one, faint connections appeared in his perception. Like threads stretched between the black-iron tool and the dormant runes inside the skulls.

Su Bai counted them silently.

Six still had some response.

Three were weak.

Two were unstable.

One was clearer than the rest.

He chose the weakest first.

Su Bai touched the skull. Then activated the Detonator.

The rune unfolded. The silent detonation erupted.

This time, Su Bai was prepared.

His Reversal Body twisted the backlash.

He sat cross-legged beside the bed and guided the fragments into himself.

Broken memories struck him again.

He fell into meditation.

A little later, the fragments faded.

Su Bai opened his eyes briefly.

He moved to the next skull.

Then the next.

Each activation dimmed the rune and cracked the skull slightly.

Each fallen soldier gave him only fragments.

But the pieces began to gather.

The map in Su Bai’s mind became wider.

He began to understand the outer area not as a treasure seeker, but as someone reading the corpse of a battlefield.

The Treatment-and-Containment Hall was not an isolated ruin.

It had once been part of a network.

There had been order here once.

Desperate order.

Then something had broken it.

Su Bai activated another rune.

This one was unstable.

The moment it unfolded, the memory fragments struck harder.

He saw a soldier crawling beneath broken stone.

Someone shouting that the inner line had been breached.

Someone else screaming not to trust returning faces.

A blade cutting down a man who begged with a comrade’s voice.

Then a phrase surfaced from the madness.

[Those who return from the red side must be verified.]

Su Bai’s eyes opened.

The infirmary was silent.

His heart had grown colder.

So they had known.

Even in the past, the defenders had faced enemies that could return wearing familiar faces.

Perhaps the borrowed-face things now were only degraded remnants.

Perhaps the true enemies had been worse.

Much worse.

Su Bai looked toward the remaining skulls.

He continued.

The next memory was weaker but useful.

An old route passed behind a broken watch platform.

Another led toward a dry well that had once connected to an underground supply passage.

One warning marker pointed away from a ravine that, in the current map, had been marked as possible star-metal ground.

Su Bai frowned.

That ravine might not be as simple as treasure.

He would need to be careful if they went there.

He activated the last clear rune.

This memory did not show a route.

It showed fear of people.

A line of wounded being brought in.

A healer asking for names.

A soldier refusing to answer until a lamp was lit.

A commander shouting that traitors had entered the outer area.

Su Bai’s eyes opened slowly.

The infirmary returned.

For several breaths, he did not move.

Everything was getting ridiculous.

The false shells in the Root Formation Chamber were not a new accident.

The ancient defenders had faced something similar.

They had built verification methods.

They had carved curse-runes into soldiers’ skulls.

They had ordered the dead to become weapons if their memories were ever consumed.

They had feared returning faces.

And still, they had lost this outer area.

Su Bai exhaled slowly.

The memories from the infirmary soldiers had expanded his partial map.

They had also expanded the danger.

The outer area was not merely full of old ruins.

It was full of old countermeasures.

Some might still work.

Some might have failed.

Some might have been reversed.

And deeper inside, stronger people had fought.

The memories hinted at that much.

The soldiers here had only guarded the outer layer.

Whenever their thoughts drifted inward, there was awe, fear, and obedience.

They did not know what happened in the deepest battlefield.

They only knew that the stronger ones had gone there.

And many had never returned.

Su Bai looked toward the doorway.

If he wanted a fuller truth, he would have to go deeper into the Sanctuary.

That thought was not pleasant.

But now he had something others did not.

A partial old map.

A warning about returning faces.

And a tool that could wake the dead witnesses, if their skulls still remembered enough to answer.

Behind him, the group’s voices were faint in the main hall.

The awakened victims were still weak.

The possible borrowed faces were still outside.

And Su Bai had just learned that even ancient defenders with preparation had been forced to fear their own allies returning from the red mist.

He stored the Vanguard’s Entropy-Detonator carefully.

Then he stood.

Several skulls behind him had cracked.

Several runes had gone dim.

Their final duty had ended.

Su Bai bowed once toward the infirmary.

This time, the prayer was not entirely false.

"Rest."

No sound answered.

But the room felt a little lighter.

Su Bai turned and walked back toward the main hall.