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

Chapter 160: Chapter 160 - The Beast Spoils and the Star-Metal Remains

The first wave crashed against the defensive line.

Zhao Heng stood at the front with his shield raised.

Several shield cultivators stood beside him. Their Qi connected in uneven but firm layers.

The impact came like falling stones.

A miasma beast slammed into Zhao Heng’s shield. Its claws scraped across the surface with a sound that made several people’s teeth ache.

Zhao Heng’s feet slid back half a step.

Then stopped.

"Hold!"

The shield cultivators roared and pushed forward together.

The beast was forced back.

Before it could recover, frost spread beneath its limbs.

Ji Ruyue appeared at its side. Her sword cut through the red mist without sound.

The beast’s lower body froze.

Chen Feng’s sword followed immediately.

This time, he did not strike randomly.

His first attack had already told him the beast’s hide was too hard.

So his second strike entered through the gap between the frozen joint and the crooked spine.

The blade rang again.

But this time, it sank deeper.

Chen Feng’s eyes brightened.

"There."

Su Bai heard him.

"Joints. Mouth cracks. Spine gaps. Do not waste strength on the hide."

The command spread quickly.

The cultivators adjusted at once.

Those who used swords stopped chopping at the beasts’ backs and began attacking joints.

Those who used spears aimed at mouths and ribs.

Those with binding techniques slowed the beasts before the shield line.

Those with fire or ice forced openings.

Lin Weiyang’s bronze mechanisms spun above the battlefield, releasing thin formation threads that marked danger points in the red mist.

Whenever a beast prepared to leap from a blind angle, one of the threads flashed.

"Left side, upper wall!"

"Three more below!"

"One Golden Core-level beast climbing behind the first group!"

The moment Lin Weiyang shouted the last warning, Su Bai moved.

Several black needles vanished from his fingers.

They slipped through the red mist like dark rain.

The Golden Core-level miasma beast had not yet fully climbed over the ravine edge when the first needle entered its jaw crack.

The second pierced a spine gap.

The third struck the hollow behind its shoulder.

Ashen-gray cold flame spread silently inside it.

The beast’s movement stiffened.

Its body burned coldly from within, but the surface did not immediately show it.

A breath later, Ji Ruyue’s frost arrived from outside.

Inner cold and outer frost met.

The Golden Core-level beast froze halfway through its leap.

Chen Feng stepped forward and cut through the weakened neck joint.

The beast crashed down before reaching the defensive line.

Several cultivators stared.

A Golden Core-level beast had been killed before it could even properly enter the battlefield.

Someone swallowed.

"Brother Su saw that? His needles are so accurate!"

"Less talking," Tang Ziyan said. "More not dying."

Her fingers moved.

Silver Weeping Needles flashed from her hand.

The needles entered the cracks of a beast’s jaw.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then purple veins spread through the beast’s gray-red hide.

The beast convulsed violently.

Black-red foam spilled from its mouth.

Tang Ziyan clicked her tongue.

"Still ugly."

Not far away, Su Bai’s qi-formed Weeping Needles moved in another direction, carrying Ashen-Frost Blight Flame in their hollow cores.

Tang Ziyan’s needles carried her poisonous blood.

One froze and burned corruption from within.

The other poisoned and dominated the miasma inside the beast’s body.

The two styles were completely different.

But strangely, both were very suited to killing these creatures.

Su Bai glanced once at Tang Ziyan’s needles.

His gaze paused for the slightest moment.

’That blood...’

He silently turned his eyes back to the battlefield.

Not now.

This was not the right time to be hungry.

A beast tried to rush past the shield line toward the platforms carrying the unconscious victims.

Before it could reach them, Qiao Wen’s water Qi rose like a curtain, slowing its charge.

Mu Qing’s wood Qi followed, wrapping around the platform and pulling it back a yard.

Zhao Heng stepped sideways and smashed his shield into the beast’s shoulder.

"Back!"

The defensive cultivators pushed together.

The beast staggered.

A formation thread flashed above its head.

Lin Weiyang’s bronze needle-drill shot down and punched through a crack near its ear.

The beast shrieked.

Tang Ziyan’s poison entered the wound.

Then Chen Feng’s sword finished it.

The coordination was not perfect.

Some cultivators still reacted too slowly.

Some shouted over one another.

One spear cultivator nearly stabbed a shield cultivator in the sleeve and received a furious glare.

Another cultivator used a fire technique too close to Tang Ziyan’s poison mist and immediately learned that some kinds of smoke were better left unheated.

But the line held.

More importantly, no one broke formation.

Su Bai adjusted them with calm, short commands.

"Do not chase."

"Left side, three breaths."

"Move the second platform back."

"Senior Sister Ji, freeze the ledge."

"Chen Feng, right joint."

"Zhao Heng, brace."

"Ziyan, that one is yours."

Tang Ziyan glanced at him.

"You call my name very naturally."

Su Bai answered without looking away, "You poison very naturally."

Tang Ziyan paused.

Then snorted and threw another needle.

The beast she struck collapsed before it could finish climbing.

Little by little, the wave thinned.

Most of the beasts were Foundation Establishment-level.

They were fierce, hard, and difficult to kill, but under the combined force of more than thirty cultivators, they could be suppressed.

The Golden Core-level beasts were the real danger.

Whenever one appeared, Su Bai marked it first.

Ji Ruyue froze its movement.

Chen Feng cut its weak point.

Tang Ziyan’s poison ruined its internal flow.

Lin Weiyang’s mechanisms disrupted its charge.

Then the others finished it before it could reach the center.

Having many people finally proved its worth.

The ravine kept screaming.

But the screams became fewer.

The clicking claws against stone slowly faded.

The last beast crawled over the ravine edge with half its body already frozen.

It opened its mouth toward the formation.

Before it could shriek, three black needles entered its throat.

Ashen-gray flame bloomed inside its body.

Tang Ziyan’s purple needle entered a crack in its chest almost at the same time.

The beast stiffened.

Then fell.

Its body struck the ground with a heavy sound.

For several breaths, no one moved.

Everyone stared at the ravine.

Su Bai’s spiritual sense swept downward again.

The miasma still churned.

The echoes still drifted.

But no new beasts were climbing up.

At least for now.

He lowered his hand.

"The wave is over."

Silence.

Then someone exhaled sharply.

Another cultivator laughed once, almost disbelieving.

"We... won?"

"We won."

The tension broke.

Several cultivators sat down at once.

One shield cultivator slapped Zhao Heng’s shoulder and nearly hurt his own hand instead.

A sword cultivator looked at Chen Feng with bright eyes.

"Brother Chen, that joint strike was clean."

Chen Feng lifted his chin.

"Of course."

Ji Ruyue passed by him without comment.

Chen Feng’s chin lowered again.

Tang Ziyan wiped one needle clean with a cloth and said, "If you are going to celebrate, celebrate after checking whether anything is still pretending to be dead."

Everyone immediately became quiet.

Then several cultivators carefully stabbed the fallen beasts again.

Su Bai approved.

Sometimes Tang Ziyan’s mouth was useful.

After confirming the beasts were truly dead, Lin Weiyang walked toward the closest corpse.

Her eyes were bright again.

Not battle-bright.

But study-bright.

She crouched beside the beast and took out a slender bronze tool.

The tool unfolded into three smaller tools.

Then those unfolded again.

Several cultivators watched silently.

One young cultivator whispered, "Does she carry an entire workshop?"

Tang Ziyan said, "Probably two."

Lin Weiyang ignored them completely.

She scraped a small piece from the mineral growth along the beast’s spine.

Then she tested the claw.

Then the rib.

Then the hardened jaw.

Her expression became more focused.

"This is interesting."

Su Bai walked over.

"Star-metal?"

Everyone nearby immediately held their breath.

Lin Weiyang shook her head.

"No."

Several people’s excitement dipped slightly.

Then Lin Weiyang continued, "But it has been affected by something similar for a long time. The mineral growths are dense, stable, and resistant to miasma corrosion. They are not as valuable as star-metal, but they can be used for crafting."

The nearby cultivators froze.

Then their eyes changed.

Lin Weiyang tapped the beast’s spine with her bronze tool.

"These parts could be refined into defensive plates, formation anchors, corrosion-resistant needles, maybe even cheap weapon reinforcements if processed well."

The cultivators looked at the fallen beasts again.

A moment ago, they had been monsters.

Now, they were materials.

The change in everyone’s gaze was almost immediate.

Su Bai shook his head silently.

Cultivators were truly practical creatures.

Give them danger, and they feared it.

Tell them danger could be refined into treasure, and they began wondering whether there were more of it.

Soon, the group began processing the beast corpses.

Everyone remained at the edge while assigned cultivators removed the useful mineral parts.

Lin Weiyang and the formation-aware cultivators identified which parts were valuable.

Tang Ziyan warned people not to touch areas where her poison had not fully settled.

Mu Qing checked whether any beast blood or miasma residue could harm the injured.

Zhao Heng and the shield cultivators maintained guard.

Su Bai watched the ravine while occasionally pointing out parts that should be harvested.

The division followed the rules they had already agreed upon.

Those who fought received shares.

Those who guarded the victims received shares.

Those who identified useful materials received shares.

Those who protected the platforms received shares.

The unconscious victims did not receive battle spoils.

No one argued.

The first battle had been dangerous, but it had also been fair.

And profitable.

Su Bai received the largest portion again.

Because everyone had seen what he did.

He detected hidden beasts before anyone else.

He marked Golden Core-level threats first.

He gave commands that prevented injuries.

He saved the platforms from being breached.

And his needles had killed or crippled several of the most dangerous beasts.

This time, when the share was placed before him, Su Bai did not refuse.

He stored the mineral materials calmly.

Refusing too often would make others uncomfortable.

Accepting fairly earned treasure was also a virtue.

Probably.

The group’s mood improved after the spoils were divided.

Victory did that.

Treasure did that even faster.

Even the wounded seemed less pale.

Of course, that might have been because they were staring at the materials instead of the ravine.

After a short rest, Su Bai looked ahead.

"We continue."

The group quieted.

They had only dealt with the first wave.

The ravine still waited.

The star-metal had not appeared yet.

Su Bai stepped forward again.

This time, everyone followed with even more trust than before.

They had realized something.

Brother Su was not simply lucky.

He could see danger before it reached them.

Whether it was intuition, a treasure, a secret art, or something else, no one was foolish enough to press him about it.

In the cultivation world, everyone had secrets.

A useful secret that saved your life was best respected from a distance.

The group descended along the ravine edge rather than directly downward.

The path was narrow.

Jagged stones jutted from the wall.

Cold miasma rose from below, curling around their lotus barriers.

The echoes continued.

Sometimes near.

Sometimes far.

Sometimes in familiar voices.

But after the first wave, no one answered.

At most, they tightened their grip on their weapons and walked faster.

Su Bai became more careful the deeper they went.

The danger mark from the dead soldier’s memory was nearby.

He remembered the feeling clearly.

A soldier’s instinctive fear.

A place everyone had known not to approach casually.

His spiritual sense stretched forward.

Then he saw them.

Faint glimmers ahead.

They appeared in cracks along the ravine wall and among broken debris scattered across a lower ledge.

Tiny silver-blue points, like fragments of fallen night caught in stone.

Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.

This time, it was real.

"I think there are star-metal fragments ahead," he said.

The group stopped breathing for half a moment.

Qiao Wen swallowed.

"You can see them?"

"Yes," Su Bai said. "But I see no beasts for now."

The relief lasted only a breath.

Then Su Bai added, "Still, be careful."

No one complained.

The trust in his judgment had already become almost unreasonable.

A short while later, the group reached the area Su Bai had mentioned.

Then everyone saw it.

Star-metal fragments.

But not as they had imagined.

There was no shining ore vein waiting to be mined.

Instead, the lower ledge looked like the remains of an ancient battlefield storage ground.

Broken spearheads lay half-buried in red dust.

Cracked sword tips were lodged between stones.

Arrowheads glittered faintly beneath miasma-stained debris.

Armor plates had been split open.

Chain links were scattered like torn restraints.

Shield fragments lay in pieces, their surfaces scarred by old impacts.

All of them carried that same cold silver-blue luster.

Star-metal.

The group froze.

For a moment, even breathing felt too loud.

Then someone whispered, "We struck it rich."

No one corrected him.

Because they had.

Even broken fragments like these were valuable.

To refiners, they were precious material.

To sword cultivators, they were future weapons.

To formation masters, they were anchors and cores.

To sects, they were contribution points, favors, and bargaining power.

Even a handful could make this trip worthwhile.

And this ledge held far more than a handful.

Several cultivators’ eyes brightened.

Some stepped forward instinctively.

Su Bai raised his hand.

They stopped at once.

His gaze was not on the fragments alone.

It was deeper.

Past the broken weapons.

Further down the ravine, half-hidden behind red mist and collapsed stone, he saw the outline of a structure.

Something that had once stood with purpose.

Su Bai’s excitement cooled.

The star-metal was real.

But it was not why the warning marker had existed.

No soldier would warn others away from simple treasure.

His spiritual sense touched the collapsed structure.

For a breath, the miasma around it seemed still. As if the ravine itself was holding its breath.

Su Bai lowered his hand slowly.

"Do not touch anything yet."

Several cultivators stiffened.

Tang Ziyan looked at him.

"What did you find?"

Su Bai stared into the deeper mist.

His voice became calm.

"Something else."

The joy in the group faded.

One by one, their eyes moved away from the star-metal fragments and toward the collapsed structure below.

The treasures were scattered at their feet.

But deeper in the ravine, something waited among the ruins.

And this time, even Su Bai did not know whether it was dead.