System Granted Me Immortality; I Outlived Everyone

Chapter 15: The Boundless Secret Realm and the Mysterious Stone Coffin

Seeing Chen Changsheng zone out, Qingfeng assumed he was agonizing over the impending border war and chuckled.

“Don’t sweat it. Only Cultivators at the Golden Core realm or above even have the right to serve as cannon fodder in a national war.”

“By the time you reach the Golden Core realm, the fighting will be long over.”

“The Boundless Secret Realm is opening. Hurry up and head inside with your Senior Brother Yuanshan.”

Qingfeng gave Chen Changsheng and Yuanshan a firm shove toward the assembly.

At that exact moment, the supreme factions of the Cultivation world—the Heavenly Buddha Temple, the Linglong Sect, the Shangqing Temple, and the Daqian Dynasty imperial family—jointly unsealed the Boundless Secret Realm.

A swirling, abyssal black hole materialized above the massive stone altar.

The chosen disciples were instantly violently sucked into the void.

……

The world spun wildly. When gravity finally reasserted itself, Chen Changsheng and Yuanshan found themselves standing in an endless sea of blooming flowers.

Taking in the vibrant surroundings, the thirteen-year-old Yuanshan tugged nervously at Chen Changsheng’s sleeve. “Junior Brother Changsheng, where are we?”

Staring down at his notoriously timid Ninth Senior Brother, Chen Changsheng couldn’t help but sigh and smile wryly.

Before his arrival at the Shangqing Temple, the sect only had nine inner disciples.

Each possessed their own specialized skillset and distinct quirks.

This Ninth Senior Brother of his happened to be famously cowardly, largely because he was barely thirteen years old.

Despite his age, his latent talent was terrifying; he possessed the ultra-rare dual spiritual roots of Water and Fire.

“Senior Brother Yuanshan, you’re a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator now. Stop acting like a frightened rabbit.”

Yuanshan’s face crumpled into a bitter smile.

“Big Brother Changsheng, you know how it is. Master dragged me up the mountain when I was barely three.”

“My entire life has just been Cultivation, day in and day out. I don’t know the first thing about the outside world. I’m not like you!”

Chen Changsheng’s lips curled into a grin. “So, will you follow my lead?”

“Of course I’ll listen to you!”

“I even stood lookout for you when you sneaked in to steal Master’s treasured lightning-struck wood!”

“Glad to hear it. In that case, let’s get to work. Start picking flowers.”

“Picking flowers?”

Yuanshan blinked, utterly bewildered by the instruction.

“Big Brother Changsheng, why in the world are we picking flowers?”

“To brew wine, obviously!”

“If I’m not mistaken, this is the legendary Hundred Flower Sea within the Boundless Secret Realm. Flora from all four seasons can bloom here simultaneously.”

“I read an ancient text that documented an immortal vintage known as the Hundred Flower Wine.”

“The recipe strictly requires fresh, unblemished petals from across all four seasons.”

“The environmental requirements are absurdly strict, so I’ve never had the chance to attempt a batch.”

“But this? This is a heaven-sent opportunity!”

Watching Chen Changsheng immediately squat down and start cheerfully hoarding petals, Yuanshan scratched his head.

“But Master ordered us in here to fight for Fated Chances. If we spend the whole time picking flowers to make booze, how are we going to explain ourselves when we get out?”

“According to the secret realm map I memorized, there’s a dilapidated bronze temple about thirty miles east of here.”

“That temple houses the Fated Chance you’re talking about, heavily guarded by ancient trials.”

“I know this. Which means everyone else knows it too.”

“So, you have two choices.”

“Option one: We march over to that bronze temple, run a gauntlet of deadly traps, and fight to the death against dozens of bloodthirsty rival disciples.”

“Option two: We stay right here and brew some premium Hundred Flower Wine. Master and Third Senior Brother are both massive drunkards. If we hand them a few jars of legendary immortal vintage, they won’t have the heart to punish us.”

Weighing the prospect of bloody, brutal combat against a peaceful afternoon of gardening, Yuanshan tilted his head, thought for all of two seconds, and happily squatted down to join the harvest.

……

Time drifted by peacefully.

Elsewhere in the Boundless Secret Realm, the cream of the crop from the major sects were frantically hunting for Fated Chances, battering each other bloody over ancient scraps.

In stark contrast, Chen Changsheng and Yuanshan were practically on vacation.

They harvested dew-kissed petals in the cool mornings. At high noon, they napped in the sunlit floral beds.

Come afternoon, they meticulously fermented the harvest according to the ancient methodologies.

It was a shockingly domestic routine amidst a realm of slaughter.

“Big Brother Changsheng, get over here! Look at this!”

Yuanshan’s shout pulled Chen Changsheng from his work. He looked up to see the boy waving frantically.

“What did you find?”

Chen Changsheng casually strolled over. Yuanshan pointed eagerly at the soil.

“Look, there’s a stone slab buried here, and it’s covered in carvings.”

Chen Changsheng crouched down, brushing away a layer of loose dirt to reveal a slab of gray stone etched with intricate, archaic patterns.

Tracing the grooves with his fingertips, Chen Changsheng frowned. “This feels massive. Grab a shovel, let’s dig it up.”

The two of them immediately shifted from gardening to excavation.

After an hour of moving dirt, a colossal stone coffin sat fully exposed in the trench before them.

The heavy lid was covered entirely in strange, jagged calligraphy.

Yuanshan leaned over the edge, squinting at the script. “Big Brother Changsheng, what kind of language is this? I can’t read a single word of it!”

“Of course you can’t. This script is over two thousand years old.”

“What?!”

“Two thousand years?”

“But the Daqian Dynasty has only existed for eighteen hundred years! Does that mean this coffin is from the previous era?”

“Quiet.”

“I’ve only encountered fragments of this syntax in ancient, decaying scrolls. Give me a minute to translate it.”

Yuanshan immediately clamped both hands over his mouth, standing obediently to the side like a silent statue.

A full hour ticked by. Chen Changsheng finally exhaled a long breath and wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.

“I see. It looks like we really did stumble across the jackpot.”

Seeing him finally break the silence, Yuanshan hurriedly dropped his hands. “What does it say? Who’s inside?”

“It’s a brief autobiography.”

“I stepped onto the path of Cultivation in my youth. By the age of eighteen, I had fought 3,981 battles. I won 756. I lost 3,225.”

“By eighty, I had fought 4,498 battles. I won 1,325. I lost 3,173.”

“By two hundred, I fought 1,650 battles. I won 985. I lost 780.”

“By five hundred, I fought 130 battles. I won 115. I lost 15.”

“At one thousand years of age, I fought nine battles. I achieved nine victories. Looking back upon the realm, I found no rivals remaining beneath the heavens.”

“Alas. I spent my life seeking a worthy opponent, yet ultimately found none. The utter loneliness of the pinnacle is truly unbearable.”

“I discovered this blessed grotto, intending to wait for death in total isolation. But after much deliberation, I could not bear to let my legacy be severed from the world.”

“Thus, I bury my stone coffin beneath this sea of flowers. The path to immortality is endless. Only those with a sincere heart may inherit my mantle.”

Chen Changsheng translated the archaic inscription in one long, unbroken breath.

Beside him, Yuanshan’s jaw was practically touching the dirt.

“Big Brother Changsheng… this guy was an absolute monster.”

“He fought thousands upon thousands of battles! But… why did his battle count drop so drastically as he got older?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Chen Changsheng replied dryly. “Because as the centuries passed, he ran out of people qualified to survive a spar with him.”

“By his thousandth year, those final nine battles must have been apocalyptic clashes that shattered the skies.”

“‘Nine battles, nine victories.’ It’s only a few simple words, but you can feel the absolute arrogance and bloody triumph seeping out of the stone.”

“Those final nine fights must have been his magnum opus.”