The Sword Goddess Killed Me, So I Came Back For Revenge

Chapter 8

Adrian continued circulating the Nine Heavens Scripture.

The speed at which his body absorbed spiritual qi was already faster than most martial artists who cultivated ordinary techniques. Even so, he remained dissatisfied. The progress was still too slow for what he needed.

If he could get even one spirit crystal, his cultivation speed would increase by a large margin.

Spirit crystals were formed when dense spiritual qi condensed into solid form over a long time. The most common ways to obtain them were by hunting certain spirit beasts or digging them out of rare spirit mines.

A single low-grade spirit crystal was worth hundreds of silver coins. Only the talented young masters from the main line of big clans and the inner disciples of powerful sects could use them freely.

Adrian and Cora had no way to buy one.

Just as he was thinking about this, Adrian reached into his clothes and took out the white crystal he had been carrying since his rebirth. He held it in the center of his palm and stared at it.

“Could this be a spirit crystal?” he muttered.

He guided a strand of true qi from his qi pool up toward the Divine Martial Mark on his forehead. The mark responded at once. It gathered the true qi, refined it, and released a thin beam of pure white light from the center of his brow.

The white light struck the surface of the crystal, making Adrian’s eyes widen.

A single character slowly appeared on the surface of the white crystal. The writing was strange and ancient. He had never seen this kind of script before, yet the moment he looked at it, he somehow understood its meaning.

In his previous life, Adrian had also poured true qi into this same white crystal many times. Back then his cultivation had been hundreds of times stronger than it was now. Nothing had ever appeared on the stone.

Now, with only the early stage of the Celadon Extreme Realm, a character had shown itself.

“Could it be that the Divine Martial Mark I opened in this life has a special attribute that matches this crystal?” he thought.

He stared at the glowing character for a long time.

What exactly was this white crystal?

Why had it followed him across five hundred years?

And what did the character that had just appeared truly mean?

In his previous life, Adrian had been the son of a powerful sect elder and was extremely knowledgeable. He had seen many kinds of spirit crystals and understood most of their attributes. But he had never seen a crystal that carried a character like this one.

Just by looking at the glowing character, he could sense its meaning. It seemed connected to the soul and to residual wills left behind by powerful cultivators.

While Adrian was still trying to understand the character, a sudden burst of light exploded from the white crystal.

The light twisted and formed a spinning vortex. The vortex grew larger and larger until it completely wrapped around his consciousness. Adrian only felt his mind spinning violently. In the next moment, the real world disappeared.

His body remained sitting on the bed in the Outer Courtyard, but his consciousness had been pulled into another place.

He found himself standing in a quiet, misty space. The ground felt solid under his feet, yet there were no walls, no sky, and no clear boundaries. Everything around him was calm and empty.

Adrian pulled himself together and looked around.

In the center of this strange place lay a single book. He walked over and tried to pick it up.

The book did not move at first. It felt heavy, as if it was sealed by some kind of soul force. Strange words were written on its surface, but he could not fully understand them.

Adrian’s eyes turned serious as he circulated the true qi connected to his Echo Divine Martial Mark and poured his will into the book. He pushed against the seal for a long time.

After nearly fifteen minutes of continuous effort, the seal finally loosened. He opened the book.

At first the contents confused him. The writing was dense and the language was old. But as he continued reading, he slowly realized that this was not an ordinary cultivation manual.

It was a Soul Imprint, a residual will left behind by someone who had lived a long and extraordinary life.

From the Soul Imprint, Adrian finally understood that the Divine Martial Mark he had opened was an extremely rare Echo Divine Martial Mark.

According to the residual will inside the book, not even one person in a billion could awaken an Echo-type Divine Martial Mark. From ancient times until the day this imprint was left behind, only one person had ever succeeded, the owner of this residual will. That meant Adrian was now the second person in recorded history to open such a mark.

The ancient expert had died more than a thousand years ago.

Adrian also learned something even more valuable. The Mental Inheritance Realm created by the Soul Echo Crystal had a different flow of time. Three full days of cultivation inside this realm only equaled one day in the outside world.

When he realized this, Adrian’s heart filled with joy.

This meant his effective cultivation time was three times longer than anyone training outside. For someone who had started late and was being looked down on by the entire Vale Clan, this advantage was enormous.

Adrian continued reading with great focus. He was about to turn to the next section when he discovered he could not open it no matter how hard he tried. The next part of the Soul Imprint remained sealed.

After a moment, he understood the reason.

The imprint would only reveal more when his cultivation and soul strength reached a higher level. Right now, he was still only at the early stage of the Celadon Extreme Realm. He had not yet met the requirement.

Adrian closed the Soul Imprint and stood up.

There was no point staying any longer. He needed to return to the outside world, continue cultivating, and raise his strength. Only then would more of the ancient expert’s inheritance open to him.

He focused his mind on the Soul Echo Crystal and the Echo Divine Martial Mark on his forehead.

A soft light wrapped around his consciousness and in the next moment, the Mental Inheritance Realm disappeared, and Adrian found himself sitting once again on the hard bed in the small room of the Outer Courtyard.