Chapter 68: The Path of Slaughter, Reincarnation Complete!
Taking another step forward, Qiuhan moved slowly, passing by one stone tablet after another.
“Qiuhan, slaughter, reincarnation...”
“Qiuhan, slaughter, reincarnation...”
“Qiuhan, slaughter, reincarnation, Sword of Slaughter...”
On the tenth stone tablet, Qiuhan saw words different from the previous nine; a few more characters had appeared.
“Sword of Slaughter...”
Qiuhan lingered beside this tablet for a while, then turned and continued onward.
“Qiuhan, slaughter, reincarnation, Chen Tian, Zhang Yuan...”
On the twentieth stone tablet, new names appeared, unlike the previous inscriptions.
“Chen Tian, Zhang Yuan... Strange, I have already killed them before. Who could have carved so many words here? Qiuhan—why is this name engraved on every tablet along the path?”
His gaze was once again drawn to the inscription on the tablet ahead.
“Path of Slaughter, Reincarnation Complete, Qiuhan, I am Qiuhan, Tribulation Lightning, cultivator, stop...”
The thirtieth tablet deepened his confusion.
“So the one who carved so many words on so many tablets was once named Qiuhan. But why did he do this? What was his purpose? Tribulation lightning, cultivator, stop...”
“It seems that, after countless deaths and rebirths, I have lost many memories...”
Qiuhan’s confusion grew. His expression was dazed, weary. Not far ahead, only the largest tablet remained. He paused, gazing at it, then lifted his foot and slowly walked forward.
“Qiuhan, I am Qiuhan, Misty Marsh, jellyfish beast, unicorn, Sword of Slaughter, Path of Slaughter, Reincarnation Complete, hurry to stop it, or you will be lost forever...”
On this massive stone tablet, countless characters were densely carved, no longer broken up but forming a coherent sentence.
“Path of Slaughter, Reincarnation Complete...”
“Path of Slaughter, Reincarnation Complete!”
Suddenly, Qiuhan turned his head toward a nearby spot, where a black stone tablet stood taller than a man. On it, five characters seemed stained with fresh blood.
“Field of Slaughter Reincarnation!”
Staring at these words, Qiuhan felt a burning sensation in his pupils. The Sword of Slaughter, tightly gripped in his right hand, began to tremble of its own accord, as though it wished to break free.
Qiuhan’s eyes throbbed with pain. He shut them, gripping the sword tightly, forcing it to stay in his grasp.
After a moment, the sword’s trembling ceased, and it became still. Yet, a black glow issued from its blade, drifting toward the black tablet and vanishing within.
In that instant, countless images surged into Qiuhan’s mind.
He seemed to see another self, in a forest he knew well.
In that forest, he watched himself being killed again and again by Chen Tian and the others, only to be reborn each time. Finally, after one rebirth, he laid traps around him, ambushing those who pursued him.
As many times before, Zhang Yuan arrived first, falling into his trap. Though severely wounded, Qiuhan wrested the Sword of Slaughter from Zhang Yuan’s hands.
In his grasp, the Sword of Slaughter seemed to awaken. With one swing, Zhang Yuan, Chen Tian, and all others fell dead!
He then slaughtered his way forward, killing all he met—lost, frenzied. He found the sects of Zhang Yuan and Chen Tian, and single-handedly uprooted them, leaving nothing but desolation and devastation.
With each act of slaughter, his black hair grew longer and longer, trailing three fathoms on the ground. His eyes turned blood-red, and his robes faded to jet black.
The vision shifted again. Clad in black, holding the Sword of Slaughter, he stood in this realm, facing a black stone tablet identical to the one Qiuhan had just seen, with five blood-red characters carved upon it.
“Realm of Slaughter Reincarnation!”
The last character for “realm”—its lower radical was black, not blood-red.
In the vision, his black-robed self swung the Sword of Slaughter at the tablet. Yet the blow left not a single mark. Instead, blood-colored light poured from the blade into the tablet, dyeing the last character further red, leaving only two vertical strokes in black.
Only then did he realize something crucial, but it was already too late. In his final moments, he severed the connection between the sword and the tablet with his formidable cultivation, self-destructed, and entered reincarnation once more.
Again, he found himself in that forest, now dressed in white. This time, he did not wait for Chen Tian and the others, but left the forest, entering a desert filled with massive stones. He cut these stones into smaller tablets, carved many words upon them, and placed them at intervals across the land.
After this, he died again and was reborn in the forest. This time, the Sword of Slaughter flew directly to him, and he took it. When Chen Tian and the others arrived to kill him, his cultivation had surged due to the sword, and he destroyed them with a single strike.
The vision shifted once more—now to a realm of mist. Within the fog, he was attacked by a water beast, dragged into the depths, battling fiercely. In his final moments, his soul entered the space of the Immortal Compass, vanishing beside the Sword of Slaughter.
“Qiuhan, I am Qiuhan. I am a disciple of Hengyuan Sect of Wu Kingdom. I entered the Misty Marsh for a sect trial, fought with a water beast, and was gravely wounded, nearly dying, entering this Realm of Slaughter Reincarnation. I have reincarnated here countless times. The black-robed, long-haired version of myself must have discovered the secret of this realm in the end, learning how to break free, but it was too late. At the last moment, I used my death to prevent the realm’s complete formation.”
“In that cycle, in the final moment before death, I used extraordinary cultivation to change the trajectory of the next reincarnation, so a more complete memory remained. I carved those tablets to remind myself, should I return again, to uncover the realm’s secret and find a way out. Moreover, in this cycle, the Sword of Slaughter came to me directly, because I altered its path in the previous cycle.”
“The Sword of Slaughter forms its own realm, forging its soul through slaughter, causing the realm’s ultimate formation. What immense power it must take to accomplish this.”