The morning fog curled across the mountain like a sleepy dragon too lazy to move. Birds chirped. Disciples yawned. The Sect of Grand Mystery (Still Pending Name Approval) was alive with the sound of… mild confusion.
"Senior Brother! The outhouse collapsed again!"
"Elder! The spiritual chickens have gone missing!"
"Master! A strange stone is glowing under the fish pond!!"
Jin Nian blinked, still half-asleep. "...Did you say glowing stone?"
The disciple nodded furiously. "Yes, Sect Master! It vibrated. Then it moaned."
"…You sure it wasn't the elder who had spicy noodles last night?"
"No! It sounded… ancient."
Jin Nian's eyebrow twitched. This disciple—Hong Yan—was one of the first five to join the sect, and by far the most dramatic. But he wasn't the type to lie. Especially not about moaning rocks.
Jin Nian got up, tied his robes sloppily, and followed him downhill.
---
They reached the pond. A few tiny fish swam in lazy circles, glowing faintly with spiritual light. But at the center of the pond… there was something else.
A slab of stone. Black, veined with green mist. Symbols moved across its surface like they were alive—not carved, not painted, but growing.
Jin Nian's heart skipped a beat.
He knew this stone.
In his past life… this stone marked the entrance to his old sect's Heart Vault, a vault of forbidden knowledge that he sealed himself before dying. The vault had collapsed when he died—but this stone should not exist in this life.
And yet, here it was.
---
"Everyone. Step back," he said quietly.
The disciples obeyed. Jin Nian waded into the pond barefoot, his heart pounding in his chest.
The stone thrummed as he approached, like it recognized him.
> System Notification:
[Primordial Memory Node Detected]
Fragment Unlocked: 1/33
Jin Nian staggered.
A piece of his old self surged up through the fog in his mind. He saw flashes:
A laughing boy holding a sword made of ink.
A woman with silver eyes screaming, "They'll erase us all!"
The Sect burning.
Himself… sealing a scroll inside his own chest before dying.
He fell to his knees.
---
A soft hand touched his shoulder. It was Wu Ling, the quiet girl who'd joined two chapters ago and still hadn't said much.
"Are you okay, Sect Master?"
He looked at her, eyes trembling. "No. And… I might never be again."
She offered him a handkerchief. "You look like you're about to sneeze, not cry."
He burst out laughing through the emotion. "I don't know whether to thank you or expel you."
Wu Ling smirked. "Good. Because I'm not leaving."
---
Back at the hall, Jin Nian sat alone after sending the disciples off to train (or bicker, which often led to the same result). He stared at the black stone resting now on a pedestal, softly pulsing.
> System Update:
Ancient Art Reawakened: Sect Binding Array – Living Core Stage (1%)
That was the technique he had once created—a forbidden art that allowed the sect itself to grow as a spiritual entity. It had been banned by the Divine Accord 900 years ago.
That meant the knowledge wasn't just forgotten—it was hunted down and destroyed.
But why did the system have access to it?
"System," he whispered. "Why is this here?"
> System Response:
Because you buried it inside yourself. And someone is trying to dig it back out.
---
Suddenly, outside the sect boundary, alarms rang.
"Sect Master!" a disciple shouted. "There's a man outside… floating!"
Jin Nian peeked out.
Sure enough, a man in blue robes floated just outside the sect's spiritual boundary. He had six golden rings orbiting his body and a fan in his hand that looked like it could swat planets.
A Nascent Soul cultivator. Way above their paygrade.
"Hello in there!" the man shouted. "Is this the Sect of Grand Noodles or whatever? I felt an ancient pulse and—AHH!"
He was suddenly swarmed by dozens of angry spirit chickens that had somehow wandered beyond the sect walls.
"PEACE! I COME IN PEACE—AGGHHH!"
The disciples gasped. "Senior, the chickens—"
"They left the sect," Jin Nian said gravely, "and became monsters."
He turned to them. "Write this down: Never trust poultry beyond borders."
---
Later that night, Jin Nian stared at the moon.
It felt like the past was catching up to him.
He'd died in the most ridiculous way imaginable—fainting during an emotional poem recital after a spiritual breakthrough. The goosebumps had frozen his meridians. His enemies never even got to swing a sword.
And now, in this second life, he wanted nothing more than peace, comedy, and lazy noodle soup with a thousand loyal disciples.
But peace would never last if the world's secrets were clawing their way out of the grave.
He placed a hand on the black stone again.
"Old friends," he whispered to the symbols. "If you're waking up… who else is?"
---
Reader Question:
Do you think the person who sealed the knowledge inside Jin Nian was himself—or someone else tampered with his past memory? Leave your theory below! And pls give this novel support by power stones