Su Chen didn't return straight to his courtyard.
Dragging a trussed-up saboteur through the sect like a sack of cabbage wasn't the kind of attention he wanted—yet. He needed this next step to feel like a footnote, not a declaration of war. Quiet disruptions were better than loud defiance, especially in the Azure Sky Sect, where outer disciples were treated like interchangeable insects with legs just long enough to bow but not stand tall.
So instead of parading Liang Fei through the main path, Su Chen tied him to a tree halfway down the east slope. Not a metaphor. Literally tied him. Gagged him too, after the idiot wouldn't stop swearing loyalty to Elder Shen between sobs.
"Someone will find you," Su Chen muttered, brushing his hands clean. "Eventually."
Then, he turned back toward the Pavilion.
Because that trap? That wasn't the only danger waiting inside. The Pavilion was rigged, yes—but not just as a murder site. It had a secret of its own. A buried flaw. A flaw Su Chen had stumbled into once in his previous life… too late to benefit.
This time, he had a window. One hour, maybe less, before Elder Shen realized Liang hadn't returned and sent someone to investigate.
One hour to turn a coffin into a key. The Broken Meridian Pavilion was exactly as he remembered: decaying wood, jade tiles cracked by years of neglect, spirit formation lines buried under moss.
Su Chen knelt at the base of the outer wall, brushing aside a cluster of weeds.
There it was.
A faint glyph—almost erased—hidden beneath the foundation stone.
The inscription was ancient. Not Azure Sky Sect standard. Not even local province design. It belonged to a style Su Chen had only seen once in his past life—deep within the ruins of the Eternal Reset Cult during the War That Never Was.
His fingers hovered over the carving.
[System Prompt: Foreign Formation Detected]
[Residual Anchor Traces Present]
[Compatibility: 14%]
[Risk: Moderate to High]
[Attempt to Interface?]
So the Pavilion wasn't just a sect-side death trap. It had history.
Someone long ago had tried to reset something here—and failed.
Su Chen smiled and said "I'm not them."
[Interface Accepted.]
The glyph glowed.
Faint. Flickering. Like a memory fighting to survive.
The stone shifted with a low groan, revealing a small compartment beneath. Inside, nestled in dust and old blood, sat a jade slip and a single black token—shaped like an eye with no pupil.
The jade slip pulsed softly. Su Chen reached for it—
[System Notification: Forbidden Memory Fragment Acquired]
[Warning: Data Incomplete – Requires Anchor Stabilization to Access]
[Do you wish to store for later decryption?]
"Store it," Su Chen muttered. "I'll deal with the memory later."
The token, however, he pocketed immediately. A token from the Forgotten Reset Sect... embedded in a sect structure. That wasn't coincidence. That was design. Which meant Elder Shen wasn't just trying to eliminate him. He was covering up something.
Back in his courtyard, Su Chen sat cross-legged and set the token beside him on a cracked stone table. The spiritual wind here was weak—barely a breeze—and the qi veins in this part of the mountain were stunted. Which made it the perfect hiding place.
He pulled in a breath.
Then two.
Then closed his eyes.
[System Booting Meditation Sync…]
[Warning: Physical Body Unsuitable for High-Speed Cultivation]
[Suggestion: Focus on Consciousness Training While Body Catches Up]
[Would you like to enable: Mental Recall Simulation – 1st Anchor Thread?]
Now that… was interesting.
"Enable it."
[Thread Loaded: 'The Dog That Barked in a Past Life']
[Simulated Re-Entry into Timeline Echo… Initiating.]
In an instant, his mind blurred—and he stood once again in the moment of that damn dog's bark.
But this time, it wasn't real.
The air shimmered. The sky bled color. The people moved like actors on half-finished strings.
He was inside the memory but this wasn't just for nostalgia.
This was for training.
Su Chen spent the next simulated hour reliving that same moment again and again.
Different reactions. Different choices.
In one version, he snapped Liang Fei's arm to make a point. Too aggressive.
In another, he said nothing—too weak.
He found the right balance on the ninth iteration: calm defiance, subtle assertion. Not enough to make enemies panic—but enough to make them nervous.
[Mental Resonance Improved: +1 Willpower]
[Anchor Thread Progress: 2% Stabilized]
So the System wasn't just replaying memories. It was helping him master them.
"Hmm... I see," Su Chen muttered, exiting the simulation with a cold shiver. "It's not a reset system anymore. Not yet. Right now... it's a library."
A library of his own mistakes.
He could work with that.
Night fell and with it came the first lie.
Not from Su Chen but from Elder Shen.
It arrived in the form of a trembling outer sect disciple—boy no older than fifteen—knocking on Su Chen's courtyard gate.
He opened it slowly.
"Senior Brother Su," the boy said, bowing so hard he nearly fell over. "Elder Shen requests your presence… to apologize for the 'misunderstanding' earlier. He said there was a mix-up in the disciple assignments."
Su Chen's face didn't move. "And Liang Fei?"
"Ah… he… tripped. And fell into a snake den. Very unfortunate."
"Yeah that is very unfortunate. "
The boy looked up, nervous. "Should I say you'll come?"
Su Chen considered it. If he went now, Elder Shen might try something rash. But if he didn't go… he'd signal that he knew more than he should.
No. It was too early for open hostility.
He needed to stay forgotten—just long enough to rearm.
"Tell the Elder I'll meet him after the Spirit Baptism Ceremony," Su Chen said. "Too much meditation to interrupt."
The boy blinked. "That's… very bold."
"I've been practicing," Su Chen replied, and closed the gate.
Behind him, the black token pulsed once.
[System Update: First Faction Tag Detected – 'Eternal Reset Cult']
[You have touched a buried thread.]
[Somewhere, something that once watched… stirs.]
He sat beneath the cracked roof that night, eyes scanning the stars through the holes in the tile.
He wasn't strong. Not yet, at least. But he had the system again—even if it was fragmented. He had memory, anchors, and now... the faint scent of a forgotten war no one even remembered fighting.
Heaven thought it had killed the last Reset Cultist.
They were wrong.
They had missed one and now, he would be the first to return.
Not as a servant of fate but as the man who rewrites it. And yeah, the Baptism ceremony.
"Seeing Elder Shen's shocked and disappointed face during the ceremony? Now that will be a moment to savor."