Martial Arts Heavenly Stele

Dazed and muddled, he felt as though he were floating in boundless darkness.

There was not a single part of his body that did not hurt. Broken bones, flesh torn open by rocks—every inch of him was crying out in agony.

Shen Yuan's consciousness was repeatedly torn between waking and unconsciousness.

Several times, he felt himself about to sink completely, to fall into a deathly sleep forever.

Yet the instinct to survive dragged him back from death's edge time and again.

"Cough... cough, cough..."

Coughing out several breaths of foul air reeking of blood, Shen Yuan struggled to lift his heavy eyelids.

His vision was pitch-dark.

There was no sunlight, only a faint glimmer leaking through cracks in the cave, barely illuminating his surroundings.

He had not been smashed to pieces.

As he tumbled down, protruding rocks along the cliff face had broken his fall, and he had ultimately rolled into this hidden cave at the bottom of the cliff.

But his condition was terrible beyond measure.

Several ribs were broken, and his body was covered in countless abrasions. Blood had soaked through his coarse clothes, staining even the rocks beneath him a dark red.

The slightest movement sent tearing pain shooting through his broken ribs.

"Still alive..."

Shen Yuan muttered softly, his voice so weak it was nearly inaudible.

Surviving had been a heaven-sent stroke of luck.

But his current circumstances were still a dead end.

He was at the bottom of a cliff in an unfamiliar cave, and no one knew he was here. He was severely injured, with no pills, no food, and no water. Even if no demonic beast attacked him, blood loss and hunger would slowly wear him down until he died.

After those two servants returned, they would only report that he had slipped and fallen from the cliff. Everyone would conclude that Shen Yuan had died beneath it. No one would come searching for a "dead man."

Liu Er, Zhao Kun...

At the thought of those faces, hatred slowly grew within Shen Yuan's heart.

They wanted him dead.

If he died silently in this cave, the injustice suffered by this body's original owner would sink like a stone into the sea forever, while those evildoers would remain high above, carefree and content.

He refused to accept it.

He absolutely could not die like this.

Shen Yuan gritted his teeth and relied on sheer indomitable will to inch his body forward.

Every inch he moved brought heart-piercing pain from his broken bones, and layer after layer of cold sweat soaked his entire body.

The cave was fairly spacious. The air was damp, the rock walls covered in moss, and the air thick with the earthy stench of soil and stone.

Faint light streamed in through a crack high in the rock wall. Apart from that, thick darkness surrounded him on all sides.

"Water... I need water."

His throat was so dry it felt ready to smoke, while the severe blood loss left him dizzy and disoriented.

Leaning against the rock wall, Shen Yuan slowly crawled onward, his palms groping across the cold stone.

After crawling over a patch of uneven ground, his fingertips touched a wet rock wall. From a crack in it, a thin trickle of droplets was slowly falling.

He had found it!

He gathered every scrap of strength and brought his head closer, placing his lips beneath the crack to catch the falling water drop by drop.

The icy spring water slid down his throat, slightly easing his burning thirst.

With a little water in him, his exhausted body barely managed to hold on for another breath.

The water problem was solved, but food was still nowhere to be found. The cave was bare, without wild fruit or vegetation.

Shen Yuan leaned against the icy rock wall, gasping heavily as he began to calmly inspect the cave.

This cave did not seem to have been hollowed out by wild beasts. In some places, the rock walls bore traces of having been polished by human hands.

Could someone have come here long ago?

His gaze swept toward the depths of the cave.

Deeper within the darkness, a vague black shadow could be faintly seen.

What was that?

Curiosity overwhelmed part of his fear.

Shen Yuan gritted his teeth and continued crawling toward the depths of the cave.

Sharp stones sliced open his palms, leaving streak after streak of bloody wounds, but he paid them no heed.

The farther inward he went, the dimmer the light became.

He did not know how long he crawled.

A stone stele over ten feet tall, pitch-black from top to bottom and covered in ancient, obscure patterns, stood silently at the very depths of the cave.

Ancient and imposing, it was impossible to know how many ages it had slumbered here in silence.

A faint glimmer, nearly imperceptible to the naked eye, flowed across the stele's surface.

Shen Yuan's pupils contracted slightly.

How had this thing appeared in a cave at the bottom of this cliff?

He was both wary and curious.

In this era, martial cultivation flourished. Sects and ancient ruins emerged one after another. Could this be a treasure left behind from antiquity?

The original owner's fragmented memories contained not the slightest information about this stone stele.

Though Shen Yuan was still several meters away, merely drawing near made an ancient, vast aura wash over him.

The wounds on his body seemed to be soothed by that aura bit by bit, and the exhaustion that had brought him to death's brink eased slightly.

"What exactly is this thing..."

Shen Yuan murmured under his breath, forcing himself onward despite his injuries.

His palm gently pressed against the black, icy surface of the stone stele.

The instant his hand touched it.

Buzzz—!

An invisible hum exploded directly within the depths of Shen Yuan's soul.

Inside the cave, every speck of dust rose into the air. The dense ancient patterns upon the stone stele all lit up with golden radiance.

Violent golden light instantly flooded the entire cave.

Shen Yuan only felt as though some force had viciously seized and pulled at his soul, and his consciousness blurred once more.

Countless profound, incomprehensible characters surged madly into his mind like a tidal wave.

[Martial Arts Heavenly Stele, compatible soul detected. Beginning soul binding...]

A cold, emotionless voice rang directly through Shen Yuan's sea of consciousness.