Chapter 4

"Damn it!"

Xar clenched his knuckles, his eyes flashing with rage. "Find out which villain threw Caleb in Gehenna. Our clan will not rest until we consign them to oblivion!"

"Yeah!"

Everyone agreed, murderous intent flaring throughout the hall.

"Alright! Now that our junior chief has returned, I'm sure he needs his rest," a beautiful woman said mildly just then.

Her name was Skye and she was the third elder of the Crawford clan. Her beauty was otherworldly, her hair cascading like a waterfall while her eyes gleamed with a bright sheen.

But at that moment, there was something piercingly cold in her eyes.

The other elders quickly nodded with looks of concern. "Yes, Skye is right. Let the junior chief rest in his chambers!"

Under their concerned gazes, Caleb took his leave.

As he returned to his chambers, he locked the doors and sat in a meditative pose on his bed.

Then, he rolled up his right sleeve to reveal the red markings on his arm and quietly spoke the words, "The Coffin… of the Gods…"

At his words, an ancient bronze coffin appeared, its very presence bloody and blasphemous as it hovered before Caleb.

Caleb stared at it pensively.

A year ago, he was blindsided, his essence and meridians taken away before being thrown into Gehenna.

It was a godforsaken place covered in coffins, from rotten wooden coffins to even bronze coffins.

Somehow, Caleb survived and woke up, finding himself mobbed by countless evil spirits and walking skeletons.

He fought them over countless days and nights, eventually fleeing in exhaustion and hiding within one of the coffins.

What he didn't expect was to find a boundless cosmos within.

He stayed inside for a hundred years, but only one year had passed when he emerged.

His physical body had been melted down, pulverized, and then remolded, so his cultivation was naturally gone, and he had no choice but to start over.

Here, in the continent of Sacra, the cultivation ranks progressed as follows:

Gold, Mystic, Earthen, Ether, Ether Lord, Scion, Ruler, Sage, Emperor, and finally Divine.

Each major rank was further divided into ten sub-ranks.

With that in mind, Caleb glanced at the dimensional rings beside him, each containing a substantial portion of the Crawfords' wealth.

They were giving everything to Caleb to help him regain his cultivation as soon as possible, and one of the rings was returned from Delilah.

This particular dimensional ring was pure black with an ancient presence to it, and the pocket dimension inside was so massive that one could put living beings within.

Be that as it may, some of those beings might die before long.

Still, it was the only heirloom Caleb had inherited from his mother, and there were still a few hundred thousand spirit stones inside that he had given Delilah. Even after a year, there were still plenty left.

And thankfully, the pocket dimension was also protected with a ward that only opened once in a while.

Having stayed in isolation within the Coffin of the Gods for a hundred years, Caleb's temperament had been honed endlessly.

Remembering those moments with Delilah a century ago, he found his own behavior childish.

As for Delilah's true nature, he slowly grew all too familiar with it over the endless years he had spent in isolation.

Hence, when he emerged from the Coffin of the Gods and heard that the Crawfords had spent most of their fortune searching for him, he decided to ask Delilah to return those spirit stones to make up for it.

Never could he have expected that Delilah would immediately demand the annulment of their engagement, and it made him all the more sure of her true nature.

"I just hope you're not deceiving me, Coffin," he said quietly just then.

"Haha! Over the hundred years, I've melted and crushed your physical body, your cultivation hence fading. But with the Breath of Chaos, your physical form was remodeled. Then, with the Breath of Origins, your psyche and spiritual senses were remade.

"The blood of ancient evil gods now flows in your veins, while the black holes of infinity have become your meridian nexus! The stars are now your very tendons and bones… Such are the many elements that combined as one, to grant you the body of the Creator! Don't get dissatisfied with me now, brat!"

Even as the Coffin continued, the lid slowly opened, revealing the cosmos within.

Caleb was silent.

He had no idea if what the Coffin was saying was true, but now, he had no choice but to trust it!

His clan had such high hopes for him—it was only natural that he didn't want to let them down!

Hence, he poured everything into the coffin, from the hundred thousand spirit stones to the rest of the Crawfords' gifts.

Soon, the coffin echoed with words that would leave all beings shaken to the core.

"Within the Coffin of the Gods, devourer of the four seas and anchor of the eight continents, lies a universe of stars and constellations, and yet its fire consumes all eras and the heavens, ever ready to leave all life in cinders…"

Even Caleb was shocked by the mighty boast!

That was when the coffin rumbled from the inside, as ripples of energy unfurled.

Even Caleb's cheek twitched, and everything he had put into the coffin, ranging from weapons and pills to mystic items, was all rapidly melting.

Everything was then converted into raw energy in the shape of white mist, slowly floating into Caleb's mouth, consumed and infused into his meridian nexus, nourishing his entire body.

Whoosh!

His cultivation strengthened exponentially, leaping from a mortal form to enlightenment, reaching Gold rank one, Gold rank two, Gold rank three… and it kept climbing all the way to the Mystic rank!

Still, when he reached Mystic rank ten, he stopped.

He opened his eyes, his pupils flashing with the horrific glint of Chaos.

He had improved by twenty sub-ranks!

"Unbelievable…" he murmured in shock.

His mind had been honed in the hundred years he spent in the Coffin of the Gods, but he still felt shock at that moment!

That was when an ancient voice in the Coffin dissed, "Tut, tut! Reaching Mystic already pleases you this much? Such ignorance. If you want to improve quicker, you gotta take more lives!

"Bring their corpses or Nature's treasures, and I will refine everything into pure energy, which will then be given to you, so that you will grow rapidly. Anything with Reiki works."

Caleb was naturally delighted to hear that, but he soon became puzzled as he asked, "Why me, Coffin? What is it that you want from me?"

"Tut, tut. There are billions of coffins in Gehenna, but you still end up in me. That could well be destiny! You could even say that you're the Chosen One!"

Caleb became silent at that and didn't dwell on it.

At the moment, he was still too weak.

He would probably need to grow until he had what it took to learn this world's secrets!

In the hundred years he had spent in the Coffin of the Gods, the Coffin had described to him how big the world truly was, and it really broadened his horizons.

Hence, he sat down in a meditative pose to augment his cultivation.

-

While Caleb cultivated, the nine Crawford elders and Xar gathered in the central chambers of their residence.

Everyone was trading glances, but most of them were clearly relieved.

Eldin then smiled meaningfully as he quietly said, "Kid, it appears that the reincarnation technique was a flawless success. It's also embedded in our minds, automatically generating missions and the plan to mold the body of the Creator."