Chapter 1
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Chapter 1 – The Woman in the Coffin… Is the Empress?!
“Disciple, swear a blood oath!”
“I swear on my life, Shifu! If I break it, may I be struck by fivefold lightning!”
“Good.” The old man’s voice trembled with finality. “After I die, seal your meridians. Embrace this corpse and sleep beside her in the coffin—for three years.”
“Three years from now, you’ll shed your old shell… and soar like a dragon!”
“I’ll remember your words, Shifu!”
Xuan Yunzi nodded, a faint smile curling his lips as he exhaled his final breath.
Three years later.
“Who are you?! What are you doing?!”
Lu Jin’s eyes flew open, blank, confused.
A naked woman stood before him.
No… not just her.
He was naked too. Limbs weak. Waist sore. The hell…?
Did I just get—?!
He shook his head hard. Memories came rushing back like a dam burst.
Three years ago, as his master commanded, he sealed his meridians and buried himself alive, clutching a corpse in a coffin.
The three-year deadline was up.
But where was the dried corpse?
Suddenly, a terrible thought struck him.
Resurrected corpse? A skin-walker?
“You… you were that corpse?!”
The more he thought about it, the worse it got.
No way. Was I really… taken advantage of by a corpse?!
And if I was in suspended animation all this time… she could’ve done it more than once!
Under the faint glow of the night pearl, the woman’s beauty defied mortal bounds—slender as a willow, hair cascading like black silk, skin glowing with pearly luminescence. Her gaze was ice, but behind that frost was a soul-stealing allure, as if a divine demoness had descended.
“The deed’s long done. What are you nervous about?”
Her voice was like wind chimes in the clouds—ethereal, distant, divine.
But she hadn’t denied it.
Lu Jin’s face froze, eyes wide with panic and disbelief.
So for three years, he lay in this coffin… while being drained by this corpse?
Heaven help me…
Granted, to be “defiled” by such a breathtaking woman might not be a total loss…
But it happened in a grave, and she used to be a corpse!
Who could endure that kind of psychological whiplash?!
“Who the hell are you?” he asked, fumbling around in the dark for torn scraps of cloth to cover himself.
The woman narrowed her eyes slightly, voice calm and cold.
“Did your Shifu not tell you who I am?”
Lu Jin shook his head.
She seemed to ponder for a moment, then said with solemn authority:
“I am the Qinglian Empress.”
Her voice struck like thunder in his ears. Her presence was regal, divine—like a goddess who’d once ruled the heavens.
As she spoke, a set of robes flew out from his interspatial ring and automatically clothed her in a flash. Though the oversized robe draped loosely around her, it couldn’t hide the delicate collarbones and devastating charm beneath.
But Lu Jin was in no mood to admire her figure. His expression was mixed, skeptical.
“Qinglian Empress? Never heard of you.”
The Empress’s gaze turned icy.
“A mere frog at the bottom of a well dares to measure the stars. Ten thousand years ago, I reigned supreme across the primordial cosmos. You wouldn’t know greatness if it struck you dead.”
Lu Jin stiffened.
So… this woman was ancient beyond measure.
“But if you were so powerful,” he asked, “how did you end up… a corpse?”
The Empress nearly cracked.
“You’re not qualified to know that.”
Her voice regained its chill as she continued:
“For three years, you nurtured my body and soul with your essence, day and night. That’s what allowed me to recover my flesh and reunite with my divine soul.”
“But my true body is still incomplete. In one month, you must offer more essence.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“But your current cultivation is too weak. Your Qi essence is trash.”
“I require you to reach the Golden Core Realm within one month.”
“Also, my soul is suppressed by this world’s laws. You must find the Soulfruit of True Sight within a hundred days.”
“If you fail… I’ll kill you and find someone else.”
There was no softness in her voice—only imperious command.
Lu Jin’s heart slammed against his ribs. His brow furrowed hard.
Fail and die? What kind of heartless Empress is this?
And a month to reach the Golden Core Realm?
That was nothing short of lunacy.
Three years ago, he was hailed as a once-in-a-generation genius, just one step away from the Golden Core Realm. But now?
He was nothing.
“Your Majesty, there’s something you don’t know… I can’t cultivate anymore.”
His voice was bitter.
“I was betrayed. My Dan Tian was destroyed. Even my Supreme Bone was dug out.”
The Empress frowned.
“…You got screwed.”
Lu Jin sighed.
“I was once the top inner disciple of Myriad Sword Sect—a genius second only to the Holy Son.”
“But three years ago, I was lured into a demon lair. Betrayed by my fiancée. She and the so-called Holy Son ambushed me, shattered my Dan Tian, and tore out my Supreme Bone.”
“I barely escaped with my life. But I lost all ability to cultivate.”
“And when they found out I’d survived, that bitch spread rumors that I’d murdered the disciples who died in the lair. With the Holy Son’s backing, the entire sect now wants me dead.”
“If not for my Shifu, I’d be bones by now.”
“But even he passed three years ago. His last command was for me to embrace the corpse of a millennium-old woman, seal my meridians, and sleep in the earth for three years to escape pursuit.”
“I’m nothing now. Just a cripple. I can’t take on this burden.”
By the end, he could only laugh bitterly.
“A cripple? That’s what you think you are?” The Empress gave him a sideways glance, brimming with scorn.
That look cut him deeper than any blade.
He gritted his teeth.
When I was young, I vowed to be the best under heaven. If there’s even a sliver of hope, I’ll take it and carve a bloody path through the stars!
The Empress raised her brow.
“And now you’re a self-pitying failure?”
Lu Jin shook his head, eyes blazing.
“My vengeance isn’t done. As long as I’m breathing, I’ll kill them all with my own hands.”
At that, the Empress gave a rare, faint smile.
“…At least you have some spine.”
She leaned in, voice cold:
“You think I was the only one gaining from these three years?”
“You slept beside me for three years. Not only did you claim my body… You inherited a heaven-shaking fortune.”
Feel your body. Then decide whether you’re truly a cripple.”
Lu Jin blinked.
Wait—
His Dan Tian?
His Supreme Bone?
They were back?!
No—this wasn’t mere recovery.
This felt like some higher force had directly reforged his core. He couldn’t even comprehend it.
The Empress spoke again:
“You’re now a cripple… with the potential to overshadow the sky.”
He stared at her, stunned.
She waved her hand. A flash of light gleamed between her lips as she spat out a tiny coffin the size of a walnut.
“This is the Burial Heaven Coffin, one of the Ninefold Coffins of Heaven.”
“A millennium ago, I conquered the eight realms with this in hand.”
“Now that we’ve dual cultivated for three years, our bloodlines are bound. The coffin recognizes you as its master.”
“Feed it with spirit-rich materials, and it’ll feed you back in kind.”
“As for more advanced uses… you’ll have to uncover them yourself.”
“But beware—your realm is still shallow. Don’t push it, or the artifact may devour you instead.”
“There are nine coffins in total—Burial Heaven, Gazing Heaven, Devouring Heaven, Wailing Heaven, Birthing Heaven, Demon Heaven, Prison Heaven, Buddha Heaven, and the Immortal Heaven Coffin.”
“The other eight are scattered across the worlds. If you don’t find them within thirty years… you’ll suffer a backlash worse than death.”
“Either you die—or become a coffin slave.”
Lu Jin’s heart tightened.
But the Empress was already moving on.
“In one month, I’ll return.”
“One last correction—don’t call me some thousand-year-old corpse.”
“I’m the bearer of the Seven-Orifice Exquisite Saint Body.”
Buzz…
As her words fell, her body dissolved into a beam of light and shot into the tiny coffin, which vanished an instant later.
“…Huh?”
Lu Jin blinked.
Next thing he knew, the coffin had burrowed into the spiritual core at the center of his mind.
He froze, eyes slowly widening with awe.
Qinglian Empress… Imperial Glazed Bone… Infinite Devouring Dan Tian… Burial Heaven Coffin… All of it, divine beyond measure!
With gifts like these, one month to reach the Golden Core Realm… is no longer a fantasy.
“And finding the other eight coffins in thirty years?”
He clenched his fists.
“I’ll do it.”
Cultivation Realms of This World:
Body Tempering
Spirit Aperture
Spirit Pearl
Golden Core Realm
Purple Palace
Profound Sovereign
Nirvana Realm
…
Three years ago, at his peak, Lu Jin was at the ninth level of the Spirit Pearl Realm—one step from the Golden Core Realm.
Then came betrayal. Ruin.
But now… fate had turned.
He calmed his thoughts, sat cross-legged, and began examining his new body.
In the next moment, his expression changed drastically.
This new body overflowed with vitality, already at the pinnacle of the Spirit Aperture Realm.
And the amount of spirit Qi flowing through his limbs?
At least ten times greater than ordinary cultivators.
She wasn’t lying!
Back then, as instructed, he had sealed his meridians with secret techniques, faking death to escape the sect’s hunt.
Now, three years later, his slumbering body had awakened at the ninth level of Spirit Aperture!
Eyes closed, he circulated his Qi. Spirit energy surged through his body, finally pooling into his Dan Tian.
“My Dan Tian… It’s devouring everything?! This is insane!”
Compared to his past self, his current Dan Tian was a whole different level—reborn, refined, unstoppable.
“My Dan Tian’s been reforged… I can cultivate again!”
“And this bone…”
He reached inward, where the stolen Supreme Bone had once lain, a glazed crystal bone now pulsing with power.
“This thing is leagues beyond the old one. A divine bone…!”
The Empress hadn’t just healed him.
She’d rebuilt him from scratch.
She gave him his core back, bestowed a sacred bone, and granted him a divine artifact!
An unfathomable gift.
And…
A connection to the most mysterious woman under the heavens.
Maybe… this was what Shifu had planned all along.
He finally understood the old man’s parting wish.
“…But how did Shifu even know about this?”
Try as he might, he couldn’t unravel the mystery.
So he cast the thought aside and focused inward.
“The Imperial Glazed Bone and Infinite Devouring Dan Tian are cloaked in some strange force. I can sense them… but can’t examine them in depth.”
“But the Burial Heaven Coffin—thanks to the blood bond—can be activated slightly.”
“With this…”
“One month to reach Golden Core Realm—I’ll make it happen!”
His memories surged to the surface again.
Liu Ruyan… Yang Dianfeng…
You treacherous scum!
That sword through my heart… that bone-deep betrayal… I’ll repay it a hundredfold!
Translator’s Notes:
This is INK HUB, your translator speaking.
And that, my friends, was Chapter 1 of Ninefold Coffin of Heaven.
The next chapter will be available when you’re ready.
