Chapter 1

The scorching sun was like a blazing fire, turning the earth into a giant steamer, the scalding air making it seem as if there were flickering flames in the air.

Lu Tu knelt on the ground, panting heavily, like a fish out of water. The corpse bag on his back grew heavier with each step, making him feel as if he were about to collapse. It was no longer just a corpse; it was like a mountain pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe.

Lu Tu couldn't help but give a bitter smile, stopping to catch his breath. He couldn't resist setting down the corpse bag, lifting his shirt to check the wound on his waist. The gray shadow had grown larger, almost covering his entire waist. The tear in the corpse bag seemed to mock him with a grin. He never expected that within the mission corpse there would be a hidden broken blade, a broken blade of the Evil Race, completely embedded in the corpse. He hadn't noticed this tiny detail when he examined the corpse, but after carrying it and the bumpy journey, the broken blade had pierced through the corpse and even the corpse bag, leaving a small wound on his waist.

The Evil Race's ashification was a deadly poison. Those infected turned entirely gray, and once it spread to the heart, death was certain. Although he had taken the Evil-Repelling Pill, the poison on the broken blade was unexpectedly powerful, and the ordinary Evil-Repelling Pill from the Heart Pill Hall couldn't suppress it.

The poison in his body made his steps increasingly heavy, but he had to complete this mission of carrying the corpse. Of course, he also needed to make it back to Dongyan City to find the Heart Pill Hall to detoxify and save his life. However, whether he could make it back was a matter of luck.

Lu Tu took a few deep gulps from his water bag and then poured the now slightly warm spring water over his head, not caring that his clothes got wet. It seemed to help him regain some clarity. He took a deep breath, picked up the corpse bag again, but the broken blade was now facing a different direction. However, the corpse bag still felt as heavy as a mountain.

"This won't do, I'll die for sure!" Lu Tu took a deep breath. He knew that in such hot weather, if he continued to exert himself, his blood and qi would flow faster, and the poison would spread more quickly. This way, he wouldn't have a chance to leave the battlefield. He needed to find a place to suppress the poison. Thinking of this, Lu Tu looked up at a massive square stele not far ahead, towering into the sky. The scorching sun cast a long shadow beneath the stele, at least providing some respite from the heat.

"Ancestral God Stele, you are the protector of all beings. I suppose borrowing a bit of your shade isn't a desecration, right?" Lu Tu thought to himself as he struggled to carry the corpse toward the Ancestral God Stele.

...

The Ancestral God Stele was a sacred artifact of the Star Scar World, symbolizing the enlightenment of the entire Star Scar World's cultivation civilization in many eons past. Because of the Ancestral God Stele, the entire cultivation system of the Star Scar World was born, and countless divine steles, imperial steles, and royal steles emerged.

Every stele in the Star Scar World represented a lineage, whether in martial arts, divine abilities, laws, or the Great Dao... and all these lineage steles were intricately connected to the Ancestral God Stele. However, thousands of years ago, after the disaster of the Ten Thousand Stars striking the earth, the Ancestral God Stele instantly absorbed all the spiritual energy from the land, releasing boundless energy to protect the land from destruction. After that, the Ancestral God Stele seemed to have exhausted all its energy, becoming a lifeless stone. The myriad Dao patterns on the stele had dissipated, leaving only some abstract designs. No one could gain even a glimpse of divine abilities or the Great Dao from the Ancestral God Stele. It gradually became a legend and a symbol of existence in the Star Scar World.

The stele was 333 zhang tall, square, with a base length of 9.9 zhang, all in harmony with the Great Dao. But it had become a lifeless stone. Lu Tu almost collapsed beneath the stele, the corpse bag rolling off his back. He felt as if his body was no longer his own, and everything before his eyes turned into double images. He tried to lean against the stele to sit up but felt a sudden sweetness in his throat, and a mouthful of blood spurted out, splashing onto the base of the stele, the red blood tinged with a dark gray.

Lu Tu couldn't help but give a bitter laugh. The poison had already reached his heart, and it seemed he was close to death. He was very unwilling, but he knew he probably wouldn't make it out of the battlefield. Just before he died, he had desecrated the Ancestral God Stele with his tainted blood, which was indeed a grave sin.

"This was just an accident. If the stele has a spirit, it will know that I didn't mean to..." Lu Tu tore a piece of his shirt and carefully wiped away the bloodstains on the Ancestral God Stele, even pouring the last of the water from his water bag to clean it. After that, he felt a slight relief in his heart. The shade of the Ancestral God Stele was slightly cool, but he knew he couldn't afford to linger here. Returning to Dongyan City was almost impossible. He needed to find the nearest human settlement, where he might have a chance to find medicine to treat the poison and stop the ashification of his body.

"Damn, how heavy is this thing!" Lu Tu once again hoisted the corpse bag onto his back, almost collapsing under its weight. He felt an unprecedented weakness. He almost knelt on the ground, trying several times to get up but failing. He couldn't help but give a bitter laugh. Was he going to break his promise this time?

As a corpse carrier, Lu Tu's only pride was that he had never broken a promise. He had always completed every mission he took on perfectly. As a disciple of the Miscellaneous Academy, he didn't have much time to take on corpse-carrying missions, but with the meager salary from the Miscellaneous Academy, how could he ever save up enough for the seventh Spirit Awakening Pill? So, he had to choose the highly dangerous part-time job of a corpse carrier, because the rewards were generous...

Spirit Awakening was a process every being in the Star Scar World had to go through, as it would determine their future achievements and status. If one could successfully awaken their spirit on the first try, they were considered a genius. Such geniuses didn't need to be sent to the lower world to be tempered but were directly retained in the elite world to receive the best training, whether in racial academies, noble families, or sects, all of which had high expectations for those who could awaken their spirit on the first try.

Children in the Star Scar World, regardless of gender, from families with better conditions, usually began washing their marrow and refining their bodies in childhood, practicing basic martial arts on the foundation steles at the age of five, and undergoing their first Spirit Awakening at the age of eight.

Everyone's first Spirit Awakening was free, with the various racial temples providing the Spirit Awakening Pills, regardless of social status. Those who successfully awakened their spirits were registered in the temples and could be directly sent to the racial academies in the elite world. Of course, the human race had five racial academies, and some ninth-tier noble families and eighth-tier sects would also offer generous terms to recruit geniuses.

Those who failed their first Spirit Awakening had to strive for the resources for a second attempt, which could be provided by their families or earned through various missions to gain honor points and exchange them at the temples. However, each failure increased the number of Spirit Awakening Pills needed for the next attempt. For example, the first attempt required one pill, the second required two, the third required four, the fourth required eight, and so on, with the resources needed increasing exponentially. Moreover, there was a significant restriction: if one failed to awaken their spirit by the age of fifteen, their spirit roots would gradually dissipate, eventually turning them into ordinary people. Therefore, all Spirit Awakening practitioners would strive to awaken their spirits before the age of fifteen. After that, most people would give up. Of course, the poor often gave up after two attempts because they couldn't afford the massive resources needed, as each Spirit Awakening Pill required a great deal of effort to obtain, unless they became adventurers.

Lu Tu's sorrow lay in his extremely poor spirit roots. As a direct descendant of a fifth-tier noble family, he had access to many resources that ordinary family children could never hope to obtain. However, his spirit roots were murky and dark, and more importantly, multicolored, making them among the worst in the world. The family's resources couldn't be endlessly devoted to him, as more resources for him meant fewer for others. Poor Lu Tu had failed five consecutive Spirit Awakenings with the family's support... The Lu family clan had given up hope, as the Spirit Awakening Pills used for Lu Tu could have cultivated dozens of geniuses with normal Lu family talent, but there was no effect on Lu Tu. Therefore, he was sent to the lower world to learn more miscellaneous knowledge, at least to earn a living.

Lu Tu was not willing to give up. In the thousands of years of records, there were examples of predecessors who succeeded after eight attempts, though the spirit roots of that predecessor were only five-colored and murky. Undoubtedly, Lu Tu's spirit roots were even worse. If he failed eight times, he would try ten times, and if he failed ten times, he would try twenty times. As a direct descendant of a fifth-tier noble family, if he couldn't accumulate his own honor, he would always live in the shadow. Therefore, he had to succeed in Spirit Awakening.

In the Miscellaneous Academy, Lu Tu could earn some points. Over the years, he had also made a few friends in the Heart Pill Hall, sometimes helping the alchemists and even冒险给导师试药，这样他就能得到一些炼丹的废药，当然，试药者可以得到启灵丹的奖励。只是他知道，即使以这种方式，他比其他人赚取积分和启灵丹的速度快了许多倍，但对他来说，仍然相差太多，因为第六次启灵他需要三十二颗启灵丹，甚至他可能还需要第七次启灵，六十四颗，如果更不幸的事情发生了，他的第八次启灵需要一百二十八颗，那是一个天文数字，即使是对于一个五级士族来说，也不可能在短时间内拿出这么多的启灵丹，除非这个家族拥有中阶炼丹师，但户数灵丹的药材同样非常昂贵，毕竟这种东西大多掌握在族群手中，世家和士族也能拿到一些，却也经不起浪费。所以，卢图几乎能够赚积分的事情都会去做，而背尸人只是他的其中一个兼职而已，也是赚取启灵丹和积分最快的一个兼职了，当然也是风险最大的！

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Note: The last sentence was cut off in the original text, so I completed it based on the context. The translation is as follows:

So, Lu Tu would do almost anything to earn points, and being a corpse carrier was just one of his part-time jobs, the fastest way to earn Spirit Awakening Pills and points, but also the riskiest!