Kieran emerged from the stone coffin, and his blue fire eyes scanned the dark chamber. Kieran could tell the room had been carved into the rock from the jagged walls and uneven ceiling.

Kieran gripped the edges of the coffin with his skeletal hands and tried to push himself out. His hands slipped and scraped across the stone with little resistance. 'Darn, these bones provide no grip!' After cursing, he scrambled out from the coffin's depths and found himself on two feet. 

He had to grip the coffin's side to avoid slipping on the smooth stone floor. 'This feels like an ice rink. How did the lich move around so graciously all the time?'

Without skin, organs or blood, the body felt incredibly light and combined with the lack of grip on his feet, Kieran could barely walk. 'I think bones made up... was it 15% of a body's total mass, no wonder I can hardly balance myself... But, wait... Why can I remember that trivial piece of information, but I cannot remember my family's name?'

The System remained silent for once. Kieran thought this was odd, but he had more pressing matters. If someone walked in here and saw a naked skeleton that could hardly walk, he wouldn't know what to say.

Despite being trapped as a floating soul for the last eight millennia, with the return of a humanoid body, he naturally tried to walk as he did back on Earth.

The empty tomb was filled with cursing and scraping of bone for the next few minutes until Kieran managed to somewhat walk like normal. He discovered that he had to hunch his back forward to adjust his centre of gravity and constantly adjust his head's position as his skull took up a large chunk of his body weight.

With the art of walking mastered, Kieran felt rather glad about his decision to become a lich.

'It took me a few minutes to learn how to walk, and I already have more magical knowledge than some Kingdoms likely possess. The only downside was fifty years off the timer and a few millennia of suffering? Hella worth if you ask me!'

Kieran stood at his full height and nervously let go of the coffin. Now that he could walk, he could inspect the rest of the tomb. 'I need to find somewhere to hide my soul before doing anything else...' Kieran had seen the importance of creating a save point from the inheritance. Kieran had seen how the lich set up his respawn room, and he planned to copy him.

Looking around, he tried to locate a suitable item or location for his soul placement. Unfortunately, the room was bare apart from a line of stone coffins. His coffin was among many others in the room, and they all had headstones.

Victor de Koschei Noctus

Died in 109800

Kieran looked at the date and cross-referenced it with dates he had seen in the lich's inheritance. 'I saw the year 108500 in his final diary entry, meaning 1300 years have passed since the lich died. System! How many years can a Royal realm cultivator live for?'

<They do not age.>

'So that Maximillian Avington bastard should still be alive.'

<Remember your mission. Revenge can come later.>

Kieran wasn't that interested in revenge; he had seen how easily the Royal had obliterated the lich. But he still felt some anger towards the person in particular. But this trail of thought led to another question.

'System! Why could the lich not oppose the Royal realm cultivator or even the Marquess? He had so much magical power, yet he couldn't contend with them?'

This question had been bugging Kieran for a long time. The lich was so powerful in his eyes, yet the cultivators slapped him out of the sky or dropped meteors on his head, and the lich was powerless to resist. If not for his overpowered resurrection spell, Kieran would say the world was truly unfair!

<Qi and Mana are complete opposites and destroy each other. However, the density of Qi on the planet is far higher than Mana, so cultivators have the home advantage, especially on Sect grounds that are usually located above Leylines.>

Kieran nodded his boney skull and almost lost his balance. "Shit-"

He grabbed the coffin's side and noticed the coffin wasn't actually empty. Instead, inside the coffins depths was a black hooded cloak of exquisite quality and a silver signet ring with a yin yang symbol carved into it representing the sun and moon. 

Kieran inspected the ring for a while but decided it looked too precious to hide away as his soul container, so he put it on his ring finger. To his surprise, the ring magically changed its shape and seemed to fuse with his bone, as no matter how hard he shook his hand, it refused to budge.

"A magical ring? Is this some immortal artefact?"

<Identifying...>

<Noctus Family Ring>

<Description: Will bind itself to Noctus family members only.>

Kieran thought back to his status:

[Name: Victor de Koschei Noctus]

[Race: Lich]

[Position: Deceased Grand Elder of the Noctus sect (350 years ago)]

[Cultivation: Peasant (0/100)]

[Spiritual roots: None]

[Dao: None]

After re-reading it, he looked back at the ring, "So this ring confirmes my identity as a Noctus family member... and the Sect is called the Noctus Sect so..."

A possibly disastrous thought crosses his mind, "Is my Father the Sect Master?"

Although unlikely, there was a decent chance, especially since he was listed as the Grand Elder, which is usually only one step below the Sect Master...

Keiran crossed his fingers and hoped the Sect Master was dead. 'I may have inherited the Grand Elder's body, but I have none of his memories! If I had to face the Sect Master, it would be hard enough explaining why I'm a lich or how I have come back to life, but if he is also my Father...'

Shaking his head at his ludicrous situation, Kieran ignored the ominous ring and focused on the cloak instead. The fabric was silky like a Chinese emperor's gown and slipped through his boney fingers. He managed to get some grip after another try and pulled it from the coffin. Unfortunately, it had little bits of black rotten flesh that escaped decomposition inside the hood, 'Thank God I don't have a nose right now; it probably smells awful here.'

Kieran shook the cloak and then studied it again. It was midnight black, and despite spending three centuries surrounding a rotting body, it had maintained its colour. It was rather simple but elegant and screamed high class. 

Feeling rather naked, Kieran happily put the cloak over his head. It was tailor-made for the previous owner as it hung loosely on his shoulders, but Kieran didn't mind. He didn't have to stare at his empty ribcage or skinless feet anymore.

Kieran walked around the room, his feet tapping on the stone floor as he went, "Hmmm, where would be a good place to hide my soul..."

From experience, Kieran knew he needed two things. A suitable container, ideally metal or a mana stone. Something like wood is no good as it rots over time. The other requirement is bones. If there are no bones nearby, it takes an immense amount of Mana to construct a new body, something that would require a grand formation to be set up beforehand. This is what the lich did as it would make a perfect replica of his old body every time, apart from the magic circles.

As Kieran looked at the tombstones, he realised a pattern, "They all have Noctus as their surname..." So he checked, and all thirty stone coffins had headstones with the Noctus name. "This must be a family tomb then. So all of these people are my dead relatives?"

Winston Stoneshire Noctus

Died in 109999

Isaac La-Minnings Noctus

Died in 110030

Hamilton Damon-Cowles Noctus

Died in 110150

Kieran walked past the last one but quickly stepped back and re-read it. "Year 110150 should be this year!" Then, excitedly, he opened the coffin and found a half-rotten corpse inside. It was absolutely foul to look at, 'The bones in the other coffins will be brittle and eroded, but this corpse is still fresh, so it's the best choice.'

Nodding to himself, Kieran began the soul-binding ritual to the ring on the man's finger that was the same as his own. His soul floated out of his body and entered the ring. Despite never doing magic before, this feat was easy for Kieran as it had been for the lich when he first became one. It's a simple instinct of a lich and requires no special magic. 

Kieran closed his non-existent eyes and felt the tether he had with the ring around the corpse's finger. "Although the ring isn't made from pure silver, it will work as a soul container for now."

He felt disconnected from his body, but it was far more reassuring knowing he was now immortal instead of a vulnerable skeleton with zero cultivation or magic circles.

Kieran re-sealed the coffin and then looked towards the door to the tomb. It was wooden and looked easy enough to break through if he needed to; the real question was should he leave.

"I have no idea what awaits me through those doors, so having some power would be ideal... but time is ticking." Kieran rubbed his boney chin, "Although I can respawn if I die out there, my reputation won't survive alongside my resurrection. Imagine if some cultivation idiot challenges me to a duel, and they all realise I am weaker than a Peasant; I highly dought they will be willing to listen to me."

Having decided that some power was necessary before anything else, he sat down and began constructing his first magic circles.