At the peak of an unknown mountain, Gu An arrived at a massive palace surrounded by numerous buildings, outdoor spaces, and gardens, making it look like a stronghold. He stood in front of the palace, which seemed to be the central or main place.
However, before entering, he was stopped by a girl with short light brown hair reaching her shoulders and gray eyes. She was incredibly beautiful. Gu An bowed to her and stepped aside, not daring to raise his head until she left.
But before she left, the girl stopped and turned to him.
"You"
"Yes," Gu An replied quickly, tightening his bow, fearing he might offend her unintentionally.
"Why have you been leaving so often? And today, you took longer than usual."
"I go to the grave of someone dear to me, and the delay was due to some procedures with this person's son."
"Are you telling me you've been going to a decaying corpse for five hours? That's a lot of time for the living, let alone the dead. Don't go there again, it's a waste of time. If you're that free, go work in the exploration teams."
"Understood."
The girl looked at him with disappointment and muttered, "Tsk, coward."
She wanted him to resist or object, but as usual, no one dared to oppose someone like her. The difference in status was overwhelming.
When she left, in a dissatisfied mood, Gu An didn't stop bowing and tears started to fall from his face.
This was it—just one word was enough to sever the bond with the most precious thing he had.
What those in power decide on a whim could mean the destruction of someone's life. But it didn't bother them; they even help sort out the harm by numbering people and ending their human meaning.
Gu An couldn't take it anymore. He had to watch the love of his life be taken away with hatred by another man, promised to raise her child with hatred, and now separated from her with hatred.
He felt his neck tightening and his breath becoming shallow due to the growing sobs. Suddenly, he collapsed onto his knees, then placed his face on the ground.
....
Back at the inn, Lucian was sitting by the window with one leg inside the room.
"Hmm, I guess I need to regain my strength. Now, if this is a return to the past, my memories should help me a lot."
Lucian got down from the window and, after closing it, lay on the bed.
"In my past life, I managed to become a general and the largest and most powerful landowner. Under the Ten Families, no one was stronger than me. But I broke away from the Ten Families and created a democratic republic. This didn't sit well with some of the families. Fortunately, I had support from some families, so the others couldn't take decisive action."
"However, over time, a war broke out between the families, leading to a direct attack from the Light Family, accusing me of being a traitor general."
"These bastards, even with a destroyed and ending world, don't hesitate to slaughter and kill more people."
"In this life, I won't be a general for anyone, and I'll try to develop in secret."
"Especially away from the eyes of that bitch. If it weren't for her fanaticism and possessiveness, the Light Family wouldn't have attacked me or cared about me more than the rich town I controlled."
"It doesn't matter, the past is the past... or is it the future? Well, this is annoying. The positive side is that I can regain my strength faster and seize— I mean, take opportunities."
Lucian spent a while trying to organize his thoughts and memories, and found that he only lost the last part of them. He didn't know how he ended up here, but he certainly wouldn't stand idly by; he would continue his goal, which he failed at...
Overthrowing the Ten Families...
If anyone heard that, they would burst out laughing.
This nonsense defies logic. The Ten Families are beyond reason. They have greater power, better talents, and the ability to cultivate to levels no ordinary cultivator could dream of.
But did Lucian care? No.
He would just plan in secret, cause trouble among the families, and make them overthrow themselves, which he almost succeeded at in his previous life.
He even had some successes in planning and killing some of the family members.
Lucian squatted down and began meditating.
It was time to regain his cultivation.
Three hours passed, and Lucian didn't feel anything.
Then two hours passed before he realized something.
There was a sensation of accumulation of chi in his dantian.
Lucian opened his eyes in shock.
"What's going on? Has the process already begun? Damn, this was way too fast... No, this is illogical. The process should take months of meditation, some physical preparation, and taking aiding herbs."
But the sensation was not wrong. The chi had indeed started accumulating in his dantian.
Now he had to direct it directly into his bones. It would be dangerous to keep it in the dantian before refining his body with the chi, because his body wouldn't be able to absorb the chi coming from the dantian if he accumulated too much of it inside.
Once he directed the chi into his bones, Lucian felt excruciating pain, causing him to put his head on the bed and scream.
Minutes later...
"What the hell was that?!"
The process was not supposed to be this fast, or this painful. Everything was contradictory to reality from the start.
After preparing himself for the pain again, Lucian repeated the process. He felt a burning pain in his bones as if they were being carved by a flaming knife.
Minutes passed, then hours, and Lucian lost track of time, but the amount of chi being transferred directly into his dantian was by no means small, and any delay in transferring it would cause it to accumulate, and Lucian would simply explode.
Lucian couldn't explain the immense speed of this process, but it was certainly in his favor.
However, contrary to Lucian's expectations, his bones were not being refined despite all the chi.
"I think I'll stop here for today. I have a theory about what's going on, but I'm not sure if it's correct."
The most logical reason Lucian considered for this anomaly was his soul. If his soul had truly been returned to the past, it would explain a lot.
Simply put, the first step of a cultivator was to merge the body and soul with chi.
The process was as follows:
Chi was transferred from the dantian directly to the bones without being retained, so as not to explode the body.
Then, the bones were refined by the chi. In this process, the soul merged with the body using chi as a medium, which changed the shape of the bones to match the soul.
The process continued from refining the bones to the blood, flesh, tendons, organs, and nerves, all in the same manner as the bones.
Once the process was completed, the body and soul would be one, and the chi coming from the dantian would be easier for the body to handle—not because the body became stronger, but because the pressure on it decreased and spread to the soul, helping distribute the burden.
If Lucian's guess was correct, his soul from his past life was the same one.
His soul had undergone tempering not once or twice, but three times, which was quite impressive even for the Ten Families, and it was Lucian's greatest advantage, the thing that made him the strongest under the Ten Families.
If his body underwent such a transformation with his soul...
Lucian's breath quickened with excitement. The possibilities behind this process were enormous and unprecedented. He was about to test something no one had ever experienced before...