The world was burning.
Screams echoed across the battlefield as ancient mountains cracked, rivers evaporated, and stars dimmed under the weight of a single clash. Gods fled in terror. Immortals trembled. And at the center of the chaos stood a lone figure—drenched in blood, yet unbowed.
The Asura Emperor.
His hair, once midnight-black, was now a tangled river of crimson, soaked with the blood of enemies who dared defy him. His eyes glowed with a baleful light, the light of a man who had clawed his way through hell itself.
Thousands of cultivators — immortals, saints, divine beasts — encircled him.
Yet none dared to move.
Even dying, he radiated the overwhelming aura of a calamity.
"Jin Baiyu…" a trembling Immortal Monarch whispered, sword shaking in his grasp. "Surrender. The heavens will show mercy."
Jin Baiyu smiled.
Mercy?
From the heavens?
His laugh cracked the sky.
BOOM.
The clouds tore apart. Lightning rained like spears. The ground beneath him splintered into an abyss.
"After hunting me for a thousand years," he said coldly, "you finally cornered me. Congratulations."
His voice held no fear. No regret. Only a chilling, ancient amusement.
The enemy ranks tightened.
A woman in golden armor stepped forward—the Celestial Saintess, her face pale.
"End this, Baiyu. The Heavenly Will has decreed your extinction."
"The Heavenly Will?" Jin Baiyu repeated softly, tasting the bitterness on his tongue. "If the heavens wanted me dead… they should have killed me before I ascended."
He lifted his right hand.
Shadows exploded outward like demonic wings, blotting out the remaining sky.
Half the army collapsed instantly, crushed by killing intent alone.
"Attack!" someone screamed.
The world turned red.
Divine techniques rained from all sides. Swords forged from starlight. Techniques that could sever mountains. Seals that suppressed entire realms. Flames that devoured souls.
The sky itself could no longer bear the burden—clouds shattered, revealing the empty void beyond.
And still, Jin Baiyu did not fall.
He fought like a wounded deity, his every movement radiating monstrous power. Corpses piled beneath him like mountains. Rivers of blood flowed from the sky. The land shook, unable to support the destruction of gods.
But even monsters bleed.
Even emperors fall.
A spear of heavenly tribulation pierced his heart, throwing his body back a thousand meters. His knees hit the shattered earth.
For the first time in centuries… he faltered.
"You are finished."
The Celestial Saintess approached him slowly, sword trembling.
Jin Baiyu looked down at the hole in his chest.
His voice remained calm.
"…So this is the limit of this life."
He coughed blood, crimson streaking down his chin.
Around him, tens of thousands exhaled in relief.
"The Asura Emperor… is dying."
"Finally… he's finished."
"He massacred thirty sects. Killed saints. Slaughtered the Heavenly Court—"
Jin Baiyu cracked his neck.
"And I'd do it again."
Their relief turned to terror.
He lifted his left hand.
The Asura God Scripture — Final Seal.
A blood-red lotus formed in his palm.
The air froze.
Time itself trembled.
The army recoiled in primal dread.
"NO! Stop him—!"
They were too slow.
Jin Baiyu laughed one final time, cold and defiant.
"If the heavens reject me…"
The lotus bloomed.
Red light swallowed everything.
"…then I will reject the heavens."
BOOM.
The world shattered like glass.
When the light faded…
nothing remained of the battlefield.
Only silence.
Only ash.
Only the lingering, overwhelming feeling that a monster had refused to die quietly.
A Whisper in the Void
Somewhere beyond existence, in a place without light or form, Jin Baiyu's consciousness floated freely.
He felt no pain.
No body.
No enemies.
Only the echo of his last attack reverberating through eternity.
"So… this is death."
He expected nothingness.
But instead—
A faint pulse.
A heartbeat.
Not his own… but someone else's.
A strange force coiled around his soul like invisible chains.
His instincts sharpened.
Reincarnation?
Transmigration?
Or another heavenly trap?
He forced his awareness outward—
—and felt the unmistakable sensation of a new body forming around him.
Skin.
Bones.
Blood.
Lungs.
His soul merged with it effortlessly.
A child's heart.
A weak dantian.
Shattered meridians.
"…How fragile."
Suddenly—
BAM!
Someone kicked the door.
"Jin Baiyu! Wake up! You're going to make us late for the sect entrance exam!"
Jin's eyes snapped open.
His new world came into focus:
A small room.
Old wooden walls.
A cracked mirror.
And a boy in plain robes glaring at him with annoyance.
Jin Baiyu slowly sat up, touching his chest.
No hole.
No divine spear.
No heavenly lightning.
Just a mortal body.
A second chance.
His lips curled into a slow, dangerous smile.
"So the heavens brought me back as trash…?"
He rose to his feet.
"…How amusing."
His crimson eyes flickered—just once—with the same demonic glow that once terrified immortals.
The Asura Emperor had returned.
And this time—
he would rise without making the same mistakes.