Darkness swallowed everything.
I felt my soul tearing apart, drifting in a cold empty space. The heavens above cracked open. The world below burned. I heard screams, collapsing sects, and the laughter of something far beyond mortal understanding.
This was my death.
I had discovered a truth I was never supposed to see.
The heavens erased me for it.
My body turned to dust. My soul broke into fragments. Even then, I did not shout or beg. I only whispered:
"Next time… I will kill you first."
And then the darkness blinked.
I inhaled sharply.
I was alive.
I lay on a wooden bed inside a small room I knew too well. The ceiling was old and cracked. My chest rose and fell with weak breaths.
I looked at my hands.
Small. Soft. Young.
I knew this body.I knew this age.
I had returned to my fourteen-year-old self.
Impossible… yet real.
I touched my chest. My heartbeat was fragile. My cultivation was gone. I was nothing more than a weak disciple again.
Regression.
I had been thrown back in time.
And then a cold, familiar voice echoed inside my mind.
[Truth-Seeking System Reinitializing]
The dangerous system from my previous life had returned with me.
I muttered quietly, "You again."
The air around me felt heavy, as if reality itself was watching.
The system spoke again:
[Your death was planned.][You have returned to the day before the Azure Verdant Sect massacre.][48 hours remain.]
My breathing slowed.
So this was the day everything fell apart.The day my master died.The day our sect burned.The day I was betrayed.
This time, I would not repeat the same fate.
I stood from the bed. My legs trembled. This body was weak, but my mind was sharp—the mind of the man I had been before my death.
I opened the door.
Moonlight shone over the Azure Verdant Sect. Everything looked peaceful. Disciples walked with relaxed faces. None of them knew they would be dead soon.
My eyes drifted to the main hall where the Sect Master, Yue Shuhai, lived.
The man who later practiced the forbidden Fate Devouring Art.
The man who destroyed everything.
I whispered, "You won't win this time."
As I walked, soft footsteps approached behind me.
"Zhen? You're awake?"
I turned to see Jin Rouya. My fellow disciple. She was sharp, brilliant, and unpredictable. In my previous life, she died saving me.
Seeing her alive again stirred something inside me… something unfamiliar. But I pushed it down.
She studied me with worried eyes. "Your fever was terrible. You shouldn't be walking."
"I don't have time to rest," I replied.
"You're acting strange. What happened to you?"
"Too much."
She stepped closer. "Zhen, what are you planning?"
"Survival."
She stiffened. "Why does that sound like something terrible is about to happen?"
"It is."
Before she could ask more questions, a scream echoed from the east dormitory.
Jin Rouya flinched. "That sounded—"
"Go back to your room," I said. "Lock the door. Do not leave."
"Zhen—"
"No arguing."
Shadows moved across the rooftops. Silent figures in black landed around us.
Assassins from Shadow Needle Pavilion.
Exactly like before.
They circled me.
One of them spoke in a calm whisper, "Lián Zhen. You were not supposed to wake."
So they had come for me first. Someone wanted me dead before the massacre even began.
"Kill him," another assassin said. "We must complete the purge."
They charged.
I had no cultivation. No strength. No weapons.
But I had lived this moment before.
One assassin's blade came for my heart. I felt death closing in.
I activated the system's new ability.
Everything rewound by five seconds.
The assassins leapt again, but this time I moved first. I grabbed a broken roof tile and hurled it into the nearest assassin's mask. It cracked, stunning him.
I struck his jaw with precise force. He collapsed.
Two more attacked. I dodged narrowly, letting one stab the other by mistake. I elbowed the wounded assassin, crushing his throat.
The last attacker hesitated.
"You move like a man who has died before," he said quietly.
"Correct," I answered.
He lunged. I dodged, grabbed a tile shard, and slashed his throat.
The courtyard fell silent.
Blood dripped down my hand. My body shook from exhaustion, but I remained standing.
The air trembled again.
[Someone in your sect ordered this attack]
So the traitor was already moving.
Before I could question the system further, a heavy pressure fell over the entire sect. The sky darkened. Clouds twisted unnaturally.
A massive presence descended.
A divine eye opened in the sky—made of pure truth and cold judgment. Its gaze crushed the world.
Every disciple fainted.
Every elder collapsed.
Only I remained standing.
The voice from the sky was ancient and cold.
"You should not have returned."
My heart froze.
Fate itself had come for me.
The divine eye aimed a beam of destructive energy straight at me.
I smiled coldly.
"For someone trying to kill me," I said, "you seem desperate."
The beam fired.
Everything turned white.