The Cloud-Step Sect was a sanctuary of swirling mists and polished jade, a world away from the grime of Panyan City. In a private chamber draped in heavy silks and the scent of expensive incense, a youth sat motionless before a bronze mirror.
The reflection revealed a face of delicate, unfamiliar features.
Li Ye.
This was his identity now. At sixteen, the fog of his rebirth had finally cleared, and his memories surged back with the force of a tidal wave. He tightened his grip, feeling the spiritual energy racing through his meridians like a flood.
Seventh Level of the Essence Breath.
In his first life, he had spent nearly thirty years reaching this threshold. Now, he had achieved it before even reaching manhood. Those Reincarnation points spent on his "Aptitude" were yielding a terrifying return on investment.
"A waste of time," he muttered, the sound of his new voice still alien to his ears.
Had his memories sparked just a few years earlier, he would have aimed for the apex sects of the Grand Azure Empire instead of staying within the confines of the Cloud-Step Sect. Yet, his birthright here was a stroke of luck he hadn't calculated.
His father was Li Canglan, the Sect Master and a formidable practitioner of the Spirit Tempering Realm.
He had assumed that dumping his points into talent would force him to crawl out of a gutter as a beggar. He hadn't expected the "Family Background" roll to land him in such luxury.
It had been seventeen years since he died on the cold stones of the Mu Estate.
"Azure Creek City. The Mu Clan. The Zhao Clan." He let the names linger like poison. "Mu Yan. Zhao Yan. And the vermin from Panyan City who took my Ling'er from me."
His eyes narrowed into cold slits, burning with a light that didn't belong to a boy. He wasn't a youth anymore; he was a predator who had died twice, now patiently waiting for the wind to change.
"You're all still breathing," he whispered. "Good. Stay alive a little longer."
Two years vanished in a blur of cultivation. Backed by the immense resources of the Cloud-Step Sect, a muffled boom echoed from his chambers one evening. His spiritual energy condensed into a singular, radiant seed within his dantian.
He had broken through to the Spirit Origin Realm.
An eighteen-year-old at the Spirit Origin level was a freak of nature even in the capital. Using his father's influence, he secured a spot as a transfer student at the Imperial Cloud Academy for a two year stint.
Cold and monstrously talented, he quickly became the shadow that haunted his peers. Everything was proceeding according to plan until a single afternoon on the training fields.
A figure crossed his vision, causing Li Ye to freeze.
It was a youth whose face was a haunting mosaic of his past seventy percent Mu Yan, thirty percent Zhao Yan. A black, suffocating hatred flared in his chest, nearly shattering his calm mask.
He walked off the field without a word and set his information network into motion.
The report came back within hours. The boy was Zhao Chen, a scion of the Zhao Clan from Azure Creek City. He was twenty, yet stuck at the ninth level of Essence Breath.
Li Ye also learned that Zhao Yan had become a titan of the Spirit Tempering Realm, famous throughout the provinces. Mu Yan, fueled by her husband's wealth, had climbed to the seventh level of the Spirit Origin Realm.
Spirit Tempering.
Li Ye exhaled slowly. No wonder Mu Yan had sold him out so easily. Zhao Yan's talent was even more monstrous than he remembered. In a direct clash, he was still an ant compared to them.
But revenge could be savored in smaller bites. He would start by collecting interest from their bloodline.
For a month, Li Ye studied Zhao Chen's vices. The boy was a degenerate, a regular at a high-end brothel called the Scented Pavilion.
On a night of heavy winds, Zhao Chen stumbled out of the pavilion, his arms draped over two women. "Little birds, I've got some new techniques to show you tonight," he slurred with a repulsive grin.
Li Ye watched from the dark, a sneer twisting his lips. He didn't even know if his own son, Han Bao, had survived his death, yet the child of his murderer was living in filth and luxury.
In the silence of an alleyway, a shadow flickered like a ghost. There was no dialogue. Only the cold flash of a blade.
A thin red line bloomed across Zhao Chen's throat. He didn't even have time to gasp before he slumped into the mud. The women opened their mouths to shriek, but the blade flashed twice more.
The night returned to silence. Li Ye vanished as if he were never there.
The bodies were found days later. Zhao Chen was a mediocre student; the women were nobodies. In a world where the strong eat the weak, the Academy did a half-hearted investigation and closed the book.
Miles away in Azure Creek City, Zhao Yan demolished his study in a fit of grief. He flew to the Academy himself but found nothing. He felt a lingering trace of sword intent something that felt disturbingly like the Han Clan's old style but he dismissed it. The Han Clan was a memory; he had seen to that himself.
To Li Ye, this was merely the opening act.
A year later, Li Canglan summoned him home to inspect some sect holdings in the mountains. Li Ye took the assignment and went alone.
While navigating the dense pines, the sounds of slaughter reached him. A Gale Wolf, a beast at the second level of Spirit Origin was tearing through a group of guards. A young woman in fine silk was trapped against a rock, pale with terror.
Li Ye stepped into the clearing.
Despite being only at the first level of Spirit Origin, his combat experience was that of a man who had lived lifetimes. He slipped through the wolf's reach, caught a flaw in its lunge, and drove his blade through its throat in one fluid motion.
Blood sprayed across his face, making his cold gaze look even more lethal.
The woman looked up at him as if he were a god of death. She steadied herself and bowed. "I owe you my life, Young Master. I am Su Qingxue. May I ask who has saved me?"
"Li Ye," he said flatly, cleaning his blade and walking away without a second look.
That night, the sky opened up. They found cover in a ruined shrine, a small fire crackling between them.
"Li Ye, thank you. Without you, the forest would have claimed me," Su Qingxue said, her eyes fixed on him with a mix of awe and curiosity.
"It was just a beast," he replied.
In the warmth of the firelight, the girl's admiration was impossible to miss. They sat in silence as the storm battered the shrine. Inside, the fire burned bright.
Between the two of them, a door opened quietly. No more words were needed. It was only when the sun rose and the rain died down that the flowers outside the shrine finally bloomed in the morning light.