The wind smelled different.
Clean. Crisp. Not tainted by blood or ash.
Xian Lei stood still, barefoot in the bamboo grove, his chest rising and falling as the world spun around him. His fingers curled into trembling fists. Not from fear—but disbelief. His breathing was erratic. Sweat clung to his brow. He could still feel the fire licking at his bones, could still see the charred corpses of his family.
But the world was quiet now.
Too quiet.
A bird chirped high above the canopy, its call a simple, living thing. Something so mundane, so alive, it felt alien.
This couldn't be real. It had to be an illusion. A cruel trick from the afterlife. Some abyssal prison crafted by his own vengeful will.
And yet—his body said otherwise.
No pain. No broken bones. No pill backlash. No shattered meridians.
He took a step forward, the grass soft beneath his toes, and lifted his arm into the light. Slender. Unscarred. A child's arm.
A memory—distant but familiar—rose from the depths of his mind.
The grove outside the foot of Mount Luanshan. The path that led to the Ninefold Sect's outer entrance. He hadn't walked this road in over a decade—not since he first arrived ten years ago.
Ten years…
He wasn't imagining things.
He'd truly returned.
"I'm… fourteen again," he whispered, voice cracking. "This is the day. The day I joined the sect."
The day everything began.
He remembered the exact moment. The outer sect recruitment started every spring on the ninth day of the Blossom Month. That morning, he had left his village in threadbare clothes and calloused feet, dragging a pouch of rice his mother packed. There'd been twenty others with him—boys and girls from poor families across the western provinces.
Most didn't survive the year.
Xian Lei wiped his face with trembling hands and steadied his breath. He couldn't afford to lose himself. Not now.
This time, he wasn't coming to survive.
He was coming to win.
The stone-paved road curved uphill toward the looming gates of the Ninefold Sect. Even at a distance, the scale of the mountain stronghold took his breath away. Soaring walls of ivory stone and golden-tiled roofs glistened under the morning sun. Nine gates. Nine levels. Nine trials.
The sect was more than a holy land for cultivation—it was an empire in miniature.
One that had devoured him.
And yet here he was, at the starting line again.
He walked toward the outer gate, where dozens of children had already gathered, forming a long line near the ceremonial steps. Many looked nervous. Some fidgeted with talismans. Others stood stiffly, clearly the sons and daughters of minor sect-affiliated clans.
Xian Lei ignored them.
His eyes scanned the gathering, searching for familiar faces from his past life. He found them one by one. All younger than he remembered.
That boy with the mole under his eye—Liu Shan. He'd die in two years, betrayed during a sect mission.
The shy girl beside him—Ru Mei. She would be forced into servitude and later crippled by an inner sect disciple.
And there, standing confidently with his arms crossed, was Feng Zhu. Arrogant. Talented. The one who once called Xian "insect-blooded trash." A future core disciple. A future killer.
Xian Lei's jaw tightened.
He remembered each name. Each betrayal. Every blade in the back.
But this time… this time, the blades would break on his spine.
A deep gong echoed from within the sect walls, and the gates slowly opened. Two elder disciples in golden uniforms walked out, their presence suppressive, eyes sweeping across the gathered youths.
A hush fell.
The taller of the two stepped forward. His voice carried power despite its calm tone.
"Children of the Western Plains. You stand before the Ninefold Sect. From this moment forward, your lives are not your own."
No one dared to speak.
"You will pass the Gate of the First Trial and prove your worth. Those who succeed will be granted the status of Outer Disciples. Those who fail will be turned away."
He paused. "Some may not leave at all."
Several children paled.
Xian Lei didn't blink.
He'd passed this test before. A spiritual root assessment using the Sect's ancient array—measuring affinity for the five elemental paths. It was a test rigged against the poor, but it was also the moment where he'd learned that he carried a rare dual-root: Ice and Lightning.
Back then, that revelation hadn't saved him.
This time, it would be the foundation.
The Gate of the First Trial was a massive jade archway inscribed with runes. Beneath it sat a formation circle, glowing faintly as each candidate stepped in turn and stood within it.
The spiritual root array responded to elemental affinities, glowing in varying intensity. One by one, hopefuls stepped into the light, hearts pounding.
"Single Fire Root. Low Grade."
"Earth Root. Mid Grade."
"Triple Root. Wood, Water, Fire—poor compatibility."
Then came Feng Zhu.
The formation flared gold.
"Lightning Root. High Grade. Excellent potential!"
Murmurs spread like wildfire. Feng Zhu smiled confidently and glanced back at the rest of the line.
"Looks like I'm first in line again," he muttered loud enough for all to hear.
Xian Lei stepped forward next.
The crowd didn't react. He was forgettable, a nobody. One of the barefoot commoners.
He entered the formation circle.
The array hummed.
A surge of familiarity rushed through him—and a strange twist in the energy.
System Notification: Spiritual Root Interference Detected. Host Physique Enhanced.
Emotion Pulse: Target (Yue Qianlan) – Feeling: Boredom.
The array glowed—first with a flash of silver, then dark blue, before crackling with arcs of violet.
Gasps rang out.
"Ice and Lightning? Dual Root?!"
"No way! That's a rare combination!"
"And that resonance—it's not normal!"
Xian Lei stood still in the glowing circle, his eyes calm.
Last time, this result barely earned me notice.
This time, I'll make them kneel.
The elders exchanged glances. One made a subtle hand gesture.
"Candidate accepted," the tall elder announced. "Next."
As Xian Lei walked past Feng Zhu, he caught the boy's narrowed gaze.
"Don't get ahead of yourself," Feng sneered. "Dual roots don't make you strong if you don't live long."
Xian Lei smiled faintly.
"Good thing I plan to live longer than you."
After the trials, the newly selected Outer Disciples were brought into the sect and given new robes, jade identity slips, and small wooden plaques with dorm assignments.
The outer sect was a sprawling compound at the base of the mountain. Training fields, dormitories, bathhouses, kitchens, and a meditation hall formed the world of the outer disciples. The inner sect lay further up the mountain—hidden from sight, protected by talismanic wards and power disparity.
But Xian Lei knew every inch of it. Every alley. Every gate. Every hidden passage.
He also knew which elders were corrupt, which disciples to avoid, and who would rise to power in five years' time.
He had a head start no one could imagine.
As night fell, Xian Lei sat cross-legged in his new dormitory room—bare stone walls, one window, one thin bedroll. He didn't mind. The silence was a blessing.
He held the jade identity slip in his hand, focusing on its faint glow. Normally, it took a new disciple weeks to establish a basic Qi Condensation flow and months more to refine their first dantian cycle.
He already had the muscle memory. The knowledge. The scars.
And the System.
System Notification:Synchronization with Yue Qianlan: 8.2%Cultivation Fuel Rate: Passive (Low)Target Emotion Pulse: Curiosity (Weak)
+312 Qi Points Gained.
He exhaled slowly.
So she noticed me. Even just a little.
He should have been afraid. The woman he hated most, the tyrant who destroyed everything he loved, was now linked to his soul. He should be planning to break the bond. To escape. To hide.
But instead, a cold fire burned in his chest.
I will make you remember me.
And then, I'll make you regret everything.
A sudden pulse of something—loneliness—flashed through the bond.
It vanished almost as quickly as it came.
But it left a hollow ache in his chest. A window into her.
And he knew, deep down, that she had not yet become the Demon Queen.
She was still just a cold, distant genius at the peak of the inner sect. Uncaring. Aloof. Untouched by corruption—but not yet part of it.
There was still time.
Xian Lei opened his eyes, filled with grim determination.
He didn't come back just to survive.
He came back to rewrite fate itself.
And it began tomorrow—with his first real step inside the Ninefold Sect.