They say that when you die, your life flashes before your eyes.
But for me… there was nothing. No precious moments. No final words. No one waiting for me on the other side.
Just a quiet confirmation of what I already knew:
I was never meant for anything.
In my old world, I was a nobody. A thirty-one-year-old deadbeat, wasting oxygen in a cramped apartment with peeling walls and overdue bills. No friends. No family. Not even a damn goldfish to mourn me. I worked at a gas station, lived off instant noodles, and watched the years slip by like sand through cracked fingers.
My life didn't collapse. It just never got off the ground.
So when death came for me—fast, cold, and mechanical—I didn't resist. I welcomed it.
But death isn't the end.
When I opened my eyes again, I wasn't in some heavenly afterlife. I was in a clinic surrounded by high-tech cultivation equipment, hovering spirit monitors, and white-robed doctors bowing to me like I was royalty.
And in the room's corner stood a man whose face I recognized—not from memory, but from this body's new memories.
"He's awake," the man said, his voice like thunder behind a silk curtain. "My son… heir of the Acheron Family."
That's right.
I had been reborn as Darius Acheron.
First son of the Acheron Family—one of the Four Great Pillars of the modern cultivation world. A family with deep roots stretching back to the Ki Awakening 400 years ago. Across continents, their name was whispered with reverence and fear. A blessing of divine-tier marked their bloodline. They have enough fortune to buy small nations.
And now... I was one of them.
But even in this powerful body, even behind the name, I could feel it.
This version of Darius Acheron had been a disgrace.
Born with overwhelming talent… but lazy. Arrogant. Weak-willed. He had coasted on his family name, humiliated the clan's reputation, and fallen behind his peers. No determination. No progress. No hope.
Sound familiar?
He was me. Or rather, I was now him. The only difference was—this time, I had memories of failure.
And I was tired of losing.
This world—this new Earth, reshaped by spiritual energy for over three centuries—was ruled by strength. Ancient sects merged with corporations. Cities protected by grand formations. Cultivators hired as CEOs, generals, assassins, even influencers. Everything revolved around talent, willpower, and growth.
And in this world, I had been handed everything: a perfect body, a legendary bloodline, endless resources...
But no one expected me to rise.
The clan elders had already written me off. The younger generation saw me as a stepping stone. Even my father looked at me like a problem he hadn't yet solved.
Fine.
Let them look down on me. Let them laugh.
Because the loser they think they know is gone. And I'll carve a path up the cultivation ladder with everything I never had before:
A goal. A will to rise. And a lifetime of regret to burn for fuel.
This time, I'll show the world what happens when you give a failure the power to rewrite his fate.