Chapter 1: The Reawakened Mortal

The young man spent several seconds shaking off the disorientation of waking. As his vision slowly cleared, a flicker of life returned to his eyes, eventually settling into a bewildered expression.

He sat up in bed, realizing he was in a room that resembled a bedroom. Beneath him was a soft mattress. On one side of the headboard, a candlestick and an overturned wine bottle lay carelessly, while on the other, a reddish-brown wardrobe stood.

Dazzling sunlight streamed evenly through the wooden window, bathing the straw mat and his arm. It felt faintly warm against his skin.

The pungent stench of cheap wine permeated the room. Having long since abstained from such earthly indulgences, he couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

‘Where is this place?’

He raised a hand to rub his throbbing forehead, his mind racing.

In a daze, memories of his past slowly emerged, like a gentle stream.

A strange glint gradually appeared in the young man’s bewildered eyes.

‘I am Lu Yuan. I am… dead. But… why am I still alive?’

Within his churning consciousness, fragments of memory lay shattered, like a porcelain vase smashed to pieces.

At the very end of his memories, a bolt of lightning streaked across the heavens, piercing the sky.

Lightning was the sharp blade of the firmament, purifying the world, forcing even gods to yield. The Lightning Tribulation was a trial of the Heavenly Dao; without overcoming it, one could never achieve immortality.

As an unaligned rogue cultivator, Lu Yuan had practiced alone for a thousand years. He had never sought a dao companion, never made enemies, never indulged in worldly pleasures, nor yearned for the fleeting splendor of the mortal realm.

His sole pursuit was the path of immortality, his only desire, eternal life.

Ultimately, like countless other nameless seekers of the Dao, he had been annihilated by the Lightning Tribulation.

‘This was… the life of Lu Yuan, the cultivator.’

‘Without overcoming the Lightning Tribulation, one could never achieve immortality.’

After the initial shock, Lu Yuan’s face was etched with more bewilderment than pain. He closed his eyes, clutching his head tightly with both hands.

“I died long ago, reduced to dust beneath the Lightning Tribulation. Yet, why have I come back to life? Does the Heavenly Dao intend for me, a mortal without any destined connection to immortality, to continue this meaningless existence?”

He distinctly remembered how, under that merciless Lightning Tribulation, his cultivation, his myriad spells, and his numerous magic treasures—all that he had once prided himself on—were utterly destroyed.

In an instant, all the beliefs, all the efforts of his entire life, had been shattered into countless pieces.

Scenes from his past flickered through his mind: his youngest sister’s cries, his parents’ earnest advice, his master’s teachings. Everything, absolutely everything, had long since vanished. All that remained was a lingering sense of desolation.

The narrow, cluttered room was filled with stale air. Lu Yuan’s heart felt utterly hollow, without a single anchor.

After a long while, Lu Yuan slowly rose from the bed. His gaze began to drift around the room.

‘Where is this place?’

“Clatter, clatter.”

He could hear faint sounds emanating from beyond the door.

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment, then stood up.

Following the sounds, he tiptoed to the bedroom door. Intermittent noises drifted from outside, suggesting someone was in the adjacent room.

He pushed open the door, revealing a more spacious room that appeared to be a living area. Beside an empty wooden chair hung several tattered cloth bags, which hummed faintly as a breeze swept in through the window.

In front of the chair stood a square table. It was laden with numerous yellow parchment scrolls, alongside an assortment of bottles and jars filled with various liquids.

Among them was a crucible, roughly the size of a human head, bubbling and simmering with its contents. The sounds Lu Yuan had heard were indeed coming from it.

Other than that, not a single soul was visible in the room.

Moreover, the arrangement of the room’s furnishings was entirely unfamiliar to Lu Yuan.

Noisy human voices drifted in from outside the house. Lu Yuan considered this for a moment, then pushed open the outer door and stepped out.

The dazzling sunlight made Lu Yuan instinctively squint his eyes.

Before him lay a town brimming with exotic charm, a far cry from the familiar streetscapes he knew.

Strangers with diverse hair colors and skin tones walked the streets, speaking languages Lu Yuan couldn’t comprehend.

A gentle breeze swept past. Though it was midday, Lu Yuan felt only a pervasive sense of desolation permeating his very being.

Lu Yuan clutched his chest, a genuine ache assaulting his nerves. “Who can tell me… what exactly has happened?”

No one heard his words, and no one could answer him.

The hurried passersby merely glanced at him with puzzled expressions.

After discerning his appearance, most people recoiled as if seeing a plague god, muttering vulgarities that Lu Yuan couldn’t understand.

Even though Lu Yuan couldn’t understand their words, he could discern their ill intent from their expressions.

Pedestrians came and went, with vendors’ cries rising and falling in a lively cacophony. Yet, all Lu Yuan felt was a profound sense of unfamiliarity and loneliness.

He felt like an orphan abandoned by the world, adrift in an alien land, a strange world where he utterly belonged.

“I was but a mere mortal, who failed to prove my Dao on the path to immortality and perished in the Lightning Tribulation. Since I was already dead, why have I been reawakened in this unknown, foreign land?”

A vast expanse of dark, heavy clouds drifted across the sky, rapidly dimming the daylight. A fresh, damp scent permeated the air.

The climate of this region was far more volatile than Lu Yuan had ever imagined.

A resounding crash—

A deafening peal of thunder echoed. Shops lining the streets hastily took down their displays and closed their doors.

Pedestrians cursed as they hurried away, and in no time, the main street became deserted. Only a few ornately decorated carriages sped past, pulled by galloping steeds.

Thunder mingled with rain, washing over everything in the scene and converging into murky streams along the streets.

Lu Yuan stumbled along the desolate street, oblivious even as the rain soaked his clothes entirely.

“Cultivators across the land number in the thousands, countless as fish crossing a river. I was merely the most ordinary among them…”

“My thousand years of cultivation power were still inferior to a few hundred years of effort by those with innate talent…”

“On the path to immortality, many have overcome the Six-Nine Lightning Tribulation, even the Nine-Nine Lightning Tribulation. Yet I was annihilated, reduced to ash, by the mere Three-Nine Lightning Tribulation…”

He raised his head, staring blankly at the firmament shrouded by the rain. “On that path to immortality, amidst the Lightning Tribulation, I already learned my fate. I, Lu Yuan, was not destined to embark on the immortal path.”

“To eliminate the unworthy, to test the deserving—that is the mission of the purifying lightning.”

Lu Yuan gazed up at the sky, his face contorted in a ferocious grimace, staring directly at the thunderous firmament.

“If I am truly without destiny, then why, oh why, have you allowed me to live another life!”

“I am merely an ordinary man, with neither immortal destiny nor powerful Dao arts! Others can master cultivation techniques in mere months, while I need years! Others can reach certain realms in a few years, while I require decades, even centuries!”

“This is me! Lu Yuan! An ordinary man utterly devoid of immortal destiny!”

“A pathetic dog, riddled with wounds, who still believed in the fairness of the immortal path, only to be beaten bloody by reality!”

“Heavenly Dao! You’ve given me another chance, but do you intend for me to meaninglessly retrace that laughable path of cultivation in this vast, unfamiliar world?”

A mighty rumble—

Lu Yuan’s only answer was the deafening thunder.

“Haha…” Lu Yuan let out a long laugh, allowing the rain to wash and moisten his eyes.

“Lu Yuan, oh Lu Yuan! What can you do? Do you truly believe you can unravel the secrets of heaven? Before your rebirth, your Dao arts were useless, and you perished in the Lightning Tribulation. After rebirth, with this ordinary body, do you expect to overturn destiny? What a grand, delusional dream!!”

Lu Yuan laughed coldly, his voice brimming with mockery. He mocked himself, and he mocked the merciless Heavenly Dao.

Obsessed with the immortal path, he had left his parents and family at the age of twelve, embarking on the path of cultivation alone. He remained solitary his entire life, until he faced the Lightning Tribulation by himself, ultimately vanishing completely into the dust of history. No one would remember that among the cultivators erased by the tribulation, there was once a pitiful wretch named Lu Yuan.

‘I truly am…’

Tears and rainwater mingled freely on his face. Lu Yuan no longer knew if he was crying or laughing.

“How pathetic…”

A choke caught in his throat, and a wave of frustration constricted his heart.

Suddenly, an excruciating, dull pain flared in his abdomen. His throat sweetened, and a mouthful of metallic-tasting air surged upwards.

A mighty rumble—

A mouthful of dark, black blood gushed from his lips.

The strength seemed to drain from his limbs, and he collapsed heavily into the rain. In his fading consciousness, he saw a slender figure in white, running towards him through the downpour. Her face was etched with anxiety, and she continuously called out his name.

“Uncle! Are you alright! Uncle!! Wake up quickly.”

‘So, I can be cared for by someone, too?’ Lu Yuan thought, and then lost consciousness.

“Uncle! Uncle!!”

“Someone, quickly! Can anyone help me! Please, save my uncle!”