Yi Chang awoke with a jolt, his heart pounding in his chest. A wave of nausea swept over him, and the sharp, throbbing pain hinted at the presence of poison. His experience told him this was a very low-grade poison, the kind that would have been laughably easy to neutralize in his past life. However, as he tried to extinguish it, he realized with a shock that he could only suppress it, unable to draw upon any form of cultivation.
As the pain gradually subsided, Yi Chang opened his eyes and took in his surroundings. He was in a large, dimly lit room. A lamp on the bedside table cast weak light over a phone and the barely disturbed bed on which he lay. Clothes were strewn across the room, spilling out of an open suitcase near the door. The entire scene was unfamiliar, and a sense of disorientation washed over him.
"Where the hell am I? What happened? Is this still the Endless World?" he muttered to himself, the confusion slowly giving way to dread.
Then, like a flood breaking through a dam, memories began to rush back to him—not just his own, but those of another Yi Chang. These foreign memories, though strange, seemed to blend seamlessly with his own, helping him make sense of his current situation. He realized, with a mix of relief and disbelief, that he had successfully reincarnated.
He now inhabited the body of an eighteen-year-old orphan named Yi Chang, a freshman at ZA University. The previous Yi Chang had lost his mother at birth, and his father, Yi Yuan, had died in a car accident the previous year. This tragic event had left the younger Yi Chang as the sole heir to his father's company, Nengliang Games, a gaming enterprise that had been thriving until recently.
His uncle, Yi Fan, had taken over as the company's board director and acted as Yi Chang's guardian. Yi Fan claimed that Nengliang Games was drowning in debt, supposedly on the brink of bankruptcy even before Yi Yuan's untimely death. He had offered to buy out Yi Chang's shares under the guise of saving the company, but the younger Yi Chang had resisted, determined to take over his father's legacy upon reaching adulthood.
The reincarnated Yi Chang now understood that the former Yi Chang had been poisoned by his roommate, Wang Liuyuan, who had given him a snack before he boarded the plane. It was likely that his uncle, Yi Fan, orchestrated the entire plot, intending to eliminate Yi Chang before he could take control of the company. With centuries of experience, Yi Chang could see through the facade that Yi Fan had maintained during Yi Yuan's life. Now that the elder Yi Chang was gone, Yi Fan had evidently decided to drop all pretense and seize the company for himself.
"That boy was as foolish as I once was," Yi Chang mused, shaking his head. "But it's fortunate in a way—this body has no strong ties, making it easier to sever connections."
He sighed and then focused inwardly, drawing upon a secret technique that used a portion of his soul's strength to heal his body and eliminate the poison. The loss of soul strength was negligible, given his current power, even though he was far from the deity he once was. He could feel the presence of his world core within his consciousness, though it was drained of energy. His world was barren, floating somewhere in the void. He would need to rebuild his cultivation to reconnect with it, a process that would require significant effort.
Despite the setbacks, Yi Chang found solace in the fact that he had created a powerful cultivation technique during his ordeal—one that simulated the transition from non-existence to existence. He couldn't even begin to estimate its potential, but it was undoubtedly far beyond the highest grades of cultivation techniques he had known in his past life. Just thinking about the possibilities sent a thrill through his weakened body.
The first step on his new journey would be to gather qi and step into the Body Cleansing stage, creating a link between himself and his world to access cultivation resources, though he doubted this mortal realm could offer much. "Hopefully, this realm has some resources to provide. If not for those betrayers, I wouldn't be in this situation," he muttered bitterly.
The memory of his enemies filled him with fury. He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his palms, drawing blood. "Endless Ancestor, Alchemy Protector, Illusionary Sacred Sword Protector, Undying Ancestor, Formless Martial Ancestor, and every single bastard involved in my death—even the Heavenly Dao will not be spared. I, Yi Chang, swear that if I do not destroy you all, I shall never ascend to deity again," he vowed with a voice full of venom. From that moment on, he knew he would never be able to achieve deityhood without first exacting his revenge.
After making his vow, Yi Chang rose from the bed, his movements slow and deliberate. He dressed himself using the fragmented memories of the previous Yi Chang as a guide. Just as he finished, there was a knock on the door.
"Young Master, your uncle and his family are here," came the voice of the family butler, Old Feng, who Yi Chang recognized from his memories.
"Old Feng, tell them I'm on my way down," Yi Chang replied, his voice steady.
"Okay, I will relay your message, Young Master," Old Feng responded, his footsteps retreating down the hallway.