Yang Haoxuan tried to open his eyes, but it felt like his eyelids were weighed down by a thousand pounds. His head throbbed with intense pain, and his entire body was cold and drenched in sweat, fueling a sense of despair and fear. Despite his efforts, his eyes remained shut, and all he could sense was the cold, uncomfortable ground beneath him.

"What... what's happening to me? Am I dying?" Yang Haoxuan's panic grew, and suddenly, a torrent of fragmented memories surged into his mind, making him feel like his head was about to explode.

"Ugh..." The pain was unbearable, and he let out a weak groan.

"Yang Haoxuan! Yang Haoxuan! Young Master Yang! Young Master Yang!" Voices called out to him from a distance, accompanied by the rustling of footsteps through grass and foliage. However, these calls were filled with complaints, impatience, and even hatred.

"Are they calling me?" Yang Haoxuan wondered. "But why do they sound so unfamiliar?

Instinctively, Yang Haoxuan wanted to call for help, but he felt like a dying man, lying on the ground unable to speak. His body grew colder, and he could feel blood seeping from his waist.

"Found him! Yang Peng, he's here!" a woman's voice called out near his ear.

"Really?" a man responded, though Yang Haoxuan detected a note of displeasure in his voice. For some reason, this man's voice also made him feel uneasy.

The woman crouched beside him, and he could faintly smell her fragrance. Her hands checked his body, bringing him a sense of relief."He was attacked by a wolf. Our shouts must have scared it away!" the woman said, then he heard her rummaging through her belongings. "Luckily, I brought some healing herbs!"

"Wait!" The man's voice interrupted. After a moment of hesitation, he continued, "Let's leave him. We shouldn't waste our time on him."Yang Haoxuan's heart trembled. 'No... don't...' But he could only move his lips soundlessly.

"We can't do that!" the woman immediately refused.

"Ruo Lan! This is for our own good! We've been childhood sweethearts, but Yang Haoxuan used his father's status as the clan leader to force an engagement on you! And now he's just a useless cripple with a shattered dantian. If we save him, you'll regret it for the rest of your life! But if we don't... everything will be perfect! We can be together!" The man's words were filled with malice, showing no guilt.

"Well..." To Yang Haoxuan's horror, the woman hesitated! An uneasy feeling surged through him.

"Don't hesitate! If others find him, we'll lose this chance! He wandered off on his own; it won't implicate us." The man urged. "Do you want to marry a cripple and be laughed at?"

In the darkness, Yang Haoxuan could see nothing but sensed the woman stand up abruptly. A moment later, his worst fear came true.

"Fine... okay!" Her voice wavered with unease.

"Great!" The man exclaimed in joy. Yang Haoxuan heard him step forward, grab the woman's hand, and they ran away.

"No, no..." Desperately, Yang Haoxuan managed a weak cry, but they had already left. Resigned, he closed his eyes and fainted again.

..

Yang Haoxuan didn't know how much time had passed when he woke again, still weak and lying on the cold ground. This time, though, he could move. His eyes slowly opened, first blurry, then gradually clearer. Ignoring his surroundings, he wanted to check his body.

Moving his arm was a struggle, but he managed to feel something small and round. Bringing it to his face, he saw it was a black pill.

Thinking back to what the woman mentioned about healing herbs, he wondered if she had dropped it. With nothing to lose, he put the pill in his mouth. Surprisingly, it dissolved instantly, sending a warm current through his body.

Immediately, he felt a surge of strength. "Amazing! Medical science hasn't advanced this far yet!" Yang Haoxuan thought in surprise. Looking around, he confirmed he was lying on the forest floor, surrounded by tall trees that blocked most of the sunlight.

"Why am I here?" he wondered aloud. "I remember playing an online game at home!"

Suddenly, his previous fragmented memories reassembled. Moments later, his expression turned complex.

"Did I... travel through time and space?" He rasped, his voice hoarse. Feeling a bit better, he sat up and saw his robe covered in blood, his waist badly bitten but not fatally injured. The bleeding had stopped on its own.

Yang Haoxuan soon realized he had crossed over to another world. The new memories in his mind confirmed it. This was a world where strength reigned supreme. The land was called Tianhe Continent, where a legendary river at the world's peak could grant immortality to those who crossed it.

In this world, Yang Haoxuan's namesake had been a notorious bully, infamous for his misdeeds—oppressing commoners, seizing women, and more. Yet, he had survived due to his influential father, a top figure in the Great Yan Dynasty, the most powerful family in the realm.

"This guy was worse than those spoiled rich kids back home," Yang Haoxuan thought, disgusted by the original Yang Haoxuan's actions.

Recalling the earlier incident, he remembered the identities of the woman and man who had left him. The woman, Yang Ruolan, was a beautiful but ordinary family member whom the original Yang Haoxuan had forced into an engagement. The man, her childhood sweetheart, naturally resented Yang Haoxuan.

"Figures they'd hate me," he mused, understanding their actions better.

Despite his newfound knowledge, Yang Haoxuan was frustrated by his predicament. "An evil, useless thug... Great," he muttered, standing up. Though weak, he could walk.

Soon, he found his saber, which he used as a makeshift crutch.

...

As he walked through the forest, Yang Haoxuan became increasingly anxious. It wasn't that he was lost; his new memories made him familiar with the terrain. But that familiarity bred fear. As evening approached, the forest would become even more dangerous.

"Damn!" he cursed, quickening his pace despite his weakness.

Still, his frail body couldn't carry him out before nightfall. The howls of wild animals made his hair stand on end.

"Whoosh!" Suddenly, he heard a noise from the nearby bushes. Alert, he saw the underbrush shaking as if something was moving through it.

"Thump!" Yang Haoxuan swallowed hard. He was no trained fighter, just an ordinary guy from his previous life. Seeing a pair of glowing eyes staring at him, he recognized a wolf and took off running.

"Howl!" The wolf, realizing it was spotted, gave chase, drooling hungrily.

"I can't outrun it like this!" Yang Haoxuan thought, glancing back. Summoning his courage, he gripped his saber, remembering his fantasies of fighting wild beasts.

But facing the real thing, he hesitated. The wolf's sharp teeth and claws, its muscular body, and fierce eyes were terrifying.

"I made a mistake!" he muttered, turning to flee again.

The wolf quickly closed the distance, its foul breath almost upon him. Yang Haoxuan's legs gave out, and he fell. The wolf, seeing its chance, pounced.

Desperately, Yang Haoxuan thrust his saber upward. Miraculously, the wolf impaled itself on the blade, its neck skewered.

Silence fell.

"Unbelievable!" Yang Haoxuan pushed the wolf's body aside, amazed at his luck. "Maybe crossing over has its perks!"

"Thud!" Suddenly, a strange noise echoed in his mind.

"Congratulations, player, for leveling up. Character level two: health and mana increased, random attribute points added, five distributable attribute points awarded, one skill point available."