A cold wind swept through the grand ancestral hall. The towering golden lanterns flickered as if mourning the one who lay inside the crystal coffin. Hundreds of figures, dressed in black ceremonial robes, stood with bowed heads, their faces heavy with sorrow—or was it fear?
At the center of the hall, encased in a jade coffin, was a woman whose name once commanded both reverence and terror.
**Shu Linji. The Thousand-Year Genius. The Mistress of Formations. The Divine Healer.**
Or as the world called her—**Miss Shu.**
She was a woman who had walked through the ages, mastering the secrets of medicine, formations, and power. Nations had once bowed before her, seeking her wisdom. Yet now, she lay silent. Lifeless. Gone.
The mourners whispered among themselves.
"A thousand years of knowledge… wasted."
"She was invincible, yet she died from poison?"
"What kind of poison could kill someone like her?"
"It wasn't just any poison… It sealed her cultivation. She couldn't fight back. She died… powerless."
A chilling realization settled upon the crowd. Shu Linji had not died in battle. She had not fallen against a stronger enemy. No—someone had taken away the one thing she relied on most. **Her power.**
She had been **betrayed.**
The mourners trembled, afraid to speak further. Whoever had orchestrated her downfall was still out there. And if someone like **Miss Shu** could be erased so effortlessly… then no one was truly safe.
But what they didn't know—what no one could have predicted—was that **Shu Linji was still here.**
—---
Above the mourning crowd, unseen and unheard, a soul drifted in the air.
**Her soul.**
She watched her own funeral with an expression that was neither sadness nor regret. Instead, her golden eyes burned with something far more dangerous.
**Amusement.**
"So this is how it ends?" she whispered, her voice carrying through the void. "Not on the battlefield… not in a duel against an immortal… but in silence? In helplessness?"
She had lived for **a thousand years.** She had seen empires rise and fall, outlived countless generations, and unraveled the deepest mysteries of cultivation.
Yet, in the end, she had **died like an ordinary woman.**
Helpless. Weak. Forgotten.
But fate was not done with her yet.
—---
Suddenly—
**A force gripped her soul.**
An invisible chain coiled around her existence, yanking her away from the ancestral hall. She struggled, her form trembling as the world around her dissolved into a sea of golden light.
She was being pulled.
Dragged through the void.
Through time.
Through fate.
Through **rebirth.**
—---
Pain.
Cold.
Weakness.
A sudden breath. A sharp gasp. **Life.**
Shu Linji's eyes flew open. But what she saw was not the grand halls of her palace. Not the towering libraries of her formation chamber.
No.
She was lying on a rough straw mat in a dimly lit wooden room. The scent of old wood and damp earth filled her senses.
Her hands—tiny. Her body—fragile. Her limbs—weak.
**This… isn't my body.**
Her sharp mind pieced it together instantly.
She had been **reborn.**
For the first time in a thousand years, **Shu Linji had a living body again.**
And this time… she could cultivate.
A slow, chilling smile crept across her face.
"The heavens took my power once."
Her golden eyes gleamed with a terrifying light.
"But this time, I'll take everything."
---
### **Ending Hook:**
Linji clenched her tiny fists, feeling the warmth of life surging through her fragile body. Her once-lost strength was gone, but her will remained unbroken.
She had lived for a thousand years, mastering knowledge that no one in this world could comprehend. And now, she had been given a second chance.
This time, she would not just survive.
**She would reign.**
As a storm rumbled in the distant sky, a whisper left her lips—soft yet filled with terrifying certainty.
*"Whoever took everything from me in my past life…"*
*"Enjoy your victory while it lasts."*
**"Because this time, I will return the favor."**
---