"Qingcheng!"
Lin Huang jolted awake from his dream, sitting up abruptly.
His entire body ached immensely as if he had just recovered from a severe illness. However, Lin Huang had no time to care about this right now; his heart was filled with more confusion and bewilderment.
"Where am I?" Lin Huang observed his surroundings. The yellow pear wood desk carved with dragons, the iron-cast roof beams, and the wall where a thirty-foot-long spear hung—every detail appeared quite grand.
"This is... the Divine General’s Mansion?!"
Lin Huang looked at his own fair, tender hands, the pale face in the mirror, and his pitch-black hair. After a long while, he spoke in disbelief, "Have I returned to my youth?"
Lin Huang shifted his gaze, carefully examining every corner of the room. The Luminous Pearl on the desk was his seventh birthday gift. The wind chimes at the head of the bed were given to him by his sister when she left for the Piaoxue Palace. The Spring Palace Painting hidden beneath his bedboard was won in a bet with Fatty Bai when he was twelve.
"Was I sent back to my youth by the Door of Time, back to when I was sixteen?" Lin Huang murmured, sitting on his bed.
"Qingcheng..." Lin Huang fell silent. During the battle in the Fengxue Domain, Jun Qingcheng had faced thousands of Martial Artists; she most likely couldn’t escape alive.
He had struggled for ten years just to be with Jun Qingcheng, hoping that one day he could stand before her, shield her from the wind and rain, and hold up a piece of the sky for her. But in the end...
Lin Huang’s expression turned bitter. It felt as if a heavy boulder was pressing on his heart, leaving him breathless.
"However..." Lin Huang suddenly thought of something, and his mind broadened. "Since I’ve returned to my youth, doesn’t that mean I can change all of this? I can change my, Lin Huang’s, destiny, and rewrite the doomed ending!"
Thinking of this, Lin Huang grew excited, unable to hold back a smile. "Qingcheng, this time I won’t make you wait another ten years. I will definitely stand in front of you and block off the endless torrents. One day, I’ll make your father look at me in a new light and prove that your judgment was right!"
A trace of radiance and firm resolve returned to Lin Huang’s previously hollow eyes.
Not only that, but he also had to prevent the destruction of the Divine General’s Mansion. At this thought, Lin Huang’s heart ached fiercely.
He was born in the Divine General’s Mansion of the Great Xia Dynasty and was its Young Master. Originally possessing decent talent in Martial Arts, he had Fallen into the Demon Realm while Breaking Realm into the Human Element Realm, leaving him bedridden for seven years.
Seven years later, by the time he woke up, everything had changed. The Divine General’s Mansion and even the Great Xia Dynasty had been annihilated. His grandfather and sister were already gone.
His brother, Fatty Bai, led thirty thousand men to their deaths just to save him, securing a sliver of a chance for his survival while willingly suffering the curses of the world.
And the root cause of all this was Lin Haoran... an inconspicuous Scholar’s Attendant by his side.
Only later did he learn that he hadn’t Fallen into the Demon Realm on his own. Instead, while he was Breaking Realm into the Human Element Realm, Lin Haoran had brought him a bowl of Hundred Spirits Soup, claiming it would aid him in Breaking Realm.
As Lin Huang was deep in thought, a sharp pain suddenly shot from his abdomen. An incredibly scarlet Gu Insect inside his body was gnawing at all the meridians across his body.
"The Seven Evils Gu Insect!"
Lin Huang’s expression turned cold. It was precisely because of the Seven Evils Gu Insect in the Hundred Spirits Soup that he had been paralyzed in bed for seven years.
During those seven years, Lin Haoran had usurped his position as the Young Master, causing the Divine General’s Mansion to fracture and collapse! Subsequently, four rival dynasties invaded, thoroughly wiping the Great Xia Dynasty off the map of the East Spirit Realm with crushing force.
The true culprit behind all of this was Lin Haoran.
"Huh..." Lin Huang suddenly noticed something amiss in his body. When the Seven Evils Gu Insect swam into his Profound Sea, an unfamiliar power abruptly surged forth from within, ruthlessly sweeping out to hunt down the Seven Evils Gu Insect inside him.
"The Buddha God’s Relics!" Lin Huang cried out in astonishment.
At this moment, a Relic the size of a longan was floating in Lin Huang’s Profound Sea. It was completely golden, its surface shimmering with radiant golden runes, exuding an ancient and compassionate aura.
However, amidst the golden light of the Buddhist Path, there was a shocking fluctuation of Evil Qi.
Upon closer observation, he noticed that the entire Relic was covered in imperceptible cracks. Blood-red threads permeated from within, hidden beneath the solemn golden light. This made the Buddha God’s Relics extremely bizarre—bloodshot within the golden light, and brimming with slaughter within the compassion.
In his Profound Sea, it was exactly these blood threads overflowing from the Buddha God’s Relics that emanated a sharp killing intent, slaughtering the Seven Evils Gu Insect in his body with an extremely tyrannical posture.
Lin Huang never expected that a Curse-like object such as the Buddha God’s Relics would follow him back.
The Buddha God was the God among Buddhas. Legend had it that the Buddha God’s Relics were the Relics left behind by the Buddha God. Imprisoned within them was an extremely evil power that possessed the might to perform the Sky-Covering Moon-Shading, capable of destroying the world and extinguishing gods.
According to the Azure Sky Continent’s ancient records, there wasn’t just one Buddha God’s Relic. There were likely six... seven... or even eight...
Throughout the history of the Azure Sky Continent, seven people had once obtained a Buddha God’s Relic. All seven of them became the undisputed number one in the world during their respective eras, commanding the winds and clouds of the world and dominating the fate of all living beings.
What was terrifying, however, was that all seven of them eventually fell into the Endless Demon Path, becoming Demons who knew nothing but endless slaughter.
The main reason Lin Huang had been hunted down by Liu Cangsheng was largely due to this very Buddha God’s Relic.
The fate of escaping into the Demon Path was undoubtedly frightening, but the power contained within it was even more coveted.
"I don’t know if this is a blessing or a curse!" Lin Huang shook his head, feeling somewhat uneasy. He had studied these Buddha God’s Relics for ten years to no avail, yet now it had suddenly integrated into his Profound Sea.
Just what kind of secrets did these Buddha God’s Relics hold?
BANG!
Just as Lin Huang was lost in thought, the bedroom door was suddenly kicked open.
A young man clad in Golden Armor strode in. His footsteps were sonorous, the Golden Armor clanking with every movement. A faint, sharp aura swept out, filling the room.
Upon seeing the young man’s face, Lin Huang’s heart sank. He closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
"Young Master, I’ve come to see you!"
The young man in Golden Armor walked to the bedside and brazenly threw open the bed curtains. Looking at the paralyzed Lin Huang, a bright smile spread across his handsome face.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk... It’s been two years, and you’re still like this!" Lin Haoran chuckled, his eyes brimming with sarcasm. "The Young Master of the Divine General’s Mansion—what a noble status in the Great Xia Dynasty! Yet now, you’ve become a living corpse. Meanwhile, I, the Scholar’s Attendant who used to trail behind your rear, have become the most dazzling genius of the Great Xia Dynasty, and I am about to replace you as the Young Master!
"This is fate!"
Lin Haoran’s laughter echoed in the room. It was the thrill of resentment that had accumulated in his heart for years suddenly erupting—a feeling even more exhilarating than when he first saw Lin Huang paralyzed.
Listening to Lin Haoran’s laughter, murderous intent permeated Lin Huang’s heart. To think that the very first person he saw after his rebirth was the one he wanted to kill the most right now.
What terrible luck!
Lin Haoran was originally the descendant of a Centurion who died in battle. Since childhood, he had become Lin Huang’s Scholar’s Attendant. Whether it was visiting brothels or getting into fights, he had always followed behind Lin Huang.
Naturally, he had also taken the blame for many of Lin Huang’s misdeeds.
Although Lin Huang was a playboy, he never treated Lin Haoran as a servant. Even when it came to Cultivation in Martial Arts, Lin Huang would bring him along.
However, Lin Haoran was an ungrateful wretch.
"Young Master, you actually treated me really well!" Lin Haoran laughed darkly. "I could tell that you treated me like a brother. Whether it was reading and writing, fighting and visiting brothels, or practicing Martial Arts, you never left me out. You even got into a fierce fight with Crown Prince Lingyun for my sake.
"But I just couldn’t accept it! Why is it that a playboy like you gets to be the Young Master of the Divine General’s Mansion, sitting so high and mighty that the entire Imperial City jumps to attention just because you cough from a cold? Meanwhile, I’m just a lackey, as lowly as an ant in the mud. No matter how hard I try, no one would even spare me half a glance!"
Lin Haoran’s face gradually twisted.
"Ugh... Ugh..."
Lin Huang opened his eyes, glaring at Lin Haoran with hatred. He forcefully worked his jaw but couldn’t utter a single word, very cooperatively acting the part of a cripple.
"Hahaha..." Meeting Lin Huang’s resentful gaze, Lin Haoran laughed even more heartily before continuing, "So, I thought to myself, how wonderful would it be if I became the Young Master of the Divine General’s Mansion!"
Lin Haoran looked at Lin Huang with a face full of pity and patted his cheek. "Young Master, you only have yourself to blame for trusting me so much that you drank the Hundred Spirits Soup I brought you without hesitation!"
"Household... Slave..."
Lin Huang struggled on the bed, his eyes locked fiercely onto Lin Haoran, wishing he could slice him into a thousand pieces.
"That’s right, I am a Household Slave!" Lin Haoran laughed instead of getting angry. "But after today, not a single person in the Great Xia Dynasty will dare to call me a Household Slave! Even if they think it in their hearts, they will still have to act as obediently as dogs on the surface!"
Lin Haoran stepped up to Lin Huang and narrowed his eyes. "You probably don’t know this yet, but today is the day of the coming-of-age ceremony. Tonight, I will replace a cripple like you and become the Young Master of the Divine General’s Mansion!"
With that, Lin Haoran hoisted Lin Huang up from the bed in one swift motion and boasted smugly, "Your senile grandfather didn’t want you to attend the coming-of-age ceremony since you’re paralyzed. But I wouldn’t have that! I need you to watch with your own eyes as I succeed the position of Young Master, and I want you to watch as everyone forgets you. What a joyous occasion that will be!"
Lin Haoran plopped Lin Huang into a wheelchair and pushed him toward the main hall of the Divine General’s Mansion, a smug smile plastered across his face. That was the place where he was about to become the Young Master.
From this moment on, his life would skyrocket!
Sitting in the wheelchair, Lin Huang drooped his head, looking half-dead. However, a cold smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Having experienced something like this once, there was absolutely no need to go through it a second time.
He thought to himself, "Since you want to seize my position as Young Master and shake the foundations of the Divine General’s Mansion, then don’t blame me for beating you back to your original form, making sure you never rise again!"