Summer of 2007. A Golden Dragon coach rumbled along the highway from Sixui County to the city center of Chuzhou, Jiangnan Province.
The summer heat hung heavy in the air, and the long journey lulled most passengers into a drowsy stupor.
Suddenly, a delicate-looking young man—around 1.7 meters tall, with pale skin and cropped hair—jerked awake from a nightmare. His gaze swept across the bus, disoriented. And then, something struck him. His expression shifted drastically.
No one aboard could fathom the storm of horror surging through his heart.
"Isn't this the bus I took in the summer of 2007, traveling from Sixui to Chuzhou for my final year of high school?"
"How can this be? Wasn't I transcending a heavenly tribulation?"
"Could it be…"
"I've returned?"
A flicker of disbelief surfaced in Chen Fan's eyes.
"I, Chen Beixuan, didn't perish in the tribulation after all. I've been reborn—back on Earth, back to my youth?"
In his previous life, Chen Fan—also known by his title 'Chen Beixuan'—was a legendary Immortal Lord, a true disciple under the Cangqing Immortal of the Zhenwu Celestial Sect. At around the age of thirty, he was taken from Earth by the reclusive immortal during a journey through the cosmos, beginning a path of cultivation that spanned five centuries.
His talents were unparalleled. In five hundred years, he reached the Tribulation Stage—an achievement unseen in ten thousand years. Hailed as the most promising candidate to transcend the cosmic plane and ascend to the true Immortal Realm, he became a figure of legend.
He traversed starfields, clashed with myriad races of the universe, never tasting defeat. The cultivation world revered him as "Beixuan Xianzun"—the Immortal Lord Beixuan.
Yet in the end, he still succumbed—to the final heavenly tribulation.
In that final moment, Chen Fan realized a cruel truth: his seemingly indestructible Dao foundation, forged in haste, was riddled with flaws. His once rock-steady Dao heart shattered easily under the assault of his inner demons.
Why? Because in five centuries of relentless pursuit, he had sacrificed everything—love, kinship, regrets buried deep in the sea of his soul. And when the heart-devouring illusion came, those ghosts surged forth, overwhelming him completely.
He reached inward now—only to find his once-immense spiritual power, vast enough to annihilate stars, had vanished. Even his mighty, indestructible soul was gone without a trace.
"This isn't a heart-demon illusion. I've truly returned," he murmured, brows furrowed, thoughts spinning.
With his insight as a Tribulation-Stage cultivator, Chen Fan could discern illusion from reality. No illusion, no matter how vivid, could strip a celestial sovereign of five hundred years of cultivation and reduce him to mere mortal flesh.
"My body is now a hollow shell—no mana, no divine sense, no soul, no Dao heart. Even my artifacts and divine weapons are gone. I am, once more, a fragile mortal who could be slain by a single bullet."
Yet instead of despair, a quiet smile curved his lips.
"So be it. My previous path was rushed and unstable."
"This time, I'll walk step by step, tempering each realm to perfection and forging an unshakable Dao foundation."
He smiled as a sharp gleam ignited in his eyes, a fire slowly awakening within him.
"And those who wronged me—this life, I'll make them pay."
"The regrets that once haunted me… I will not allow them to repeat."
Though he had buried the past beneath years of cultivation, he had never truly forgotten.
"Mother, Father, Sister An, Xiao Qiong… I've returned."
"This time, I will not waver. I won't let anyone hurt you—or humiliate you again."
His head bowed slightly, his gaze firm and resolute.
Chen Fan had been born into a family in Sixui County, a place that seemed ordinary but was anything but.
His father, Chen Kexing, hailed from Jinling—the provincial capital. His mother, Wang Xiaoyun, came from one of the most prestigious noble families in the capital city of Beijing.
A love born in university brought them together, but the conservative social climate of the time dictated that marriages were decided by families. Especially for someone like Wang Xiaoyun, heiress to a towering household such as the Wangs.
Naturally, her family fiercely opposed the union. Her father even threatened to disown her.
In a fit of defiance, Wang Xiaoyun severed ties with her clan and followed Chen Kexing south, back to Jiangnan.
To prove himself worthy of their daughter, Chen Kexing rejected the comforts of provincial capital life and instead accepted a grassroots appointment in Sixui's county office, starting from scratch.
Over a decade of diligence brought him to the post of Deputy County Magistrate—earned through grit, not privilege. Yet compared to the Wangs, he was still far beneath them.
When Chen Fan was born, and family tensions softened slightly, his grandfather finally allowed Wang Xiaoyun to bring her husband and son back to Beijing for the New Year.
But what awaited them was ridicule and disdain from all corners of the family.
To the Wangs, Wang Xiaoyun had disgraced them—marrying in secret in some rural backwater and bearing a child without permission. Now they dared to return?
As for Chen Kexing's modest achievements, they were nothing but a joke to the Wangs—whose allies often held power over entire cities or provinces.
Chen Fan shook his head and smiled, a trace of cold amusement on his lips.
"Wang Cheng… You never expected me to return, did you?"
"In our past life, no matter how hard my parents and I struggled, we could only gaze up at you in reverence."
"My mother, so proud and unyielding, only wanted a sliver of recognition. And for that, she paid a heavy price."
"But this life—though I start as nothing—I will reclaim my cultivation, and I will visit Yanjing again."
"And this time, I will shatter the gates of your Wang family and show you what it truly means to be untouchable!"
Wang Cheng—his cousin and the pride of the younger generation in the Wang clan—had always been the benchmark Chen Fan sought to surpass. Yet the more he tried, the further the chasm grew between them.
The last time Chen Fan saw the Wangs was at his mother's funeral. They had sent only one person—Wang Cheng.
Not his grandparents. Not his uncles or aunts. Just one cold-faced representative, as though Wang Xiaoyun had meant nothing to them.
Wang Cheng, resplendent and surrounded by powerful figures, stood like a prince of heaven.
Though five centuries had passed, Chen Fan still felt the sting of their scorn.
Cultivation is not about false compassion. It is about honoring one's truth. Vengeance left unresolved festers within the soul—and at the moment of inner trial, it will bring even a god to ruin.
"Enough about the Wangs," he muttered. "At this point in time, the Shen family should still be Chuzhou's wealthiest, right?"
As the cityscape of Chuzhou rolled past the bus window, a name surfaced in his mind—Shen Junwen.
And with it, another name—Xiao Qiong.
The woman he had loved for a lifetime… and regretted just as long.
It was her illusion that had pierced his Dao heart during the tribulation and brought him to ruin.
"In our previous life, you stole Xiao Qiong from me, ruined my business, and forced me to return to Chuzhou in disgrace. I became a low-level civil servant, wasting away in mediocrity."
"You lived in glory. I licked my wounds like a dog in the shadows."
His eyes shimmered with a blade-like chill.
Shen Junwen.
Heir to the Wanrong Group—leader in China's real estate sector—and son of the wealthiest man in Jiangnan. Xiao Qiong's classmate. His greatest rival.
Not only had he taken Xiao Qiong, but he was also the orchestrator behind the fall of Chen Fan's company.
"Xiao Qiong and I were childhood sweethearts, reunited in university. I thought we'd be together forever. But you interfered—and with the Fang family's disapproval, I was forced to walk away."
"At our final class reunion, I learned of your engagement. That night, I stood on the rooftop, ready to end my miserable life."
"Had the Cangqing Immortal not passed by Earth that day… I would have jumped."
His voice softened, his tone as frigid as wind sweeping across a frozen tundra.
"I'll never forget that moment on the rooftop. From that point on, Chen Fan died. In his place rose Chen Beixuan, the Immortal Sovereign of the Zhenwu Sect."
"You gave me the pain that led to my rebirth. Shouldn't I repay you?"
His smile twisted into something unreadable.
In his past life, where Chen Fan had failed in every arena, Shen Junwen had flourished.
His mother's death, his company's downfall, his wasted youth—it all stemmed from the Shens' oppression.
Now reborn with the wisdom of five hundred years, he would rewrite that fate.
"Shen Junwen. The Fang family. The Wangs. Wang Cheng…"
"None of you expected this, did you? That I would return."
"This life, I will reclaim everything you took from me—and return every insult a thousandfold!"
In his past life, the first thirty years had been a bitter tragedy—poverty, ridicule, and humiliation.
In this life, reborn with celestial memory, he would taste vengeance and carve his name into the heavens.