The desolate graveyard was a forest of tombstones, where eerie winds howled and funeral paper money swirled through the air.

*Crack!*

The sudden sound pierced the silence of the night, jarring and unsettling. From an unremarkable mound of earth in the burial ground, a small, dirt-caked hand abruptly burst through the soil.

Half an hour later, a completely naked young woman clawed her way out of the dirt with immense effort, gasping for breath. Fear, confusion, horror, hatred—a storm of emotions twisted her face into a grimace.

A chilling gust swept over her bare skin, making her shiver violently. Her dazed eyes suddenly sharpened with focus.

*I’m… alive?!*

*Boom!*

Without warning, something in her mind shattered free, exploding in a burst of searing pain.

"Ah—!"

Her bloodcurdling scream echoed across the empty graveyard before her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed like a felled tree.

"Uncle Wu, hurry! Over there—someone’s lying there!"

Lin Chen had dreamed a long, vivid dream.

In it, she was a martial arts prodigy from childhood.

By ten, she had mastered the sword, becoming the treasured jewel of the Lin family.

On her eleventh birthday, she was betrayed—her tendons severed, her future as a warrior destroyed in an instant.

By sixteen, her entire family had been slaughtered. She alone escaped, left to wander the world as an orphan.

Sixteen years and two months later, she was beaten to death with clubs while fighting beggars for scraps of food outside an inn.

Yes, she had died. And now, in her dreams, all she could recall were the memories of her final moments.

The setting sun bled crimson over the Wu family’s courtyard, where two young servants in blue tunics split firewood, occasionally casting sidelong glances at the girl sitting slack-jawed by the back gate. Drool dripped from her chin, pooling into a small puddle on the ground.

"Why did Old Wu even bother bringing her back? She’s nothing but bad luck and a disgusting mess," one servant muttered, pausing mid-swing to spit in disgust.

The other servant yanked his sleeve sharply. "Shut it! That was the anniversary of Old Wu’s granddaughter’s—"

He cut himself off as the first servant turned and saw the approaching figure. Both immediately fell silent.

A broad-shouldered old man with streaks of white in his hair strode into the courtyard, his temples bulging slightly—a clear sign of profound martial prowess. Dressed in plain white robes, he paused when he spotted Lin Chen sitting there, vacant and drooling. With a quiet sigh, he shook his head. The physician had said if she showed no improvement in three days, there was little hope left. Today was the last day.

Still, Old Wu had no intention of casting her out. Since he had found her, he would raise her as his own.

As dusk deepened, he called for the maidservant to help Lin Chen inside before leaving himself.

Night fell swiftly, and the courtyard sank into silence.

On the bed, Lin Chen’s dull eyes suddenly flickered with life. She bolted upright, staring at her hands in disbelief.

They were steady, perfectly attached to her arms—no tremors, no scars. The jagged marks that had tormented her for five years were gone, as if those years of agony had been nothing but a fleeting nightmare.

When she first awoke in the graveyard, the overwhelming shock had knocked her unconscious. Only now did she have the clarity to confirm it—she had truly come back from the dead!

Once, she had been the heir to the Lin family. But after being rendered useless, she had withdrawn from their affairs, never learning what had provoked their annihilation. Overnight, the Lin clan had been wiped from existence, destroyed by forces beyond mortal comprehension—even legendary cultivators who could soar through the skies and vanish into the earth.

However, now that she had been resurrected, there was hope to uncover the truth!

Only after sorting through these thoughts did Lin Chen finally have the time to assess her own situation.

That night when she awoke, the thing that had shattered in her mind turned out to be an unnamed cultivation legacy. Over the past few days, she had been wholly absorbed in assimilating its memories, leaving no room to pay attention to the outside world. And just moments ago, she had finally absorbed the last fragment of the inheritance.

Cultivation was an act of defying the heavens, a struggle against fate itself. Every step was like rowing against the current—perilous and fraught with danger. The stages of cultivation were divided into Body Refinement, Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Nascent Soul, Soul Projection, Spirit Division, Heavenly Tribulation, and Great Ascension. Beyond that lay the realm of Transcendence, where one could shed their mortal form and ascend to higher planes of existence…

After organizing the memories, Lin Chen realized the legacy was incomplete. It contained only an unnamed cultivation technique and a method to conceal one’s aura. Worse still, her starting point was abysmally low—she couldn’t even glimpse the first layer of the main technique. All she had was a Body Refinement method.

"Body Refinement first?" Lin Chen frowned after reading the general outline of the technique.

Channeling spiritual energy into one’s body required an exceptionally strong physique to withstand it. Only by refining the body to the Innate Realm could one truly embark on the path of cultivation.

Unlike mortals who had to laboriously build their strength through sheer effort, those with spiritual roots could expedite the Body Refinement process using elixirs and cultivation techniques. The better the spiritual roots, elixirs, and techniques, the shorter the time needed.

The unnamed cultivator’s legacy did include a Body Refinement method. She now possessed spiritual roots, but what she lacked were elixirs. Yet in the mortal world, even the lowest-grade elixir could spark bloodshed and chaos. In her current frail state, wading into such treacherous waters was out of the question.

"Body Refinement it is, then!"

Having made up her mind, Lin Chen sat cross-legged on the bed, ready to attempt her first cultivation session. Suddenly, faint voices drifted in from outside the door.

"Are we really doing this?"

"Of course! You think Sister Jin’s orders are a joke? Quit dawdling—if Old Wu catches us, we’re both dead!"

"What about what you promised me—"

"Relax, since when has Sister Jin ever reneged? You’ll get your share once the job’s done."

Two maids—one in green and the other in yellow—pushed the door open with silent steps. Their eyes fell on the lump beneath the quilt on the bed. The yellow-clad maid's face paled with fear, her fingers clutching a needle as thin as a strand of hair. Trembling, she approached the bedside. Urged by the other maid behind her, her gaze suddenly turned icy, and she thrust the needle downward with a vicious stab!

*Thud.*

The needle sank into the quilt without meeting flesh. The yellow-clad maid froze in shock before yanking the covers aside—only to find a pillow lying there. No one was beneath it.

The green-clad maid, who had remained composed until now, stiffened instantly.

*Where is she?!*

Just then, a faint whistling sound sliced through the air behind their necks.

"Look out—!"

*Thwack!*

The green-clad maid's eyes rolled back as she crumpled to the floor. The yellow-clad maid spun around in panic, only to see a blur of a fist rushing toward her face. A dull impact later, her vision blacked out, and she collapsed unconscious.

Lin Chen rubbed her knuckles, wincing at the sting.

Though her martial skills had lain dormant for five long years, combat instincts were etched into her bones. Her body might be frail now, but taking down two ordinary maids was still child's play.

Once certain both were truly out cold, Lin Chen flipped back the quilt and carefully extracted the needle. Squinting, she examined it—dagger-length, rigid, and gleaming with a sinister green hue in the dark. She brought it closer and inhaled. A faint, putrid stench hit her nostrils, sending a wave of dizziness through her skull.

*Deadly poison.*

Her cold gaze flickered toward the unconscious maids. Without hesitation, she drove the needle into each of them in quick succession.

*Sizzle—!*

The sound of flesh corroding filled the air.

The two maidservants suddenly began emitting white smoke, their bodies dissolving into puddles of water within mere seconds.

Lin Chen's face paled as she instinctively covered her nose and stumbled back two steps, a chill creeping down her spine. She had anticipated the poison needles would be lethal, but she never imagined the toxin would be this potent.

After a brief moment of stunned silence, she quickly regained her composure.

At least this saved her the trouble of disposing of the bodies. No doubt that Madam Jin had planned it this way when she orchestrated the poisoning.

The fact that she had resorted to such underhanded methods instead of confronting Lin Chen openly meant she must still fear Old Wu's influence.

Watching the last traces of liquid seep into the ground, Lin Chen felt a slight sense of relief. With these two gone, Madam Jin would surely grow suspicious—but suspicion alone wouldn’t be enough. Until she figured out what had happened, she likely wouldn’t dare make another move, at least not immediately.

With that thought, Lin Chen wasted no more time. She closed her eyes slowly, sinking into deep meditation. No matter what happened next, the only way to ensure her survival was to grow stronger—fast.