Xuanling Continent.

Tianlong Empire, Xiaoyao Town.

On the outskirts, beside a still lake, a young man lay limp on the ground, barely breathing.

“Tiger bro! You think Lucas Yeager’s dead? We didn’t go too far, did we?”

“Yeah… If he dies, the Yeager family won’t let us off easy…”

Four youths surrounded the fallen boy. Three of them shifted nervously, while the last—dressed in fine silk robes and with a sharp-edged arrogance in his gaze—remained calm.

“Bah!”

The one called Tiger spat on the ground and said coldly, “What are you scared of? The Yeagers? In Xiaoyao Town, it’s the Chandler family that calls the shots. You think we’ll be afraid of a second-rate clan?”

“Besides, Lucas is just a useless brat who can’t even gather spirit energy. You think Yeagers will stir up trouble for a waste like him?”

On Xuanling Continent, strength ruled everything. In this world of survival of the fittest, respect had to be earned—with power.

Cultivators here trained by absorbing spirit energy, and only when one could store it within their body would they officially step into the path of cultivation—starting from the lowest level: Spirit Infusion.

Xiaoyao Town was just one of thousands under Diancang City in Tianlong Empire. Three families held power here: the Chandlers, the Fantines, and the Yeagers.

The Chandler family stood at the top. The Yeagers came second. The Fantines were last.

In recent years, the Yeagers had grown quickly, enough to make the Chandlers feel threatened. The two families butted heads often behind the scenes, and it naturally trickled down to the younger generation. Every meeting turned into a bitter stare-off, if not a brawl.

These four youths came from the Chandler family. The one leading them was the second young master, Oswald Chandler.

The one beaten and left half-dead by the lakeside—Lucas Yeager.

To common folk, Lucas was the pride of the Yeagers, son of the clan head. But among cultivators, he was nothing—a waste who couldn’t even reach the most basic threshold of Spirit Infusion.

Worse still, Lucas was already sixteen. The prime age for achieving Spirit Infusion was ten. Chances were, even if he managed it someday, he'd never get far.

Oswald, the same age, had already reached Spirit Infusion Level Four—one of the top talents in town.

But Oswald didn’t hate Lucas just because of the family feud.

There was another reason—Isabella Fantine.

If Oswald was known as a prodigy, Isabella was the town’s unrivaled beauty. At sixteen, she was already like a lily just bloomed—elegant, poised… and also Spirit Infusion Level Four.

She’d been close to Lucas since childhood.

Oswald had always liked her. In his eyes, only someone like him was worthy of Isabella. Lucas? A useless nobody? How dare he get close to her?

Today, Oswald had dragged Lucas out here, originally just wanting to rough him up, scare him off from Isabella.

But Lucas didn’t flinch. Not once.

That set Oswald off.

He lost control.

And now, Lucas lay there, clinging to what little life he had left.“Tiger, we all get it. But Lucas Yeager’s still the Yeager family’s young master. If he dies, who knows what that lunatic Alexander Yeager might do. When that happens, we’ll be the ones suffering.”

“Blake’s right. We’d better come up with something smarter.”

“…”

Hearing this, Oswald Chandler’s smug face twitched. His gaze locked onto the lake for a moment before he muttered, “Toss him into the lake.”

Oswald was young, but not stupid. If Alexander Yeager found out they killed Lucas, he’d tear them apart. Even if the Chandler family protected him, his father’s punishment was inevitable.

“Dump him in the lake?”

Blake Chandler blinked, then let out a sly grin. “Clever move, Tiger. Lucas is already hanging by a thread. A useless brat without a trace of spiritual energy, thrown into the lake? No one would suspect a thing. Folks will think he slipped and drowned.”

“Cut the crap. Do it.”

As soon as Oswald barked the order, Blake stopped talking and shot a look at his two lackeys. Together, the three of them hauled Lucas up and flung him into the water with all their might.

“Splash!”

Lucas’s body drew a hard arc through the air before crashing into the lake like a stone. Waves burst out and ripples raced across the surface.

“Let’s go!”

Oswald waved a hand and led the group away.

…

Lucas had already blacked out, but suddenly, he felt a crushing discomfort. He couldn’t breathe. His head throbbed like it would explode.

His eyes shot open, and his thoughts started to return. Confused, he realized he was under the lake.

He didn’t have time to figure out how he got there. He just wanted to get his head above water. But the moment he moved, a searing pain tore through his body.

It was like knives stabbing into him. His mouth opened in agony, and water immediately rushed into his lungs and nose. Panic set in.

He tried to struggle, but both his arms and legs were broken. He was as helpless as a normal man—worse, even. His limbs couldn’t move, his breath was gone, and soon, his consciousness began to fade again. Darkness crept in.

“So this is how I die?”

That final thought echoed in his mind. He was bitter about it—furious even—but powerless. Despite being called a noble, he was no better than a commoner. Maybe worse. Even regular folks got to live out their lives. Him? He couldn’t even hold onto his.

His expression stayed calm, even as the end came. Maybe it was a kind of relief. Living like trash… maybe dying was better.

He had no will left to survive. And just like that, his life faded away.

But in that moment, the sky above the lake twisted strangely. A glowing rift appeared, pulsing with blinding light. Then, a blue orb emerged from the light and hovered for a breath before shooting down into the lake, vanishing directly into Lucas’s body.

Right then, as the rift sealed shut, a massive hand descended from the heavens and dragged Lucas out of the water in one powerful motion.

It laid him gently by the lake’s edge before vanishing without a trace.

A man in a black cloak now stood over him.

“Hmph.”The man in the black cloak gave Lucas Yeager a quick glance and let out a cold snort. “So this is the so-called Eternal Everlast Body? Pathetic. Sixteen already and still can't even absorb spiritual energy. A complete waste. I really don’t get what the Divine One was thinking.”

“These ten high-grade spirit crystals should be enough for you to form your Spirit Core. If even this doesn’t work, then you’re just worthless.”

As he spoke, he crouched down, grabbed Lucas’s finger, and pressed hard. A bead of blood welled out. Then he pulled out a jade ring, and once the blood touched it, a strange aura pulsed from the ring. He slipped it onto Lucas’s ring finger and vanished without a trace.

…

Night fell. It was deathly still around the lake.

The moonlight spilled across the water, creating soft ripples and casting a pale glow across the surface. It should’ve been peaceful.

A breeze swept through, and the body lying still on the ground suddenly twitched. Then, Lucas’s eyes flew open.

“Ugh!”

“What… what happened? I’m alive? No way. I was thrown off a cliff—how am I still breathing? And why don’t I feel any pain at all? Not even a scratch?”

He jolted into awareness, panic fading into confusion as he realized all his wounds had vanished. Still dazed, Lucas sat up and quickly surveyed his surroundings.

He was at the edge of a lake.

Bits and pieces of what happened trickled back into his mind. He mumbled to himself, “I was beaten half to death by Oswald Chandler. He dumped me into the lake to drown?”

“Wait…”

Lucas slapped his forehead. “No, that’s not right. I was knocked off a cliff, not dumped in a lake. What's going on? Whose memories are these?”

This was Tianlong Empire’s Xiaoyao Town, on the Xuanling Continent. He was the son of Alexander Yeager, the Yeager family head—Lucas Yeager, just sixteen.

That was what he knew.

But now the memories from an ancient Heaven Realm—three thousand years’ worth—overlapped with his own. It wracked his mind with confusion.

“I’m Lucas… no, I’m Gabriel Forsythe? I was the Azure Dragon True God? But how do I have both these names?”

“No… I am Lucas. Everything around this lake feels… familiar. Every memory, every spot—I’ve lived it all. Nothing feels false. How could it be someone else’s life?”

Could this be a dream? That whole Heaven Realm thing—maybe it was just a dream?

But the memories were vivid. The wars he fought, the people he met, the betrayal—it all felt real. As real as his memories of this life.

What the hell is going on?

After what felt like forever, Lucas finally calmed down. His thoughts cleared.

Now he knew one thing for sure: In the Heaven Realm, he’d obtained the supreme treasure, the Chaos Pearl. That triggered the greed of his disciple and three powerful factions who allied to ambush him. They nearly killed him. As he fell into the abyss, his soul was devoured by the Chaos Pearl… and ended up here, in Lucas Yeager’s body.

He'd been reborn.