Chapter One: Death

  Xiyuan Town is a medium-sized town in Fengzhou, one of the thirteen states of the Dayan Dynasty.

  "With this packet of herbs, I should be able to break through the bottleneck and enter the Postnatal Third-Order Bone Refining Realm within four months after brewing the Guiyuan Great Supplementing Decoction!"

  A fifteen-year-old boy with a handsome appearance, wearing samurai clothes, walked out of a pharmacy in Xiyuan Town, holding a package of precious herbs and showing an expectant smile on his face.

  The Great Flame Dynasty was founded on martial prowess, with a strong emphasis on martial arts. Almost everyone practiced martial arts, and warriors held extremely high social status. Even an old farmer in the countryside would cultivate some basic martial skills to strengthen their body.

  The martial arts boundary is divided into two major boundaries: postnatal and prenatal.

  The nine realms of tomorrow are divided into: Qi-leading realm, Tempering Body realm, Practicing Bone realm, Condensing Qi realm, Strengthening Qi realm, True Qi realm, Spiritual Qi realm, Transforming Qi realm, and Ancestor Master realm.

  First Layer: Qi Gathering Realm. In this layer, the cultivator can cultivate a thread of internal energy. Anyone can cultivate internal energy. At this level, the difference between the cultivator and an ordinary person is not great. As long as one can find an ordinary cultivation method, anyone can cultivate to the Qi Gathering Realm.

  Second stage: Tempering the Body. At this stage, the practitioner begins to temper their body with internal energy and various methods, a practitioner who has reached the peak of tempering the body can easily defeat five or six strong men without any cultivation even if they are just an ordinary young man.

  The second heavy tempering realm is extremely difficult to cultivate. To quickly cultivate this realm, not only do you need a high-level technique, but also the use of large amounts of medicine to solidify the foundation and nourish the origin, as well as to temper the body and soul.

  The Great Flame Dynasty had a saying that "the rich are strong and the poor are weak", which is because cultivating martial arts requires a lot of money to buy various tonics and medicines, and only then can a cultivator become brave and make rapid progress, constantly breaking through to higher realms.

  That handsome young man Su Han was able to break through to the Tempering Body stage at the age of fifteen, which is already considered a pretty good existence among ordinary people.

  Just then, three knights riding sweat-blooded horses came galloping from afar like a whirlwind.

  Those sweat-blood precious horses were the extremely precious treasures produced in the Western Regions of the Great Flame Dynasty, one horse was worth a thousand gold, and its owners were either rich or noble. Seeing those three sweat-blood precious horses, everyone on the street retreated to make way for them.

  That sweat-blooded treasured horse was extremely fast. Su Han slightly diverted his attention to glance at the herbal medicine in his hand, and a rider on a sweat-blooded treasured horse immediately rushed to his front.

  That knight pulled the reins, and the blood-sweating horse raised its front hooves high, one hoof heavily trampling Su Han's chest. The immense force exploded in an instant, and Su Han's chest felt a sharp pain, accompanied by the sound of cracking bones. He himself was sent flying to the side like a defeated rag doll.

  That sweat-blooded horse was extremely divine and powerful. After trampling on the flying Su Han, it landed steadily and continued to gallop forward.

  "Damn it! This plebeian actually dares to block my way, truly ignorant of life and death." A man wearing a cyan robe with an outstanding appearance and demeanor raised an eyebrow, glanced at Su Han who was knocked flying away, and with a flick of his whip, a surge of internal energy poured into the whip, condensing into a true energy long snake that bit onto Su Han's body.

  True energy transforms into form! This young-looking man has actually cultivated to the realm of post-heavenly eightfold transformation.

  That true energy long snake burst into Su Han's body, instantly exploding with terrifying power. It twisted in Su Han's body, and his body immediately shattered the dantian, severed the meridians, and even the last thread of life was shattered to pieces.

  Witnessing that brutal scene, another young knight couldn't help but admire and fear, saying: "Young Master's skill in using true energy to transform is truly divine. At the age of 18, you have already reached the realm of true energy transformation. With your extraordinary martial arts talent, this time when Mount Luo, the sacred place of martial arts, opens its doors to recruit disciples, becoming an inner disciple should be a sure thing."

  The Great Flame Empire was founded on martial prowess, with everyone practicing martial arts. There were countless masters of the martial way. However, most cultivators spent their entire lives only cultivating up to the Fourth Stage of the Acquired Realm. Cultivating up to the Sixth Stage of the True Energy Realm already made one a top-notch master in the jianghu. The Seventh Stage of the Spiritual Energy Realm was the level of the many top generals in the imperial court.

  That young master actually managed to cultivate to the Later Heaven Eightfold Refining Qi realm at just eighteen years old, truly an extremely monstrous and frightening genius martial artist.

  A beautiful young girl with a proud and arrogant tone said, "Of course, my brother is an extraordinary talent, a rare martial arts genius in the Great Flame Dynasty that appears only once in a hundred years. He broke through to the Tempering Body stage at the age of ten, entered the Spiritual Energy stage at sixteen, and broke through to the Transformation stage at eighteen. Even the three great masters were not as good as my brother when they were young, he will definitely break through and enter that mysterious and unparalleled Primordial stage in the future. A mere inner disciple of the Luo Shan Sect is simply no match for him."

  Young Master Hao said proudly: "Luo Shan Zong is the sacred place of martial arts in our Great Yan Wang Dynasty, with masters as numerous as clouds. However, a mere inner disciple like you is not even worth Cloud Tianhai's attention. This time, I must become the true successor of Luo Shan Zong!"

  That young knight smiled with a flattering expression: "Young Master Hou has such great ambitions! Wei Hai here wishes Young Master Hou all the best, may he successfully become a true disciple of Luo Shan Zong and break through to become a First Heaven Realm master. When that time comes, I hope Young Master Hou will still spare some thought for me."

  "Haha! Of course, I, Yun Tianhai, will never let those who follow me suffer a loss!"

  The three of them chatted and laughed as they rode their horses away, without even giving a second glance at Su Han who had been knocked to the side, as if they had casually squashed an ant and didn't care in the least.

  Su Han collapsed to the ground like a defeated rag doll, his internal meridians shattered, countless fresh blood flowing out of his body and seeping into the earth. His lifeless eyes only reflected the shadow of the three people leaving with vigor and vitality. The breath of life continued to flow away from his body, and his soul was slowly dissipating.

  In the soil beside Su Han, a large amount of fresh blood flowed out from Su Han's body was absorbed into it. Suddenly, a starlight shot out from the soil and directly entered Su Han's body.

  That point of starlight entered Su Han's body and immediately rose along his body, finally stopping in his sea of consciousness. It revolved slowly like a star, surrounded by countless mysterious blue auras that made it look even more mystical and enchanting.

  With that turn of the stars, Su Han's soul, which had been prepared to disperse between heaven and earth, was immediately absorbed back into his body.

  That surge of blue energy poured into Su Han's body, causing his damaged meridians and collapsed dantian to be re-forged, condensed, and become even more resilient than before.

  Su Han's soul was absorbed into his body, and the scene where he was trampled like an ant and killed at will immediately flooded his mind, making him feel endless humiliation and boundless hatred.

  "Why! Why do you want to kill me? Is it just because I'm a commoner, that the powerful can beat and insult me at will? I won't accept it, I don't want to die!! I won't accept it!!! I want to live on! Those people who humiliated me today, if I ever come back to life, I'll repay them tenfold!!"

  Su Han's soul was filled with resentment and anger, shouting loudly. As the stars in his sea of consciousness rotated, his scattered soul quickly returned to his sea of consciousness and re-condensed.

  In Su Han's sea of consciousness, the stars twinkled again, and a ray of light filled with ancient, mysterious, and profound aura fell into the deepest part of his sea of consciousness.

  Boom!

  That ray of light shot down, and Su Han's sea of consciousness immediately burst open, instantly expanding infinitely, turning into a mysterious vast ocean.

  Those stars sank into the mysterious and unfathomable depths of the ocean that lay hidden in the sea of consciousness, suspended in the void, as if it were the center of the world.

  Su Han's soul condensed and was absorbed into that mysterious vast ocean, gazing up at that mystical star.

  A stream of cyan light condensed from countless mysterious runes suddenly burst into Su Han's body.

  Su Han's soul was absorbed by the symbol, and with a loud bang, he fainted.

  "Brother! Brother! What's wrong with you? Don't die!!" After an unknown number of days, Su Han heard the anxious cry of a girl by his ear. He slowly opened his eyes to find a beautiful young girl with delicate features and skin as white as snow, full of youthful vitality, sitting in front of him and crying.

  Su Han looked at the girl beside him and saw a hint of tenderness flash in her eyes, slowly saying: "Ning Xiang, don't cry! I'm not dead yet!"

  The beautiful young girl in front of him was none other than Su Han's sister, Luo Ningxiang.

  Lu Jingxiang looked at Su Han waking up, burst into tears and laughed, turned around and quickly ran out of the room: "Brother!! You're not dead, great!! I'm going to tell mom."

  Soon, a middle-aged woman with lingering charm and a middle-aged man wearing a green robe, with regular features and a slightly haggard look between his eyebrows, rushed into the room.

  The middle-aged beautiful woman named Cheng Lini is Su Han's mother, and the man with a dignified face is Su Han's father, Su Zhengtian.

  Cheng Li saw a hint of joy flash in Su Han's pale face, and she hastily came to the bedside, grasping Su Han's hands, tears of joy streaming down her eyes: "Han'er, you're finally awake! It's great!! It's great."

  Su Han looked at Cheng Li who was overjoyed and tearful, a little out of control, and felt a warm feeling slowly flowing in his heart.

  Su Zhengtian came to Su Han's bedside, looking at the already awake Su Han, a flash of joy in his eyes, but only said lightly: "Take good care of your injuries, don't think too much about anything."

  "Yes, Father." Su Han gazed at Su Zheng Tian, who looked somewhat haggard, and a thread of ominous foreboding rose in his heart.

  Su Han, who narrowly escaped from the Ghost Gate, had a dramatic improvement in his observational skills compared to the past. From Su Zhengtian's eyebrows, he observed many unusual signs. The man riding the sweat-blooded horse, with an extraordinary demeanor, who knocked him flying and then followed up with a Shape-Shifting True Energy to kill him, appeared in his mind. That young man, who dared to recklessly kill people in Xiyuan Town, was absolutely a powerful figure. The Su family had some reputation in Xiyuan Town, but compared to the nobles of the Great Flame Dynasty, they were not worth mentioning.