Chapter One The Last Glance

  "Wow!"

  The campus was piled with snow, and groups of people laughed as they passed through the stairs. On the first and second floor stairwell, a tall figure stood with both hands on the sink, head under the faucet, letting the warm water rush down and wash away the long hair that covered his ears. The splashing water droplets also sprayed wildly onto his neck and sweater.

  A whole minute passed, the figure remained silent and still, until a loud slap came from the right shoulder, accompanied by a bright laugh, and the figure gestured with its hand to move back.

  "Well, I'll go first."

  Laughter and footsteps faded away, but the figure crouching by the pool remained motionless in its previous posture. After several minutes, water had flowed down his neck and into his body, before he finally pulled his head out of the pool, pushed back his dripping long hair that fell to his nose, revealing a pair of reddened eyes.

  Tears mixed with tap water flowed quietly, Guo Zhengyang took a deep breath, then slowly lowered his head to the edge of the sink, closed his eyes and whispered, "Thank you."

  This voice of gratitude was a soft and gentle tone that only he could hear, because only he knew that the object of his gratitude might not even exist.

  He never thought that at the moment when life came to an end, everything could still be reborn.

  Even with his composure, he was stunned for half a day before confirming that he didn't just not die, but also mysteriously returned to fifty years ago.

  Fifty years ago, youth was carefree.

  He was not a humble and timid loose immortal cultivator, but rather the proud young master of the Guo family.

  Fifty years ago, his dignified father was still alive, and his doting mother was also well.

  As he was lost in thought, a sudden ringtone came from Guo Zhengyang's body. After wiping his hand on his sweater and taking out the phone from his pocket, a hint of strange emotion flashed across his eyes. This phone was an old-fashioned smartphone.

  Of course, in Guo Zhengyang's eyes, it can be called ancient. In fact, this mobile phone is the most popular one at present, and it is the most popular mobile phone globally. It was only launched domestically at the end of last year, and at that time, it could already be used on campus, absolutely at the forefront of fashion trends, not to mention that this is just a small county town high school in the inland area of the motherland which belongs to a backward region.

  This phone was a birthday gift from Guo Zhengyang's mother before Chinese New Year when he turned 18.

  In his past life, even when he left the secular world to cultivate in the spiritual realm and embarked on the vast journey of pursuing the Heavenly Dao, this phone was still carefully treasured by him.

  Because it was the last gift his mother gave him.

  In my memory, my father, who was the secretary of Yanhe County Committee, would be promoted to vice mayor of Mingchuan City in a few months. It happened that it was also the time when Guo Zhengyang failed his college entrance exam. My father's promotion brought a lot of joy to our family, but unfortunately, just as my parents were rushing to the city, they encountered a heavy rainstorm. In the storm, a truck crossing the bridge due to driver fatigue, still maintaining high speed in the rain, when the tire suddenly slipped, the driver didn't even have time to brake, and crashed into the sedan where my parents were, smashing through the guardrail and plunging into the river...

  From that day on, Guo Zhengyang was taken in by his grandfather, but he began to indulge in self-pity and waste away his days. In the end, his grandfather got fed up with him and drove him out of the house.

  However, he never lacked living expenses. Every month, someone would deposit a few thousand yuan into his card. The money was not enough for him to squander, but enough to eat and wear warm clothes. He spent several years in a daze until his grandfather passed away due to illness. Then, after another few years, the then-vice governor of a southern province, his uncle, was also imprisoned by political enemies, causing the Guo family to completely collapse.

  But after the fall of the Guo family, Guo Zhengyang unexpectedly welcomed his own opportunity. He happened to meet a cultivator who had escaped from the spiritual realm and was seriously injured. He inadvertently inherited a legacy, including a cultivation method, a spiritual instrument, and more importantly, learned about a magnificent world of immortals and gods from that cultivator's mouth.

  Unfortunately, the monk died too quickly, although he left behind many things, but Guo Zhengyang had no way to start. In order to understand the ancient texts on those secret books, he searched through several months of materials. Later, a cultivation entry-level manual took him five years to finally understand thoroughly and know how to cultivate. During these five years, he gave up countless times, tried countless times, and by the end, he had almost completely lost confidence, only to barely enter the door.

  The cultivation after entering the door is also not easy.

  He spent a full four years, from beginner cultivation to the early peak of gathering spirit.

  Master condenses the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into his body, reversing his fate against heaven, and the first step he takes is to gather spirits. The spirit gathering period is divided into four stages: initial stage, middle stage, late stage, and great perfection.

  Continuously gather the spirit into the body, constantly cleansing the mortal flesh and worldly aura that clings to it, until it is thoroughly purified. When this process reaches completion, it is called the Great Round Fulfillment of Gathering Spirit. After breaking through to this realm, one can transcend the mundane world and freely roam the heavens and earth, summoning clouds and rain at will, becoming a terrestrial immortal known as a True Person.

  In his previous life, Guo Zhengyang had occasionally obtained opportunities, but the deceased cultivator was only a small bird in the middle of the gathering spirit stage. The things he left behind were not precious, and because no one taught him, he could only grope around by himself. It took him five years to enter the door, four years to reach the peak of the initial gathering spirit stage, and being stuck at a bottleneck for a year. He then spent seven or eight years practicing to reach the peak of the middle gathering spirit stage.

  Seven or eight years later, he finally learned where the Spiritual Realm was through a coincidence.

  After entering the spiritual realm, although the spiritual energy was dense and the cultivation efficiency was more than ten times stronger than in the outside world, he was just a lonely soul and a wild ghost, still only at the mid-stage peak of gathering spirits, without much experience fighting strong enemies. At first, those years were basically spent hiding and seeking a place to settle down, exhausting his mind to find a place to rest. When he finally adapted to that cruel world, he also broke through continuously in the dense spiritual energy environment, all the way to the Gathering Spirit Great Perfection realm, only then barely having the capital to find a cave to settle down.

  The Cong Ling Da Yuan Man can barely stand in the spiritual realm, but it is still a precarious situation, especially for scattered cultivators, this precariousness still exists with great danger.

  Guo Zhengyang was trapped in the Great Perfection Realm for several more years, still frequently encountering various crises and dangers, until several years later, he finally welcomed his own opportunity to break through and become a True Person.

  At that moment, Guo Zhengyang's confidence was stronger than ever before. With his background and opportunities, he could go to that step and really live a relatively easy life in the spiritual realm.

  After many years of hard work and struggle, I finally managed to carve out a bloody path for myself, making me a minor master among the scattered cultivators.

  Guo Zhengyang was indeed spirited and elegant, even though he was nearly seventy years old at the time. However, once he became a true immortal, his lifespan would double, making him still in his prime at sixty or seventy years old.

  Ke Yi's Qi Feng Fa was unfolding in the spiritual realm, but Guo Zhengyang suddenly encountered a calamity. Before he could even display his fists and feet, two powerful beings were fighting near his cave, and he died tragically in the chaos.

  Looking back on that life, even though he had tempered his nerves to be incredibly resilient through all sorts of dangers and hardships, he still couldn't help but feel a lump in his throat and want to shed tears.

  Before his death, he was truly filled with resentment and anger.

  Against the heavens' rage, he struggled and toiled his whole life, barely managing to carve out a bloody path in the spiritual realm. Just as he saw a glimmer of hope for a better future, disaster struck, and that anger and resentment were like towering waves crashing against the sky. But what's even more heartbreaking is that he didn't even have the chance to feel angry or resentful, because in that instant, he was reduced to nothing but ashes.

  Who would have thought.

  Not long ago, he was still furious about the injustice of his fate, but soon after, he actually returned to fifty years ago?

  Is this the compensation fate has given him?

  Is it because someone in the dark saw that his life was too sad and desolate, so he gave him a turning point?

  But no matter what, thoroughly understanding that he didn't just not die, but also returned to fifty years ago, before his parents encountered the disaster, the huge change in the Guo family. A few months ago, Guo Zhengyang was truly excited and moved to tears.

  That life-changing event occurred several months later during summer vacation, starting from the day after the college entrance examination results were announced.

  If it hadn't been for that car accident, Father wouldn't have left in his prime years, and he wouldn't have become self-destructive. Grandfather also wouldn't have been grief-stricken by the loss of his youngest son in his later years, leading to a decline in his health. If Grandfather were still alive, Eldest Uncle's political enemies... might not have dared to do such outrageous things.

  At the root of it all, his fate underwent a drastic change in the previous life, which was caused by that car accident several months later.

  Silently staring at the phone in his hand, waiting for the ringing to stop, and when several passersby stopped to watch, Guo Zhengyang took a deep breath and put the phone to his ear.

  "Little Zheng."

  A gentle and concerned voice came from the phone, with only two words, Guo Zhengyang immediately turned around and faced away from the bathroom, tears gushing out.

  "Little Zheng?"

  "Maybe because I haven't heard from you for a long time, there's also a hint of doubt in your voice. Are you still angry with your dad? Ah, fathers and sons don't hold grudges overnight, okay? Don't be angry, come down quickly, Mom has brought you some delicious food."

  Tears were still streaming down Guo Zhengyang's face, but a hint of doubt flashed across his mind. Was he really angry with his father?

  The memory that had almost been forgotten in the depths of his mind was flipped through several times by him, and Guo Zhengyang finally found the source.

  It's still just after Chinese New Year and school has only been back in session for a few days for third-year high school students.

  Before the Spring Festival, there was a final exam. In Guo Zhengyang's class of 91 students in Grade 3 Class 5, Guo Zhengyang proudly got the 10th from the bottom. If he were to be ranked among all six classes of senior high school liberal arts, his ranking wouldn't even need to be looked for.

  This Spring Festival, he was scolded all the way through, but at that time, he was in a rebellious period. The more fiercely his father scolded him, the more severe his rebellious mood became. A few days before school started, he had a fierce argument with his father and ran out of the house in the middle of the night, causing his mother to search for him in the heavy snow for a long time, and she was hospitalized with a relapse of pneumonia the next day.

  When he received the news and went to the hospital to see his mother, he was slapped several times by his father standing outside the ward in front of several doctors and nurses.

  He hadn't answered the phone at home for many days, and even thought of running away from home and giving up his studies. If it weren't for the girl he had been fond of since his school days and still couldn't forget, he might have really run away from home alone.

  Digging out memories that were almost forgotten, Guo Zhengyang's tears flowed more and more fiercely. After putting down the phone and taking a deep breath to calm himself down, he grabbed the phone again and said, "I'm washing my hair, wait for me."

  "Okay, take your time washing, remember to blow dry after washing your hair..."

  The voice on the other end of the phone became increasingly gentle, but Guo Zhengyang didn't finish listening and hung up halfway through, putting his phone back in his pocket.

  In his previous life, after the departure of his parents, he was self-abandoned for many years. Whether it was his grandfather or uncle who advised or scolded him, he had no strength to make a comeback. The main reason was that his parents had left with disappointment.

  Disappointed in him.

  The college entrance examination results were released, and Guo Zhengyang was short of the specialist line by one or two hundred points. Knowing that his scores were too poor, he didn't go home after picking up his report card. It wasn't until his parents were about to move to the city that he reluctantly went back. His parents, who had already boarded the car at the gate, invited him to get on together, but Guo Zhengyang bluntly refused, saying he wanted to play at a classmate's house for a few days and go to the city later.

  He didn't go home with his transcript, but instead hung out outside all day until he heard that his father had been promoted to deputy mayor and they were going to move, so he had to go back to pick up some things he used to care about.

  When he went back, his parents had already packed their luggage and were ready to get on the bus. His mother kindly invited Guo Zhengyang to get on the bus together, but he bluntly refused, saying that he still wanted to play at his classmate's house for a few more days before going to the city a few days later.

  His father originally did not agree, and was cold towards him, but his mother persuaded him on the side, saying that it would be good for him to relax a bit, then came over and handed him some money, before calling out to his father to get in the car.

  As his father stood outside the car door and took a last look at him, his eyes were full of disappointment. When his mother got on the bus, although her eyes were more doting, Guo Zhengyang could also see some loss.

  That was also his last glance at his parents.

  At that time, he didn't take it to heart, but when his parents suddenly encountered a disaster on their way to the city and really left, leaving so abruptly, he cried with a broken heart and couldn't extricate himself from endless guilt for a long time.

  When he was young, he didn't understand things and rebelled against the older generation's way of thinking, which often had a huge difference. But how could he not understand things all the time? It wasn't until his parents were gone that Guo Zhengyang thought back to the past and regretted it.

  Until his death, he never forgot the last look from his parents. His father's eyes were full of disappointment and even anger, while his mother's eyes had a lot of doting love but also hidden loss.

  He let his parents leave this world with their disappointment and loss in him, and that glance was also the root of his self-abandonment from then on.

  Even though many people later tried to persuade him and wanted to try to untie his knot, he was unable to extricate himself from it.

  Put away your phone, Guo Zhengyang once again stuck his head under the faucet, letting the rushing warm water thoroughly wash his long hair.

  He really wants to have a good cry.

  Because he is no longer a wandering soul on the edge of death, always on high alert, constantly preventing various murder crises.

  Now he has the chance to make amends, to wipe away that unforgettable look of disappointment that had haunted him to death, and to re-experience his mother's doting love. He was truly moved.