Crimson clouds loomed over the barren ravine.
The winds carried no scent of life—only the dry rustle of withered leaves and the faint scent of old blood. Between jagged stones, a boy no older than ten lay curled in silence.
His chest barely moved. His skin was pale, stretched thin over fragile bones.
He looked like any other abandoned orphan.
But something was wrong.
Too wrong.
A sliver of light danced across his forehead—then vanished.
And from within his body, a faint heartbeat echoed.
Not of a child.
But something ancient.
Something divine.
Deep inside his soul, a black void opened.
In that abyss, fragments of shattered memory stirred.
A name emerged from the darkness—
Lin Xuan.
"Where… am I?"
His thoughts were like flickers of candlelight in a storm.Disoriented. Distant.
But alive.
"This isn't the altar… this isn't death…"
The silence within his soul rippled.
Then—an ancient voice stirred.
[Cycle Transfer Complete. Divine Soul Anchored.][Rebirth Successful. New Host Acquired.]
"Rebirth?"
A rush of images flooded his mind—memories of betrayal, pain, rage… and destruction.
He remembered the altar.
He remembered Lin Jue's sword.
He remembered the world shattering as his soul burned away.
Yet here he was.
Alive.
"I… survived."
His breath caught.
But this was not a triumphant awakening.
The soul was intact—but the body… feeble.
A mortal shell.
No cultivation base.
No Divine Core.
No lineage.
Just a boy—barely ten, with bones brittle and stomach hollow.
"This body… it's crippled."
Lin Xuan grit his teeth.
But even as despair crept in, something deeper stirred.
"So what?"
"I once stood at the peak of this world."
"Even if I start from nothing… I will rise again."
A sudden wind blew across the ravine.
He opened his eyes—black, bottomless, unfathomable.
The leaves around him trembled.
The very air grew cold.
And in that moment, the heavens seemed to pause—watching.
"Lin Jue."
"You cast me into oblivion… now tremble."
In the distance, footsteps crunched against gravel.
A child's voice—timid and thin—called out.
"Brother, are you awake?"
A girl no older than eight peeked through the bushes.
Thin. Dirty. Eyes full of fear—but not for him.
She clutched a basket of wild roots in both hands.
"Don't scare me like that... I thought you stopped breathing again."
Her voice trembled. But she stepped closer.
Lin Xuan blinked. His new body's instincts responded slower than he remembered.
Even blinking took effort.
"Who is this…?"
Does she know this body?"
The girl knelt beside him, pulled a rough cloth from her sash, and began wiping blood from his lips with trembling fingers.
"Don't worry. I found food today. You'll feel better soon…"
"We… just have to survive one more night."
Lin Xuan closed his eyes.
"So this boy… had a sister."
"And the world has already forsaken them both."
He looked up at the darkening sky.
The stars hadn't yet appeared—but they would.
So would he.