Kai Zhenwu stood atop the shattered throne of the War God Palace, his armor cracked and bleeding divine light. Around him, eleven corpses lay in expanding pools of golden blood—the Supreme Deities who had called themselves his brothers.
"You were too strong, War God," the Jade Emperor's voice echoed from the collapsing pillars. "The Heavenly Dao cannot allow one being to hold such power. You understand, don't you?"
Kai's laugh was bitter. His supreme cultivation, earned through ten thousand years of slaughter, meant nothing now. The poison they'd fed him during the "victory feast" had worked its way to his divine core.
"I defended the Heavens for millennia," Kai said, his voice steady despite the pain. "And this is my reward?"
"Your sacrifice will be remembered."
The formation array beneath his feet ignited. Kai felt his divine essence being ripped away, his cultivation shattering. The Twelve Supreme Deities hadn't just poisoned him—they'd prepared a descent formation that would strip everything he was.
As reality fractured around him, Kai made a choice.
He wouldn't resist. He would fall.
But he would remember.
And one day, he would return.
The mortal realm rushed up to meet him as consciousness fled.
******
Three Years Later
"Kai! The trash needs to be taken out!"
Kai Zhenwu opened his eyes to the familiar ceiling of the servant's quarters. His mother-in-law's shrill voice pierced through the thin walls of the Chen family mansion.
Three years.
Three years since he'd awakened in this body a waste of the Chen family, married to their daughter in a desperate bid to secure medical treatment for her terminal illness. The original Kai Zhenwu had been a nobody, a charity case whose only value was his willingness to sign a marriage contract that made him less than a servant.
That Kai had died from a "fall" down the stairs two days before the wedding.
The War God had taken his place.
"Kai! Are you deaf?!"
He rose smoothly, his mortal body moving with muscle memory that wasn't originally its own. In three years, he'd learned the patterns of this household. Learned how little had changed from the Heavenly Realm's politics.
Power was still everything.
And he had none.
Yet.
The War God's cultivation had been sealed, scattered into fragments and hidden across this world. His divine sense could barely extend ten meters. His physical strength was that of a normal human, perhaps slightly above average from his conditioning.
But his mind was intact. Ten thousand years of combat experience. Strategies that had won wars against demon hordes and conquered forbidden realms.
He just needed time.
"Coming, Mother Chen," Kai called out, his tone perfectly neutral.
In the hallway, Chen Wei'er's younger brother, Chen Jian, smirked at him from the second-floor railing. "Move faster, trash. Or are you hoping your sister will defend you again?"
Kai said nothing. Speech was wasted on fools.
He descended the ornate staircase, the same stairs where the original owner of this body had "accidentally" fallen. The marble was pristine now. All evidence cleaned away.
Chen Jian had pushed him. Kai had confirmed it through careful questioning over the months. The boy had gambled and lost the family's money, needed a scapegoat, and the worthless son-in-law had been convenient.
In the kitchen, his mother-in-law, Liu Mei, glared at him with open contempt. "The young master is hosting guests tonight. You'll serve as a waiter. And if you embarrass this family, you'll sleep in the garden."
"Understood."
"And where is Wei'er? Still wasting time at that ridiculous job?"
Kai's expression didn't change, but something cold flickered behind his eyes. Chen Wei'er, his wife in name only, was the one person in this household who'd never treated him as trash. She worked as a project manager at a pharmaceutical company, desperately trying to keep her independence.
She also had no idea that her "illness" three years ago hadn't been terminal. It had been poisoned. Slow-acting, expensive, and carefully administered by her own step-mother to force her into a marriage that would strip her inheritance rights.
Kai had cured her on their wedding night with a simple spiritual technique. She thought her recovery was a miracle.
He'd let her believe that.
"She's at work," Kai said simply.
"Work," Liu Mei spat. "As if that pittance she earns matters. If she'd married the Wang family's young master like I suggested, we'd have—"
The doorbell rang.
Liu Mei's demeanor transformed instantly. "That must be Young Master Wang! Jian, greet him properly. Kai take the trash out the back way. Don't let the guests see you."
Kai nodded and lifted the bag of kitchen waste. As he moved toward the back door, he heard the excited voices in the foyer.
"Young Master Wang! What an honor!"
"Elder Chen, I heard your daughter returned from her business trip today. I was hoping to discuss a collaboration..."
Kai paused at the back door.
Wang Zhou. The heir to Wang Enterprises, one of Haishi City's four major powers. Twenty-eight years old, handsome, wealthy, and engaged to another woman.
But that had never stopped him from pursuing Chen Wei'er.
Kai set down the trash bag.
Tonight, he decided
******
The garden behind the Chen mansion was Kai's domain.
Not because he owned it, but because no one else cared enough to maintain it. While the front displayed ornamental plants and imported flowers for the neighbors' benefit, the back had been left to run wild.
Perfect for his purposes.
Kai moved between the overgrown hedges with practiced ease, stopping at a section of wall covered in creeping ivy. To any observer, he was simply disposing of trash in the bins hidden here.
What they couldn't see was the faint spiritual disturbance radiating from beneath the third stone in the wall's foundation.
He'd sensed it six months ago, a whisper of his own divine essence, buried and dormant. One of the twelve fragments the Heavenly formation had scattered across this realm.
For six months, he'd slowly, painstakingly coaxed it closer to the surface. Tonight, it will finally emerge.
Kai knelt and pressed his palm against the stone.
A mortal wouldn't feel anything. Even a cultivator below the Golden Core stage would miss it. But Kai had once wielded power that made gods tremble.
He knew the signature of his own soul.
Come, he whispered in the ancient language of the War God Palace.
The stone cracked.
Golden light, barely visible in the dusk, seeped through. Kai's hand closed around something solid a shard the size of his palm, crystalline and humming with compressed power.
The moment his skin made contact, pain exploded through his body.
Memories flooded back. The Battle of the Demon Abyss. Blood-soaked fields. The screams of fallen warriors. His own hands, wreathed in divine flame, tearing through enemy armies like wheat before the scythe.
And power.
The fragment dissolved into his palm, flowing through meridians that had been empty for three years. Kai gasped as his mortal body struggled to contain even this tiny fraction of his former strength.
When the light faded, he remained kneeling, breathing hard.
Status assessment: cultivation restored to Early Foundation Establishment. Physical strength increased by three times. Divine sense range extended to one hundred meters.
It was nothing. A drop in the ocean compared to what he'd lost.
But it was a beginning.
Kai stood, his movements now carrying a fluid grace that hadn't been there before. He could feel the energy circulating through his body, could sense the life forces of insects in the grass, the small animals in the trees.
And inside the mansion, the gathering of thirty-seven people. Servants, family members, and guests.
One presence stood out a martial artist, peak of Body Refinement stage, standing close to Chen Wei'er.
Wang Zhou had brought a bodyguard.
Kai's expression didn't change, but his eyes narrowed slightly. His divine sense could now detect intent, and the bodyguard's attention was focused entirely on Wei'er.
Not protective attention.
Predatory.
He walked back toward the mansion's service entrance. Through the windows, he could see the dinner party in full swing. Liu Mei fawned over Wang Zhou. Chen Jian laughed too loudly at weak jokes. Chen Wei'er sat at the far end of the table, her expression politely neutral, her body language screaming discomfort.
She wore a simple black dress that Liu Mei had probably forced her into. Her hair was down, softening features that were usually sharp from stress and exhaustion.
Pretty, Kai supposed, in an objective way. He'd never paid much attention.
He wasn't here for romance.
"Kai!" A servant girl, Xiao Ling, waved him over frantically. "Hurry! They're calling for more wine!"
He took the tray she thrust at him and entered through the dining room door.
The conversation died.
Wang Zhou's gaze slid over him with the dismissive contempt reserved for furniture. "Ah, the famous son-in-law. I'd heard the Chen family had taken in... charity."
Polite laughter around the table. Chen Jian grinned openly.
Kai poured wine, his face a perfect mask of submissive neutrality.
"Wei'er," Wang Zhou continued, turning back to her, "I really must insist you consider the partnership. Wang Enterprises could triple your division's budget. You'd have resources beyond anything your current company could offer."
"The terms aren't favorable to our existing contracts," Chen Wei'er said quietly.
"Terms can be... negotiated." Wang Zhou's smile was shark-like. "Perhaps over a private dinner? This Friday?"
"I'm married, Young Master Wang."
"Yes, well." Wang Zhou's eyes flicked to Kai again. "Marriages can also be negotiated."
Kai poured the wine and said nothing.
But he marked Wang Zhou's bodyguard's position. The man had moved closer, blocking Wei'er's exit route.