Chapter 1: Poisoned on the Wedding Night
The grand hall of the Lin Clan was alive with mockery.
Red lanterns swayed overhead, casting flickering shadows across the faces of hundreds of cultivators. Silk banners embroidered with the Lin family crest fluttered in the night breeze, but the air felt thick with disdain rather than celebration.
Lin Feng knelt in the center of the hall, wrists bound with spirit chains that burned against his crippled meridians. His wedding robes—crimson silk meant to symbolize prosperity—were already torn and stained with blood from the earlier beating. At twenty-three, he should have been the groom standing tall beside his bride. Instead, he was the trash of the clan, the one whose dantian had shattered at age ten, the one who could no longer cultivate.
Above him stood Lin Hao, his half-brother, the golden son of the clan. Tall, handsome, peak Foundation Establishment at only nineteen. The bride-to-be, Mu Qing from the neighboring Mu family, clung to Lin Hao's arm, her eyes cold as winter jade.
"You really thought I would marry a cripple?" Mu Qing's voice cut through the laughter like a blade. "The Mu family agreed to this alliance only because they believed you still had some value. Now that the truth is clear… you're nothing."
Lin Feng raised his head slowly. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He had known this day would come. For thirteen years he had endured the beatings, the insults, the endless humiliation. He had even convinced himself that marrying Mu Qing might give him a sliver of dignity, a chance to live quietly in the shadows.
He had been wrong.
Lin Hao stepped forward, a cruel smile curling his lips. In his hand was a small porcelain vial. "Father has decided. Tonight ends your disgraceful existence. The Lin Clan cannot afford to keep a useless mouth any longer."
He uncorked the vial. A faint purple mist rose from it—Heart Devouring Poison, a toxin that would rot the soul before the body.
Lin Feng laughed. A dry, broken sound. "So this is how the great Lin Clan deals with its failures. Poison on my wedding night. How poetic."
Lin Hao's expression darkened. He grabbed Lin Feng by the hair and forced his mouth open, pouring the poison down his throat. The liquid burned like molten iron. Lin Feng convulsed, veins bulging black under his skin. The poison spread fast—through his blood, into his shattered dantian, toward his soul sea.
The hall erupted in cheers.
"Die quietly, trash!"
"Let this be a lesson to anyone who dares dream above their station!"
Lin Feng collapsed forward, forehead slamming against the cold marble floor. His vision blurred. The laughter faded into a distant roar. Pain consumed everything.
In that final moment, something inside him refused to break completely.
'I should have died years ago,' he thought. 'But I lived. I endured. And for what? To be poisoned like a dog on the night I was supposed to gain a wife?'
Regret surged, hotter than the poison.
'If the heavens have any justice… give me one more chance. Just one. I will make them all kneel. I will burn this clan to ash. I will—'
Darkness swallowed him.
…
When consciousness returned, it was not the cold embrace of death.
Lin Feng gasped, lungs filling with air that tasted of pine and morning dew. His body felt… light. Young. Whole.
He opened his eyes.
He was lying on a simple wooden bed inside a cramped, familiar room—the same servant quarters he had occupied at sixteen, before the clan moved him to the outer courtyard to rot in shame.
His hands—smaller, unscarred—trembled as he touched his face. No beard stubble. No scars from years of beatings.
He sat up sharply.
The meridians in his arms pulsed with faint spiritual energy. Weak, yes—still crippled compared to geniuses—but present. Alive.
"I… returned?"
A low, mechanical chime echoed inside his mind.
[Ding!]
[Host detected. Supreme Sign-In System binding initiated.]
[Binding complete.]
[Welcome, Host Lin Feng. From this moment, every dawn you sign in, the system will grant you one supreme reward.]
[First Sign-In available now. Would you like to claim it?]
Lin Feng stared into empty air, heart pounding so hard it threatened to shatter his ribs again.
A system.
A second chance.
And this time, he would not be trash.
He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.
"Yes," he whispered, voice steady for the first time in thirteen years.
"Sign in."
[Ding! First Sign-In successful!]
[Reward: Primordial Chaos Scripture – Divine Grade Cultivation Technique]
[Additional Reward: Meridians Reconstructed (100%) – All blockages removed. Cultivation base reset to perfect foundation.]
A torrent of warm energy flooded his body. Broken meridians knit together in seconds. His dantian, once a cracked ruin, reformed into a flawless vortex of spiritual qi. Power—real, tangible power—surged through every vein.
Lin Feng stood up. The room felt smaller now, insignificant.
Outside, he could hear the distant sounds of the Lin Clan compound waking up. Servants moving. Disciples practicing. The same arrogant voices that would one day mock him again.
But this time would be different.
He walked to the cracked mirror hanging on the wall and looked at his sixteen-year-old reflection.
The eyes staring back were no longer dull with resignation.
They burned.
"Lin Hao. Mu Qing. The entire Lin Clan."
Lin Feng smiled—a cold, dangerous curve of the lips.
"You will all remember this day."
He turned toward the door.
The legend of Lin Feng began now.