Jiang Chen shot up with a gasp, sweat dripping from his forehead like rain.
His arms trembled, veins bulging, and his face had turned as pale as ash—like he'd just seen a demon crawl out of hell.
"Jiang Chen? You're awake?!"
A soft, panicked voice floated over, light and gentle—yet distant, like a fading echo from the clouds.
He turned toward the sound, dazed. A cool hand brushed against his, and he instinctively grabbed it.
"Who… who are you? Didn't I die?" Jiang Chen murmured in confusion, his voice hoarse and hollow.
"It's me, Yuechan. Don't you remember?" the girl's voice trembled, worried he had lost his mind.
"Yuechan?" he echoed blankly, repeating the name under his breath.
Then suddenly—his eyes sharpened.
"Yuechan… are you Lin Yuechan?!"
"Ow! Jiang Chen, you're hurting me—let go!" she yelped, trying to pull her hand free.
Jiang Chen's body trembled. His lips curled upward as he stared at the ceiling and let out a wild laugh:
"Haha! I'm still alive! I, Jiang Chen—the Immortal Emperor of the Burning Sky Realm—have returned!"
"Jiang Chen, stop scaring me!" Lin Yuechan's voice cracked, nearly crying. "I didn't mean to hit you! The car barely moved, I swear!"
She had only just borrowed her cousin's new sports car that morning after weeks of pleading. The tires hadn't even rolled a full meter when Jiang Chen suddenly ran toward it like a lunatic and collapsed with a thud.
At first, she thought he was pulling a prank. But when she rushed out of the car, his heart had stopped.
In a panic, she called for an ambulance. But now he was laughing like a maniac, claiming to be some "Immortal Emperor."
What she didn't know was this: Jiang Chen's mind was clearer than ever.
He had once ruled the skies as the Immortal Emperor of the Burning Sky Realm—a peerless cultivator, feared and revered across ten thousand domains. In just four hundred years, he had shattered the barriers of mortality and stood one step away from the legendary Eternal Realm.
But when he attempted to refine the Heartfire Stone and ascend beyond the mortal path, he was ambushed by the Celestial Coalition—six Immortal Emperors and dozens of elder Venerables.
He fought without fear, wielding the Crimson Sky Blade, cutting down traitors by the dozen.
Yet at the final moment… he was betrayed.
Stabbed in the back by the one he trusted most—Mu Qingshang, the Moon Orchid Saintess—his heart shattered before his body did.
He had died with regret burning in his chest.
But instead of vanishing into nothingness, he had returned—to the mortal world, seventeen years before it all began.
He had been given another chance.
Hmph. Celestial Emperors, Elder Venerables, and you, Mu Qingshang… wait and see. One day, I will return to the heavens and bury you all in flame.
…
"Jiang Chen? Are you really okay? You're not… brain damaged or something, right?" Lin Yuechan's voice broke through his thoughts again.
Her worried gaze brought him back to the present.
Lin Yuechan.
His fiancée in this life.
In his previous life, she died at twenty-three—long before he realized how much she meant to him.
Now, looking at her tearful eyes and young face, he pulled her into his arms without hesitation.
"Yuechan," he whispered, "in this life… I swear I'll protect you. No matter what happens."
"Ahh! Jiang Chen, are you crazy?!" Lin Yuechan pushed him away in shock, her face flushed bright red.
He froze.
Right. It was 2007. She was only seventeen now, and they were barely close.
Seventeen winters ago, his mother—carrying a sick infant Jiang Chen—had helped deliver Lin Yuechan in a snow-covered alley during a hospital blackout. The Lin family never forgot the kindness, and soon after, an engagement was arranged between the two children.
But five years ago, Jiang Chen's parents died in a factory explosion. With no one left, he was taken in by the Lin family.
And Lin Yuechan?
She never liked him.
She believed he stole her parents' attention, and when she learned about the engagement, she protested it at every turn. For years, she tried to drive him out—mocking, arguing, ignoring.
But Jiang Chen never left.
Five years of silent endurance.
"Are you faking this whole thing?" Yuechan narrowed her eyes suspiciously, still catching her breath.
Jiang Chen gave her a clueless expression.
"If not… how the heck did you go from dying to laughing like a lunatic?!"
Before she could finish, Jiang Chen slapped his forehead dramatically and flopped back on the bed.
"Ahh… I feel dizzy again…"
Lin Yuechan's eyes twitched. She clenched her small fists and punched him right in the chest.
"You idiot! You scared me to death just now!" she screamed, nearly crying again.
"Next time, I'll really run you over, I swear!"