"Hah… ugh… fuck…"
In an inconspicuous, dimly lit cottage with cracked wooden walls and a faint smell of smoke, Zhiran woke up, gasping for breath, sweat soaking his hair and clothes.
The cottage was utterly ordinary; besides a futon placed at the center, there wasn't even a mouse anywhere.
"...Where am I?"
Finding himself in such an ordinary yet familiar room, all alive, Zhiran shouted in shock.
"Wait… is this my hand?"
Then, when he saw his hand and his body, he was even more shocked, as they felt far too young for his age.
"And my realm… I am only at the Third Stage of Qi Condensation?"
Dropping the realm directly from the Early Stage of Gold Core to the early stage of Qi Condensation, this might be what people call falling from heaven to hell.
The feeling of weakness was one hell of an experience.
Everything was so bizarre that, for a moment, Zhiran thought he was hallucinating. He even wondered if maybe this was an effect of the afterlife.
Just now, he died heroically by detonating his own Gold Core, and now he was suddenly in such a place, in a young body.
Of course, he was puzzled.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Just when Zhiran was confused and trying to make heads or tails of his situation, a violent knock on the door snapped him out of his reverie.
The knock was so strong and forceful that he thought it would break at any moment.
He even saw splinters of wood burst from the door, scattering across the floor as the knock rattled the entire frame.
"Mo Zhiran, I know you're inside. Don't hide like a mouse; come out. Brother Wu Kang wants to meet you."
Then came the cold voice of a young man, clearly irritated.
From the movements, Zhiran could already sense that there were three people outside his room, one of whom was banging on the door loudly.
"Wu Kang?"
However, when Zhiran heard the name the young man said, he felt such a jolt of surprise that he immediately stood up on his feet reflexively.
'Wu Kang? Brother of Wu Zhen?'
Only now did he realize why he felt this utterly ordinary room was familiar, causing his eyes to widen unconsciously and his heart to beat violently.
'Am I… am I inside the Divine Cauldron Sect? Is this my outer sect's residence?'
He mumbled in a low voice, clearly in disbelief at this absurd situation.
Because if he was really in the Divine Cauldron Sect, and if this room was clearly his residence at the outer sect, then his young body, his low realm, and the situation outside the door clearly indicated one thing loud and clear:
'Am I… reborn?'
BANG!
The moment Zhiran realized what had happened to him, the weak door finally couldn't withstand the furious pounding and shattered with a loud bang.
Wooden splinters, large and small, flew across the room, striking Zhiran's body and causing pain.
"You bastard! You're indeed inside. Are you hiding from us?"
Then came the shout of a lean young man with a sharp nose, pointing his finger at him in anger.
He stood beside a burly youth, whose broad shoulders and thick neck made him look like he could crush a tree trunk with ease, while another young man flanked his side.
Clearly, the one in the middle was Wu Kang.
"Are you the brother of Mo Tianyu?"
Once inside the room, Wu Kang, whose nose was almost pointed to the sky with his proud look, asked Zhiran in a haughty manner.
From how he carried himself and the look of disdain aimed at him, it was clear that he had come here to cause trouble.
'...Isn't this the same conflict I had when I just joined the Divine Cauldron Sect?'
However, to their astonishment, Zhiran didn't care about them at all and was busy musing over things. His heart was already beating violently, clearly in excitement.
If he remembered correctly, when he first joined the Divine Cauldron Sect, he was assigned to the outer courtyard just like his Clan Brother Mo Tianyu.
Only, his talent was too poor, so he was thrown to the outskirts, unlike Tianyu.
Still, he managed to reach the Third Level of Qi Condensation realm within one year. Although it was significantly slower than other geniuses, he was at least performing above average.
But everything changed when this incident happened with Wu Kang, or rather, due to his brother Wu Zhen.
And all of this was just because Mo Tianyu stopped this guy Wu Kang when he was bullying a girl.
"Are you sleeping? Didn't you hear what Brother Wu Kang asked you?"
Seeing that Zhiran was clearly ignoring them, the lean young man with a sharp nose suddenly got angry.
Moreover, just from the look, he clearly wanted to impress this Wu guy.
So, without even an order, he directly came to Zhiran's side, directly kicking his abdomen with extreme precision.
The swirling, dense spiritual energy around his ankle clearly suggested that the guy was at the Third Realm of Qi Condensation, just like him.
"Let me wake you up."
The young man snarled with a vicious gaze, clearly aiming to make him kneel before Wu Kang.
"Bang!"
"Ugh…"
"Fuck… it hurts…"
Unfortunately, what he struck wasn't Zhiran's abdomen but the large, jagged splinter in Zhiran's hand.
The sharp point drove straight through him, blood spraying as the impact left him instantly incapacitated.
"What?"
The incident was so sudden that before Wu Kang and the other young man could react, Zhiran had already thrust the wooden splinter forward, its jagged point piercing flesh in an instant.
"NO… Ugh…"
But Zhiran didn't stop there.
The moment the lean young man lost his balance and collapsed toward the ground, Zhiran's leg shot forward with extreme speed, his kick slamming into the man's head and hurling him through the wall.
"Bang!"
Suddenly, a loud crack echoed in the empty room, followed by a volley of blood as the young man crashed, fainting on the spot.
"What the fuck are you doing?"