Chương 2: The City Lord's Son Strives (Part 1)

After Su Chen died, he found himself in a strange, pitch-black space.

"Damn it! That old dog of the Xu family actually had such fortune!" Recalling Xu Ba's final words, Su Chen burned with resentment. The city lord's breakthrough to the Spirit Vein Realm had seemed all but guaranteed. Yet the Xu family had broken through first. Such was heaven's will; fate played cruel tricks. Just as the Xu family ancestor had said, if the city lord had advanced first, it would have been the Su family storming the Xu compound instead.

"Someone from the Su family betrayed me!" If anyone could have seen Su Chen's face in that moment, they would have found it as black as coal. Those sent away were either his direct descendants or his sworn brothers who had faced life and death alongside him. But Su Chen had no time to dwell on betrayal now. His long-awaited cheat—the system he had yearned for across a full century—had finally arrived. After death. How perfectly ironic. Su Chen turned his gaze toward the cheat. It was a book.

With just one glance, three words surfaced in his mind:"Reverse Fate Scripture" It radiated an eternal, majestic glow and looked extraordinarily extraordinary. Su Chen picked it up and began to read. The first page read: [In your first life, you were a reckless youth who committed many mistakes. After leaving home, you endured countless hardships, fought your way through the mercenary world, rose to a position of power, founded a family, became an ancestor, and left your mark upon this world. Though you perished, legends of you still circulate in Lofty Mountain City. Your life was, in its way, splendid.] [Evaluation: Three Stars(White)] [Reward: 30 Reverse Fate Points] [Please allocate your Reverse Fate Points and proceed to your second life.] A prompt appeared before Su Chen. [Talent: 0 (+)] [Comprehension: 0 (+)] [Family Background: 0 (+)] [Dao Heart: 5] [Note: Reverse Fate Points may be used immediately or saved for the next life. After each life ends, all attributes except Dao Heart will reset to zero.] Su Chen understood at once. This was his cheat. With enough Reverse Fate Points, he could defy heaven and rewrite his destiny in the lives to come. Su Chen spoke in a low voice: "Xu Ba… Xu family! The grudge of my Su clan is far from settled." If he had truly died, the past would be written off. But he still lived. A blood feud of clan extermination could not go unavenged.

Without hesitation, Su Chen poured all thirty Reverse Fate Points into the attributes. Talent +15 Comprehension +10 Family Background +5 Having cultivated for an entire lifetime, Su Chen knew the rules well. In the early stages, fast cultivation required superior talent. In the later stages, breaking through bottlenecks demanded profound comprehension. Without talent in the beginning, there would be no resources. Without resources, there would be no later stages.

That was why he invested an extra five points into talent. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. A blinding white light flashed. Su Chen entered his second life. In Northwind City, a handsome young man stood frozen in front of the mirror, staring at his own reflection in disbelief.

"Damn it! You finally woke up at seventeen? Couldn't you have come a little earlier?" Su Chen felt deeply exasperated. If the memories had awakened even one year sooner, he could have accomplished so much more—taken the entrance exams for the top martial academies, applied to the premier sects. In this life, his status was excellent: the son of Northwind City's lord. Su Chen had already braced himself to live like a workhorse, only to discover he had been reborn into a privileged official family.

The city lord of Northwind City was named Jiang Li. In this life, Su Chen had become Jiang Chen. The good news was that he remained in the Heavenly Wind Kingdom. Only twenty years had passed since the destruction of the Su family in his previous life. The Xu family's ancestor was still alive. Su Chen decided that a grudge he could not settle in his last life could just as well be avenged in this one.

"Young Master Jiang Chen, the lord wishes to speak with you." A petite maid in a pale yellow dress, her round face adorably childlike, hurried over with small, quick steps. This was Su Chen's personal maid in his current life. He nodded and followed her to meet his father of this lifetime. In the spacious hall, Jiang Li had already instructed the servants to prepare a meal.

A tall, stern-looking middle-aged man and a graceful woman dressed in a moon-white silk skirt, her dark hair pinned up with a single jade hairpin, sat waiting for him. When Su Chen saw them, a warm smile spread across his face. He bowed respectfully.

"Greetings, Father. Greetings, Mother." Wang Hanyu immediately pulled him over.

"You silly child, come and sit. There's no need for so much formality at home." Su Chen sat down obediently. Jiang Li spoke first.

"Eat now. We'll talk after the meal." Su Chen finished his food quietly. Only then did Jiang Li explain why he had summoned him.

"Chen'er, you have already reached the peak of the ninth layer of Spirit Awakening. Breaking through to Spirit Gathering is only a step away. This Spirit Gathering Pill may give you the push you need." After the meal, Jiang Li took out an exquisite case containing a single pill—the Spirit Gathering Pill. One such pill could help a cultivator at the peak of Spirit Awakening advance directly to the Spirit Gathering Realm. Only the greatest powers knew how to refine it.

Not only was it exorbitantly expensive, but even money alone could not guarantee one could be obtained. Though Jiang Li was a city lord and a Spirit Vein Realm expert, acquiring even a single Spirit Gathering Pill had not been easy. Su Chen felt a genuine wave of gratitude. Three days later, he successfully broke through to the Spirit Gathering Realm. He was still only seventeen. In his previous life, after leaving his family, it had taken him until twenty-five to reach this stage.

Now he had arrived eight years earlier. The future looked bright. Buoyed by his breakthrough, Su Chen returned to Soaring Clouds Martial Academy in high spirits. Though Soaring Clouds Martial Academy could not compare to the two supreme academies, it still ranked among the top ten in the Heavenly Wind Kingdom. His advancement to Spirit Gathering at seventeen caused quite a stir upon his return. In the eyes of most, a seventeen-year-old Spirit Gathering cultivator already qualified as a genius.

Even in a place like Soaring Clouds Martial Academy, where talents abounded, only a small handful could match that achievement. Su Chen entered the inner courtyard ahead of schedule and chose an elder as his master. The elder he selected was Jiang Xiangyang, a seventh-layer Spirit Vein expert—four layers higher than his father, Jiang Li. Jiang Xiangyang was a slovenly old man, but because they shared the same surname, he accepted Su Chen as his disciple and began to guide him.

In this way, Su Chen gained another powerful backer. That evening, at the urging of his friends, Su Chen hosted a banquet to celebrate both his entry into the inner courtyard and his successful apprenticeship under Elder Jiang Xiangyang. The road had not been easy, after all. His close friends nearly beat him for bragging. To them, Su Chen's life was nothing short of cheating. A city lord for a father, Spirit Gathering at seventeen, inner courtyard admission, and now a direct disciple of Elder Jiang Xiangyang.

If this wasn't the life of a winner, what was?

"You don't understand. You really don't understand anything." Su Chen merely shook his head. How could they possibly comprehend the hardship he had endured to reach this point? Even if that hardship belonged to his previous life. After leaving the restaurant under a hazy moon, a sudden chill ran through Su Chen's body. He had spotted a familiar face. A face that carried the shadow of an old enemy. It belonged to the Xu family.

"Li Ming, do me a favor." Su Chen looked earnestly at the drunken man beside him. Li Ming, seeing the gravity in Su Chen's expression, sobered up instantly.

"I knew you were faking it!" Su Chen glared at him, irritation flaring. Li Ming gave an awkward laugh. It wasn't that he didn't want to help—back at the table, if he hadn't pretended to be drunk, he might have ended up dead in that restaurant.

"You were pretending too," Li Ming muttered under his breath. Su Chen let it slide. In his mercenary days, that amount of alcohol had been nothing more than water to him. For now, though, he could not afford to reveal too many abnormalities.

"Help me investigate someone." Su Chen pointed toward the young man who bore such a striking resemblance to his old foe. The youth turned around and, catching Su Chen's gaze, offered a faint smile.