“What big gift?” Ethan Brooks asked in confusion. After the initial outburst of rage, Ethan Brooks gradually calmed down. In his life, he had spent fifteen years lying in bed. Although things seemed to be improving now, who could say whether he would ever truly stand up again in the end?

　　Rather than continue to suffer, bedridden and dependent on others for every need, it would be better to be freed sooner—better to die early and be reborn early.

　　Oscar Bennett and Harold Bennett exchanged a smile. Harold Bennett reached out a finger and tapped Ethan Brooks on the forehead. A torrent of inexplicable information flooded into Ethan Brooks’s mind. Before he could process it, Oscar Bennett spread his large hand, and a gust of cold wind arose, filled with countless wailing cries. A faint green light appeared in his palm.

　　Oscar Bennett said, “This is ten years of my cultivation as a ghostly deity. Any more and you wouldn’t be able to bear it. It will help your body after you reincarnate.” As he spoke, Oscar Bennett flicked his finger, and the eerie green light entered Ethan Brooks’s body.

　　“Thank you, both of you,” Ethan Brooks said with a cupped-fist salute.

　　After a moment’s thought, Ethan Brooks curiously asked, “Does King Yama often forget to collect people’s souls?”

　　Harold Bennett smacked his lips and said, “Not often, just once in a while.”

　　Ethan Brooks chuckled, “Looks like I’m not alone.”

　　Oscar Bennett sighed deeply, “Little brother, you’re actually lucky. I remember someone who was truly miserable. King Yama forgot to collect his soul for a full eight hundred years. In those many lifetimes, he had several chances to reincarnate as a human, but because of this, he’s still stuck on the animal path, repaying his debts.”

　　“Yeah!” Harold Bennett added with emotion, “I remember his name was Peng Zu!”

　　……

　　The events of his life flashed before Ethan Brooks’s eyes like a lantern show, from birth to death, every detail, making Ethan Brooks feel as if he were in a dream, unreal. He didn’t know how much time had passed before his soul, entering the path of reincarnation, finally grew heavy and began to sink, eventually reaching the bottom.

　　Ringing in his ears, dizziness, a muddled mind—though uncomfortable, Ethan Brooks knew this was a sign that his soul was beginning to merge with this new body.

　　Oscar Bennett and Harold Bennett had told him that because the path of reincarnation connected countless worlds, even they couldn’t know where Ethan Brooks would end up, or even whether he would be reborn as a man or a woman.

　　Please don’t let me be a woman! Ethan Brooks prayed silently. If a man’s soul like his ended up in a woman’s body, he’d rather just die for good.

　　Gradually, the intense discomfort faded a little, but the pain of his soul being torn still felt unbearable. Countless memories belonging to this body surged in, instantly flooding all of Ethan Brooks’s thoughts.

　　Ethan Brooks immediately extracted the most important information and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

　　It’s a man! The body he was merging with was male, and coincidentally, the original name of this body was also Ethan Brooks.

　　It must be fate, Ethan Brooks thought with emotion.

　　Letting his soul and body slowly merge, Ethan Brooks began to organize the flood of new information in his mind.

　　This world was no longer the one he had known. There was no Tang Family Fortress, nor any advanced technology. This world had developed its own civilization.

　　This was a land called the Tiangang Continent. Unlike his previous world, martial arts flourished here. All kinds of sects, clans, and powers, large and small, occupied their own territories and thrived. Even ordinary people practiced martial arts and had a foundation in it. The difference in talent and learning limited their development, but even so, the average lifespan here was much higher than in his old world. It was normal for an ordinary person to live over a hundred years and still be vigorous. Those with some achievements could easily live for several centuries.

　　The place where Ethan Brooks now found himself was the headquarters of a sect within the Li Tang Empire of the Tiangang Continent—Tianxiu Sect.

　　Tianxiu Sect was different from other sects. From the sect leader to the elders to the ordinary disciples, everyone was a woman! There were no men at all. Ethan Brooks had stayed in the sect for some special reason, but would be leaving soon.

　　A sect made up entirely of women was not unheard of on the Tiangang Continent. For example, Cuiwei Workshop and Baohua Hall had the same selection criteria as Tianxiu Sect—women only, no men. But in terms of reputation, Tianxiu Sect was even more famous, perhaps even surpassing the others.

　　The reason was simple. Many years ago, Tianxiu Sect was a renowned sect, with tens of thousands of disciples and countless experts. But after the calamity known as the “Tianxiu Tragedy” more than a decade ago, the sect’s strength was greatly diminished. Enemy forces took advantage of the situation to harass and besiege them several times, causing heavy losses among the disciples, and the sect gradually declined. Today’s Tianxiu Sect was but a shadow of its former glory.

　　Just as Ethan Brooks was merging with these memories, a faint, delicate fragrance suddenly wafted to his nose. It felt as if a woman had leaned close, for a few strands of hair brushed across Ethan Brooks’s cheek, tickling him.