Strangely enough, strands of black thread hung down, each accompanied by faint, miserable screams, transforming into clusters of light that gathered near Young Man's body without moving.

...Drunken revelry, a world of a thousand wonders...

The endless darkness before his eyes never dissipated, until a piercing ray of light shone through the slit of Edward Clark's eyes, with scenes from his life flashing by in reflection.

The earthquake at the moment of death, the wanton days at university, his hometown in his youth, the childhood sweetheart from his early years, and finally, his mother's tear-streaked face, frozen in time. He wanted to speak, but his mouth could no longer move...

He had thought death was the end, but unexpectedly, it was endless darkness.

Cold, dark, painful—his soul, parched with thirst, shattered into fragments, drifting as remnants in the underworld. This was the fate of countless mortal souls.

He did not know when, but one fragment gained a stroke of fortune and awakened. Sensing the presence of other soul shards, he managed to gather three pieces together, briefly regaining his consciousness. He did not wish to recall the days that followed.

He had no idea how many years passed as he groped through endless darkness, sensing, searching, striving to reclaim his soul. Guided by the resonance of the soul fragments, he ceaselessly gathered the pieces of himself in the dark.

Awakening, confusion, wandering the underworld—thanks to the gradual restoration of his soul, he was finally able to resist the urge to lose himself. To reach this point, he had struggled bitterly in the lowest depths of the underworld for hundreds of years.

A complete soul was only the first step. The underworld was layered and treacherous, and the road home was unimaginably distant.

The souls of the damned could hardly attain sainthood. Though he longed to see the truth of himself and the universe, the path was rough and endless, bristling with thorns, seemingly without end.

But then, one day, even the many layers of the underworld and hell could not withstand the descent of endless moonlight. The underworld was ceaselessly purified, and the rules and essence of billions of years vanished like smoke and clouds.

This power was unimaginably vast, impossible to resist. A thousand layers of hell, ten thousand shadowy cities—within moments, most of the underworld was purified, and the Wheel of Reincarnation shattered.

Seizing the opportunity, he leapt into the soon-to-be-broken Wheel of Reincarnation. Upon entering, he seemed to glimpse the final scene of that distant world.

Brilliant light rained down, covering the boundless heavens and earth, spanning all of time, and the arriving divine radiance annihilated everything...

Then began a long journey. The gray-black sky seemed endless, but before he could recall much more, the tiny points of light outside his body, like fireflies, gradually merged into him.

Each little point of light brought with it a fragment of memory.

This was a Young Man named Edward Clark, born into an ordinary peasant family. Life was poor, and he helped his parents with work from an early age. At just seven, he was entrusted to Charles Bennett.

In his memories, he clearly felt the helpless sigh of Old Priest: "...His aptitude is barely passable, his fate not high, but I can't find anyone better."

Then came learning, literacy, cultivation... Each memory was vivid and distinct, but with every one he absorbed, his head throbbed with pain, as if it would split open...

In a haze, countless memories constantly reassembled, forming a new soul. Moments later, the sphere of light was fully absorbed, the tortoise shell sank into his brow, and his consciousness once again plunged into darkness.

He did not know how much time had passed before he awoke again, and Young Man finally became clear-headed.

"It's a bit cold!" Upon waking, that was the first thing he felt. He shivered so hard his teeth chattered, his head ached as if it would burst, and his mind was still muddled. For a moment, he had no idea where he was.

Panting, he instinctively got up and pushed open the door, only to freeze in place.

After the rain, the sky had cleared. The courtyard was bathed in brilliant sunlight, dappling the corridor. Taking a deep breath, he felt the fresh air fill his lungs.

He stared blankly for a moment, then gazed toward the foot of the mountain.

He saw a village nestled there, with only two or three hundred households. Sunlight spilled over the staggered rooftops, casting the entire village in a peaceful and harmonious light.

Suddenly, tears streamed down his face.

Decades of life in the mortal world, centuries of struggle in the underworld—he had thought he had forgotten what it felt like to be alive. But upon returning to the world of the living, he realized that the breeze, the sunlight, the heartbeat—these were all deeply etched into his soul, never forgotten for even a moment.

Just then, the sound of a young girl's chanting drifted from the main hall. As the sound reached him, his whole body trembled, and a surge of memories crashed into his soul, making his head feel as if it would split open.

Was this the final resistance of the body's original owner?

Young Man smiled, but the pain twisted his smile into a grimace. He staggered back a few steps, leaned against the door, closed his eyes, and silently resisted.

After struggling in the underworld for hundreds of years, the thing he feared least was this kind of soul backlash. His soul had once been utterly shattered, yet he had managed to reassemble it—what was this little resistance to him?

Two streams of memories surged into his mind like tides, his breathing quickened, and he underwent another, and perhaps the most important, reassembly after his rebirth.

This body was called Edward Clark, originally a disciple of Charles Bennett, the master of Dayan Temple. He now had a junior sister as his companion, whose name was Alice Bennett.

Edward Clark had been an outer disciple of Chengping Dao. Some days ago, this body, feeling his cultivation had made progress, went deep into the mountains to gather herbs. Unexpectedly, he was swatted away by a demon beast. The beast, finding his flesh lacking in spiritual energy, did not eat him, but flung him deeper into the mountains. His junior sister later found him and brought him back, leaving him in this state.