The meridians were blocked, all the muscles in the body were slack, and the joints were stiff...

How did this guy even survive? This body is really weak! What a mess! Ethan Brooks muttered to himself, but it didn’t matter—as long as the meridians weren’t shattered, as long as I have three, five, or seven years, this master will once again stand at the pinnacle of the world!

Having made up his mind, Ethan Brooks finally remembered that he seemed to be in a completely unfamiliar world!

No matter how you looked at it, this place was nothing like the Earth he knew! Here, he was truly all alone, knowing nothing, understanding nothing! What are the rules of this world? What does this world have?

After thinking all this through, even with the psychological fortitude of a cold-blooded assassin and the Evil Lord, he still felt a bit lost.

Looking at the antique furniture and bed, the special clothes on his body that didn’t belong to his own era; the joy of surviving and transmigrating slowly calmed down, replaced by a wave of confusion and anxiety...

So, it’s true... I can live again...

Just as this thought, which should have been exhilarating, surfaced, a flood of loss and pain surged up from deep within. It was a subtle feeling of rootless drifting, making his nose tingle, his eyes sting, and his chest feel tight; Ethan Brooks curled his lips in self-mockery—he, who had almost never shed a tear in his life, nearly cried.

It’s hard to leave my homeland, hard to part with my native soil! I always thought I could be carefree, thought I could let go easily, but when it really happened, when everything became real, I suddenly realized—I can’t let go, I really can’t.

I thought I had no attachments left in this world, but now I realize, I have more than I can count! Most importantly, in this unfamiliar land, I can no longer find that sense of belonging that was mine! A sense of belonging...

Deep down, I will always be an outsider...

Ethan Brooks quietly closed his eyes, gently turned his head, and when no one was looking, a single tear silently slid down...

This was the first tear he had shed in two lifetimes!

A man does not easily shed tears, only because the time for heartbreak has not yet come!

※※※

Staring blankly at the young, almost boyish face in the bronze mirror before him—slightly thin features, thin lips, long eyebrows slanting into the temples, making the eyes look a bit narrow and sharp—Ethan Brooks gave a bitter smile and muttered, “I have to admit, this guy is pretty good-looking, quite delicate, but isn’t he a bit too much of a pretty boy, a bit too effeminate?”

Thinking of his previous life, how imposing and fierce he had been! Though he hadn’t been particularly handsome—his eyes were a bit small and narrow, his nose a bit low, and overall he looked a bit too ordinary—he was a real man! Those pretty boys, even if they had what a man should have, he still looked down on them. Who would have thought, after transmigrating, he’d end up in the body of a standard pretty boy, and a rather beautiful one at that...

“Buddy, was it you who brought me here?” He gently stroked a small pagoda-shaped mark on his left wrist with his right hand, a mark that looked like a tattoo. Ethan Brooks’s face showed a trace of pride. Even though I transmigrated, this thing is still in the hands of a Chinese, and didn’t fall into the hands of those foreign devils!

This pagoda-shaped mark was exactly the same as the exquisite little pagoda that Ethan Brooks had fought so hard for! Although it had now become a small mark on his hand, Ethan Brooks was certain that this was the same little pagoda! He couldn’t explain why, but he just had this feeling in his heart—real and mysterious.

Seeing the only thing that could bring him comfort from his previous life, Ethan Brooks’s heart surged with emotion, though he didn’t even know what kind of feeling it was. But his usual calm nature kept his face expressionless.

Still the same indifference! Still calm!

Suddenly, the little pagoda mark he was gently stroking emitted a hazy yellow light, and then Ethan Brooks suddenly felt dizzy, as if something new had appeared in his mind, and the mark on his hand suddenly disappeared...

“How strange!” Shaking his head, Ethan Brooks clicked his tongue in wonder. This thing really was odd—first it turned from a palm-sized pagoda into a tattoo on his body, and now it had miraculously disappeared. Could this thing really be some legendary immortal treasure?

“Young master, the old master requests your presence.” Just as Ethan Brooks was about to check what had appeared in his mind, a voice suddenly sounded.

“He wants to see me?” Ethan Brooks raised an eyebrow. “What for?” Why should I go just because that old man says so? Does he think I’m his grandson?! He swallowed the words before they came out, suddenly remembering that the old man really was his grandfather—at least, the grandfather of this body...

“This... this servant does not know.” The little girl looked at him in terror, lowered her head, her long lashes fluttering in panic, one foot in front of the other, her small body slightly turned, ready to bolt at any moment...

Chapter Two Ethan Morris Brooks