Chapter 0001: An Unbelievable Rebirth

Splash!

The calm surface of the water was suddenly disturbed by a flurry of urgent splashes. A youthful face, still bearing traces of innocence, anxiously emerged from beneath the water.

Steadying himself, the boy shook his head, droplets flying everywhere, his eyes still wide with lingering fear and a hint of confusion as he looked around.

"What the hell is this place?"

That question had barely flashed through his mind when, in the next instant, his eyes widened in shock, staring fixedly at the water's surface as if he'd seen a ghost.

The water gradually calmed, reflecting a thin, youthful face.

"When did I become so young and handsome?" Edward Benson was completely dumbfounded. The face reflected in the water didn't belong to him at all!

This face looked to be about thirteen or fourteen, with well-defined features and delicate brows—a total heartthrob by modern standards.

But at this moment, Edward Benson had no interest in admiring a face that wasn't even his.

He remembered that before this, he had followed his grandfather's dying wish to search through an ancestral scroll in the old family house in the countryside. By some strange twist of fate, the old house had caught fire, the flames spreading with unbelievable speed. By the time he realized it, the fire had already engulfed him.

At the very instant the flames consumed him, the ancestral scroll in his hands seemed to undergo a phoenix-like rebirth, emitting a light even more dazzling than the fire, swallowing him up together with the flames.

That bizarre scene should have been Edward Benson's final memory in life.

Yet, to his utter astonishment, he was somehow still alive.

"Reborn from fire, resurrected in water! Am I dreaming?"

Edward Benson was full of suspicion, but soon realized something was off. To his surprise, he found that there was a remnant memory lingering in his mind.

"This body really isn't mine..."

This young body had indeed belonged to someone else before, and the original owner's name was also Edward Benson; and the world he was in now was anything but simple—completely different from the Earth of his previous life. Here, martial cultivation reigned supreme, strength was worshipped above all, and "power determines destiny" was taken to the extreme.

"He earned a spot to further his studies at the Yin-Yang Academy, only to have it forcibly taken away by his family and given to a more prominent direct descendant! The young man couldn't take the blow and drowned himself in the lake! Sigh... I guess I got lucky."

After Edward Benson finished merging with the remnant memory, he was able to piece things together. The shock of surviving disaster slowly settled.

A new world, a new identity, new challenges—he realized that in this world of the strong preying on the weak, where oppression was everywhere, just surviving at the bottom of the food chain was a luxury.

"Looks like there's no going back to Earth!"

Edward Benson sighed softly, forcing himself to cut off his chaotic thoughts, reining in his wandering gaze, and preparing to get ashore. But as his eyes swept across the water, Edward Benson discovered that his eyesight was now at least ten times sharper than in his previous life. He could see the water's surface at least five hundred meters away, where strange bubbles were rising.

The bubbles grew more numerous, sending out ripples.

Suddenly, the water was violently parted, as if a giant fish was breaking through the surface.

In the next moment, a scene Edward Benson could never have imagined, a vision of breathtaking beauty, struck his senses with overwhelming force.

What emerged from the water was not a giant fish, but a young girl! A face of unparalleled beauty, a body of exquisite perfection—something Edward Benson had never seen in his previous life—appeared before his eyes without warning.

Eyes as brilliant as the stars, a high, elegant nose, delicate red lips—together forming a face of peerless beauty, now adorned with sparkling droplets, like a water spirit rising from the lotus, so beautiful it took his breath away.

The most fatal part was, beneath that stunning face, a slender neck outlined a gorgeous collarbone, and below that, a purple sheer one-piece dress, which, soaked through, accentuated her astonishing figure. The girl was being carried along by the waves, drifting up and down, seemingly unconscious.

"Good heavens, are people in this world all this good-looking?" This unbelievable scene nearly made Edward Benson have a nosebleed.

The thought of "avert your eyes from impropriety" hadn't even had time to surface before Edward Benson sensed that something was wrong. After surfacing, the stunning girl was unable to swim, and in the blink of an eye, she sank again.

Then, Edward Benson heard the sound of someone gulping down water.

Drowning?

In his previous life, Edward Benson was not the type to stand by and watch someone die. Instinctively, he swam over as fast as he could.

It had to be said, this body's athletic ability was ten times greater than before; the several hundred meters were covered in just a few breaths.

Without time to think, Edward Benson grabbed the girl from behind and lifted her out of the water.