Volume One: The Youth Reborn

Chapter One: Reborn as a Youth After Falling Off a Cliff

Burning Town, located at the westernmost edge of the Zhen Tian Kingdom, sits beside the Absolute Nether Forest, built against the towering Myriad Fathoms Mountain. Across the vast Ancient Nether Continent, there are countless small towns, as numerous as grains of sand by the sea; Burning Town is just one of them.

As early winter arrives, the nights on Myriad Fathoms Mountain are bitterly cold, and the ground is covered with a thick layer of frost.

"Kill! Kill! Kill! Exterminate all the humans hiding in Myriad Fathoms Mountain."

"Leave not a single one! We must find that thing—it must be on one of the humans."

"Humans are the mortal enemies of our three races! If you see a human, kill on sight! That thing is a divine treasure of the world and must never fall into human hands."

Dong dong...

In the cold, misty forest, terrifying figures dart about: skeleton soldiers of the Bone Clan, white bones gleaming, moving as swift as the wind; groups of mist ghosts from the Ghost Clan, their forms like fog, howling as they scatter; and snake demons from the Demon Clan, with human faces and snake bodies, their enchanting beauty alluring, yet hissing with forked tongues.

Wherever these monsters pass, the surroundings are littered with countless severed limbs and bodies, rivers of blood flowing—all human corpses.

"There are humans on the north side of the mountain." A mist ghost looked toward the north face of Myriad Fathoms Mountain, ghostly light flickering in its eyes, and shouted harshly.

A group of terrifying figures darted swiftly toward the north side of Myriad Fathoms Mountain.

The north side of Myriad Fathoms Mountain is a ten-thousand-foot cliff, the mountain wall steep and sheer. If an ordinary person were to fall, they would surely be smashed to pieces.

On a rock at the edge of the northern cliff, Edward Carter, dressed in a gray robe, his hair white as snow, sat cross-legged, listening to the chilling cries echoing from afar. His expression was calm, neither sad nor joyful.

Atop the mountain in the dead of night, the cold was intense. Frost covered Edward Carter's white hair, and his eyes held a detached indifference, as if he had seen through the vicissitudes of the world. Though his aged face was lined with exhaustion, the sword-like brows slanting toward his temples hinted at the heroic spirit he must have possessed in his youth.

"Bone Clan, Ghost Clan, Demon Clan—the three races have plagued the Ancient Nether Continent for thirty years, slaughtering hundreds of millions of humans. How hateful! I, Edward Carter, am but a 'mediocre man,' having accomplished nothing in sixty years, unable even to protect the ruins of my homeland." Edward Carter's fists clenched tightly, hatred flickering in his eyes. His body trembled, and his breathing grew rapid.

Looking at the faint outline of the distant town—the ruins of Burning Town—Edward Carter's heart surged with emotion. Memories of his sixty years of hardship flooded his mind like drifting clouds.

...

Born into the Qin family, one of the three great families of Burning Town, Edward Carter was the grandson of the Qin family patriarch, Richard Carter. From a young age, he displayed extraordinary talent in cultivation and was recognized as a martial arts prodigy in Burning Town.

At the age of six, he had already cultivated his true energy to the ninth level of Martial Disciple, breaking a century-old record in Burning Town and earning the title of the town's number one genius. But after that, misfortune struck. For reasons unknown, Edward Carter's cultivation stagnated and he could make no further progress.

As time passed, the aura of genius faded, and he became the subject of ridicule.

...

At the age of fourteen.

A calamity befell the Qin family. The patriarch's branch clashed with another branch of the family, and Edward Carter was inevitably drawn into the conflict.

While hunting in Myriad Fathoms Mountain, he was ambushed and gravely injured by members of the rival branch, then thrown off the cliff into a cave below. Though he survived the ordeal, his dantian was shattered, his limbs broken, and most of his meridians severed.

Afterward, his grandfather Henry Carter did everything to save him, but his dantian and meridians could not be restored. From then on, Edward Carter became a "mediocre man."

"Mediocre man"—this is what the Ancient Nether Continent calls the crippled.

...

At the age of twenty.

That night, Mount Azure Lotus on the Ancient Nether Continent collapsed, the sky was torn asunder, and a giant palm descended from above, its ferocity like a prison, shattering mountains and splitting the earth. Half of Zhen Tian Kingdom's territory was destroyed, and Burning Town was consumed by endless black flames.

In the sky, a peerless beauty with a Vermilion Phoenix mark on her forehead wielded a ten-foot jade halberd, her might shaking the heavens. In the end, her delicate body bathed in blood, she carried him away from the brink of death.

"Brother Mo, if you were not a cripple, and could fight side by side with Little Grace to save the family from disaster, how wonderful that would be." The young woman, eyes brimming with tears, drifted away.

Edward Carter knelt among the mountains, grief and anger in his chest, howling at the sky, shaking heaven and earth.

...

At the age of thirty.

Chaos engulfed the Ancient Nether Continent. The Demon, Ghost, and Bone Clans joined forces, waging war across the land. Humanity was in peril, and Edward Carter became a fugitive.

At the ruins of Mount Azure Lotus, peerless geniuses from all races fought for treasures. Amidst the chaos, Edward Carter survived by chance and, through a twist of fate, saved a peerless swordmaster.

The Xiao family's William Clark, born with a sword soul, her three-foot sword stirring the heavens, a beauty like a sword fairy!

Such a peerless woman fell in love with a cripple like him. Her sword soul became flawed, bringing upon her a ten-year sword calamity, and she vanished from the world.

"Mo, do not feel guilty. Being with you, I have no regrets in this life." Before she faded away, the beauty smiled sweetly, her fragrance dissipating as she perished.

In the swirling snow, Edward Carter held the gradually cooling body of his beloved, blood pouring from his mouth, his heart racked with pain.

...

At the age of sixty.