Chapter 1 The Setting Sun

A waning moon hung high in the nine heavens.

Moonlight cascaded down like a waterfall, only to be blocked by a hazy mist, scattering like a gauze curtain draped over the desolate land outside Ding Tian City, a giant beast sprawled across three thousand *li* from east to west.

Wuwu~

A low, plaintive wail lingered in the wind, adding to the desolate scene with the scattered moonlight in the night.

In the darkness, two middle-aged men in gray robes carried a blood-stained, critically injured, and dying youth.

The youth's long hair was stained with blood, his face pale. One hand drooped weakly, dragging on the ground, leaving a long trail of blood as they moved.

The plaintive wailing came from his mouth.

His tongue had been bitten to pieces.

The two carriers moved quickly, their stamina excellent. Soon, they carried the heavily injured youth dozens of *li*, arriving at an even more sinister mass grave.

Everywhere, grave mounds flickered with ghostly fires, the wind howling like the cries of ghosts.

"Young Master Yuan, you are fortunate to have survived. Remember, never have any unrealistic fantasies again."

The gray-robed man in front, slightly shorter, sighed and slowly lowered the youth, whom they carried. "Us ordinary people should accept our fate, lest we harm ourselves and others, bringing disaster to our families."

In the mass grave, few were proper graves. Most were corpses casually wrapped in straw mats and discarded among the weeds and mud.

Before they stopped, there were two straw mats lying discarded.

One was still stained with blood, while the other emitted a strong stench of decay.

"Ah, ah~"

The youth rolled over, staggered forward a step, and fell to the ground. With only one hand and one foot remaining, he could not maintain his balance and crashed heavily to the ground.

Landing on the straw mat, he howled in grief, but with his tongue cut off, he could not utter a single word.

He was in extreme pain, his eyes red with tears. As he cried, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Waste!"

Seeing the youth spit blood, the shorter gray-robed man looked pained, but the other gray-robed man kicked the youth to the ground.

"Yuan Duxiu, you deserve to die, but your parents and the unborn child in your mother's womb did not deserve to be implicated and killed!"

"Pfft~"

Yuan Duxiu spat blood from the kick but seemed unaware, crawling towards the straw mat with a miserable smile, his mouth emitting desperate, painful cries.

"Pity your mother, carrying you for three years, enduring so much hardship, only to suffer the pain of losing her husband and then being implicated in a double death!"

The gray-robed man was still not appeased and wanted to kick him again.

"Old Wang, do you really want to kill him?"

The shorter gray-robed man frowned.

"I really want to kill him."

The gray-robed man named Wang coldly glanced at Yuan Duxiu. "The Yuan family was a benevolent family for a hundred years, yet they gave birth to such a disaster. In just twenty years, the family has declined, and now they are ruined. This kind of scourge only makes rice more expensive!"

His voice was vicious, but he did not strike again.

"He didn't want this either."

The other gray-robed man shook his head.

He said Yuan Duxiu was of average talent, but that was compared to some geniuses. Compared to ordinary people, like himself.

Then he was a genius!

"Ah~ ah~"

Yuan Duxiu seemed oblivious, collapsing on the straw mat, feeling endless pain like poisonous snakes biting at his soul, making him wish he were dead.

Only now did he understand why that 'great enemy' had let him come back after his martial arts were crippled and his hand and foot were severed.

He wanted him to die in despair and pain.

‘Father, mother... and little brother...’

Yuan Duxiu clenched his teeth, his only remaining hand dragging a trail on the ground.

He could not bear to see his parents' corpses exposed in the wilderness...

"Your Yuan family once gave me a meal, so I am sending you here, which is more than enough kindness."

The gray-robed man named Wang glanced at Yuan Duxiu and turned to leave.

Yuan Duxiu had offended too many people. He was taking a huge risk by sending him here. As he said, he had done more than enough.

Watching Yuan Duxiu tremble and dig at the grave soil with one hand, the other shorter gray-robed man also sighed and turned to leave.

It wasn't that he didn't want to help Yuan Duxiu bury his parents properly, but he couldn't. He wasn't alone; he also had parents and children...

......

Viscous,

Slippery,

Narrow,

Confined...

The moment he woke up from the darkness, the surrounding sensations flooded his mind.

At the same time, he grasped the state of the body he was in.

It was a small corpse, completely dead. Its already weak soul had dissipated, leaving only a trace of vitality.

It poured in from the navel.

Unfortunately, this trace of vitality was too weak to allow the small infant to live.

Yes, an infant...

The Da Dao Ji (Grand Dao Record) also did not show any text, because this 'infant' had no future.

He would not be one of the rare posthumous children, but a true double death.

This infant's mother wanted to protect her child until the very end. The infant himself had struggled, wanting to live.

But there were not so many miracles in this world, and he had died after all.

Admirable, regrettable...

The continuation and respect for life stirred a ripple in An Qisheng's heart.

He did not have the means to revive the dead at this time.

The moment he arrived, An Qisheng had already discovered that this Wan Yang World was even more dangerous than the Human Realm.

Because in the depths of his soul, the Da Dao Ji rippled like water, like a joyful leap, seemingly delighted. It was a spontaneous joy after replenishing itself.

Yes, the moment he arrived in the Wan Yang World, he had sensed the existence of the Da Dao Ji fragment.

In this world, if there was no Da Dao Ji master, it meant a Da Dao Ji master had once fallen here. Only then could he sense the danger of this world.

In fact, after experiencing the battle of the Heavenly Will in the Human Realm, he was deeply wary of the world itself. 'Heaven' in its own world was truly almost omnipotent.

With thoughts in his mind, An Qisheng sensed the body.

His divine will flowed through the body like water, stretching out the necrotic flesh and skin.

Although this body was somewhat different from the humans of the Xuan Xing and Human Realm, it was somewhat similar to the human body in the Floating Realm.

But it was only somewhat similar. The differences were as great as the distance between the north and south poles.

"This infant is not yet fully developed, about six months pregnant on Xuan Xing. It has been dead for nine days, a bit troublesome..."

An Qisheng felt a slight headache.

Different worlds have different rules. Resurrecting the dead is not possible in every world.

This Wan Yang World was such a world.

He could vaguely feel the powerful control of this world over the boundary between life and death. This control was not only over the resurrection of the dead, but perhaps also applied to 'lifespan'.

Or 'Heavenly Life'.

In other words, the experts of this world did not live long.

Fortunately, although the infant was dead, there was still a faint trace of vitality.

With this trace of vitality, he could save a lot of trouble. Without it, it would not just be a slight inconvenience.

"There may be some aftereffects, but they can only be remedied later."

An Qisheng's heart was calm.

Having experienced two worlds, he was not indifferent to his own experiences, but he would not be too disturbed either.

All were bodies of flesh and blood.

Old or young, dead or alive, he didn't care much.

Cultivation brought more than just power.

Buzz~

An Qisheng's divine will flowed through the small corpse, capturing that trace of vitality.

Then, he began to stimulate it.

......

Shasha sha~

In the night, with the wind blowing, Yuan Duxiu was alone, dragging his wounded body, digging in the cold, stiff grave soil.

Although it was deep winter, the weather was cold. The graveyard at night was already cold and stiff. Even with tools, it would not be easy for ordinary people to dig a pit.

But the cold, stiff grave soil did not seem to trouble him.

His fingers were sharper than knives. Even though his body was stained with blood and his leg and hand were crippled, he still dug a small pit.

‘Father, mother... unborn little brother...’

Yuan Duxiu supported himself with one hand and one foot, pushing the two straw mats with corpses into the pit, grieving.

At this moment, the faces of his parents seemed to appear before his eyes.

Ding Tian City was the place where the current Tian Ding Emperor rose to power. Although he had moved the capital to 'Tian Jiao City', it was still one of the more prosperous cities in the north.

But because of its special status, no particularly powerful force had settled here, fearing offending the Tian Ding Emperor.

Therefore, small families like the Yuan family could establish themselves in Ding Tian City.

The Yuan family was a small family, with three to five people in each generation. It could not compare to other large families, but it still had status and wealth in Ding Tian City.

Unfortunately, the Yuan family, which had existed for over a hundred years, had now been destroyed by him.

The mansion had been burned to the ground, the former servants and retainers had all been killed, and the elderly grandfather had been killed in the mansion and burned to ashes along with the mansion.

His parents, his unborn little brother who had never seen anything beautiful, had been poisoned and their bodies exposed in the wilderness.

Such great hatred, such great resentment.

Had become his only support for living.

‘If I avenge you, I will come to accompany you. If I cannot avenge you, let me die at the hands of Lin Yanbai, and our family will be reunited...’

Yuan Duxiu kowtowed nine times heavily. Alone, he was no longer afraid of death.

Endless sorrow filled his heart as he made an unforgettable vow, using his one hand to push the dug-up soil, burying his parents.

Shasha~

At this moment, the sound of straw mats and sand rubbing against each other awakened Yuan Duxiu, who was burying his parents.

‘Who?’

Immersed in hatred and great sorrow, Yuan Duxiu suddenly looked up.

The soil was pushed away, and the straw mat was pushed open.

His mother's purplish belly was trembling, as if a bird was about to hatch but lacked the strength.

‘Little, little brother?’

Yuan Duxiu's lifeless eyes lit up like torches.

He suddenly remembered the legends.

According to legend, there were cases of pregnant women dying for several days, and the infant still living!

‘Mother, mother, I, forgive me...’

Yuan Duxiu kowtowed heavily. Then, he carefully reached out his hand. His nails, neither long nor short, trembled slightly before landing on the high, bulging belly.

With a 'chi' sound.

Yuan Duxiu's expression froze on his face, as if he had seen something extremely incredible. He forgot even joy, anger, grief, and sorrow for a moment.

Beneath the split belly was an 'infant' only about half a foot long.

If this was an infant.

"Ah~~"

Yuan Duxiu's only remaining arm trembled, and his mouth, without a tongue, emitted short, incomplete syllables.

The 'infant' beneath the belly had a face like orange peel, a body like rotten wood, white hair and eyebrows, and wrinkles on his forehead.

This, this was not a 'little brother'.

It was clearly a 'grandfather'!

........

ps: A friendly book recommendation, Zhen Feishi's *Lan Ke Qi Yuan*. The great author's book, let's promote it.