The First Breath of Another Life

Pain.

This was the very first thing that he had felt.

It was dull and heavy, like his bones were being crushed from within. His chest burned as if filled with fire and ice at once. For a brief moment, he believed that Heaven had lied and dragged him straight into another hell.

Air quickly began to rush into his lungs, sucking a ragged breath and coughing violently. The sensation of breathing felt alien to him, each inhale scraping his throat, each exhale feeling weak and fragile.

His eyelids fluttered open, a dim, cracked ceiling entering his vision. Wooden beams, darkened by age, smoke and rot. The scent of mold and straw filled his nose. Cold air brushed against his bare skin.

Was this a room? No, it was a shack.

His fingers twitched, thin, small and weak.

He slowly lifted his hand into view; it was covered in grime, the skin pale and no longer covered in callouses. This hand was not the hand of a Heaven Defier who had torn countless Dao Lords apart.

This was rather the hand of a weak boy.

"So it succeeded."

His voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. The sound startled him, being higher than he expected, lacking the authority of numerous centuries.

Memories flooded his mind.

Heaven's execution.
The tribulation
The burning soul of his.
The collapse of time.
His True Past.

He closed his eyes, letting the torrent of memories settle within his body. The memories of this body merged with his own. A poor village, an alcoholic father and a mother who died from illness. A childhood of hunger and humiliation.

This was the starting point.

The beginning of everything.

"Body Refinement...." he murmured.

His current cultivation was nothing. Not even the first step on the ladder he had once climbed to the pinnacle of. His Dantian was empty. His meridians were narrow and clogged. This new body of his could barely hold a thread of Qi.

Yet he remained calm, his mind in a state of serenity.

Because he knew what was going to happen next.

Suddenly, a sharp pain stabbed into his chest.

He frowned.

This wasn't a physical attack, rather a pressure.

Something vast brushed past him.

Heaven.

Fate.

The moment that his soul has regressed into the past, it had realised.

A ripple passed through his consciousness, faint but also unmistakable, like eyes opening somewhere far beyond the firmament.

His lips curved slightly.

"So you still remember me?"

He slowly sat up, his body trembling from effort, sweat soaking into the thing cloth beneath him. This new body was weak and pathetic. If a random mortal struck him now, there was a high chance of him dying.

Yet he still bore a smile on his face.

"In three days," he said quietly to himself, recalling the future, "the Black River Sect will arrive to recruit disciples."

In his previous life, he had been rejected.

Not because he lacked talent, but because a destined child had taken his place.

That child would then go onto to become a world-renowned Core Formation expert.

This time....

His eyes grew cold.

"I'll take everything you were meant to have."

Outside the shack, the wind howled furiously.

Above the clouds, Heaven observed, feeling uneasy for the first time in countless years.

That sensation did not come from fear, nor instinct, but from centuries of experience. Heaven did not panic without reason. It did not rage without reason. It did not hesitate without reason. If it hesitated, then something had already slipped beyond its grasp.

He slowly exhaled.

Each breath was shallow, weak and painfully mortal. But it was real.

The body was alive.

He lowered his gaze to his chest. Each rise and fall of his breathing sent a dull ache through his ribs. He was malnourished and overworked, on the brink of collapse. If this body were to be pushed any harder, it would break long before any cultivation ever began.

This was unacceptable.

He steadied himself and sat back down on the edge of his bed. Each plank creaking beneath his weight. That sound, so small and fragile, set him in his place more than any Dao ever had.

This was his reality.

Not the shattered heavens, not the void of tribulation, but a rotting shack, a weak body, and a future still unwritten.

His memories aligned fully.

This village lay at the edge of Black River Territory, it was isolated and forgotten. In the previous life, a body had been taken into the sect, whilst he had been discarded without a second glance.

That boy would later rise to Core Formation.

Later, to Nascent Soul.

Later still, he would stand out amongst the ranks of those who hunted him.

This time, he vowed the outcome would change.

Closing his eyes, information surfaced one piece at a time. The methods of testing, the preferences, the unannounced requirements. The spirit stone hidden beneath the altar.

Even the exact moment they would arrive.

A faint smile appeared on his lips.

Heaven remembered him, a problem but also an advantage.

It's gaze was not omnipotent, relying on patterns, destiny and probability. As long as he acted within the gaps, moments which Heaven believed to be irrelevant, he could move unseen.

That was how he had survived before.

That was how he would survive again.

A sudden wave of dizziness washed over him, vision turning blurry. He reached out, steadying himself against the wall. This body had limits, and they were strict.

Too strict.

He could not cultivate yet. Forcing Qi into this body now would tear his meridians to shreds. He needed preparation, food, rest and time.

Three days.

He lay back down slowly, controlling his breathing, each motion deliberate.

Outside, footsteps passed by the shack. Someone coughing. A door closing. Ordinary sounds and ordinary lives.

None of them knew what had returned to this world.

Above the clouds, the Heavenly Dao observed and scanned, finding nothing.

Only a weak mortal boy lying in a broken shack.

And that was exactly how he wanted it.

Heaven knew his soul came back, but not where it came back.

He started at the ceiling, being in a state of tranquility.

Survive today.
Prepare tomorrow.
Steal fate the day after.

The path to Immortality had already failed once.

So this time

He would walk a different one.