The accident came without warning.
A blinding glare split the night as a steel vehicle roared forward. In that instant, his thin body was struck head-on, his bones snapping like brittle branches beneath a falling mountain. Blood scattered into the air, blooming like a crimson flower.
Death arrived too quickly.
Too suddenly.
Within his fading consciousness, a single thought surfaced.
Was this truly the end?
His vision dimmed. His eyelids sank.
As the ancients said, when fate descends, even ghosts cannot escape.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then, light returned.
The world had changed.
This was no longer the realm he once knew. This was a land where cultivators defied the heavens, where strength determined all things, and where life and death were decided with a single thought.
He had been reborn.
Within the Li family, a towering noble clan whose power spread across countless lands. He belonged to its second branch, a lineage neither weak nor supreme.
Yet the name he now carried was not Li.
It was Su Ye.
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Thunder roared like an enraged dragon as storm clouds blanketed the Li estate. Rain poured in sheets, drowning the world in darkness.
Inside a grand chamber, lit only by flickering lanterns,
"Madam has given birth!"
An old nanny stood at the bedside, her aged face lined with deep wrinkles, her gray hair neatly bound. In her trembling hands lay a newborn child.
Her expression slowly stiffened.
A trace of fear crept into her cloudy eyes.
"I... it is a stillborn."
The words fell like a death sentence.
On the bed, Su Ru lay weak and pale. Her delicate features had lost all color, her long black hair disordered and damp with sweat. Despite her frail state, her eyes open with determination.
"N-no... my child..."
Her voice trembled.
"My child!"
Grief surged like a collapsing dam.
At that moment, hurried footsteps approached.
The servants dropped to their knees in unison.
A tall man stepped into the room. His figure was straight as a spear, his sharp eyes scanned the room.
His name was Li Tao, Second Master of the Li family. His presence alone made the air grow heavy.
Beside him stood a middle-aged man in plain robes. His face was calm, his beard long and well-kept, his gaze deep as still water. This was Doctor Chen.
"Where is my child?"
Li Tao's voice was low, yet it pressed upon the room like a mountain.
No one dared to respond.
"Speak! Are all of you mute!?"
"R-replying to Second Master... the child... is stillborn."
Silence.
Then he moved.
Li Tao stepped forward and took the infant into his arms. Without hesitation, spiritual energy surged from his body, flowing into the child like a raging tide.
Li Tao's expression changed drastically. Without hesitation, he rushed forward, snatching the infant into his arms.
Spiritual energy surged from his body, flowing into the child like a rushing tide.
Nothing.
No breath. No heartbeat.
"No… is my first son truly fated to die!?"
His voice dropped, filled with disbelief.
He pushed more energy into the infant, but it vanished without a trace.
Like pouring water into the abyss.
At last, he turned.
"Doctor Chen."
"I understand."
Doctor Chen stepped forward, raising his hand. A gentle stream of spiritual energy flowed from his palm, warm and precise as it examined the infant's body.
Moments passed.
He withdrew his hand.
"This child's life has already been severed."
Li Tao's gaze sharpened.
"There must be a way."
"There is." Doctor Chen paused. "A twelfth rank divine pill."
Li Tao's expression froze.
Such a thing existed only in legends.
"Indeed," Chen Ming replied softly. "To wrest a life from the King of Hell, such matters defy heaven."
Those words settled heavily in the room.
At the bedside, Su Ru struggled to rise but collapsed onto the floor. Her delicate frame trembled, her once refined appearance reduced to utter disarray.
Her fingers trembled as she reached for the child.
"…Is there truly no hope?"
Li Tao closed his eyes briefly, then spoke.
"Su Ru, we can have another child."
Her body stiffened.
Those words were colder than the storm outside.
Time passed.
No one knew how long.
The storm weakened, yet the sorrow within the chamber did not.
Su Ru still held the child in her arms.
His body was cold.
Lifeless.
Beside her, Xiao Lan knelt. She was a young girl with gentle features and reddened eyes, her slender frame shaking as she tried to remain composed.
"Miss… the dead cannot return. If something happens to you as well…"
No response, only silence.
After a long time, her lips finally moved.
"…Help me bury him."
"M-miss…in the ancestral cemetery?"
"No." Her voice was faint. "Bury him among the flowers. I don't want him far from me."
"…Yes, Miss."
The child was buried beneath a plum blossom tree.
Flowers surrounded him.
Peony. Orchid. Chrysanthemum.
Life, placed beside death.
Petals drifted down like silent tears.
The cold wind brushed past Su Ru's pale face, yet it could not numb the ache in her heart.
"…Xiao Lan… do you think he'll be happy here?"
Xiao Lan forced a trembling smile, her eyes glistening.
"He will, Miss… he will surely laugh among the flowers."
Su Ru said nothing.
She only gazed at the falling blossoms and softly recited:
Softly, she recited,
The empty courtyard glows under the cold moon.
Tears lightly fall upon the lonely pillow.
The wind brushes, and flowers fall from their branches.
Calling for my child, I hear their voice only in dreams.
Her voice was quiet.
Like something already broken.
Then,
A cry.
"Wah..."
Su Ru's body froze.
"…Xiao Lan… did you hear that?"
"M-miss… could it be a ghost…?"
"Wah… wah…"
Another cry followed.
Clearer this time.
Her pupils shrank.
Without a word, she rushed forward and fell to the ground. Her hands clawed into the soil, tearing through dirt and stone alike. Blood stained her fingers, yet she did not stop.
The sound grew louder.
Closer.
Until at last,
The chest appeared.
Her hands trembled as she opened it.
Inside,
The child breathed.
"My child..."
Her voice broke completely.
"He is alive..."
Tears flooded her eyes as she pulled him into her embrace.
Behind her, a voice sounded.
"Wife."
Li Tao stood beneath the dim light, his tall figure unmoving. His sharp gaze locked onto the child. While in his hand, a drawn sword gleamed coldly under the storm.
"Husband... our child is alive."
Su Ru turned, hope filling her tear-streaked face.
Then she saw the sword.
Her expression froze.
Li Tao's voice was steady.
"Give him to me."
"Husband…what are you doing?"
Su Ru's voice trembled like the last leaf clinging to a winter branch.
Her delicate hands, pale as lotus petals, clutched the baby tightly to her chest. Her dark eyes, glistening with unshed tears, reflected both fear and defiance.
Li Tao, tall and stern with sharp features and eyes like polished onyx, spoke softly, trying to steady his own racing heart. His long, dark robes fluttered slightly in the wind as he held out his hands in a gesture of both caution and command.
"Wife, hand the baby over." His voice was calm, yet cold, like a winter river beneath the moonlight.
"Li Tao! What are you doing!? This is your child! Your own flesh and blood!" Her face flushed crimson, the heat of grief burning through her porcelain skin.
"Our child died. Not even Doctor Chen could have saved him! How could he be fine all of a sudden? Something foul might have entered our son's body!" Li Tao's words struck like shards of ice, sharp and unyielding.
"I-it's a miracle! Such things can happen!"
"Doctor Chen is a 6th step cultivator! Do you think he would make a wrong diagnosis?"
"Then…" Her grip tightened, knuckles whitening, "Are you going to kill him?"
"…Since you cannot bear it, let me do it." His voice was steady, unwavering, like a sword poised above the heavens.
"It's our son!"
"That thing isn't our son! It might even harm you, and the world! I cannot take that risk!" Li Tao's dark gaze burned with a cold, righteous fire.
"…Do you really have to be this ruthless?" Su Ru's laugh was bitter, tinged with disbelief.
"Our Li family…has always stood on the side of justice. The Heavenly Dao will not tolerate him!"
Su Ru's lips curved into a mocking smile as she gently patted the baby's soft head.
"Heavenly Dao?" Her voice was both gentle and sharp, like wind cutting through bamboo, "If heaven could not tolerate him, then why would he have been revived?"
"Reviving from the dead…can that ever be considered natural? Not even the Heavenly Emperor could accomplish such a feat!" Li Tao's grip on his sword tightened, the steel gleaming under the faint light. "Wife…I'm begging you...give me the child."
"…And what if I don't?" Her eyes, pools of sorrow and defiance, met his without flinching.
They stared at each other, two forces of unwavering conviction.
"…Then I can only apologize later."
A flash of light tore through as Li Tao's sword arced toward the baby.
It stopped inches away as Su Ru's slender body intervened, her robes flowing like black ink in water.
"Wife! Step aside!"
"You want me to step aside? Over my dead body!" Her voice was like a bell of defiance ringing through the cold hall.
"You—" Li Tao stepped back, exhaling sharply. "Wife, do you have to be so foolish? We can always have another child!"
"This is your child!"
"It is not our child! What kind of child cries when it should have been buried?" His eyes, sharp as a hawk's, were filled with restrained anguish. But he was firm on his decision.
That this was the right action.
"Li Tao…can you really not find it in your heart to accept him?"
"That thing…is not my child."
"…Fine. If you cannot tolerate my child…then I will leave with him." Su Ru's fists clenched, the jade bangles on her wrists chiming softly with her motion, a delicate sound clashed against the storm in her heart.
"Su Ru, stop being stubborn—"
"Shut up!" she snapped, eyes blazing like the setting sun against the mountains. "Li Tao. Today, either you kill both of us mother and child or you let us leave!"
"…You know I cannot bear to do that."
"Then what do you want to do? You know I will never let you kill my child!"
"Y-you…" His words faltered, choked by the weight of his own heart.
He gripped his sword tightly, knuckles whitening, before finally making a decision. Turning to a servant by his side, sword in hand, he commanded, "Cang Jian, find all the servants except Xiao Lan who saw him get buried. Give them some money and tell them to keep quiet."
"Yes."
Li Tao turned back to Su Ru, eyes softened but still firm. "Su Ru…you may keep that child. But he must not appear in public. If one day he brings harm to the world…then I shall not be polite."
He turned to leave, his robes trailing like a shadow beneath the moon.
"Wait!" Su Ru's voice pierced the distance, desperate and trembling. "Aren't you...going to name him?"
"…Yesheng. He shall not carry my surname. I have no son like him."
Su Ru pressed her face to the baby's chest. "You…forget it. He shall be named…Su Ye. From now on, he has nothing to do with your Li family."
"…Whatever suits you."