# **Chapter 2: "A Waste's Memories"**The first thing Alex noticed was the pain.Not the clean, sharp pain of his molecular disintegration in the lab, but a deep, throbbing ache that seemed to permeate every fiber of his being. His bones felt hollow, his muscles atrophied, and his skin burned with fever despite the cool air flowing across his face.The second thing he noticed was that he was breathing.Alex's eyes snapped open, and he immediately regretted it. Sunlight streamed through paper windows, stabbing into his skull like needles. He tried to raise his hand to shield his eyes, but his arm felt like it weighed a thousand pounds."What the hell?" he croaked, his voice sounding wrong—too high, too young, too weak.The voice that came from his throat wasn't his own. Dr. Alex Chen had possessed a deep, confident baritone that commanded attention in lecture halls and boardrooms. This voice was barely a whisper, cracked and hoarse like someone who'd been screaming for hours.He forced

# **Chapter 4: "The Alchemist's Eye"** The Xiao family's herb garden was a testament to generations of careful cultivation. Nestled in the eastern courtyard of the compound, it stretched across nearly an acre of carefully tended plots where hundreds of spiritual herbs grew in organized rows. Morning mist clung to the leaves as Alex made his way through the narrow pathways, his eyes taking in details that Xiao Feng had never noticed despite walking these same paths for eighteen years. "Crimson Lotus petals," Alex murmured, kneeling beside a cluster of deep red flowers. "High concentration of what looks like natural alkaloids, but the molecular structure is... impossible." He reached out to touch one of the petals, and immediately his vision shifted. The flower didn't just look different—he could *see* its internal structure, the way energy flowed through its cellular matrix like liquid light. It was as if someone had given him a microscope that could observe both physical and spirit

# **Chapter 6: "The Impossible Pill"** The morning sun cast long shadows across the Xiao family's main courtyard as Alex made his way to the patriarch's study. Word of yesterday's demonstration had spread through the household like wildfire, and he could feel the weight of curious gazes following his every step. Servants who had once looked at him with pity now watched with something approaching respect, while his brothers' friends whispered among themselves with barely concealed envy. Alex carried a small jade box in his hands—a container that held three pills that would either elevate his family's status or paint a target on his back. The experimental pill he'd created using Phantom Moss compounds was unlike anything the cultivation world had seen, but its very existence posed questions he wasn't ready to answer. "Young Master," Uncle Chen intercepted him at the study's entrance, his weathered face creased with concern. "Are you certain about this? Once you reveal what you've cre