Chapter 1“Liora, I treated you really well. You were the absolute love of my life. Why did you have to kill me!?”Adrian jolted awake and tried to sit up, the old wooden bed under him creaking loudly. Sweat ran down his forehead as he breathed hard and wiped his face with his sleeve.For a moment he thought it was only a dream but it was not a dream. Everything that happened between him and Liora was real.In his first life, Adrian was the only son of a powerful elder in one of the top sects of the continent. At only fourteen years old, he had already cultivated to the peak of the Body Tempering Realm and stood as the number one talent among the younger generation. His talent was so high that many people said he would one day stand at the top of the entire cultivation world.Liora was his childhood sweetheart and fiancée. Their fathers had been close friends for many years. Adrian and Liora grew up together, trained together, and were known as the perfect couple. Everyone believed

Cora gave Adrian a soft smile, although deep inside she still felt sad. Adrian was already sixteen years old. At that age, most people who could open the Divine Martial Mark had already done so years ago. After sixteen, the chance became extremely small. Yet as a mother, she still had to encourage her child and give him confidence. She could not let him lose heart before he even triedAdrian lay down on the hard bed and stared at the cracked ceiling for a long time. In his mind, the image of Liora standing above him five hundred years ago appeared once more. He will open the Divine Martial Mark tomorrow and will begin cultivating the Nine Heavens Scripture again. He would climb out of this Outer Courtyard, step by step, until no one in the Vale Clan dared to look down on him or his mother.And far beyond this small clan, in the highest halls of the Heavenly Sword Sect, the woman who once killed him would one day learn that the person she left for dead had returned.Adrian’s curren

As the sacrifice slowly came to an end, Cora’s hope turned into clear disappointment, and then into despair.Just when Adrian thought he would not be able to open the Divine Martial Mark, the white crystal stone that he had been tightly holding in his hand began to light up slowly.In the very last moment before the sacrifice completely ended, a pure beam of starlight descended from the sky. It landed directly on Adrian’s forehead and transformed into a white circular Divine Martial Mark.A warm sensation spread from the center of his forehead and flowed through his entire body. The blocked meridians loosened a little and a faint but real power began to move inside him for the first time in this life.It had opened.Adrian’s heart pounded hard. He was incredibly excited. After everything, he had finally opened the Divine Martial Mark. At first, no one paid any attention to him. But the moment the white mark appeared on his forehead, every pair of eyes in the crowd turned toward him.

He sat still on the bed and carefully checked his body. The first meridian was fully open and stable. A thin but clear flow of true qi now moved through it in a complete cycle. The small true qi pool under his Divine Martial Mark felt a little larger than before. Impurities had been forced out, and his blood felt cleaner. Martial cultivation in this world was divided into four major realms: the Celadon Extreme Realm, the Glaucous Extreme Realm, the Azure Extreme Realm, and the Wisteria Extreme Realm. Each major realm was further split into several minor stages, early stage, middle stage, late stage, peak stage, and then higher levels of perfection. Adrian was now at the early stage of the Celadon Extreme Realm. In the early, middle, and late stages of the Celadon Extreme Realm, a cultivator focused on opening more meridians and using true qi to steadily strengthen the physical body. Every time a person advanced by one minor stage, their power increased by a clear margin. The body be

Adrian, Cora, and her maid sat down together for breakfast in the small outer hall of the Outer Courtyard. The food on the table was very simple, it was only plain white rice. There was no soup and no meat. After opening the Divine Martial Mark, a martial artist’s body consumed far more energy than an ordinary person’s. Food had become very important and the young masters from the main line of the Vale Clan who had already opened their marks no longer ate normal meals. Every day they took special pills made from the blood and essence of savage beasts. A single pill could fully replenish their physical strength, keep them from feeling hungry even after a full day of hard training, strengthen their blood and qi, and slowly improve their physical body. If Adrian continued eating only white rice, even three meals a day would not be enough to support his new consumption. Cora looked at her son, reached into her sleeve and took out a small jade bottle. Inside were eight dark-red pills.