The Return of Kaelen Viremont

The Eldravan Empire. Thornreach County.

Deep inside a long-sealed chamber of the once-mighty House Hanwynn palace, a scream shattered the stillness.

Kaelen Viremont jolted upright, gasping, his eyes wide with terror.

“Where... where am I?” His voice trembled as he took in the dimly lit room. Ornate furnishings surrounded him, elegant yet unfamiliar. Confusion twisted across his features.

“Wasn’t I dead? What is this place?”

Then, like a floodgate opening, unfamiliar memories surged through his mind. They were vivid and unstoppable. He clutched his head as the torrent consumed him. Moments later, his breathing gradually steadied, and his gaze sharpened.

“I... I’ve been reborn?”

“And it’s... three thousand years in the future?”

The words had barely left his lips before disbelief shook his voice.

He frowned. “How can I even be sure? These memories are foreign, yet they feel carved into my soul.”

Once, in another life, Kaelen had been the crown prince of the Empire of Creation, a divine empire that ruled the Spirit Realm with unmatched might.

But fate had cursed him. Born under a doomed star, his life had been short, shackled by a divine curse.

To save him, his father, the revered Divine Emperor, had risked everything. He had ventured alone into the forbidden Above the Firmament and retrieved the mythical Golden Divine Pill, said to grant longevity beyond the sun and moon.

Kaelen remembered that day vividly. His father, bloodied and tattered, was collapsing at the palace gates.

“This pill...” he whispered, placing it into Kaelen’s trembling hands. “...will let you live as long as the heavens.”

Hope flickered.

Then chaos erupted.

Traitors stormed the imperial palace. Minister Theron Malgrave, the empire’s most trusted minister, betrayed the throne. Blood soaked the halls. Even his father’s unmatched cultivation could not stop it.

Kaelen was killed.

But in his final moments, he swallowed the Golden Divine Pill. Even in death, the sacred relic would not fall into enemy hands.

And now... he had awakened.

In a new world.

Kaelen rose slowly, staggering toward a bronze mirror. The face staring back at him was young and unfamiliar, yet regal. Proud. Determined.

Fragments of his original memories drifted through his mind. He had been reborn on the Velarion Continent, far from the Spirit Realm. Yet somehow, no trace of that realm remained.

“Are these two different worlds?” he whispered. “Or... another layer of the same universe?”

One truth blazed in his chest:

“I am alive.”

“I’ve been given a second chance. That means... hope still exists.”

Three thousand years.

Everything he once knew might be gone. But his enemies might still be alive.

And so might his father.

His eyes burned with resolve.

“Theron may have taken the throne... but he didn’t kill my father. He couldn’t. I will return to the Spirit Realm. And the empire stolen from me... I will reclaim it.”

A vow forged in pain settled deep within his soul.

This time, his cursed body was gone. He had a future. A chance to grow stronger.

Then he sensed it.

The Golden Divine Pill was floating silently within his consciousness. Untouched. Brimming with celestial energy.

It was not just divine. It was destiny itself.

Kaelen now lived in Ebonvale Prefecture, a remote corner of the Great Eldravan Empire. Adopted seventeen years ago by House Hanwynn, a minor martial family, he had grown up as a servant, beaten, mocked, and humiliated by the noble sons.

A sharp pain flared as he lifted his robe. Bruises and scars, blue, black, and purple, marred his skin.

His jaw clenched. He needed no memories to know who had done this.

The noble sons of House Hanwynn were spoiled and cruel, thinking themselves gods among men.

But now...

“I’ve taken over this life,” he whispered. “From this moment on, no one will ever step on me again.”

He sat cross-legged on the cold floor and began circulating the Creation Divine Technique, a cultivation method from his former life.

Golden energy surged through his meridians, pure and unstoppable.

This was no ordinary cultivation.

This was divine.

“Father said this technique holds secrets even he couldn’t unravel...”

Suddenly, the golden pill in his mind trembled.

Boom!

A burst of radiant energy erupted, flooding his spiritual core. In a single instant, Kaelen broke through from an ordinary human to the First Stage of the True Martial Realm.

Stunned, he realized that the pill contained oceans of spiritual energy, vast, eternal, and seemingly infinite.

“No doubt about it,” he breathed. “This isn’t just any relic... It’s the legacy of the heavens.”

Strength surged through his limbs.

Clan rules dictated that he was now eligible for recognition at the ancestral hall and for cultivation resources.

He reached for the door...

Boom!

The wooden door exploded inward.

Splinters flew through the air. Sunlight spilled through the shattered frame.

Two hulking figures stepped inside, their eyes filled with malice.

“One last time, little bastard... we found you.”

Kaelen’s eyes narrowed.

The reckoning had arrived.