NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1:
Chapter 1: Starting Over:
(On the ancient star of Heavenly Azure, at the Beidou Sect)
A beam of golden light shot up into the sky, piercing through the clouds and causing heaven and earth to tremble.
“The Saint King Wujii is about to transcend the tribulation!”
Billions of cultivators gathered around the sect simultaneously looked up. They had waited here for seven days just to witness how the only Saint King in the world would shatter the void and ascend to immortality.
Suddenly, a long roar echoed out.
Then, the Saint King Wujii, dressed in white, rose into the air, his entire body emitting a faint holy light. He looked flawless, as if he already possessed the bearing of an immortal.
“It’s the Saint King Wujii!”
Many cultivators showed expressions of fanatical admiration. As the only one in the world to achieve the path of Saint King, Chen Yuan was the idol of nearly every cultivator. Who wouldn’t want to see their idol ascend with their own eyes?
Soon after, nine figures rose from within the Beidou Sect. They were all stunning beauties. Any one of them appearing alone would have caused a sensation, but now all nine appeared at once!
“They’re the Saint King’s nine Dao Companions. They’re going to protect him through the tribulation!”
“Sigh, Saint King Wujii truly is our role model. Not only does he possess supreme cultivation, but he’s also surrounded by peerless beauties. This is what it means to have heavenly fortune.”
“Well, he’s the Saint King after all. He even brought all nine of his Dao Companions to the Saint Realm. I wish I had been born a woman!”
Just then, muffled thunder rumbled across the sky. Everyone turned to look. They saw multicolored auspicious clouds gathering from all directions, quickly converging overhead. The entire world became radiant with brilliant light, creating an incredibly magnificent sight.
“So this is the Tribulation of the Dao!”
Some people were so moved that they knelt on the ground.
The Tribulation of the Dao, also known as the Immortal Tribulation, was a spectacle seen only in the era when a Saint King emerged. And Chen Yuan was the only Saint King to appear in the past five thousand years.
BOOM!
A seven-colored heavenly lightning bolt tore through the sky, crashing down. Chen Yuan met it head-on with his fist. The explosion spread in a visible shockwave, forcing many cultivators to cough up blood and retreat.
“It’s terrifying! Just the shockwave from the impact injured Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators! Retreat!”
The weaker cultivators hurriedly fell back, retreating more than a hundred miles.
At that moment, dark thunderclouds churned in the sky, and more bolts of heavenly lightning fell one after another. Chen Yuan knew he couldn’t withstand it alone, so he shouted at the nine women beside him, “Protect me!” and soared into the sky to meet the oncoming bolts.
However, the nine women, as beautiful as fairies, remained cold and unmoving.
The massive thunder swallowed Chen Yuan whole. A moment later, he fell from the lightning with blood staining his white clothes, clearly heavily injured.
“What happened?”
“Why didn’t the Saint King’s nine Dao Companions protect him?”
Everyone was shocked and confused.
Chen Yuan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked at the nine familiar faces around him. Some were cold, some were filled with hatred.
“Why?”
He thought for a long time but couldn’t figure out what deep hatred could have driven them to this.
“Because you’ve enslaved us for too long. We’ve had enough.”
“Only by crippling you can we break the chains of fate and regain our freedom.”
“We’ve endured all these years just for this day.”
Chen Yuan was slightly stunned, and his heart gradually grew cold.
He had bound their fates to his because each of these nine women had death disasters written in their destinies. Only by linking their fates to his could he shelter them and save their lives.
If he hadn’t bound them, they would have died long ago. How could they have achieved their current status and cultivation?
“I have always treated you sincerely. I have no shame before heaven and earth.”
Chen Yuan lifted his head to the endless thunderclouds. They were already brewing an even more powerful lightning strike. After the lightning would come the wind tribulation, and after that the fire tribulation… If they were determined to sabotage him, he would certainly fail.
“How shameless!” a noble-looking woman sneered. “You just wanted to control us as your playthings. How are we any different from pets to you?”
Another woman, cold and emotionless, said, “You did help us once. For the sake of that, we won’t take your life. We’ll just cripple your cultivation. From now on, live as an ordinary mortal.”
By now, the black clouds in the sky had transformed into a sea of rainbow lightning, with violent winds swirling around it, tearing plants to dust and even pulverizing the rocks.
The wind tribulation had arrived.
BOOM!
Brilliant lightning poured down like a silver river from the heavens. Chen Yuan pressed his palms together, and a massive golden figure emerged from the void—his golden true body—towering like a mountain, raising its palm to block the heavenly thunder.
“It’s the Saint King’s true body! Saint King Wujii is fighting back!”
“Look at what his nine Dao Companions are doing!”
At that moment, the nine women simultaneously sacrificed a piece of arc-shaped magical artifact. When the nine pieces combined, they formed a complete ring, and the next moment, all nine were enveloped in light, their figures gradually turning translucent.
“This… this looks like the Soul Pursuit Reincarnation Ring. It can open a crack in space-time,” an experienced elder said gravely. “Are they trying to send their consciousness back to the past? That’s extremely dangerous!”
Just then, Chen Yuan, focused on dealing with the lightning, suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. New, unfamiliar old wounds appeared on his body.
Soon, nine more bloody wounds emerged, staining his white robe red.
“I see now!”
The old cultivator slapped his thigh and exclaimed, “They traveled back in time to injure Saint King Wujii!”
“What?!”
The crowd erupted.
Chen Yuan had personally nurtured these nine women to the Saint Realm. It was said they loved each other deeply. How could they be so cruel?
Chen Yuan barely withstood the thunder sea tribulation, coughing up more blood. He looked at the nine women with pain in his eyes.
“We won’t protect you. Give up on transcending. You can still live,” said the noble-looking woman coldly. The other eight also stared at him with cold, indifferent gazes.
“I was wrong,” Chen Yuan said, shaking his head with a bitter smile.
“Now you admit your mistake? Isn’t it too late?” a stunning woman in red sneered, while the others wore expressions of satisfaction.
Hearing his admission, they felt a twisted sense of revenge.
“I was wrong to save you. I should have left you to die.”
The sorrow in Chen Yuan’s eyes slowly turned into icy coldness. His sadness was gone.
At this moment, he severed all emotional ties with them.
“We have repaid your kindness in full. You have no right to use it to guilt us anymore.”
“Our bond ends here.”
“Sisters, let’s cripple his cultivation together!”
The nine women activated the Soul Pursuit Reincarnation Ring, trapping Chen Yuan within a pale blue barrier shaped like a water bubble.
In the past, such a top-tier artifact couldn’t have trapped him. But now, severely wounded, he could no longer resist.
They didn’t want to kill him, just cripple him and let him live out his days in misery.
“What are the nine Dao Companions doing?”
The spectators were baffled and stunned. Why would Saint King Wujii, who had selflessly nurtured them, be betrayed so cruelly?
Chen Yuan’s face twisted in pain. He realized there was no turning back.
He began crazily circulating his cultivation technique.
The Boundless Dao Technique.
A technique Chen Yuan had created five hundred years ago and perfected after reaching the Saint King Realm. If combined with the Soul Pursuit Reincarnation Ring, it could carry his consciousness back to a past moment.
Today, the nine women used this artifact against him. Perhaps it was destiny.
“What is the Saint King doing?”
The spectators cried out in shock, while the nine stunning women showed a hint of fear.
“He’s going to self-destruct!”
At this moment, Chen Yuan’s entire cultivation was gathering at his dantian, his lower abdomen glowing intensely, his whole body becoming almost transparent.
“He’s really going to self-destruct! Why?”
“Because of these nine women! They tried to sabotage him and even wanted to kill him!”
Many onlookers were furious, wishing they could intervene but powerless to do so.
“Chen Yuan, you’re crazy!”
The nine women were horrified. They never expected Chen Yuan would rather die than live as a cripple.
Chen Yuan himself had transformed into a ball of blazing light, as dazzling as the sun. His barely visible face was filled with sadness yet determination.
“Since you regret it… then let everything start over.”
With that, Chen Yuan detonated himself.
The explosion of light enveloped everything, even dissolving the bodies of the nine women.
The Soul Pursuit Reincarnation Ring opened a rift in space-time, and ten souls slipped into it together, reborn at the same moment in the past.