Phwark! Cough! Cough!

On top of a small wooden bed, in the center of an even smaller, messy room lay a sickly youth coughing blood. The boy’s pale complexion and aura of death hinted he was already on the verge of death.

The aura of a dead man fluctuated on the boy's body, the color drained from his entire body, and his skin was too shriveled up for anyone to believe blood was being circulated around his body.

But the blood he had spewed out followed by his coughs, told the frantic women next to him that he was not dead yet.

“Zhao Chen!” The woman yelled as she held the boy's hand and wiped the blood off of his face. The woman seemed to have been crying heavily, but she quickly wiped her face as she approached the boy. The boy showed no movement before jolting up and letting out a yell,

“You damn bastards, I’ll kill you all”. The youth yelled out with more vigor than anyone in his current condition could possibly manage. This newfound vigor was a sliver of hope to the woman, but unfortunately it did not last long.

The boy abruptly fell back onto the bed, but his complexion did not worsen. The woman just stared at the youth, confused, before getting up and quietly leaving the room.

Cough! Cough! Cough!

A series of coughs were let out from the boy’s mouth, he couldn’t keep up the act anymore.

“What the hell? Where am I? What happened to me” The boy slowly opened his eyes, before weakly observing his surroundings. He tried to get up but he was much too weak.

“I was just fighting those bastards from the heaven light sect, before those fiends showed up. But then I opened my eyes, and now I'm here? Is this some kind of illusion? No-no, there’s no way I, Yang Chen could ever be put into an illusion” The boy rambled to himself endlessly.

This boy was none other than Yang Chen, the golden sun divine lord, who once stood at the pinnacle of the upper realms. But today he was nothing more than a reincarnated dead man.

“This body clearly isn’t mine, the divine soul isn’t something I recognize, but the bloodline of this boy seems to be comparable to mine. Maybe… maybe I was reincarnated” Yang Chen finally came to the realization that in the final moments of his last fight, he had perished and his soul had quickly found a new host, in a lower realms martial artist, Zhao Chen.

“Haha, good good. This is great. These old dogs from the heaven light sect must believe me to be dead now. But once I regain my strength I’ll rise up again and slaughter them all until no one in the world will remember they even existed.” Yang Chen was laughing to himself as loud as he could, which with his body's condition was not very loud.

The concept of reincarnation was not a new one to cultivators, though reincarnation could not be controlled, it was not impossible. But what Yang Chen did find odd was he had reincarnated with his memories? And not only that, he had not reincarnated into a child's body, but rather the body of a teenager.

“Maybe it was old man Li? But he already died before I was attacked. So what exactly happened to me?” Just as Yang Chen thought to himself, trying to piece together just how he ended up in possession of this new body, the door to his room was almost slammed open.

“Chen-er” A large burly man, who most could never imagine smiling, jumped onto Yang Chen and held him a tight hug. Yang Chen attempted to push him off but he didn’t even have the strength to speak. As he tried to shift himself out of the man's embrace, a flood of memories that weren’t his flooded into Yang Chen’s head.

His name was Zhao Chen, the oldest son of the Chen family, one of the 9 great families in the Azureleaf province. Though he is the oldest, and was named to be the patriarch's successor, Zhao Chen was born with no aptitude to cultivation. He was only at the first stage of the qi gathering realm, essentially a mortal, after 15 years of bitter cultivation. He had his position as the young patriarch taken away, and he and his parents were banished to a preside over a small branch family in a smaller town.

Despite being members of the main family, those of the branch family all looked down on Yang Chen and his parents for their weakness and inability to meet up to standards of the Chen family.

One day however, Yang Chen had enough of the relentless bullying and challenged one of the main perpetrators, Yuan Ling, the son of one of the branch families elders. Not only was Yang Chen beaten mercilessly, he was almost crippled by Yuan Ling, and he would’ve been had the elders not stepped in.

Finally snapping back to reality, the woman who followed in behind the burly man put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Yuxuan, let Chen-er breathe, he just woke up and he’s far too weak to even move right now.” Despite her words telling him off, she had a gentle and soft tone, as if she was consoling him rather than scolding him.

“But Haoran, you can’t expect me not to be overjoyed, my son is still alive!” The burly man wiped his tears, before finally releasing Yang Chen from his embrace.

When the blood stopped rushing to his head, Yang Chen finally recognized the two people. The big burly man was this body's father, Yuxuan Chen. And the elegant woman was the mother, Haoran Chen. A wave of emotions started welling up inside his body, but it was rather unfamiliar.

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Yang Chen tried to suppress it but he didn’t have the strength. Immediately water burst through his eyes like a dam, and it seemed to be never ending. It seemed that Zhao Chen's feelings for his parents were strong enough to trample the heavens, had they asked him too.

Yang Chen was unfamiliar with the emotion of love, but he understood it. Over all the painful years Zhao Chen experienced, the only thing that kept him going was the love he had for his parents. Yang Chen no longer tried to suppress the tears, but rather gave into them.

Around the entire manor, only the tears of joy from a loving family could be heard.

Once all the tears had subsided, Yang Chen finally decided to submerge himself into the role of Zhao Chen. “M-m-mother?”. It took all the energy inside of him to push out a singular word, but he knew if he said nothing he would get nowhere. He had to find out as much as he could about his reincarnation.

Haoran cupped her hands over her mouth and let out a small sob. She rushed over to Zhao Chen and grabbed his hands in hers. “Yes Chen-er, mothers here”. Yuxuan grabbed onto her shoulders and was also suppressing his sobs.

Zhao Chen urged all the remaining energy he had in his body to speak again, “W-what happened to me?”. Though he had a faint idea as to how he got injured, he didn’t understand his full condition.

“After Yuan Ling and you had the fight, we immediately rushed you home and called for Physician Ming to come and try to save you. He tried some acupuncture but he said your chances of surviving depended on your willpower. Mother knew you would pull through Chen-er '' Yuxuan replied slowly, letting her tears well up around her eyes.

Zhao clutched her hands harder before urging the last of his consciousness to stay awake, “Thank you mother, father” he tried to keep speaking but as soon as he spoke that last word, Zhao Chen abruptly jolted up in a seating position before falling back into bed just as fast.

“Chen-er! Chen-er!” Haoran yelled as she saw the scene.

Yuxuan quickly restrained her while yelling, “Haoran it's ok, Physician Ming said if he does manage to pull through he’ll be too weak to even move for a few days. Him being able to talk is already a good omen that he’s safe now. Lets let him rest”

Seeing Haoran nod her head, Yuxuan put her back down and the couple walked out the room slowly. Both hesitating to take their eyes off of their son.

Inside Zhao Chen's sea of consciousness he finally took a minute to think.

“So I haven’t necessarily reincarnated but rather my divine soul entered into this boy's body after he died. And the body could only survive since I entered it. So I guess that this means, I'm no longer the once great Yang Chen but this boy Zhao Chen.” It took him some time but Zhao Chen finally accepted his new identity.

“But now what do I do? I'm in the mortal plain, so I'll have to prioritize my cultivation if I want to return to my former strength and get my revenge. Though I respect this body's previous owner for his willpower, his actual talent and aptitude, is beyond trash” Zhao Chen was in a tough predicament before an idea popped up into his head.

Who was he in his past life? He was none other than the golden sun divine lord. The upper realms number 1 alchemy genius, only a small major realm away from being the greatest alchemist ever seen. His title was given to him because he shined like the morning sun in the sky to his patients, being a beacon of hope to those who thought their lives had already been forsaken.

So what if this body supposedly had no talent? What did that matter to him? If aptitude was all that mattered, then he would change his aptitude, this was no matter to worry about.

‘Yes, yes this is a good plan. I’ll ask my mother or father to collect the right herbs, though I'm in the mortal plain, these herbs should be the most common of the common medicinal herbs out there. They won't be any trouble to find, even for paupers and beggars.” As Zhao Chen was thinking of his plans he came to a realization. Not only had he accepted his identity, he had accepted the body's mother and father as his own.

His life had really undergone a massive change.

Once the sun had risen, Zhao Chen could feel his body had already had significant improvements. He still ached everywhere, but he was able to move and speak without exerting enough energy to make him faint. When his parents walked into his room, they were both overjoyed to see their son was healing much quicker then expected.

When they claimed down Zhao Chen requested his parents to gather the medicinal herbs for him, and to his surprise his father actually had the right amount of everything that Zhao Chen needed. But to his dismay his father was very eager to know why he needed the herbs.

“Chen-er, though father has the herbs, why do you need them? I know you’ve taken an interest in alchemy but if you want some kind of pill, mother and I will find a grade 1 alchemist to refine it for you.” Though Yuxuan was being sincere, Zhao Chen almost coughed up more blood just from the thought of it.

I, a once exalted 4 star alchemy emperor, am supposed to place my hopes into the most novice of alchemists? I’d rather dig a hole to live the rest of this life in. Zhao Chen regained his composure before speaking again.

“Actually father I was going to use them for a medicinal bath, not a pill”, Zhao Chen knew that would not quell their suspicions so he made up a story. “Actually father, the day I challenged Yuan Ling, I stumbled on the inheritance of an old master, out in the endless woods. The old master had imparted many things to me, including a method on how to cleanse the meridians, allowing me a chance at cultivation again.”

The story was a simple one that Zhao Chen would hear parents tell their kids in his past life, but he knew that it wasn’t a completely outrageous story. The endless woods was a vast, and seemingly never ending forest that separated the the northern and southern domain of the Brightjade World, which is what mortals called the mortal plain.

The forest bordered on the Azureleaf province, and was not far from Tranquil Cloud city, in which Zhao Chen and his family resided. Everyday martial artists would venture into the forest in search of treasure and to help their cultivation. So it was highly possible Zhao Chen had stumbled upon an inheritance.

“So that was why you left early in the morning, and returned only to immediately pick a fight with Yuan Ling. I'm glad you stumbled upon this lucky chance, son, but you should have come home to us first.” Yuxuan had a calm and unreadable look, Zhao Chen couldn’t guess what he was thinking at all.

“But if this master is as great as you say he is, there’s no harm in trying this method.” Though both Yuxuan and Haoran felt that Zhao Chen was just making up a story to get them to give him the herbs, without asking any further questions, they didn’t have the heart to keep refusing their sons wishes. They both stood up, gave a hug to Zhao Chen and left the room.

Zhao Chen let out a sigh of relief, feeling content that the story worked but suddenly his expression changed. Left in the morning and immediately came home to challenge Yuan Ling? That wasn’t in his memories at all. Just what had happened that day?

Zhao Chen tried to wrap his head around the matter but decided to not pursue it. With his current condition and strength, even if there was some conspiracy going on, he couldn’t do anything about it, he’d have to first regain some strength and then uncover the mystery.

Later that day when Yuxuan returned with the herbs Zhao Chen needed, he shot his son a quick glance of disdain but said nothing. He didn’t quite believe what Zhao Chen told was true, but he hoped more than anything that he would be proven wrong, and that his son had a chance to be great.

Zhao Chen was aloof to his fathers gaze, but rather observed the herbs in front of him. The yin spirit grass and iron wood leaves were tier 1 medicinal herbs, herbs that Zhao Chen hadn’t even touched in his previous 600 years of life. But that did not mean he was lost on what to do.

He quickly put the herbs into a mortar, before crushing them down and infusing a little bit of his own qi into it. The process was draining to Zhao Chen but he knew the rewards from this would be unprecedented to the current Zhao Chen.

Once he finished grinding up everything, Zhao Chen placed the mixture into the bath in front of him. The water quickly changed colors, before stopping at a light green. Zhao Chen looked at the bath with disdain as the color was very off putting, but he had no choice.

“It’s just a little bath, compared to the other hardships I've faced, this is nothing.” Zhao Chen affirmed himself before jumping into the water.