“HAHAHA!!!!!” Gray laughed like an utter madman without a single pause as he slowly relearned to control his body, desperately clawing at the dirt and mud around him, ripping it apart and digging his way to the surface.

Despite his lungs being full of dirt and mud after such a long time underground, it had instantly been expelled from his body with the first gasp he had taken, and from there, he didn’t even feel much of the need to breathe to make the noise, hence why he could even laugh at all.

Slowly but surely, he made his way upwards, still madly clawing away at the dirt every second until he could escape this imprisonment.

And he finally managed to do so a few minutes later, and his arm suddenly burst through the ground and gripped the ground like a feral animal as he forcefully pulled his entire body through the ground bit by bit, surfacing from the earth like a zombie.

As he reached the surface, he finally managed to tame his crazy laughter, and he looked around as he stumbled, trying to relearn how to walk again.

However, he adapted almost instantly at a speed that surprised even him, and soon, his entire body went completely under his control once again as his face suddenly became covered with an infinite coldness and killing intent so potent that a bloody fog could be seen around his body as his eyes turned blood red.

‘I am coming, brother. Let’s see just how long you can evade me.’

The shift in personality from completely crazy to cold, calculating, and brutal was instant, and it was such a massive change that someone would think he was two separate people.

With this thought in mind, he started looking around for any forms of civilization. However, he didn’t have to look far as he found that he was buried just outside of a town.

As such, he instantly started heading towards the town without the slightest hesitation, intent to find a place to look in a mirror.

After all, he didn’t know if his previously dead body had aged at all or if there was something that had caused him to come back to life.

The first thing for him to do was figure out what exactly had happened, or at the very least come up with a few theories.

He may have been pushed into the depths of madness by the forty long years being trapped within his own mind, but that barely even dulled the edge of his razor, and he was still a terrifying person. His mental capabilities had actually only gotten stronger during this time, despite his new tendency for insanity.

The only change from before was that due to the lack of senses for so long, he was extremely hyperstimulated at the moment to the point where he felt he might get sick. However, he would recover within a few weeks.

As he strolled into the town, he seemed to turn a bunch of heads as everyone was staring at him curiously, though none of them approached him.

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A few actually directly avoided him, cluing him in that his appearance had changed in some way or that he was unsightly aside from being covered in dirt and mud.

However, he didn’t care. He was just happy at the moment that he was even alive and that he had a chance to take revenge against his traitorous brother.

He didn’t care even if he looked like a monster at the moment, as long as he had this chance.

And with this, he walked up with a mad smile covering his face towards one of the people on the street who wasn’t avoiding him directly and spoke simply. But he realized when he did this that he felt… short?

“Nearest inn?” The other party didn’t even need to respond and simply pointed at a building nearby with a sign hanging in front of it.

His face seemed to say, ‘You can’t even read the signs?’ as he stared at Gray, who was already skipping away like an utter madman.

The man then shook his head as he went back to minding his own business as he had been doing before the interaction with Gray.

Meanwhile, Gray continued to act strangely as he moved towards the inn, slamming the doors open as he got there, hopping up to the counter and waving his hand towards the receptionist.

It was just an average middle-aged woman, but he wouldn’t care even if it was one of the top beauties in the world.

Along with the waving of his hand, several strange white crystals appeared on the counter.

“I want a year’s stay here.”

She didn’t even need to say anything, and gave him a key that had a room number on it. Before she could even think further, he had already left.

In reality, he had far overpaid, which was why she didn’t even state the price.

He had paid with about ten spirit stones, which were the currency of the cultivation world. For a mortal person like her, these were naturally far superior to any form of payment she could’ve ever accepted.

Just these ten spirit stones were equivalent to a whole few years of income for her.

In a hurry, she quickly gathered up the spirit stones and hid them beneath her clothes, intending to hide them well and make sure that nobody could steal them from her.

Meanwhile, he just found the room, unlocked the door with the key she had given him, and stepped inside before once again locking the door.

He then went straight to the washroom without the slightest hesitation, and the first thing he did once he was there was to look in the mirror, and what he saw looking back at him was shocking to say the least.

He hadn’t noticed it before since he was far too preoccupied with his thoughts, but he was much shorter than before by a whole foot or so, and his body looked like it was only ten years old!

On top of that, his face looked completely different at the moment. His facial and muscle structure was completely different to before on a genetic level, and it was clear that he was essentially no longer the same person as before except for his mind.

However, this still wasn’t his most shocking feature!

At this moment, his body looked so malnourished and weak that it looked like he was literally skin and bones. All his skin was deathly pale and he looked on the verge of death.

However, it was at this moment that he finally noticed yet again something even more shocking!

His dantian, which had been completely destroyed, reduced to even less than dust by the Core Crippling Poison, had been entirely repaired at the moment, and he could clearly tell that it was even different from before on an intrinsic level!

‘Is this a second chance or something? What the fuck is happening?!’