Graphic depictions of violence, mentions of sexual assault

Wu Ruo woke up and found himself strung up with iron chains in the shape of a cross. In front of his chest was an iron frame, propping his body up in his family’s yard. Countless different kinds of runes were carved on the iron chains and frame.

He pulled on the chains, which clanked, and recalled that he had been drinking with some good friends in the yard, how did he get tied up like this?

“Awake?” a familiar voice came from behind him, and then the person walked over to stand in front of him.

Wu Ruo saw that the person was his best friend, Ruan Zhizheng, and waved around the iron chains on his wrists with a helpless expression: “What are you playing at this time, locking me up like this?”

He grew up with Ruan Zhizheng since they were kids, their friendship was deep, like brothers, and they were willing to cross swords with others just to help each other.

Ruan Zhizheng didn’t smile at him, and asked indifferently: “I’ll only ask you once, where is the book that contains the Shadow Stealing secret technique?”

Wu Ruo was dumbfounded, wrinkling his eyebrows: “You already know, I don’t have it.”

Even though he had the Shadow Stealing secret technique in his head, there were only the words “Shadow Stealing” with no content. However, the whole world was spreading that whoever had the Shadow Stealing secret technique would be invincible. It was being spread like wildfire, and many clans wanted the technique. Even he thought that the technique was especially impressive, but he just didn’t have any way to put it into practice.

He received this technique when he was 25 years old. Before that, he was a loser who couldn’t even cultivate. Only after breaking his longevity plaque by mistake did he realize it wasn’t that he couldn’t cultivate, but that someone had sealed his ability to cultivate and it could only be unsealed by breaking the plaque.

After breaking the seal and accessing his cultivation ability, multiple cultivation techniques appeared in his mind. Other than Shadow Stealing, every technique had detailed descriptions and instructions to learn it, and that was how he started cultivating.

Ruan Zhizheng turned to the guard standing by the gate and ordered: “Bring them in.”

Four bodyguards brought a gagged middle-aged couple in front of Wu Ruo, and then kicked them to their knees with a loud crash.

“Dad? Mum?” Wu Ruo saw that the middle-aged couple was his parents, and felt both shock and anger: “Zhizheng, you’ve gone overboard. Hurry and let go of my parents.”

Wu Ruo’s parents saw that he had been tied up to the iron frame and agitatedly called out to him with muffled sounds.

Zhizheng picked up a

and just chopped off Wu Ruo’s father’s arm.

Wu Ruo’s father groaned as his eyes widened, sweat beading at his forehead. It was so painful that he was about to faint.

Wu Ruo’s mother wailed loudly beneath the gag as she looked Wu Ruo’s father.

Wu Ruo was stunned, he was drunk, and couldn’t tell if the situation in front of his eyes was real or fake.

Ruan Zhizheng laughed coldly, and stepped on Wu Ruo’s father’s other arm with his feet: “Wu Ruo, this is what happens when you won’t tell me where the book is.”

Wu Ruo’s father groaned weakly as he fell to the floor, paralyzed.

Wu Ruo murmured to himself: “Ruan Zhizheng, you…”

“Still not talking?” Ruan Zhizheng swung at Wu Ruo’s father’s neck viciously.

In an instant, a head fell to the ground and fresh blood splattered through the air.

Wu Ruo stared at his father’s corpse blankly, unable to believe that his good friend would kill his father.

Before this, this person would still intimately address his father as “uncle”, however, the still-warm drops of blood on Wu Ruo’s face told him that this was reality and not just a dream.

Wu Ruo’s mother made muffled noises beneath the gag. Seeing that Wu Ruo’s father’s head had been chopped off, she broke away from the men holding her back as if possessed and threw herself onto his body with inconsolable grief.

Wu Ruo came back to his senses, eyes reddened with fury, and madly trashed at the iron chains, roaring with grief and indignation: “Ruan Zhizheng, you killed my father, you fucking bastard, I’m going to kill you!”

Ruan Zhizheng’s eyes hardened, and he raised the sword to Wu Ruo’s mother’s neck: “If you still don’t talk, the next one will be your mum.”

Wu Ruo’s eyes that were filled with hatred flashed with panic: “We’ve never kept secrets from each other, wouldn’t you know whether I have the secret technique book or not?”

“Seems like the secret technique is more important than your mum,” Ruan Zhizheng suddenly raised the large sword.

Wu Ruo raised his voice, horrified and shocked: “D-don’t do anything stupid! Ruan Zhizheng, is a secret technique book more important than our friendship of over a decade?”

“Friendship?” Ruan Zhizheng looked at him with ridicule in his gaze: “You really thought I treated you as a friend. Hah, did you know? I only got close to you because you were a loser who couldn’t cultivate. Only in front of you did I feel confident about myself, but I don’t know what kind of goddamned good luck you have. Not only did you gain the ability to cultivate, but your skills also became more and more outstanding. I became like a dog that could only trail behind you pathetically. Other people looked down on me, and I even had to endure their bullying.”

The more he spoke, the angrier he got, and the large sword pressed down even more.

Wu Ruo called out in fear: “Don’t! Don’t kill my mum, if you want the secret technique book, I’ll give it to you. Isn’t it good enough if I just give it to you? Just please, let my mum go.”

“Alright. Seeing as your mum is still is beautiful even though she’s over 50, I’ll spare her life.” Ruan Zhizheng kept his large sword, and said to the four bodyguards: “I’ll gift this madam to the four of you.”

“Thank you, young master,” the four bodyguards hauled Wu Ruo’s mother up, and smiled lewdly: “This old lady is already at this sort of age, but she still looks so tender and supple, like an unmarried young woman.”

One of the bodyguards started kissing Wu Ruo’s mother’s face, another one tore open the upper piece of her clothes, revealing her pale green undergarments. Yet another tore her skirt, and the last one eagerly took off his own pants, revealing his hideously excited manhood.

Wu Ruo’s mother cried, muffled, as she tried to pull away, but the four bodyguards only got more excited and pressed her onto the dining table.

The one who had already taken off his pants pressed forward and forced himself in, then he started thrusting.

Immediately, the whole yard was filled with the sound of lascivious laughter.

“The four of you dare to touch my mum, I’ll let you die in pieces

!” Wu Ruo howled, crazed: “Guards! Guards, come quick!”

“Don’t bother calling, nobody’s going to come,” Ruan Zhizheng said fearlessly because he knew he had backup: “The Wu family members can’t wait for the lot of you to die, why would they bother coming to save you?”

Wu Ruo glared fiercely with wide eyes: “That can’t be, there’s no way.”

But if it wasn’t like Ruan Zhizheng said, how could there be such a noisy mess, yet no one had come to save them?

“Your uncles have always been suppressed by your father’s skill since they were children and developed jealousy and hatred towards him. It was because of their scheming that your father’s cultivation was destroyed. And your brother, Wu Zhu, do you know how he died?” Ruan Zhizheng brought up Wu Zhu, who had already been dead for many years, and smiled mockingly: “Because the Wu family was jealous of his talent, they took advantage when he went for field training and used other people to kill your older brother.”

“I don’t believe you, you’re just trying to ruin our relationship with each other,” Wu Ruo couldn’t believe that his uncles would be so merciless.

“And your younger sister, Wu Xi, they were the ones who instigated your brother-in-law, Ba Se, to put a love curse on her. That’s why she agreed to marry him, and later when she died, it was because there was an accident when Ba Se tried cultivating her into a marionette.”

“You’re lying, you’re just making all of this up!” Wu Ruo roared.

“It’s up to you whether you want to believe it or not, anyway, the Wu family will not come to save you. And they might just be hiding in a dark corner watching how I kill all of you.”

“Ack!” Suddenly, the bodyguard gave a bloodcurdling scream.

Wu Ruo’s mother, who couldn’t continue enduring being raped, had kicked the bodyguard’s nether regions and used all her strength to break away from the bodyguards. She rushed up towards the wall.

Wu Ruo yelled fearfully: “No, Mum! Don’t—!”

With a loud thump, Wu Ruo’s mother crashed her head against the wall.

Wu Ruo’s face filled with despair: “Mum! Mum!”

The bodyguard went forward to check her breathing: “Dead.”

Wu Ruo looked, full of hate, at the person who used to be his bosom friend and roared: “Ruan Zhizheng, you monster, I hope you die painfully, I won’t let this go!”

Ruan Zhizheng laughed coldly: “Alright, bring it on. Actually, I knew that you don’t have the secret technique book, but I just wanted to use it as an excuse to torture you to my heart’s content. Seeing you in such anguish, I couldn’t be any happier. Keep yelling, yell louder, the louder you yell, the more pain I’ll know you’re in.”

He raised the long sword and viciously chopped off Wu Ruo’s right leg.

Wu Ruo let out a bloodcurdling scream, it was so painful that he almost fainted.

“Haha!” suddenly, someone standing on the yard walls cackled madly: “Wu Ruo, oh Wu Ruo, this day has finally come for you.”

Ruan Zhizheng smiled at the person on the perimeter wall, asking: “Master

, does this please you?”

The person wore a black cloak, and because they were standing in the shadows, there was no way to see how they looked like.

“I’m pleased, very pleased, viciously torture him to death for me.” The mysterious person said, filled with enmity: “I want him to wish he was dead.”

“Yes, sir,” Ruan Zhizheng raised the sword again and cut off Wu Ruo’s right hand.

Wu Ruo fainted on the spot.

Ruan Zhizheng got his men to wake Wu Ruo with cold water.

“I hate his eyes, gouge them both out,” the mysterious person said, their tone filled with thick hatred.

Wu Ruo’s breath was thin as gossamer threads: “Who are you?”

He never knew that Ruan Zhizheng had a master, and didn’t know when he could have provoked this person.

“You’re not worthy to know who I am.”

Ruan Zhizheng took out a dagger, and heartlessly dug out Wu Ruo’s eyes. The bloodied eyeballs popped free of their eye sockets. The eye sockets were left with two bloody, gaping holes, and fresh blood flowed freely.

Wu Ruo fainted again.

The mysterious person said: “Don’t let him die yet.”

Ruan Zhizheng fed Wu Ruo a medicine pill

, and then woke him again.

Wu Ruo felt that the events of the night were inseparable from the mysterious person, and asked with hatred filling his breast: “What have we done? Why would you do this to my family and me?”

“Why?” the mysterious person laughed eerily: “If you have a next life, I’ll tell you. Zhizheng, cut off his tongue, I don’t want to hear his voice anymore.”

“Yes, sir,” Ruan Zhizheng grabbed Wu Ruo’s lower jaw forcefully, and let the bodyguards pull out his tongue.

Just at this moment, a bloodcurdling scream came from afar, someone screamed shrilly: “Help me! It’s Hei Xuanyi, Hei Xuanyi has come!”

The mysterious person became apprehensive: “Hei Xuanyi has arrived, let’s go.”

Wu Ruo was surprised and smiled miserably.

Hei Xuanyi…

The husband that he’s never once truly looked in the eye unexpectedly came all the way here.

It was too bad, it was already too late…

Ruan Zhizheng was not content to just let go of Wu Ruo like this, and stabbed him straight in the heart with the dagger, then set his body on fire.

Wu Ruo bore the pain in every inch of his body, and used his dying breath to swear an oath: “I, Wu Ruo, swear on my spirit not to enter the cycle of reincarnation, swear to turn into an evil spirit, to never let them have peace for generations and generations.”

Chinese believe that it’s disrespectful to dismember a body because then the spirit/soul of a person is incomplete and will not be able to reincarnate

师傅 (shifu): a respectful way to refer to a master who takes someone in as an apprentice to teach a specialized craft or set of skills. Not to be confused with servants referring to their employers

丹药 (danyao): refers to

sorts of old-timey brown chocolate candy-looking pills

Fat shaming, homophobia, bullying

In the small alleyway next to the side entrance of the Wu estate, three teenagers who were about 15 years old were surrounding a fat teenager who had fallen to the ground.

“Stupid fatty, congratulations on marrying into another man’s family. Did you get fucked real good on the first two nights of your newlywed life?”

“With such a huge ass, the one fucking him must also feel real good, haha, I just wonder if he’s already broken their new bed.”

“Eh? Why isn’t he moving? He couldn’t have died just from taking a fall, right? Wu Ruo, don’t fucking play dead!”

The teenager wearing luxurious blue robes used his feet to kick the fat teenager. Suddenly, the fat teenager opened his eyes, and the sheer hatred in his gaze scared the three teenagers into taking a step backward.

Wu Ruo stared at them unflinchingly for a moment, and bewilderment flashed across his eyes: “Jiang Xiaoliang? Yu Tianbao? Pan Feng?”

Weren’t these three people already 30 years old? How had their appearances become young? Or had they eaten the Lingdanmiao medicine to revert back to their youth?

That’s right.

Ruan Zhizheng had cut off his right leg and right arm, gouged both his eyes and stabbed his heart, and lastly set his body on fire, how come he was still alive?

“Y-you dare to address me directly

? Are you looking for death?” Yu Tianbao ignored the fear in his heart, and kicked at Wu Ruo with anger.

Wu Ruo’s gaze sharpened, and he quickly raised his hand to stop Yu Tianbao’s foot.

The chilly look in Wu Ruo’s eyes made the three of them shudder involuntarily, the fatty looked really scary today.

“Jiang Xiaoliang, Yu Tianbao, Pan Feng, the three of you underestimate the Wu family too much, you even dare to bully someone from our family at our doorstep!” An enraged voice came from the entranceway.

Wu Ruo looked in the direction of the voice. A handsome teenager wearing luxurious white robes and a fox fur cloak stormed forward angrily to push the three teenagers away: “Get out of here! Don’t let me see you again!”

“Yes, sir!” the three of them didn’t dare to offend the 5th young master of the Wu family, Wu Yu, and scampered off with their tails between their legs.

“Young master, are you alright?” the two attendants behind Wu Yu hurried forth to help Wu Ruo up. This was when Wu Ruo realized that his current body was really unbelievably fat: bear-like hands, a waist as thick as a washtub, elephant-like thighs, it was as if he’d returned back to 13 years ago at the time when he was fattest.

Immediately, he felt alarmed. Not only did he not die, but even his body that had slimmed down was also fat again.

Wu Ruo stood up after exerting much effort and froze when he saw the brand new horse carriage in front of him.

This was the horse carriage that his mum had commissioned someone to make, to his specific measurements, when he got married off to Hei Xuanyi. That’s why the car body was ten

chi

wide so that it would be convenient for him to ride it back to the Wu estate to see his family. But, after he slimmed down, the first thing he did was to set this carriage on fire, how could it appear in this place now?

“Wu Ruo, they didn’t do anything to you, did they?” Wu Yu asked, concerned.

Wu Ruo shook his head ‘no’, lost in his own thoughts, everything in front of his eyes and the situation that had just occurred were all very familiar. He remembered that on the third day after getting married

to Hei Xuanyi, when he was returning home

to visit, these things had happened before.

Wu Yu smiled gently and replied: “Since you’re fine, let’s go on in. We shouldn’t let

shushu

and

shenshen

wait too long.”

Wu Ruo thought of his parents who had been killed by Ruan Zhizheng, and his chest tightened. He hurried into the Wu estate with the support of some attendants, hurrying towards Shuqing Garden that his parents lived in.

On the road there, there were many gazes filled with ridicule and mocking, but Wu Ruo had no time to attend to them. He could only wonder if his parents would be wearing sapphire blue robes, waiting in the yard for him to come back.

Wu Ruo entered Shuqing Garden and saw that the middle-aged couple was indeed wearing sapphire blue robes. His first reaction was to breathe a sigh of relief, his parents were still safe and alive. His second reaction was a deep sense of astonishment.

Because he really reincarnated.

He had reincarnated back to 13 years ago, three days after he’d gotten married

to Hei Xuanyi.

直呼大爷的名讳: Yu Tianbao refers to himself as 大爷 (daye) which is a respectful form of address for older men, has a sort of tinge of arrogance to it, and refers to his name as 名讳 (minghui) which is a dated way to refer to the name of a respected elder or betters. Basically, the word choices he makes here indicates that he is above/better than Wu Ruo

尺 (chi): one chi is about 0.333 meters, or 1.094 feet

嫁 (jia): used for when females marry into the male’s family, and not the usual term for “marry” used by men

回门 (huimen): specifically refers to the custom of the first visit that a bride pays to her own parents with her husband. This is usually done three days after the wedding day

叔叔 (shushu): specifically refers to one’s father’s younger brother. 婶婶 (shenshen): refers to one’s father’s younger brother’s wife.

成亲 (chengqin): a way of saying “to get married” and it literally translates into “becoming relatives”. This is a somewhat gender-neutral way to refer to a couple getting married, different from the term used in footnote 3

A lot of self-loathing, body image issues, and also mentions of bullying

The heavens really opened their eyes, allowing him to reincarnate and giving him a chance to take revenge. All those people who wanted to harm him and his family would have to suffer hundredfold, thousandfold in return.

After the feelings of joy and excitement passed, Wu Ruo felt especially gloomy. Although the heavens gave him the chance to reincarnate, he wasn’t given the chance to choose the time period to be reborn into. One had to know that 13 years ago was the darkest, fattest, most abhorrent and most useless period of his life. Not only did he not have spiritual energy to cultivate, he couldn’t do anything independently either. In the morning when he woke up, he needed to rely on someone else to help him down from the bed. Then, every two steps that he took would make him breathless. The most miserable thing was that, as a man, he had married into another man’s family. This had caused him to be ridiculed for his whole life. Even if no one dared to bully him later on in life, they would still laugh at him in private for being someone’s male wife.

However, his family members were still safe in this time period, which was something to be grateful for. He would have to think about how to solve the other problems later. The biggest problem now was how to find his longevity plaque. In his previous lifetime, the longevity plaque had been given to him when he was 24 years old by his mother, but she’d said that it was given by someone else. As to who had given it, his mum had been unwilling to reveal their identity. The only thing he could be sure of was, before that, his mum hadn’t known about the longevity plaque either. And more than that, she hadn’t known that the longevity plaque had sealed away his spiritual energy, preventing him from cultivating.

“

Xiao

-Ruo

,” Wu Ruo’s mother, Guan Tong, came forth with red-rimmed eyes to hug Wu Ruo, but because Wu Ruo was too fat, she could only hug his stomach: “Did you have a hard time over there?”

When Wu Ruo saw her, it brought the last image of her from his previous lifetime to mind, and couldn’t help but start tearing up too.

“No,” Hei Xuanyi had left on the night of their wedding because he’d had matters to attend to. Hei Xuanyi’s family members did not live with him either, so in the two days after their wedding, he hadn’t suffered much. Just that the food that the servants of Hei Manor served wasn’t very good.

“That’s good,” Guan Tong felt relieved. Before that, she was still worried that the Hei family would begrudge Wu Ruo for being too fat.

Wu Ruo’s father, Wu Qianqing, also breathed a sigh of relief, and asked Wu Yu: “

Xiao

-Yu, how come you’re together with

Xiao

-Ruo?”

Wu Yu smiled faintly: “I saw

Xiao

-Ruo’s servants when I was on my way out and heard from them that

Xiao

-Ruo had been held up by Yu Tianbao and the others outside. So I hurried over to drive off Yu Tianbao and the others, then, I followed

Xiao

-Ruo over.”

“Those bastards,” Wu Qianqing could tell at once that Yu Tianbao and the others were bullying his son again.

“

San-shu

, I…”

Wu Ruo knew what Wu Yu wanted to say, but he didn’t want to let Wu Yu say it, so he quickly spoke and interrupted Wu Yu: “Dad.”

Wu Qianqing’s attention turned over to Wu Ruo: “Have you eaten breakfast yet? If you haven’t, I’ll get the servants to prepare some.”

“I’ve eaten already, Dad. I just want you to walk with me to the house.”

Wu Qianqing smiled: “You’re already all grown up, but you’re still so childish

.”

He supported Wu Ruo, and asked softly: “How come that person didn’t come back with you?”

Wu Ruo knew he was asking about Hei Xuanyi: “He’s got some things to attend to, he’ll come a little later.”

In his previous lifetime, Hei Xuanyi only came over in the afternoon.

Wu Qianqing nodded: “Then that’s good.”

As Wu Ruo walked towards the house, he looked at Wu Yu out of the corner of his eye and immediately caught the sneering glint in Wu Yu’s gaze. He couldn’t help but freeze a little, thinking of what Ruan Zhizheng said to him in his previous life right before he died and clenched his fist.

However, the genteel and scholarly Wu Yu had always treated others modestly and amiably and was even more caring towards Wu Ruo. Whenever there were any troubles, Wu Yu would definitely help without a second thought. How was it possible for such a kind person to look down upon him? Could it be that things were really as Ruan Zhizheng said? That the Wu family had been displeased with his family since such a long time ago?

Wu Qianqing felt the change in Wu Ruo and asked: “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” Wu Ruo loosened his fist and held onto Wu Qianqing’s wrist instead, taking the opportunity to take his pulse

.

In his previous lifetime, healing was something he’d gotten interested in after getting married because his body kept getting fatter and fatter. Later on, he’d even apprenticed to a master. That was when he’d found out that his fatness wasn’t a problem with his body, but was because even before he was born, someone had infected him with a parasite. It was no wonder that his fatness was different from others. The excess flab on his body didn’t sink downwards. Instead, his entire body bulged as if someone had inflated his body with air, like a giant balloon.

At that time, although his mediocre healing skills had some use, Wu Qianqing’s cultivation had been destroyed for more than ten years and couldn’t be restored even if they wanted to.

Now, it had only been half a year since Wu Qianqing’s cultivation had been destroyed and there was a high chance that it could be restored to the way it was before.

Wu Yu saw that there was no suitable place for him to interrupt the conversation and thus left first.

Wu Ruo watched as Wu Yu left, his gaze flashing. He first let his own servants off to the kitchens for their breakfast, then said towards Wu Qianqing: “Dad, I have something to tell

Wu-ge

. I’ll just go and be back in a bit.”

Wu Qianqing replied: “I’ll get someone to call him back.”

“There’s no need,” Wu Ruo rejected him because he didn’t actually have anything to tell Wu Yu.

“Then I’ll go with you to look for him.”

“It’s okay, I’ll just go by myself.”

Wu Qianqing’s expression was filled with worry but this was the Wu estate, no one would bully his son here, so he let Wu Ruo go by himself.

As Wu Qianqing sent Wu Ruo off on his own, Wu Yu had reached the start of the small alley and was turning towards the direction that they had come from.

Wu Ruo leaned against the walls for support as he hurried after Wu Yu but he hadn’t even walked two steps before he got breathless and his sense of balance was especially bad that he could trip at any time.

If Wu Ruo fell, it would be hard to get up with just him alone.

“Ugh, damned body,” Wu Ruo wiped the sweat from his forehead, cursed softly under his breath. Starting from tomorrow, he would have to come up with a way to lose weight.

Wu Yu arrived at the side entrance that they had come in through. Wu Ruo, who had followed behind, could see the people who were waiting for Wu Yu even from afar with one glance. It was actually Yu Tianbao and the others.

小若 (Xiao-Ruo): literally means “little Ruo”. Wu Ruo’s given name is Ruo, with Wu being his family name. The

xiao

is a diminutive prefix that indicates affection, endearment. This is normally used by older people to younger people, whether family or close friends. It will pop up more often in later chapters.

三叔 (san shu): recalling that

shu

refers to your father’s younger brother, Wu Yu is referring to Wu Qianqing as his ‘third uncle (younger than his own father)’. Also, Wu Qianqing isn’t literally his third uncle, it just refers to Wu Qianqing as the third child among his own siblings. Wu Yu’s father is probably either the first or second child.

撒娇 (sa jiao): doesn’t have a proper English equivalent. It’s when someone behaves cutely to someone else to try and get their way. You know, when girls pitch their voices higher and behave coquettishly to their boyfriends? It’s something similar, but there’s no flirtatious connotation when children do it to their parents, or when younger siblings do it to their older siblings. It’s a little hard to even explain because I’m not sure if non-East Asian families have this sort of culture.

把脉 (ba mai): it’s that thing they do in traditional Chinese medicine where they feel your pulse and can detect illnesses/irregularities in a person’s body purely from their pulse. Still currently practiced in TCM.

五哥 (wu ge): literally ‘fifth older brother’. The number prefix here indicates Wu Yu’s birth order amongst all the male cousins in Wu Ruo’s family, not that he’s actually Wu Ruo’s fifth older brother or even his ‘older brother’ at all.

Ge

can be used for your actual older brother (both of you have the same parents) or for older males who are your less immediate family members, or for close older male friends.