Tianwu Continent, Dragon Blood Empire, War King Mansion.
In an ancient-looking room, a boy of about fifteen or sixteen lay on the bed. His face pale, his body stiff, if it weren't for the slight rise and fall of his chest, he would be no different from a cold corpse.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, the boy let out a cry and opened his eyes in an instant. Those eyes were bright and deep, filled with the vicissitudes of the ages, and also an overbearing momentum.
"Haha, my reincarnation memories have finally awakened. This is the ninth life!"
"In this life, my name is... Dragon Dust!" The boy sat up from the bed, laughing wildly. Memories surged in his mind like a tide, from the first life, the second life, the third life... the eighth life, until the current ninth life!
It turned out, Dragon Dust was an unparalleled strongman thousands of years ago. He stumbled upon the supreme divine art called 'Nine Lives Reincarnation' while exploring the 'Tomb of God', the first forbidden place in the Nine Realms.
The Nine Lives Reincarnation, as the name implies, requires the cultivator to go through nine lives of reincarnation to perfect the divine art. Once the divine art is perfected, the cultivator can attempt to reach the supreme realm of martial god.
Dragon Dust has already reincarnated eight times, and this life is the ninth, the last one.
"The reincarnation mark is indeed still there." Dragon Dust sensed his body lightly. In the depths of his dantian, eight reincarnation marks overlaid, and the ninth reincarnation mark had begun to take shape.
Upon each life in the Nine Lives Reincarnation, the cultivator will condense a reincarnation mark inside their body. The nine reincarnation marks in Dragon Dust's body represent his past nine lives.
In the first life, he walked from the small world to the big world, after thousands of hardships, ultimately becoming a peerless martial emperor!
In the second life, he became an alchemist, took the art of alchemy to the extreme, created the number one alchemy force in the Nine Realms, Medicine Valley, and was revered as Medicine Ancestor!
In the third life, he took the path of refining artifacts to the end, becoming the only ninth-grade artificer in the Nine Realms, creating the Divine Weapon Pavilion, known as the Artifact God!
...
In the eighth life, he became a sword cultivator, obsessed with the way of the sword, condensing the most potent sword spirit, one man and one sword, dominating the nine realms!
Now, in his ninth life, the foundation accumulated in the previous eight lives will all explode in this life!
"When the ninth reincarnation mark is fully condensed, the Nine Lives Reincarnation Sutra will be completed. By then, I will have a place among the gods!" Long Chen got up from the bed, gazed out the window at the distant sky, a surge of strong ambition rising from his heart.
"Hmm? Why is this body so weak?" Suddenly, Long Chen frowned, feeling a wave of weakness. Upon inspection, he discovered that this body only had the cultivation of a third-tier martial artist.
"The son of the War King, so pitiful, wounded seriously by a punch..."
Images of this life flashed in Long Chen's mind, and his face gradually darkened.
It turned out that in this life, Long Chen was born in the Tianwu Continent, in the Dragonblood Empire, in the War King's Mansion. His father was the War King, Long Zhan Tian, who held ten thousand soldiers and commanded the respect of the entire Dragonblood Empire.
Due to Long Zhan Tian's outstanding contribution, the Emperor often stationed him at the imperial border, but not long ago, disastrous news came from the imperial border.
Because of Long Zhan Tian's improper command, the imperial border was ambushed by the joint forces of the Fengming and Tianlin empires, with three hundred thousand troops. The War King's life and death were uncertain, and his ten thousand elite soldiers were all lost.
News came, and the country was shaken!
In a blink of an eye, the high and mighty War King's Mansion fell from grace. All the stewards, maids, and servants in the mansion escaped, leaving the vast War King's Mansion very desolate.
But Long Chen didn't believe his father would be defeated, thinking that someone had betrayed Long Zhan Tian. He ran to the imperial palace in the middle of the night to argue with the Emperor, but he was seriously injured by a punch from the crown prince of the Qin King's Mansion, Qin Ling, and then was carried back to the War King's Mansion.
However, because of this, Long Chen fortuitously awakened his memories of reincarnation.
"My father, known as the War King, waged wars for over thirty years. He fought in countless battles, big and small. There was an incredible feat where his three thousand elite soldiers defeated an enemy force of one hundred thousand. How could he be ambushed by the enemy this time, leading to the annihilation of his whole army!"
Long Chen's face was ice cold, knowing clearly that things couldn't be as simple as they appeared, but with his current abilities, he could do nothing.
"I need to seize the time and improve my personal cultivation," Long Chen thought to himself. As long as he was strong enough, he could crush any intriguing machinations.
Bang!
Just as Long Chen was lost in thought, the door was pushed open, and a young girl walked in.
She had a head full of blue hair and was dressed in a white dress. Her features were so refined that one could hardly pick out any flaws. Her exposed skin was as delicate as white jade lambskin. The only flaw was the teardrops sparkling in her eyes.
"Brother Long Chen, you've finally awakened. That's great!" The girl exclaimed with uncontainable joy as she saw Long Chen waking up. She rushed over to him.
"You are... Long Yao!" Long Chen recognized the girl standing in front of him, and many scenes featuring Long Yao flashed in his mind.
Originally, Long Yao was the adopted daughter the Dragon Warrior accidentally adopted fifteen years ago. She had grown up with Long Chen, were childhood sweethearts and she was the only one in the King's Mansion who truly cared about Long Chen now.
When the King's Mansion fell, not only did Long Yao not leave, but after Long Chen's accident, she took meticulous care of him. If not for her, it was uncertain whether Long Chen would be dead or alive.
"Yao'er, don't worry, brother is fine now." Long Chen patted Long Yao's head with a tender look in his eyes.
"Wuu... Brother Long Chen, Yao'er thought you would never wake up. You scared me to death." Long Yao sobbed in Long Chen's arms, her tear-stained face looked pitiful.
Long Chen was deeply moved in his heart. Technically, Long Chen lived for eight generations and should have a heart as hard as steel, but looking at Long Yao now, he still felt unbearable pain.
"Yao'er be good, stop crying, isn't brother okay now?" Long Chen comforted Long Yao continuously, knowing how she had suffered because of him.
Long Yao cried in Long Chen's arms for a while, then wiped her tears, stood up and said to Long Chen, "Brother Long Chen, you must be weak after just waking up. Yao'er will make some food for you."
Long Chen looked at Long Yao, his heart deeply moved. He hadn't expected that this young girl was constantly looking out for him.
"Yao'er, there's no need to rush these things. I want to know, how many spirit stones do we have left in our Warlord Mansion's treasury now?" Long Chen asked Long Yao because he knew that since the incident at the Warlord Mansion, it had been Long Yao running the entire mansion.
"Brother Long Chen, our mansion originally had countless spirit stones, but with the escape of those housekeepers and guards, they secretly took away most of the spirit stones. I'm afraid not even one in ten remains now." Long Yao didn't know what Long Chen wanted to do, but she still obediently answered.
"Whatever we have is enough. Bring them all here for me."
Long Chen instructed Long Yao to bring all remaining spirit stones from the Warlord Mansion's treasury. There were over ten thousand inferior spirit stones in total, piled in the room like a small mountain.
"Yao'er, you stay outside on guard first. Without my permission, no one is allowed to come in." Long Chen ordered. Although Long Yao was somewhat surprised, she didn't ask further and agreed, then exited the room.
"Our Warlord Mansion is now crippled internally and externally, falling into an unprecedented crisis. For my own sake, and for Long Yao's, I need to seize the time to enhance my cultivation."
Long Chen calculated in his heart, knowing that if he wished to rise quickly, he would have to rely on the cyclic memories in his mind.