Chapter 1: Escaping the Original World at 60 Kilometers Per Hour

“Master… I was wrong…”

The woman in magnificent golden phoenix robes collapsed to her knees before Chen Juenian. Her shoulders trembled, and her voice broke into sobs that seemed to tear straight from her soul.

She was wrong.

Completely, utterly wrong.

Chen Juenian stood in silence, white hair drifting gently in the wind. His eyes slowly closed, as if shutting away the past.

“If you were still the child you once were,” he said at last, voice calm yet distant, “I could tell you that recognizing one’s mistakes and correcting them is the greatest virtue.”

A pause.

“But you’ve grown up.”

The words fell like a blade.

“I never imagined… that you would one day betray your master and dishonor your ancestors.”

His tone hardened, final and unyielding.

“Huang’er… from this moment on, the bond between master and disciple is severed.”

Silence swallowed the mountain.

Chen Juenian couldn’t help but recall the day Huang Hongxue first came to him.

A seven-year-old child.

Broken. Blind. Crippled.

Her own mother had gouged out her Supreme Bone, Double Pupils, and Chaos Spiritual Root, leaving her less than human.

And yet—

She had climbed mountains.

Crawled across jagged paths.

Driven by nothing but stubborn will, she had reached his door.

Back then, he pitied her.

Now… that same pity had become the blade that cut him the deepest.

“Master!”

Huang Hongxue suddenly raised her head. Her golden pupils shimmered with tears, her once-pristine appearance now disheveled.

“Huang’er truly loves you!”

Her voice trembled, desperate and raw.

“Last night… it was just a moment of weakness, a foolish impulse. I… I didn’t even succeed in the end…”

Her lips quivered.

“Master… please forgive me. Just this once… just this once…”

Chen Juenian didn’t open his eyes.

“Your strength is already enough to dominate the Nine Heavens Beyond the Sky.”

His voice was calm—too calm.

“Leaving Juenian Mountain will not hinder your survival.”

A faint pause.

“Huang Hongxue… leave.”

That single word sealed everything.

There was no redemption.

No second chance.

No return.

Chen Juenian raised his hand and struck forward with a distant palm.

The air exploded.

The force was overwhelming—enough to send even an Emperor Realm cultivator like Huang Hongxue flying without resistance.

The wind roared, then gradually faded.

When Huang Hongxue steadied herself mid-air, the familiar warmth of Juenian Mountain had already vanished from sight.

He hadn’t harmed her.

Only… sent her away.

A thousand meters apart.

A distance far greater than it seemed.

“Master…”

Her voice was hollow.

In that moment, Huang Hongxue felt as if she had lost everything.

The pain in her chest was far worse than when she had been betrayed and crippled.

Had she… been too impatient?

Ten Years Later

“Palace Master… the Juenian Mountain you ordered us to find… has been located.”

The quiet voice echoed through the cold, vast palace hall.

Huang Hongxue, seated high upon her throne, slowly lifted her head.

“What?”

A flicker of light ignited in her dim golden eyes.

Ten years.

For cultivators, it was nothing.

For her… it was an eternity.

Juenian Mountain was her home.

The Huangxue Heavenly Palace?

Just a tool.

A force she had built casually—only to grow stronger.

To prove herself.

To return.

Without her master, no place in the world held meaning.

A person without a home… could never find peace.

“Where?!” she demanded.

In an instant, she appeared before the reporting disciple, gripping her shoulder tightly.

The disciple trembled.

The elders’ report… was not good news.

“Palace Master… Juenian Mountain lies within the Howling Mountain Range, on the edge of the Mortal Realm…”

A pause.

“The senior who lived there… passed away ten years ago.”

“…what?”

Huang Hongxue’s pupils shrank violently.

Without another word, she shot into the sky, tearing through the palace dome and streaking toward the Mortal Realm like a bolt of golden lightning.

Impossible.

Her master… dead?

A peerless existence who could revive the dead and regrow flesh—how could he die?!

She remembered clearly—

That day, when he held her fragile, skeletal body…

He had smiled and said he could restore everything she had lost.

He had to be alive.

He had to.

When she arrived at Juenian Mountain, the scene felt both familiar and alien.

The elders stood silently at the peak.

And there—

At the center of a grand spiritual array—

Sat Chen Juenian.

Eyes closed.

Motionless.

“Master!”

Huang Hongxue rushed forward.

“Palace Master, this senior—”

“Move!”

With a flick of her sleeve, the elders were blasted aside.

She threw herself into his arms.

But instead of warmth—

She felt only cold.

A chilling stillness.

“Master…”

Her voice cracked.

“Palace Master… this senior has already ascended… We were preparing his burial…”

Huang Hongxue’s hand trembled as she pressed it against his abdomen, probing his condition.

Impossible.

He couldn’t have died of old age.

Not him.

His body was flawless.

Untouched.

Even after ten years, his face remained as divine as ever.

Only one thing was broken.

His Dao Heart.

For cultivators of their level…

A shattered Dao Heart meant death.

Absolute, irreversible death.

But how?

How could someone like him… have his Dao Heart shattered?

Her mind trembled.

Ten years ago…

She made a mistake.

He drove her away.

And then—

The next day…

He died.

Another World

For the past week, Chen Juenian had been plagued by strange dreams.

Every night, he became a secluded immortal.

Taking in pitiful girls as disciples.

Raising them.

Protecting them.

Watching them grow into unparalleled beauties and peerless experts.

The dreams were vivid.

Too vivid.

He could remember every detail—every day, every moment.

But the endings…

Were always the same.

Every single one of them…

Fell in love with him.

Which made things… incredibly awkward.

As a normal man from the 21st century, Chen Juenian should have been thrilled.

But these girls?

He had raised them from childhood.

One of them had even been an infant.

There was no way he could accept that.

“Yeah… I’m definitely losing it from work stress…”

He muttered to himself after waking.

After washing up and changing, he stepped out of his small apartment.

He was an orphan.

No family.

No background.

Just an ordinary graduate living an ordinary life.

Rent.

Work.

Food.

That was his world.

Compared to that—

Those dreams felt absurd.

“Still… steamed buns sound good.”

He bought two meat buns from a roadside stall, rented a shared bicycle, and rode off, humming a strange tune he had learned in his dreams.

Then—

A deafening horn shattered the morning calm.

Chen Juenian looked up.

A heavy truck had smashed through the guardrail.

Out of control.

Rushing straight toward him.