Chapter 1: The God of Slaughter Reborn

In the room, Yang Fan stared at the pale face in the mirror, his eyes filled with astonishment.

“I’ve been reborn.”

He touched his face, still somewhat dazed.

He remembered being struck down by the combined might of the Twelve Emperors of the Divine Realm.

But now, it seemed he hadn’t truly died.

More precisely, his soul had survived.

“Cast-off of the Yang family—what a pitiful fate,” Yang Fan shook his head, a trace of self-mockery upon his lips.

From the memories in his mind, he understood that the original owner of this body was the illegitimate son of the third son of the Yang family’s patriarch.

He had been cast out of the family mainly for being an idle wastrel, indulging in debauchery and women, bringing shame to a family that valued profit above all. Such a useless, scandalous member had no place in the Yang family.

Thus, Yang Fan was abandoned.

“My body is too weak. If I want revenge, I must first regain my strength,” Yang Fan smiled bitterly.

He found himself frail to the extreme, his energy sapped by years of excess—his body was all but ruined.

If he wanted to rebuild his constitution, he’d have to cultivate.

In his previous life, as the God of Slaughter across the universe, he’d mastered powerful cultivation techniques that could restore his body through practice.

“But the spiritual energy here is so thin. At this rate, how long will it take to reach the Saint Realm?” Yang Fan felt on the verge of tears.

He discovered, to his dismay, that this world was starved of spiritual energy, making cultivation an arduous task.

To leave this world, he needed the power of the Saint Realm.

But with spiritual energy so thin, reaching the Saint Realm seemed close to impossible.

The early stages of cultivation were divided into the Qi Refining Realm, the Transcendent Realm, and the Saint Realm.

Yang Fan estimated that, in this world, the best he could hope for through cultivation alone was the Transcendent Realm.

To reach the Saint Realm, he would need to find another way.

At that moment, the door opened, and a striking figure appeared in Yang Fan’s line of sight.

Dressed fashionably, the young woman was about eighteen, her youthful vibrance shining through. Her face was delicately shaped, with a touch of shyness, her eyes bright as the stars, sparkling with life.

“At least you’re still alive.”

After giving Yang Fan a cold glance, Lu Yuxi turned and closed the door.

Yang Fan stood unmoving, his expression unchanged.

He knew why Lu Yuxi treated him so coldly.

Lu Yuxi was a senior at an elite high school, a girl whose life and future had once been full of promise. But all that had been shattered.

Because she was now his wife.

To marry a useless, dissolute man was to have one’s life ruined.

But she’d had no choice.

Her father, desperate to save his company, had sought help from the Yang family, the price being Lu Yuxi’s marriage to Yang Fan.

To have such a beautiful young wife was a stroke of luck owed to the Yang family.

And when the family expelled Yang Fan, they found him a wife as compensation—a final gesture of “kindness.”

Lu Yuxi returned to her room, gathered her books, and left for school.

Meanwhile, Yang Fan felt the pangs of hunger gnawing at his empty stomach.

He left his room and headed downstairs in search of food. Pausing outside Lu Yuxi’s door, he saw it was firmly shut.

They had always slept separately, never sharing a bed. Not because Yang Fan was unwilling, but because he was incapable.

His body had long since failed him in that regard.

To avoid exposing his impotence, he had never touched Lu Yuxi.

In the living room, he noticed there was no breakfast. Frowning, he opened the fridge, only to find it empty.

He scoured the kitchen, but there was nothing to eat.

“Looks like she really hates me this time,” Yang Fan laughed bitterly. “This damned fool, getting drunk and making a scene…”

Lu Yuxi had always made him breakfast—except today.

It was because the previous night, Yang Fan had gotten drunk and behaved inappropriately toward Lu Yuxi’s cousin.

He’d pinned her cousin to the bed, trying to undress her.

If Lu Yuxi hadn’t arrived in time, things would have gotten out of hand.

Drunk and belligerent, Yang Fan had raged and lashed out at everyone.

In the end, Lu Yuxi had struck him with a wine bottle, knocking him unconscious.

Fearing she’d killed him, she’d been terrified—until she realized he was only out cold.

“I’ll have to buy something to eat outside,” Yang Fan decided, heading to Lu Yuxi’s room to look for money.

But the door was locked; he couldn’t get in.

“How pathetic,” he muttered, punching the door in frustration.

He’d always stolen money from Lu Yuxi to fund his reckless lifestyle, so now she was on her guard.

With no food in the house and no money, Yang Fan had no choice but to venture out in search of something to eat.

He wandered through the park behind Lu Yuxi’s school, hoping to find something.

“Ziyuan Fruit? I can’t believe there’s Ziyuan Fruit here!” Yang Fan’s eyes lit up as he spotted a fruit tree in the distance.

He hurried over and counted five ripe Ziyuan fruits.

Ziyuan Fruit was a low-level spiritual fruit; once, Yang Fan would have scorned such a thing.

But now, with his cultivation lost and having to start over, Ziyuan Fruit was a priceless treasure.

He plucked a fruit, peeled it, and dug out the pit to eat.

The pit was hard and took some effort to bite open.

Activating his cultivation technique, Yang Fan began absorbing the fruit’s energy, feeling a wave of comfort and renewed strength.

He felt invigorated, his spirits lifted.

“Yang Fan, that beast, is actually scavenging for food?” Zhang Meng, seeing Yang Fan eating fruit on the ground, was stunned.

Had her cousin really not made him breakfast?

She hurried back to school to tell Lu Yuxi.

Hearing that Yang Fan was so hungry he’d resorted to scavenging, Lu Yuxi felt a pang of guilt.

She hadn’t made breakfast out of anger.

But now, thinking it over, she wondered if she’d gone too far.

Yang Fan had once been a young master, never learning to cook or fend for himself.

After marrying him, it had become her duty to look after him.

Leaving her classroom, Lu Yuxi ran to the park.

She searched where Zhang Meng had described but couldn’t find him.

“Well, he won’t die from missing one meal. I’ll cook for him after school,” she thought, heading back to class.

Meanwhile, deep in the park’s woods, Yang Fan sat cross-legged on a boulder, cultivating.

He was still absorbing the Ziyuan Fruit’s energy.

At noon, as the school bell rang, Lu Yuxi hurried home to buy groceries and cook.

Once the meal was ready, she found the house empty.

“Where has he gone?” Lu Yuxi frowned at the deserted room.

Since the food was ready, she reasoned that he would eat when he returned.

Not thinking too much of it, she went to her room for a nap.

When she awoke, the food was untouched—Yang Fan still hadn’t returned.

A sudden anxiety took hold of her. She worried that something might have happened to Yang Fan.

“If he starves to death, then I’ll be free,” she thought, but the idea brought her no comfort.

She picked up her books and left for school.

All day, she was distracted, unable to focus in class, her conscience troubled.

If she starved someone to death, what kind of woman would she be?

The more she thought, the more uneasy she became.

During a break, she returned home, only to find the house still empty, the food untouched.

With Yang Fan gone all day, Lu Yuxi’s worry deepened.

She thought he would surely return by night and went back to class.

But after afternoon lessons, Yang Fan was still nowhere to be found.

Skipping evening study, Lu Yuxi began searching for him.

She went to the park, hoping to find him.

As dusk fell, the park grew quieter.

“Brother Tian, look over there—there’s a schoolgirl, she’s a real cutie,” a blond-haired youth said lewdly, his gaze fixed on Lu Yuxi.

He was surrounded by eight other young men, all with garishly dyed hair and bodies covered in tattoos.

At his words, the others looked over.

Their eyes landed on Lu Yuxi, and their faces lit up with desire.