Chapter 1: The Whisper Beneath the Earth
The wind howled across the plains of Qinghe, carrying with it the scent of dew-laced grass and ancient soil. Nestled between emerald hills and winding brooks, the village seemed untouched by time—humble homes with clay-tiled roofs, elders sipping tea beneath blooming magnolia trees, and children chasing wind-kites under the setting sun. But beneath this pastoral serenity, something stirred.
At the base of a forgotten hill just outside the village—long overgrown and regarded as cursed—an old burial shrine cracked open for the first time in a century. No storm, no tremor. Just the whisper of a name lost to history.
Li Tianming.
The earth shifted. The winds stilled. And from within the hollowed crypt, a faint heartbeat echoed.
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Chen Yu awoke gasping, drenched in sweat.
He clutched his chest, the memory of suffocation still lingering in his lungs. But it was not a dream. It was a memory—so vivid, so agonizing, it made his own birth feel like a second act. In that brief moment of agony, he remembered… palaces bathed in starlight, war councils that shaped nations, and the dagger that pierced his back under the guise of friendship.
"Where… am I?" he whispered, blinking into the dim light of a straw-thatched ceiling.
The room was unfamiliar—modest, warm, and rustic. Walls lined with medicinal herbs and scrolls. A small hearth flickered in the corner. Outside the window, he saw terraced rice fields glistening under the early dawn.
Then, as if answering his unspoken confusion, a cold chime echoed in his mind.
> [Heaven's Chronicle System Initialized.]
Status: Reincarnated Host Detected
Host: Chen Yu (Formerly Li Tianming)
Class: Undetermined
Dao Affinity: Unknown
Memory Integration: 3%
Initiating Tutorial Quest...
His breath hitched.
He hadn't imagined it. The System was real. A cold, mechanical presence wrapped in divine authority. And somehow, it knew who he was.
Chen Yu's fingers tightened around the edge of the straw bed. His body was different—smaller, weaker—but his soul, his will, was still intact.
They had buried Li Tianming in lies and silence. But fate had granted him a second chance.
"I will not be a pawn this time," he murmured, voice low but firm.
Beyond the hills, a bell tolled from Qinghe's village square—signaling the start of the Harvest Festival. But for Chen Yu, it marked something else.
The beginning of his return.