“And I sense no cards of fate upon my soul… no awful doom or twisted glory that I’m supposed to embrace!” Alex could feel tears streaming down his face as he barely whispered the words. Still so overwhelmed by all that had occurred that he had to choke back a sob.

“Hao Chan… how long had it been? How many years, how many centuries?”

Euphoric relief turned to horrified dismay. He shook his head in heartfelt despair.

“How long had I slipped under death’s waters… and why do I remember everything? Oh, Hao Chan… how long did you wait for me?”

He swallowed the awful lump in his throat, missing her twinkling amber eyes, soft lips and cheeky grin, visualizing her features in a moment that was itself an exquisite, endless torment. Forcing himself to accept the bitter lining to his newfound sense of freedom. Despite doing absolutely everything he could to save her, to save them both, to allow for a life they could embrace together… too many powerful players with countless eons of ruthless experience had invested far too much time and bitter effort to sabotage his successes and destroy his accomplishments at every opportunity. Forcing him into impossible situations that demanded ever greater sacrifices. With no hope, no positive resolution, and no way out.

“Until now, fuckers. And I TORE OUT YOUR FUCKING THROAT!”

Alex’s voice echoed oddly in the cavern as the sandstorm beyond the cavern finally died out, and Alex clamped his jaw shut.

His beloved might be lost to him, time being the one barrier no power could cross… but even the Hao Chan of a thousand years ago, living a life of grace and privilege in an imperial palace that would have, he prayed, welcomed her with open arms once she showed the potential of Gold catalyzed before her 20th birthday… even that pristine imperial jewel would have made it damn clear that if he was done with being WiFu’s eternal disciple, then he should stop playing the fool.

He no longer felt the cards of fate upon his soul.

He was no longer protected by Fog of War.

No. He was now blessed with something far, far greater.

Sensing it only for its lack.

He was no longer in the eyes of the gods at all.

Perhaps they thought him eternally drowning. Or mayhap WiFu had actually fooled them into thinking he was now the serpentine guardian of the dead, after WiFu had reclaimed heart and soul stone with Alex’s blessing and had put his first disciple back together.

And how tragic was that, on so many levels?

Regardless… he now had, perhaps for the first time in a dozen lifetimes, a chance to live completely unnoticed by the psychopaths high above… assuming he was in the same realm at all.

So how impossibly, unbelievably stupid would it be for him to call attention to himself now?

He would give himself credit for being smart enough to not even whisper the names of his ancient foes.

And maybe there were a million vindictive cultivators chanting similar words of bitter triumph over mountains of corpses out there. But all the same, maybe it would be best if he never said a word about tearing out anyone’s throat. Best if he never referred to the bitter struggles of his past at all.

He shook his head in wonder, still surprised that he could remember his most recent life so clearly.

But he supposed it made sense.

After all, why would Grandmother Yei Wang who gave countless souls the mercy of oblivion so that they could start each life free of the burdens and regrets of the past, give he who had torn out her descendant’s throat any mercy at all?

Though perhaps WiFu’s final grace had been making sure Alex slipped out of the sight of the whole pantheon entirely.

Which meant that he might never forget his past again.

Assuming this wasn’t his final life in truth.

Which meant that he best make the best of it.

At that moment he smiled through his tears, determined to make the absolute most of this second chance, to savor this life and all it’s possibilities… to finally give himself the sweet isekai storybook second-life that he had always wanted… and had almost never been able to achieve.

Which meant that he should take a quick inventory of himself, and understand exactly what his new starting point truly entailed… in addition to keeping his damn mouth shut, lest his manic screaming and sobbing alert unseen threats that might otherwise have no interest in the youth now lying so quietly on a mound of sand upon a cavern floor.

Wincing at his own burst of foolishness, a quick furtive look detected nothing in the gloom.

He then closed his eyes and pulled up his Interface sheet, almost dreading the thought of starting over as a level 0 boy with close to straight 9s in his physical stats once more.

_____________________________________________________

Alex Hammer

Class – Cultivator: Disciple of the Boundless Path

Rank 5 Basic Cultivation Achieved!

Physical Characteristics

Strength – Bronze Rank 2 (25)

Vitality – Bronze Rank 2 (25)

Quickness – 15

Finesse – 15

Spiritual Characteristics

Scholarship - 14 (Exceeds 84% of Population.)

Perception - 18 (Exceeds 99% of population.)

Willpower – 25 (Rank 2 Bronze achieved the hard way! - You have the resolve to walk in the Valley of Death and slip free of the River of Souls.)

Qi Pool – 15** (Silver Rank 5 (165)) Note! Bronze Tier threshold must be reached to unlock)

Health Points: 325

Perks

Insightful – Rank 2

Charismatic – Rank 3

Lesser Shadow Affinity - You can now see Shadow Qi! You have +6 to spot all those using Shadow to ambush or confuse you.

Golden Apple of Wisdom consumed. Increased chance of cultivation breakthroughs.

Draconic Ancestry. - The blood of golden dragons flows through your veins! You may now purchase additional ranks in Strength and Vitality as if they were 1 tier lower than they actually are, in terms of cost and requirements!

All damage from heat and flame, spiritual or mundane, is reduced in severity by 2 Damage tiers. All cold-based attacks and physical sources of damage are decreased in severity by 1 Damage tier.

Favored Skills

Golden Realms Kung Fu – Rank 10

Poison Spitting – Rank 5

Stealth – Rank 4

Elemental Qi Disciplines (Learned at Royal Phoenix Academy)

Water Shield – Rank 5

Water Strike – Rank 5

Thorn Shield – Rank 5

Oak Strike – Rank 5

Fire Shield – Rank 4

Flame Fist – Rank 4

Earthern Shield – Rank 4

Stone Fist – Rank 5

Qi Perception-linked Disciplines

Artificer – Rank 7

Find Weakness – Rank 6

Qi Perception – Rank 7

Soul Sight – Rank 6

Spiritual Teacher – Rank 8

Interface Enhanced Skills

Biochemical Mastery – Rank 7

Full Regenerative Capacity – Healing rate based on Vitality. Injuries will be free of scarring. Missing limbs will require 1 day per pound of bio material lost to regenerate fully. Note! This capacity has been enhanced by the blood of dragons and extensive regeneration experienced during your most recent incarnation!

Gift of Tongues

________________________________________________

Alex gazed at his character sheet for long moments, filled with an odd mixture of elation and dismay. He was the farthest thing from the naive 17 year old with below average stats that he had been with every other rebirth. No. Much to his awe and delight, he had kept countless boons earned during his final struggle against callous fate and bitter gods. Permanent transformations including the genetic imprint of dragons had reshaped him and changed his destiny in ways that still awed him. Even if it was somehow muted… he now sensed that it was well and truly his own. He was somehow certain that he wouldn’t even attract the notice of a certain lesser dragon god… so long as he didn’t foolishly call attention to himself.

Yet his physical stats were the farthest thing from a Silver on the cusp of Gold.

No. As far as grace and coordination went, he was as physically fit as most mortals would ever achieve. As far as Strength and Vitality went… he was already beyond Olympian power lifters that might reach a Strength of 20 at the peak of human potential, having already broken through to Bronze Rank 2. What was effectively a Strength of 25, with a Vitality to match. A direct blessing of his draconic enhancement, he knew that already. And he was pretty sure that every basic point he put into Strength and Vitality would give him the equivalent of an additional Bronze Rank… whereas that same point in Quickness or Agility would just bump it from 15 to 16.

As to how many points he would get per level up, or even if he could level up as he had before… he truly had no idea. Yet he had considerable hope that there was a path forward for him… even if his former Divine Tier Dual Path had somehow transformed to a Boundless Path… and he wasn’t really sure what that meant at all.

Yet his Willpower, he was happy to see, was still at Bronze Rank 2… and he knew he had earned every bloody point of it, daring to take on gods and cleave his way free of the River of Souls itself. And if there was one revelation that truly filled him with hope and excitement… it was seeing his Qi Pool. As much as 15 was just a tiny fraction of what it once had been… His Interface made it clear that once he brought it up to 20… one point at a time… he’d unlock Tier 5 Silver, which was effectively a Qi Pool of 165.

As for all the glorious skills he had developed in his past life that had allowed him such potent mastery in melee settings… he was filled with dismay to see so many grayed out. For all that he intuitively sensed that all the previous lessons learned would serve as wonderful templates to learning similar skills, so many deadly gifts had been claimed by the life he had left behind. What pained him the most was seeing even Eternal Fox grayed out.

But perhaps he shouldn’t be surprised.

Because there was no greater signature as to who he was, than showing off those deadly skills once more. Especially an art he had forged in his master’s name.

Yet much to his bemusement, the basic elemental strikes and counters he had learned as a student of Royal Phoenix Academ were available to him still. He could form basic shields or strike with the power of Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

Just as importantly, if not more so, the physical skills and fighting techniques he had learned were still his own. He hadn’t suddenly forgotten how to shatter bone with his shin kicks, knock an opponent out cold with a spinning backfist, or send them tumbling with a foot sweep or a spring hip throw. And as far as using his spear, dao, and most especially his fangtian ji went, he could viscerally recall every lesson he had embraced by his mentor’s side. No matter how painful.

He might no longer be summoning a glorious whirlwind of Qi, or summoning the force and fury of a typhoon… at least not right now, but damn if his body didn’t exquisitely recall every graceful movement that had helped him channel so much devastating spiritual energy. Hence his Rank 10 in Golden Realms kung fu and all the weapons associated with it. A rank only the most elite masters could ever hope to surpass.

What was perhaps most remarkable was that he still had access to Biochemical Mastery and All his Qi Perception skills were perfectly intact. Any discipline that was about perceiving and understanding, not necessarily channeling, the flow of Qi. Which meant that even if his physical stats were now between Basic and Bronze, he could still spot the most vulnerable points in his enemy’s body and, with time and focus, understand the Qi flow through a cultivator’s or a spirit beast’s meridians as well.

Of course, what was most useful to him right then was taking full advantage of his Qi Perception in the pitch darkness of the cave.

He stilled himself and focused, senses alert for any stalking predator that might have sensed the poor fool who had been sobbing and screaming and carrying on, and think him easy prey.

Yet save for the mournful sound of the wind howling across the plains beyond the cavern entrance, there was nothing to be seen or heard at all.

He took a deep breath of warm life-giving air once more as he shivered with exhaustion upon desert sands in a cavern he had done his best to make sure was safe before finally allowing himself to slip away in nod’s embrace. Savoring sleep for the first time since being lost in Qui Jing’s perilous coils as the warm air of the living caressed the skin of a soul that knew death’s embrace all too well.

His final flickering thoughts were of making the most of this brand new life that he was determined to savor and enjoy to the utmost.

All he had to do was stay out of the sights of spiteful gods and avoid trouble as best he could.