Chapter 1 – The First Ray of Light

Ji Si was born into a scholarly family in Jiang Nan, raised in a household steeped in culture and privilege.

He was notably handsome and possessed an outstanding demeanor, nurtured by the wisdom of his ancestors and inspired by the integrity of his peers, making him the quintessential eldest son of a distinguished family.

Without unforeseen circumstances, his life would have followed a traditional path: passing the imperial examinations, getting engaged, and marrying. He would then navigate the tumultuous waters of bureaucracy for decades, dedicating his life to the rise and fall of his family.

However, fate slipped up one day, dragging him down an unintended path. What followed was akin to an avalanche, shattering his life and eroding his cultivation.

It all began in what seemed like an ordinary December when his half-brother fell into water and, after suffering a high fever for three days, woke up a changed person.

His half-brother losing interest in studies was one thing, but getting obsessed with women at just twelve was another.

Even as his half-brother started hanging out with all sorts of people, calling everyone brother and forming cliques, Ji Si could turn a blind eye. But he crossed the line when he started to shake the foundations of their family.

In a drunken stupor, his half-brother threw his cup and bellowed, “Are princes and generals really born to different parents?”

What was he planning, huh?

Becoming a bandit or starting a rebellion? It would have been better if he had drowned!

Ji Si smiled faintly. Since warnings and advice were ineffective, and his half-brother inexplicably hated him to the bone, Ji Si felt compelled to reluctantly get rid of him.

Little did he know, right after the half-brother’s coffin was sealed, the elders informed him that Miss Mo, who was of equal social status and likely to become his lawful wife, also fell into water and emerged a completely different person.

Being unwilling to marry was one thing, but disguising as a man and slipping out to do business was something else.

Even as Miss Mo flirted with Big Brother Dongfang on her left, held Young Hero Nangong on her right, called for Ximen Assassin in front, and had Little Brother Beitang backing her up, Ji Si could take it as a joke. But she should never have tried to drag him down with her.

Miss Mo lifted her embroidered handkerchief, tears like those of a tiger: “My heart is pleased with you! But for my family, my husband can only be the rightful son of the Ji family!”

What was she hinting at, huh?

Having your four directions assassinate me? You would have been better off drowned…

Ji Si smiled faintly. Since she insisted on using him as a shield, he had no choice but to help the neighbor clean house.

Thus, three months passed, and the coffin business saw a surprising boom.

But just as the first seven days of mourning ended, Ji Si, who had returned to the academy, heard from a friend that a debauchee who couldn’t stand him had fallen into water and changed dramatically after waking up…

Hearing this, Ji Si fell into rare silence.

A youth nearing his fifteenth birthday couldn’t understand why everyone around him found it so easy to fall into water? This pattern of falling into water, waking up changed, and then turning against him was truly unusual.

Could it be something in the water?

But whether the water was poisoned or not, Ji Si couldn’t verify. However, he could confirm that the debauchee’s brain was definitely waterlogged.

When the latter firmly told his followers, “Those who follow me will prosper; those who oppose me will perish,” and just as firmly told a courtesan, “With a wife like this, what more could a husband want?” and even more firmly told his tutor, “Ji Si insulted and humiliated me yesterday; I will return it a hundredfold,” Ji Si understood that this guy was no different from the previous two who had drowned.

Time to get rid of him.

Half a year later, the debauchee lay covered in cloth, departing this world to the loud wail of funeral horns, while Ji Si sent someone to pack as he prepared to leave for the Capital, wanting to distance himself from a region where people fell into water too often.

The servant asked puzzled, “Young Master, why don’t we take the water route?”

Ji Si sighed, “I’m afraid I might fall into the water and wake up changed.”

The north has less water, which seemed to suit his fate. Unfortunately, on the very night Ji Si settled into his maternal family’s home in the Capital, he received terrible news that the daughter of the Left Minister had fallen from a horse and woke up changed!

Ji Si: …

The young master’s composure finally couldn’t withstand the malice brewing in his heart. He hadn’t expected that in the north, instead of falling into water, people fell off horses. He couldn’t stop northerners from riding horses, just as he couldn’t stop southerners from boating.

So, a dead end?

The Left Minister and the Ji family of Jiang Nan were hardly connected, perhaps he was overthinking.

Unfortunately, as misfortune would have it during continuous bad luck, this daughter of the Left Minister harbored a natural malice towards him. Maybe falling off a horse was worse than falling into water, as this woman seemed to have opened her third eye, causing him much trouble.

Letting scholars ostracize him was one thing, allowing martial students to challenge him was another.

Even as his paintings were destroyed, his poems burned, and his spies rooted out, Ji Si remained calm. But she should never have tried to slander him for cheating in the imperial examinations.

The Left Minister’s daughter, with a heart blacker than coal and a vicious nature, sneered: “As long as you live, I will not be at peace!”

What was she planning, huh?

If only that horse’s hoofs had been more accurate, you wouldn’t have to be so restless; it would have been better if you had died cleanly.

Ji Si smiled faintly and began a long plot and counterattack. After a year and a half, he unearthed numerous evidences of the Left Minister’s corruption and treason, directly leading to his entire family being thrown into the imperial prison.

By this point, Ji Si had been tempered to remain utterly composed, even if his servant stumbled in to report, he could still calmly sip his tea and ask, “Tell me, who has fallen off a horse and woke up changed this time?”

The servant was shocked, “Young Master is truly prescient!”

Ji Si chuckled coldly in his heart; he had seen all kinds of scenarios.

The servant whispered, “The Crown Prince fell off a horse and woke up changed.”

Ji Si’s hand holding the tea trembled slightly, this scenario he truly hadn’t seen…

Taking a deep breath, for self-preservation and for his family, Ji Si had to get involved in the struggle for succession. After careful deliberation, he decided to cultivate a prince who neither excelled at riding nor swimming—away from hunting grounds and boating, seeking only this sense of “safety”.

After three years of covert conflict, Ji Si overthrew the previous Crown Prince and supported a new Emperor, pushing the Ji family of Jiang Nan to the pinnacle of great clans.

As the saying goes, “When the birds are gone, the good bow is hidden.” Ji Si did not seek titles or official appointments; he only wanted to stay away from the bustling Capital where people frequently fell off horses.

He was barely a young adult, yet he had lived the past seven years like an old man. Unwilling to return to the family home in Jiang Nan, and not wanting to live in the capital estate, he requested to go to the Western Regions instead.

In the Western Regions, with fewer rivers and lakes and more camels and sheep, there would likely be no incidents of falling into water or off horses. He could live there peacefully and recuperate.

Who would have known that within three days of arriving in the Western Regions, the old housekeeper delivered a thunderbolt of news: the queen of Xi Liang had fallen off a cliff and woke up changed!

Ji Si: …

No water and no horses, yet there were cliffs? Falling, falling, falling! If you all can’t even walk properly day after day, I might as well help you chop off your legs!

It turned out, falling off cliffs was even more potent.

When the queen of Xi Liang shouted, “My fate is my own, not dictated by the heavens,” and with a wave of her hand lit a fire and summoned a swarm of insects, Ji Si realized that although he did not fall into water, off horses, or off cliffs, he now wanted to change as well…

He drew his sword and fought until he was nearly breathless, finally managing to kill the old witch.

Then, as the rain poured down, mixing mud and blood, winding its way downward, Ji Si, exhausted, stumbled backwards and fell off the cliff.

As the wind swept by and the sensation of weightlessness overwhelmed him, the noble son of the Ji family could no longer recall any sage’s teachings, and only a coarse curse slipped through his teeth: “Damn it!”

Ji Si fell off the cliff, and when he awoke… Thank heavens, his temperament hadn’t changed at all.

What had changed was the entire world, now known as “Reincarnation,” seemingly a realm unto itself. Those who lived here were called “Chosen Ones,” capable of flying through the skies and moving mountains.

At that time, the severely injured Ji Si lay in an open field, surrounded by a group of frightened men and women. Around them, many “Immortals” spoke rapidly.

Whenever the “Immortals” made a decision, some of the men and women in the field would disappear. Ji Si turned his head with difficulty and saw that those who disappeared were now standing next to the “Immortals.”

Was this a selection?

“Should we take the one lying down?”

“Why bother with someone half-dead? Would that not waste my points?” an extremely impatient voice asked, “At least the able-bodied can be somewhat useful cannon fodder.”

As the number of men and women on the ground dwindled, and the “Immortals” eventually left, only Ji Si remained, lying there in desolation.

As the sun set and the moon rose, his body temperature cooled. As his consciousness blurred, he seemed to return to the day the new Emperor ascended the throne, watching the diviners of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, masked and dancing on the drums, their white robes fluttering like cranes.

“Captain, there’s only one left here, do we take him?”

Footsteps approached him. Who was it? Who had come?

“What can you do?” a cold female voice asked.

Ji Si didn’t hear clearly, knowing strangers usually asked for a name or where one lived, so he weakly replied, “Ji Si…”

“Sacrifice? Priest?” The woman paused, then turned her head, “One minute, I want all the information on this profession!”

After a moment, a man’s voice excitedly said, “Captain! ‘High Priest’ is an all-around profession, good at long-range and close combat, summoning, divination, and mass healing.”

“Damn! Buy him! It’s a bargain!”

From then on, Ji Si became the High Priest of this team, from in name only to truly deserving the title.

Initially, he didn’t understand why, knowing he was clueless, they went out of their way to save him. That is, until he realized they had little resistance to good-looking people…

Ji Si: …

Suddenly, his heart was burdened.

…

In this space that bound them, centuries and millennia passed as though mere moments.

Over time, Ji Si and his companions became close friends who had been through life and death together.

Together, they chased the wind and rode the waves, watching the sunrise amid tumultuous seas; they piloted starships, leaping through the cycles of light and shadow; they reached the edge of the galaxy, peering into the mysteries of the Tree of Life, Kabbalah, through the magical patterns of the Flower of Life… Together, they fought in the great battle of Ragnarok, ending this grand cycle of reincarnation.

By then, body, mind, and spirit had reached perfection, attaining completeness.

“The cycle of reincarnation is ending, and the space layer will collapse. High Priest, have you thought about where you want to retire?” a friend asked, “Will you return to your origin, or…”

Ji Si smiled warmly, “I want to go to your world.”

“Even if the apocalypse comes, I want to see it.” Ji Si’s robe fluttered, his hair lifted, his gaze turned into a vast emptiness, “What you have given, my repayment, this is a karmic cycle, also the meaning of our meeting.”

He “saw” countless trajectories of stars intersecting and parting, he “saw” the fusion and sedimentation of divinity and humanity, he “saw” rebirth and death, and he also “saw” where he needed to go…

“High Priest, our world is complicated, take care.”

“Take care.” Better to face this than return to a place where falling into water was commonplace, huh.

Ji Si opened the stargate, leaped lightly, and plunged into the Earth before the day of destruction. Whether the landing spot was in the deep sea, a volcano, the maw of a beast, or a demonic abyss, he would not fear in the slightest.

The swirling aurora slowly faded, tinting the space before him with scattered starlight. The vortex in the corridor instantly expanded, turning into an upward swirling airflow, causing his robe to flutter and whip around.

First, his cloud-patterned boots with golden edges touched the ground, followed by the tip of his foot to the front of his toes, landing both forcefully and gracefully.

With a soft “pop,” the fluttering snow robe touched down, followed by flowing cloud sleeves, and finally, glowing hair strands.

A faint halo surrounded him, and Ji Si slowly opened his eyes, his staff hitting the ground, coincidentally poking into a pile of soft filth.

Sounds flooded his ears, a chaotic “cluck cluck cluck”…

Light entered his eyes, revealing a group of panicked chickens flapping their wings, flying and jumping around him.

Ji Si: …

He held his breath, mustering the courage to look down and discovered the ground covered in chicken droppings and overturned chicken feed.

His staff, robe, boots, and even his long hair that stored power, had they all been ruined before even having a chance to shine?

At that moment, Ji Si would have preferred to have fallen into water.

Author’s Note:

PS: Sorry for the wait (* ￣3)(ε￣ *)! I can’t define the CP in this story with traditional roles, so I’ve labeled it “undefined.”

PS: Ji Si: So, the question arises, why did I land in a chicken coop?

Si Nuocheng: Maybe it’s a compliment to your beauty.

Ji Si: ???