Chapter 1: The Demon Reborn—Destroy the Wretched!

"Chu Tian, you're about to become a father. You really are lucky—after all, being able to raise his child is a blessing earned over several lifetimes!"

Tianmen City.

Eight Days Hotel.

A woman emerged from the bathroom, about eighteen years old, her delicate figure wrapped in a snowy white bath towel. Her long black hair was still slightly damp from her recent shower. Her cheeks glowed with a rosy hue, her collarbone and chest rose and fell gently with each breath—a truly exquisite sight.

Judging by her looks, if a perfect score was a hundred, she’d earn at least eighty-five. Not quite flawless, but certainly outstanding.

She walked to the bedside and cast a cold glance at the unconscious man lying there. A faint smile played at the corners of her lips as she reached out to untie his belt.

But just then—

Her arm had barely reached the man before it was seized in an iron grip!

Chu Tian, previously deep in slumber, snapped open his eyes, shoving the woman aside and leaping nimbly to his feet. His gaze was chilling, bloodshot veins crawling across his eyes like a web, blue veins bulging across his forehead—his face twisted and fearsome as he fixed his stare on her.

"Who are you, daring to harbor ill will toward me?"

"Ah!" The sudden change startled the woman, making her stumble two steps back. The towel slipped from her body, revealing her unblemished form. With a cry, she hastily clutched the towel back up, covering her most vital parts. The cold gleam in her eyes had vanished, replaced by a look of pitiful weakness.

"Chu Tian, it's me—I'm Xu Jiao. What's wrong with you?"

"Xu Jiao?"

"Who the hell is Xu Jiao?"

Chu Tian frowned, surveying the unfamiliar surroundings, and was instantly taken aback.

Something was wrong.

This was... Earth.

The place where he had once risen to prominence.

But how? Wasn’t he in seclusion, cultivating? How had he suddenly returned to Earth, and ended up here? Where was his sword? His cauldron, his treasures?

Wait—Xu Jiao? Xu Jiao?

That name flashed again and again through his mind as he stared at the panic-stricken woman before him. In a surge, a long-buried memory flooded his consciousness.

"This is the Eight Days Hotel, room 909. You’re Xu Jiao?"

He fixed his gaze on her, questioning coldly.

"Y-yes..." Xu Jiao was puzzled. He’d been unconscious when she brought him here—how did he know the hotel and the room number so precisely?

A strange laugh escaped Chu Tian, unsettling and laced with excitement, shock, and a host of indescribable emotions. His eyes settled on the youthful face reflected in the window—only eighteen years old, so fresh and innocent. His expression grew more bizarre by the second.

He had been reborn.

He had returned to five hundred years ago, to the most pivotal moment of his life.

How could he remember this day so clearly? Because it was his nightmare, his eternal torment—his personal hell.

Without warning, Chu Tian bit down hard on his tongue.

Blood welled up, pain stabbing deep into his very soul.

The agony was real—excruciatingly, unforgettably real. And with that pain, he knew: this was no dream. He truly had been reborn into the day that had been hell on earth for him.

"Chu... Chu Tian, what's wrong?" Xu Jiao looked at him pitifully, concern in her eyes, though tinged with fear. Chu Tian’s twisted smile and the blood filling his mouth made him seem more beast than man.

Had the drug she secretly slipped him earlier made him lose his mind?

"I'm fine... perfectly fine," Chu Tian answered. He had endured so much over five hundred years—no one could imagine his suffering. Even rebirth itself couldn’t faze him for long.

Seeing that he seemed all right, Xu Jiao finally relaxed. "Chu Tian, you scared me to death. Do you... do you remember what happened before? We... you and I..."

She trailed off, hanging her head in embarrassment.

Chu Tian gazed at the woman before him, so delicate and pure, as if she might cry at any moment—she seemed to demand protection from anyone who saw her. Yet in his eyes, amusement and mockery danced.

Xu Jiao—his wife.

Well, in his previous life.

Who would have thought that this seemingly naïve, innocent girl was a cunning schemer, a venomous viper?

Four years ago, when Chu Tian was fourteen, he’d been bullied by other kids. Xu Jiao had stepped in to protect him—back then, she’d seemed sweet, sunny, and pure. He’d thought of her as a sister, vowing to protect her forever.

But four years later—just yesterday—he’d told Xu Jiao that he’d fallen for another girl.

He hadn’t expected that simple truth to become the source of his greatest misfortune.

That damned Xu Jiao had invited him to dinner today, drugged his food, and then brought him to this hotel, claiming he’d lost control and violated her.

All she wanted was a scapegoat for the child in her belly, to climb up the Chu family’s social ladder, and then, later, return to the man who had truly fathered her child.

In truth, nothing had happened between Chu Tian and Xu Jiao that night.

In his previous life, Chu Tian had believed her lie. Wracked with guilt over this supposed violation, he gave up confessing to the girl he truly liked and doted on Xu Jiao instead, treating her like a princess and showering her future child with love.

Trying to make amends, he let himself be led by Xu Jiao into becoming a live-in son-in-law for her family, ultimately transferring the Chu family’s assets to her name.

Three years—three long years—enduring his family’s ridicule, the world’s contempt, and, to cap it all off, Xu Jiao never let him touch her, claiming she hadn’t yet decided how to be with him.

Yes, three years of marriage without so much as a touch.

Chu Tian spent those years in utter humiliation, until at age twenty-one, after Xu Jiao had secured most of the Chu family’s wealth, she returned to the man named Situ Deng and revealed the truth to Chu Tian.

He had been utterly shattered.

Yet as humiliating as those three years were, they paled in comparison to what came later.

That wretched woman, after gaining everything—status, wealth, power far surpassing the entire Chu family—joined with Situ Deng to exterminate the Chu clan, just to ensure Chu Tian had no chance for revenge.

In his past life, Chu Tian became a fugitive, hunted and hounded like a stray dog, until at age thirty he finally killed Xu Jiao with his own hands in vengeance.

But by then, all his loved ones were dead.

Xu Jiao and Situ Deng, those monsters, had even murdered the Chu family’s infants, smashing them to bloody pulp.

The agony of losing his entire family in one night was the kind of horror that haunted him for over five hundred years, each day more unbearable than the last. Even on the day before his rebirth, he still thought of his kind father and gentle mother.

"And what exactly happened between you and me?" he asked coldly, coming back to himself.

"We... we..." Xu Jiao’s head nearly sank into her chest, her voice trembling as she forced herself to continue, "You drank too much and forced yourself on me..."

"Oh, is that so?" Chu Tian’s sneer deepened.

He had awakened early—he’d been reborn.

And this woman still dared to try to fool him.

"Jiao Jiao, you’re ill," Chu Tian suddenly said.

"What?" Xu Jiao was startled. "W-what do you mean?"

In her experience, Chu Tian should be feeling guilty and remorseful, eager to please her and do her bidding. Why was he suddenly talking about something completely different?

His gaze unsettled her. He seemed different, though she couldn’t say how.

Chu Tian stepped closer. "Haven’t you been feeling nauseous lately? Wanting to vomit? Dizzy from time to time?"

"Huh?" Xu Jiao was stunned. "How did you know?"

Could it be that he’d already discovered she was pregnant?

"Of course I know." In his previous life, Xu Jiao had soon found out she was pregnant—of course, not with Chu Tian’s child.

"You have cancer—stomach cancer, late stage," Chu Tian said in a low voice.

"What?" Xu Jiao almost felt relieved at his words. So, he thought she was sick? How laughable—what an idiot.

"I was going to tell you tonight, but you drank too much. But don’t worry, I have a way to cure you."

"Chu Tian, you're overthinking. I’m not sick—"

Before she could finish, without warning—

Chu Tian seized her hair and smashed her head against the wall.

A sickening thud.

Blood splattered everywhere.

Xu Jiao’s shrill scream echoed throughout the hotel room.