Chapter 1

"Stop!"

Zhou Hao had just received the crystals for this month and was on his way down the mountain when two tall men suddenly jumped out halfway. One was as thin as a bamboo pole, looking as if he would fall over with the slightest breeze. The other was robust, with a broad chest and thick waist, resembling a standing bear, and had a terrifying scar on his face, making him look ferocious and frightening.

"Greetings, Senior Brothers!" Seeing the two men coming with a fierce demeanor, Zhou Hao knew it wasn't good and was afraid of offending them, so he hurriedly bowed, feeling secretly distressed.

In a major cultivation sect like the Ten Thousand Alliance Sect, resources were also scarce. Therefore, every time resources were distributed at the beginning of the month, many people would use their powerful cultivation to forcibly take others' resources.

Usually, it was the inner disciples who would rob the outer disciples. This happened every month, and as long as no one died, the higher-ups wouldn't bother to manage it. After all, this was a cultivation world, where the weak were preyed upon by the strong, and only the fittest could survive.

Since Zhou Hao entered the Ten Thousand Alliance Sect, the meager crystals he received each month would always be forcibly taken away. Although these two men were not yet formal inner disciples, they had connections and backgrounds within the sect, and their cultivation was already high enough to qualify for the inner disciple selection. They were extremely arrogant among the outer disciples.

There were only two months left until the once-a-decade inner disciple selection. To quickly enhance their strength, they would rob weaker disciples of their crystals every month. Zhou Hao had been targeted by them every time, and each time he was completely stripped of his resources, making him both hate and fear them.

As soon as he saw these two bullies who always appeared when he received his crystals, Zhou Hao knew his crystals were not safe this time.

Sure enough, the thin man with a fierce look on his face shouted, "Hand over the crystals obediently, or else, you know the consequences!"

In the past, Zhou Hao wouldn't want to offend these bullies and suffer himself. But this time, he had finally reached the brink of a breakthrough in his cultivation. If he could get these crystals, it wouldn't take long for him to break through!

After more than a year, he finally saw a glimmer of hope for a breakthrough, and he would never give up the crystals!

"Senior Brothers, the crystals this month are really important to me! I beg you to show mercy and let me off this time. I will definitely hand them over every month in the future without any complaints!" Although Zhou Hao was seething with anger, his cultivation was too low, so he could only beg humbly.

"Enough nonsense! If you don't hand them over, don't blame us for being ruthless!"

"Hmph, you're asking for it!" The two men, with fierce expressions, surrounded Zhou Hao, cutting off his escape route. Then they swung their fists, striking him fiercely. Zhou Hao protected his head, enduring their violent and frenzied beating, gritting his teeth and not making a sound.

His eyes blazed with hatred and resentment, and the anger in his chest felt like it could tear the world apart!

"You'll pay for this, one day, I'll make you pay a hundredfold, a thousandfold!" Zhou Hao thought with hatred, gritting his teeth and silently enduring the punches that kept landing on him. Eventually, he couldn't bear it and passed out from the pain.

The two men were also afraid of killing someone, so when they saw Zhou Hao lying on the ground like a dead fish, motionless, they stopped. They took his storage bag and left.

Zhou Hao didn't know how long he was unconscious. When he woke up, it was already dark, and thick clouds covered the sky, indicating that it was about to rain. He tried to move, but his entire body ached terribly, as if all his bones were dislocated!

He gritted his teeth, enduring the pain, and stood up. Covered in mud, he stumbled down the mountain towards a stream. When he reached the stream, he dizzily jumped into the water.

"Ah!!"

At that moment, a shrill scream pierced the night sky, snapping Zhou Hao out of his daze. He shook his head and looked around, seeing a beautiful woman, completely naked, hurriedly climbing out of the stream and putting on her clothes.

"What happened? What's going on!" A voice of alarm came, and two black figures flashed, landing together. One of them asked the woman.

"Miss Feng, are you alright? What happened!" A tall man in silver asked the frightened woman.

Miss Feng, still in shock and with anger on her face, pointed at Zhou Hao, who was dazed in the stream, and shouted, "I was playing in the stream, and this damned man suddenly appeared! If this gets out, how can I face anyone! Quickly, catch this pervert for me, I want to gouge out his eyes and cut off his tongue so he can never speak of this!"

"How dare you offend Miss Feng! You're asking for death!" The tall man in silver's eyes turned fierce, and before Zhou Hao could see how he moved, he felt a pain in his shoulder and was forcibly grabbed and thrown to the ground, his injuries becoming even more painful.

"I didn't mean to..." Zhou Hao, realizing he had unintentionally seen a woman bathing, knew he was at fault, so he ignored the pain and struggled to apologize and explain the misunderstanding.

"Find death! How dare you speak in front of Miss Feng!" Another man with a sinister face kicked Zhou Hao, who was trying to explain, sending him flying. He was also from the Ten Thousand Alliance Sect and, seeing Zhou Hao's clothes, knew he was the lowest-ranking outer disciple, so he didn't care if he killed him, and his attack was ruthless.

The man said to the woman, "Miss Feng, although it was just a scare, if this gets out, it will damage your reputation. I suggest we bury this boy alive! Only a dead man won't reveal the secret!"

The silver-clad man nodded in agreement. This woman was the younger sister of Feng Jianxiao, the top talent of the Ten Thousand Alliance Sect, and a precious pearl of the Feng family. She had come to visit, and Feng Jianxiao had ordered these two to protect her. If Feng Jianxiao found out about tonight's incident, they would die a terrible death.

So, the two men were determined to kill Zhou Hao to ensure no one would know about this. Miss Feng would never spread the news.

"Fine, let's bury him alive!" Feng Xiaoyu's face showed a hint of malice as she coldly said.

"No, let me go! Let me go!!" Zhou Hao was both shocked and angry. He had only unintentionally seen the woman bathing, and he was so dazed that he hadn't even seen her clearly. Even if he was at fault, it didn't warrant being buried alive. Was there no justice in this world?

Zhou Hao was forcibly dragged out of the Ten Thousand Alliance Sect. The two men moved quickly, each dragging one of Zhou Hao's arms, like leopards in the night, swiftly moving through the forest towards the mountain.

"Where should we bury him?" The silver-clad man asked the other.

"Killing a fellow disciple without cause is a grave sin. Isn't there a burial ground thirty miles from the Ten Thousand Alliance Mountain? Few people go there. We can bury him there, and no one will know!"

To avoid drawing attention, the two men silenced Zhou Hao, who was shouting, and soon arrived at a burial ground filled with graves, broken coffins, and fallen tombstones. They saw a grave that had been dug open, either by wild animals or something else, with a stone coffin lid open and the body missing, possibly taken by wild animals.

Although it was unusual for people to be buried in stone coffins, the two men, feeling guilty, didn't think much about it. The silver-clad man said, "Qian Dong, I think this stone coffin is perfect. Let's put him in, close the lid, and cover it with soil. He won't have a chance to escape, and we'll save ourselves the trouble."

"Good!" The two men put the struggling Zhou Hao into the stone coffin, closed the heavy lid, and hastily covered it with soil before leaving.

"Ugh! Ugh!!" Inside the stone coffin, Zhou Hao felt an overwhelming sense of despair and helplessness. The air was getting thinner, and his breathing became increasingly difficult. He frantically tried to move the stone coffin with his body, but it was all in vain!

"Am I going to die here? No, I can't die! I still have to avenge my family, and I need to confront that person and ask why he treated me and my mother like this!" Tears streamed down Zhou Hao's face, mixed with intense resentment and anger. The sparks of hatred in his eyes flickered like lightning.

Zhou Hao was not from this world; he was a穿越者 (穿越者 means "穿越者" in Chinese, which translates to "time traveler" or "穿越者" in English)!

In his previous life, he was an orphan who grew up in an orphanage, never even seeing his parents. Through his own efforts, he endured great hardships and finally obtained a junior college degree. He thought he could find a stable job, make a living in this materialistic society, and find a loving partner to start a family, no longer drifting like a rootless reed.

However, after entering society, he realized that a junior college degree didn't change his fate. Life remained tough, and he lived a life worse than that of an animal. He was a typical "poor, short, and ugly" man, with no chance of finding love, even if he just wanted to find someone to get by with. He was still alone in his twenties.

He suffered from malnutrition and frequent illnesses from a young age. Combined with the hard work and irregular rest, he was extremely fatigued. On a wide but rarely used road near his company, people often played dangerous car drifting games at night.

One night, after a long overtime shift, he was already exhausted and couldn't react in time to a drifting car, and was hit and thrown.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself in the body of a young man in another world.

This young man had the same name as him and lived with his mother, grandparents. Over time, he accepted the fact that he had traveled through time, even though it was absurd, but at least he was alive, which was something to be grateful for.

Having no parents in his previous life, he cherished the hard-earned family ties. He was curious about the identity of his biological father, but no one ever mentioned him.

Once, he asked his "mother," but she fell silent and only cried. He didn't dare ask again.

Finally, he learned about his past from his adoptive grandmother. His mother had been sold to a noble family as a servant, and like in many melodramatic novels, she had an affair with the young master and became pregnant with him.

Unfortunately, the ending wasn't as happy as in the novels. His biological father was a cold and heartless person. When the affair was discovered by the main wife, she severely persecuted his mother and him, while his father turned a blind eye and did nothing. Eventually, the main wife tried to kill them, but they were secretly warned and managed to escape.

His mother brought him and his grandparents to live in seclusion in the mountains to avoid the main wife's pursuit. However, three years ago, the main wife's subordinates found them and cruelly killed his mother and grandparents. He escaped because he was out at the time.

He would never forget the inferno he saw when he rushed home, the agonizing screams of his three beloved family members, and the cruel laughter of the killers outside the fire, enjoying the sight of their victims dying in pain.

He was filled with rage and charged into the fire to save his mother, but was stopped by the killers. Just as a large sword was about to split him in two, a cultivation expert descended from the sky, killed the killers, and saved him.

Although he survived, his three beloved family members were dead. After burying them, he followed the cultivation expert to the Ten Thousand Alliance Sect.

The expert had saved him because he recognized his unique constitution, one of the few true yang bodies in the world, and wanted to take him as a disciple.

However, after a thorough examination, the expert was disappointed. Although Zhou Hao had a true yang body, for some unknown reason, his constitution was damaged. He could still cultivate, but his progress was even slower than that of ordinary people. In three years, he had only reached the fourth level of body cultivation.

The expert, disappointed, left him to his own devices, and he was assigned to serve an outer disciple elder.

Although his cultivation progress was extremely slow, he never gave up on his determination to avenge his family. He buried himself in cultivation, believing that one day he would personally kill his enemies. However, today, he suddenly faced a disaster and was to be buried alive!

No, he couldn't die!

If he died, who would avenge his grandparents and mother?

He needed to confront that person and ask why he could be so cold and heartless, even killing the woman who loved him so much, and why he wouldn't spare his own son!

He was filled with hatred, anger, and struggle, but it was all in vain. The air was getting thinner, and his breathing became increasingly difficult.

His heart was crying, bleeding!

The heavens seemed to pity his fate, and thunder roared, lightning flashed, and heavy rain poured down. The wind blew fiercely, making the trees in the burial ground sway, casting eerie shadows, creating a terrifying atmosphere.

Suddenly!

A deafening thunderclap echoed, and a sea of lightning descended, enveloping the entire sky. In the endless sea of lightning, a massive ancient beast, its body glowing with lightning, descended with a thunderous roar, as if a thunder god had descended, shocking the entire world!

The lightning beast landed in the burial ground and pounced into the grave where Zhou Hao was buried alive!