Chapter 1

Jiang Chen felt as if his brain was a mess, a feeling akin to being in a dream, yet far more real. Every inch of his skin, every bone in his body, ached terribly.

"Am I dead? Am I suffering in the hellish torments of the underworld?"

Jiang Chen's first instinct was that he was dead. However, the faint signs of life in his body seemed to remind him that he was still alive.

This feeling persisted for an unknown duration until, suddenly, Jiang Chen struggled to open his eyes and found himself lying in a coffin.

Lying in a coffin? So, I really am dead? Jiang Chen felt a deep sorrow.

"How pitiful and laughable. I, Jiang Chen, the son of the Heavenly Emperor, was born with a Yin constitution, unable to practice martial arts. Even though my father refined the Sun and Moon Divine Pill for me, granting me a lifespan as long as the heavens, when the great calamity came, I became a burden to my father and ultimately could not escape death..."

"Wait, what's wrong with my meridians? There's actually true qi flowing through them! Although it's very weak... No! This... This isn't my body, this absolutely isn't my physical body! I was born with a Yin constitution, how could there be true qi flowing in my body?"

"Moreover, if I were already dead, how could there be true qi flowing in my body?"

Lying in the coffin, Jiang Chen felt as if a current of electricity had surged through his mind. At the same time, he realized that the body in the coffin was not his own.

"What... What has happened? Whose body is this?" This surprising discovery made Jiang Chen both shocked and delighted.

Soon, he read some residual memories within this body.

"The owner of this body is also named Jiang Chen? The son of a vassal in the Eastern Kingdom's Jianghan State. The name is the same, but this is clearly not me! I, the son of the Heavenly Emperor, how could I become the son of a vassal in a mundane kingdom?"

Jiang Chen's mind was filled with questions.

"Could it be that I really died in the great calamity of the heavens? Could this be the legendary rebirth and parasitic existence? With the heavens shattered and the cycle of rebirth disrupted, I should not have been able to enter the cycle of rebirth. So, have I really been reborn?"

After reading the fragments of the previous Jiang Chen's consciousness, Jiang Chen finally confirmed this fact.

"Who would have thought that in my past life, as the son of the Heavenly Emperor, I was born with a Yin constitution and could not practice. After rebirth, I became the son of a vassal in a mundane kingdom, yet I now have the qualifications to practice. What a great irony!"

"The heavens shattered, the order collapsed... In my past life, I lived for a million years, sharing the same lifespan as the sun and moon. When the great calamity came, I could not help at all. With a Yin constitution, unable to practice, I could not control my own life and death. My fate was like floating clouds and dust, scattered by the wind."

Thinking of his past life's experiences and his father, the Heavenly Emperor, who had spared no effort to refine the Sun and Moon Divine Pill for him, granting him a lifespan as long as the heavens, Jiang Chen felt a bit dazed.

He knew that this separation between his past and present life might be a permanent farewell!

Even though he had lived for a million years in his past life and possessed great wisdom, when he thought of his father's meticulous care, he shed tears.

He knew that with the heavens shattered, even the Heavenly Emperor might not be able to escape the great calamity.

At this thought, Jiang Chen felt a bit melancholy.

However, when his soul touched the meridians, it was as if a bolt of lightning shot into the depths of his soul. It was like a thirsty person encountering a trickle of sweet spring water!

The true qi flowing slowly in the meridians, though weak and almost withered, was like a spark that ignited the light of his life, dispelling the low and negative emotions.

"Practice! Ha ha, practice! How luxurious a concept it was for me, born with a Yin constitution! In my past life, I could not practice, but I never bowed to fate. Now, having been reborn with the qualifications to practice, isn't this a crack in the door of fate?"

"I, the son of the Heavenly Emperor, managed the Tianlang Library for a million years, reading all the heavenly scriptures and knowing all the heavenly methods. My alchemy skills were renowned throughout the heavens. Unfortunately, in my past life, I had a wealth of knowledge and theories that I could not put into practice. Now, with this rebirth and the qualifications to practice, what do I have to fear? What reason do I have to bow down and admit defeat?"

Thinking of this, Jiang Chen felt a sudden clarity.

The negative emotions gradually dissipated. He felt that this rebirth might be a turning point in his fate, a great fortune for him!

Yes, the identity of the vassal's son, from the perspective of his past life's status, was indeed insignificant.

However, this low and insignificant identity had something his past life lacked: the qualification to practice!

The qualification to practice was like a starting line.

In his past life, his status was noble, like the phoenix and dragon of the nine heavens, but he could only watch others run from the starting line.

In this life, even if his status was low, like an ant, he had the qualification to start from the starting line.

The path of practice was endless. With the right opportunity, a golden scale could turn into a dragon when it met the wind and rain, and an ant with wings could also soar through the nine heavens!

Now, the opportunity had come!

The son of the Heavenly Emperor, managing the Tianlang Library for a million years, had spent almost all his time reading extensively. It was not an exaggeration to say he was full of knowledge and wisdom.

His theories, from the heavens above to the mundane world below, there was no field he was unfamiliar with.

In the boring million years of his past life, Jiang Chen, unable to practice himself, enjoyed taking on disciples. He used his disciples as experiments to put his theories into practice.

Over a million years, he had cultivated countless geniuses.

What is opportunity?

He had been reborn, carrying the memories of the son of the Heavenly Emperor, and obtained the body of this wrongfully dead vassal's son, Jiang Chen.

The experiments he had conducted on his disciples in his past life could now be carried out personally!

This was opportunity!

At this thought, Jiang Chen could not help but feel greatly excited.

At this moment, a clear cracking sound reached his ears, as if something had been smashed.

"Clang!"

"Jiang Ying, find out for me, at any cost, find out the truth!" Jiang Feng, the vassal of Jianghan, threw a vase to the ground in a fit of rage, his anger so intense that he wished to burn the entire capital.

"Lord, I have a lead," Jiang Ying, dressed in black, respectfully said, "Although the young lord was not diligent in his practice, he was a True Qi Realm martial artist and should have been able to control his body. He would not have been unable to control a fart in such a situation."

"So, someone must have tampered with it? Making Chen lose face at the Heaven Worship Ceremony, angering the king and bringing about his death?" Jiang Feng's tone grew colder.

"Earlier today, the young lord had breakfast with a few friends at the Songhe Tower. I investigated the Songhe Tower, but found no clues. However, I found traces of 'Three Laughter Powder' in the young lord's body."

Three Laughter Powder?

Jiang Feng's face darkened. How could he not know about Three Laughter Powder? This substance, while having no side effects, could make a person's vital energy sink and be expelled through various parts of the body.

Indeed, the fart that angered the king during the Heaven Worship Ceremony was not accidental but caused by the Three Laughter Powder.

"It seems this was not a coincidence but a premeditated plot!" As a vassal, Jiang Feng quickly deduced some conclusions.

"Lord, here is the list of people who had breakfast with the young lord this morning. They are all sons of vassals. It will be quite difficult to find out who tampered with it," Jiang Ying, Jiang Feng's trusted and most loyal subordinate, said.

"Investigate, investigate thoroughly! Even if I lose my vassal's order, even if I am shattered to pieces, I will not let this murder of my son go unpunished!"

What does it matter if the king orders a minister to die, the minister must die. These clichés were all nonsense to Jiang Feng at this moment.

Jiang Feng's ancestors were loyal, but not foolishly loyal.

Thinking of how the Jiang family had served the Eastern royal family for generations, defending the borders and fulfilling their duties, and how the blood and achievements of several generations had earned them a vassal's order, only to have his only son beaten to death without a second thought.

If the king is unrighteous, the minister is unjust. If it comes to it, rebellion is the only option!

Thinking of the cold and ruthless order from King Donglu to beat Jiang Chen to death, and the smug expressions of the vassals who disliked him, and seeing his son, beaten beyond recognition, lying in the coffin, Jiang Feng felt a volcano of anger in his chest, ready to erupt.

He wished he could immediately return to his territory, gather hundreds of thousands of troops, and storm the capital, causing rivers of blood to flow.

In the coffin, Jiang Chen, hearing this conversation and combining it with the residual memories of this body, understood what had happened.

It turned out that the original owner of this body, Jiang Chen, had let out a fart at an inappropriate time during the Heaven Worship Ceremony!

This Heaven Worship Ceremony was the highest-level sacrificial ceremony in the kingdom, attended by the king and 108 vassals, to pray for the well-being of the king's daughter, Donglu.

Before the ceremony, the king and vassals had made many preparations. They fasted, bathed, and changed clothes, all to ensure they were clean and could perform the ceremony perfectly to move the heavens and earth, thus achieving the effect of praying to the heavens.

Everything was going smoothly.

However, just as the king and vassals were prostrate on the sacred steps, silently praying, Jiang Chen's fart sounded extremely loudly.

This prostration and prayer was the most solemn part of the ceremony, requiring complete silence.

Only in this way could they communicate with the divine and show their sincerity.

But Jiang Chen's loud fart broke the silence and the solemnity.

Everyone knew that a fart, being a foul-smelling gas from the anus, was an extremely inauspicious thing. In a normal situation, it could be tolerated by holding one's breath.

However, Jiang Chen's inappropriate fart was both foul and loud, a blatant desecration of the divine! The priest conducting the ceremony was shocked and horrified, as if this fart had knocked down the pillar of heaven, causing the sky to collapse. He immediately began to curse.

This enraged King Donglu, who loved his daughter dearly, causing him to fly into a rage, and he had Jiang Chen dragged away and beaten to death!

Even then, Donglu's anger was not fully quenched, and he ordered Jiang Chen's body to be exposed on the city walls for vultures to eat.

If not for the persuasion of some court officials and vassals, who said that exposing a body was a violation of propriety and could harm the kingdom's fortune, Jiang Chen might not have even been left with a complete body.