Dao of immortals

**Chapter 1: The Blood-Moon Reset** The taste of copper and ash filled Li Chen’s throat as the sky tore open. Around him, the grand floating palaces of the Immortal Ascendant Sect were burning. Celestial blood painted the white marble plaza, and above him stood the five Venerable—the very masters he had served for two centuries, now looking down at him with cold, scheming eyes. "You were always too sharp, Li Chen," Patriarch Gu breathed, his hand dripping with golden blood as he withdrew his palm from Li Chen’s chest. "You found the secrets of the Primordial Vein. A mortal insect like you was never meant to hold the keys to the Dao." Li Chen fell to his knees, his vision dimming. Two hundred years of bitter cultivation, of surviving as a crippled servant, of crawling his way up to the apex of the realm—all to be butchered in an ambush set by the men he trusted. "If there is an afterlife..." Li Chen gasped, his b****y fingers clawing into the stone, "...I will burn your souls in the sun." Patriarch Gu laughed, raising his sword to sever Li Chen's head. *CLANG!* A blinding golden light burst from the center of Li Chen’s shattered chest. It wasn't Qi. It was a scorching, ancient energy from the *Chronos Sun Sutra*—a mysterious, ruined artifact he had picked up in a forgotten realm decades ago and never managed to decipher. The artifact roared like a dying star, consuming the sky, the fire, the five Venerables, and his fading consciousness in a absolute wave of golden heat. Li Chen snapped his eyes open, gasping for air. He wasn't on the b****y marble plaza. The burning scent of divine fire was gone, replaced by the damp, bitter chill of wet earth and crushed pine. He was sitting on a cold stone platform on the Northern Peak of Mount Cangyun. His hands were small, calloused, and wrapping around the handle of an old wooden broom. "What..." Li Chen breathed, lifting his shaking hands to his face. No golden robes. No spatial ring packed with legendary pills. His body felt light, weak—and inside his chest, his Dantian was a shattered mess, leaking faint, useless wisps of energy. He was back. Two hundred years into the past. To the very day his life as a servant began. A sudden surge of fiery, hot-blooded adrenaline surged through his veins, making his heart hammer against his ribs. The pain of his shattered core was still there, but the grief, the powerlessness, and the despair were entirely gone. In their place burned an unquenchable, lethal flame. *Patriarch Gu. Elder Song. Senior Brother Zhang.* Li Chen’s mouth curved into a cold, dangerous smile. *You took everything from me. You made me crawl like a dog for two centuries. But this time, I know every secret, every divine technique, and every hidden treasure in this realm.* "Still sweeping the dirt, useless rubbish?" The heavy crunch of boots on stone echoed from the mist. Senior Brother Zhang emerged, dressed in the pristine blue robes of the Inner Sect, a sneer plastered across his face. In his past life, Li Chen had bowed his head, swallowed the insult, and almost died in the toxic iron mines that very afternoon. Zhang tossed a heavy bronze token onto the mud at Li Chen's feet. "The Sect Leader requires ten thousand jin of Iron-Core Ore from the lower caves by sunset. Don't die down there today, servant. It's a pain to clean up the bodies." In the past, Li Chen would have trembled with fear. Now, Li Chen stood up slowly. He didn't look at the token. He looked directly into Zhang's eyes, his dark pupils reflecting a cold, ancient light that made the arrogant inner disciple involuntarily pause. "The lower caves?" Li Chen asked softly, his voice steady as iron. "W-what? Do you have an issue, trash?" Zhang sneered, though he felt a sudden, unexplainable chill run down his spine. "No," Li Chen said, stepping forward. He didn't pick up the token—he simply walked past Zhang toward the mountain path, his strides measured and powerful. "The lower caves sound fine. I'll be taking far more than iron ore from them today." Zhang stared after him, baffled and strangely intimidated. He didn't know that deep within those toxic mines, hidden beneath the poisonous rocks, lay the *Nine-Turn Nether Lotus*—a legendary herb that could repair a shattered Dantian in a single night. In his first life, Zhang would find it three years later and use it to become a grand genius. In this life, Li Chen's revenge started today.