1 Reborn

On the colossal St. Ancestral Mountain range, soft rays of sunlight shined through a gap between mountains, revealing beautiful canyons filled with lush forests. On the hillside beside the valley, some snow remained.

Although it was already early summer, the snow had yet to melt completely, and the roars of wild beasts could occasionally be heard, as though anticipating the warmer days to come. The cold here was exceptionally long, and warmer seasons were cherished by humans and beasts alike.

On the surface of the valley, there stood a magnificent city. This city was called Glory City, and it was a symbol of hope for humanity.

At the Holy Orchid Institute, thirty students are sitting in a classroom waiting for the teacher, Shen Xiu, to arrive and begin her lesson for that day. The students are Fighter Apprentices at Glory City's most esteemed training academy for the future protectors of their city.

Shen Xiu arrived and began her lecture. Xiao Ning'Er was seated on the front row, paying close attention until her eyes suddenly glazed over. Her mind went into a trance as she suddenly felt a queer pressure press down deep in her soul, as though another consciousness were trying to forcefully merge with her own.

She could not understand why, but the pressure felt strangely familiar, almost like it belonged to her but yet had not become part of her. As her eyes turned clear again, she could not help but be confused by the scene in front of her.

'Where am I?' Xiao Ning'Er asked herself.

She was shocked as she realised that her hands resting on the desk in front of her seemed smaller and smoother than she remembered, almost as if she were a teenager again. She looked around the classroom and saw familiar faces all around her.

Du Ze, Lu Piao, Ye Ziyun and...Nie Li. Tears sprung to her eyes when she saw that he was alive, albeit significantly younger, as memories of the battle with the Sage Emperor, as well as Nie Li's bloody death remained fresh in her mind. She quickly calmed down and pushed back the tears which threatened to spill out so that no one else would notice.

'I was actually reborn?' Xiao Ning'Er recalled the many stories Nie Li had shared to her and the rest of the group in the decades they had spent journeying together in the process of strengthening themselves to confront the Sage Emperor. 'Why am I having the same experience as Nie Li?'

'Did it have anything to do with the...'

She remembered the strange green vine that had flashed into her body in the instant before she died. 'Do I get to have another chance again after our defeat?'

She felt a sudden sense of panic in her heart.

'Why me? Why not Nie Li again? He's the best person to figure out how to beat the Sage Emperor. I'm not strong enough, he was always the strongest and wisest of all of us. He always knew what to do...'

As the lecture continued, Xiao Ning'Er was unable to hear a single word Shen Xiu was saying, although on the outside, she continued to keep her eyes on the lecture. Her quick mind began to process the implications of what her reincarnation might mean and as she looked at the young faces around her, she started to feel the weight of the responsibility of being the only one who knew the cataclysmic danger that they would face in the future.

'What do I do? Will I follow the same path that Nie Li took? I definitely have to start building up the strength of those around me because I can't do this alone. We were so close to defeating the Sage Emperor with all the preparation we took. So I have to make sure that we're even stronger when we face him again. But...but I don't have some of the invincible advantages that Nie Li had.'

Although Nie Li had shared countless stories, truths and guidance to all of them, she did not have his photographic memory for innumerable cultivation manuals, inscriptions or alchemy. She had done her best to learn as much as she could but in many cases, she was only able to remember general concepts and not specific formulas. And she did not have the benefit of spending hundreds of years in the space-time realm of the Temporal Demon Spirit Book to learn all the knowledge that he had.

Once again, she questioned why Nie Li had not been chosen with all his obvious advantages instead of her, but she had a resilient mind and knew she had to make the most of the chance they had been given. No matter what, the inevitable confrontation with the all-powerful Sage Emperor lay ahead of them. Her mind drifted off as she remembered that intense final battle.

.....

None of their attacks were able to break through the seemingly invulnerable red armour that the Sage Emperor wore over his body. They unleashed their most powerful attacks one after the other, oftentimes in perfect tandem, according to the intricate formations and skills that they had painstakingly practiced and developed over the years.

Trump card after trump card exploded onto the figure of their enemy but he remained unscathed. Then, across the long drawn-out engagement, they started to see cracks appear on that previously impervious armour. They started to see the grimaces of pain that the Sage Emperor was unable to hide and even more telling, were the streaks of blood which ran out of the main cracks in the armour.

As their hearts began to celebrate and they regrouped for a moment to restrategise, they saw in horror that the cracks in the red armour started to repair itself. It seemed to possess a type of self-restoring mechanism. Immediately, they managed to formulate a strategy to distract the Sage Emperor, feinting with some of their group attacking from one side, and with another group breaking through a big chunk of armour right in the middle of his back from his blind spot.

The Sage Emperor fell on his right knee, gasping in pain. Right when Nie Li was about to follow up and drive through this gap in the armour with his evolved form of the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword, their strongest artifact, they all watched in horror as the Sage Emperor decided to target his closest opponent. Perhaps sensing that his end was near, he wanted to throw out a vindictive strike to bring down someone with him.

That target happened to be Ye Ziyun. Instinctively, Nie Li gave up his opportunity to strike the deathblow as his body flashed with maximum speed in front of his beloved to protect her from that deadly spear. It was not a rational decision, he just knew that he could not bear to lose her again, and as they watched him get impaled directly through his heart, all the dreams that the team had worked for died with him.

.....

As Xiao Ning'Er thought through these final scenes, she realised something. Although she understood Nie Li's decision which was very much consistent with his character that she's known and loved, although both Ye Ziyun and her had shared the love of this one man during those precious decades together, and although she herself might have reacted the same way to save one of her closest friends, she could not help but feel a sharp sense of betrayal.

For one woman, he could disregard everything their group of friends had hoped for and worked towards. For one woman, he gave up that one chance they had built together as a team, and allowed a cruel tyrant to continue his stranglehold and influence over multiple realms. All for that one woman that he had always loved unreservedly across two different lifetimes, where Xiao Ning'Er was always second choice.

She had been completely content with it for two lifetimes. She did not hold any anger or jealousy towards Ye Ziyun. And she knew she would always love Nie Li but at that moment, she made a vow in her heart that would affect the rest of this current lifetime. She would never give her heart to him in the same way again. Either she would find a guy whose heart could be completely hers, and whom she could also give her whole heart to, or she would remain by herself.

After all, she had enough to occupy her, with the problem of the Sage Emperor heavy on her soul. Unless Nie Li once again went through the miraculous and fortunate encounters he had in his first lifetime such as discovering the Temporal Demon Spirit book again, it was likely that she was the only real chance that humanity had.

Xiao Ning'Er's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Shen Xiu merged with her demon spirit in front of the class, the Scarlet Flame Fox. The lecturer's face and hands underwent drastic changes as her facial shape became sharper, and her teeth and nails also became sharper. Finally, a scarlet tail emerged from her back.

As Shen Xiu lifted her chin with arrogance and pride while sharing about her cultivation, Xiao Ning'Er suddenly remembered that she would need to find a way to deal with the Sacred Family, one of the three major families in Glory City. This family would eventually betray everyone to the Dark Guild and bring about the destruction of their city if they were not stopped on time.

Her face took on an ugly expression as she thought about her current engagement to Shen Fei. 'This time round, I'll take matters into my own hands and grow strong enough to break off this engagement myself,' she thought decisively. 'He won't know what hit him.'

She then glanced at each and every one of her close friends from her past life. 'They don't even know me at this point of time. I'll need to gain their trust, rebuild my broken friendship with Ye Ziyun, and find a way to raise their strength the way that Nie Li did for us.'

She smiled to herself as some ideas began to form in her mind.