True rebirth, an elaborate scheme

Northern Continent, at the peak of an unnamed mountain, lay a small, wooden shed, shaking violently. Maniacal laughter rang out from within.

"Hahaha, countless lifetimes of meticulous preparation have culminated in this one moment. This time, I shall truly be reborn, defying heaven once again!"

A man sat on the hard wooden floor of the shed, both of his arms were detached from his body and one of his legs was greatly deformed. This man had no name in this life, as he hadn't for a time longer than he could remember.

Directly in front of the man was a beast resembling a tiger, however, a few features were noticeably different, such as the eyes which were like slits and the fact that it had no tail. This beast was an immortal soul beast which the man had meticulously refined. This immortal soul beast was the reason for his celebration, it was the rank six unyielding demon immortal soul beast!

Suddenly, the man and the beast were engulfed in a large surge of blinding light. He closed his eyes calmly, a tranquil smile appearing on his face. A moment later, he and all of his dismembered limbs disappeared, as if they were never there.

...

The moon was set on a forest in the Southern Continent, obscuring vision and breeding anxiety in the hearts of many.

A cold wind blew, swaying the trees back and forth as two boys sprinted through the vast forest, panting with looks of terror and despair on their faces.

Suddenly, one of them stopped running. He looked up at the brilliant night sky before turning his head back and laughing maniacally.

"Brother, why have you stopped? We need to escape, they are coming!" The other boy said with a concerned and confused tone.

'Ah, this is my little brother, isn't it?' Fang Xian stopped laughing and looked at his brother with annoyance.

'Hm, he will not be a match for me, even without cultivation I still have an immortal soul. This means my power is at the peak of non-cultivator mortality.' Fang Xian grinned, balling his right hand up into a fist and punching his brother directly in the nose.

He felt the bone in his brother's nose crumble. He then punched his brother's face with his rear hand, shifting his weight to his front foot.

"Ah! Brother, what are you doing? Have you gone crazy? Do you not remember who I am? I am your little brother, I am Fang Ling!" Fang Ling cried, tears streaming down his face.

Hearing his little brother's pleading cries, Fang Xian's heart was unmoved. He continued to beat his little brother violently. A roundhouse kick to the head, a hook punch to the throat, a front kick to the groin and a powerful spinning kick to the stomach.

Fang Ling couldn't handle the pain anymore and ran away, blood streaming from the majority of his orifices. Fang Xian chased after him, taking out a pocket knife he had been concealing in his robe.

'Haha, this is my father's pocket knife. He gave it to me just before his death, telling me to use it to protect myself and Fang Ling. Now, I am going to use it to kill Fang Ling, this troublesome kid was the main reason for my death in my first life!' Fang Xian steeled his resolve and gritted his teeth, sprinting after Fang Ling.

It didn't take long for him to catch up to him as Fang Ling was heavily injured and couldn't run as fast as he used to be able to.

Without hesitation, Fang Xian stabbed the knife through Fang Ling's head, ending his life in an instant.

'One less problem to worry about in this life.' Fang Xian felt great relief after killing his brother, putting the bloodied knife back in his pocket.

Fang Ling was his little brother, in his first life, he had treated him as such, showing affection and protecting him against many threats, incurring the wrath and hatred of many in the process. However, in the end, Fang Xian separated from their sect and become a lone demon cultivator.

Nine hundred years later, Fang Ling was assigned to kill Fang Xian as an assignment for his sect. He knew he couldn't kill Fang Xian alone so he gathered a group of his friends and they ambushed him while he was cultivating. In shock, Fang Xian had no choice but to activate the mortal version of the unyielding demonic soul, erasing his original timeline from existence and being reborn in a different person's body.

He had been reborn using the mortal unyielding demonic soul countless times, and in each life, he gathered an ingredient of the immortal version's refinement recipe and left it in a place which he would then access when he was reborn again as a different person.

In his last mortal rebirth, he finished refining the unyielding demon immortal soul and successfully travelled back in time to his original life. This was an elaborate scheme spanning countless millennia.

In this life, he would live as a demon from the start, unlike his first life, where after his father's death, he ran from his father's killer with Fang Ling and joined a heavenly sect. He stayed in that sect for two hundred years, cultivating to rank four. After he left the sect and became a demonic cultivator, he managed to cultivate a lot faster, cultivating to immortal rank six before his death.

After ending his little brother's life, Fang Xian walked back the way he and his brother came. He remembered this forest quite well as it was the area where in his first life, he committed his first murder, killing his father's killer. In a way, he had also committed his first murder here in this life, albeit a demonic one.

'That man who killed my father will arrive soon. I shall kill him too and steal his soul, refining it into my own, becoming a cultivator. Then, I will cultivate as far as I can as a lone cultivator before establishing or joining a demonic sect. I need the support of a sect for resources to achieve my ultimate goal.' Fang Xian laid out his plan for this life in his mind, pulling the knife he had used to end his brother's life back out, in preparation for his father's killer.

He stopped walking when he reached the area of the forest where he was reborn, pondering over a few things.

'Why was I reborn here of all places? This is an ideal situation for me, I don't understand why heaven would give me anything, after all, we are great adversaries. Furthermore, in my last mortal rebirth, I didn't face any obstruction during the final refinement of the unyielding demon immortal soul. For some reason, my luck is high when it should be abysmally low.'

At that moment, the man arrived, laughing maniacally, reminiscent of Fang Xian himself after refining the unyielding demon immortal soul. Fang Xian had no hesitation, once the man was within striking range, he dashed at him showing the knife he had hidden in the long sleeve of his robe. The man's face showed a hint of shock as he braced himself for the attack, producing a long katana out of thin air.

'The rank two object storage soul beast, one of the most used and versatile soul beasts in the world.'

As an immortal rank six cultivator, Fang Xian had great general knowledge of the world, he recognised the soul beast used here. His eyes flashed with greed when he thought of killing this man and obtaining this soul beast.

However, he also realised that this man was at least a rank two cultivator while he was a mortal.

'He must have no defensive soul beasts on him, otherwise, how was I able to defeat him in my previous life?