Chapter 1: A Narrow Escape from Death_1

"Clang..." With a sound, a rust-stained iron door was opened; its reverberations bounced back from the surrounding ancient buildings, lingering incessantly.

A dozen or so breaths later, a young man with his head drooping was dragged out from behind the iron door by two prison guards. This young man, with his head drooping, appeared lifeless, even his arms were so emaciated that only bones remained. From the bloodstained, tattered clothes on his body, it was evident the kind of ruin and torture he had suffered.

"Thud," the frail young man was thrown to the ground by the two prison guards, kicking up some dust, and then there was no more movement.

"This kid must be dead, right?" asked one of the short, plump prison guards, staring at the young man who lay motionless on the ground.

Another guard hmmmed, "He must be dead. Serves him right for disrespecting Miss Jian. Not only has his Ning household been eradicated, but now he's finally free of it all, he got what he deserved."

"Keep it down, Lao Hui. We better drag him out for disposal," the short, plump guard quickly advised.

Hearing the words of the plump guard, the other called Lao Hui involuntarily ducked his head and went to lift the breathless man from the ground, preparing to drag him away.

Just at that moment, a somewhat weak voice called out from the side, "Brothers, I would like to take my husband away."

Only then did the two chatting guards notice a woman standing at the side, clad in coarse hemp clothes. Despite her rough attire, one could still glimpse her elegant poise. The only pity was her disfigured face, partially hidden by her slightly disheveled hair, discouraging a second glance.

The two guards both recognized this woman as one of the only two survivors of the Ning family.

The entire Ning family had been plundered, and the only ones left alive were Ning's old steward, Ning Gao, and the woman before them. Ning Gao was the steward of the Ning household and had been out of Cang Qin Country on business when the family was raided, thus he escaped disaster. Meanwhile, this woman was a daughter-in-law of the Ning household, and the wife of the frail man who had been thrown out of the prison, named Ji Luo Fei. She had been spared because she was at the Cang Qin Twin Star Academy.

Of course, it was also because Ji Luo Fei was not closely related to the Ning family. She married into the Ning family because their families were old friends, and she had been betrothed to Ning Cheng since childhood. However, the Ji family declined inexplicably, eventually leaving only a disfigured Ji Luo Fei. Even so, Ning Cheng's grandfather, Ning Hongchang, still took Ji Luo Fei into the household, intending to have them marry once Ning Cheng genuinely began cultivating.

Unfortunately, Ning Cheng's aptitude was extremely poor, unable to cultivate even after many years, and moreover, he was always abusive towards the disfigured Ji Luo Fei. Fortunately, as a daughter-in-law without a family, Ji Luo Fei endured all this in silence, never complaining. Returning from the academy and learning of the Ning family's extinction, her first response was to come to the prison. She had wanted to inquire if Ning Cheng could be released, only to find that he had breathed his last and been thrown out by the guards.

Ji Luo Fei, seeing the expression on the faces of the two guards, did not wait for them to speak and handed over a dozen silver coins, "Brothers, my husband is gone, and I..."

"Alright, alright, get him out of here, he's an eyesore just lying there," the short, plump guard impatiently waved his hand as he took the silver coins.

They were supposed to deal with Ning Cheng's body, but they hadn't expected someone to come forward and handle this, offering silver coins to boot. Such good fortune was not something they would reject.

Ji Luo Fei, upon hearing this, quickly hoisted Ning Cheng onto her back, accelerating her pace until she disappeared from the prison entrance.

"If Ji Luo Fei hadn't been disfigured, she would have been quite the beauty," said the other guard, flipping the silver coin in his hand, with a judgmental tone.

"Stop talking nonsense. Ji Luo Fei is from the Cang Qin Twin Star Academy, and even if she's ugly, it's none of our business," the short, plump guard patted the shoulder of the talking guard and pulled him back through the iron door. With another resounding clang, the iron door closed once again.

...

Ning Xiaocheng smelled a very pleasant fragrance and opened his eyes to see a swath of pure white neck. The next moment, Ning Xiaocheng realised that he was being carried by a woman, and the fragrance came from her.

No, that's not right, he remembered being rejected by Tian Muwan and, distressed, took a wrong turn, ending up alone on an overpass. Then a streak of yellow light from the sky struck him, and after that... there was nothing.

Could it be that he wasn't dead? What exactly was going on?

Ning Xiaocheng had just thought of this when a flood of information poured into his mind; he had been reborn.

What shocked Ning Xiaocheng was that the body he had been reborn into was previously called Ning Cheng.

The reason he was horrified was because his original name was also Ning Cheng. It was just that he often had a nightmare, where he saw himself arriving at an extremely strange place, getting secretly imprisoned, and then tormented to death. Although it was just a dream, Ning Cheng still changed his name to Ning Xiaocheng.

Unexpectedly, after all the twists and turns, he still ended up being called Ning Cheng, and was truly reborn in the environment of his dreams.

Ning Xiaocheng wanted to raise his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, but the woman carrying him just looked back and did not say much.

"Sorry, I don't have the strength to walk," Ning Xiaocheng said apologetically when he saw the woman glance back at him. He indeed felt uncomfortable being carried by a woman.

"The Ning family is gone; you're lucky to be alive," the woman said calmly, as if even if Ning Xiaocheng had really died, she would maintain this calm demeanor.

Ning Xiaocheng fell silent, for he had organized some fragmented information just now. He should go back to calling himself Ning Cheng, the sole heir of the Ning family in Cang Qin Country. Since it was his original name, he thought, let it be Ning Cheng.

The Ning family was a middle-level noble family in Cang Qin Country, but it had few members. Ning Cheng's parents had gone to the Mango Sea Area to look for spiritual items when he was very young, and never returned. Consequently, Ning Cheng had always lived with his grandfather, Ning Hongchang, in Cang Le City, the country's capital.

Although the Ning estate was large, it had few people. Naturally, Ning Cheng became the head of the household, and Ning Hongchang hardly ever controlled him. All the bad things Ning Cheng did in Cang Le City were covered up by Ning Hongchang. Cang Le City was filled with princes and nobles, and although Ning Hongchang was an elder in Cang Qin Country, he was still somewhat inferior to those princes and nobles.

Eventually, Ning Cheng caused a problem so big that not even he could handle it. He offended Jian Sujie, the pearl of Cang Qin Country's Jian family. Not to mention that the Jian family was not someone the Ning family could afford to offend, even Jian Sujie's fiancé, Qiu Yingguang, was beyond the Ning family's reach.

Thinking of this, Ning Cheng sighed. The result of offending those he could not afford to, of course, was being thrown into prison. His grandfather Ning Hongchang exhausted his connections and family wealth in an attempt to bail him out, but instead of rescuing him, he ended up bringing down the entire Ning family. Ning Cheng learned of this from the jailer's mouth, meaning the Ning family was destroyed because of him.

After sorting out these events, Ning Cheng sighed once again in his heart. In this world, there was no such thing as reason; whoever had the bigger fist was right.

He also realized who the person carrying him was; this disfigured woman was his fiancée, Ji Luofei, somewhat like a child bride on Earth.

The Ji family were outsiders in Cang Qin Country. Because Ji Luofei's grandfather had a good relationship with Ning Cheng's grandfather, they had arranged a marriage between Ning Cheng and Ji Luofei when they were children. Later, for some mysterious reason, the Ji family fell from grace, leaving only a disfigured Ji Luofei. Yet, Ning Hongchang still took Ji Luofei into the Ning family, planning to marry her off to Ning Cheng as soon as he started cultivating.

Ning Hongchang indulged Ning Cheng in other matters, but on the issue of marrying Ji Luofei, he would not budge. The original Ning Cheng was very dissatisfied with the disfigured Ji Luofei, frequently beating or scolding her. Fortunately, Ji Luofei bore it passively and never retorted against Ning Cheng.

Moreover, Ji Luofei was different from Ning Cheng; she had the aptitude to cultivate. Not only that, with the help of the Ning family, she had entered the Cang Qin two-star academy and had already become a cultivator at the third layer of Qi Gathering. In Cang Qin Country, anyone who could cultivate was called a cultivator. Once a cultivator reached the fourth layer of Qi Gathering, their status would skyrocket.

At this moment, Ji Luofei had carried him into a very low black stone house. Although the black stone house was low, it was not too small; it had everything that was needed. There was even a small yard with a deep well inside.

"How was the Ning family destroyed?" Ning Cheng suddenly asked again. Even though it concerned himself, Ning Cheng had to clarify this matter. Although he suspected that the Jian and Qiu families were involved, he still needed to understand it clearly.

"Why ask me about the things you did yourself?" Ji Luofei answered simply, then laid Ning Cheng down.

After that, she poured him a glass of water to drink, then said, "I'm going to heat up some water for your bath; forget some things, you know it's not good for you."

Ning Cheng watched Ji Luofei go to heat the water and did not continue to query; he understood her meaning. With his abilities, the more he knew, the faster he would die. Even if he knew nothing, surviving in this place was another matter entirely.

Ning Cheng didn't know if Ji Luofei added something to that cup of water, but he felt some strength return to him after drinking it.

Sitting on the ancient wooden bed, Ning Cheng's mind oscillated between his current plight and his sister, Ning Ruolan. At the same time, he truly did not understand why Tian Muwan would treat him that way; based on his understanding of Tian Muwan, she was definitely not the kind of mercenary girl.

(The update for a new book in the first month is limited, it must be kept under 200,000 characters; otherwise, it will be kicked off the list. As an author, I will try to update more, at least ensuring two chapters a day. Once the new book month is over, our updates will rise sharply. Thanks to the lord-level subscribers Zen Buddha Piaohong, and StAdMax for their continued support, the strongest ending was completed in a single day of updates yesterday, additional updates will have to wait until the new book month is over, I remember I owe two more chapters.)

Starting tomorrow, the update times will be, the first chapter around 12:00, and the second chapter around 19:00. The new book still needs requests for recommendation tickets and favorites to support our Door of Creation!