Chapter 1: Rebirth

Rumble—

Rumble, rumble—

A continuous, deafening roar echoed in Gu Yanfei’s ears.

Her eardrums were buzzing, and the ground beneath her was shaking violently.

A piercing, agonizing pain radiated through her limbs and bones, as if carriage after carriage had rolled over her body.

Gu Yanfei struggled to open her eyes. Blood, like a veil, covered her left eye, leaving her vision blurred and indistinct.

Gray, murky dust filled the air.

The surroundings were in complete disarray; the narrow, dilapidated carriage cabin was on the verge of collapse.

“Second Miss…”

A low moan reached Gu Yanfei’s ears, weak and powerless.

This female voice was so familiar, yet so strange.

Gu Yanfei’s pupils contracted, and her body gave a slight jolt.

She slowly turned her head to look. To her right lay a girl of thirteen or fourteen, dressed in a jade-green ru skirt. Her hair bun was disheveled, and one arm was protectively wrapped around Gu Yanfei’s waist.

The girl in green was face down, making it impossible to see her features, but from her build alone, Gu Yanfei was certain.

It was Juanbi, her former head maid, Juanbi.

The pain in her body reminded her that all of this was neither a hallucination nor a dream.

She had actually returned. She had returned from the Yaoling Realm to this Great Jing Dynasty, back to her past life.

In her past life, she had lived for only a short dozen years. It was only after her death that she realized she was nothing more than a cannon-fodder supporting character in the novel *Prosperous Phoenix Path*.

Her short life had been a joke.

Clearly, she was the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Dingyuan’s estate, meant to be the apple of her parents’ eyes. Yet, the moment she was born, she had been secretly swapped and raised in poverty.

It wasn't until she was fourteen that the Marquis’s estate discovered the truth about the swapped daughters and sent a head mammy to Huaipei to bring her back.

Back then, filled with longing for her blood relatives, she had traveled thousands of miles to the capital, never knowing that there was no place for her in the Marquis’s estate.

The fake daughter, Gu Yun’e, who had grown up in her place, had been raised in the doting care of the Gu family. She was the apple of their eye and the heroine of this novel.

As the heroine, Gu Yun’e was not only a child of destiny but also resourceful, self-respecting, and self-loving. Her talent was renowned throughout the capital, drawing the admiration of countless young talents. The male lead, Prince Kang, was particularly devoted to her. After many twists and turns, the two lovers finally ended up together.

In contrast, Gu Yanfei had grown up in the countryside, dull and ignorant. Aside from having the Gu family’s blood, she had nothing. Her existence seemed merely to serve as a foil for the heroine’s extraordinary nature.

Long-forgotten memories flashed rapidly through Gu Yanfei’s mind...

In her past life, she was a short-lived wretch, schemed against, framed, and trampled upon... a stepping stone for Gu Yun’e to reach the pinnacle.

In the end, she met her end, pierced by ten thousand arrows.

After death, her soul drifted through the world, watching helplessly as the Gu family fell, watching Gu Yun’e assist Prince Kang in winning the struggle for imperial power. Prince Kang ascended the throne, and Gu Yun’e was crowned Empress, her phoenix presence reigning over the world.

Gu Yanfei was merely a wandering ghost, able only to watch, unable to do anything...

Later, she was finally reincarnated, carrying the memories of that life into the Yaoling Realm.

The Yaoling Realm was completely different from this world of her first life; it was a world of cultivation filled with spiritual energy, where cultivators relied on that energy to practice. Gu Yanfei became a cultivator—a medical cultivator.

Two hundred years passed in the blink of an eye. Just as she had reached the Great Perfection of the Golden Core stage and was attempting to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, her inner demons flared up, and the ninth heavenly thunderbolt struck her back to her first life.

She had never imagined she could return, back to "this day" when she was fourteen!

She still remembered the events of "this day." How could she ever forget!!

At this time, she had already left Huaipei but had not yet reached the capital. The head mammy had left her in Danyang City halfway, insisting she learn the proper etiquette first.

She had stayed in Danyang City for three full months. During that time, the maid who served her was Juanbi.

She remembered clearly that on the afternoon of this day, the carriage she was riding in fell from a cliff hundreds of feet high due to a landslide. The carriage and horses were destroyed, and she was the only one among those in the carriage who miraculously survived.

Back then, she thought it was just a tragic accident, never knowing that it was a trap meticulously planned by Fang Mingfeng, the heir to the Duke of England, to take her life.

It was only because the person he loved was the fake daughter, Gu Yun’e, but due to family interests, he had been forced to become betrothed to her, Gu Yanfei.

Unable to defy his family, he could only bully the softest target.

The "soft target," Gu Yanfei, pressed her lips together and sat up, enduring the discomfort in her body. A violent surge of blood and qi churned in her chest, as if the rivers and seas were overturning.

After she was reincarnated into the Yaoling Realm, she had never been able to let go. Gradually, the unfulfilled wishes and regrets of that life became her inner demons.

Even though many past events had become blurred and insignificant over the long passage of time, the "inner demon" still existed in her heart.

Perhaps because of this, she had failed to break through to the Nascent Soul stage...

And perhaps because of this, the Heavenly Dao had brought her back to this life.

Since she was here, she would settle in.

Gu Yanfei quickly regulated her breathing. She soon calmed down, her eyes deep and profound.

“Juanbi!” she called out, while quickly turning Juanbi’s petite body over, laying her flat on the wool carpet.

What met her eyes was Juanbi’s round, somewhat naive face, now pale as paper. Her full lips were tinged with a sickly, grayish-purple, and strands of dark hair stained with blood and dust were scattered messily across her face.

Her breathing was extremely faint, the fluttering of her nostrils barely visible. Bright red blood spilled from her lips, flowing down her chin and neck, as if she would stop breathing at any moment.

Gu Yanfei placed three fingers steadily on Juanbi’s wrist, concentrating to feel the weak, slow pulse beneath her touch.

Juanbi had not only suffered external injuries but also multiple fractures internally, and her spleen was hemorrhaging. She had one foot in the grave; even if Hua Tuo were reborn, he would be helpless.

In her past life, Juanbi had died.

She couldn't save Juanbi then; she could only watch helplessly as the girl took her last breath, weeping uncontrollably.

Tears couldn't save anyone.

Gu Yanfei pressed her lips together. She quickly tore a strip from a book nearby, bit her finger to draw out a drop of her essence blood, and with a single stroke, drew a series of strange, worm-like runes on the paper.

Then, she gently pressed the rune onto Juanbi’s Baihui acupoint and, without haste, uttered four words

“Juanbi, wake up.”

In the narrow space, her voice was ethereal and sacred, like music from the heavens.

As the words fell, a corner of the blood-written talisman paper suddenly ignited with a bright orange flame, burning to ash in the blink of an eye.

“...” Juanbi’s closed eyelids trembled, her lashes fluttered, and a low moan escaped her lips.

(End of chapter)