Three years.
Consciousness sank as if into the deepest ocean trench—unaware, completely numb, submerged in icy darkness.
Until a sliver of faint light pierced the dark, violently dragging the slumbering soul back to reality.
Lin Feng's eyelids fluttered violently, then he snapped them open! A dazzling expanse of stark white rushed into his view, the smell of disinfectant hanging heavy in the air.
"The patient is awake! The patient is awake!"
A woman's voice rang out, filled with astonishment.
Almost instinctively—like a conditioned reflex forged through mountains of corpses and seas of blood—Lin Feng's body tightened. His right hand shot out like lightning, with pinpoint precision, clamping onto something soft and resilient.
"Ah—!"
A short, outraged scream shattered the quiet of the ward.
Su Aoxue, the youngest chief physician at Haicheng First Hospital and the universally acknowledged iceberg goddess, was pale with fright at that moment.
She wore a white lab coat that traced her graceful curves, her delicate features slightly twisted in shock and humiliation.
She could feel a searing-hot hand squarely gripping the most sensitive spot on her chest!
"Let go! You jerk!"
Mortified and furious, Su Aoxue instinctively raised a hand to push him away, only to find that the man's grip was like an iron clamp, not moving a single inch.
Lin Feng's gaze was still somewhat dazed, but that hand seemed to possess a will of its own.
He frowned. His lingering combat instincts warned him of a threat, but more than that, there was a sense of familiarity welling from the depths of his soul—a surging flood of broken memories!
Countless images rushed into his mind like a tidal wave.
It wasn't a dream! He was Chonglou, the Immortal Venerable who traversed the nine heavens and ten earths!
He was the supreme existence whose mere wave of the hand could extinguish stars, whose flick of the finger could turn oceans into mulberry fields! He had once trampled gods and demons underfoot, looked down upon myriad realms, and pursued the elusive Dao of eternal life!
The Heavenly Dao Formula was the foundational technique that made him famous, pointing straight to the origin of the universe!
Yet, the final image in his memory was a world-destroying, purplish-black thunderbolt! That was the legendary Ninety-Nine Returning to One Annihilation Heavenly Tribulation—one that no one had survived in hundreds of millions of years!
The lightning had torn apart his immortal body, obliterated his primordial spirit, and swallowed him in endless pain and resentment.
"So I didn't entirely die?"
The hand gripping Su Aoxue relaxed slightly as his wits returned.
Seizing the opportunity, Su Aoxue jerked backward, her fair cheeks flushed crimson, sparks practically flying from her eyes.
Clutching her chest, her body trembled slightly—partly from anger, and partly from an unprecedented sense of humiliation.
"Lin Feng! You've been in a coma for a full three years! Is this how you act the scumbag the moment you wake up?"
He spoke up abruptly, his tone calm yet brooking no argument: "You have a hidden ailment here."
Su Aoxue froze, and then her anger blazed even higher. "What nonsense are you spouting! Still trying to find an excuse?"
"Three inches below your left breast, there are signs of blood stasis and blocked energy meridians."
Lin Feng continued, his gaze as sharp as a blade, as if it could pierce her clothes and look right at the lesion.
"It's not obvious at first, hard to detect. But if it's not treated in time, it will certainly turn malignant within six months, and within three years, no medicine will save you."
The anger on Su Aoxue's face instantly froze, replaced by incredulous shock. She actually did have this hidden ailment!
Yet Lin Feng, a vegetative patient in a coma for three years, had just woken up, grabbed her through her clothes once, and yet somehow knew about it with such absolute clarity?
He had even nailed the exact location of the lesion and the consequences of its progression without a single error!
This was sheer fantasy!
Looking at Su Aoxue's speechless, shocked expression, the last shred of doubt in Lin Feng's heart vanished.
It wasn't a dream! The Heavenly Dao Formula was real! His vision as an Immortal Venerable was still intact!
Then perhaps he really could live another lifetime and make up for the regret of his failed tribulation in his past life!
A fierce desire to survive and a thirst for power instantly flooded his heart.
"How do you know?"
Su Aoxue asked in a dry, strained voice.
She looked at Lin Feng with eyes filled with startled suspicion and a trace of undetectable fear.
This man was too bizarre!
Lin Feng didn't answer her; he had no mind to explain right now.
He closed his eyes and began to silently recall the introductory mental cultivation method of the Heavenly Dao Formula.
In his past life as an Immortal Venerable, the technique had long been branded deep into his soul.
Even though his body was now as weak as a mortal's, the instinct to channel a sliver of Spiritual Energy remained.
"Heaven and earth profound sect, root of ten thousand qi."
He silently recited the incantation, trying to rouse the sliver of vitality within his body that was so faint it was practically nonexistent.
The air in the ward seemed to ripple slightly.
It worked! The Heavenly Dao Formula really worked! Joy surged wildly in Lin Feng's heart!
As long as the technique worked, as long as he could absorb Spiritual Energy, he could recover! He could even return to his peak!
Watching Lin Feng sit cross-legged with his eyes closed, his complexion improving at a visible rate, Su Aoxue felt shock beyond measure.
Though faint, she had indeed felt the air ripple just a fraction of a second ago! What on earth had happened to this man?
At that moment, the door of the ward clicked and was pushed open from the outside.
A young woman walked in, dressed in fashion, with a fiery figure and breathtaking beauty.
She carried an exquisite fruit basket, her face wearing a perfectly measured expression of worry and tenderness.
Yet when her gaze landed on Lin Feng—who had already sat up and opened his eyes to look at her—her expression instantly froze!
The worry and tenderness vanished without a trace, replaced by extreme shock, even tinged with a hint of panic!
"You're awake?!"
The fruit basket in the woman's hand dropped to the floor with a thud, the fruit scattering everywhere, but she paid it no mind.
She just stared fixedly at Lin Feng, as if she had seen something utterly impossible.
Lin Feng frowned slightly. Who was this woman?
The memories belonging to the original owner of this body were vague, holding no impression of her whatsoever.
Yet why did she wear such a ghost-seeing expression upon watching him wake up?
"Miss Qin, you're here."
Qin Ruyan snapped back to her senses like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
A flash of panic crossed her eyes, and then she made a move that left both Lin Feng and Su Aoxue dumbfounded.
She rushed to the bedside in a few steps, threw herself straight into Lin Feng's arms, wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, and burst into tears—her voice loud enough for the nurse at the door to hear clearly.
"Darling! You're finally awake! Wuuu, I was so worried about you! I prayed for you every single day for the past three years. Heaven bless, you're finally awake!"
Her embrace was warm and fragrant, her scent a high-end perfume.
Lin Feng's body stiffened. Feeling the soft body in his arms and her deliberate display of "deep affection," a cold, mocking glint flashed in his eyes. Darling? Such acting was far too clumsy.
The nurse at the door saw this scene, an "ah, I see" expression on her face, and nodded with a good-natured smile.
"That's wonderful. It's good that Mr. Lin is awake.
Miss Qin has had a really hard time these past three years, coming to visit every single day."
With that, figuring it was inconvenient to intrude, she pushed her cart of equipment away.
Su Aoxue watched Qin Ruyan's performance, her brows slightly furrowed in thought.
"Darling?"
Lin Feng's voice was very soft, tinged with a hint of playfulness, while his gaze remained like a bottomless, freezing pool.
"Miss, do we know each other?"
The "sorrow" and "joy" on Qin Ruyan's face instantly vanished completely, replaced by panic and annoyance.
"Lin Feng! What do you mean? You just woke up and you're pretending you don't know me?"
"Pretending?"
The corners of Lin Feng's lips curled into a cold sneer, his gaze sweeping over the fruit basket she had dropped earlier, before shifting to her expensive designer clothes and exquisite makeup.
"Miss Qin, is it? Even though I've been in a coma for three years, that doesn't mean I'm an idiot."
"When you lunged at me just now, your heartbeat was fast—not from excitement, but from nervousness."
"Your tears—hm, shed at just the right moment, yet there wasn't a shred of genuine affection in your eyes, only panic and calculation."