Liu Yanting: "Li Hao, you really don't think I actually like you, do you?"
Meng Baichuan: "I honestly have no idea how an idiot like this managed to cultivate to a Half-Step Martial God!"
Liu Yanting: "Brother Chuan, if you were the son of the richest man in Yuncheng, you could do it too."
Meng Baichuan: "That's right! Still, no matter how good your reincarnation is, if you lack a brain, you're just living on borrowed time..."
With that, the despicable pair burst into hysterical laughter...
Li Hao, a Rank-9 Martial King (Peak), was a supreme powerhouse who had already placed half a foot into the realm of the Rank-10 Martial God.
Yet, just five minutes ago, at the very moment Li Hao reached the crucial juncture of breaking through to the Rank-10 Martial God, his beloved Liu Yanting had colluded with his most trusted brother, Meng Baichuan, to meticulously plot his downfall and murder.
After their triumphant laughter died down, Meng Baichuan walked over to Li Hao, who had collapsed onto the ground like a dead dog, and growled through clenched teeth: "Brother Hao? Bullshit! Based on your mediocre talent, you expect me to call you brother? You don't fucking deserve it! Aren't you just relying on a little filthy lucre? What's so special about you!"
Without another word, Meng Baichuan began raining savage kicks down on Li Hao's face and body, venting the pent-up resentment he had harbored for so long...
"Weren't you acting so arrogant? Let's see you be arrogant now... Bam, bam, bam... Go on, show me some more of that arrogance?"
Kicking him relentlessly, Meng Baichuan sneered viciously: "With your pathetic talent, you aren't even worthy of carrying my shoes! Damn it, I'll kick you to death!"
Heh, heh, heh...
Exhausted from kicking!
Meng Baichuan simply squatted down in front of Li Hao, patted his blood-soaked cheek, and continued: "Li Hao, for the sake of the time we spent as brothers, I'll let you die with your eyes open!"
Pointing at Liu Yanting, who was standing off to the side, Meng Baichuan mocked, "Yanting has been my woman for a long time now. Never saw that coming, did you?"
At these words, Li Hao's body trembled violently as fresh blood gushed from his mouth. He forced his eyes open, staring at the vile pair, his heart consumed by hatred.
Never in his wildest dreams could Li Hao have imagined that the woman he held so dear in his heart had long belonged to someone else...
And he... was the third wheel all along.
What on earth was wrong with this world?
Li Hao had no time left to question the absurdity of life, for Meng Baichuan went on to say coldly: "If cultivation wasn't so damn expensive, why would I ever have let you have my woman, you useless trash!"
"Dammit..."
Seeing that Meng Baichuan was starting to run his mouth too much, Liu Yanting immediately interrupted, "Baichuan, stop wasting your breath on him! Let's not drag this out and risk a change of plans..."
"Right, you're always the thoughtful one. Why don't you send him on his way?" Meng Baichuan glanced at Liu Yanting, a flash of undisguised disgust vanishing seamlessly from his eyes.
"Okay!"
Liu Yanting drew her long sword and walked toward Li Hao.
"Bitch, neither of you scum will come to a good end!"
At this final moment, Li Hao mustered every ounce of remaining strength for a weak, desperate roar, sounding like a dying exotic beast.
"Heh, heh, heh, Li Hao, stop struggling! I've already set up an energy barrier around this place; nobody is coming to save you, so just give up!" Liu Yanting sneered.
"Considering the time we spent intimate with each other, before you die, I'll tell you a secret!"
"Actually, the person who saved you back then wasn't me at all—it was that stupid bitch, Gu Qianxue."
"Surprised? Shocked?"
"Heh, heh, heh..."
"Now that I think about it, if she hadn't risked her life to save you back then, she probably wouldn't have drawn the retaliation of a Rank-B Exotic Beast, and she wouldn't have died so young!"
"Tsk, tsk, such a waste of a gorgeous body! Heh, heh, heh..."
Hearing this, Li Hao felt as though his heart were being slashed by knives.
In that instant, everything finally made sense.
"Gu Qianxue, how could it have been you? I was such an absolute fool!" Li Hao cursed himself with deep self-reproach.
It was during the second year of high school, late at night after evening self-study. Li Hao had been walking home alone, never expecting to be ambushed by an exotic beast in the city.
That beast was a Purple-Haired Rat, a creature adept at tunneling and subterranean movement, appearing and disappearing like a ghost.
Human cities were guarded by powerful Martial Dao experts and sealed off by defensive energy barriers, making it extremely difficult for ordinary exotic beasts to slip inside.
Yet, nothing was absolute.
Perhaps the Purple-Haired Rat had already been inside the city and simply wandered out of control—that was entirely possible.
How the Purple-Haired Rat got there no longer mattered! It was simply Li Hao's terrible luck to cross paths with it.
Li Hao was merely a student, and a poor one at that.
As a seventeen-year-old Martial Dao student, his Vitality was a mere 0.3, trailing even behind the students in the liberal arts track.
With such a physique, facing a Purple-Haired Rat whose strength approached Grade One, Li Hao was completely defenseless.
Just when Li Hao thought he was surely dead, a graceful figure suddenly appeared, slew the Purple-Haired Rat, and saved him.
Back then, gravely wounded and paralyzed by fear, Li Hao hadn't managed to see his savior's face clearly; he only had a hazy impression that the person was a woman.
The next day, Li Hao woke up in the hospital.
Liu Yanting had been sitting guard by his bedside, tending to his every need, which touched him deeply.
Naturally, Li Hao had assumed that Liu Yanting was the one who had saved him.
"That day when you were attacked by the Purple-Haired Rat, Baichuan and I were standing not far away. It's just a pity my strength was too low back then to save you myself. Otherwise, I really wouldn't have minded playing out a scenario of the beauty saving the fool. Heh, heh, heh..."
"Hahaha..." Meng Baichuan chimed in with loud laughter.
"You have no idea how terrified I was at the time. I'd never seen such a terrifying exotic beast before, but watching Gu Qianxue go in to save you, I actually felt a bit of admiration!"
"That stupid bitch Gu Qianxue really lived up to her reputation as a top student; she was something else, actually managing to kill that Purple-Haired Rat! Tsk, tsk..."
"Of course, she got hurt and passed out too."
"It really was me who brought you to the hospital. So, from another perspective, I suppose I'm still your lifesaver!"
"Well, all is said and done. You can go die now!"
Looking upon the hideous, ugly faces of this despicable pair, Li Hao was consumed by a deep sense of resentment and unwillingness—and chose to detonate his own core, dying by self-destruction.
Li Hao refused to give them the satisfaction of killing him with their own hands, because they were simply unworthy.
____
Inside a luxurious villa in Yuncheng, Li Hao woke up in a daze.
"Where is this? Why am I home? I'm... I'm not dead?"
Looking at the familiar sights around him, after a brief moment of disorientation, Li Hao confirmed that he had been reborn.
Taking a deep breath to quell the raging fire in his chest, Li Hao called out, "Xiaoyao!"
"Young Master, you're awake!" A silver-bell-like laugh rang out from outside the door.
A young woman dressed in a light-blue maid outfit, with an alluring, curvaceous figure and a bewitching face, hurried into the room.
Before Li Hao could even sit up, the seductive girl climbed directly onto the edge of the bed and said in a sugary, spoiled tone, "Young Master, this outfit you told Xiaoyao to wear is so embarrassing!"
Looking at the young woman before him, Li Hao felt as though he had lived through lifetimes.
Yet, as the various humiliations of his death replayed endlessly in his mind, Li Hao no longer had the heart to flirt with her. Staring at her with an indifferent expression, he asked, "Xiaoyao, what date is it today?"
Li Hao's demeanor caught the girl off guard. Pouting her lips like a startled fawn, she answered with a hint of grievance: "Young Master, today is April 26th!"
"What year?"
"2085, of course!"
"Young Master, what's wrong with you? Your expression scared the wits out of me! Do you not like Xiaoyao anymore? Wuu..." The girl pretended to cry.
With that, Xiaoyao hurriedly pressed her hand against Li Hao's forehead.
"Huh, that's strange, it's not hot either! You don't have a fever..."
"Young Master..."
By this time, Li Hao had already fallen into deep thought.
"April 26, 2085..."
"Today is the day. Gu Qianxue dies today!" Li Hao silently recalled the date in his mind.
"That's right, it's today." Relying on his formidable spiritual power, Li Hao could verify the exact date with absolute certainty; there was no mistake.
"Xiaoyao, what time is it now?"
"Half past seven!"
"Good, there's still time! Qianxue, since I've been reborn, I will never let you die." Anxiety gripping his heart, Li Hao swung himself out of bed and began washing up.
Recalling the words of that bitch before his death, Li Hao mentally berated himself for being a complete fool!
"Young Master, where are you going? Purple-Haired Rats have been roaming around lately; it's too dangerous outside!" Seeing that Li Hao was about to leave, Xiaoyao hurriedly grabbed his arm to hold him back.
"Xiaoyao, I have something very important to take care of outside. I'll be fine, don't worry!"
"Young Master, but Old Master told you..."
"Alright, Xiaoyao, be a good girl and stay home until I come back. Be good!"
"Ring, ring, ring..."
At that exact moment, the villa doorbell rang.
"A-Hao, are you home?"
Stepping to the front door and looking through the smart peephole to see who was standing outside, Li Hao felt a towering rage instantly ignite within his chest!