Rebirth from the Ashes - Chapter 36: Very Poor Taste

To exact revenge on her fiance who cheated on her, Xing Shu plotted against her fiance’s uncle, Cheng Lang. “Was my nephew unable to please you?”

On a large, messy bed, Cheng Lang pinched Xing Shu’s chin. The black Buddhist bracelet around his wrist swayed from side to side. Everyone said Cheng Lang was a religious man who stayed away from women.

However, after sleeping with him for a night, Xing Shu expressed how it was actually easy to manipulate him. She only needed to say sweet things to him in a soft, gentle voice, and he’d give her anything she wanted.

“Mr. Cheng is only putting on a show with Xing Shu. He’ll dump her very soon!”

“Xing Shu is a shameless woman. Mr. Cheng would never fall for someone with ulterior motives like her!”

Everyone in Jing City waited for her to make a fool of herself, but nobody knew how Cheng Lang pinned her against the bed at night. “Xing Shu, mention getting a divorce again if you dare.”

Ever since then, Cheng Lang, a man who once belonged on the altar, was brought down by Xing Shu. He experienced what it felt like to be in a relationship like a normal person, and he found joy in it.

In the world of cultivation, countless tales follow righteous protagonists, fated heroes blessed by destiny, or those chosen by heaven to walk the path of immortality.But what of those who stand in their way?What of the villains? The so-called obstacles to the hero’s journey—do they not bleed, dream, and struggle as well?Xiao Ning was never meant to succeed.From the very beginning, the Grand Dao wove him as a stepping stone—a necessary sacrifice to elevate another. His path, like that of all designated ‘villains,’ was doomed to failure by design.But what happens when that design is defied?After death, Xiao Ning awakens—not in the cycle of reincarnation, but in the cold silence beyond it. There, he is offered the Eternal Paradox Codex—a forbidden artifact containing the hidden truths of the Grand Dao System itself.Rules. Loopholes. Vulnerabilities.Knowledge not meant for those like him.With this power, Xiao Ning is granted a single, impossible choice: accept oblivion, or step outside the Grand Dao entirely—to abandon fate, sever karma, and cultivate a path unbound by heaven or law.It is Xiao Ning’s journey, from ashes to something beyond comprehension.Not to become an Immortal among men.But something even the heavens dare not bind.If fate is a chain…Then let him forge his own path in the void beyond.Welcome to this humble tale.The cultivation world is vast and unkind.Let us begin again—on our terms.

I gave them my everything.My time… my strength… my heart.I trained while they slept.I smiled when they laughed.I stayed… even when it hurt.And what did I get?Nothing.They looked at me like I was pathetic.Like, I didn’t belong.Like I was… less.But I... the naive person I am, continued trusting them.They told me to act like trash, fine—I became trash.They told me to act like a scumbag, fine—I played the role.However...One mistake, one single moment...That’s all it took.And they threw me away.But now…Someone else woke up in my body.A stranger, a man who doesn’t know the pain I suffered, but wears my face.Let’s see what he does with it.Because me?I’m done with this life, so to the soul who took over my body...This is your mess now…'Gray'.

Someone once saw me at the end of the world and respectfully called me the serpent that coils around the world—Jörmungandr.Someone once gazed upon my form at the edge of the Underworld and called me an ancient serpent—Satan.I was also feared by the gods and was called the hundred-headed dragon—Typhon.I have had many names—the serpent of creation, the serpent of sacrifice, the serpent of ceremony, the serpent of the world...But I have wandered through the chaos and arrived at the wilderness. There is only one divine name—the Primordial Ancient Serpent, the origin of everything.