Rebirth - City Cultivation Chapter 1

Official Version: Great Cultivator Chen Fan had failed his Tribulation period, but after a dream, he had returned to Earth, when he was young, five hundred years ago.

"In my past life, I reached the peak in the universe. I looked down upon the myriad of worlds, but with no one accompanying me. In this life, I wish for both."

Common Version: A story about a cultivator for five hundred years at the Tribulation stage being reborn. He returned to his former city, and to make up for his loss, he started eating tigers by pretending to be a pig.

Summer holiday, 2007. (1)Jiangnan Province, Huai'an City, Sishui County, within a King Long Bus heading towards the urban region.

Sishui County was very far from the urban region, and since it was summer as well, the passengers in the bus were all drowsy.

A suave young man with a fair face, short hair, roughly a meter seventy, suddenly awakened from a nightmare. With a blank face, he looked at his surroundings. Seeming to have thought of something, his complexion suddenly changed greatly.

No one knew the astonishment and surprise he felt in his heart that was could flip oceans upside down.

'Isn't this the bus I took during summer break of '07 from Sishui County to Huai'an during third year in secondary school?

'Why am I here? Wasn't I facing a divine Tribulation?

'Could it be . .  .

'I've returned . . .?'

An expression of disbelief emerged into Chen Fan's eyes.

'I, Chen Beixuan, hadn't disappeared due to the divine Tribulation, and instead, have returned to Earth, when I was young?'

Chen Fan, Immortal of the Enigmatic North, also "Chen Beixuan"(2), was the direct disciple of the Heavenly Immortal of the True Martial Immortal Sect. In his past life, when he was roughly thirty years old, he was brought away from Earth by the Heavenly Immortal who as travelling the universe. As such, he stepped upon the road of Immortal Cultivation, and just like that, five hundred years passed.

His aptitude was frightening, and just with five hundred years, he had reached the stage of Tribulation. He was named as the exception genius who had the highest chances of successfully passing through Tribulation in ten million years in the World of Immortal Cultivation. If he were able to successfully pass through the Tribulation, he would be able to leave this universe to step into the Immortal World.

He went wherever he desired in the universe for five hundred years and fought against a myriad of stellar clans—and won all of those battles. He was thus named by the World of Immortal Cultivation as the "Immortal of the Enigmatic North".

But sadly, he had still fallen in the divine Tribulation.

In the instant at the end of Tribulation, Chen Fan discovered that his presumably immovable foundation was actually unstable due to his hasty cultivation. It was actually full of flaws.

His heart as stable as a boulder, always going fiercely forth, instantly collapsed in the Tribulation of Mind.

The reason was because Chen Fan had thrown away everything in the five hundred years for cultivation. He had left countless regrets and unfixable guilts. They were normally suppressed deep in his heart, but during the Tribulation of Mind, they surged forth all at once, and he could not escape them all.

Chen Fan tested his body, and discovered the magic power sufficient to destroy a star had disappeared completely.

There weren't even any traces of his incomparably powerful Quintessential Spirit.

"It looks like this isn't a Tribulation. I've truly returned." Chen Fan furrowed his brows, his eyes containing deep thought.

With the knowledge Chen Fan had regarding Tribulations, he naturally knew that no matter the strength or realism of the illusion constructed by his inner demons, it was impossible for it to strip away an immortal's five hundred years' worth of cultivation. There were still tiny differences between the realistic world.

'Right now, my body is completely empty. Magic power, Divine Power, Quintessential Spirit, heart, and even all my treasures and weapons have all disappeared. All of that come from the future me, so I can't bring them to the past. Right now, I am only an ordinary person who doesn't even have strength to tie up a chicken. Even a single bullet can kill me.'

Although countless year of painstaking work had disappeared, he was not dispirited in the slightest. Instead, he chuckled.

'This is good. In my past life, I had cultivated too quickly, leading to my unstable foundations.

'In this life, I will firmly made a footprint with every step I take. I will cultivate to perfection every single realm, and forge a supreme foundation.'

As he smiled, his eyes became sharp. A lump of flame was jumping in his heart!

'There are also enemies who had harmed me. In this life, I will take revenge upon all of them.

'I will absolutely not allow any events that cause me eternal regret to occur again.'

Even though he had put away the things that had happened in the past, it did not represent he had forgotten them in the slightest.

'Mother, father, Sister An, and Little Qiong, I've come back.

'This time, I will not retreat! I will not let anyone harm you, nor humiliate you!'

He lowered his head, his gaze resolute.

In his past life, Chen Fan was born in a seemingly normal but not actually ordinary family in Sishui County, Huai'an.

His father Chen Kexing was from capital of Jiangnan Province, Nanjing, while his mother Wang Xiaoyun was from a big family in China's capital.

That family could be said to be the most wealthy and powerful even in the capital Beijing.

They were both university students and were in love. However, back then, society retained its traditional style—marriages were decided by their parents. That was especially so for such a high-profile family like the Beijing's Wang family.

In the end, naturally, the Wang family found all sorts of ways to stop them, and Chen Fan's grandfather even announced to severe the relationship between father and daughter.

So, in a fury, Wang Xiaoyun split up with her family. She bring Chen Kexing and left Beijing, and returned to Jiangnan Province.

In order to prove to the Wang family he was worthy of their daughter, he did not choose to stay in Nanjing, the capital of the province. Instead, he went to Sishui County in Huai'an for management and started from the bottom.

He worked for some dozen years or so, and without any background, with ability alone he slowly reached the position of vice-county magistrate. However, there was too great of a distance between him and the Wang family.

So, when Chen Fan was born, the attitude between both sides had eased a bit. Chen Fan's grandfather permitted Wang Xiaoyun to bring her husband and son to Beijing for New Years. Their family, with elated emotions, arrived at Beijing.

What awaited them were cold gazes and ridicule from all sorts of relatives.

In the Wang family's eyes, Wang Xiaoyun and Chen Kexing went against the order of the eldest and ran off to some countryside and privately married, then gave birth to a son. They had disgraced the Wang family in the circle of wealthy families in Beijing. And they still dared to return?

As for Chen Kexing's tiny achievement, it was seen as a joke in the Wang family's eyes.

Typically, the ones who married one from the Wang family were leaders of some sort or controlled an entire city. There was an endless number of high officials who oversaw provinces; what was a mere county magistrate?

When he recalled all that, Chen Fan shook his head with a trace of a playful smile on his face.

'Oh Wang Cheng, Wang Cheng, I'm sure none of you would have expected me to return, right?

'In the past life, regardless how my father, my mother, and me fought, we could only look with admiration towards you and your Wang family. A lifetime of work from my father and mother was only seen as joke in your eyes.

'My mom was very strong throughout her life, but she only wanted to do some things to gain the approval of the Wang family. But, in the end, she ended up like that.

'I've returned in this life. Even though I am only a normal person right now, after I regain my cultivation, I will take a trip to Beijing and break down your Wang family's gate. I'll let you see then what a true "unreachably high" is!'

Wang Cheng was Chen Fan's elder cousin. He was the most excellent character in the Wang family's young generation. In his past life, Chen Fan did everything he could to try and surpass him, but in the end, he had discovered with despair that the distance between them only became bigger and bigger! It was like the difference between heaven and earth!

The last time Chen Fan saw the Wang family was during his mother's funeral. Back then, the Wang family only sent a third-generation young one to appear.

The one who came was Wang Cheng!

His uncles, aunts, grandfather, grandmother, none of them came! This was their daughter, their sister!

Back then, Wang Cheng was high, handsome, arrogant, dazzling, and he was embraced by the crowd, akin to a successor to an emperor!

The people walking alongside him were all famous people Chen Fan looked up at.

Although it had been five hundred years, when he thought of the Wang family's faces, he felt bursts of displeasure in his heart.

What Immortal Cultivation demanded was the cultivation of one's heart! It was to be free and unrestrained, not lack of desires, nor repaying animosity with kindness.

If one does not take revenge for former resentment and leave it in one's heart, perhaps normally it could be suppressed, but when the tribulation of mind arrives, even if you have ten million years of cultivation, it will all become dust!

'That's right. Putting aside the Wang family, Shen Junwen's family should still be the richest family in Huai'an, right?'

As he looked at the scenery outside the window, Chen Fan's heart was suddenly shaken.

Recalling Shen Junwen, he thought of Little Qiong.

A woman who made him infatuated for his entire life, yet also a woman he hated for his entire life.

It was precisely because she appeared in his tribulation of mind—she was the reason Chen Fan's heart collapsed. He had given up, and was destroyed by the divine tribulation.

'In the past life, you stole away Little Qiong from my hands. You forced my business to go bankrupt, and forced me to return to Huai'an in a sorry state. By my father's arrangements, I became a little public servant. I worked from nine to five. I lived as though I were drunk every day.

'At that moment, how successful were you? Yet, I could only lick my wounds like a dog in a corner.'

Thinking of all that, a chilly glint appeared in Chen Fan's eyes.

Shen Junwen!

A member Wanrong Cooperation—the leader of China's estate world—the son of one of the most wealthy people in Jiangnan Province, Little Qiong's classmate.

He was also his greatest love rival in his past life! He not only stole away Little Qiong, he was even the mastermind behind the destruction of Jinxiu Cooperation.

'In my past life, Little Qiong and I were childhood friends. We separated when we were young, and remet each other at university. I thought we could stay together forever, but in the end, because of your interference, in addition to their family's opposition, I was forced to stay away from Little Qiong.

'The final time I saw Little Qiong was at the student meeting, but then I heard the news of her arranged marriage with you. Do you know how much despair I Felt at that time?

'If it weren't for the Heavenly Immortal passing through Earth, I would have probably already jumped down from that building and ended this sorrowful life,' Chen Fan narrated in a low voice.

Those things had occurred several hundred years ago and he should have forgotten them already. But, every single calmly spoken word of his were akin to an ancient chilliness blown from the arctic.

'I will never forget the instant before I jumped off that building. From that moment forth, Chen Fan had died. The one alive was Chen Beixuan, the "Immortal of the Enigmatic North" of the True Martial Immortal Sect.

'Because of your generosity, I was able to devote myself in cultivation and push forth fiercely, reaching the stage of tribulation after five hundred years only.

'Say, should I repay this favour to you?'

There seemed exist yet not exist a smile on Chen Fan's face.

If Chen Fan in his past life had failures everywhere, then Shen Junwen truly flourished with success.

Chen Fan's mother passed away. His business went bankrupt. The former part of his life was in poverty, and in depression. Most of that was due to the oppression of the Shen family.

In his past life, Chen Fan was pushed in absolute failure. No matter business, life, or romance. All of it was taken away by Shen Junwen.

Recalling all that, the chilly glint in Chen Fan's eyes roared.

'Shen Junwen, Fang family, Wang family, and Wang Cheng!

'You would never expect me to be reborn, right!

'In this life, I will personally take away everything you own! I will personally return all instances of humiliation you've given to me!'

In his past life, his first thirty years were passed in poverty and distress. He failed in all parts of life, and received countless cold gazes and ridicule.

In this life, he had returned with five hundred years of cultivation memory. He only aimed to take revenge and spit out the breath of grievance in his heart!

NOTES:

(1) Disclaimer: I know no geography, so the names and whatnot are probably wrong. >.<

(2) Beixuan = North Enigmatic

Rebirth - City Cultivation (重生之都市修仙) is a Chinese web novel by Shili Jianshen (十里劍神 lit. Ten Mile Sword God). It has over 100 thousand characters, and is listed, on qidian, under the category of "City Life" and the subcategory of "Abnormal Ability". There are over 35 chapters; the novel was started on 2nd July, 2016, and is ongoing.

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