Everyone knows how difficult it is for a wanderer far from home to return.

  Su Chen deeply agreed.

  Five days passed. Not only did no reinforcements arrive, not even a single messenger pigeon bearing news.

  "Damn those filthy bastards!"

  Su Chen didn't need to guess. Some idiot at court must be sabotaging everything.

  The Azure Wave army had the city completely encircled. It wouldn't be long before they launched their final, all-out assault.

  Su Chen gave a bitter, mirthless laugh. He knew this life was probably coming to an end.

  "The next settlement should yield far more Reverse Fate Points, right?"

  This life had been far more brilliant than the last.

  At this moment, his heart grew strangely calm. He was just an ordinary man. One among the countless masses.

  Su Chen looked at the wounded soldiers still standing. "My brothers, are you willing to fight to the death with me?"

  The remaining men gazed at their general with grief in their eyes.

  "Gen… General… I want to go home… I haven't been back in ten years."

  The burly man who had fought on the battlefield without so much as a whimper, even when his arm was severed, now lowered his head and let out a beast-like roar.

  Su Chen's eyes dimmed. By his own count, he hadn't returned home in twenty years. Though his family visited him every year.

  "Brother Jiang… do you really think those bastards at court will send anyone to save us?"

  Song Feng stared intently at Su Chen's face, searching for any trace of reassurance.

  Su Chen answered calmly, "They will. They definitely will. If we survive this battle, our names will resound across the Heavenly Wind Kingdom. Our descendants will inherit endless glory. Our families will receive the finest treatment."

  Song Feng bared his teeth in a grin. "Then I'll trust you, Brother Jiang. If I die and you live, please take my body back home. I can't return alive—let my corpse at least return. That would be falling leaves returning to their roots."

  Su Chen filled a bowl with wine and passed it over with a smile. "And if I should fall, I ask the rest of you to carry my body home as well. Twenty years away—I miss home too."

  Everyone filled their bowls in turn and drained them in one gulp.

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  The next morning, at first light, ten Spirit Sea Realm powerhouses descended with their army.

  Su Chen stood atop the city wall, long spear in hand, gaze steady and serene. Behind him, every remaining soldier had already embraced death.

  No words passed between the sides. The final battle erupted.

  It could hardly be called a battle. It was a slaughter.

  Su Chen was not a child of destiny—at least not in this life.

  Against ten Spirit Sea Realm experts who fought without honor, even with the city's array lending power, he quickly faltered. His body became a mass of torn flesh and blood.

  He could clearly feel his life force draining away. The entire city had fallen. Only he remained. Now he too would die.

  Su Chen's eyelids grew heavier and heavier. His vision blurred. In his previous life, he had died too quickly—he never experienced the slow, agonizing wait for death. This life had at last made up for that regret.

  "Jiang Chen, you bastard—you can't die!"

  Faintly, Su Chen saw a familiar purple figure in the distance burst through the Azure Wave formation, cleaving two Spirit Sea Realm cultivators apart. He felt himself being lifted into someone's arms. Drop after drop of warm liquid fell onto his face. He could no longer make out the person's features.

  'Have the reinforcements finally arrived?'

  The urgent cries beside his ear grew distant. Someone seemed to be wailing uncontrollably.

  Su Chen lost consciousness.

  …

  When Su Chen opened his eyes again, he found himself once more in that familiar, pitch-black, mysterious space. Everything he had just lived through felt like a long, vivid dream.

  Yet the memories flooding his mind—every scene, every face, every drop of blood—told him it had been real.

  "Idiot," he muttered under his breath. He never imagined that Nangong Meng, whom he hadn't seen in half a lifetime, would charge alone into an enemy army to save him.

  "What the hell is the Heavenly Wave Sect doing? Where was Li Qingyue? How could they let such a fool run wild like that!"

  Su Chen cursed again, more bitterly this time. The war between the two kingdoms was no child's game. He had no idea whether Nangong Meng had managed to break through the encirclement in the end. Right now, he couldn't afford to dwell on it. He was already dead.

  Su Chen summoned the Book of Defying Fate and turned to the first page, which recorded his first life. Now a second page had appeared.

  [Second Life: You were a youthful genius who rose to fame early. You avenged the blood feud of your previous life, untied the knot in your heart, obtained great fortune, broke through the limits of your innate talent, lived in harmony with your wife, left your bloodline in the world, enlisted in the army, and achieved legendary military feats. Though later slandered by petty villains and banished to the border, you died a heroic death and left your story etched in the Heavenly Wind Kingdom. Your only regret is that in your youth you moved too quickly and failed to observe the people around you with sufficient care…

  [Evaluation: Nine Stars(White)]

  [Reverse Fate Points: 90]

  "Bullshit!"

  Su Chen spat at the page in disdain. What possible regret could his younger self have had?

  Still, ninety Reverse Fate Points were an excellent reward.

  The previous life's thirty points had already allowed him to achieve so much. Ninety points in the next life? That was practically an instant royal flush.

  [Talent: 0 (+)]

  [Comprehension: 0 (+)]

  [Family Background: 0 (+)]

  [Dao Heart: 10]

  Su Chen pondered for a moment.

  Talent was crucial. He allocated forty points there. Comprehension was equally vital. Thirty more went into that. In his last life, he had deciphered only half of the Spirit Communion Art.

  Suddenly, he realized something critical: even though he had translated it, anything beyond the Spirit Sea Realm was completely incomprehensible to him. Even the Spirit Sea portions had been vague and hazy.

  That left twenty points. He placed them all into Family Background.

  Family background mattered immensely—it represented cultivation resources, connections, and the ceiling he could ultimately reach.

  With everything set, Su Chen made his choice without hesitation. He began the next life.