Yan Yu possessed a profound secret, one that would shake the foundations of the world if revealed. What had happened to her defied imagination, an event likely beyond the capabilities of even Immortals.

She had inexplicably returned to the past.

At the end of her previous life, with her cultivation burned away, her talismans depleted, and feeling as insignificant as an ant, she had seen the Heavenly Spear hurtling toward her heart like a comet. Beneath dark, storm-ridden skies, she could only pray for a second chance. When the spear pierced her heart and exploded, she found herself returned to the fateful day her fiancé had broken their engagement, a decision that led to her banishment from the Yan clan. Initially, she had dismissed it as a dream, recalling the saying that life flashes before one's eyes in the face of death. However, as days passed, the truth solidified. This was her new reality.

From that day forward, Yan Yu dedicated every waking moment to rigorous training and cultivation. She strived to become as powerful as possible, preparing to confront the immense calamity that would later usher in the Era of Chaos. Yan Yu swore to make that bastard—her former fiancé—pay a thousandfold for his actions. She vowed to become powerful enough to utterly defeat him.

In her past life, she had barely managed to gain acceptance as an outer disciple in the Frozen Palace Sect, a sect exclusively for women. Although she knew she would miss her sister and master from that sect, her yearning for strength overshadowed her sentimental attachments. In this life, she resolved to join the Purple Moon Sect instead.

The Purple Moon Sect stood as one of the most formidable sects on the Dark Forest continent, and Yan Yu believed she could cultivate strength at a much faster pace there. Her immediate goal was to become an inner disciple as quickly as possible, followed by core disciple status, and ultimately, an elder. From such a position of power, she would unleash the full might of the sect upon her enemies.

The path ahead would be arduous. The Purple Moon Sect possessed a unique culture. In most other sects, a strong and talented disciple would be quickly noticed and taken under the wing of an elder and granted significant resources to accelerate their growth. However, within the Purple Moon Sect, every disciple had to progress through the ranks. Outer, then inner, then core disciple. Elders in this sect could only mentor a maximum of three disciples concurrently, making the competition to become an inner or core disciple fiercely challenging for everyone, even the patriarch's own son. But Yan Yu refused to yield. Her talent in this life was exceptional, her potential unmarred, and her past-life knowledge provided a significant advantage. Now, she needed to capitalize on every opportunity to cultivate faster than her peers.

After the outer disciple guide had shown her the available housing options—houses, dormitories, and caves—for new disciples, Yan Yu immediately chose to reside in the caves area. While the qi in the caves was less dense, the difference was negligible for her current stage of cultivation. She prioritized a secluded and silent environment conducive to undisturbed cultivation. She selected the first cave she encountered. Though she noticed signs of occupancy—spare clothes, a desk cluttered with papers, and unwashed garments piled in a corner—she disregarded these details and began to cultivate. For a time, she cultivated in peace, but then a knock at the entrance disturbed her concentration. A man stood outside.

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Annoyance flared within Yan Yu. She had no desire to search for another cave and waste precious time. She wanted this cave, and this man would have to accept her claim. After all, Yan Yu possessed exceptional talent and a destiny for greatness. Had her former fiancé not interfered and ruined everything, she would have been on a guaranteed path to immortality.

"You have wasted my time," Yan Yu stated, her tone sharp. She did not recognize the man, which implied he was not some renowned or prodigious cultivator destined for greatness.

Yan Yu materialized ice shards and launched an attack. The man leaped backward, and she pursued him out of the cave and into the small clearing in front. With each step Yan Yu took, the air around her grew noticeably colder, her eyes sharpened and shifted to an intense, luminous blue, like glowing gems under moonlight. More flying ice shards materialized around her, soon surrounding her like a swarm of wasps poised to attack, causing the temperature in the clearing to plummet.

"Yield," Yan Yu commanded. "I have no desire to waste my valuable time on you."

"Give me back my cave," the man retorted.

Yan Yu narrowed her eyes and waved her hand dismissively. Like a miniature tsunami, hundreds of her ice shards surged toward her opponent. Although she was only at the Lock Opening fifth stage, and Flying Shards was a basic technique, even for a Purple Moon Sect disciple, this concentrated assault was potentially lethal.

"It is over," Yan Yu declared with certainty. While she preferred to avoid needless bloodshed, she would not hesitate to eliminate anyone who became her adversary.

"You are too cocky," the man countered. He remained calm and adopted a fighting stance, his left hand extended towards her in an odd gesture, as if grasping something unseen. As the wave of ice shards approached, electricity crackled and coalesced in his right hand. The first ice shard to reach him shattered smoothly against his lightning-coated right hand, followed by the second and third. He systematically destroyed every shard that came at him, then began to advance, carving a path through the dense swarm of ice.

Observing this, Yan Yu realized she had overestimated her own power and underestimated her opponent. As expected of a Purple Moon Sect disciple, an attack that could easily dispatch a normal cultivator of her stage was being effortlessly deflected by this man. However, Yan Yu remained unimpressed.

The man's right hand moved with swift and powerful strikes, like a cobra lashing out at its prey. Each time his hand connected with a shard, a small cloud of ice powder erupted. Yan Yu estimated she had already launched over three hundred shards and continued to generate more. Already, the man's initial momentum had waned.

"Let us see if you can withstand this," Yan Yu intended to test his ability to defend against attacks from multiple directions. Yan Yu flicked her index finger left and right. Instantly, the ice shards shifted direction, dividing into three distinct swarms: the first continued straight ahead, the second curved to the left, and the third curved to the right.

The man glanced to his left and right, his expression remaining calm, as if he already anticipated and understood how to counter this new development. He pointed his left hand towards the swarm approaching from his left, then with a subtle twitch of his index finger, one of her ice shards instantly disintegrated into a puff of powder.

Yan Yu narrowed her eyes further, but she could not discern the nature of his technique. To address the swarms converging from the front and right, the man flexed his lightning-coated right hand, and suddenly, a blade of pure lightning erupted from it.

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