Vol 3. Chapter 91: Three Lives
No chance to survive and tell them?
Such arrogant words, filled with contempt and disdain, entered Xue Tianao’s ears.
Normally, Xue Tianao would never have tolerated such a contemptuous attitude.
Even if he didn’t immediately attack, he would certainly have responded with a few choice words of his own.
However, after hearing those words this time, Xue Tianao showed no reaction whatsoever.
Instead, he continued staring fixedly at the black-haired man who was gradually becoming enveloped in pitch-black light.
No,
To be precise,
What Xue Tianao was staring at was the black weapon floating beside Xiao, something resembling both a spear and a staff...
‘That spear...’
That familiar shape, those strange blue gemstones, and that sinister aura surrounding it...
For a moment,
Memories buried deep within his mind for more than thirty years suddenly surged forth, causing the Child of Destiny’s eyes to abruptly contract.
His blue pupils were filled with astonishment.
“It’s you?!...”
——
Fifteen years ago, when Xue Tianao was still the son of a farmer in some small kingdom, he had accidentally awakened part of his memories from before his rebirth.
When he awakened those memories of making a deal with the Goddess, the power of the Child of Destiny within Xue Tianao awakened along with them. An unknown golden crest appeared across his back.
Realizing that he bore the mission of saving the world, Xue Tianao began cultivating diligently and working hard to increase his strength.
With the Child of Destiny’s cultivation talent and the System’s assistance, he quickly embarked upon his heaven-defying life.
His cultivation progressed smoothly, his relationship with his childhood sweetheart gradually deepened, and even the faction he had established gradually gained considerable fame within the small kingdom.
Everything seemed to be going exactly as he wished, completely different from his first life.
His future was filled with light and hope.
At least,
That was what Xue Tianao himself believed.
And just like that, two years passed. After Xue Tianao successfully broke through to the Sixth Tier and confidently led his subordinates on a subjugation mission, an unexpected incident occurred...
Upon reaching the lair of the magical beast known as the Black Lion-Tiger, Xue Tianao was astonished to discover that the magical beast they were supposed to subjugate had already been decapitated and lay in a pool of blood.
And standing before the magical beast’s corpse was a mysterious masked man.
At first, Xue Tianao merely assumed that he was another adventurer who had snatched their job. It wasn’t until the other party released killing intent and attacked him that Xue Tianao realized something was terribly wrong and hurriedly attempted to fight back.
However, the mysterious man possessed strength unlike anything Xue Tianao had ever encountered. In a single confrontation, the dozens of battle-hardened subordinates who had followed him were brutally killed by the man’s magical attack.
Xue Tianao himself directly lost his right arm.
Knowing that he had absolutely no chance of victory, Xue Tianao immediately made the decisive choice to use a teleportation item he had previously exchanged for from the System and escaped the scene.
But before he could enjoy the relief of surviving the disaster for long, Xue Tianao was horrified to realize that one of his companions had betrayed him.
After fleeing back to his secret base, he encountered the black-robed man once again.
This time,
Xue Tianao wasn’t so lucky.
He failed to escape and was directly pierced through the heart by the other party’s black magical spear.
Filled with anger, unwillingness, and despair...
Xue Tianao’s consciousness completely sank into boundless darkness.
And thus, he lost his second chance.
Two years later, Xue Tianao was reborn once again after possessing the body of a deposed prince of the Snow Night Empire, and his memories awakened once more.
Recalling the mysterious man who had persistently tried to kill him, as well as the inexplicable death he had suffered during his first life shortly after exposing his identity as the Child of Destiny,
Xue Tianao began to suspect that someone had targeted him. Someone in this world wanted the Child of Destiny dead!
He had received three opportunities for rebirth from the Goddess.
Now, he had already lost two of them.
This time, he absolutely could not fail! No matter the cost, he had to complete the trial.
Having made up his mind, Xue Tianao burned his own back {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} with flames, concealing the mark identifying him as the Child of Destiny.
Then, using his status as a deposed prince, he hid himself within the imperial palace of the Snow Night Empire, keeping a low profile while diligently cultivating. In secret, he gradually developed his own forces while continuously monitoring changes among the continent’s major powers and the movements of the Abyss Demons in the north.
After developing his strength in silence for ten years, Xue Tianao finally broke through to the Seventh Tier, while his faction had also grown to a considerable scale.
Believing that his wings had finally grown strong enough, Xue Tianao gradually began making a name for himself in order to complete higher-level System missions. Only then did his identity as the Child of Destiny gradually become known to the world.
—
After entering the upper leadership of the Snow Night Empire, Xue Tianao ordered his people to begin a series of investigations.
Naturally, what he wanted investigated was the incident involving the complete annihilation of the Hemelo Mercenary Group. Xue Tianao wanted to find out exactly who the fuck had killed him back then!
Xue Tianao believed that whoever had managed to find him twice and kill him twice must belong to an extremely powerful organization.
Previously, afraid of attracting the other party’s attention, Xue Tianao hadn’t dared investigate.
But recently?
With one of the Four Great Empires backing him and an alliance with the Asumos Church, he no longer needed to fear any faction.
Thus, Xue Tianao began investigating on a massive scale.
Although the investigation had still yielded absolutely nothing, Xue Tianao remained firmly convinced of his theory.
‘There is definitely a faction hiding in the shadows that wants to kill me!’
And now,
It seemed that Xue Tianao’s years-long suspicion had finally been proven correct.
He stared fixedly at the staff floating beside Xiao—or rather, the magical spear. The final scenes before his deaths in his first and second lives began replaying endlessly through Xue Tianao’s mind like a slideshow. The more he remembered, the more certain he became.
In his second life, the magical spear that had pierced his heart was precisely the weapon floating beside the Duke of the Black Rose Family before him!
In fact,
Although his memories of his first life were somewhat vague, the weapon that had blown his head apart while he was out taking a walk back then seemed to have been this very same magical spear!
After realizing this,
The figure of the Duke of the Black Rose Family before him gradually overlapped with the masked man who had killed him in his previous life. The instant those two figures completely overlapped, an expression of ‘So that’s how it was’ immediately appeared in Xue Tianao’s eyes.
At this moment, he was certain.
The enemy who had killed him twice was none other than the Duke of the Black Rose Family standing before him!
After the initial realization passed,
Uncontrollable fury and hatred erupted like a volcano, instantly spraying molten rage across every corner of his heart. Unprecedented fury caused the veins across Xue Tianao’s body to bulge. His handsome blue eyes became hideously bloodshot, while crimson drops of blood dripped from his tightly clenched fists.
He,
Was the Child of Destiny!
The person prophesied to save the world, the protagonist of this world!
He should have enjoyed a brilliant, glorious life, standing at the pinnacle and commanding the winds and clouds! Yet because of this bastard, he had inexplicably died miserable deaths in his previous two lives! Even the first ten years of this life had been filled with hardship! Back then, just to survive, he had even been forced to lower his head and beg?!
It was all this bastard’s fault!
And ruining him twice still wasn’t enough?!
He had actually come after him again this time?!
He wanted to destroy everything Xue Tianao had painstakingly built once more? Including his army and the people’s trust?!
He wanted to kill him yet again?!
“Why... Why are you doing this?!”
“Doing this? Doing what?”
Faced with Xue Tianao, who had suddenly begun staring at his magical spear while gradually losing control of his emotions, Xiao narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Why are you targeting me like this?! Killing me once, twice, still wasn’t enough?! And now you’ve come after me again?! Aren’t you human?! Why do you keep opposing me, the Chosen One?! Are you trying to cause the extinction of all humanity?!”
“Hm?”
Hearing those words, a gleam flashed through Xiao’s eyes.
At this moment, a question that had puzzled him for many years was finally answered.
And so,
Under Xue Tianao’s furious gaze, Xiao slowly raised a hand to his chin and spoke thoughtfully,
“I’ve always wondered why the Child of Destiny kept coming back to life again and again. So it turns out you were being reborn? Now that really is interesting. But... considering how you’ve been behaving lately, I suppose it isn’t entirely unexpected.”
“What?”
Hearing absolutely no trace of guilt in the other party’s tone, Xue Tianao couldn’t help demanding furiously once more,
“I asked you a question! Why are you targeting me like this?!”
Faced with Xue Tianao’s second demand, Xiao’s gaze gradually turned icy.
“Why? Because only when you’re dead can the person we cherish finally sleep peacefully.”
Before his words had even faded,
Xiao raised his hand once more. The pitch-black magical spear immediately erupted with violent, intensely concentrated dark-attribute magic power. Even the surrounding space gradually began to distort beneath the rampaging magic.
Seeing that the other party had no intention of saying anything further, Xue Tianao stopped wasting his breath as well.
As he buried his fury deep within his heart,
The dense magic power surrounding the Child of Destiny gradually began surging.
The blue water-attribute magic power surrounding Xue Tianao gradually transformed into pale-golden holy-attribute magic power, while his aura climbed even higher.
At this moment, Xue Tianao had undoubtedly abandoned all thoughts of talking with the Duke of the Black Rose Family. He even cast aside the desire within his heart to unite with Miss Yu.
There was now only one thought remaining in the Child of Destiny’s mind.
Revenge.
This black-haired man before him had destroyed his faction, so he would uproot the Black Rose Family in return!
This Duke had killed him twice, so Xue Tianao would make him suffer so terribly that he would beg for death and be denied even that!
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!
‘Shackles, release!’
“DON’T THINK I’M STILL THE LITTLE BRAT YOU COULD PUSH AROUND LIKE BEFORE! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”
In an instant,
Pale-golden light surged wildly...