Brothers Reunited

The five Black Armored Army soldiers' expressions turned solemn. They stood in a row, raised their left hands, and held them flat against their chests, saluting their fallen comrades.

Then the burly man who served as their captain stepped forward. Releasing his blazing battle aura, he cremated the remains into ashes and packed them into a cloth bag he carried with him.

At that moment, the burly man looked Qi Bei over suspiciously several times. The more he looked, the more Qi Bei resembled the commander's biological younger brother, Qi Bei Nord.

"I wonder..." The burly man had just begun to ask when a tiger's roar suddenly came from the distance, interrupting him.

"It's the commander. The commander is here." The other Black Armored Soldiers' faces filled with excitement. That roar clearly belonged to the commander's Magic Beast, the Earth-Splitting Tiger.

Among first- to ninth-rank Magic Beasts, the Earth-Splitting Tiger was ranked fifth. It had to acknowledge its master while still a cub. Possessing both earth and wind attributes, it was immensely powerful, yet swift as the wind—a rare battle-type Magic Beast.

Qi Bei recognized it too. The Earth-Splitting Tiger was a gift his elder brother, Huai'an Nord, had received when he became a junior warrior at the age of ten, and Qi Bei knew it well.

Qi Bei's emotions were somewhat complicated. His body was still this body, but his soul was entirely different. Could he really integrate so naturally into this body's identity?

He rubbed the ancient, dull ring on the middle finger of his left hand. This was the Nord Family's clan ring in the Golden Leaf Dynasty. Every direct descendant of the Nord Family possessed one. It symbolized status and power.

The first clan head of the Nord Family, Simon Nord, had followed the founding emperor of the Golden Leaf Dynasty, Great Emperor Golden Leaf, through countless campaigns. He had been the dynasty's foremost founding hero, wielding power that towered over the heavens.

Eight hundred years passed. The Golden Leaf Dynasty changed emperors ten times, and many families that had held unrivaled power at the dynasty's founding gradually declined. Yet the Nord Family's glory remained unchanged, and its position as the dynasty's foremost family stood as firm as a rock.

Many commoners believed the reason the Nord Family had flourished without decline was imperial favor. But the true reason was that the Nord Family had always held firmly to one-third of the dynasty's military power.

As for imperial favor, that was indeed how things appeared on the surface. But everyone at the heart of the ruling power knew it was actually an enormous joke. Just imagine—if you were the emperor, but your subject controlled one-third of the empire's army, could you sit securely on your throne?

The Nord Family might have been riven by endless internal struggles, but when it came to the family's interests, they united completely. Moreover, every generation produced several geniuses. That was the true foundation of the Nord Family's rock-solid position over the past eight hundred years.

Qi Bei Nord was the fifth-ranked direct grandson of Kodi Nord, the current head of the Nord Family.

The Nord Family produced geniuses generation after generation, but likewise, every generation had no shortage of good-for-nothings.

Unfortunately, Qi Bei was the representative good-for-nothing of his generation. His mother had suffered a difficult labor when he was born, and because he had been trapped in the womb for too long, his body was frail. He was destined to be unable to practice martial arts. When he was five, a test of his magical talent proved that he could not sense natural elements, closing the path of a natural mage as well. On top of that, his personality was flighty and his thoughts childish, as though he were missing a few screws. Naturally, he was marginalized.

Still, his identity was what it was. With an extremely protective father and elder brother, he was guaranteed a life of wealth and glory.

The reason Qi Bei had appeared here, however, was because of an unexpected incident.

It had happened eight months ago. Qi Bei had sneaked into the Imperial Palace to see Princess Mingyue, whom he had pursued for a long time. Although Princess Mingyue had always been neither warm nor cold toward him, he firmly believed that even the strongest woman could be worn down by a persistent man, so he went to pester her every few days.

That day, a necromancer infiltrated the Imperial Palace and took Princess Mingyue hostage. At the critical moment, Qi Bei recklessly threw himself forward and knocked the necromancer aside. Princess Mingyue was saved, but he fell into the necromancer's clutches.

The severely wounded necromancer fled with him all the way into the dreaded Undead Mountain Range, whose very name made the world tremble.

The necromancer's injuries were too severe for him to heal on his own, while the frail Qi Bei also could not withstand the ordeal and was on the verge of death.

Both of them collapsed, and both of them died.

Yes, they both died. Qi Bei Nord was already dead.

The Qi Bei now was no longer the original Qi Bei. He was a transmigrator from another world called Earth—a college student who loved adventure and happened to share the name Qi Bei. In the ruins of an ancient civilization, he had picked up a dragon-shaped stone, only to be blasted into pieces by the strange power within it. His soul had crossed over as the soul of that unlucky man. However, when he possessed this body, he had also obtained all of its memories.

What crossed over with Qi Bei's soul was the Dragon Imprint in the palm of his left hand, along with an internal cultivation technique called the Divine Dragon Art.

In the Undead Mountain Range, overrun by undead creatures, Qi Bei had no other choice. He had already died once and did not want to die a second time, so he could only try cultivating that baffling Divine Dragon Art.

After cultivating the Divine Dragon Art, Qi Bei's frail body actually grew stronger day by day, while his six senses became exceptionally sharp.

Qi Bei searched through the necromancer's belongings and obtained some evil magical potions, some gold coins, several magic crystals, a magic staff, and a strange magic book.

Qi Bei knew nothing about magic—not even a single magical character. Yet through his memories, he remembered the concealment formation the necromancer had set up earlier. This formation required a large number of Undead Beads. All it needed was a single incantation to draw upon the magic power in the book and activate the formation.

After hiding in a lightless cave for a month, Qi Bei began venturing outside to kill some low-level undead creatures.

And so, Qi Bei spent the next full seven months in slaughter. After repeatedly hovering on the brink of life and death, his will became incomparably firm and calm. The deathly, vicious aura clinging to him was enough to chill the heart, but he did not lose himself.

Practice made perfect. He understood the traits of every kind of undead creature like the back of his hand and knew how to destroy them with the easiest and most effective methods.

During that time, he obtained a bow, a quiver of arrows, and a book on archery from an adventurer's corpse. This gave him a means of attacking from a distance and saved him from desperate situations several times.

Just then, a fierce wind blew straight into their faces, breaking Qi Bei's train of thought. A blue, spotted tiger taller than a man had appeared before them. A burly young man in heavy armor sat on its back. It was Huai'an Nord.

Huai'an Nord swept his gaze around. His pupils suddenly widened, and he stared fixedly at Qi Bei. His breathing grew heavier, and his body trembled faintly with excitement.

The moment Qi Bei saw Huai'an Nord's expression, his heart trembled. That trace of unease vanished without a trace, replaced by kinship surging from the depths of his bones.

"Big brother, I'm back." Qi Bei smiled, but his eyes grew slightly moist.

"You little brat." Huai'an Nord swung down from the tiger, rushed to Qi Bei in two strides, and opened his large arms to embrace him tightly.

"Coming back is enough. Coming back is enough. I knew the seed of my Nord Family wouldn't die so easily. Hahaha." Huai'an Nord patted Qi Bei's back several times with his large hand before releasing him.

The great tiger also ran to Qi Bei's side. It growled twice, then pushed its enormous head into his embrace.