A New Life

Moonlight streamed into the room through the window lattice.

Ju Zi leaned against the window, her slender hands folded atop the sill.

The depth in her gaze did not belong to a ten-year-old girl at all.

For some reason, she felt that tonight's moonlight resembled the night before her death in her previous life.

Her previous life.

A century after Huo Yuhao became a god.

It had been who knew what year of the Douluo calendar.

The Tang Sect had long since risen completely across the Douluo Continent, becoming an unshakable behemoth.

The three great empires were like cockroaches that refused to die. Though they were barely hanging on, they remained locked in a deadly standoff with the Sun Moon Empire.

At that time, Ju Zi lived alone in the cold depths of the imperial palace.

She had long since handed all authority over to her son, Xu Yunhan.

Whenever she thought of that son, the sharpness and weariness in Ju Zi's eyes softened involuntarily.

Xu Yunhan had been a ruler of his generation.

Under his leadership, the Sun Moon Empire had crushed everything in its path, sweeping away all reactionary and evil forces within the nation.

Every usable force in the country had been highly integrated.

The nation's strength had flourished day by day.

Commoners lived and worked in peace, while the entire nation radiated vigorous vitality.

Xu Yunhan had been a good emperor. He had accomplished everything she had once wished to do.

But.

The three great empires were precisely the tough bone that could not be chewed, lodged firmly in the Sun Moon Empire's throat.

They could neither spit it out nor swallow it down.

With Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect charging at the forefront, those people were like adhesive bandages. No matter how hard they were beaten, they always managed to catch their breath again.

In terms of raw strength, the Sun Moon Empire could have steamrolled them completely.

Yet whenever things reached a critical moment, those so-called gods of the upper realm would secretly interfere.

That invisible pressure was enough to drive people to despair.

It left the Sun Moon Empire restrained at every turn, even afraid to directly deploy Class 9 fixed soul cannon shells to scour the land.

It was a blade hanging over everyone's heads.

Just when Ju Zi thought she would never see the Sun Moon Empire unify the Douluo Continent in her lifetime, and could only close her eyes alone in the depths of the palace—

She died.

Then.

When she opened her eyes.

She had somehow returned to the eve of her martial soul awakening at the age of six.

The room was quiet.

Ju Zi extended a pale, delicate finger and lightly tapped the wooden windowsill, creating a steady rhythm.

A second life.

For the first few days, she had been completely dazed.

Every day, she watched her mother, Gan Tian, peeling fruit in the courtyard with her Apple Martial Soul while her father, Gan Ju, grinned foolishly beside her.

The joy of regaining what she had lost nearly made her cry herself blind.

In her previous life.

Her father had died within those years, in that absurd border war.

From then on, her world had contained nothing but bone-deep hatred, pushing her step by step toward the abyss.

In this life, no matter what, she would not allow that to happen again.

With the advantage of foresight.

On the eve of her father being drawn into that certain-death battle.

Ju Zi directly produced a regional core blueprint for an improved fixed soul cannon shell.

Using that blueprint, she obtained a special approval from the military high command and forcibly transferred her father to the safest rear-line logistics department.

The gears of fate had been bent by her own hands.

And that was not all.

Having lived for so long in her previous life, even if her soul power was insufficient, her mind was filled with the core theories behind Class 9 soul tools.

Limited by her current soul power of barely over ten ranks, she could not create any heaven-defying equipment.

But that did not stop her from crushing others with knowledge from a higher level.

Starting from her martial soul awakening at age six, she had casually revealed theories and blueprints that were centuries ahead of the current era.

Naturally enough.

She became the Sun Moon Empire's renowned soul tool prodigy.

In this empire where everything revolved around soul tools, that talent was the greatest protective talisman.

It was not merely status.

Her deliberately displayed precocity and composure, combined with the dark intelligence and hidden secrets in her memories from her previous life.

Within only a few years.

She had secretly gathered a large group of utterly loyal followers.

Like Shao Xing, who stood guard outside.

A six-ringed Soul Emperor was an absolute trump card in a place like the borderlands.

Yet now, he willingly bowed his head to a ten-year-old girl and called her Miss.

Because Ju Zi had not merely saved his life.

She had also completely won him over with that higher-dimensional theoretical knowledge.

Ju Zi withdrew her gaze from the window.

She turned and looked toward the neighboring room.

Huo Yuhao was there.

Thinking of that name, the smile on Ju Zi's lips widened uncontrollably, and her tightly wound nerves finally relaxed completely.

In her previous life, that man had burst into her broken world like a ray of light.

Unfortunately, they had missed too much between them.

She could only watch as he slowly walked toward someone else, eventually ascending to godhood.

However.

In this life.

She had chosen to physically tear apart the plot.

The White Tiger Duke's Estate, the arduous monster-fighting and leveling path—screw all of that.

She had simply sent someone to shove him into a sack and carry him back to her side.

And besides.

She was not some foolish woman who only cared about romance.

Other than Huo Yuhao.

Ye Guyi, whom she had brought back today, was also one of the most vital pieces in her plan.

A future Rank 97 Super Douluo of the Tang Sect.

A top-tier combatant possessing the Holy Angel Martial Soul.

At this point in time, evil soul masters were still a festering tumor hidden in the shadows, but Ju Zi had experienced firsthand the destructive power of those lunatics from the Holy Spirit Cult.

And Ye Guyi was the sharpest blade in the world for countering them.

As long as she held that blade in her hand.

Those disobedient evil soul masters within the empire could only stretch out their necks and await execution.

It was not only Ye Guyi.

A glimmer of unfathomable light flashed through Ju Zi's eyes.

There was also a long list hidden in her mind.

In her previous life, quite a few of the Tang Sect's exceptionally gifted top geniuses had originally been native citizens of the Sun Moon Empire.

As a result, they had all been sweet-talked by that brat Huo Yuhao, and they had all run off to work for the three great empires.

That was simply unforgivable aid to the enemy.

In this life.

Since she had already firmly held Huo Yuhao, the source of it all, in her arms.

Those geniuses naturally had to be intercepted as well, every last one of them brought under her command.

Keep the good stuff in the family.

Recruit all the talent and seize all the cheats.

She wanted to see.

After pulling the rug out from under them like this, what would Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect use to fight her Sun Moon Empire in the future?

Fight her with their heads?

Unify the entire Douluo Continent and completely sweep away those half-dead old powers.

That was her ultimate goal in this life.

At that thought, Ju Zi drew a quiet breath, turned around, and looked at herself in the mirror.

A childish face that was only ten years old.

Yet.

The curve of that face in the mirror slowly became extraordinarily gentle.

Her eyes even overflowed with irrepressible motherly love.

She thought of her son, Xu Yunhan, again.

In her previous life, because of the matter of borrowing seed, it had become an unspoken scandal known to everyone.

Her son's throne had, in truth, been obtained somewhat improperly.

It lacked both legitimacy and justification.

Although she had later relied on ruthless suppression, along with Xu Yunhan's own exceptional abilities, to forcibly stamp out those voices of opposition.

A stain that could not be erased still remained.

Those self-righteous old nobles had no idea how much disgusting gossip they had spread behind their backs.

"Yunhan..."

For some reason, Ju Zi suddenly repeated that name silently in her heart.

A hint of maternal radiance softened her entirely.

She looked forward immensely to the days ahead.

A second life.

Since she had already torn the script to pieces.

Then in this life, she would not only build a complete and unified empire.

She would also give her son a truly legitimate throne, one without the slightest blemish ever again.

More importantly.

She would give him... a complete family.

His biological father and biological mother.

Both would remain safely by his side.

In Ju Zi's mind, Huo Yuhao's obedient appearance at dinner surfaced involuntarily—how he had acted so honest and tried desperately to ingratiate himself with her parents by living off them.

Before that timid-looking face, her grand ambition of a thousand-year empire suddenly lost some of its grandeur.

Ju Zi laughed aloud.

"You're not getting away."