Memories of a Past Life

Jiang Tingyi thought for a moment. "I don't know. Anyway, when you first came to Clear River City, I thought you were nowhere near as good as Ye Xuan."

"Ye Xuan?" Su Chen chuckled. "And now?"

Jiang Tingyi shook her head. "I don't know, but I'm so disappointed in Ye Xuan. I used to think he was a gentleman. Now I know I was wrong."

Su Chen glanced sideways at Jiang Tingyi beside him. Her face, as exquisite and beautiful as a work of art, overlapped with the Jiang Tingyi of his previous life in his memory. For a moment, memories of that life came flooding back.

He remembered that when he first arrived in Clear River City in his previous life, Jiang Tingyi had been just as proud and beautiful as she was now. She had looked down on Su Chen, who had been reduced to a cripple, in every possible way. She often complained that her useless cousin embarrassed her, and she seized every opportunity to mock him.

Thus, in his previous life, Su Chen had also loathed Jiang Tingyi. He had considered her vain, shallow, ill-tempered, and ignorant. Apart from her beauty and talent for martial arts, she had virtually nothing to recommend her.

Later, Jiang Shan and Jiang He had likewise promised Jiang Tingyi to Wang Sheng in marriage. Although she resisted with all her might, she was still married off to the Wang Family. On her wedding night, the fiercely unyielding Jiang Tingyi had used a poisoned blade to slash more than a dozen bloody gashes across her own face to keep Wang Sheng from violating her. Although her life was eventually saved, her face was disfigured.

Wang Sheng, finding that the sight of her spoiled his mood, sent her back to the Jiang Family. From then on, Jiang Tingyi never left her room and wore a veil all day. The once lively, enthusiastic girl became quiet and withdrawn, like an invisible presence in the Jiang Family.

Later, when unrest broke out, Xu Yin entrusted Su Chen with taking Jiang Tingyi out of Clear River City to seek refuge with the Su Family in Duyang City. But in his previous life, Su Chen's dantian had been destroyed, leaving him unable to protect her. On the journey, Jiang Tingyi was wounded in an attack by a demonic beast. Her wounds worsened and caused the old injuries on her face to flare up as well. Before long, she was barely clinging to life.

Su Chen had no way to treat her. He could only watch helplessly as she closed her eyes forever in his arms.

Her tragedy had all begun with that marriage.

In his previous life, Su Chen had never been able to forget her final moments. Her eyes, once as lustrous as obsidian, gradually lost their light. Before she closed them for good, she had offered him a rare few words. "Su Chen, thank you."

Su Chen would never forget how he had felt upon hearing that "thank you."

What was she thanking me for?

I hadn't done anything. I hadn't helped her at all.

Su Chen would never forget how desperate he had felt at that moment. Because he lacked strength, because he was a cripple incapable of practicing martial arts, he could not even help or protect his own family.

At that moment, Su Chen had sworn that if heaven gave him a chance to start over, he would attain the most supreme strength in the world and protect everyone he wanted to protect.

In truth, Jiang Tingyi was not particularly bad. At most, she was merely a vain little girl who did not know any better.

In this life, I will keep her safe.

In this life, I will overturn every heart-wrenching regret from my previous life.

"Uh, you..."

Seeing that Su Chen had remained silent for so long, Jiang Tingyi could not help breaking the silence.

Su Chen came back to his senses, gathered his thoughts, and looked at Jiang Tingyi. "Was there anything else?"

For some reason, under the gaze of Su Chen's eyes, as deep as

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the stars, Jiang Tingyi felt her heart suddenly race. She hurriedly turned her face aside and said awkwardly, "Also, Jiang Shan and the others sent the Lesser Origin Pills over. My mother asked me to bring them to you."

As she spoke, Jiang Tingyi beckoned toward the doorway, and the servants outside immediately carried in ten chests.

When the chests were opened, they revealed pale red Lesser Origin Pills of excellent quality. Each chest contained a hundred pills, making a thousand in total.

Alchemical pills were rare commodities wherever one went. Ordinary martial artists struggled to obtain even one or two. In all of Clear River City, probably only the three great lineages could afford to buy pills by the chestful.

With so many Lesser Origin Pills, Jiang Shan and Jiang He had truly bled their coffers dry this time. They had drained at least a substantial portion of the wealth of the first and third branches. To say they had suffered a grievous blow was no exaggeration.

Jiang Tingyi said, "My mother said you won all these Lesser Origin Pills, so you should keep them for your cultivation."

Su Chen glanced over the ten full chests of Lesser Origin Pills, but his gaze did not waver in the slightest.

Jiang Tingyi was secretly a little surprised. She had thought that seeing so many Lesser Origin Pills at once would make Su Chen wildly excited, or at least surprise him.

Even she had been thoroughly stunned when she first saw so many Lesser Origin Pills.

Yet when Su Chen saw them, his eyes remained as still as the waters of an ancient well. She was certain he was not putting on an act, because even his pupils had not changed in the slightest.

What a strange fellow.

While Jiang Tingyi was silently grumbling to herself, she suddenly heard Su Chen say, "I'll keep five chests of Lesser Origin Pills. Take the other five back to your mother."

Jiang Tingyi blinked, thinking she had misheard him. "Wh-what?"

Black lines seemed to form across Su Chen's face. "Are you deaf?" he snapped. "I said to take half these Lesser Origin Pills back with you."

"B-but why?" Jiang Tingyi did not even notice that Su Chen had called her deaf. She was simply too astonished. Those were five hundred Lesser Origin Pills! Was Su Chen really giving them to her and her mother so generously?

Did he not know what five hundred Lesser Origin Pills meant? Even if they did not use them for cultivation, selling those five hundred pills would bring in a fortune enough to make anyone's heart flutter.

"Just take them. Why all the pointless questions?" Su Chen's tone was casual. He spoke of five hundred Lesser Origin Pills as lightly as if they were five.

He was someone who repaid kindness. In both his previous life and this one, Xu Yin had treated him sincerely. She was one of the few loved ones by his side, and he would naturally never treat her poorly.

Five hundred Lesser Origin Pills were only the beginning.

Su Chen also planned to find Xu Yin a cultivation method and martial techniques better suited to her, replacing those she currently practiced. However, that was not something he could accomplish in a day or two. Finding cultivation methods and martial techniques tailored to a particular person was not as simple as one might imagine.

Jiang Tingyi soon left with the five chests of Lesser Origin Pills. As she departed, Su Chen distinctly heard her mutter, "What a weirdo!"

Su Chen remained unperturbed and paid it no mind.

After Jiang Tingyi left, he shut the door and took a Lesser Origin Pill from one of the chests.

He had to admit that the batch of Lesser Origin Pills Jiang Shan had sent was of good quality. They were probably premium products from the Five Treasures Hall.

Although they were still far inferior to those he had refined as the Dust Pill Emperor, they were free, after all, so Su Chen was not going to be picky. Jiang Tingyi thought for a moment. "I don't know. Anyway, when you first came to Clear River City, I thought you were nowhere near as good as Ye Xuan."

Although they were still far inferior to those he had refined as the Dust Pill Emperor, they were free, after all, so Su Chen was not going to be picky.