The first thing he felt was **cold**.
Not the chill of winter's bite or the kiss of morning dew, but the deep, gnawing cold of **the grave**.
Li Shen's eyes flew open, his lungs heaving as if they had forgotten how to breathe. His fingers clawed at the damp earth beneath him, nails splitting against roots and stone. Above him, the sky was a bruised purple—dawn or dusk, he couldn't tell.
*"I died."*
The memory was a knife twisting in his skull. The ambush. The betrayal. The last thing he'd seen before the darkness took him—**a blade through his heart, wielded by a hand he knew**.
And yet, here he was. Alive.
Gasping, he pushed himself up, his body screaming in protest. His limbs were wrong—thinner, weaker. His robes were tattered, stained with mud and something darker. Blood. But not his own. At least, not *just* his own.
A groan escaped him as he staggered to his feet, swaying like a drunkard. His reflection wavered in a nearby puddle: **a face he didn't recognize**. Younger. Gaunt. A long scar split the brow, still fresh.
*"This isn't my body."*
The realization should have shattered him. Instead, something **burned** in his chest—a spark, then an ember, then a wildfire.
**Rage.**
A voice slithered through his mind, smooth as silk and sharp as a dagger:
*"You were murdered, Li Shen. But death is not the end for those with unfinished vengeance."*
His hand flew to his chest. Beneath his robes, something pulsed—**a shard of jade**, glowing faintly against his skin. It hummed, a soundless vibration that echoed in his bones.
*"What are you?"* he demanded silently.
The voice laughed. *"Your second chance."*
A twig snapped in the distance.
Li Shen turned, instincts honed by decades of battle flaring to life. Three figures emerged from the mist—men in the gray robes of the **Black Viper Sect**, their swords already drawn.
The lead fighter sneered. "Tch. Thought the rats finished you off, Wu Kai. Guess we'll have to do it properly."
*Wu Kai.* So that was this body's name. A nobody. A discard.
Li Shen flexed his fingers. His new body was weak, untrained. But his **soul** remembered.
The first attacker lunged.
Li Shen moved.
His hand shot out, seizing the man's wrist. He twisted—**a technique from a lifetime ago**—and the bone snapped like dry kindling. The man screamed. Li Shen didn't let him finish.
He wrenched the sword free and buried it in the second man's throat before the corpse hit the ground. The third fighter froze, eyes wide.
"You—you're not Wu Kai," he whispered.
Li Shen smiled. **"No. I'm not."**
The jade at his chest burned brighter as he struck.