It turns out I'm a second-generation demon.

"He's dead," Sanwu said.

The scene before him was horrific. Falling from a twenty-story residential building, it was difficult to die with any dignity. The descendant of the Li family was smashed into a pile of minced meat on the ground, his intestines and internal organs were exposed to the air, multiple bone fragments pierced his skin, his skull was cracked, and his brains splattered several meters away.

No one can escape this situation, not even God.

Although bloodline members possess extraordinary abilities and some have special bloodlines with unimaginable vitality, the current situation has exceeded the limits that living beings can withstand.

"He's dead," Sanwu repeated.

The great-grandmother stared blankly at her great-grandson's remains, her eyes empty and lifeless.

Sanwu took out his phone, snapped a picture, and then dialed the Thunder King's number: "The mission failed."

The Thunder King was awakened in the middle of the night by the noise, completely bewildered, and asked blankly, "What?"

Sanwu calmly said, "Li Xianyu is dead."

Throughout, her tone remained calm and composed, neither joyful nor sorrowful.

"What did you say?!" The voice on the other end of the phone suddenly changed color.

"Li Xianyu is dead," Sanwu said again.

"Didn't I tell you to protect him? How did you do your job?" Thunder King roared.

"I can't protect him. One brick and he's done for. I can kill enemies, but I can't protect an ordinary person," Sanwu replied seriously.

"I sent the photos to your phone," she said. "Your Majesty, the mission failed. Can I come back now?"

There was no response on the other end of the phone; they must have been looking at the photos.

At this moment, the great-grandmother said in a low voice, "Aren't you sad? You've spent quite a few days together, and he's been pretty good to you."

"Sadness." Sanwu suddenly realized, and realized he'd actually started feigning innocence, saying something against his conscience with a straight face: "It's quite sad, quite sad..."

"Ha, how can you be sad? You have no right to be sad for him." The great-grandmother's voice was numb: "Who would be sad for the death of an orphan? Just like when the entire Li family was executed, who was sad for us?"

The night wind howled, and raindrops began to fall from the sky, turning into a torrential downpour in an instant.

They stood silently in the sorrowful rain, their figures blurred by the raindrops.

Grandma raised her head, cold raindrops pelting her face and dripping down her pointed chin: "When I was eighteen, the entire country was submerged in a torrential rain. In the dead of night, we could hear the sounds of cannons, screams, and the clatter of horses' hooves. The wronged souls of ordinary people drifted above the cities, weeping mournfully. The foreign barbarians, with their guns and cannons, gave us a lesson we would never forget. When I was forged into a warrior spirit, everyone had high hopes for me. I also felt like a hero of my family, a hero of my country. Although the times were turbulent, I still had my family, and things I wanted to protect..."

"A defeated hero is no longer a hero, but a traitor to the nation. The Li family was once very prominent, but since my generation, the only surviving direct descendant has been barely clinging to life. Every great-grandson has died an undignified death. This is the backlash of fate. In the past, we gave up everything for the greater good of the people, but now we are forced to have no descendants because of the people."

"It's over," she said. "My only connection to the world... is over."

At that moment, Sanwu heard the Thunder King's anxious voice: "Where are you? Where is the Peerless Battle Spirit?"

Sanwu replied, "She's next to me."

After a moment of silence, a thunderous roar erupted from the other end of the phone: "Leave her! Leave her now!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Sanwu was sent flying by an overwhelming force. This force created ripples that shattered glass and broke trees wherever it passed.

In the drizzling night rain, the female warrior spirit rose into the air, like a demon, like the Grim Reaper.

Sanwu felt a chill run down her spine as she was locked onto those blood-red eyes that seemed to come from hell.

"You will all be buried with him." Two blood-red beams shot from her pupils.

In the two hundred years of modern history, its military strength ranks among the top five.

Unparalleled throughout history, an unmatched fighting spirit.

She finally revealed her true colors.

......

A light drizzle fell, like drifting catkins. A ten-year-old boy sat outside his yard, idly fiddling with a caterpillar that had fallen onto the stone steps. Tiny white droplets of rain condensed on his hair.

On the muddy path outside the village, a woman walked by holding an oil-paper umbrella. She was wearing retro Hanfu, with her jade pendants jingling. Her skirt and embroidered shoes were covered in mud.

"Your name is Li Erdan?" She stopped in front of the little boy, her fair and delicate chin peeking out from under the umbrella.

The little boy looked up, staring blankly at the woman who was as beautiful as an angel. After a long while, he wiped his nose and nodded blankly.

"Your mother's name is Zhang Xiuer?" she asked.

The little boy nodded again.

"So your dad's name is Li Jianguo, right?" she asked again.

The little boy nodded again.

The young woman breathed a sigh of relief and muttered, "Finally, I found the right one."

"Sister, who are you?" The little boy mustered his courage and looked directly at the woman's face.

"Call me Great-Grandma," the woman said softly, placing her hand on the boy's head. "Your father's name is awful, but yours is even worse. From today onward, your name is Li Wuxiang. Oh, and go back and tell your mother not to wait any longer; your father is dead."

Li Wuxiang...

Great-grandmother?

Why am I seeing these things, and who am I?

Li Xianyu thought vaguely.

Suddenly, the scenery changed. The little boy was gone, and so was his great-grandmother. The drizzling village was in ruins, and in its place was a mighty river flowing endlessly.

The Huangpu River surged with turbid waves, and in the distance was the Oriental Pearl Tower under construction. There was no Shanghai World Financial Center, no World Trade Center, and certainly no Central Tower that would later dominate the scene.

There were no towering buildings or bustling commercial streets around it.

The man stood on the banks of the Huangpu River, gazing at the rolling eastward-flowing water. Behind him stood a beautiful young woman in a floral dress.

"Did you succeed?" the girl asked.

"Yes, it worked. I've found a way to cure my hereditary kidney deficiency, but..." The man turned around. He had a handsome face that easily evoked the image of a pretty boy.

"The Pantheon's gains this time are enormous, so enormous they're terrifying." The man forced a bitter smile and said in a hoarse voice, "We brought out something horrible, like a thief breaking into the palace and stealing the emperor's imperial seal."

The girl saw despair in his eyes and frowned, asking, "What is it?"

"Don't ask, Grandma, please... don't ask, I can't drag you into this anymore," the man said.

"You brat, you think you've grown wings?" the girl scolded, raising her eyebrows.

"The news has leaked, and I will soon be hunted down by all the bloodline descendants. But I cannot hand over that item, not even in death. It will unleash the greatest upheaval in the history of the bloodline world, and even someone as powerful as you, Great-Grandmother, will be swallowed up by it. I trust no one now, and I dare not trust anyone. I regret it, I regret entering the Pantheon. It is a cursed land, and humans should not have set foot there." The man knelt by the river, looking at her: "Great-Grandmother, I know I cannot escape this calamity. I only ask one thing of you: after my death, please seal yourself away for twenty years. Fortunately, I have already left a seed for the Li family. I will have my master preserve the Black Water Spirit Pearl, and twenty years later, my master will give the pearl to my son."

The girl remained silent, her pretty face as cold as frost.

"I know you have a trump card up your sleeve: shattering your spirit pearl would make you invincible. But that would completely cut off your own path to survival. The Li family would then truly decline. If I die, and you seal yourself away for twenty years, this matter will be settled. In any case, to you, I am merely one of the more promising descendants among many generations. Having seen so much life and death, please don't act rashly." The man kowtowed deeply: "Please protect the only bloodline of my Li family."