After being reborn, the villain comes with a spoiler tag.

"Brother!"

Huo Yu suddenly opened his eyes, and a young face soaked in silver liquid came into view.

Soaked to the bone, Long Yucheng stared down at him, his usually bright eyes now filled with anxiety and worry, and a bottomless fear hidden behind them.

Liquid with a metallic sheen rolled down his hair, and a silver bead hung on his trembling eyelashes, just about to fall, like a silver tear.

"Senior brother, you're finally awake..."

Seeing Huo Yu open his eyes, Long Yucheng felt a huge weight lifted off his shoulders and collapsed instantly. His voice trembled uncontrollably, but he still instinctively hugged Huo Yu even tighter.

A warm drop of water fell on Huo Yu's face—this time, it was a real tear.

The young man seemed to have all his strength drained away, his forehead resting limply on Huo Yu's shoulder.

He was trembling all over, and the knuckles of his fingers, which were gripping Huo Yu's clothes, turned white from the force of his grip. It was as if the person in front of him would disappear if he let go even slightly.

"I almost thought..."

Long Yucheng's voice, muffled by the soaked fabric, carried the choked sobs of someone who had survived a close call.

"...I almost lost you forever."

"I am fine."

Huo Yu said softly, gently stroking the young man's wet back of the head.

The two were floating on the water. Beneath Huo Yu was a silver lake, which was composed entirely of the blood of the Heavenly Dao.

Long Yucheng's voice came intermittently from his arms, still trembling.

It turns out that only ten breaths have passed since they fell—but to Long Yucheng, those ten breaths felt like a hundred years.

"Senior brother, you lost consciousness the moment you fell into the lake."

At this point, Long Yucheng raised his head again, his gaze fixed on Huo Yu's face, as if to make sure that Huo Yu was truly safe and sound.

Recalling the situation, the young man's face once again showed that tearful expression:

"When I caught you, your consciousness... completely vanished, as if it had been swallowed up by this lake..."

Huo Yu raised his hand to wipe away the water droplets that kept dripping from his hair onto the young man's face. Long Yucheng noticed his gaze and a bitter smile appeared on his lips.

“Senior brother, you mentioned before that this silver blood is strange, but this place seems to have some kind of powerful rule restriction. My divine sense is unaffected, but my spiritual power is completely unable to leave my body, and I can't even do the most basic flight. I can only pull you out of the water first.”

Huo Yu tried to circulate his spiritual power as instructed, and as Long Yucheng had said, his spiritual power seemed to be locked by an invisible shackle, only able to circulate within his body and unable to leave it—but his immortal essence was unaffected.

With his divine sense sweeping across the surroundings, Huo Yu instantly took in the entire scene of the space.

This is a huge oval-shaped cavity, with large blood vessels covering the writhing, bright red fleshy walls all around.

Silver blood flowed slowly through the veins, emitting a faint silver light that echoed the silver lake beneath them, becoming the only source of light in this enclosed space.

Huo Yu was being held up by Long Yucheng and lying on his back on the silvery lake surface, with their line of sight directly above the spot where they had fallen earlier.

At this moment, it is perfectly intact, with no trace of the damage it once suffered.

Long Yucheng noticed his gaze and explained:

"When I brought my senior brother to the surface, the hole at the top had already healed itself. Those Li Hanyi who fell in with us dissolved the moment they came into contact with the silver blood and all became part of this lake."

The moment he heard the name "Li Hanyi," a flood of unfamiliar memories rushed into Huo Yu's mind—school, laboratory, the female student who mustered the courage to confess her feelings, the roommate who asked him "why you were able to persevere until your doctoral studies"...

These images are so real, as if he had truly lived in another world.

"Senior brother?"

Long Yucheng noticed Huo Yu's unusual behavior, and his expression instantly became tense, his eyes filled with worry as he stared intently at him.

Fortunately, Huo Yu quickly recovered from the shock of that memory.

"...Li Hanyi is not from another world. Because at this moment, I also have a memory of 'life in another world' in my mind. In that world called '21st Century', I was a student."

He looked at Long Yucheng's shocked expression and continued,

“I am not from another world. This non-existent memory was instilled in me by this lake, or rather, this 'place.' If you hadn't awakened me…”

He didn't finish speaking, but Long Yucheng already understood the implication—

If he hadn't awakened his senior brother, then his senior brother would have become another "Li Hanyi," his true self completely overwritten by false memories, believing himself to be a transmigrator summoned by the Heavenly Dao.

And those endless streams of replicas, bearing Huo Yu's appearance, will continue to wander in this eerie space.

That possible future sent chills down Long Yucheng's spine, and he unconsciously gripped Huo Yu's hand tightly, his fingertips trembling slightly.

"But I didn't see anything in the lake..."

His voice was strained, and his Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty.

"Moreover, what exactly is its purpose in going to such lengths?"

"Because you are not from this world, 'it' cannot directly control you."

Huo Yu answered Long Yucheng's previous question, his gaze slowly turning to the center of the Silver Lake, his dark pupils gleaming with a cold sharpness under the reflection of the silver lake.

Following Huo Yu's gaze, Long Yucheng was shocked to realize that a huge beast corpse was floating in the very center of this space.

The beast's appearance was extremely bizarre, resembling a dragon yet not a dragon, resembling a tiger yet not a tiger. On its drooping head grew a pair of antlers like deer antlers, and its sharp fangs gleamed with a chilling light in the dim light.

Its skin was a deep, dark purple, covered with intricate patterns. Under the surrounding silver light, each pattern seemed to be slowly flowing.

The corpse seemed to have been floating there silently, but Long Yucheng had not noticed its presence at all until Huo Yu pointed it out.

It was as if some force blurred his senses, making him blind to the corpse.

"Could 'it' be..."

Long Yucheng's voice choked in his throat.

Huo Yu calmly continued what he hadn't said:

"The way of heaven."