In the town square of Elaria, the crowd stirred with anticipation.


    It was the long-awaited recruitment day of the Immortal Alliance, an event held only once every few years. Children and teenagers, ranging from seven to eighteen, had gathered from nearby villages and distant towns, each hoping to be chosen for the path of cultivation.


    Rinne, a small girl of seven years old, stood apart from the crowd.


    Her expression remained blank, and her dark eyes stared into the distance. She kept herself tucked away in a quiet corner of the square, far from the bustle, with a cracked bowl placed in front of her.


    Her clothes were dirty and patched together from old rags. Her short, unkempt hair made her look like a scruffy beggar boy. Compared to the neatly dressed children and hopeful teenagers, she was an odd and pitiful sight.


    People passing by shot her brief looks of contempt.


    “Disgraceful. How could such a dirty child be allowed here?”


    A middle-aged man sneered as he walked past.


    His words drew a few disapproving looks from those nearby, but no one commented. He tugged his robe, as if shielding himself from an unseen stench.


    “It''s just another beggar trying to earn sympathy,”


    A woman beside him muttered, her voice sharp with disdain.


    She gave Rinne one last glance before pulling her child away. Both hurried toward the center of the square, unwilling to associate with the ragged beggar in the corner.


    "Poor thing."


    Despite the scornful whispers, a few people pitied her.


    A young man in plain clothes hesitated before dropping a small copper coin into her bowl. The coin clinked as it hit the bowl, but he didn''t linger. His steps quickened, as though fearing the beggar might ask for more.


    Rinne''s gaze flickered to the bowl. She counted the coins silently, barely enough for a simple meal. Her expression didn''t change, as if the donations meant nothing. She had chosen this disguise to avoid drawing attention, ensuring that no one approached her beyond an occasional coin toss.


    Around her, the square buzzed with chatter. Children exchanged hopeful whispers while others craned their necks, waiting for the event to begin.


    A boy nearby nudged his friend, his voice full of excitement.


    “I hope I get chosen as an inner disciple! Can you imagine? Training under a real Immortal Master!”


    His friend grinned wide, his eyes sparkling with the same ambition.


    “That would be amazing! I heard the inner disciples get the best resources—and secret techniques too!”


    They laughed quietly, filled with dreams of the future.


    Rinne listened to their excitement, though her mind remained detached. She glanced at the children around her, their faces brimming with hope. Their dreams were full of light, unburdened by the realities she had lived through.


    For her, this ceremony was just one more step along a journey she had walked for years—alone and without hope for miracles.


    Her thoughts drifted back to her past. This was her third life. She was not just a reincarnator but also a regressor. Her second life had ended in failure, and this was her chance to start again.


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    ???


    The memories of her first life were hazy, the details lost to time and the shock of death.


    She didn’t remember how she had died, only that one moment she was living, and the next she was waking up as a newborn in a completely different world. There had been no divine figure to grant her powers, no miraculous aid to ease her way—just the cold truth of a second life she had to navigate from scratch.


    The first decade of her new life had been nothing short of hell.


    Born into a tribal-like society, Rinne found herself in a world devoid of the conveniences she had once taken for granted. There were no flush toilets, no gas stoves, no modern amenities to speak of. Survival was a daily struggle, and luxury was a foreign concept.


    At the age of ten, poverty drove her family to sell her into slavery. She was sent to a nameless brothel in a neighboring city, where she spent the next few years learning the harsh lessons of life. She was taught to read, to dance, to play music—skills that were both a blessing and a curse in her new circumstances.


    Rinne couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret whenever she thought back to those days.


    ''If only father and mother had given me a few more years, I wouldn’t have minded sharing some of my knowledge from my past life. I could have made them rich…''


    But such thoughts were pointless now. It had been a tribal society, where the patriarch held absolute authority. In their eyes, she was nothing more than a dull-witted child. It had taken her years to learn their language, years during which she was seen as slow, as a burden.


    How could they trust such a girl to do anything of value?


    In the end, she had resigned herself to her fate, allowing life to carry her wherever it would.


    It was during her years at the brothel that she first encountered cultivation—a world where strength determined everything, where even mortals could ascend beyond their limits. After discovering the existence of the cultivation world, Rinne couldn’t help but yearn for it. She became obsessed with it, hoping to escape the chains of her current life.


    In her previous life, she had read countless fantasy novels about reincarnation in other worlds.


    She often thought of those novel protagonists—how powerful, how overpowered they were, always rising above every challenge with ease. It was inspiring, but when she compared it to her own life, she couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of shame.


    What was the point of reincarnating if she didn’t aim for the highest?


    At that time, Rinne was eighteen, soon to be nineteen. The desire to escape her miserable existence drove her to flee to another city, where she could attend the recruitment ceremony for the first and last time in that life. It was her only chance to enter the cultivation world, and she had to pass.


    But reality was cruel.


    She learned that she didn’t possess a spiritual root—the foundation necessary for cultivation. Without it, the dream of becoming an immortal was nothing more than a fantasy.


    Yet she refused to give up.


    There must be a way, just like in the fantasy novels she had read. If she couldn’t cultivate through orthodox means, perhaps unorthodox methods could work. Determined, she embarked on a journey, traveling from town to town, stealthily gathering information while avoiding dangerous places and people.


    Along the way, she heard whispers of various unorthodox practices, some of them so evil they made her skin crawl—absorbing the souls of others, often innocent babies, to boost cultivation, transplanting another’s spiritual root, and many more dark and twisted methods.


    But those weren’t what she was seeking. Even if she wanted to explore such paths, she lacked the means to access them. The rumors were just that—rumors, distant and unattainable.


    At twenty-four, she found a different path.


    A mysterious cultivator was offering something unheard of: pseudo spiritual roots, granted to ordinary mortals, for free, allowing them to practice cultivation. It sounded too good to be true—suspicious, even.


    Why would anyone offer such a valuable thing for free?


    Despite the obvious risks, Rinne decided to take the plunge. She attended the ceremony where the cultivator distributed a strange water from a porcelain bottle. The air was thick with tension as she lifted the bottle to her lips. Her mind raced with doubt and fear, but she forced herself to drink.


    The cultivator hadn’t lied.


    Soon after she drank the water, a sharp pain coursed through her body. But alongside the pain came a strange, exhilarating sensation—she could sense something different in the air, something she had never felt before.


    It was spiritual energy. For the first time, she was connected to it.


    ???


    The sharp clang of a bell jolted her back to the present.


    Rinne’s reminiscence was abruptly interrupted by a loud noise from the crowd. The restless murmurs and shuffling feet signaled that something was happening.


    She looked up to see the people of the Alliance finally arriving, their presence commanding immediate attention. The atmosphere in the square shifted, excitement and anxiety rippling through the gathered crowd.


    This was it, the moment everyone had been waiting for.