Chapter 1: Murder and the Murdered

My name is Li Yunfei, a police officer in XX City—a regular, ordinary officer. My parents placed all their hopes on me, and I did not let them down. Since childhood, I had one dream: to become a police officer when I grew up. Now, I have fulfilled that dream. Yet three years in the police force have shown me the chill and indifference of society. No matter how many criminals we catch, there are always more. During a special case, I was suspended after accidentally killing an armed suspect.

On my way home, the more I thought about it, the angrier I became. Yes, I had killed him by mistake, but I had saved the hostage he was holding. The fault lay in the suspect’s ferocity—had I hesitated a moment longer, I might have been the one to die instead.

Before I realized it, I had arrived at my apartment complex. Ahead of me walked a couple—the woman clinging to the man’s arm. I nearly bumped into them. Instinctively, I looked up and saw a familiar face: Liu Tingting, my girlfriend of two years. At that moment, I wished I hadn’t looked up, wished I could pretend I hadn’t seen or heard anything. But I knew there was no use in running away.

“Yunfei, let me explain…”

Nothing had gone right for me lately. Yesterday, I heard someone say Liu Tingting was seeing another man. I had seen it with my own eyes, but I was busy and couldn’t confront her. Now, seeing them together again, the anger smoldering in my chest finally exploded. “You dare steal my woman? You must be tired of living!” Clenching my fists, I charged at the pudgy man, landing a punch squarely on his face. With a howl, he grabbed me and pinned me to the ground. I twisted with all my strength and managed to reverse our positions, pinning him beneath me. “You think I’m a pushover? I’ll teach you a lesson today!”

I punched him again. Driven to desperation, the man quickly pulled a folding steel knife from his pocket. Seeing the crowd gathering, I worried things would get out of hand and tried to pull him up. I didn’t expect him to ram a knee into my back. Thrown off balance, I pressed forward just as he tried to sit up, and the knife was forced into his chest.

Liu Tingting screamed and fainted. I had no time to pay her any attention; blood now covered my hands as the man slowly collapsed. Only then did my mind clear—I had killed someone. I had accidentally killed him! Panic seized me, my thoughts scattered. People in the crowd began to stir; someone was already calling the police. I sprinted toward the main gate, jumped into my used Toyota, and sped away for dozens of kilometers. Too afraid to return home, as night fell, I slipped into a stranger’s house. In their living room sat a couple, watching the news.

“This afternoon, an incident occurred at XX Residential Building. Two men got into a fight for unknown reasons, and one died. The deceased, Li Yunfei, was a police officer in XX City. The case is under further investigation.”

The news… Could it be that I died? I clearly remembered stabbing the man—so how could I have been the one killed? I waved my hand in front of the couple’s faces, but they didn’t seem to see me. Suddenly, a blinding white light flashed, forcing me to shut my eyes.

When I opened them, I found myself in a strange world, surrounded by bizarre plants and giant ants the size of cattle. I quickly hid in a clump of grass. The massive ant was gnawing on something. Peering through the grass, I was horrified to see a mangled human body beneath the ant’s forelegs.

My shout startled the ant, which began crawling toward me. I leapt out of the grass and fled in terror, running until I was utterly out of breath. Only when I was sure the ant wasn’t chasing me did I stop to gasp for air. Was I really dead? Was this hell? It didn’t seem like it—there was still a blazing sun, scorching my parched lips.

Liu Tingting—why did you betray me? Two years of love, so fragile and easily shattered! What did I do wrong? And that man—I saw the knife driven into his chest, but why was I the one who died? Was it all a hallucination in my final moments?

As my mind raced, a sudden, searing pain struck my shoulder, knocking me to the ground. I rolled away just in time to see a steel-hard limb embedded in the earth—it was the giant ant again. Before I could get up, its other foreleg slammed down. There was no time to dodge; I was certain I would die this time. Despair overwhelmed me and I shut my eyes.

But the pain never came. Instead, I heard a loud crack—the ant’s leg had been struck by a large rock. I scrambled to my feet and looked toward where the stone had come from. There stood a man in white robes atop a boulder, long hair cascading down his back. He was over six feet tall, broad-shouldered, yet his face was expressionless.

I rushed to his side and clambered up the rock. The giant ant below waved its forelegs, trying to climb up. The long-haired man grabbed my arm, leapt into the air, and soared to a cliff edge. Below, a silver waterfall thundered down. The man spoke at last. “Are you from another land?”

I nodded, then shook my head. My rescuer’s name was Zhang Lei. According to him, this place was called the “Divine and Demonic Continent.” As for the giant ant, he had never seen such a creature before. Was this some kind of transmigration? Had my soul left my body? Or had I been reborn in this mysterious world? These things only happen in novels, yet now it was happening to me.

Gazing at the distant mountains, I took a deep breath, still unable to accept this reality. Suddenly, I slipped and fell into the rushing river below. Zhang Lei reached out to grab me, but it was too late—the torrent carried me over the edge. Suspended in the air, memories of my life flashed before my eyes like a film reel. Perhaps this time I would truly die—perhaps only in death would my soul find peace. I stretched out my arms, plummeting like a wounded bird toward the ground.

Pressure built in my head, my ears buzzing as I tumbled. The icy water battered my body. After a long while, I stood up—strangely enough, I wasn’t dead.

“Hey, are you alright?” Zhang Lei called down from the cliff above.

Wiping water from my face, I replied, “I’m fine.”

“Good. Are you a martial artist?” Zhang Lei leaped down to join me.

I shook my head, too confused to answer. Zhang Lei didn’t press me further. Through his explanation, I finally realized I truly was in another world—and possessed special abilities. To survive a fall from such a height unscathed, what else could it be? Too much had happened in a single day—murder, being killed myself. My mind was still in turmoil. The waterfall had washed the mud from my body. When Zhang Lei saw my face clearly, his expression changed to one of astonishment. Then he told me a legend that had been buried for many years.