Evan Chu stared at the vanished square stone platform before him, only to see two stone doors emitting faint energy ripples. He cursed under his breath, "Good luck, my ass! This really is one hell of a headache!"
One Life Gate, one Death Gate. The Life Gate might not really be the gate of life, and the Death Gate might not actually mean death. Or maybe the Life Gate really is the true way out, and the Death Gate is just what it says. Evan Chu was totally stuck, not sure which one to pick.
Most normal people would go for the Life Gate—of course, only the Life Gate should keep you alive. But anyone strong enough to get here is a real powerhouse. Maybe the Emerald Immortal Empress set it up to trick people, swapping life for death and death for life.
And another thing—any real powerhouse would think about this. If you can see through the trick, what’s the point of the test? Maybe the answer is just as plain as it looks: life means life, death means death. It’s written right there. If you mess it up by overthinking, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.
"Big brother, which gate are you planning to pick?" Jade Chu asked Evan Chu just then.
Evan Chu really couldn’t answer right away. "Jade, if it were you, which gate would you choose?"
"Of course the Life Gate! If it’s labeled ‘Life,’ it’s got to be the safe one. This is probably a test of your mindset—the more you overthink, the more dangerous it gets. Just face it with the simplest logic and you’ll be fine," Jade Chu said.
Evan Chu thought carefully about Jade Chu’s words and decided she had a point. "Alright, I’ll listen to you. I’ll just go straight through the Life Gate. If it’s already marked as ‘life,’ why force myself to pick death?"
He walked up to the Life Gate without a hint of hesitation, poured his elemental power into it, and the gate swung open. Evan Chu’s figure flashed and he vanished inside.
Meanwhile, Yvonne Xuan and the others who’d entered the Secret Gate had already claimed the treasures inside. When they came out, they realized Evan Chu was nowhere to be seen. That was seriously frustrating. Just then, the Secret Gate’s entrance opened again—they figured Evan must have already left.
They all stepped out of the Secret Gate and arrived at the Emerald Gate plaza, but Evan Chu was nowhere in sight. "Did Lin go into the Emerald Gate already?" Yvonne Xuan asked.
"Most likely. Lin can break through the Light Barrier directly, and this Emerald Gate needs light element to open. I bet he’s already inside. Looks like we’ll just have to wait for him here," Nolan Nangong said.
"So, what did you all get? Man, those stone gates were wild! I’ll never forget it—first time I’ve ever run into an illusion so real I almost couldn’t escape," Lara Luo said.
"I ran into a formation. Took a ton of effort to break it, too. The Emerald Immortal Empress really is an ancient powerhouse—her mastery of formations and illusions is just insane," Nolan Nangong said.
Everyone shared what happened to them inside the stone gates. When it was Serena Frost’s turn, her face turned bright red as she talked about almost being violated by Immortal Emperor Situ in the illusion—she’d wanted to die, but couldn’t even do that.
"Don’t worry, Serena. That filthy scum Situ is doomed sooner or later. When we get back, I’ll issue a realm-wide wanted order—every faction in the Immortal Realm will hunt him down, and no inn or tavern will dare take him in," Nolan Nangong said.
"Thank you, Domain Lord Nolan. I really appreciate it!" Serena Frost said.
"Come on, Serena, don’t be so formal. You’re Evan’s woman. He calls me big brother, so you should too. You’re my sister-in-law, so looking out for you is only natural," Nolan Nangong said.
Meanwhile, Evan Chu had stepped into a strange world where the environment kept shifting—spring, summer, autumn, winter, the four seasons cycling right in front of him.
A little sapling, just half a meter tall, shot up to become a towering tree. Then its leaves fell, it withered, lightning struck, and flames roared up, burning it all to ash.
Then, another sapling appeared, and the same thing happened—growth, decay, death, and then a new sapling popped up, over and over, the whole cycle repeating endlessly.
Watching this, Evan Chu felt something click. This was reincarnation—a single-threaded wheel of life and death.
"So this is a Reincarnation Domain... I can’t believe the Emerald Immortal Empress actually mastered this kind of realm. She really was a monster from the ancient era," Evan Chu muttered in awe.
To get out of here, you had to break through the Reincarnation Domain. That’s what the so-called Life Gate really was—life and death are tightly linked. Evan Chu started to get it: the Life Gate and Death Gate are basically the same place, both just part of the Reincarnation Domain.
No matter which gate you entered, you’d end up in the same situation. The two doors were really one door. The Emerald Immortal Empress’s goal was to make people comprehend reincarnation—only those who grasped it could really help her.
Evan Chu felt like he had a personal stake in this—he was a top-tier God Realm expert who’d been through reincarnation more times than he could count. His clearest memories were of being reborn as Lord Frostbane, the master of Frostbane Sect.
And then Lord Frostbane was reborn again as his current self. So what exactly is reincarnation? If he could really figure it out, he’d be able to unravel the Reincarnation Domain.
Evan Chu slowly drifted into deep thought, his heart as calm as still water. The world around him kept changing. He thought about everything—from birth to death, and from death to new life—just like the sapling, always switching identities through cycles of life and death.
But one thing was for sure—reincarnation always needed a foundation, a life seed. Only by keeping a life seed could you enter the wheel of reincarnation. For humans, that seed was the soul. As long as a sliver of soul remained, resurrection was possible.
Just like Yvonne Xuan and Serena Frost—they were truly dead, but because each had a remnant soul, they could be revived. The Emerald Immortal Empress probably left behind a remnant soul too, her own life seed. She needed someone to help her come back.
And to revive her, the person had to have light attribute power. Once Evan Chu figured that out, his whole mindset leveled up. Seeing through life and death, grasping reincarnation—that was the only way to break the Reincarnation Domain.
Evan Chu opened his eyes and saw the world around him had completely changed. A dazzling emerald-green gate appeared right in front of him, and a familiar bell-like voice rang out: "Congratulations on grasping the true mystery of the Reincarnation Domain. Please open the final Emerald Gate—you’ll get a surprise you never expected!"