Chapter 1#
Seizing Body (Worm)#
Late night.
Outside the window, bamboo shadows swayed, seeping through the thick darkness, exuding a certain eeriness.
An intangible, unfathomable energy streaked across the night sky, pierced through the window lattice, and shot toward the youth on the bed.
In an instant, the youth’s aura became uncanny.
He had fallen into what seemed like an uncontrollable, immense crisis.
Before long, his forehead was drenched in sweat.
·
Within his sea of consciousness, two phantom figures were confronting each other.
Standing on the left was an ordinary-looking, scrawny man, earnestly persuading: “I’m not lying to you. In three years, you’ll encounter a great danger and die! I’ll take your place, and with my golden finger to back me up, I can evade it. I can also accompany your childhood friend Yue Ku well, soothe his psychological trauma, help him overcome several major life hurdles, and set him on the righteous path of cultivation. That way, he won’t become that blood-soaked Half-Skeleton Evil Emperor!”
Standing on the right was a youth, graceful and handsome, with brows and eyes seemingly steeped in cool moonlight, and a gaze that appeared both tender and shimmering. He quietly watched the scrawny man.
The scrawny man looked at the youth, a flicker of jealousy flashing in his eyes.
He continued his persuasion: “I came early precisely so I could cultivate well and prepare during this time! Otherwise, I’d still be caught off guard. Yue Ku only turned dark to avenge you. Trust me, I’ll help you kill the protagonist, and Yue Ku will be safe! For Yue Ku’s sake, dying a few years early shouldn’t mean much to you, right?”
Seeing that the youth still showed no reaction, the scrawny man steeled himself, gritted his teeth, and produced a ball of light. He let it transform into a screen of light, poked at it a few times to display the densely packed items on it, and continued: “Look at my golden finger—the Interdimensional Mall. A treasure that can connect with other worlds! It has many functions, and I can even buy cultivation techniques and resources from it! With this, both me and Yue Ku will have a smooth path ahead…”
The youth remained still.
After waiting and waiting with no response, the scrawny man grew impatient. He had reasoned gently to make the youth voluntarily yield, which would make possession easier and leave no side effects… But since the other refused to take the polite offer, he’d just go straight for it!
Scrawny man: “Aren’t you supposed to be Yue Ku’s moonlight? How can you be so selfish! Yue Ku’s devotion to you has all been in vain! Since you won’t take the toast, you’ll have to drink the forfeit. Don’t think I can’t handle you!”
Having said that, his face twisted with ferocity, and he lunged forward—
But at that moment, the youth slightly raised his palm. A golden light abruptly appeared in his palm, shot out in an instant, landed on the scrawny man, and enveloped him.
Before the scrawny man could even get close to the youth, he was frozen by the golden light. In that moment, he felt a searing pain! His soul energy was dissipating—damn it! This accursed golden light was devouring him!
He howled in terror: “What is this? System, quick—”
Before he could finish his words, there was no more sound.
The golden light flew back into the youth’s hand and surged fiercely into his body.
The youth’s complexion also turned pale, soon approaching ghastly white.
He let out a light sigh, his voice steady, soft, and pleasant to the ear.
“You say Yue Ku is a great villain…”
“But I’ve been his close friend for so long—could I really be anything good?”
·
After Xi Ling devoured the soul of the outsider, the intense pain slowly receded. He regained clarity and opened his eyes.
In front of him was a screen of light invisible to others, named: Interdimensional Trading System.
Having learned soul-devouring techniques, dealing with a usurper full of greed but never cultivated before was relatively easy for him.
Naturally, the usurper’s golden finger also belonged to him now.
…But unfortunately, despite the successful devouring, he only obtained a few fragmented memories. Most were the usurper’s common sense and cognition related to himself. What was called the “plot” was vague and blurry, with only a tiny amount being clear—and even that was incoherent.
Xi Ling didn’t rush to understand the golden finger. Instead, he carefully sorted through the information he had acquired.
Mm, his childhood friend Yue Ku could reach the Imperial realm in the future.
Truly impressive.
Xi Ling revealed a gentle smile.
He could turn a harem protagonist into a single man.
Truly impressive.
·
The Child of Destiny, Chu Hao, had a deep, blood-soaked enmity with Yue Ku.
To avenge Xi Ling, the early Yue Ku practiced a speedily completed evil technique, draining the life force of Chu Hao’s town. All of Chu Hao’s friends and family died, and his mysterious childhood sweetheart sent him away just before her death.
In the mid-stage, Yue Ku battled powerful experts, shattering the heavens. Countless demon races descended. Chu Hao encountered a mighty demon king, and his three beloved ones died horribly to save him.
After countless hardships, the later-stage Chu Hao fought a desperate battle against Yue Ku, nearly beaten to death. His seven beloved ones sacrificed themselves for him.
Their power allowed Chu Hao to turn the tables in the end, killing the solitary Yue Ku.
From then on, Chu Hao became alone as well.
He remained alone until the very end, until finally, with white hair and a weathered face, he fished his beloved friends and family out of the river of time.
·
After recalling all this, Xi Ling curved his lips, but his eyes were indifferent, devoid of any smile.
Chu Hao being useless himself—what did that have to do with Yue Ku? How was he even worthy of being the Child of Destiny?
If only the soul-devouring technique were the complete version of devouring, he could directly swallow that waste’s luck…
·
Most of the content about Yue Ku had been narrated by the outsider. From the outsider’s fragmented memories, only a few vague lines related to Yue Ku remained, but they more or less matched up.
Xi Ling pondered quietly, then began sifting through the outsider’s other memory fragments, combining them with what he already knew…
It was said that the world he and Yue Ku lived in was a progression-type novel spanning eight million words. The entire world was vast, roughly divided into the Barren/Yellow Heaven Realm, the Profound Heaven Realm, the Middle Heaven Realm, the Upper Heaven Realm, the Ten Thousand Star Territories, and so on.
Except for the Barren Realm, which existed as a single continent, the other realms were composed of countless continents of varying sizes. Some continents were flat, while others were spherical, all enveloped by an invisible and intangible energy—commonly called “Realm Walls.”
Beyond the Realm Walls lay endless space, known as the “Universe.”
The energy in the universe was chaotic. Most regions were safe, but there were many mysterious places, chaotic energies, energy storms, and so on.
For martial artists to cross the universe by physical body alone was extremely difficult. Most had to rely on special treasures like flying ships or flying boats. However, wealthy continents often established teleportation arrays between them.
The world Xi Ling was in was the Barren Realm, formerly known as the “Yellow Heaven Realm.”
The outsider, using his own cognition, roughly categorized them as: Barren/Yellow Heaven Realm (Small World), Profound Heaven Realm (Middle World), Middle Heaven Realm (Large World), Upper Heaven Realm (Immortal Realm), Ten Thousand Star Territories (Divine Realm).
Of course, this wasn’t an exact correspondence, but it could be said that the plane levels increased layer by layer.
The Barren Realm was further divided into multiple regions: West Flame Region, North Cold Region, South Glory Region, East Spirit Region, Central Region.
From weak to strong.
From the perspective of people in the Central Region, the four cardinal regions were all wilderness.
From East Spirit to West Flame, each looked down on the other.
Xi Ling’s current specific location was a village called Green Sheep Village, on the outskirts of a town at the edge of the West Flame Region.
In the eyes of many in the West Flame Region, those towns were also all wilderness.
—Yes, Xi Ling was in the wilderness within the wilderness, at the remote end of a remote place.
For the record, Chu Hao, as the protagonist of the progression-type novel, also started in the wilderness. The town where he lived, Sunstone Town, happened to be not far from Green Sheep Village, providing a convenient opportunity for Yue Ku.
At this moment, Xi Ling’s greatest gain was his understanding of the entire world. As for the rest… he would just have to match it up when he encountered it.
·
Xi Ling’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. He closed the Interdimensional Trading System, stood up, walked to the door, and opened it.
Morning light spilled in from outside. Unbeknownst to him, it had already dawned.
A figure in a black cloak stood outside the door.
The person was quite tall—at least a head taller than Xi Ling.
Xi Ling looked at the familiar figure and smiled knowingly: “My little bitter gourd, showing your true form again?”
The black cloak nodded, emitting what seemed like a faint “crack crack” sound.
Xi Ling stepped aside to let the person in and closed the door tightly.
The black cloak followed Xi Ling into the main room, pulled down the hood, and removed the cloak.
Revealing a half-skull face.
The left side was stark white bone; the right side had half a human face.
If only looking at the left side, it was truly macabre and terrifying.
If only looking at the right side, although the skin was deathly pale and the lips bloodless, the brows and eyes were handsome and elegant.
Xi Ling handed over a small bottle.
The half-skull face pulled out the stopper and gulped it down in one go.
Xi Ling asked with a smile: “Should I prepare some forget-grass powder?”
Half-Skull Face: “Crack crack crack.”
Xi Ling’s expression softened: “As long as you didn’t meet any outsiders, it’s fine. We can save it for next time.”
Half-Skull Face slightly bent over and tilted its head.
Xi Ling raised a hand, just supporting the half-human face.
The half-human face closed its eyes, gently rubbing against Xi Ling’s palm.
Visibly, the other half of the skull face continuously grew flesh and skin, merging with the half-human face to form a cold yet handsome countenance.
Xi Ling’s brows and eyes brimmed with tenderness, and he was in excellent spirits: “Come, I have something to show you.”
The cold, handsome youth slowly raised his head.
Xi Ling couldn’t help but laugh: “Don’t sulk.”
The cold youth: “Oh.”