In his past life, he had lived in a city with severe air pollution where stars were rarely visible. He had gone camping once or twice with school in less polluted cities, but he had never seen so many stars before. The sky was filled with shimmering lights, like pearls in a dark ocean. He had no knowledge of star constellations and wondered how someone could connect dots in the sky to create shapes.

"Probably some bored guy like me," Liu Xing muttered. He wondered if this world existed in the same universe as Earth. If he became immortal and could travel between stars, would he find Earth?

Liu Xing doubted it. Surely, if a cultivator could reach Earth, someone from this world would have already arrived and claimed it as theirs.

As Liu Xing pondered random thoughts, he heard rustling and snapped his head in the direction of the noise. In a bush not far from his mushroom, there was a snake with eyes as red as blood and scales as dark as night.

When Liu Xing realized the snake emitted black smoke like Mo Yan, he stood up and cycled his qi. He doubted the appearance of this snake was a coincidence.

While observing the snake, Mo Yan leapt from inside the mushroom towards it, like a wolf pouncing on its prey.

Despite emitting black smoke, the snake was not a spirit beast, just a normal animal. It couldn't react as Mo Yan grabbed its head and ripped it apart, splitting the snake into two parts.

Mo Yan promptly began eating the snake like a hungry man slurping noodles. His eyes were red, blood ran from his chin, and with the dark smoke growing denser and his breath creating white mist, he looked terrifying, like a demon straight out of a nightmare.

"What's happening? What's happening?" Pu He said from inside the mushroom.

"Where's Mo Yan?" Han Zhong shouted.

"He's outside," Liu Xing said.

The three of them watched in silence as Mo Yan ate the snake like a madman devouring the most amazing meal in the world.

"That snake Mo Yan is eating is also emitting black smoke. Pu He, did Mo Yan ever attack or eat another animal while you were chasing him?" Liu Xing asked.

"No, he just ran around, trying to chase senior sister Yan Yu. He never attacked anything, let alone savagely eat it like this," Pu He replied.

"We should stop him," said Han Zhong.

Liu Xing nodded, cycling his qi and jumping from the top of mushroom and readying to summon his gun. His heart beat slightly faster, adrenaline coursing through his body. There's a chance that this black smoke is the darkness that Liu Xing needs to deal with.

While eating the snake, the black smoke became so dense it obscured Liu Xing's sight. He was sure Mo Yan's body was changing. Where once Liu Xing could have easily defeated him, he didn't dare underestimate him now.

Liu Xing took a step, two steps, then three steps. Feeling the danger, Liu Xing summoned his gun and made it invisible.

When they were just meters apart, Mo Yan suddenly snapped his head toward Liu Xing.

His red-blood eyes met Liu Xing’s, and then Mo Yan smiled a genuine smile, like a child given the best present in the world. The blood staining his face, clothes, and the ground around him look like a demon coming from a nightmare.

"Thank you for your help," Mo Yan said, glancing at Pu He, Han Zhong, and then Liu Xing. "Without the three of you, I don't know what would have happened to this body. My technique is perfect if used in a good vessel, but this body is trash. The side effects of my technique make this body too wild, and most of the time, while I successfully control my new body, it’s already damaged. But who would have known I would stumble upon another of my vessels right here and right now? It seems like Heaven favored me!"

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He burst into laughter, deep and scratchy, a stark contrast to the man who had tried to rob Liu Xing. While he was still laughing, Liu Xing’s brain reached a conclusion: Mo Yan’s body was possessed by something, and he had no doubt it was dangerous.

"Who are you, and what is the darkness surrounding you?" Liu Xing demanded.

"Who I am is not your concern, and the darkness is none of your business either. Still, the three of you have been instrumental in securing my new body, even if it is trash. So, I'll let you live. Goodbye."

With that, he jumped into the night sky. His leap was so powerful that the ground he kicked cracked and broke. Soon after, Mo Yan halted mid-air, gravity pulling him down, but then his body transformed into black smoke. The black smoke was now so dark and dense against the backdrop of the star-filled sky. It took the form of a cloud and moved so fast that it seemed to be driven by a strong wind.

"Mo Yan!" Pu He shouted.

"Damn, what's happening now? Why is Mo Yan speaking like that? Why did Mo Yan suddenly disappear?" Han Zhong said.

"He is possessed by someone," Liu Xing replied.

Seeing the smoke vanish—no, that darkness vanish—Liu Xing felt his heart race. Whatever that thing was, he couldn't ignore it. There was a possibility that it was the darkness Nui had warned about, and even if it wasn't, Liu Xing needed to face it to confirm it.

"I'll go catch him. You two can head home or try to follow," Liu Xing said.

Liu Xing activated the Lightning Cloak, electricity coursing through his body. He kicked off the ground and shot toward a large branch. The world blurred around him, but Liu Xing knew exactly where the branch was. He landed on it, kicked it--causing the branch to explode and propelling him forward.

Though the darkness was fast, Liu Xing was confident he could chase it. He jumped from branch to mushroom to branch again, zigzagging between trees and mushrooms like a streak of purplish-blue lightning.

As he moved, Liu Xing pondered deeply about the being that had possessed Mo Yan. While he didn't have the whole picture, Liu Xing realized the man was a cultivator who practiced a peculiar cultivation technique. What was certain was that he possessed bodies and moved from vessel to vessel.

Pu He and Han Zhong had mentioned that Mo Yan seemed to be chasing Yan Yu but moved in strange directions, as if searching for something—and that conjecture seemed true. He probably tried to find that snake with the black mist, and upon finding it, had eaten it and absorbed the darkness.

From this information, Liu Xing understood that this cultivator's goal was likely to reclaim his body and power. To do so, he probably sought another of his vessel so he could devour the darkness and recover—or, since Mo Yan's body was considered trash, he might seek a better vessel. Perhaps both.

Whether Liu Xing was right or wrong, one thing was certain: he needed to catch this being to learn more about that darkness. He hoped it was just a unique cultivation method and not something terrible that could threaten this world and others.

Liu Xing kept jumping and running, and after a while, he finally caught up to the black cloud. The cloud flew so swiftly above the forest, and it remained distinct amidst the blur.

Liu Xing began aiming his gun at the black cloud and without hesitation, pulled the trigger repeatedly.

Six bullets flew toward the black cloud. These were the normal variant, transparent ones. When the bullets hit the black cloud, they passed right through. They created six holes for a moment, but these closed up almost immediately.

"Interesting technique or artifact, but you're dumb if you think you can shoot a cloud!"

Liu Xing's lips formed a thin line. He reloaded the gun, infused the bullets with Explosion Fist, and fired again. When the bullets struck the cloud, Liu Xing expected explosions, but they only created temporary holes that soon closed. Moments later, the sound of six explosions echoed in the distance.

"Didn't I tell you that you can't shoot me?" the voice taunted mockingly.

Hearing the taunt, Liu Xing calmed his mind. He realized the taunt was correct—he couldn't shoot or punch cloud. The only way to catch mist was to imprison it, whether using an artifact or technique, and Liu Xing had neither.

"Damn, he's a bad matchup for me," Liu Xing muttered.

Still, he had to capture this being. Liu Xing felt that if he let it escape, something bad would happen in the future. He needed to find a solution, and brute-forcing the problem seemed like the only option.

"I need to try a lot of things and hope something works."