The divine spirit of Guan Jingyi patrolled through the twisting rock that entombed his ancient temple. Purple mist filled the veins of the fallen mountain like poisoned blood, but seemed to be repelled by the golden light leaking from the spirit. Even after death Guan Jingyi emitted radiant qi that repelled the miasma leaked by Shugu, The Vile Decay. Guan Jingyi looked healthy even as a ghost. His long hair flowed around him like light mist, and his eyes shone a brilliant gold. His qi was so dense that he looked almost solid. It was evident that this was the spirit of someone who had powers that could rival the gods when he was alive.

Very little remained of the place that Jingyi had called home. The miasma was powerful enough to rot away anything it came into contact with if given enough time. Much of the temple had been reduced to mush, and not even the clothes remained of most of his people. The only place that had been preserved was, oddly enough, the immediate area around Shugu. Even so, Guan Jingyi made sure to patrol the area within the mountain. He didn't do it to protect the ruins of his temple from the outside world, but instead to protect the outside world from this place. The small amounts of miasma that leaked from the cracks in the mountain's rubble already wreaked havoc on the surrounding environment. If anyone came they would surely die, and even worse unleash the full brunt of Shugu's poison on the world.

Ultimately life(?) was pretty boring for the former martial master. He didn't have a lot to do, and after a thousand years or so of patrolling the ruins of his temple it wasn't very interesting. He spent most of his time in the main cavern where his body and the slain primordial lay. Most of what he did there was watch Shugu to see if there would be any changes, but after a millennia it seemed unlikely that the toad would ever begin to decay itself. The upper levels of his temple had fallen into the cavern as well, and was the only part that had survived the miasma. Unfortunately he had already memorized all the texts within the temple before he had died, and had read them many times since, so they didn't offer much enjoyment anymore.

Guan Jingyi arrived in the central cavern not expecting anything to have changed, and so he didn't notice that anything was different when he first floated into it. So when he did notice something was different it took a few moments to process what he was seeing. A large part of one of Shugu's legs had been stripped down to the bone. Next to Shugu was what appeared to be his body. His body was devouring the toad's leg. Had the miasma caused his body to turn into some sort of mindless zombie? Or was his body possessed by an evil spirit? Jingyi's qi pulsed as he looked down upon the scene. He didn't want to, but it would appear that he needed to destroy his body.

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The giant toad's meat, surprisingly, tasted incredible. It came off of the bone like jelly, but had a firmer texture than he had expected. The pus leaking from the toad's warts was like a fine butter sauce, and the hair-like fungus had the texture of enoki and the earthy, nutty taste of morels. The meat itself was unlike anything he had ever tasted. People often compared frog legs to chicken, but it was indescribable. Terrare was certain that there was nothing in the world that tasted like this toad. It was divine. Thick gelatinous blood leaked down the bones of the toad, and he dunked the meat into it. The blood was like a rich chilli sauce, and was one of the spiciest things that Terrare had ever eaten. He loved spicy foods however, and so began to heavily coat the meat in the blood.

Before he knew it Terrare had gone through half of the massive creature's leg. Even in his past life he had never eaten so much so quickly or in one sitting. His belly bulged cartoonishly with the massive amounts of food, but this didn't last long. He could hardly believe his eyes as his belly quickly shrank down to a flat and hard surface. His entire body began to twist and contort before settling down again. As his body shifted his skeletal figure became covered in small but incredibly defined muscles. The hunger continued to gnaw away at Terrare, but for now it had been brought down to a manageable level. He was about to go down for another drink from the pond when he was blinded by golden light.

The golden light faded and revealed a spectral figure that Terrare could imagine belonged to the body he resided in based on the facial structure. He was surprised by how much the difference in eye color made a difference though. Terrare had dark, nearly black eyes, whereas the ghost in front of him had bright golden eyes. It also probably helped that he didn't look like a mummy. When the spirit spoke his voice was soft and melodic, unlike Terrare's tired and hoarse one.

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"It is unfortunate that I must destroy my own body, but I'd rather it be dust on the ground than have it be forced to eat this putrid thing.'' said Guan Jingyi. He may be a spirit, but his qi was still powerful enough to allow him to interact with the mortal realm. He brought his hands together and formed a rod from his qi. It was impossibly dense, nearly physical, and modeled after his legendary Nine Lotus Heavenly Staff.

Terrare didn't even seem to care. After the insane day he had, he was done. He ignored the ghost and began to drink from the water. A look of utter disgust crossed the face of Guan Jingyi. "I can't believe this, how disgusting." he moaned.

After a nice drink of the water Terrare looked up at the spirit. "If you're going to kill me just get it over with already. I've already died once today, and was reborn inside of some mummy in a cave with a frog monster. To make it worse I'm hungrier and thirstier than I've ever been, and I don't even have any fucking legs. You'd probably be doing me a favor by just ending it here."

Utter defeat and bitterness dripped from Terrare's words, and made Jingyi temporarily falter. Partially because the person inhabiting his body sounded pretty pathetic, but mainly because he was surprised they could speak or think. If they were a reanimated corpse they wouldn't have been able to. No, this was a genuine reincarnation, though it appeared to be a botched one. It would be the merciful thing to kill this stranger now and give them a chance at a proper reincarnation, but was this the right thing to do? Were they perhaps sent to his body for a reason?

Jingyi lowered his staff and reabsorbed the qi back into his body. "What's your name? I am the revered Guan Jingyi."

Terrare looked down at the old body he now resided inside of. It certainly didn't seem like a body to be revered. He looked up at the spirit. "I am Terrare Shelby. The only thing people knew me for was eating.", he said dryly.

Silence fell between the two. It seemed neither knew what to say to the other. Jingyi was the first to speak again. "Well Shelby, I can see why you'd be known for eating.", he said a bit awkwardly. "I was a Divine Saint level ascetic, and could sustain myself simply by breathing. I was immune to nearly all poisons and venoms in this world, but not even I could have survived eating the flesh of the primordial of poison and decay Shugu. Nor could I have survived drinking from poison pool that leaked from his skin after it's death."

Terrare was quite confused. A lot of words he didn't really understand were just thrown around. All of the talk of poison was odd as well. The water tasted a bit off sure, but if it was poison surely even he would have been affected. The toad wasn't very appetizing to look at sure, but it tasted phenomenal, and he felt fine as he ate it. Terrare managed to eat a fork when he was younger, and later on the fork was never found in x-rays or his excrement. He had an incredibly powerful digestive system, but could it survive such seemingly legendary poison?

"I don't know, it seems fine to me. This 'Shugu' tasted pretty good as well.", Terrare said as he shrugged.

Jingyi floated down and looked over his body closely. It had been rejuvenated. It was no longer a mummy, but a living breathing person. It would seem that this big eater's stomach and eyes had been transferred over with his spirit, which was certainly strange. He had the power to digest the primordial and rejuvenate a long dead body. That was impressive. He touched Terrare's shoulder and probed Terrare's meridians with his qi. Jingyi recoiled nearly instantly. He had never felt such disgusting qi in his entire life. It wasn't vile in the way a murderer's or a demonic practitioner's would be. It was very similar to Shugu's qi in fact. Stagnate and moldering. He had a lot of qi however, Jingyi felt it when examined Terrare's meridians. He was about to ask Terrare about his qi when he noticed the two peg legs that Terrare had created.

Anger and shock flooded Guan Jingyi's mind. His Nine Lotus Heavenly Staff had been broken into two pieces and tied to the stumps of his legs. "AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHH! What did you do! That staff was a divine artifact you idiot!", he shouted.