///___///

One moment I'm taking a rather pleasant walk through the local woods, the next, something heavy hits the top of my head.

When I open my eyes, I'm sitting at… a bar. No, a wine house. Why do I know this is a wine house? It doesn't look like the kind I'm used to. My face feels sticky, and everything smells like a particularly fruity wine.

Blinking my eyes, I take a closer look at the table and see a tipped-over wine bottle. My body subconsciously licks its lips, and I have to almost physically force myself back from licking the flower-patterned table covered in spilled wine. Woah woah woah buddy, I know I'm an alcoholic but I don't remember ever being this bad.

“Young Master Xiang? This humble servant is delighted to see you've awakened.” Some ass kisser says nearby to some Asian du- there's no one nearby. Blankly turning my head I turn to look at the man who spoke. He's talking to me. I blink my eyes again. The man has a blue glowing thing above his head.

What the fuck?

Okay, situation analysis time. Asian wine house, everything feeling just a little bit off, I'm being called an Asian name, and the dude has a… glowing blue halo above his head. Conclusion? Bro, what the fuck? Either this is a bad drug trip, a lucid dream, or the start of some bullshit I don't know what to do with. So I pinch my thigh under the table. It hurts.

It shouldn't hurt. I have full-body nerve damage. I barely feel pain in the first place. Hell, I don’t know if people experience pain in dreams since I barely feel it. In short, why the fuck was that painful!?. This doesn’t bode well at fucking all. The signs point to the last of the options I listed, so with hesitancy I didn't know I had in me, my gaze pans up to look over my head.

There's a black halo, a mark on me that's almost as black as my teenage Wattpad fics marking my soul. I let my head thunk against the table.

“Young Master Xiang!?” The dude almost squeaks with how high-pitched his cry is. Okay, reassessing the situation, assuming these halos are luck… It's the goddamned CYOA I did before my walk. I want to both cry and bash my head into the table as hard as I can. Fuck you past me! Why did you choose hard mode?! “You-young Master Xiang please say something!” The dude starts panicking.

It clicks for me right there. He's not worried about me through kindness. That's fear in his voice. Because in that CYOA? I made myself the most Villainous Villain to Ever Villain. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration but it's not far off. Oh, wait, I should probably tell this guy I'm not gonna kill him.

“Silence, mongrel.” Is what comes out of my mouth instead… What? No, servant man, why are you sighing in relief at that?! No no, I'll just tell him not to worry about that. “Crawl on the ground and beg for this elder's mercy.”

…Dude.

///___///

Too much groveling later, I managed to go to the Inn I was apparently staying at. Very much alone, away from people, as all of them seem to see me as if I were Satan himself. Hell, one dude pissed himself as I walked by, did not need that scent on my nose thank you very much.

The short walk to the inn, however, was extremely informative. Everyone indeed has a halo above their heads. Most of which, among the common rabble, are grey and some green halos. I saw a scant few blue halos among the really rich-looking folk, and even some black halos on people that looked close to death (Not a good sign considering mine is also black). Luck halos and possible death aside, I've discovered my name!

My, or more accurately the former owner of this body, is named Xiang Rong. A young master that's notorious here. He's from the branch family of some ancient Cultivator clan. Said branch had just been wiped out, so his being in a bad mood did not help the local businesses. Even more importantly, however, is that Young Master Xiang is a cultivator!

So first things first, integrate this bastard's memories so I know what the fuck is happening. If I can do that. I don't know, I haven't tried yet. With a small sigh to myself, I march over to the ornate-looking bed. Red sheets, dragons carved into the frame, the classic young master sleeping area if I do say so myself.

Taking a seat, I make myself comfy as I dive into my own head.

///___///

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I regret my life choices. In this life, and the last. Look, I was kinda an asshole before, but Xiang Rong? Bro was a competitive asshole to my casual. Think classic Arrogant Young Master then throw in a lil demonic spice, because of fucking course there is. Who's fault is that?

Mine, yeah definitely mine. Okay, I may have gone a little too hard with the whole Immortal Demon Emperor thing on the CYOA. Short story short? Rongy Boy's life here is the exact setup for all the choices I made. So let's go over those, shall we?

Ancient Clan and No Sect, background choices. But because I took a few flaws things were made to fit. The Orphan flaw has me in a branch clan and said family has recently died (Rip Papa and Mama Xiang). Adding to that? A marriage contract I've had since before I was born with a family called the Luo clan was thrown back in my face. My fiancé saw everyone dying as the perfect opportunity to cut ties. Pragmatic, I'm not even mad at her, to be honest. So for now, that's a later problem.

Getting into perks, we'll start from the top. My cheat, my wonderful power that hopefully will keep me alive long enough to bag a hot blonde or two (if they exist here? Xiang hasn't seen any), is the False Son of Providence.

I see people's luck, their halo's color signifying how lucky they are, as well as how much luck they have left. Luck does indeed run out. The closer you are to death, the darker your halo becomes until it eventually goes black. At that point death isn't a chance, it's an inevitability. So what can I do with this perk? Well, that depends on what I choose between two choices when I see someone has an opportunity ahead of them. Choice one, share the opportunity, a win-win essentially doing so raises my luck a bit without affecting the luck of the person I'm mooching off of. Choice two, steal it for myself. Finders keepers losers weepers. I take both the opportunity and a rather significant increase in my luck while the person I stole from takes some damage to theirs.

After that, things get a lot less broken but still very significant. Immortal Emperor means I'll have no difficulty cultivating to higher realms, hell bottlenecks might as well not exist. Reaching a higher stage isn't a matter of if, it's a matter of when. The next perk is where the problems start. Physique Stealing, if that alone doesn't sound evil as fuck I'd get my head checked. In my mind, I was granted a rather short ritual to steal the special Physiques of sons and daughters of heaven. And with that? I essentially got my own unique Physique, one that's just a storage space for the ones I steal. Yes, plural, I can fucking stack them. Oh and of course it kills the person I steal from ninety percent of the time.

Pure-Hearted Demon, now this in itself isn't the final nail in the coffin, but it sure didn't help my fate. Demonic techniques of all kinds always have a downside, this perk is near immunity to said downsides. As for the thing that sealed my fate as the bad guy? Why of course it's the drawback that says I'm the bad guy! Villainous Fate, the chosen of Heaven see me as the villain, spirits see me as unkind, and the rest of the world will see me as a cruel tyrant no matter what I do. Truly, I fucked myself on this one, and so my fate was locked. Xiang Rong is a demonic cultivator. There's nothing I can do to change that.

Not letting my thoughts get so down in the dump, I mentally move on to the next perk. Personal Intent, of course, this one was affected by a drawback I took. In The Drink, it made me an alcoholic who'll gladly throw back a bottle in the middle of a fight. So my Intent is Madness, specifically drunken Madness, dunno if that changes it much. As for the other perks, Royalty is what it says on the tin, A Will of Steel so I don't just break down and hide in a corner, Marks of Cultivation is just looking fancy when I do shit, and Divine Sense gives me exactly that, earlier and stronger than every cultivator at the same level.

The next thing on the list is jobs, what am I good at? Well, I went with the evil classic, Xiang Rong is a Puppet Master prodigy. The secondary job, of course, is Wine Brewer. Fucking alcoholic. As for my other choices? I don't see the items I chose anywhere, and for some reason, I can't remember the companions. I know I chose a few, I just have a block of some kind in my memory. Unsettling, for sure.

Deeply engrossed in my thoughts, my divine sense pings on something just suddenly appearing in the air in front of me. My hand snatches it before I even realize what I'm doing. It's a dull green ring. A spatial ring. I use my divine sense to see what's inside and sure enough, it's the items I filled out on the CYOA. Along with a note.

‘The ring is your last freebie.’

Bro what? What was the fucking first one?! Fuck it, I'm not gonna argue with whatever godly being dropped my ass here. Brow furrowed, I internally grumbled as I sort the shit I was given.

Blood red cultivator robes, not gonna wear those for a while. I can at least pretend I'm not a demonic shitter. I SPOKE TOO SOON THIS ARMOR IS DOPE! Black and red armor that goes with the robes, it's both edgy as fuck yet cool as all hell at the same time. Fuck I wanna put this on and do poses in front of a mirror or something. I'm never replacing this drip, if I'm gonna be a Demon Lord I might as well look the part no?

As for the last two items… One's an item that clearly doesn't fit in this setting. A joke item of a Numinous Treasure, an indestructible brick. Just, a modern-day red cement brick that can't break… The other item is something that'll probably just get me killed for owning. It's a dark leather-bound book, pushing some divine sense into it has the words ‘Demonic Sutra’ glow for a short time on the cover before fading away again shortly after. It's too simple in a world like this, and that's why it scares me. That and the fact I chose the highest-tier Cultivation manual possible in the CYOA.

Taking it out of the ring, I give it a look with my actual eyes. It's obviously old, yet very well maintained. You'd expect the leather to be rotting but instead, it looks like it's aliv- The book has a heartbeat. Before I can put it away in a panic, I feel pain in my finger, then the book is gone in a flash of red and black light.

Surely that can't possibly be a bad th-

PAIN! FUCK WHY DOES IT HURT SO MUCH?!?

Panicking harder than ever I use my divine sense on my body, and then going further I look into myself. My Cultivation that had been at the seventh stage of Qi Gathering is shattered, and my High-Grade Darkness (Of fucking course it was) Spiritual Roots are being consumed by a sea of red coming from the book in my soul… Or not? The red coming out of the book is acting like water, pooling around the base of the root, making a small lake under and around it. The root starts greedily absorbing the liquid, growing rapidly. I watch in fascination as a root grows into a tree at rapid speed, and red liquid settles into a decently sized lake.

At some point, the book stops. Closing again, it flops on the ground of my soul. I don't fucking know, even Xiang Rong's memories say this shit is weird. More importantly, I don't know what the fuck grade of a small black tree surrounded by a lake of blood would be. What even is my element anymore? Demon? Is Demon my element?!?

Giving up, I vacate the premises after the book doesn't do anything for a while. Admittedly the black tree scared me a little, that fucker looks hungry. How does a tree look hungry? Why do I know it wants fresh blood? I just have more and more questions than when I started this shit. The book itself is content with just vibing, I even get the sense I can now summon and peruse it at my leisure. Neat that.

For now, I'm covered in sweat, stuck at the first stage of Qi Gathering, and very very much need a drink. With that in mind, I decided to just ask the two servants outside to get my bath ready.

“Useless dogs! Draw a bath for me!” With my divine sense, I see the two servants immediately scramble to do as told.

Ah. I forgot about that part.