* Day 9
"You fools!" Someone was quite angry today. "You couldn't even do one thing properly! Now give me the jade pendant!"
A luxuriously dressed young lady yelled loudly as she reprimanded her entourage of guards and a maid.
Snatching a box from her guards, she entered the mansion in front of her, which was within the city lord's estate.
As she entered the mansion, the guards from her entourage talked to the guards in front of the mansion and later left to have some food.
"So this is that bitch's house..." Li Feng mused as she saw all of this happening from a random-ass giant tree in the middle of the city. It was a terrible design considering that it could easily be used to observe people in the city lord's estate.
And even considering the fact that Li Feng had used "primal eye arts" to enhance her senses, this was just godawful design.
"Sigh... This is just embarrassing even for primitives..."
But at least she now knew for sure that this was her target's residence after all. Why else would the guards leave her to herself while in another's house?
Moreover, she entered without her maid, which according to her body's memories, no lady would ever do!
...
Three hours had passed, and Li Feng was now sure.
She left her place on the giant tree and began to ready her preparations.
After all, she can't have an embarrassing "first night"...
...
She sneaked through darkness past the guards, into the mansion... Which brought her to her current situation of being imprisoned by darkness.
And now as the being of shadows took off the cloth wrapped to hide her face, perhaps due to the surety of definite death or perhaps it was due to her not having had a meal since noon because of her information gathering, her stomach grumbled from hunger.
At that moment, the shadows disguising the being in front of her dissipated in an instant.
Maybe from such humiliation or perhaps because of the person's inhumanly beautiful face, Li Feng's face reddened instantly.
However, she wasn't a world-renowned assassin for nothing as she quickly subdued her embarrassment and noticed the odd reaction from the person in front of her.
'Could it be...'
"Uhh..."
She lowered her head and let her face blush as wildly as possible. She made sure to look like an innocent young girl, embarrassed from her actions.
As for something like pride? What even is pride? Why is pride? Who is pride?
Between the loss of pride and being killed by the rather beautiful monstrosity in front of her, she chose to let go of what she treasured less than her life.
'It's working!'
The man's expression visibly changed as he looked at her, and the hostility was now gone completely.
As for what the man held in his mind regarding this...
'Ah... So this is the end... It was a rather short life...'
He was preparing for his definite death.
...
A few days ago, on Li Feng's "New Life Day-1,"
A man donning a cloak obscuring his face, weaving through the crowded market streets, walked with a subtle yet definite grace.
In between his walk, he turned to a place and approached a certain stall. "I'd like four of these steamed buns." The old lady selling the steamed buns quickly packed the buns into two big-ass leaves each containing a total of 2 buns.
"Here." The man took out a coin from his pocket and gave it to the lady. "Thank you for the food."
With a smile, the man took the buns and left, leaving behind the old lady with a confused expression. It was not often, or rather it rarely ever happened, that someone would thank her for such a thing...
"Mm~" sinking his teeth into the bun and savoring the juicy fillings, the man walked with a pleasant smile, still unaffected by the crowd. "So, what is this place?"
The man questioned no one in particular as he walked. He had no clue who he was, what he was doing, or anything about this place. Yet, strangely he was able to do everything quite naturally...
"Quite flavorful compared to the bland hospital food~" The man remarked as he took another bite. "Hm? Hospital food?"
He did not recognize what he himself had spoken. He mulled over the words for a moment as an image of a pure white room with a white bed and strange devices appeared within his mind.
In such a room, a boy sat before a bowl of bland-looking, colorless, liquidy food accompanied by a few fruits.
"Ah... yeah, hospital food's bland indeed~" The man continued walking without a care... 'Wait a minute! This ain't normal!! Why do I know of that? Wait, why can't I remember a thing?!'
The man was lost. His mind couldn't remember much, yet it understood everything. At times, images would flash by as he remembered some distant memories.
The man wandered aimlessly, lost in his psychological turmoil, buying this and that every now and then, till....
The man was lost... physically lost. He didn't know where he ended up. The sun had begun to set, but he could see everything clearly even in the dimmed lights. He hadn't noticed it before, but the distant places always seemed shrouded by some kind of fog... Which was definitely strange as everything close to him had always been clear.
Anyways, because of that fog he had trouble finding his way.
"Hm... where do I go now?" As he wandered like that, a rather peculiar thing was noticed by him... A muddied corpse on the ground.
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"A-are you alright?" Approaching the corpse, he asked worriedly.
The aforementioned "corpse" then raised her head to look towards him, and he took a breath of relief, taking out the buns he had left from before and alongside it a medicine vial he bought today.
"Um..." He felt a bit worried as he only had the buns on him... Giving such a thing to someone who appeared ill was a bit... "I only have this on me, so please eat this and then use the medicine on your bruises."
The former corpse looked at him and took the buns, eating them rapidly, causing a smile to appear on his face... 'Maybe I should give her some mone-'
"Urgh!" His head pulsed with pain, and his vision flared up, and as he looked at the girl before him it only worsened.
He hurriedly got up and turned to leave. "Make sure to use the medicine!"
...
"But where do I go now?" Lost yet again, he wondered where he should spend the night, and an image flashed by accompanied by a name.
"Gongsun Haoren."
He could tell that this was "his" name, and so he let his body take him to the place that should be "his" place.
...
""Welcome back, Lord!""
Two guards welcomed him, to which he simply nodded coolly, not concerning himself with the two, and entered "his house".
Inside his house, outside of everyone's gaze, he let himself relax completely as he sat on the floor with his head in his hand.
"So, what do I do now?"
He, Haoren, questioned himself in hopes of getting an answer through the memories that appeared every now and then.
But to his dismay, there was no such thing.
"Well, at least I don't feel tired at all from all the walking. Couldn't have imagined that back in the hospital!"
And it was then that a memory appeared, a boy seated in complete darkness,
with flashes of colors appearing now and then, and a distant voice haunting him...
}"He couldn't even walk properly since birth, and now he has even lost his sight! There's no reason to concern yourself with him!"{
"Haa..." Letting out a sigh, he instinctively moved towards a certain section of his house.
In front of a mirror, he stood, staring at his reflection or rather the lack of any. Yet, despite not being able to see anything within the mirror, he could perceive himself, a man in a dark cloak with fair hands and a lean body, yet his face was obscured by darkness. However, one could clearly see something demonic within the darkness, it was ominous, cruel, apathetic, and evil.
Looking at himself for a few moments, he closed his eyelids yet the "reflection" still remained in his vision.
"Haha..." He laughed bitterly. "Still blind, huh?"
The person in whose body he is, just like him, was also blind. It was just that this person had found a way to bypass this restriction of nature.
As for how? "Haoren" wasn't sure but had an inkling.
"Let's leave the complicated stuff to the me from tomorrow!"
Proclaiming his procrastination, Haoren climbed the stairs to the second floor and made his way to his room.
"Pretty bland."
The room was pretty simple with not much in terms of luxuries, which was strange considering the other room right by this one was more better looking.
"Suspicious..."
Anyways, he decided to sleep in the plain room. After all, it would be a shame if there was some kind of trap in there.
Maybe it would even be difficult to sleep in such an unfamiliar environment.
...
"Haa..." He slept like a log that night. At noon, he stretched his body, as he felt something around his chest.
"What's this?" Within his chest pocket on the inner side of robes was a crudely made earthen vial.
"Didn't I give this to that girl from yesterday?"
Was it an illusion? A dream? Or a duplication glitch?
Nope. It was a "mistake".
"Shit..." The thing that he had given to the girl was a soul-mending elixir...
Although, he wasn't sure about what this elixir truly was, but from the name it sure looked like the thing that transmigrators took to fix their memories and stop the eventual collapse of their souls.
...
"Not here, huh?" Back at the alleyway from yesterday, Haoren found that the girl was long gone... "Guess, it can't be helped... Ugh!!"
With a sharp pain assaulting his head and memories continuously pouring in, he understood that his life would be limited without the elixir.
"I have to get that otherwise..."
Indeed, if he didn't use the elixir, he would not even be able to live for a mere 100 years!
"...A hundred's good enough! Rather how long-living was the other me to think of 100 years as mere 100 years."
Haoran wandered around again, aimlessly buying wares of the hawkers and enjoying his life.
...
* Day- 4
Today, Haoren had sneakily left the city walls for a little outing! He used the city gates to leave normally like all others.
Leaving the city, he entered the forest area wandering around for a while he found a suitable place with a giant rock with a flat surface.
Before doing anything else, he decided to attempt something he was quite excited about. He stretched his arm above his head and closed his eyes...
"Hap!!" He brought down his hand and alongside it came dark wisps enveloping his hand.
Tendrils made of shadow stretched out from the ground and more and more tendrils came into being ahead of Haoren, until it reached the giant rock..
*DATHAKK!!!
The tendrils twisted and drilled into the rock trying to crush it.
Although the rock itself wasn't completely destroyed but, the rock now had a small cave inside of it and Haoren had stars in his eyes.
He had learned of this power of his body from some of the flashing memories and thus, sneaked out to practice them outside the city just in case anyone got suspicious of him using weird techniques...
"Oh my god!!" He felt like a kid once again! Not that he was all that old back when he was in the hospital... "But, why is this so much weaker than the attack from my memories..."
...That day Haoren continued doing this till evening hoping he'd get some more memories out of this. Alas, none of that happened as he returned to city disappointed.
...
* Day -6
Yet another pleasant day for Haoren. He didn't have any work to do as he just lazed around as the city lord's guest for years... As for why Haoren was treated so well? Nobody really knows, not even Haoren at this point. Well, the city lord probably knows, lol...
"Ah... This is what life's all about~"
Today, Haoren had once again sneaked out of the city walls and was taking a soak in a river with crystal clear water. He had found this place as he was looking for a new cool place to "practice".
Nature's symphony surrounded him—the gentle buzz of insects, the melodious rush of water. Each ripple whispered something as Haoren sank into the cool embrace. Under the canopy's shade, time slowed, granting respite from urban bustle. "This is great~"
Haoren enjoyed himself. However, it's the rule of the universe that if everything's going all too well... something's gonna go bad. "Huh? Where're my clothes?"
That day he ended up staying in the forest naked and afraid till evening until he learned of a rather unique ability of his.
...
⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅
...
"Rarghghhh!"
A thunderous roar shook the forest grounds, causing countless ripples to appear in the waters.
Haoren prepared to flee as he heard the bestial roar. Yet, as the beast, a horned bear towering at a height similar to that of a small two-story house, showed itself, Haoren simply stared at the beast, not moving to flee. Soon his "senses" shifted to his own self.
Haoren's reflection that he perceived was a twisted outline of a man instead of the demonic shadow veiled entity. This was most likely because of the bear's perception as Haoren's own perception relies on others.
"RAWRGHH!!"
The beast rushed at him with its claws spread out. Haoren back-stepped out of the water and escaped the bear's attack. His body's instincts guided him as he avoided every attack of the enraged bear. The strange thing was that he could somehow feel that the bear was simply enraged and not hunting.
It was most likely due to Haoren's special perception but, he decided to think about this later as he was currently busy avoiding his death.
Finally, seeing that the attacks were not working, the bear backed away and instead stood on its hind legs as its horn pointed to the heavens.
"RAAAAGH!!"
Lightning crackled and began to gather around the horn as it glowed a golden hue...
*Bzzt!
The blinding light covered Haoren's body, yet the bear did not relax. Rather, it tensed up as it sensed that something was wrong.
A ball of darkness... or rather a bud-like structure was now placed where the lightning had struck. As the bud unraveled, Haoran was standing there, his eyes closed.
"Hold!" Those words escaped Haoran's mouth as countless shadows followed his command, imprisoning the bear into his grasp.
He stepped forward to finish the bear...
...
⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅
...
Using the shadows to wrap around his form as clothes, he safely returned home. He Naturally, he came to love this new ability of his!
...
⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅
...
* Day 9
At nighttime, Haoren felt a bit afraid as he walked back and forth in his house, 'Who's breaking into my house?!'