Due to his injuries, Huo Jin actually felt pain after his arm got grabbed even though Lei Yan's strength was diminishing by the second as he neared his certain death, prompting him to retaliate by kicking the almost dead Lei Yan in the stomach in an attempt to make him let go.
However, this proved to be useless as Lei Yan kept holding on with everything that he had, further enraging Huo Jin. Subconsciously, or perhaps consciously, he felt very guilty, even though to him, the reasoning was crystal clear—they would've died regardless, so he might as well save himself. Seeing Lei Yan being so stubborn and frankly pitiful made him feel even more guilty and thus angrier.
'Why can't you just fucking understand and die like the nobody that you are,' he thought.
Summoning all the strength he could muster in his grievously injured state, Huo Jin forcefully pulled his arm back.
Thud
The force was so strong that Lei Yan's body couldn't help but move, causing his face to crash directly into the earth.
Feeling the life slowly seeping out of his body, Lei Yan lay there in an awkward position that he perceived as shameful in a puddle of his own blood, having died for the second time at the hands of those he considered the lowest of the low.
He couldn't help but harbor some intense self-hatred as well, directed not only at his own weakness but also at the world itself. This hatred, paradoxically, was the only thing keeping him tethered to life. The urge to cry and wail welled up within him, but he resisted, unwilling to allow himself to sink that low even to the end.
Crying in that moment felt worse than death to him—not just because Huo Jin was gradually leaving and would hear him if he did so; that was only a small part of it. After the ordeals on Earth, he had vowed to never let himself be reduced to such a pitiful state.
Yet, here he was, dying in an even more wretched condition by people who didn't pay him any mind whatsoever. Them killing him was apparently so easy and effortless that no one spared him even just a single word, be it out of sympathy or mockery, none.
He clenched his fists with all the strength he had left, an attempt to vent the fury slowly consuming him. His knuckles turned white as his skin stretched, preventing the blood from flowing, and blood slowly dripped down from his palm where his nails had pierced into his own flesh.
Regrettably, his wound proved too fatal, and he lost an excessive amount of blood. His consciousness was slowly but surely fading away. In just a couple of moments, the fist that had been holding on with all of its might slowly opened, as the body it belonged to no longer had a heartbeat.
The complete and utter darkness that Lei Yan was waiting for didn't arrive as expected. Instead, he felt himself getting sucked into a swirling vortex of energy. It was as if he was passing through a cosmic tunnel, surrounded by streams of ethereal light and strange patterns that danced before his eyes.
'What in the world is happening?', he thought. Even for him who had died and transmigrated before this was something that was unexpected, because the last time after the pain subsided it felt like going to sleep as he woke up in a new body and a new world after an unknown amount of time.
Now on the other hand...
The sensation was disorienting, and Lei Yan lost all sense of time and space. He could feel the energy coursing through every fiber of his being, a sensation that was both exhilarating and unnerving. Vague memories of his past life flashed before him like fleeting dreams, and he wondered if this journey through the unknown was the result of some legendary immortal master taking pity on him and thus teleporting him to a safe refuge to be healed.
Just as quickly as it began, the swirling energy subsided, leaving Lei Yan in a suspended state of weightlessness. The darkness lifted, replaced by a soft, diffused light. As he regained his senses, he realized that he was no longer in his human form. Instead, he found himself in a surreal environment, surrounded by translucent walls that pulsed with an otherworldly glow.
Before he could comprehend the nature of his surroundings, Lei Yan felt a strange sensation throughout his entire being. It was as if his very essence was being reshaped. The boundaries of his consciousness blurred, and a profound connection with a new form of existence took hold.
In the next moment, Lei Yan awakened with a jolt. The surroundings were vastly different, and he was no longer in control of a human body. Instead, he found himself as a tiny, squirming creature in a damp and dimly lit environment. The air was thick, and the atmosphere was hot but also cool? Lei Yan, now a mosquito larvae, felt a strange instinct, a foreign knowledge that surged through him, making him acutely aware of his identity. It was as if an innate understanding that had been with him all of his life.
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| Initiating System Sequence... |
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A strange, lifeless, and somewhat robotic sound echoed through his mind out of nowhere scaring him even further.
'System Sequence? What is that?' Just when he thought that the world couldn't get any more bizarre and beyond comprehension after he was transmigrated here, something even more shocking happened. The fact that he was now a mosquito larvae was pushed down the list of priorities for the time being because he had already made peace with the notion of reincarnation, unlike whatever was happening right then and there.
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| System Sequence Complete. |
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A moment of silence followed, leaving an air of anticipation. Lei Yan, now a mosquito larvae, felt an inexplicable surge of alertness and focus. His tiny form quivered with bated breath, awaiting whatever would happen next in the wake of the completed system sequence.
[System can't be bound to host unless a condition is met.]
'System bound to host?' Lei Yan had no idea what that could possibly mean in the context of him dying yet again and getting transported into the body of a mosquito larvae. If his guess was correct, he was still inside the egg.
However, he quickly realized the pointlessness of these speculations for now. Although somewhat freaked out by whatever was happening to him—other than the fact that he was now a mosquito—he needed to swiftly adapt and channel his mental energy and focus on the most crucial matter at hand.
'What condition?', Lei Yan tried his best to communicate with whatever intelligence was operating in the insides of his own consciousness. The voice then continued though he had no idea if he managed to convey his message or it was simply continuing whatever it was going to say regardless.
[Preparing for the mission details...]
Then out of nowhere his field of vision that was previously dominated by what he guessed was the egg encasing was now consumed by a strange and seemingly ancient yet cutting edge technological interface with dark grey color?
[System Integration Mission:
- Kill and consume a mosquito of comparable strength. 0/10
- Kill and consume a mosquito of the Body Forging Realm. 0/1
- Imbibe the crop to full capacity, feasting on the blood of a mortal-level creature. 0/10
- Imbibe the crop to full capacity, feasting on the blood of a creature at the Body Forging Realm. 0/1
(Temporary Talent: Swift Absorption)
Mission Duration: 3 Days.
Failure: Death.
Success: The Insect Sovereign System.
]
The moment he absorbed all of details of the mission, the interface vanished just as abruptly as it appeared. Oddly, though it was gone from his field of vision, he felt an intimate connection to the previously revealed information.
For instance, even though he didn't quite grasp the significance of (Temporary Talent: Swift Absorption), holding it in the recesses of his consciousness brought forth knowledge and conclusions not of his own making.
What became clear was that it was a unique ability embedded in the deepest part of his being as a mosquito, designed to expedite the growth from mosquito larvae to adulthood. Yet, it wasn't limited to that; it also granted him the capacity to efficiently absorb the blood gathered in his crop, strengthening his body.
Although amazed by this novel experience, which felt like absorbing the knowledge of another in his mind, he quickly regained control of himself.
'Are you the one who brought me back to life?' he asked—or rather, just thought? He couldn't tell. He figured since the voice spoke inside his mind, it should at least hear him. However, no one answered. Even to him, that question was somewhat double-layered because, of course, he knew that it was the one responsible for bringing him back to life; he just wanted to see if he could receive a response.
Sadly, he didn't get anything else.
Other than the temporary talent, everything else was crystal clear.
To him, this signified the only, and perhaps ultimate, opportunity to make a comeback and take hold of his own life, living it as he wished without getting trampled on like some sort of undeserving creature under the boots of sick and unforgiving people.
The difficulty of this mission might not seem high to those unfamiliar with the world of cultivation, but to him, who spent a month in this world coupled with the memories of a 17-year-old native, he knew all too well how impossibly difficult this was. Not just the obvious tasks like sucking the blood of a creature at the Body Forging Realm and killing a mosquito at that same Realm.
The fact that he had to survive as a tiny normal mosquito in this crazy and brutal environment from the larvae stage to adulthood, and then accomplish all of that in three days, was insane.
'But wasn't this better than death?' he thought with newfound vigor.
Of course, it was! This was the opportunity given to a weak and pitiful man to change his destiny, and he'd be a fool not to try to the very best of his ability.
Suddenly, amidst the confined darkness of the mosquito egg, Lei Yan began to perceive a disconcerting sound. A series of close, splashing noises echoed through the aquatic environment, sending a shiver down his tiny form. Instinctively, a profound sense of danger gripped him, the urgency escalating with each rhythmic splash.