Leng Xue Kuang spat blood. The sword in his chest was causing his dantian to overflow, ruining his cultivation base in ways he couldn't fix.

If only he could grab the necks of the pieces of shit that hunted him down, consume them like the walking medicinal pills they were, recover, and then wipe out everyone around him.

But, as always, he had gone lax, and the heavens had punished him through an ambush that left him with no recourse but to run away. Unfortunately for him, he was already wounded and could do nothing as his attackers chased him down and began to gut him like a dog.

"Demon," said the man who had hunted him down throughout his many lives—the leader of the Immortal Flame Sect, Ming Ze.

"I'll come back," Leng Xue Kuang shot the man a harsh and relentless glare. "I always do."

"I know, old friend." Ming Ze had a melancholic yet sad smile on his face. He raised his palm and began to channel Qi into his God Palm technique. "I know."

Leng Xue Kuang saw white, and then his world turned black.

Once more, the heavenly dao restarted the cycle. A demon falls to the lower realms, his soul and memories fully intact. He would rise once more, killing any sect and cultivator that came his way, doing the heavens’ job with a malevolent smile and a manic expression.

The only thing that would change would be his body. And this time, there was a slight change.

It wouldn't hinder the All-Devouring Demon, but it would certainly make him alter his course of action.

The Emperors of the Heavenly Court grinned as they watched the demon's flickering soul descend to one of the countless mortal worlds below the immortal plane.

A few began to meditate, knowing they now had a new source of entertainment.

...

Leng Xue Kuang—if that was even his name anymore—woke up with a breathless gasp.

Where was he?

Or she...

She stopped cupping her chest and looked around the room. Well, it definitely belonged to a woman. In her past lives, she’d met plenty of female cultivators, even dual cultivated with fellow demons before murdering them when the time came to steal each other's essence.

The room before her showed no signs of cultivation but was filled with female furnishings and signs of wealth. The silken pillows, well-maintained bedsheets, and thick curtains that blocked out the sunlight were all signs of a higher class.

There were stuffed animals on the bed. Unsurprising—almost every body she'd taken had something similar, though most were sacks stuffed with hay and sewn with buttons for eyes. These were unlike the furry, Qi-infused toys scattered across the room.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

She was sitting in front of a table, a low one—knee-height if she stood up to her full height. She sat on a pillow cushion, soft and smooth to the touch. A tea set lay in front of her, and it didn’t seem to contain poison, meaning her host hadn't died.

Her beautiful features twisted into a frown, though the sour expression didn’t detract from her beauty.

Still, this meant that the original owner had been pushed out of the body by her wandering soul and was on the verge of reincarnation. She didn’t get it—why was she in a mortal body?

Qi was present in the environment, but the body showed no signs of cultivation, lacking any special traits or foundation based on Qi.

The thought of being in such a body both insulted and delighted her.

On one hand, she was angry at herself for falling so low that her soul couldn’t even take over the body of a Body Refinement stage mortal. On the other hand, she was happy because this new body was untouched—quite literally—by Qi.

That was good. Out of all her past lives, she’d taken over cultivators in the Foundation Establishment or Core Formation realms, but this one was purely mortal.

She could use this. She *would* be happy to use this!

Excited at the prospect of what she could achieve with a blank template, she stood up from her sitting position and made her way out of the room.

The house was just as clean and well-organized as the rest of the room she had just left. The one she stepped into was a mix between a kitchen and a living room, with couches, chairs, and a table, but also a kitchen counter against one of the walls.

There, cooking materials hung in a neat row across the wall, dangling from hooks hammered below the cupboards. There were cabinets on the counter, where she assumed most of the pots and pans were stored.

Walking over to the kitchen, she opened the cupboards, searching for anything of interest. Besides finding some low-level cultivation herbs, she found nothing of value.

She closed them and checked the rest of the living room. This little space seemed to make up her entire house—just a simple bedroom that led to a living room-kitchen hybrid, and that was it.

Underwhelming, but she had worked with less in the past, and she had still defied the heavens to wreak havoc across the immortal plane and mortal worlds alike.

Still, with what she had on hand, it meant she either needed to buy potent poison or drink some kind of cleaning agent to efficiently temper her new body.

She could handle bitterness, but soap was inefficient at breaking down and ruining the body.

It would be preferable if she could get her hands on a small spiritual beast—like a rat or something—and a bottle of poisonous Qi. It would be even better if that bottle contained two warring elements in a single container. That would break apart this new body of hers efficiently.

Assuming that the new city she found herself in had a black market where she could purchase such things, she walked back to her room to search for a bag of currency.

She eventually found some tucked under a loose floorboard beneath the foot of her bed.

It was a crude hiding spot, and a lowlife would have found it within an hour, but it was a good attempt nevertheless.

Still, what had the girl been planning before she was pushed out? To run away? Well, the layout of the rooms did seem like one of those imperial prisons for princesses—a gilded cage.

Guess that was her problem now, too.

She spread the contents of the pouch on her bed and began counting the hundreds of gold and silver coins with leaf markings on them.

Smiling, she stored them all back in the pouch and left her room.

"Sheng Xin Cheng! Where do you think you're going?!"

Oh, was that her name?

Sheng Xin looked at her hands for a moment, considering whether she should continue with the plan of running away before deciding it was better not to push her luck. She was still a mortal, and well, this place may have been a cage, but it was still gilded.

"Outside. I want to meet one of my suitors—what was his name again?" The situation with this body was obvious from the strict parents and the pouch of money.

"Zhen Yu." The woman, whom Sheng Xin assumed was the biological mother of this body, crossed her arms. "And what about that pouch?"

"He gave it to me." The reaction Sheng Xin got implied that gifts from her suitor were rare. So either she was a concubine, or the other person was stingy.

"That's good! It means you've earned his favor more than those other harlots!"

So the former, then...

"We’re meeting up right now, but I think I want to surprise him by going to where he lives. Is it safe?" Sheng Xin was being purposely vague.

She didn’t want to raise suspicion, so she didn’t bring up the possibility of the suitor being a prince or an inner disciple, but those questions would be answered if the woman told her where he lived.

"Of course! The Heaven Scorcher Sect is always open to those Zhen Yu courts! Go there and impress him! You look good enough—sway him to your side and leave every single one of those harlots in the dust!"

Sheng Xin Cheng smiled. "I’ll do that."

So, her suitor lived in the Heaven Scorcher Sect? Still, this felt strange. If he was a cultivator—and she had fought plenty of those in all her lives—why hadn’t he just taken Sheng Xin Cheng? Why did she have money?

The fact that the woman was suspicious of the pouch meant that it wasn’t she who had given it to the original Xin...

Oh? Is this what she thought it was?

"What about my other suitor?" Sheng Xin turned back to look at the woman.

"Hmp! So what if some boy from some lowly sect dares to court you?" The woman raised an eyebrow. "Or are you talking about one of the imperial princes?"

"No, I want to know their names."

The woman smiled mischievously. "Use that coyness," she nodded, "and their names are Hao Ran and Lei Ming. You can forget about them."

"I will," Sheng Xin smiled.