"I hereby beseech the Pure Black Mother, Goddess who governs life. Surely your divine power can cure the curse passed down through this bloodline..."
Within the cramped Secret Chamber, finger-thick lines had been carved into the hard Granite Marble floor, forming a pentagram. The lines were filled with fresh blood.
A man and a woman lay on opposite sides of the magic array. Their wrists had both been cut open, and their blood had been used to draw this wicked formation.
Between them, at the very center of the array, a tall and bloated figure knelt naked. He clasped his hands before his chest and prayed devoutly.
Just then, the man lying on the ground opened his eyes. With his neck stiff, he slowly looked around, then squeezed his eyes shut.
"I woke up too hard... I'm seeing a pig talk... Let me sleep a little longer!"
A dozen seconds later, Gao Yang opened his eyes again and clearly saw the curly white hair on the fat man's big toe.
That was Donald's foot.
Wait, Donald? Who was that?
A tide of memories surged forth at that moment.
Amid this environment, thick with the smell of blood, Gao Yang realized that he had crossed over and quickly sorted out his current situation.
This was a world of vibrant colors. There were gods, dragons, elves, dwarves, beastfolk, Battle Qi, and magic. Naturally, there was no shortage of all kinds of legendary items, Divine Artifacts, and divine miracles.
This really was a pretty good world—
If he hadn't crossed over into this man's body.
The owner of this body was named Raven. He had originally been an orphan from Monen City, having lost both parents at a young age and grown up in an Orphanage run by the Church of Light.
Relying on his naturally silver tongue, Raven had charmed the Orphanage's only matron at the age of eight. Not only did he receive an extra piece of Black Bread at every meal compared to the other children, he often got to drink milk and occasionally even ate a few pieces of smoked meat.
Those foods provided Raven with ample nutrition and gave him a strong physique that had no place in an Orphanage.
Raven was also someone who repaid kindness.
Just after his fourteenth birthday, he climbed into the matron's bed.
He seemed to have a natural talent for crime. He soon colluded with the matron and began selling off the Orphanage's resources. Although they were only things like Coarse Wheat Flour and corn that were worth no more than a few Copper Coins, there was strength in numbers, and the profits trickled in endlessly.
The children of the Orphanage grew thinner by the day, while the two thieves' wallets grew increasingly plump.
The truth could not stay hidden forever. Although the pair concealed their activities well, rumors still reached the Orphanage director. She tried to reform Raven, hoping to make him repent and return to the right path.
It had to be said that the sixty-seven-year-old woman was truly well-mannered. It was only when Raven tried to flirt with her for the fifth time that she grabbed a broom.
One broom was no match for the strong Raven, but when it was wielded by a second-tier battle priest, the situation became entirely different.
Raven was thrown out of the Orphanage, and everyone there except the matron was delighted.
That year, Raven was fifteen, and he already possessed a robust physique no weaker than an adult's.
As the Empire's ancient proverb went: "Many idle people do evil."
Idle hands did evil.
After leaving the Orphanage, Raven was like a fish returning to the sea, making full use of his talents—
Theft, robbery, extortion, kidnapping, smuggling...
Relying on his small cleverness and perfectly measured greed, Raven thrived in Monen City's underworld and gradually acquired a nickname of his own.
"Little Bee."
Because he truly was unable to resist women.
From eighty years old down to eighteen, beautiful or ugly, fat or thin, he refused no one.
When Donald's Chief Guard found him, he was "working hard" in an inn.
After being forcibly dragged from the room, Raven received news that delighted him: his surname was actually Griffith, and he was the last heir of a Baron's Family.
A baron!
Although it was the lowest of the five ranks of nobility—duke, marquis, count, viscount, and baron—it was still genuine nobility!
A noble!
In the entire Cairns Empire, the number of newly ennobled nobles over the past hundred years could be counted on one hand.
After his documents were examined, Raven traveled for half a month and finally arrived at his future fief—the Eagle Territory.
There really was a castle here!
The master of the castle was his uncle, the current Imperial Baron, Donald Ota Griffith.
His uncle was fat and sturdy, yet warm and hospitable.
Raven sincerely prayed in his heart that Donald would hurry up and return to the embrace of the merciful Lord of Light. He even began planning to personally lend a hand and speed up the process.
At first, Raven was delighted. Wherever he went, people called him young master. Every meal came with fresh white bread and meat soup, and there was even homemade red wine!
But gradually, he began to sense that something was wrong. The castle was absurdly deserted, with only one butler, three guards, and a cook.
There were not even any maids!
His movements were also strictly restricted. He was not allowed to leave the castle, and wherever he went, at least two guards accompanied him.
He did not look like an heir. He looked more like a prisoner.
Through his excellent social skills, he also learned about the Griffith Family's past from the guards.
Not a single man in this family had ever lived past forty. Donald's two sons and one daughter had all died one after another seven years ago, while their mother had also died suddenly for no apparent reason!
As for Donald's second wife, she rarely returned to the castle.
Raven keenly sensed the scent of a conspiracy and began planning his escape. He set the time for tonight.
The reason was that Laxus, the Second-tier Divine Spellcaster assigned by the Church of Light to Eagle Town, would be visiting the castle that day. It would also be the time when Raven's supervision was at its weakest.
But just as Raven was preparing to leave, Donald personally knocked on his door and brought him to this Secret Chamber.
Seeing the dried bloodstains on the walls and floor, which looked like rust, Raven immediately drew his defensive hand crossbow. Donald slapped it away, then knocked him unconscious with a single straight punch.
Though it was a long story, barely two minutes had passed since Gao Yang woke up.
Gao Yang—no, Raven now—sighed inwardly. What a truly worthless scumbag...
He slowly turned his head and saw Donald still praying devoutly. In the magic array on the floor, the blood was flowing more vigorously, its texture growing increasingly crystalline, as if it had become red crystal.
Without a doubt, this was a sacrificial ritual, and the sacrifices were the man and woman lying there, including Raven.
Before long, the ritual would be complete. By then, he would be dead beyond all doubt.
Considering the crimes Raven had committed before, in his previous life, he would not have been wrongfully executed even if he had been shot a dozen times. Dying only once could be considered a bargain.
"But I'm innocent!"
He had only just crossed over, escaped the 996 lifestyle, and gone twenty-seven years without even touching a woman's hand. Was his reward for crossing over getting killed all over again?
NMD, WSM!!!
Which god did I offend, exactly!?
Calm down! Calm down!
Raven forced himself to calm down.
A Blood Ritual like this usually required both flesh and soul. Since he had crossed over, it meant the original owner's soul had likely already been sacrificed. As long as he endured until the ritual ended, he might not necessarily die.
But on the other hand, Blood Rituals—especially ones involving the blood of a Church official—had always been unacceptable to the Church of Light. Donald definitely would not leave any survivors!
If he wanted to live, he had to kill Donald.
His objective immediately became clear.
But how was he supposed to kill him?
Donald stood over one meter eighty tall and weighed more than two hundred and fifty pounds. He looked like a mountain of flesh.
What was more, he was a second-tier Bloody Knight!
Raven had seen a second-tier Transcendent fight before. During a gang clash, "Rending Tiger" Honduras had driven his second-tier Flame Battle Qi and cut three burly men in half at the waist with a single stroke!
The difference between them was like that between an elephant and an ant.
Raven felt his body begin to heat up. The blood inside him started flowing faster, and his heart pounded.
The scarlet glow radiating from the magic array had grown as bright as a spotlight in a park square. Clearly, the ritual had reached its most critical moment!
At this moment, Raven instead calmed down. His gaze swept around, then his eyes lit up as he locked onto the hand crossbow in the corner.
It was about as long as a forearm, with a dull crossbow body made of refined steel. The grip was made from heavy, sturdy iron pearwood. The most valuable part was the string, which contained less than two grams of Star Iron but accounted for most of the eight-Gold Coin hand crossbow's cost.
At present, the string was already drawn taut, and a barbed, armor-piercing enchanted bolt rested on the crossbow bed. It was worth two Gold Coins, and a layer of Castor Bean Poison coated its tip, reflecting an inky green light.
This was his only hope of survival.
He turned slightly and stretched out his hand, struggling to reach for the hand crossbow. This body had already lost a severe amount of blood and was so weak that it could go into shock at any moment.
The suction force coming from the magic array was enormous, as if Donald were standing on top of him. Combined, the two forces made every movement drain all the strength from his body!
As if someone had turned on a faucet, cold sweat burst across Raven's forehead. Even so, he desperately suppressed his breathing so Donald would not notice anything unusual.
Finally, he wriggled across the floor until his fingers reached the hand crossbow's grip.
Clang—
The refined-steel hand crossbow scraped against the hard floor, producing a piercing shriek. Donald's tightly closed eyes snapped open!
Raven's scalp tightened. Without time to think, he raised the hand crossbow, half-turned his body, aimed at Donald, and desperately pulled the trigger!
The sequence of movements flowed like water. It was already instinctive to this body!
The Star Iron crossbow string snapped taut, launching the bolt toward Donald's throat!
The two of them were less than two meters apart. Even a child could not have missed!
"Raven—" Donald roared as a dense blood-colored glow wrapped around his entire body, like a transparent diving suit.
This was the rudimentary form of Battle Qi Armor. Besides possessing a certain resistance to magic, its defense against physical attacks was no weaker than ordinary Leather Armor.
His fat body moved with astonishing agility. His broad hand, wrapped in Battle Qi, had already blocked the bolt's path.
The fine magic patterns on the bolt lit up. The Minor Sharpness enchantment attached to it activated, corroding through the Battle Qi and piercing Donald's palm. Its momentum did not stop, and amid a spray of blood, it plunged viciously into his indistinct throat!
Pfft—
Blood burst out violently, transforming into a mist that filled the air!
Donald clutched the wound in his neck with both hands, his blood-filled eyes fixed on Raven. His face was covered in disbelief.
His lips trembled as he tried to say something, but life was already irreversibly draining from his body.
After managing only one difficult step, the Imperial Baron toppled to the ground with a crash. His mass of fat continued to tremble.
"Huff... huff..." Raven panted violently, bracing both hands against the floor as he slowly rose. "Damn... this world is too dangerous."
"...Luckily, I was one step ahead!"
A smug smile appeared on his pale face, but it did not last long.
"No way. Again?"
He discovered that the blood flowing from Donald's body was not spreading across the floor. Instead, it was being absorbed by the magic array itself.
The light gradually dimmed, but the ritual did not seem to have stopped!
Raven did not know exactly what this ritual or magic array was for, but it certainly could not be anything good.
He searched for something that could destroy the array. His gaze landed on the opposite corner, where Donald's clothes had been piled together, along with his personal rapier!
Raven strode toward the corner, but the moment he took a step, pain and weakness spread up from his legs. It felt just like the physical fitness test in college, right after he had finished running five kilometers. Both legs no longer felt like his own!
Just then, a series of "squelch, squelch" sounds rang out, like a country child kicking a pig's bladder filled with water. Raven turned his head, and his body abruptly stiffened as he reached for his belt.
Donald's body on the floor was swelling violently. His already massive body had doubled in size, layers of pale fat coiling around it and writhing nonstop. It looked just like a human-sized living maggot!
With a pop, the mass of living flesh on the floor exploded like a balloon. Green mucus as viscous as snot sprayed in every direction, and a monster covered in slime crawled out from within.
It stood around two meters tall, with a powerful build and not a single hair on its body. Its skin and muscles were nearly transparent, allowing the bones, blood vessels, and organs beneath its skin to be seen clearly. It looked like a dummy used for teaching at a medical school!
The difference was that Raven could truly see the flowing blood and the vigorously beating heart!
Yet the monster's facial features were still unmistakably Donald's.
"Heh heh... hahahaha!!!" Donald burst into wild laughter. "Raven, my dear nephew, I truly have you to thank!"
"All these years, I sacrificed Ted, sacrificed Monka, and even sacrificed my beloved Lisa. I was even forced to kill my lover, yet I still couldn't succeed."
"So this was the step I was missing!"
"Death is followed by rebirth, and only after breaking free from the cocoon can one become a butterfly. I've never felt this good before!"
"To reward you for helping me complete the ritual—"
Donald opened his mouth exaggeratedly, revealing two rows of stark-white teeth.
"I'll let you merge with me!"
Before you continue