Agony.
It was as if hundreds of millions of steel needles had plunged into the depths of his soul and stirred brutally.
Su Chen's eyes flew open.
All he saw was an unfamiliar, dim grayness.
A dilapidated little courtyard. Withered vines crawled over the half-collapsed earthen walls.
In one corner, several stubborn clumps of weeds shivered in the autumn wind.
He lay on the cold, hard stone floor, his thin clothes utterly unable to shield him from the chill seeping up from the ground.
Where was this?
The thought had barely surfaced when another wave of agony crashed over him like a landslide and a raging sea.
Countless fragments of memories that weren't his flooded into his consciousness, like shattered mirrors with razor-sharp edges.
A youth named Su Chen. The same name, but a completely different life.
Wutan City.
A small border town.
The Xiao Clan.
A family in decline.
Images flashed past: boys and girls training hard on the practice grounds; the bustle of merchants hawking their wares in the marketplace; and, even more chilling, powerful warriors flying into a rage, their Dou Qi sweeping across the land as they decided life and death with ease.
The strong ruled all.
Those four words branded themselves onto his soul like a red-hot iron.
In this world, without power, there was no dignity—and not even the right to go on living.
The original owner of this body had been an ordinary outer member of the Xiao Clan, without parents and with mediocre talent. After being beaten so badly in an argument that he was gravely injured, he had been dumped in this abandoned courtyard, where he eventually drew his last breath.
That was how Su Chen had come to be here.
Su Chen struggled up from the ground and sat with his back against the cold wall.
He looked down at his thin hands. His knuckles seemed a little too large from malnutrition.
This wasn't a dream.
He had transmigrated.
He had come to an exceedingly dangerous world known as the Dou Qi Continent.
A surge of panic gripped his heart like an invisible hand.
This wasn't the civilized society of his past life, with laws and order.
Here, might made right.
A man at the Ninth Stage of Dou Qi could easily take this body's life.
And those legendary Dou Zhe, Dou Shi, and even higher-ranking Dou Wang and Dou Emperor...
Su Chen didn't dare think any further.
He was just an ordinary person who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag. His soul had changed bodies, but at his core, he was no different.
Alone, weak, helpless.
The shadow of death clung to him like a festering bone, chilling him to the core.
What should I do?
How can I stay alive?
Should I cling to Xiao Yan, the protagonist?
The thought had barely crossed his mind when he snuffed it out himself.
According to his memories, this was the third year since Xiao Yan had fallen from genius to good-for-nothing. He was the greatest laughingstock in the entire Xiao Clan, even in all of Wutan City.
Xiao Yan couldn't even keep himself safe. How could he protect anyone else?
Besides, he was a nobody. What made him think he could get close to the future Flame Emperor?
Was he supposed to die silently in this little town, just like the original owner of this body?
He refused to accept it!
His fierce will to survive quickened Su Chen's breathing.
He clenched his teeth, his nails digging deep into his palms. The sting kept him barely clearheaded.
He had to find a way!
There had to be a way!
Su Chen forced himself to calm down. His mind raced faster than ever, frantically searching for any scrap of information he could use.
Under the twin pressures of his fear of death and his desperate longing to survive, his spirit was pushed to an unprecedented limit.
At that very moment,
a sudden change came over him.
Su Chen's vision blurred.
The dilapidated courtyard around him twisted and faded.
Then, without warning, a strange scene appeared in his "perception."
It was a space of absolute nothingness, about ten zhang across.
At its very center, an ancient-looking stone platform hung motionless in the air.
He couldn't tell what it was made of. The entire platform was a warm grayish white, its surface engraved with countless intricate, mysterious patterns, as if they contained the principles of heaven and earth.
What... is this?
An illusion?
Su Chen's heart pounded violently.
He tried to concentrate, wanting to "see" more clearly.
As he focused his mind, the empty space and the ancient stone platform grew clearer and more solid.
It was real. It existed deep within his consciousness.
Was this the cheat he'd gained by transmigrating?
The realization nearly stopped Su Chen's breathing.
In the darkness of despair, it was as if a glimmer of light had shone through.
He reached out with a trembling hand to touch what lay before him, only to find the effort was futile.
It seemed he could only sense and interact with this space through his thoughts.
Suppressing his excitement, he dragged his weak body back to the corner of the courtyard, to a rundown shack that could barely keep out the wind and rain.
The furnishings inside were as sparse as could be: a plank bed and a table missing a leg. That was all.
An oil lamp sat on the table, its wick burning with a trembling flame no bigger than a bean.
It was the only source of light in the shack.
Su Chen sat down at the table, his eyes fixed on the flame.
His heart thudded in his chest like a war drum.
"If... if this space is real..."
"Then what can it do?"
He took a deep breath and immersed his entire mind in that strange, empty space once more.
The ancient stone platform still hung quietly in place.
Su Chen's gaze pierced through reality and the void. One end locked onto the flame on the table, the other focused on the stone platform.
A bold, almost insane idea took shape in his mind.
Come in!
He let out a silent roar through sheer force of will.
He tried to "pull" the flame from the real world into the space in his mind!
Hum!
His mental power seemed to turn into invisible tendrils, reaching for the faint flame.
A sense of unprecedented strain washed over him.
Fine beads of sweat instantly appeared on Su Chen's forehead.
His face paled, and his body trembled as his mental power drained away.
The flame on the table began to sway and twist wildly, as if an invisible hand were tugging at it.
It worked!
There was a response!
Su Chen's heart leapt. He drove his will even harder.
"Come... in!"
The next moment,
pfft.
A soft sound.
The flame on the table vanished into thin air.
The entire room plunged into darkness so deep he couldn't see his own hand in front of his face.
But at the same time, his mental space suddenly lit up.
The flame he had forcibly dragged in from the real world now hovered quietly above the ancient stone platform.
It worked!
It really worked!
Su Chen's chest heaved as he gasped for breath, but his face was alight with uncontrollable delight.
He could pull things from the real world into this mysterious space!
Before he could recover from the shock, the stone platform suddenly changed.
Countless mysterious patterns across its surface lit up, radiating a gentle white glow.
The light flowed like streams, enveloping the flame.
A stream of information, profound beyond words, poured into Su Chen's mind through some mysterious connection.
Item: candle flame Category: mundane fire Composition: grease, cotton wick, trace amounts of heaven-and-earth fire element Analysis: simple structure, energy level too low, no potential for growth Functions: can be refined, can be replicated
Those few simple lines of information left Su Chen completely frozen.
Refine?
Replicate?
He stared at the word "replicate," his heart leaping into his throat.
An option labeled "replicate" appeared clearly in his perception, like a brand.
Without a moment's hesitation,
Su Chen fiercely "pressed" it with his mind!
A faint weariness rose from deep within his mind, as negligible as a single drop of water being taken away.
Then, a miraculous sight unfolded.
The ancient stone platform trembled slightly. An exact copy of the flame condensed out of thin air and hovered quietly beside the original.
The two flames were identical in every way—their size, their brightness, even the way they flickered.
Su Chen stared at the scene, his mind utterly blank.
A few seconds later, he suddenly came back to himself.
"Out!"
With a thought, he "pushed" the replicated flame out of his mental space.
Pfft.
A pinpoint of fire appeared in the dark room.
A brand-new, warm flame appeared on the wick of the now-empty oil lamp, burning quietly.
Su Chen reached out with a trembling hand and slowly brought it closer to the flame.
Warmth came clearly through his fingertips.
It was real!
All of it was real!
He wasn't dreaming!
A joy too great for words erupted like a volcano, instantly sweeping away all his reason and defenses.
He stared blankly at the flame he had "created" with his own hands, then grinned and began to laugh soundlessly.
As he laughed, his shoulders started to shake violently.
Scalding tears surged uncontrollably from his eyes and traced lines through the dust on his cheeks.
These weren't tears of despair.
They were hope.
The wild joy of surviving against all odds.
The release of someone who had finally grabbed hold of a lifeline.
Now that he had this ability—replication...
If he could replicate ordinary flames, could he replicate more powerful ones?
For example... the Beast Flames that alchemists dreamed of obtaining?
Or even... the legendary Heavenly Flames, said to burn mountains and boil seas, to incinerate heaven and earth itself?!
The thought crashed through his heart like a thunderclap.
He looked at the small flame on the table, which seemed to illuminate his entire future, and clenched his fist.
"I..."
"Can stay alive!"
Before you continue