On the bluestone slabs in Xiao Zhan's back courtyard, Xiao Feng stared blankly at the falling pear blossoms. His fingertips absently traced the edge of the stone table. The calluses on his palms from before he'd crossed over five years ago had long since disappeared, replaced by the smooth skin of a young boy—but deep down, he still carried the soul of an overworked office drone ground down by 996.
"Damn, I crossed over just from watching Battle Through the Heavens? Why couldn't I have become Xiao Yan?" he muttered, glancing at the children playing in the distance. Five-year-old Xiao Yan was chasing Xun'er, a petal caught in his hair, his childish face bright with laughter. The brothers should have been identical twins, but the soul of a transmigrator had taken up residence in one of them, and they'd grown into completely different boys. Xiao Yan had inherited Xiao Zhan's resolute brows, while Xiao Feng had slightly upturned eyes, their gaze concealing a gloom that didn't belong in a child.
His thoughts returned to the Xiao Clan's decline. The image of Xiao Xuan failing to break through to Dou Di flashed through his mind, and the sight of Hun Tiandi's sinister face sent a chill down the back of his neck. In the original story, the Xiao Clan had nearly been wiped out, with only Xiao Yan rising from the ruins—but now he was Xiao Feng, one of the destined "background characters" to be crushed beneath the Soul Clan's heel.
"Without a system, how am I supposed to turn things around?" He looked at his palm, as though he could see the invisible Dou Qi flowing through it. He didn't even have the most basic cheat that came with being a transmigrator. For five years, he'd been too lazy even to pretend to cultivate. Every day, he'd hidden in the courtyard and studied whether modern physics could improve the way people cultivated Dou Qi. Naturally, it had all been for nothing.
"Brother Feng, what are you thinking about?" A childish voice interrupted his thoughts. Xiao Yan ran over, stirring up a breeze. The petal in his hair fell onto the stone table. "Xun'er said we should go catch butterflies. Want to come?"
The boy tilted his head to look up at his brother, spring sunlight reflected in his eyes. Xiao Feng suddenly thought of the despair Xiao Yan had felt after losing his family in the original story. His throat tightened, and he forced a smile. "Go on ahead, Xiao Yanzi. Third Brother wants some quiet."
He watched Xiao Yan bound away, then his smile abruptly faded. Staring at the pear tree, he suddenly remembered something he'd read in the library last night: after the Xiao Clan's Dou Di Bloodline had dried up, the average age at which children awakened their Dou Qi had risen to eight. Yet he and Xiao Yan had reached the Ninth Stage Dou Qi at five. Could this body's extraordinary talent be a "side effect" of his transmigration?
Just then, a mechanical voice suddenly rang out in his mind:
Ding! Strongest System activated. Host detected to have been stranded in the Battle Through the Heavens World for five years. Issuing compensation rewards—
Xiao Feng's pupils contracted, and his heart pounded like a war drum. He'd imagined countless times over the past five years how it would feel when a system appeared. Now that he was actually hearing one, he was momentarily stunned.
Would you like to receive five years' worth of compensation rewards?
"Accept! Of course I accept!" he roared inwardly, his fingertips clenching the edge of the stone table.
In the next instant, a flood of information poured into his mind like a mountain torrent. Lists of Heavenly Flames, high-tier Dou Techniques, pill recipes... Xiao Feng felt his brain swelling under the deluge, but the moment he saw the words "Flame Mantra," he snapped to attention. Wasn't that Xiao Yan's signature cultivation art? The system had just given it to him outright?
Host's cultivation level is too low. Activating the Devour System function.
Before the voice had finished, the rewards in his mind transformed into streaks of light and surged through his limbs. Xiao Feng grunted as he felt magma rushing through his veins. His Dou Qi surged like a breached dam, climbing madly from the Ninth Stage Dou Qi: Dou Zhe, Dou Shi, Da Dou Shi, Dou Ling, Dou Wang... It finally slowed to a halt at Nine-Star Dou Emperor.
He shot to his feet, his robe fluttering despite the windless air. A casual wave of his finger turned the pear blossoms on the stone table to dust—this was the pressure of the wind that came with the Heaven-Rank Dou Technique, Heavenly Demon Wings! Then he circulated Soul Movement Three Thousand, and his soul power spread in transparent ripples. He could hear every insect chirping and bird calling within a hundred meters.
"Sixth-Grade alchemist... peak Heavenly Realm soul power..." Xiao Feng murmured, his gaze settling on the Heavenly Flame in his system space. The crimson glow of Fallen Heart Flame flickered, resonating strangely with the Dou Qi in his body. Suddenly, he remembered something and hurriedly spoke:
"System, hide my cultivation level!"
Full-spectrum disguise enabled for host. Currently displayed cultivation level: Three-Star Dou Zhe.
Xiao Feng let out a long breath and brushed his fingertips over his brow. Now he looked like an ordinary Xiao Clan boy, but a power capable of shattering mountains lay hidden within him. He lifted his eyes to the sky. Faint streaks of lightning gathered in the clouds—an atmospheric anomaly caused by his breakthrough to Dou Emperor, forcibly suppressed by the system.
"Hun Tiandi... Hun Dan..." He silently repeated the villains' names, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold smile. In the original story, the Soul Clan had plotted against Xiao Xuan. Now there was also Hun Dan, another transmigrator. This game of chess was getting more and more interesting.
Footsteps sounded from outside the courtyard, and Xiao Zhan's voice carried a note of worry. "Feng'er? Your mother said you haven't eaten all day..."
Xiao Feng immediately reined in his aura. When he turned around, he was already wearing a well-behaved expression. "Father, I was studying the routes Dou Qi takes through the body and lost track of time."
Xiao Zhan looked his son over, pausing for a moment on his reddened ear tips. As a Five-Star Da Dou Shi, he had naturally noticed the energy fluctuations just now, but assumed they were simply the stirrings of a youth's breakthrough. "Come with me to the training ground tomorrow. The clan elders want to see how you and Yan'er are progressing."
"Yes." Xiao Feng lowered his head in acknowledgment, his fingertips quietly crushing a pear blossom inside his sleeve. The training ground? It would be the perfect place to test the power of Flame Splitting Wave-Devouring Ruler—but he'd have to hold back and perform at the level of a Three-Star Dou Zhe.
Night fell. Xiao Feng sat cross-legged on his bed as the system interface unfolded in his mind. The Billion-fold Gift Return icon gleamed gold. Raising an eyebrow, he smiled and tapped the "Sign In" function.
Ding! Host signed in at the Xiao Clan training ground. Received the High-Rank Yellow-tier movement technique Snow-Treading Trace-less.
"Interesting," he murmured, Hun Dan's figure appearing in his mind. As a fellow transmigrator, that man's system surely wasn't simple either. But in terms of versatility... Xiao Feng's fingertips swept over the "Devour," "Lie Flat," and other icons, his eyes flashing with the confidence of certain victory.
Outside the window, a crescent moon climbed above the branches. Xiao Feng closed his eyes to rest, but his soul power spread like a spiderweb until it touched the Xiao Clan's boundary and snapped back. In a shadowy corner, he had "seen" a stranger.
The man wore the Soul Clan's distinctive dark robe and was fiddling with a jade slip in the moonlight. Xiao Feng's pupils contracted. He recognized it as a jade slip containing the Soul Clan's secret Soul Guiding Technique—and the aura on it seemed to resonate faintly with the transmigrator's aura in his memories.
"Hun Dan..." He softly spoke the name, the corner of his mouth lifting in a dangerous smile. "Looks like you can't wait to make your entrance either."
The system's notification suddenly sounded:
Warning! Energy fluctuations from a parallel transmigrator detected. Host is advised to increase strength as soon as possible.
Xiao Feng opened his eyes, a cold gleam flashing in them. After five years of waiting, he had finally found a true opponent. He laid a hand over his chest, feeling the surging Dou Qi within him. This time, the Xiao Clan would no longer be relegated to the background—and he would become the player who rewrote history.
"System," he murmured inwardly, "it's time to let the Soul Clan taste what it feels like to be crushed."
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