Castorice

The destructive energy storm triggered by the system crash not only tore apart his soul, but also brutally hurled this half of it, along with three streaks of golden light, into an unknowable spatial turbulence.

When he regained consciousness, he was already in this bizarre, perilous forest.

Worse still, without his original body to sustain him, existing only as a soul, he could clearly feel his own existence fading like a candle guttering in the wind. His soul was becoming thin and transparent, on the verge of vanishing completely from heaven and earth.

Just as his consciousness hovered on the brink of nothingness, one of the three streaks of golden light that had been cast here with him suddenly became incomparably gentle.

The light was no longer blazing and dazzling. Instead, like a babbling stream beneath the moon, it warmly and peacefully enveloped the source of his soul, which was about to collapse.

Then, before his eyes, that golden light slowly gathered and took shape, eventually becoming the outline of a flawless young girl's body.

Silver hair, violet eyes, delicate pointed ears—it was precisely the appearance he now possessed.

And during this process, a faint yet incomparably clear thought, carrying gentle goodwill, reached his fading consciousness:

"Please... use my body."

There was no questioning, no hesitation—only the purest, most selfless offering.

It was also at that moment that Yin Chen understood the true identity of this streak of golden light.

She was Castorice, a character from a game he had played in his previous life—the Demigod of Death.

At the same time, she was one of his 2D waifus.

Only Butterfly, whose nature was so gentle and whose kindness had reached such an extreme, would choose without hesitation to yield her body when she sensed that this half of his soul was on the verge of perishing, offering it in its entirety as his refuge.

Yin Chen's fading consciousness was almost instinctively drawn in and guided, merging into the vessel opened for him like a fledgling returning to its nest.

His soul and new body rapidly fused. The threat of dissipation vanished in an instant, and the grounded sensation of truly existing returned.

Yet he could also clearly sense that, at the very instant he took control of this body, Castorice's consciousness—already weakened from resisting the impact of the system explosion—had completely fallen asleep.

To keep him alive, she had given everything, including herself.

At first, having one soul in two bodies and controlling both of them made Yin Chen suffer terribly.

The body at home was stiff and mechanical. He could only remain motionless in his room, though fortunately Uncle Hui assumed he had shut himself away because of the blow of losing his parents.

Meanwhile, Castorice's body in the forest fell over several times.

The pain from falling could be felt clearly by both his original body and Castorice's body.

Two sets of sight, two sets of hearing, two sets of touch... they nearly turned his thoughts into a hopeless tangle.

However, perhaps because his soul had been forcibly split in two, some kind of compensatory mechanism had been activated.

Or perhaps surviving an impact on the level of the system explosion had already made his soul's resilience far surpass common sense.

After the initial chaos, sensory confusion, and intense mental discomfort, Yin Chen was surprised to discover that he seemed to be... adapting rapidly.

Just as the brain could naturally process the slightly different images seen by both eyes and combine them into clear stereoscopic vision, his divided yet same-origin core consciousness instinctively began learning how to process these two parallel streams of sensory information.

He tried to construct an invisible barrier within his mind.

At first, the barrier was fragile and riddled with holes, and information from both sides still seeped into each other uncontrollably.

But gradually, as he focused his thoughts, the barrier became stable.

He could choose to block out the senses of the other body at will, gradually adapting to manipulating two different bodies and perfectly multitasking.

Once he had adapted to the impact of dual senses, another, more private and embarrassing issue came to the forefront—the discomfort of this suddenly acquired female body.

When he lowered his head, he saw a flat chest, slender arms, and soft fingertips belonging to a girl.

When he walked, he could feel the emptiness between his legs, a physiological structure utterly different from before.

When the forest breeze brushed across his neck and arms, the sensation against his skin seemed to become sharper and... stranger.

Every piece of information reminded him that he was now a girl.

Yin Chen held her breath and pressed her petite body tightly against the back of an ancient tree covered in moss and reeking of decay, her heartbeat nearly stopping.

She could clearly feel it: not far away, a violent, scorching presence was moving slowly. Every step made the ground tremble slightly, while dead branches and fallen leaves cracked under unbearable strain.

It was at least a thousand-year Soul Beast. Its exact species was unknown, but it was absolutely not something she, unarmed as she was, could contend with.

"On the left. Behind that tree. Go around it."

A cold, indifferent female voice carrying a strange majesty rang directly in the depths of her mind, without the slightest emotional fluctuation.

Without any hesitation, Yin Chen moved as nimbly as a cat, following the instruction. Using the twisted trees and dense, bizarre vegetation as cover, she silently changed course and gradually widened the distance from that terrifying presence.

Only after the suffocating pressure had completely vanished from her range of perception did she dare let out a slight breath, sliding down against a cold boulder.

"Thanks, Ronova."

She murmured inwardly.

From the area of her mind belonging to the other resident came only the faintest, almost imperceptible ripple, serving as a response.

This was her greatest reliance for surviving at the edge of this perilous forest until now.

It was not the original owner of this body, Castorice's, authority over death—which required contact to take effect and was somewhat useless against powerful Soul Beasts—but the demon god who had descended alongside her soul and had now become her Martial Soul: Ronova, the Archon of Death, who wielded the authority of death.

Yes. Corresponding to Istaroth, the Archon of Time awakened by Yin Chen's original body, the Martial Soul born when this half of his soul merged with Castorice's body and completed its Innate Martial Soul Awakening was precisely this Archon of Death, who symbolized ultimate tranquility and the end of all things.

Ronova was also one of the three streaks of golden light. As for the last one, just like on the original body's side, there was no trace of it at all.

Of the five golden legends, three were Castorice, Ronova, and Istaroth. The other two were hidden within Yin Chen and Castorice's bodies respectively.

Ronova's form of existence was exceptionally unusual.

She was neither fully asleep nor fully awake.

She herself seemed unable to directly interfere with reality or wield her great power to fend off enemies for Yin Chen—at least, not for now.