The Exiled One

The Cloud Soaring Continent revered martial prowess. The strong could split mountains and shatter stones with ease; those with great divine abilities could even tread upon empty air, overturn rivers and seas, capable of anything!

This was a world that worshipped strength. Strength decided everything, and the weak were left at the mercy of others!

What determined the height of one's strength was the Bloodline Power within one's body—the Blood Soul Power all martial artists called the second soul!

Every person's Blood Soul was different, but without question, the higher one's Blood Soul, the greater one's future achievements, and the more likely one was to become a powerhouse or even a being of great divine abilities!

Jiangnan Circuit, Wuzhou City.

Li Ye scratched his head and gazed at the same sky, yet everything had changed beyond recognition.

The sky was so blue. It bore none of the gloomy grayness he remembered, none of that suffocating oppression as though it had been shrouded in dense fog day and night.

"Well, looks like I transmigrated."

A bitter smile appeared on his face, yet he also seemed to be celebrating. It was thoroughly strange. His expression changed as swiftly as a mask, and perhaps even he himself did not know what he was feeling.

Transmigration—what an elevated and fashionable term. Li Ye had never expected to experience something that existed only in novels and films.

Yes, Li Ye had transmigrated, arriving in a completely unfamiliar yet strangely familiar world.

He secretly counted himself fortunate. He had not died, though he had transmigrated.

Li Ye had been an orphan. After graduating from university, he had faced an era where success depended on one's father. Several years had passed, yet he had achieved nothing. Borrowing courage from alcohol, he had been walking home one night when he encountered an incomparably beautiful woman. He had gone up to flirt with her, only to see, in terror, the two sharp fangs beneath her vivid crimson lips.

"I never thought the Vampires from movies actually existed."

He touched his neck. Naturally, the marks from that bite could not possibly still be there now. He had transmigrated into the body of a youth with the same name and surname as himself.

Into the body of a sixteen-year-old youth also named Li Ye, from Wuzhou City in Jiangnan Circuit.

By merging with the memories in this new body's mind, Li Ye had gained a rough understanding of the situation.

This world was called the Cloud Soaring Continent. No one knew how vast it was or how many nations it contained. They only knew that its people revered the Martial Dao and devoted themselves to cultivation. The folk customs here were far more fierce and unyielding than those of the Earth Li Ye knew.

The simplest comparison was that this place resembled the worlds from the wuxia novels he had once read. Yet the experts here became even more terrifying upon reaching a certain level. Leaping over eaves and walking on walls were abilities even novice martial artists possessed, while some powerhouses could punch away an entire mountain peak!

Even the legendary shattering of the void and roaming beyond the heavens truly existed.

However, the martial cultivators of this world primarily cultivated Blood Soul Power. This so-called Blood Soul Power originated from the blood within the human body. At its pinnacle, even the color of one's blood would change. There was a legend that when one's blood turned brilliant gold, one was almost equivalent to a god.

Of course, that was only a legend. No one had proven it, nor had anyone cultivated to that realm.

Just as Li Ye wanted to continue investigating this Blood Soul, a gentle voice came from outside the door. When he looked up, he saw someone push the door open and enter. A beautiful woman who looked to be in her twenties or thirties, though her precise age was impossible to discern, looked over at him with a faintly reproachful gaze.

"Aunt Yun."

At the sight of her, Li Ye was briefly dazed. The woman before him was far more beautiful than the so-called movie stars and internet goddesses of his previous life. Unlike those actresses and goddesses with their excessive makeup and beautified photos, she wore no powder or paint, yet was clear and refined, naturally beautiful, like a fairy who had stepped from a dream.

Yet in the next instant, he lightly bit the tip of his tongue and forced himself awake. With the memories in his mind, he clearly knew that this incomparably beautiful woman was not someone he could fantasize about. She was the aunt of his current identity, essentially a foster mother.

"You child! You haven't even recovered yet. Why did you get out of bed?"

Seeing Li Ye sitting by the bed, the beautiful woman shot him a reproachful glare. She then turned to close the door before walking to the bedside. Without the slightest concern for propriety between men and women, she sat down and gently stroked Li Ye's head with a loving gaze.

"Ye'er, your father isn't here, and Aunt Yun hasn't taken good enough care of you. You mustn't act on impulse as you did last time, understand? Otherwise, Aunt Yun will truly get angry next time!"

Li Ye rubbed his nose and gave a bitter smile. "I understand, Aunt Yun. I'll definitely be more careful next time."

Lowering his head, Li Ye's gaze involuntarily swept over the beautiful woman's lush, curvaceous figure. The heat in his heart made it difficult for him to restrain himself, but he ultimately suppressed it.

Perhaps because their souls had merged, he felt a trace of dependence and an affection similar to familial love toward this beautiful woman who had cared for him for many years. Thus, he did not dare continue desecrating her in his thoughts.

Seeing Li Ye lower his head in silence, the beautiful woman seemed to think of something. Traces of a bitter smile appeared on her lovely face.

"Ye'er, Aunt Yun knows you're unwilling to accept this and that you've wanted to go back all these years. But you know your own body. Don't go again. It will only leave you more and more injured."

After saying this, she spoke with a trace of resentment, "That man is truly outrageous! He threw you here alone and has not sent a single word all these years! He is simply unworthy of being a father!"

Li Ye only needed a moment's thought to know whom she meant.

Li Kainian, the nominal father of his current identity. He was also a direct descendant of the Li Family, one of the Three Great Families of Wuzhou City in Jiangnan Circuit. By rank, Li Ye was even the current third young master of the Li Family!

And his father, Li Kainian, was the head of the Li Family!

Logically speaking, Li Ye should have been an unquestionable young lord of Wuzhou City, a local tyrant. Yet he knew he was not. Though he had only just transmigrated, he knew that if he had not come here, the so-called third young master of the Li Family would have long since croaked and kicked the bucket!

Though one could also say he was already dead, because the person in this body now was someone else.

At this moment, the room he was in showed none of the extravagance expected of a great family. Instead, it was so plain that it seemed shabby.

"Aunt Yun, I know what I should do."

In his memories, this so-called third young master of the Li Family had enjoyed none of a young master's splendor. Instead, he had lived in utter destitution. Why was that? It all began with his father.

The Li Family was one of Wuzhou City's Three Great Families and had a history of nearly a thousand years. Legend said that the ancestor who founded the Li Family had once been a supreme powerhouse of the Cloud Soaring Continent. What level he had reached could no longer be determined, but he had at least been Heaven Rank.

As for Li Kainian, he had been the most terrifyingly talented member of the Li Family in the past century. Unfortunately, he had mysteriously vanished, leaving behind an orphan whose mother's origins were unknown within the family.

That orphan was the current Li Ye, the nominal third young master of the Li Family.

If that were all, it would have been nothing. Such a vast family could easily afford to care for one person. Moreover, out of regard for Li Kainian, the family head, no one would have made things difficult for him.

But the problem was that Li Ye had been frail and sickly since childhood. Until he was thirteen, he had failed to awaken the bloodline within him and manifest a Blood Soul. He was judged incapable of cultivating for the rest of his life, fit only to be an ordinary person.

At thirteen, Li Ye was driven out of the family. If not for Aunt Yun taking him in and caring for him, he would have long starved to death on the streets!

As a great family of Wuzhou City with a thousand-year inheritance, the Li Family had so many clan members that no one could count them anymore. At some unknown point, it had begun driving out those without cultivation talent or with poor talent, thereby ensuring the family's continued development.

The people of the Cloud Soaring Continent placed enormous importance on inheriting bloodlines. With a good bloodline left behind by one's ancestors, later generations could awaken their Blood Souls earlier and begin cultivating. The strength of one's talent was also directly tied to the power of one's bloodline and the quality of one's Blood Soul.

A useless waste like Li Ye, incapable of cultivation, would not be kept by any family, even if he were the family head's son!

Naturally, Li Ye had not given up after being driven from the family. The people of the Cloud Soaring Continent took pride in cultivating the Martial Dao, and the supremacy of strength was common knowledge in this world. Unfortunately, after three years, he had never succeeded in manifesting a Blood Soul within his body. Whenever he tried to return to the family, the other clan members would mock him and even freely humiliate and beat him.

This time had been the same. But already frail and sickly, he had then suffered a brutal beating and died on the spot, indirectly allowing Li Ye's transmigration and possession to succeed.

"Ye'er, Aunt Yun understands you. You're the sort who won't turn back even after smashing into a city wall. Aunt Yun only hopes that you can stay safe and sound; I ask for nothing else. Even if the Li Family doesn't want you, Aunt Yun will not abandon you."

It was clear that although the beautiful woman was not his birth mother, she loved and cared for him even more than an ordinary mother would.

But would Li Ye willingly remain an ordinary person? In his previous life, that damned father-dependent society had left him without a single accomplishment. Now that he had transmigrated, was he still going to achieve nothing?

"Aunt Yun, I understand."

After speaking a little more, the beautiful woman left, telling Li Ye to rest and recover peacefully.

But the moment she left, Li Ye sprang from the bed, lively as a dragon and vigorous as a tiger.

"Based on the experience of all those movies, novels, and games, if someone gets bitten by a Vampire and doesn't die, they become a Vampire, right? I wonder whether this body of mine has changed!"

Li Ye was deeply concerned. If this body truly was nothing but useless trash, then he would be utterly screwed.

He touched his neck, but there were no fang marks. Yet just as disappointment rose within him, an indescribable fluctuation emerged from inside his body. A wave of scorching heat, accompanied by intense thirst and dryness, surged forth in an instant.

By chance, Li Ye's gaze swept toward the mirror in the room. What he saw was a face with blood-red eyes and two sharp fangs protruding from its mouth.

There could be no doubt about it. Even after transmigrating, Li Ye had still been affected. He was no longer an ordinary person—he was now a Vampire!