Climbing out of the Grave

After who knew how long, Han Shuo opened his sore eyes. His whole body hurt like hell, and his head hurt even worse, as though he had a severe migraine. His mind also seemed stuffed with all sorts of jumbled things.

He looked around. Everything was dim, and piles of stark white bones lay scattered in disarray. Farther away were some strange, dark masses, giving off a stench so strong that a single whiff made him want to vomit.

"Ah, I really am dead. This must be the underworld!"

Han Shuo's heart turned to ashes. What rotten luck, dying so young. My last life was a waste. I'd better hurry up and reincarnate, and try not to live the same way next time.

As Han Shuo was thinking this, a sudden, terrible pain struck his head. He clutched it and cried out for a while, then felt as though he had learned many things.

"Brian... Brian... Who is Brian?"

Half an hour later...

Han Shuo was dumbfounded. How could something as bizarre as returning to life in someone else's corpse, like on TV, happen to me? And I've actually come back in a foreigner's body. Did that old lunatic Chu Canglan mess up his Demon-Seeding Technique?

By now, Han Shuo's eyes had gradually adjusted to the darkness. He moved his hands and feet, then brought his right arm up before his eyes. The black mole on his wrist was gone. In its place were hideous, frightening scars, like earthworms winding and writhing across his arm. One look sent a chill through him.

This body was not his. Han Shuo stared blankly, then realized he really had returned to life in someone else's corpse...

Although Brian was dead, Han Shuo somehow knew his past. Then Han Shuo realized that not only had he returned to life in another body, he had not done so in America, Britain, or any other Western country.

An unfamiliar world called the Qio Continent, an unfamiliar country called the Lancelot Empire-this was a strange continent of swords and magic, where other races roamed unchecked.

Brian's parents had died early. Once they were dead, his uncles sold him to a slave trader when he was only ten. The slave trader then sold Brian to the Babylon Academy of Magic and Martial Arts-from then on, Brian's life was shrouded in darkness.

Brian had been sixteen when he died. At the Babylon Academy of Magic and Martial Arts, he had always been assigned to the weakest department, the Necromancy Department-as a menial servant.

For the past six years, his job had been to help the Necromancy Department's students carry the skeleton bones, zombies, and other waste from failed necromancy experiments to this graveyard. Aside from this main task, he was also responsible for serving tea and water, sweeping, exterminating pests, and all sorts of miscellaneous chores.

There was also this-the Necromancy Department's students would use him to test the combat capabilities of skeletons or ghouls, or try out necromancy spells on his body.

Weak and timid, Brian had lived a life worse than death for those six years, his entire body covered in scars. He ate bread that was hard to swallow and did work that never ended. Whenever the Necromancy Department's students lost a magic contest against another department, they would find Brian to practice on.

A sixteen-year-old boy, six years of torment-how cruel a way was that to treat a child?

Many times, Brian had wanted to end his life, but he was so cowardly that he lacked even the courage to kill himself. Just like that, he had silently endured six years of suffering.

Finally, the day before yesterday, a "Wraith" summoned by Lisa, the Necromancy Department's little witch, had invaded his soul-and he died. As he was dying, Brian had felt not a trace of pain, only a sorrowful joy at being released.

After six years of carrying corpses and shattered skeleton bones, Brian had finally been treated as waste himself, thrown by another servant into this grave where he had so often dumped discarded material.

Han Shuo had thought his own life was bleak enough, but compared with Brian's, he suddenly felt his nose sting. For the first time, he thought he had lived a very happy life all these years.

Having learned Brian's past, Han Shuo felt his nose sting and sighed softly, his voice a little choked. "How could there be a boy as foolish and cowardly as you in this world? Brian, I've taken your body. What should I do for you?"

Han Shuo suddenly sensed threads of something liquid-like within his body. At that moment, his head hurt, and fragments of memory abruptly appeared. That thin stream of liquid slowly traveled around his body, while Han Shuo grew somewhat dazed, his mind passively absorbing many things-from that inexplicable old lunatic, Chu Canglan.

Demonic cultivation had nine realms: solid body, meridian expansion, soul molding, true demon, bloodlust, demon division, unrestrained desire, nine transformations, and heavenly demon. Demonic cultivators delighted in killing and followed their desires. They could do whatever they pleased, disregarding all morality and law in pursuit of absolute strength.

Once one became a demon, one could possess peerless supernatural powers that reached through heaven and earth, moved mountains, and overturned seas.

After sitting for an unknown length of time, Han Shuo had learned many things he could never have imagined before. He was also certain that something must have gone wrong with Chu Canglan's final Demon-Seeding Technique. Chu Canglan's own soul was gone, but he had left Han Shuo all his memories of cultivating that Demonic Cultivation Art.

The thin stream flowing inside him should be demonic essence, the most basic and important thing for a demonic cultivator-the foundation of all cultivation of the Demonic Cultivation Art. According to the memories he had received from Chu Canglan, a demonic cultivator needed at least three to five years to condense demonic essence. Yet Han Shuo had known nothing beforehand and had done nothing, but there truly was a thread of demonic essence inside him-pitifully weak though it was, Han Shuo knew it was indeed demonic essence.

That old lunatic Chu Canglan planned to make me die in his place, but who would have thought he'd end up sending me to such an unfamiliar time and space? Han Shuo thought. The jumble of demonic cultivation methods in my head must have been left by Chu Canglan before he died.

Although Han Shuo knew a little about this unfamiliar world through poor Brian, Brian had only been a cowardly servant at the Babylon Academy of Magic and Martial Arts, and his knowledge was very limited. For the sake of his life from here on, Han Shuo began silently turning all sorts of thoughts over in his mind.

Brian was dead, and Han Shuo had taken his body. Han Shuo was now Brian, and Brian had been sold to the Martial Arts Academy—this was a permanent brand upon his identity. In this unfamiliar world, the punishment for runaway servants was horrifyingly cruel, so Han Shuo could not run away, nor would he necessarily be able to. Besides, Han Shuo had no money—not even a single copper coin.

After carefully weighing things for a long time, Han Shuo finally decided to return to the Babylon Academy of Magic and Martial Arts-only there could he change his status as a servant, and he could also do something for poor Brian, who was already dead.

Han Shuo's whole body hurt like hell (Brian had still had many old injuries before his death). Just as he tried to stand, he felt aching pain all over. Unable to bear it, he cried, "Ow!" and dropped back onto his backside.

Han Shuo had no fondness whatsoever for Chu Canglan, who had forcibly abducted him, and the world Chu Canglan lived in was equally unfamiliar to him. But from the memories Chu Canglan had left, Han Shuo knew that practicing the Demonic Cultivation Art could strengthen the body right from the start. At its later stages, one could fly through the skies, burrow through the earth, move mountains, overturn seas-there was nothing one could not do.

Although Han Shuo thought Chu Canglan was somewhat deranged, the mere fact that he had been able to take Han Shuo straight to the moon made Han Shuo somewhat inclined to believe the Demonic Cultivation Art's descriptions of flying through the skies and burrowing through the earth.

Han Shuo had a faint thread of demonic essence within him. Thinking he might as well try, and hoping to improve his chances of survival, he recalled the abstruse formulas of demonic cultivation. Following the instructions for the first realm, "Solid body," he began concentrating his mental energy with all his might, trying to control that faint thread of demonic essence.

Han Shuo focused, beginning to control the faint thread of demonic essence according to the solid body formula. He discovered that it really was just as Chu Canglan had said-the demonic essence went wherever he directed it with his thoughts.

Delighted, Han Shuo thought, Chu Canglan might have seemed a little deranged, but I didn't expect this demonic cultivation method he left behind to actually be useful. With that thought, he held his breath and concentrated again, beginning to circulate the faint thread of demonic essence within his body as the solid body formula instructed.

Only when his stomach growled did Han Shuo emerge from cultivation. He had no idea how long he had practiced, but the pain in his body had lessened considerably, and he had regained a little strength. Just a short period of cultivation had produced such results. Who knew how long that old lunatic Chu Canglan had cultivated? No wonder he had even dared to go to the moon. Han Shuo could imagine just how powerful he had been before his death.

Once he stopped cultivating, Han Shuo noticed something strange-the thread of demonic essence no longer circulated in the regular pattern described in the solid body formula. Instead, it wandered through his flesh and bones, his hands, feet, and head, and every part of his body.

The first realm, solid body, tempered the body, strengthening the muscles, skin, and bones. In this realm, besides slowly tempering themselves with demonic essence, some freakishly powerful cultivators obsessed with demonic cultivation would use various methods to strike their bodies continually, repeatedly damaging and injuring their flesh before tempering it with demonic essence. Working from both inside and outside made cultivation faster.

"This demonic cultivation method is practically self-abuse! But Brian was going through this sort of thing all along. Maybe once I return to the Martial Arts Academy, I'll be able to cultivate solid body even faster. Looks like being Brian isn't entirely without benefits!"

Reflecting on this, Han Shuo decided to leave this place first. At the thought, he suddenly felt that staying in this grave all this time had been truly stupid. He could no longer stand the foul stench around him.

The faint, dim light came from overhead. From Brian's memories, Han Shuo knew there was a large opening above, used for dumping broken bones and discarded skeletons. Standing up, he felt sore all over, his body covered in scars. Six years of torment had long since left Brian's body terribly weak. With the poor-quality food he ate, he was naturally nothing but skin and bones, and stood only a little over 1.6 meters tall.

Stepping on moss, Han Shuo dragged his frail body upward, climbing with all his strength. After climbing for a while and falling five or six times, he finally crawled out of the grave. Seeing the full moon illuminating the earth, its silver light spilling over the graveyard, Han Shuo felt joy at being alive again well up from the bottom of his heart.

Feeling the demonic essence still wandering through his body, Han Shuo comforted himself with the thought that surviving this great calamity would surely bring blessings later. This time, he also had something to rely on-the secret methods of cultivating the Demonic Cultivation Art that Chu Canglan had left him might help him fulfill extravagant hopes he had never dared imagine before.

But Han Shuo did not know that the thread of demonic essence Chu Canglan had left inside him did more than help him cultivate solid body-it was also a seed. As this seed changed his body, it was also changing many of his thoughts. In the past, his mind had been full of wicked thoughts he had never dared act on, but this evil seed would make it so that, even if he wanted to control himself, he might not be able to.