Chapter 3: The Demon Blade

The scratch-off ticket in Yu Tianjie’s mind suddenly shattered into countless beams of golden light, leaving only a black and red character for “demon,” which remained floating steadily in his consciousness.

In his perception, that demon character didn’t disappear like the golden light but instead merged directly into his body.

As the character fused with him, he experienced an intense pain as if his entire body were being scorched by flames.

No, it wasn’t just his body.

Even his soul felt as if it were being torn apart and then pieced back together fragment by fragment.

Fortunately, having just transmigrated, his body and soul weren’t yet fully aligned. This process, though extremely painful, only caused him to experience a tenth of the possible agony.

Another benefit was that as the demon character integrated into him, his soul and body began to synchronize more closely.

By the time Yu Tianjie no longer felt any pain, his soul and body were completely unified.

Even if a god were to examine him now, they wouldn’t be able to tell that Yu Tianjie was a soul reborn in a borrowed body.

Of course, the benefits didn’t end there.

Feeling lighter, Yu Tianjie stood up from the ground, looked at the dark sky, and couldn’t help but smile wryly.

“How much time has passed…”

By now, Heaven Dou City was fully shrouded at night. Except for a few faint candle lights, the city was silent.

Yu Tianjie didn’t know whether to be thankful or to laugh bitterly, because he was in a remote alleyway, and since his transmigration, he hadn’t had time to find a new place.

The alley was filthy, with a stinking gutter nearby emitting a foul stench. People passing by would cover their noses and hurry away, rarely lingering.

This meant that even if Yu Tianjie  had died here, no one would likely have noticed.

The fortunate part was that no one disturbed him during his fusion with the demon character, allowing him to survive this dangerous period.

The bitter part was the overwhelming stench that made him feel like vomiting.

Even after being here for a long time, his nose still couldn’t adapt to the smell, especially from the gutter. Given that Heaven Dou City was still in a feudal era, and Yu Tianjie wasn’t in the city center, the sewage was managed primitively, making the gutter’s contents obvious.

Yu Tianjie had just been lying on the ground…

Although he hadn’t directly contacted the sewage, his body had picked up some filth. Having spent the last month in hunger and weakness, he hadn’t had a chance to clean himself.

Now, with all his senses restored, he could see clearly even in the dim light of night, and his sense of smell was intensely sharp.

The foul odor invading his nostrils instantly changed his expression.

“Ugh… I have to get out of here…” Unable to bear it any longer, he covered his nose and left Heaven Dou City under the cover of darkness.

Following a location from his memory, Yu Tianjie found a breach in the city wall and slipped out. With the city gates closed for the night and the guards unlikely to open them for a “beggar,” this was his only option.

Fortunately, there were no soul beast forests around Heaven Dou City, so the city walls weren’t heavily guarded. A careful search revealed a breach through which he could escape.

Under the night sky, Yu Tianjie glanced back at Heaven Dou City, pursed his lips, then turned and walked away, leaving the city under the stars.

Heaven Dou City wasn’t suitable for his development now.

After merging with the demon character, Yu Tianjie’s body and innate talents had undergone a tremendous transformation. Even without fully assessing the changes, he knew he now had the potential to excel.

But first, he needed to find a place to clean himself up.

Having been a modern person not long ago, he couldn’t stand the filth on his body.

Several kilometers from Heaven Dou City, Yu Tianjie found a small creek. After ensuring there were no dangers, he immediately jumped in and took a thorough bath.

“Ah, that’s better…”

Next to a fire, Yu Tianjie, bare-chested, exhaled deeply. His dark eyes gleamed in the firelight.

After bathing, he had started the fire using soul power, rubbing sticks together to produce a spark. Soul power made this easy, creating fire in no time.

By the fire, he roasted a few clams he had found in the creek. Starving and without the means for a proper meal, he had to make do with what he could find.

But fate was kind; water is the source of life, and it provided the protein he needed to survive.

By the time he finished all this, dawn was breaking in the east.

“Now, let’s see what changes my body has undergone…” Yu Tianjie smiled slightly and first checked his martial spirit.

When his soul experienced the ripping pain, he had anticipated changes in his martial spirit.

Martial spirits are closely linked to the soul, and modifications to one would affect the other. Yu Tianjie hoped his transformed martial spirit would be powerful enough.

Ideally, it should allow him to surpass the “world’s strongest” Beast Martial Spirit, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon.

He hadn’t forgotten the grudge of being expelled by Yu Luomian.

As strands of soul power circulated within him, his dormant martial spirit began to awaken. Expecting to see the familiar daggers in his palms, Yu Tianjie instead felt a slight weight on his forearms.

Black and red light gathered in the air, eventually merging into his forearms, forming two ancient and imposing armguards.

But it wasn’t over.

After the armguards formed, the black and red light in the air didn’t dissipate but instead began outlining the shadow of a curved blade on each armguard.

“This…?”Yu Tianjie stared wide-eyed at the gradually solidifying blade shadows.

They looked familiar.

As the shadows solidified, the black and red light ceased gathering, fully revealing the curved blades.

They were two dark blue long blades, sharp on both sides, about 1.1 meters long, with mysterious and intricate demonic patterns on the blades.

With a shake of his arms, the blades flipped from his forearms to his hands, their edges glinting ominously, the dark patterns emitting a sinister black and red glow.

A flame-shaped demonic mark also appeared on Yu Tianjie’s forehead.

“Flame Wave Blood Blade?!”

(To be continued)