Chương 140: Possession

I read somewhere before that possessing someone feels nice and warm, but whoever wrote that clearly never possessed a person before, because it feels a lot more like you are trying to squeeze yourself into some clothes that are too small for you, while you are trying to solve a complicated puzzle under underwater. The initial contact was the strangest part of it. As I approached the young master's dying body, I felt the resistance pushing against me.

He already gave me consent, so the resistance wasn't coming from him, it felt like reality itself was trying to stop me. It was like I was pushing on this invisible barrier that kept bending around, refusing to break apart. For a second, I worried that this was going to end up as another failed attempt, but then I felt a pop. That is the best way I can describe it. One single second I was trying to enter, the very next second I was inside.

"This is different," I send a thought to Azure as I tried to organize all the chaotic new sensations hitting me. The physical body, which was my body now, felt foreign and somehow familiar to me at the same time. It was kind of like wearing some expensive clothes that were tailored for somebody else. And speaking about the original owner of the body, I could sense the young master's soul in there. It retreated, entering a hibernation-like state. Which was probably for the best, considering the situation we were in.

"Master," Azure's voice cut through my thoughts, "the body's physical condition is critical. The lung wound itself—" And that is when the pain decided to hit me, and it hit me hard. Getting stabbed through the lung with a sword wasn't a tiny paper cut. Every breath I took felt like I was swallowing broken glass, and the amount of warm wetness spreading out across my back meant that I was losing blood at an alarming rate.

"Master, your available healing options are limited..." He was right about that. Without the Woodweaver rune inscribed inside my inner world, I could not use my usual healing techniques. That left me with one option – tapping into the blue sun's energy.

"But without having a concealment rune designed for it..." Azure began.

"Yeah I know, anybody who is even slightly familiar with Life Realm energy would be able to detect it happening. But," I glanced over at the three deadly mercenaries who were still standing there casually watching me slowly bleed out with a cold professional detachment on their faces, "I don't think staying dead is a better option."

"At least in this declining world," Azure added, "it's unlikely that anybody would recognize the energy signature. From everything we overheared, they haven't had a higher Tier Rouqin in several centuries." The arrogant leader of the mercenary group was saying something to me, probably giving more empty threats or mocking me, I wasn't paying him any attention, I was already turning my full attention inward so I could reach out for the blue sun's healing energy.

The second I called for it; I felt that familiar cool sensation wash over me. It felt like drinking freezing cold spring water on a hot day except I was feeling it throughout my entire being. The vessel's green eyes flashed with a brilliant blue light as the healing energy surged its way through the dying body. I could feel the torn flesh knitting itself back together, the damaged blood vessels were sealing themselves up, and even my punctured lung reinflated as the blue sun's energy worked its miracle on me.

The horrific pain transformed instead of going away, it shifted from the sharp stabbing agony of a mortal wound to a deep muscle ache. The three mercenaries' reactions to this were everything I could have hoped they would be. Their smug expressions shifted from cold professional detachment to confusion before landing on outright panicked alarm as they watched their victim's fatal wounds closing right in front of their eyes.

"That is impossible!"

"What in the name of the Celestial Sovereign is going on...?" One of them muttered, taking an involuntary step backward. I could not blame them for being so shocked by it. In a dying world where the ambient energy was so thin that it could barely even manage to sustain basic cultivation, seeing spontaneous healing probably seemed like it was something straight out of an ancient legend. The mercenary leader was made out of much sterner stuff though.

He gestured his hand over to one of his subordinates, the guy who was standing the closest to my current position.

"Don't stand around there gawking at him like idiots! Make sure he stays down this time!" The mercenary gave a sharp nod and stepped forward with his sword raised up high. I could see his lethal intent clearly. He was planning to separate my head off my shoulders.

"Master," Azure's voice held an urgent note of warning in it, "based on their energy signatures, these dangerous men are at what this local world would call the Late Tier 1 stage which is roughly equivalent to the fifth and sixth stages of Qi Condensation. And the one approaching you right now appears to be closer to the fifth stage level." I did a quick little assessment of my opponents.

The guy closest to me was indeed around the fifth stage equivalent, and his other companion seemed like he was slightly stronger than him. But their leader was radiating the kind of energy that I associated with the sixth stage of Qi Condensation. It wasn't overwhelming to feel, but in my current situation...

"We don't have access to runes that aren't inscribed in your inner world," Azure reminded me.

"Which means you don't have Blink Step." He was right about that. What I did have access to was the Aegis Mark for my defense, the Shroud rune to mask the Red Sun's energy, the Soul Ward, which wouldn't be useful at the moment, the Hawk's Eye for enhanced perception, and the Leaf Storm for my main offense. It wasn't my preferred combat loadout, but it was going to have to do.

I waited until the mercenary was within striking distance of me, and then I activated the Shroud rune, masking the Red Sun's energy that I was about to use. Right after that, I triggered the Leaf Storm rune. The bloody result of that was beautiful in this terrible sort of way. Dozens of conjured leaves that were sharp as a razor and propelled by my spiritual energy materialized around me to form a storm. And before the shocked mercenary could process what he was seeing, the sharp leaves shot forward like missiles.

He somehow managed to deflect the first few leaves with his sword, but there were too many of them coming at him from too many different angles at once. Several of the razor leaves sliced through his throat, and he didn't even have enough time left to let out a scream. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

One moment he was advancing forward looking confident, then the next, he was falling to the ground, his eyes were wide with shock as his lifeblood painted the dirty alley walls with messy crimson patterns. I took zero joy in killing, but survival sometimes required making unpleasant choices. At the least these deaths were going to be quick and relatively clean. The two remaining mercenaries reacted with admirable professionalism as they watched their dead comrade fall.

The one Azure had identified as being equivalent to the late fifth stage of Qi Condensation circled over to my left side, and the leader, who was the sixth stage equivalent, moved over to my right. It was a classic flanking maneuver to force me to divide my attention. As I rose to my feet, I sensed something odd going on with this new body's internal energy system. The pathways that carried the rouqi around were similar to the meridians I was used to using, but they weren't quite right.

They felt significantly rougher and less refined, kind of like comparing some child's messy crayon drawing with a true master's careful brushwork.

"That is fascinating to see," Azure commented.

"The energy system appears to be a degraded version of what we are familiar with. It's like looking at a copy of a copy, where every iteration lost some of the original's pure fidelity." There wasn't time to investigate this. I had a battle to end. I gave the sword in my hand a quick experimental twirl and channeled rouqi through the body to enhance my physical movements. The result of that was less than graceful.

The energy moved around sluggishly, and it resisted my attempts to direct it into the smooth patterns I was used to. I nearly dropped the weapon on the ground when an attempted enhancement randomly made my arm jerk around awkwardly.

"Master, you will need some time to adapt to manipulating rouqi." He was right, and it looked like the opportunity for me to practice was standing right there in my face.

"Young Master Han," the leader's arrogant voice now carried a note of respect, even though his blade remained pointed at my heart.

"It seems we underestimated you. I didn't realize the Han family possessed such interesting techniques in their arsenal." I didn't bother trying to respond. Instead, I activated the Hawk's Eye rune, the rune's enhancement sharpened my visual perception to supernatural levels. Time itself seemed to slow down to a crawl as my awareness expanded outwards, which let me track both of my opponents' tiny minute muscle movements so I could predict their attacks before they even launched them.

And then I tried channeling the rouqi again. Except this time around, instead of forcing the energy into channels that I was familiar with using, I let the body's inherent muscle memory guide me. The difference it made was immediate to feel. Rather than trying to fill the crude channels, which felt like trying to pour a gallon of water through a tiny straw, I timed little pulses of energy with physical movement, kind of like a skilled drummer finding the rhythm to some unfamiliar song.

Both mercenaries suddenly came rushing at me at the same time. The arrogant leader's sword came swinging in high while his companion attacked me low, they were trying to catch my body inside a lethal scissors motion that would be impossible for anybody to defend against. Impossible for most, at least. I parried the leader's sword away, and this time around I successfully managed to enhance my arm's physical strength by using a quick little pulse of rouqi.

The timing on it was tricky to do, because if I did it too early the energy dissipated away uselessly, and if I did it too late the enhancement ended up coming after I already needed it. And then at the same time, I activated the Leaf Storm rune again, creating a defensive barrier of spinning razor leaves that forced the companion to abort his low attack or risk suffering death by a thousand cuts.

The sharp leaves pursued him, keeping him trapped on the defensive while I focused my attention on the far more dangerous opponent. Just like before, I used short little bursts of rouqi timed up to specific key moments, like the instant right before blade contact happened, or the push-off needed for a quick dodge, and that split second whenever my muscles needed that an extra bit of raw power. The mercenary leader was good; he was very good.

His fluid bladework flowed around like it was running water, every strike led naturally into his next one, which forced me to constantly have to adapt my newfound rhythm. But the Hawk Eye rune let me see his attacks coming just far enough ahead of time so I could adjust myself, and with every exchange, my overall control over this new body's strange energy system significantly improved.

His companion managed to recover from my initial razor leaf assault and rejoined the fight, which forced me to have to divide my attention again. A strike ended up slipping through my guard, opening up a shallow cut right along my ribs. And then another strike caught my left arm, with the sharp blade biting down deep enough to painfully scrape right against the bone. I retaliated back using a combination of my clumsy swordwork and the Leaf Storm rune. I somehow managed to drive both of them back momentarily.

But without access to the Blink Step rune, maintaining a proper distance from them was difficult. Every exchange left me with cuts and bruises, while they somehow remained frustratingly unscathed by my attacks. It was time for me to change up my battle tactics. The next time they attacked me, I deliberately left an opening in my defense. The weaker mercenary took the bait, he lunged forward with his sharp blade aimed at my unprotected side.

Right at the last possible moment, I twisted my body away, letting his momentum carry him past me. My sword instantly found its way directly into his exposed kidney while a concentrated burst of Leaf Storm simultaneously opened his throat up. But the guy surprisingly wasn't done yet. Even while he was dying, he somehow managed to grab onto my sword arm, holding my body locked in place for one crucial second. And one single second was all his leader needed.

I saw the killing blow coming, but I couldn't move in time to stop it. The sword descended straight toward my exposed neck in what seemed like slow motion, my Hawk's Eye rune allowed me to appreciate every detail surrounding my own impending death. I desperately tried to raise the Aegis Mark up, but I already knew inside that it wouldn't manifest quickly enough to save me. And that is when something unexpected happened.

A green blur shot out from my body and wrapped itself around the leader's sword arm with crushing force. It was Yggy. I had forgotten about my little vine companion because of the chaos. But Yggy hadn't forgotten about me. The vine squeezed down hard, and I heard the distinct sound of human bones breaking. The mercenary leader's sword clattered to the ground while Yggy wrapped itself around his torso and neck like a python.

The leader desperately tried to fight back against it, his eyes were bulging out as he frantically channeled all his rouqi so he could resist the crushing pressure. But Yggy was powered by the red sun energy, it wasn't something that the weak local rouqi could hope to compete with. The struggle between them was brief and decisive. And when it was over, Yggy released its grip, letting the corpse fall to the ground with a loud thud.

The vine happily turned to me, rustling its leaves in a way that told me it was proud of what it had just done.

"Thanks a lot for that, buddy," I patted its head.

"That was excellent timing." Yggy preened under my praise, but I noticed that it kept a tendril wrapped loosely around my wrist, almost exactly like it wanted to make sure that I was okay. The concern was touching to see, even though at this moment I had some bigger problems to deal with. My repeated use of the Leaf Storm rune had nearly depleted my Red Sun energy reserves, and I was currently standing around in some dirty alleyway surrounded by three messy corpses with no idea on what I was supposed to do next.

I didn't have access to this body's memories, and I had no way to ask the young master any questions while his soul was in hibernation. I had this strong feeling that I was going to need that information soon. Like, very soon, especially given the way, the chaotic events had been unfolding around me. And that is when I felt it happening, it was a stirring in the back of my mind. The soul was unfurling like a flower opening itself up with the early dawn. The young master was waking up.

And he was not happy to find himself as a passenger inside his own body. The surge of panic and rage that I felt brush against my soul was impressive.

"You need to calm down," I projected the thought toward his consciousness.

"I'm not here to hurt you. In fact, I just saved your life." The mental equivalent of incoherent sputtering came back at me. I got fragments of thoughts: confusion about being alive, fear about being possessed, worry about his sister and father, and a deep, burning hatred for someone named Zhou.

"Look," I continued gently, "I know this is weird. Trust me, it's weird for me too. But maybe we can help each other out. You clearly have enemies, and I..." I paused, considering how to explain my situation.

"I'm sort of stranded here." The panic began to subside, replaced by cautious curiosity. I could feel questions forming in his mind, though he hadn't quite figured out how to properly communicate them yet, it looked like he needed time to recover.

"Tell you what, just give me a little bit of time so I can figure out how this body-sharing thing works," I offered, "and then we can have a proper conversation. And in the meantime, I promise not to do anything that would harm you or your family. Is that a deal?" There was this long moment of consideration from him, and then I felt this reluctant sense of agreement wash over. It was the soul equivalent of a handshake, I supposed. And then the young master's consciousness quickly retreated inwards.

It shifted into something that felt a lot more like doing a light meditative state instead of going fully back into deep hibernation again.

"Well," I murmured, "this should be interesting." Yggy rustled its leaves in what might have been agreement, while Azure somehow managed to convey the spiritual equivalent of raising an eyebrow.

"Master," he said, "I believe that statement might be the understatement of several lifetimes." Looking down at the three dead mercenaries, then at the blood staining my robes, I had to agree. Somehow, I had a feeling that this world-walking experience was going to be very different from my previous ones.