’Is this the new world?’

The Young Man looked around, a peculiar expression flashing across his face as he curiously sized up this strange world.

The Young Man—or to be more precise, Hu Qi.

After entering this realm, he had quickly selected a target for possession.

As for why he didn’t choose to be reincarnated and start over, from his perspective, that would be far too slow. Besides, becoming a helpless infant would leave him extremely vulnerable. If he encountered any danger, he could easily be killed.

Therefore, to be safe, possessing an adult body was undoubtedly the more prudent choice.

However, he wouldn’t resort to devouring a stranger’s soul and forcibly occupying their body unless absolutely necessary.

So, he settled for the next best thing: choosing someone on the verge of death.

And this Young Man was just that. Even if he hadn’t chosen to jump off the tall building, he wouldn’t have lived much longer.

’Since the other party already wished for death, I might as well grant his wish. In a way, I’m even doing a good deed.’

He was so certain of this because he had discovered that the man’s Power of Fortune was constantly dissipating, almost reaching zero.

The Power of Fortune is something every living creature possesses to some extent.

The only ones without any Power of Fortune were beings like Hu Qi—an Outer Heaven Demon who had crossed worlds to possess a body—and the dead.

’The concentration of Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy in this world seems average, not much different from the Earth Star World...’

Hu Qi frowned slightly, his gaze drifting into the distance.

In the dim curtain of rain, not a single person could be seen on the road. Only rows of gray-white buildings stood there, looking hazy and indistinct.

This world gave him an extremely strange feeling, but for a moment, he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

Suddenly, a gust of cold wind blew past.

His body shivered involuntarily.

He was now soaked by the rain, and the cold wind made Hu Qi feel a chill he hadn’t experienced in a long time.

’This body has a little problem!’

At this point, he had already obtained all of this body’s memories.

The previous owner’s name was Fang Xi, and he was nineteen years old.

Due to an accident, both his parents had died, and he had no close relatives.

With no source of income, he was forced to drop out before even graduating from high school.

In the end, with no other choice, he could only support himself by working odd jobs.

Fortunately, his parents had left him a house, so he could just barely scrape by.

Unfortunately, when it rains, it pours.

He had recently discovered he had a terminal illness and wouldn’t live for even a year, which is what led him to thoughts of suicide.

However, this disease was incurable in this world—a terminal illness. Once contracted, one could only wait for death.

But for Hu Qi, it wasn’t a problem at all. In fact, just a single sliver of True Essence Power could cure it.

But doing so would require using the power of his true self, and if that happened, it would very likely attract the attention of this world’s will. If he were targeted, it could easily lead to an outcome Hu Qi wished to avoid.

Unless absolutely necessary, he wouldn’t choose to expose his true self’s existence before this Spirit Seed was fully cultivated.

Fortunately, besides using the power of his true self, he had other methods.

At this thought, a plan formed in his mind, and he tried calling out a name.

"Crimson!"

SWISH!

The next moment, ripples appeared in the void, and a familiar, semi-transparent red text appeared in his vision.

[Owner: Hu Qi (Fang Xi)]

[Status: Abnormal△ (Body Rigidity)]

[Age: 19]

[Talents: Spirit Devouring, Twisted Light, Primordial Eye]

[Skills: Violin (Proficient)△]

[Modification Points: 12864 (51%)]

The Crimson panel was still there.

Seeing this, a peculiar look flashed in Hu Qi’s eyes.

’After all, I’m not my true self right now, but merely a sliver of essential Split Soul separated via the Spirit Seed Technique. I didn’t expect to have the Crimson modification panel too. It seems this panel has most likely fused completely with my very being. Even a sliver of my essential Split Soul still possesses the Crimson panel.’

Thinking of this, he scanned the relatively clean and tidy panel.

The Skill section had only one entry: the Violin Skill that Fang Xi himself had mastered.

Because of the Spirit Seed Technique, this sliver of his essential Divine Fragment was now equivalent to Fang Xi.

Naturally, all the countless Skills he had before had vanished without a trace.

However, the Skills he had once learned were still firmly etched in the depths of his memory; he had not forgotten them.

It wouldn’t be difficult to make them reappear on the panel; he just needed to practice them again.

What he hadn’t expected, however, was that the three Talents belonging to the Three-Eyed Primordial Serpent were still present in the Talent section.

However, among the three, only the text for the Spirit Devouring Talent was its normal crimson color. The words for Twisted Light and Primordial Eye were incredibly dim.

Seeing this, he sensed his own condition and immediately understood what was happening. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

The Talents, as extensions of the Three-Eyed Primordial Snake Bloodline, had already had their essence fundamentally changed long ago when the Three-Eyed Primordial Serpent was perfected.

Even though he wasn’t his true self now and this body didn’t contain the Three-Eyed Primordial Snake Bloodline, as long as his essence was still his own, he could still use his original Talents.

It was just that, due to this body’s limitations, the latter two Talents were temporarily unusable.

Perhaps, as his strength increased, he could gradually regain mastery of them.

As for Divine Techniques, they were different from Talents.

They were acquired through cultivating the Taiyu Serpent Cosmos Ring Scripture. Since this body was just that of an ordinary person, it naturally didn’t have any.

At this thought, he looked at the Status section.

"Crimson. Modify. Restore body to normal."

HISS!

Modification Points decreased by 5.

The Status section distorted slightly before returning to normal.

At the same time, the feeling of paralysis vanished completely. Even the alcohol in his system was purged.

He glanced at the panel.

[Status: Normal]

Seeing this, he retracted his gaze.

He moved his body a little. After confirming that it was weak but no longer felt rigid, he turned and left the rooftop, heading toward this body’s home.

Behind him, the distant sky grew even darker, as if a blot of black ink was spreading out and swallowing everything.

...

He went down the stairs. Since the original owner lived on the top floor, he only had to go down one flight to reach his floor.

The dim, yellow motion-sensor light in the hallway flickered, barely illuminating the corridor.

The floor was old concrete, covered in a light layer of dust. Every step seemed to produce a faint rustling sound.

Old boxes and other disused junk were piled up on both sides of the corridor.

This was an old residential complex, with two elevators and five apartments per floor. The original owner’s apartment was the one on the far right.

He took the key from his pocket and opened the door.

The apartment had two bedrooms and one living room.

The inside was somewhat messy, with snack bags and liquor bottles scattered all over the floor.

Hu Qi looked away, not paying it much mind.

He turned and went straight into the adjacent bathroom.

’Although this body is normal now, it’s too weak. If I catch a cold, it’ll be another problem. The most important thing right now is to change out of these wet clothes and take a hot shower.’

HSSST—

He turned on the showerhead and waited a few seconds for the cold water to turn hot before stepping under the spray.

He let the hot water wash over his body.

Hu Qi glanced down at his body—or more precisely, at the right side of his chest.

There was a snake-shaped tattoo there, entirely black and gold.

This wasn’t from the original owner; it was from Hu Qi’s true self.

He had simply used Twisted Light to transform his Grotto Heaven into a tattoo and affix it to this body.

As for Hu Qi’s true self, he had entered the Zero Ecological Island within the Grotto Heaven.

Hu Qi could clearly sense the location of his true self.

He wiped the water from his face and pushed his drooping black hair back.

Then, he closed his eyes and began to review the body’s memories.

Fang Xi’s nineteen years of memories weren’t much, especially for someone like Hu Qi.

Although he was now just a wisp of essence, his core nature was still that of the Void Realm, or the Apostle Realm, and that wouldn’t change.

He easily and thoroughly digested Fang Xi’s memories.

He even accessed scenes hidden deep in the recesses of memory that Fang Xi himself no longer remembered.

Things like not making a sound right after birth until a nurse slapped him into crying, or rolling off the bed as a child.