Chapter 1

I wake up in a classroom.

My first thought is something along the lines of 'oh goddammit, not again.'

During my final semester, I lost count of the number of times I'd fallen asleep in class at somewhere around twenty-five or thirty, and by the end it could've easily been as high as fifty. It was a regular occurrence back when I was still slogging through my senior year of high school. I'll admit that I wasn't the best at maintaining a good sleep schedule.

So in that sense, this is nothing out of the ordinary.

But wait a sec. Hasn't it already been a few years since I got my fancy piece of paper and was dropped headfirst into the 'real' world? Yeah, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it has been. I haven't seen the inside of a school building even once since then.

That raises a pretty good question.

Where the hell am I?

I blink blearily as I stare down at my crossed arms resting atop a varnished wooden desk. It's a nice desk. The wood is a pleasantly dark shade that reminds me of chocolate and the grains are uniformly even. It might be made of mahogany. The public schools I attended would've never had something like this – their desks were covered in expletives and dicks.

Also, my arms are twig-thin. Much, much thinner than I think they're supposed to be. Haven't I been trying to bulk up lately? Where'd all that progress go?

I look up and immediately raise a hand to shield my eyes from the sun glaring at me through a bank of high windows. When the blindness passes, I notice the classroom is laid out like an auditorium with the speaker down at the center and the audience arranged in elevated rows around them. I, of course, am among the audience.

There's one person in the center of the auditorium, a vaguely Asiatic middle-aged man with brown hair, a pencil mustache, and unnervingly long earlobes. It sounds like he's in the middle of giving a lecture about… uh… the five levels of demon spiritualists… or something?

Okay. That's a new one.

To top it off, this guy is dressed in an exceptionally ostentatious beige robe with billowy sleeves and a high collar, something I'd associate with Halloween or a nerdy renaissance fair more than a classroom. I've never seen anything like it in real life apart from the occasional customer who's entering or exiting a karate studio near my apartment, and their outfits were much more simplistic.

Huh. I know schoolteachers can be eccentric and like to dress up for funzies sometimes – they did at my school, anyways – but this guy's taking it to a whole new level. Good on him.

My gaze widens as I examine the other students around me. They don't look much older than thirteen or fourteen, which instantly stands out to me as odd since I'm no longer a teenager. Also, most of them are dressed similarly to the eccentric lecturer with robes and jackets of various colors and styles.

Definitely not normal.

I glance down again and find that I'm wearing one of those glorified bathrobes too. I'll admit it's comfortable and the material is soft, but it's also a bit breezier than what I'm used to. I never wore anything like this in my entire life.

I shrug and lay my head back on top of my arms. This is obviously a dream, so what's the point of freaking out over nothing? My dreams are always bizarre. This is just another one to add to the list.

But I can't shake the feeling that this one's weirder than usual. Maybe the abrasive sensation of the wooden desk against my forearms is just a little too real, or maybe it's the heady scent of incense wafting from somewhere nearby. It could be the sheer amount of detail in everything – the windows, the auditorium, even down to the embroidery on the cuffs of my sleeves. My brain doesn't normally go through this much effort to flesh out a meaningless dream.

A black core of unease starts to take form somewhere deep down. What's the deal? I ask my brain. I feel like all these neurons could be used for something more useful.

"Psst! Psssst!" Someone nudges my shoulder with more force than strictly necessary, rocking my body back and forth. "Hu Xian!" the person stage-whispers. "You shouldn't fall asleep in class again! You might get expelled this time!"

I tilt my head just enough to glare at this irritating person from the corner of my eye. As I register the details of his chubby face and guileless brown eyes, a name that I've never heard before suddenly pops into my head. This is Huang Gongwang, a fellow thirteen-year-old student at the Holy Orchid Institute. He's grossly overweight, loves to eat apricots for a reason I've never been able to fathom, and his soul-sea is unfortunately red.

But… who is this kid and how do I know him? I can tell you right now I've never met someone named Huang Gongwang. Where I come from, that would be a very memorable name.

And yet somehow, at the same time I have already met him.

I frown and scrunch my brow, deep in thought. Then I bury my face against my arms again, not bothering to give a response.

"Hu Xian!" the pest whispers.

I ignore him in favor of focusing on my breathing, my heartbeat, and the thoughts whirling through my head at the speed of light. My memories are foggy for some reason, like there are things I should be able to recall but can't because they're actively hiding from me. I know who I am – a generic young twenties dude from the United States – but at the same time, I'm somehow also this random kid named Hu Xian from Glory City.

I remember meeting Gongwang for the very first time when some older boys were beating the ever-loving shit out of him for some inane reason. I remember eating rice porridge for breakfast this morning even though my other self usually didn't eat breakfast. I remember leaving my family several months ago, poor farmers desperately searching for a leg up in the world, with the mission of giving them a chance at a better life through my efforts to form politically-beneficial relationships with noble students in the Holy Orchid Institute.

…Only for those hopes and dreams to be smashed by the cold hard logic of reality. Seventy percent of the student body here are commoners like Hu Xian, but they're much less talented on average than the remaining thirty percent – the highborn brats. He was outclassed by his peers from the very beginning and soon realized he was little more than a fly on the wall waiting patiently to be squashed.

After I've spent a good fifteen minutes trying to process this sudden influx of knowledge-that-isn't-mine, I take a short breather and quickly realize something. There's something different about me now. It wasn't noticeable at first, but now that I've had a while to get myself situated, it's becoming much more conspicuous than before.

It's like… my heartbeat is doing something distinctly abnormal. I don't know how to explain it in a way that would make sense to somebody who isn't also experiencing it. Maybe I'm too stressed out and about to die from an impending stroke.

My chest feels hot, but the rest of me doesn't. The sensation is radiating outwards from a central point of extreme heat that feels simultaneously tiny and enormous, like it's ebbing and flowing constantly. I'm reminded of waves lapping against a shoreline, in and out, over and over again. It isn't explicitly bad or painful. Just intensely unusual.

"Hu Xian, instructor Lu Ye might notice!" Gongwang tries again.

"Shut up, nerd," I mutter into my sleeve.

To his credit, he does.

I turn inwards for the next hour or so, mentally poking at the whatever-it-is burning inside my chest in an effort to make it do something. Time flies by quickly.

It's strange. Eventually I reach a point where I can clearly visualize this thing as a glowing orange sphere of water and manipulated it at will, rotating it and zooming in and out, but otherwise I can't make heads or tails of it. Nothing else seems to happen.

At one point the instructor asks something to the class as a whole. I only take note of it because the girl who answers him is sitting directly behind me and does so with excessive volume.

"Demon spirits are ranked just like us demon spiritualists, but they can't improve like we can. Once you outgrow your demon spirit, you need to find a new one that's more powerful! My family, the Sacred Family, is holding onto a Scarlet Flaming Fox demon spirit just for me, and once I reach bronze rank it'll become mine! It's a gold rank so I won't need to worry about getting something new until I reach 1 star black-gold, and that won't take me long!"

Huang Gongwang and a handful of other boys laugh loudly while throwing in ass-kissing comments like 'Lady Shen is so awesome!' and 'That's our Shen Xiu!' It's so obvious that they're faking it, but nobody bats an eye at their cringeworthy behavior.

"Thank you for that wonderfully insightful answer, Shen Xiu," the instructor smiles. "The Sacred Family is truly impressive, being able to secure such valuable resources for an aspiring demon spiritualist. You can sit down now."

The girl retakes her seat with a self-satisfied giggle. I don't bother turning to look at her. I'm already much more familiar with her appearance than I'd like to be due to Hu Xian's forcibly implanted memories.

Speaking of which, I think I can feel a headache coming on.

Oh yeah. Here we go.

I spend the rest of class trying not to focus on the tender pain building behind my forehead. Whatever happened with the inexplicable manifestation of these new memories must finally be catching up to me. The glaring sunlight from the windows isn't helping any.

I keep myself preoccupied by examining the ghostly orange sphere some more, but I don't accomplish much. I could really go for some tylenol right now.

After the class blessedly concludes and our instructor bids us farewell, the girl named Shen Xiu rises with all the arrogant regality of a lifelong princess and marches proudly out the door. Huang Gongwang scrambles to follow her along with the rest of the boys sitting nearby – her posse of would-be courtiers.

When he notices I haven't moved yet, Gongwang whirls around and starts wringing his hands. "Hu Xian, it's time to go! Didn't you notice? You can't afford to make Lady Shen angry and neither can I!"

I tear myself away from the mental image of the translucent sphere inside me and push to my feet with a weary huff. "Yeah, I'm coming. I'm coming. Just give me a minute."

As I drag myself away from my chair and start heading for the door, I catch sight of a kid slipping outside ahead of us. He doesn't look much different from any of the other students if you ignore his impressive musculature for a kid his age, but there's something about his spiky black hair that catches my eye. He's familiar for some reason.

Then as his gaze locks onto my own for a split second before he vanishes from sight, it clicks. This is Ye Han, the adoptive son of the City Lord who's coincidentally the same age as this body's original owner. Another one of Hu Xian's classmates.

Hu Xian never knew him as anything other than the genius son of Ye Zong. He represents an opportunity to gain a powerful ally and lift the Hu family out of obscurity, but he's also someone whose friendship is and will always be unattainable. Hu Xian is too much of a talentless nobody to ever become acquainted with Ye Han in a meaningful way.

But I know there's much more to the City Lord's son than that. And I suppose the same could be said for Shen Xiu too.

These two kids are going to grow up to become some of the most problematic individuals in all of Glory City, with their actions leading directly to multiple destructive attacks from enemies beyond the city's walls and ultimately to the death of Ye Zong.

Hmm. What an weird situation to find myself in.

-x-

Yeah… this is Glory City without a doubt. I'm about ninety-nine percent sure.

I step out from the shadow of the school's front gate, quietly gasp, and do everything in my power to keep my jaw from dropping to the ground as I take in the sights and sounds of the sprawling metropolis around me. This city's most noteworthy feature is probably the architectural style. It's undoubtedly East Asian inspired, with four-sided tiled roofs that taper into high pinnacles and multistory towers with translucent wax-paper windows dominating the skyline. Lanterns are hanging from every street corner and the edges of the roads are packed with merchant stalls. Carts trundle down the thoroughfares alongside people on foot or the occasional horse-mounted rider. Cherry blossoms are blooming in roadside gardens everywhere you look.

With the professor's lecture on demon spirits, Shen Xiu's bragging about the Sacred Family, the presence of Ye Han, and now this… okay. I'm throwing in the towel, brain. You win. You've convinced me that I somehow ended up in Glory City, the main setting of Tales of Demons and Gods, trapped in the body of some scrawny kid who's attending the Holy Orchid Institute. So can I wake up now please?

I wait a few seconds but don't receive an answer.

Then I wait a few more.

Still no answer.

"Hu Xian, hurry it up!" Gongwang's whimpering breaks me out of my stupor.

"Where are we going?" I grumble.

"I don't know, wherever Lady Shen tells us! Come on, we have to go!"

I wince and start shuffling after him. This kid's high-pitched voice is already starting to grate on my nerves. I don't know how Hu Xian put up with it for these past few months.

We navigate through streets and narrow alleyways overflowing with pedestrians from all walks of life. Laborers in dirty egg-white tunics, tradesmen with finer clothing, and armored warriors brush shoulders with each other at every turn. At one point we're forced to step aside as a palanquin taking up three-quarters of the street ambles past us upon the shoulders of eight burly servants. I only catch a fleeting glimpse of the person inside through a gap between fluttering silk curtains, but it's enough to make me stop and stare along with everyone else. The occupant is a beautiful woman with porcelain skin and coal-black hair tied into an elaborate bun. Her age is unguessable. She's a powerful spiritualist, or so Hu Xian's knowledge informs me – someone who isn't to be trifled with or offended under any circumstances since she could turn me into a puddle of goop with sickening ease.

Well that isn't terrifying at all.

Huang Gongwang tugs insistently on my sleeve until I tear my eyes away and keep walking. Apparently Shen Xiu doesn't stop for anybody, so we're forced to start jogging until we catch up.

Shen Xiu is an important scion of the Sacred Family, which is why Hu Xian got involved with her in the first place. She's the younger sister of their patriarch Shen Hong and the aunt of his sons Shen Fei and Shen Yue, both of whom I remember being pesky little turds in the manhua. Don't ask me how Shen Xiu is at least forty years younger than her brother because I really have no idea. Cultivators are weird, man.

Didn't Shen Yue have a posse of followers at the beginning of the story when he was still rivals with Nie Li? It looks like Shen Xiu is doing the same thing with me, Gongwang, and the rest of these poor fellas. If I stick around her for too long, something tells me that my life expectancy isn't going to be very high.

And then there's that kid with the spiky black hair and intense eyes who I saw at the end of class – Ye Han. His little sister is Ye Ziyun, one of the main characters and heroines of Tales of Demons and Gods. He becomes a major antagonist towards the end of the Glory City arc due to his pursuit of the City Lord's position, which is currently held by his adoptive father, as well as his forbidden obsession with Ziyun.

In other words, he's a big name and I should start keeping my distance if I know what's good for me. He's bound to be trouble with a capital T, meaning I can't afford to get mixed up with him anytime soon.

I painstakingly navigate through the crowds of Glory City alongside Gongwang as we trail a few steps behind Shen Xiu. She often goes exploring deeper into the city after our classes conclude for the day, and her lackeys always follow her around like lost puppies while doing whatever they can to win her favor. Or trying to, at least. None of them have had much success so far.

She's already broken the wrists of two boys who's attempts were a little too… forceful.

You know what? Screw this. The old Hu Xian and his pathetic family can suck my nuts. I still need to get my bearings in this wacky place.

I break off from the group and duck into a narrow alleyway with barely enough space between walls for me to shimmy away. Gongwang is the only one who notices my unannounced retreat, but he continues following Shen Xiu after worriedly looking back and forth between us a few times. Poor kid.

I wander aimlessly for several hours until sunset approaches. It takes a lot of dedicated brainpower for me to process this insane life development, especially because I don't have any idea how something like this could've occurred to begin with. Why am I here? What happened to me back in the real world? Did I die? My original memories are still intact as far as I can tell, but I don't have any recollection of getting hit by a truck or whatever.

Who knows. I guess it doesn't matter anymore.

I find my way to the Holy Orchid Institute dormitories right as the silver moon is beginning to rise above the rooftops. The multistory building gives me a good view of the city's skyline, driving home just how huge this place actually is. Slate-blue and bronze-brown ceramic rooftops seem to stretch outwards forever like a never-ending ocean.

I don't get any sleep, which shouldn't be surprising all things considered.

The next morning, I skip class and get to work.

-x-

* Two days later *

I'm sitting on top of a ten-foot-high stone wall overlooking a public courtyard in a quieter area of the city, munching on a pear and idly swinging my legs. Every waking moment since I found myself in this new body has been devoted to gathering and cataloguing as much information as possible without making myself seem suspicious. Spiritual possession is absolutely a thing in this genre, and while I'm not sure if it ever occurred in Tales of Demons and Gods, I'm willing to bet it can. Drawing that kind of attention to myself would be unideal to say the least.

First of all is some background info. Much to my dismay, Hu Xian's family isn't even a lesser aristocratic clan like Nie Li's in the books. Instead, they're literal nobodies who've produced maybe three demon spiritualists in the past hundred years, none of whom were talented enough to progress beyond 5 star bronze rank. It would be a compliment to call them plebians.

Hu Xian's immediate family is comprised of his father, stepmother, grandfather, a few aunts and uncles, and some cousins. They're poor as fuck and he hasn't had much contact with them since enrolling in the Institute a few months ago at the beginning of the school year. No wonder I don't remember anything about these people from the manhua. They would've been nameless background characters at best.

I've also spent a lot of time sifting through Hu Xian's memories and trying to wrap my head around his cultivation method. In hindsight, my brief experimentation with his soul-sea during class was feeble and pointless. Now that I've reviewed his personal notes in his dorm room, I have a somewhat better idea of what I'm doing.

But 'better' doesn't mean 'good'. Honestly, this kid was kinda useless and led a pathetic life. He was hardly acquainted with anybody outside of his family and his fellow Shen Xiu minions. He had negligible potential as a demon spiritualist with his orange soul-sea, which is why people told him over and over again that he might reach silver rank if he got absurdly lucky and was somehow able to weasel his way into the good graces of a rich family who could provide advanced resources for cultivation. Honestly, even that would be a stretch.

Hu Xian's soul-sea is orange, which according to most people in Glory City is the second-worst soul class. I know that isn't strictly true from having read the manhua, but no one except me cares about that. To everyone else, I'm barely a step above incompetent.

The Hu family's cultivation method is called Sun-Devouring Inferno Tiger, which sounds incredibly cool but is actually complete ass in comparison to most other techniques. It centers around flashy techniques that enhance the power of punches, kicks, and other martial arts whenever the sun is shining brightly overhead. Being the astute reader that you are, I'm sure you realize how big of a *but* it is for a cultivation method to require unobstructed sunlight to work properly. Its utility is highly situational, which reduces it to a subpar technique at best.

Again, the Hu clan is a bunch of nobodies. My best guess is that Sun-Devouring Inferno Tiger was originally created by some talented ancestor hundreds of years ago and was passed down through successively worthless generations, becoming progressively bastardized each time until finally reaching Hu Xian as something that barely qualifies as a functioning technique. Given the family's track record, I wouldn't be surprised if the maximum attainable rank for Sun-Devouring Inferno Tiger is one star silver, or maybe 5 star bronze. It's that bad.

At the time of my unanticipated body-takeover, Hu Xian wasn't even a 1 star bronze ranked demon spiritualist. That's normal for a thirteen-year-old kid, but I need to start improving soon or else I'll inevitably fall behind. I'm not saying I want to get into the genius class or anything, but I'll need to secure access to helpful resources and knowledge asap if I want to hold my own among the spiritualists of Glory City. All the more so because I have insider knowledge of the tribulations coming for this place in the future.

It's nothing short of a financial miracle that the Hu family was able to enroll Hu Xian in the Holy Orchid Institute at the beginning of this year. They didn't want to expend so much money and influence just to send an ungifted son to get an education as a demon spiritualist, but their grand scheme – if it can be called that – is actually to get me close to Shen Xiu. They're hoping I can curry some favor with the Sacred Family to help pull the clan out of their impoverished ignominy.

It's too bad for them that Shen Xiu is an insufferable hellcat. The only reason she tolerated Hu Xian's pathetic attempts at wooing her was because she wanted to recruit him as one of her expendable schoolyard goons. A pet, basically, or a meatshield if you're feeling generous. At least Hu Xian had the wherewithal to recognize he had no chance with Shen Xiu and resigned himself to being her lapdog for the next few years. The kid wasn't a total screwup.

So here we are. Glory City. Tales of Demons and Gods.

Hoo, boy.

Right now, there are two different ways this thing could go.

One – if my math is right, in about six or seven years Nie Li will wake up in class one day with the soul and memories of his past life. Using his foreknowledge and the comprehensive expertise he acquired during his centuries-long lifetime as a supreme cultivator, he'll become a multimillionaire badass who consistently trounces demon spiritualists ranked much higher than himself, gets a bunch of waifus, and ultimately saves Glory City from destruction at the hands of the Sacred Family and nefarious Dark Guild.

Two – that doesn't happen and we all die. Nie Li never becomes anything more than just some talentless kid and the snow wind demons invade Glory City, destroying it and slaughtering everyone he knows and loves in the process. He somehow survives and becomes a wanderer out in the wider world, where he falls in love with Ye Ziyun but can't save her from being killed by a demonic beast. His travels bring him into contact with the Temporal Demon Spirit Book and he advances to the highest levels of cultivation. At the end of his life, he confronts the Sage Emperor and bites the dust. The end.

If I'm lucky and this is the timeline where option one occurs – the main timeline of Tales of Demons and Gods – then life is good and I probably don't have to do anything. Glory City will be fine with Nie Li at the helm even if things get hairy for a while with the snow wind demon invasion, the Dark Guild, and all that nonsense. I specifically remember City Lord Ye Zong's unenviable fate when the Demon Lord shows up. But all's well that ends well, right?

If I'm really really unlucky and this is actually the timeline of option two – Nie Li's original life where everything goes to hell in a handbasket – then shit, I don't know. Guess I'll die.

Needless to say, that's an extremely scary thought. It would be easy to say 'oh, Nie Li will handle everything so I can sit back and relax for now,' but what if that doesn't happen? What if this is the timeline where Glory City gets wiped off the map?

On the one hand, I don't care that much about a fictional city full of fictional people who are basically an expendable part of a protagonist's origin story anyways. Most of these goobers simply don't matter.

On the other hand, if I'm going to be stuck here for the foreseeable future, I'd rather not suffer through a cataclysmic battle where I'm guaranteed to be on the losing side and then endure life as a refugee for who knows how long afterwards. That's assuming I even survive, which let's be honest, I probably wouldn't.

Glory City is a nice place from what I've seen so far. The food is good, the beds are comfortable, the girls are cute, and there are plenty of things to do in my spare time. I played street hockey with Gongwang yesterday afternoon – basically hitting a ball with sticks – so that was fun. There's also functioning plumbing in the dorms, which is a lifesaver for a medieval world like this. No rivers of liquid waste flowing through the streets – yay!

All told, what's there not to like? It looks like this reality is my new home for now, so I might as well start making myself comfortable. As long as I remain here, my fortunes and the fortunes of Glory City as a whole will be bound up together.

Yep. I bet you can already tell where this is going.

I have knowledge of future events to some extent. My memory of the manhua isn't perfect and there are probably some things I'll miss, but I think it's good enough to do what needs to be done. What I don't have is Nie Li's insane spiritual power carried over from his first life, his knowledge of all sorts of esoteric cultivation arts, and the enormous sagging brass balls he needed to use those advantages to the fullest. One thing the books made very clear is that power is everything in Glory City. If you don't have the strength to back up your words, then you're useless. You're a yipping chihuahua in the eyes of the city's higher-tier spiritualists, all bark and no bite. Nie Li got what he wanted most of the time because he talked a big game and kicked some serious ass.

If I want to accomplish anything here – hell, if I want to survive – then getting my hands on some major firepower is the first item on my to-do list. But even as a demon spiritualist in training, that's much easier said than done.

Whatever I do, I want to make sure I don't completely screw over Nie Li if he awakens in seven years. Rocking the boat too much before then could create negative consequences for myself as well as everyone else in this city. For that reason, keeping my head down is a must.

What are my options then? There are a few I've come up with, mostly strategies used by Nie Li in the books… but most of them are presently unattainable for one reason or another.

Since I don't know anything about alchemy, using that purple spirit grass cheat to make an easy fortune is out of my reach. Why would the Alchemy Association care about the grass if Nie Li isn't here to tell them how to use it for new types of potions?

Same with venturing into the Heavenly Spiritual Border and yoinking the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword. The sword's immense spiritual weight and innate bloodthirstiness would probably turn my soul into mush and I doubt the ghost of Glory City's founder, Ye Yan, would care enough to save me. If Ning'er couldn't withstand the sword's presence then I sure as hell won't be able to. It's definitely a no-go, and without being able to craft a soul puppet – which is a dark and mostly forgotten technique – I can't remove Ye Yan's ghost from the Heavenly Sacred Border either.

I could go to that ruined city in the mountains where Nie Li obtained his Shadow Devil. Pilfering the treasures stored there by its deceased inhabitants would make me rich and also give me access to valuable cultivation resources, possibly including a page of the Temporal Demon Spirit Book. Unfortunately, that'll be dangerous and I don't think I could retrieve the Shadow Devil without getting myself killed since I'm not Nie Li. I also don't have any storage rings so I wouldn't be able to transport much loot back to Glory City.

I could open up the Dark Prison Realm located in the old quarter of Glory City and look for some goodies in there, possibly including that one guy with black wings who I could try to recruit. The issue is that it might be even more dangerous of a place than all the others, what with the hordes of little red demon goblin things and the gigantic anglerfish monster with hundreds of tongue-tentacles lurking in the darkness, waiting for its next meal.

Yeah. Maybe I should leave that one for later.

And I'm not even going to consider traveling to the Tianyun Plateau and delving into the Black Spring. If the demon beasts, gold rank bandits, and poisonous marshlands don't do me in, then the Black Spring itself assuredly will. Which is a moot point anyways, since I won't be able to open the rune-sealed door in the first place.

Closer to home, there's also the auction house to consider. Nie Li spent ludicrous amounts of money there in his quest to obtain an arsenal of spiritual tools and weapons, the most important of which was the black teapot thing he used to combine a bunch of demon spirits into his mega-overpowered Fanged Panda. Having the ability to do that would be incredible, if I had a lot of money along with the expertise needed to use the teapot. Of which I have neither.

Anyways, all that to say, I've got some opportunities for the future. They aren't viable opportunities at the moment because I'm weak as hell, but hopefully that'll change someday.

The upside is that I can afford to be patient. It should be six or seven years before Nie Li goes nuts on the Sacred Family and turns the entire city on its head, assuming I'm in that timeline. If I'm not, then… I'll have to figure something out.

Six to seven years can be a very long time if I use it right. Nie Lie went from not-even-a-demon-spiritualist to like 3 star silver rank in a few months. I'm not Nie Li, but if he can pull that off in less than a year then surely I can reach the point where I'm not a total pushover by the time I reach adulthood.

Speaking of adulthood… what about my past life? Is it weird that I just don't miss it that much?

There are some things I miss, don't get me wrong. Okay, there are a lot of things I miss. Family, friends, pets, phones, cars, air conditioning, music, tv, the internet, microwaves, comfortable shoes – all those relationships and the wonderful amenities of the technological age. And personally, I liked being an adult a lot more than being a kid. Unexpectedly getting reverted back to these teenage years honestly sucks.

But at the same time, I think it's safe to say my old life wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. I was blindly chugging along, waiting for something to happen or for a lucky break to present itself while patiently enduring the monotony. Even with modern comforts to make me happy and keep my attention, somehow it was still unbearably, mind-numbingly boring.

I grimace and toss the core of my half-eaten pear to the cobblestones below, where it splatters into a hundred chunks for the crows to enjoy. One way or another, I don't think that's going to be an issue for much longer. Not in a crazy world like this one.

-x-

Year 7 BNL (Before Nie Li)

-x-

AN: I've only read the manhua and not the novel, so if there are details or events from the novel that weren't included in the manhua, I'm probably not aware of them. I've tried to use the wiki to fill in some gaps, but the amount of info on there is a bit sparse.

As for the update schedule… we have no schedule.

Hope you enjoy!

- tetrapod