Deep into the night, the moon with its hazy purple light hung high above the sky.
The entire city had a calm, icy atmosphere. Its people carried on their mundane and boring lives, working hard during the day and sleeping peacefully at night. They were completely oblivious to the turbulent waves hidden within the city.
A villa close to the suburbs, from its gardens to the main hall, was deserted. Only when entering the study did the smell of humans appear.
Moreover, there were two of them.
The faint candlelight shone and reflected the two "corpses" lying on the expensive oak floor.
One of the bodies, a youth, suddenly moved, and a moan instinctively came out of his mouth. Tang Qi opened his eyes forcefully and was struck by a feeling he had never experienced before. It felt as though someone had smashed the back of his head with a hammer.
His sight was filled with overlapping images.
The body that was supposed to be easily controlled felt incomparably heavy. It was difficult to lift even a hand.
Even so, Tang Qi managed to sit up quickly and turned to look at the body of the old black man next to him, who was wearing a housekeeper's clothes. His face was somber and ugly, and his eyes were closed. Without touching it, Tang Qi could feel that the body was cold and stiff.
Corpse, this was a real corpse, Tang Qi subconsciously said.
However, Tang Qi was still uneasy. He turned his head again and looked at the ancient mottled bronze balance scale.
In the center, on the blood-soaked cross, a figure had been restored to it. Although it had shrunk by quite a bit, the painful howling expression remained. The facial features were exactly the same as the old black man's corpse by the side.
"Hahaha… Cough. I really succeeded."
Tang Qi revealed a huge grin as he laughed loudly. Because he could not perfectly control the new body yet, his pretty and delicate face appeared a little distorted. Streams of tears rolled down his cheeks, looking very unsightly.
Going from a lowly demon to successfully counterattacking an evil old black man and reincarnating into a human, the process did not seem long. However, to Tang Qi, it was indeed filled with dramatic ups and downs. At this moment, such a loss of composure was acceptable.
When he laughed, his head "boomed" as if someone had punched him.
Except that this time, it was as if the dyke in his mind was removed and memory fragments materialized like a surging flood. These fragments were different from what he had glimpsed earlier. This time, Tang Qi seemed to have completely changed into that youth and relived over ten years of the youth's life.
After Tang Qi regained his senses, he not only knew everything about his body, but he also learned a little more about this new world.
This was a world that was very similar to Earth but also very different.
This planet was called Origin Blue Star. Its environment, language, history, and other aspects were similar to those of Earth, except for some mysterious legends that could not be explained by science.
There were no hundreds of countries here, and the huge landmass was mainly divided among several political groups, including the Imperial Court of Longevity, the Condor Federation, the Europa Union, the Ancient Indian Empire, and the Mayan Empire. There were also some groups that were too small to be noticed. Together, this formed the political landscape of this Blue Star.
The identity of Tang Qi was that of an ordinary resident of Moses City in the Exquisite Phoenix Prefecture that was part of the Condor Federation. He was the second-generation descendant of a rich family and had just lost his parents.
Amazingly, the name of his body was also called Tang Qi.
His parents were the founders of Tang's Steel Corporation. It was not a large company and could only occupy a small share of the steel market in Moses City. Nevertheless, it was sufficient to produce a lot of wealth for the Tang family. Unfortunately, the two ambitious founders eventually died in an accident.
Of course, the death of the original Tang Qi was not due to excessive grief, but by being murdered by an old housekeeper whom he trusted a lot.
Old Morgan, an old housekeeper who had worked in the Tang family for more than twenty years, was deeply trusted by the original Tang Qi and his parents.
Because of this, the original Tang Qi was deceived by Old Morgan. He actually believed that Old Morgan had the ability to communicate with spirits, and he tried to participate in a spirit medium ritual to meet his dead parents.
Although he did leave his body after drinking a suspicious glass of liquid, he did not see his parents. Instead, he saw Old Morgan who had also turned into the soul state. By that time, Old Morgan had torn off the hypocritical mask and revealed his true sinister intentions.
What was going on was clearly not a spirit medium ritual, but the evil soul exchange ritual.
Old Morgan, this evil old man, lusted not after the Tang family's fortune, but Tang Qi's fresh and young body.
It was a pity that Morgan seemed to be performing this ritual for the first time and was not very familiar with it. At least he did not know that the suffering demon of adjudication on the cross could leave the balance scale for a short time. Hence, the Tang Qi who had transmigrated here was able to launch a successful counterattack.
The mantis had preyed on the cicada without noticing the oriole behind it. Everything now belonged to Tang Qi.
At this time, Tang Qi, who had gradually become accustomed to his brand-new body, was absorbing the memories in his brain while arranging his war spoils from the legacy of Old Morgan.
The body of Old Morgan had been tied up by Tang Qi, with hands behind his back.
This was despite the fact that Tang Qi was very sure he was dead as his soul had already been captured by the balance scale to become the new demon of adjudication.
If no one initiated the soul-changing ceremony, he probably would never have been able to free himself.
Tang Qi's cautious character provided him another layer of protection. As for the destruction of the corpse, Tang Qi did think about it. However, he had another arrangement in mind; thus, he did not take any action for the time being.
After dealing with the body, everything on Old Morgan was naturally turned out by Tang Qi.
A total of six items were placed in front of Tang Qi.
The first item, the extremely familiar Balance Scale of Soul Exchange, was swiftly put aside by Tang Qi.
The second was a notebook that looked rather old.
As for the third, fourth, and fifth items, they were all crude-looking witchcraft objects.
The last item was a rolled-up beast hide.
Tang Qi's gaze immediately fell on the notebook.
He opened and browsed through it.
What he saw were yellow withered pages. With just a glance, he instantly knew that these were old.
Because he had gained the memory of the original Tang Qi, the "foreign" words of this world did not affect Tang Qi's reading at all.
Rather, the contents of the notebook had roused his interest.
Witchcraft, every page recorded a particular witchcraft. However, from the description, it seemed that all of them were witchcraft of an evil nature..
Moreover, the fulfillment criteria of each technique were very complicated, and their effects did not seem to be as amazing as what legend portrayed. To at least achieve the stage of making money and taking lives, it was necessary to fulfill very harsh and tedious prerequisites.
For example, there was a witchcraft called "heart of fear". To fulfill it, one must first collect the target's blood, hair, and nails. After which, he had to set up a complex ritual at a specific time and place, summoning the demon of fear to invade the target's dreams.
After a few days, the target would fall into a perennial nightmare and eventually go crazy.
There was another witchcraft called "Ululu puppet". Upon completion, a puppet that was totally obedient to one's orders would be created. But first, one would be required to find a target with inborn intellectual defects and then soak him with a special potion. After which, one had to perform a blood vessel reconstruction operation with a precision comparable to that of a surgical operation in order to achieve a certain degree of success.
And that degree of success was not very high.
Although these witchcrafts were both evil and cumbersome, Tang Qi ended up reading them with great interest.
Although he already had some knowledge about this new world, it was still an unfamiliar place to him. On the surface, it seemed to be a safe place, very similar to Earth where he came from. Moreover, this world had not yet produced nuclear weapons; hence, it should be an even safer place.
However, judging from what happened to the original Tang Qi, although there were no nuclear weapons, supernatural powers existed.
Tang Qi couldn't help but make a reckless guess — would this be a dark world where demons and ghosts ran amok?
If this was the case, the evil legacy of Old Morgan might be the most important resource that Tang Qi would need to protect himself.
In the study, apart from a corpse that was tightly tied up and a flickering candle, there was only the sound of pages flipping.
Tang Qi's fingers suddenly stopped moving, staying on a particular page.
Compared with other witchcrafts, the text on this page was dense and accompanied by many exquisite illustrations. In the center was a picture of a balance scale which stood out prominently.
That's right. The soul exchange ritual was recorded on this page.
Tang Qi gave off a long breath after he went through the ritual process carefully.
The last trace of doubt that remained was completely put down this time.
According to the notes, once the ceremony failed, the initiator would only have two outcomes.
One, being captured by the Balance Scale of Soul Exchange to become the new demon of adjudication.
Two, immediately disappear.
Clearly, the unlucky Old Morgan ended up with the first outcome.
He didn't know that what he summoned was not a real demon of adjudication, but a foreign soul which was desperately trying to be reborn. The evil old man who believed in the demon eventually became the new demon, and Tang Qi gained all the benefits.
"Perhaps, I am about to start a new life."
Tang Qi sighed as his eyes were filled with a complex look.
Anyone who went through what Tang Qi experienced might not have been able to calm down in a short time. Fortunately, Tang Qi was pretty strong psychologically. Moreover, there were notes on witchcraft which attracted his attention.
However, when Tang Qi turned over to the next page, the content that he saw stiffened his originally relaxed expression.
He quickly glanced through 10 lines at a time and rapidly flipped through several pages. Tang Qi's expression had instantly become gloomy like water.