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Late at night, a misty purple moon hung high in the vault of the sky.
The entire city was immersed in a calm, cold atmosphere while the common people continued their mundane lives, working hard during the day and sleeping peacefully at night, oblivious to the turbulent undercurrents hidden within the city.
Near the outskirts, a mansion from garden to hall exuded desolation. It was only upon entering the study that a human presence became decidedly apparent.
And there were two.
On the expensive oak floor, a pair of "corpses" were faintly illuminated by the dwindling candlelight.
The body of one young man suddenly moved, a groan of discomfort unconsciously escaping his lips. Tang Qi abruptly opened his eyes, a sensation he had never before experienced washing over him, as if his skull had been pounded on incessantly.
Everything in front of him appeared as double images.
The body that should have been easily controllable felt unbearably heavy, lifting even a single hand proved difficult.
Even so, Tang Qi swiftly sat up, first turning his head to look at the body of an old black man next to him, dressed in butler's attire with a sullen and ugly face, eyes tightly closed, its icy coldness and rigidity palpable even without touching.
A corpse, this is a true corpse, Tang Qi thought subconsciously.
But still not reassured, Tang Qi turned his head again to look at the mottled ancient bronze scale.
In the center, the cross stained with blood had indeed regained a human figure, although greatly shrunken in size, the facial features contorted in an expression of pain and howling, identical to that of the black man's corpse next to him.
"Ha ha ha... *cough cough*, I really did it."
Tang Qi's lips curled into a wild laugh, but since he still couldn't perfectly control his new body, his delicate features twisted grotesquely, tears and snot streaming, which was quite unsightly.
He had risen from an insignificant devil, successfully turned the tables on an evil old black man, and was reborn as a human. The process may not have seemed lengthy, but for Tang Qi, it indeed was filled with drastic ups and downs; his current loss of composure was quite understandable.
It was as he laughed that his head "boomed" as if hammered by a punch.
But this time, his mind broke open like a floodgate, and fragments of memory surged forward. Unlike the fleeting glimpse before, this time, Tang Qi felt completely transformed into the boy, reliving over a decade.
When Tang Qi became lucid again, he not only understood everything about his original self but also gained a bit more insight into this new world.
This was a world highly similar to Earth in his previous life, yet vastly different.
This planet was called Origin Blue Star, with its environment, language, history, and other aspects strikingly similar to Earth, only with the addition of some mysterious legends beyond scientific explanation.
There weren't hundreds of nations here; the vast territories were mainly divided among several political entities such as the Eternal Heaven Dynasty, Divine Eagle Federation, Europe Alliance, Ancient India Empire, Maya Empire... along with some smaller factions so insignificant they often went unnoticed, forming the whole political landscape of Blue Star.
As for Tang Qi, his identity was that of a common citizen in Messer City, located in the Secret Phoenix State under the jurisdiction of the Divine Eagle Federation, and he was also a rich second-generation youth who had just lost his parents.
Interestingly, the original self was also named Tang Qi.
His parents were the founders of Tang Steel Company, a not-so-large entity that occupied a small share of the steel market in Messer City, but still sufficient to bring considerable wealth to the Tang Family. Unfortunately, the ambitious founders ultimately perished together in an accident.
Of course, the original self did not die from excessive grief, but was murdered by his deeply trusted butler.
Old Morgan, the butler who worked for the Tang Family for over twenty years, had the deep trust of the original self and his parents.
Which is why the original self was deceived by Old Morgan, who actually led him to believe in his spirit communication abilities, attempting a spirit summoning ritual to reunite with his parents, who became dead souls.
Although his soul indeed left his body after drinking a suspicious liquid, he didn't meet his parents; instead, he saw Old Morgan, also in soul form, who by then had torn off his facade of hypocrisy to reveal his ferocious true face.
What was performed was not a spirit summoning ritual, but a malicious soul swapping ceremony.
Old Morgan, this wicked old thing, coveted not only the Tang Family's wealth but also Tang Qi's young and vibrant body.
Regrettably, it seemed Old Morgan was also a novice at the ceremony, not very familiar with it, at least unaware that the Judgement Demon on the cross could briefly leave the scale, which allowed Tang Qi, who had crossed over, to successfully turn the tables.
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind; everything now belonged to Tang Qi.
Now becoming gradually accustomed to his new body, Tang Qi was absorbing the memory flooding his mind while at the same time inspecting his spoils, the inheritance from Old Morgan.
Old Morgan's body was bound tightly by Tang Qi.
Though Tang Qi was utterly sure of his death, with his soul caught by the scale, becoming the new Judgement Demon.
Without someone initiating a soul swapping ceremony, it seemed he would never have the chance to turn the tables.
Yet Tang Qi's cautious nature still compelled him to apply an extra layer of protection. As for destroying the body, Tang Qi had considered it, but another arrangement came to mind, so for the moment he refrained from acting.
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Having dealt with the body, all of Old Morgan's belongings were naturally searched by Tang Qi.
Six items in total, laid out before Tang Qi.
The first, the all too familiar Soul Swapping Balance, was immediately set aside by Tang Qi.
The second, a notebook that seemed to have seen many years.
As for the third, fourth, and fifth items, they were some rough-looking witchcraft artifacts.
The last one was a rolled-up animal hide.
Tang Qi's gaze landed on the notebook first and foremost.
Opening it, he flipped through.
What caught his eye were the yellowed pages, clearly showing their age.
Thanks to the memories of his original body, the script of this world posed no obstacle to Tang Qi's reading.
And the content recorded therein immediately piqued Tang Qi's interest.
Witchcraft, each page contained the record of a spell, but from the description alone, they appeared to be entirely from the Evil Camp.
Moreover, each spell's requirements were complex, and their effects seemed less remarkable than the legends suggested – at least, they didn't appear to have the capacity to rob wealth or cause fatalities without fulfilling some very stringent and complex preconditions.
For example, a spell called "Heart of Fear" required collecting the target's blood, hair, nails, and then at a specific hour and location, setting up an elaborate ritual to summon a Fear Demon to invade the target's dreams.
After several consecutive days, the target would be plunged into incessant nightmares and eventually be driven to madness.
Or, another spell named "Uluu Puppet," which upon successful casting, could create a puppet entirely subservient to one's will, but first required finding a target innately intellectually deficient, then soaking them in a special potion, followed by precision bloodline modifications akin to surgery, only then it might have a certain chance of success.
This "certain chance" was presumably not very high.
Though these witchcraft spells were both evil and cumbersome, Tang Qi found them extremely intriguing to read.
Having been reborn and transported to an unfamiliar world, although he had already learned some information about the new world – seemingly a safe world highly similar to Earth in his past life, even without the emergence of nuclear weapons thus supposedly even safer –
Based on the circumstances of his former self, even if there were no nuclear weapons, Extraordinary Power existed.
It left Tang Qi with no choice but to cautiously speculate: could this be a Dark World where demons and ghosts run rife?
If so, then the Evil legacy of the Old Black Man might just be the first-hand resource Tang Qi could rely on for self-preservation.
Aside from a tightly bound corpse and the flickering candlelight in the study, only the rustling sound of pages turning remained.
Soon, Tang Qi's fingers suddenly paused, stopping on a certain page.
Relative to the other witchcraft spells, this page was densely packed with text, accompanied by many exquisite illustrations, with the image of a scale in the center quite conspicuous.
No doubt about it, this page documented the Soul Swapping Ceremony.
After Tang Qi carefully read through the ritual process, he took a long breath.
The last shred of doubt he had was finally put to rest.
According to the notebook, once the ritual failed, there were only two outcomes for the initiator.
One, be captured by the Soul Swapping Balance and become the new Judgement Demon.
Two, dissipate completely.
Clearly, Old Morgan met the first outcome.
He had no clue that what he summoned was not the true Judgement Demon but an otherworld soul desperate for rebirth. At last, the credulous Old Black Man who trusted the devil became the new devil, and Tang Qi took over all the gains.
"Perhaps, it is time for me to start a new life."
Tang Qi sighed, his eyes brimming with complex emotions.
Anyone with an experience like Tang Qi's would find it hard to calm down in a short time, but fortunately, Tang Qi's mental strength was still quite good, plus he had the intriguing witchcraft notebook to distract him.
However, when Tang Qi turned another page and saw the following content, his previously relaxed expression immediately became serious.
Scanning the page in a matter of seconds and quickly flipping through a few more, Tang Qi's expression turned dark as water.