For Xiao Qiang, it seemed as if the heavens were playing a ludicrous joke on him. It was like a scene only seen in ancient legends. One moment, he was being hunted by two righteous martial arts masters, Cai Jin and Wu Shan; the next, everything was obscured by a thick fog, and he found the world around him frozen. A murmuring sound filled his ears, then everything went black. When he awoke, he was astounded to find himself lying in a white room, with clear tubes inserted all over his body, and someone attempting to remove something from his face.
Strictly speaking, Xiao Qiang was not a man of integrity. Although he claimed to be a cultivator, his cultivation base wasn't very high in the cultivation world. Most of his time was spent studying the anatomy of exotic beasts. If not for this, he wouldn't have been hunted by two righteous monks, who accused him of wanton slaughter and violating natural laws. He found it strange. Why was it acceptable for others to use the beasts as their mount, yet it was considered evil for him to use them for testing medicine?
"Ah!"
A sharp scream rang in Xiao Qiang's ear, which had just opened his eyes, which made him feel inexplicably frustrated. Where was he? Who was this woman in white in front of him?
"What's going on?" Several people in white coats flooded in from the door, among them a man with glasses who asked the woman in a deep voice.
The woman, pale and at a loss, pointed at Xiao Qiang on the bed and stuttered, "Di...Director, his...his eyes just moved!"
"What!"
A few exclamations of surprise sounded simultaneously. Xiao Qiang could feel several surprised gazes on him. It was clear that all these people were shocked.
"What's going on? Wasn't his cerebral infarction confirmed?"
"Yes, he was about to be diagnosed as brain dead because he couldn't breathe. How did he suddenly come back to life?"
"I know, right? I just examined him. He was just like he was ten hours ago, with no pupil reflex and no brain reflex, and his brain waves were constantly flat..."
The cacophony made Xiao Qiang understand his situation. He never thought he would take over the body of a dying man. He knew very well that this body was indeed dead just now. If he had not somehow entered this body at the last moment, everything these white coat people said would be correct.
After taking a look around, Xiao Qiang found that this was not the world he knew. The people around him were dressed strangely, like nothing he'd ever seen before.
As a gateless cultivator who had cultivated up to the Great Perfection stage simply through a few secret scripts, Xiao Qiang's first rule of interaction was to be cautious. Had he not been so, he wouldn't have been able to repeatedly escape from orthodox sects. Now, encountering this unfamiliar environment, Xiao Qiang's first reaction after his surprise was to quietly observe his surroundings.
Suddenly, he noticed that among the people in white, one person had a particularly unsightly complexion. Especially when others mentioned his "resurrection", this person showed a particularly disappointed expression. Although well-hidden, Xiao Qiang wouldn't miss such details given his hundreds of years of cultivation experience.
"It seems the identity of this body is not simple," thought Xiao Qiang, and began checking the condition of his current body.
The next moment, Xiao Qiang's facial expression turned unsightly. This man, who shared the same name and surname as himself, was really unlucky. He had been an orphan since childhood, not even knowing who his biological parents were. The welfare institution that adopted him at twelve was burnt to the ground by a big fire. His foster parents who adopted him at fifteen died in a car accident. He managed to live aimlessly until twenty-one and seemed about to graduate from the Medical University and find a job but somehow ended up in a hospital, assisting Xiao Qiang in his takeover.
What angered Xiao Qiang more was after he organized the memories of this body, he discovered the absence of cultivators and that he could barely sense the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth. He no longer had the cultivation base of Great Perfection that allowed him to command the wind and rain. He was even less powerful than an average physical cultivator. He originally had 108 acupoints opened, but now, not a single one was opened in this body.
Although he didn't know how he had ended up in this strange world, Xiao Qiang wasn't overly worried. He was, after all, a cultivator without any affiliations or attachments, and he could cultivate anywhere. However, for a person who had devoted hundreds of years to cultivation, discovering that he had suddenly gone from a nearly divine existence who could fly and disappear at will to an ordinary person incapable of defending himself, the feeling of falling from high in the clouds was hard to imagine. That Xiao Qiang wasn't crying his eyes out showed how strong and resilient his nerves were.
"What the hell is this place?" Xiao Qiang sighed, feeling a bit helpless.
Just then, Xiao Qiang was taken aback. In the memories of this body, he saw the last scene before its death — he was knocked down by a metal rod!
"It seems like someone doesn't want me to live!"
Xiao Qiang, who had already completed soul fusion, thought bitterly. As a cultivator who was both righteous and evil, he inherently had a rebellious character. For Xiao Qiang, the idea of compassion cherished by cultivators was a joke. In his view, if people offended him, he would retaliate tenfold! Those who dared to harm him should be prepared to lose their lives! Even though it was not easy for this body to stay alive, he believed that with his skills, he just needed to cultivate to the innate realm and he could roam unhindered in the world.
However, in the next moment, Xiao Qiang felt a jolt in his heart. The reason was simple; he discovered that the storage space that he could always open at will, he couldn't open now!
At this moment, a feeling of bitterness surged in Xiao Qiang's heart. For the first time, he felt powerless. The storage space that used to take only a thought to open, filled with treasures and materials he had collected in its nine-fold space, was now impossible to access. Not only that, he felt devoid any spiritual power, and was lying on a hospital bed, facing a group of strange people who could be friend or foe. This caused Xiao Qiang, who was initially full of ambition to make a mark in this world, to suddenly feel as if he had been punched straight in the face.
"I must become stronger! I have to survive!" Xiao Qiang was yelling silently. He firmly believed that he was the master of his own destiny. In this world, he, Xiao Qiang, must survive!
"Director Jin, he's awake. What should we do?" The white-clothed female nurse spoke up, breaking the silence.
Director Jin, the man who Xiao Qiang detected had not been too pleased with his awakening, remained silent for a moment before finally saying, "Let's go out. Xiao Wang, please examine the patient to see if he has truly regained consciousness."
With that, he was the first to turn and leave the ward.
As everyone left the room and the doctors dispersed, Director Jin went to a rest room. Three figures were sitting inside. When they saw Director Jin come in, all three of them stood up. A man with somewhat graying hair asked him in surprise, "Director Jin, why hasn't the surgery started yet?"
A middle-aged woman sitting next to the man also nodded in agreement, "Why hasn't it indeed? What's taking so long?"
Director Jin sighed and lowered his voice, "Xiao Qiang, he has come back to life."
The man and the woman were stunned. Their cheerful expressions instantly turned somber. The woman, particularly, in disbelief, asked, "Who were you saying came back to life?"
Director Jin said seriously, "Xiao Qiang has come back to life."
The man reflexively said, "What are you saying? Isn't he clinically brain dead? How could he suddenly come back to life?"
Director Jin shook his head, his face full of helplessness, "Yes, but when our nurse was preparing to remove his respiratory equipment, he suddenly showed brain waves again. Could the diagnosis of brain death be mistaken?"
The woman's face instantly turned pale, her lips trembling as she asked, "Then, what about our Xiao Wen? If he's alive, Xiao Wen can't have the surgery, right?"
Director Jin solemnly nodded, "Yes, Mrs. Xiao, he can't be operated upon."
Mrs. Xiao was beside herself with panic, almost incoherent, "This, this, something must've gone wrong. Didn't you say he was dead? Wasn't the diagnosis of brain death confirmed? Why not just go straight to the surgery? What are we waiting for? A mistake was surely made somewhere; it must be the machine that's wrong!" By the end of this, her expression had become somewhat ferocious.
Finally, with tears in her eyes, she looked at Director Jin, "Director Jin, I beg you, please start the surgery as soon as possible. Please, save our Xiao Wen."
Director Jin sighed and said to her, "Mrs. Xiao, under the current circumstances, if we proceed with the surgery on Xiao Qiang, I would become a murderer. Do you understand? He is still alive!"
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Xiao fell to the ground and began to mumble, "Xiao Wen, my Xiao Wen!"
At this very moment, Xiao Qiang was trying hard to get accustomed to a woman touching his body.
"Oh, you really have a stubborn life power," the female nurse who was doing a physical examination on Xiao Qiang murmured to herself, "I had never heard about the Xiao family having an illegitimate child before. It's surprising that you turned out to be Xiao's illegitimate son. The life of Mr. Xiao isn't great either. What's the point of having so much money? One son is in a car accident and needs a heart transplant. The other illegitimate son also ended up in this condition."
The nurse, seemingly talking to herself, wondered whether she was doing it intentionally or not, but it certainly made Xiao Qiang, who was feigning unconsciousness, turn pale.
(The new book is on the road, ask for bookmarks, ask for tickets, ask for clicks!)