The elaborate necropolis in the hidden domain of Black Thunder was an unexplored zone. Or so the people of the Obsidian Continent thought...
The Black Thunder domain was considered one of the best low-level spaces for training and gaining experience, and it was opened every twenty-five years for promising young cultivators from diverse sects, clans, and schools on the continent.
However, the necropolis of Guo Jianhong, which was at the heart of the hidden domain, was a forbidden zone for those who had the chance to enter the domain. The young cultivators were warned against attempting to breach this area.
Over the years, the myths and legends involving Guo Jianhong spread throughout the Obsidian Continent, and the stories of his dark deeds became more exaggerated with each retelling.
Therefore, no one dared to even draw close to the final resting place of the dead evil cultivator, Master Guo, despite the knowledge of the treasures he must have had from pillaging countless sects as he terrorised the continent.
In addition, the necropolis of Master Guo was a fortress which could not be breached easily. Even the experienced cultivators who snuck in with the novices did not disobey the established rule of avoiding the area due to fear.
If one attempted to approach the necropolis, one would have to pass the black lightning field separating the general domain from the mausoleum. If they were to pass the perilous thunder, they would meet an army of liches with an insatiable thirst for death and mayhem.
No one had ever passed the liches as far as anyone knew according to the unreliable retellings of daredevils who wanted to loot the necropolis.
However, rumour had it that after the liches, there was another circle of defence consisting of an illusionary formation that drove people mad. It was unknown if there were other traps before one could set foot in the actual great city of death.
No one would risk their long life to buy a cheap death.
But things were not always as they seemed.
When the Black Thunder domain opened in the twenty-second year of the rule of the Great Emperor Huo Quan, a handsome young man was meditating at the centre of the necropolis, at the heart of its power.
His long white hair was held up with an obsidian crown and fell against a dark scarlet robe, a shade reminiscent of a pool of dark blood. His expression was cold and calm as he broke through to the Saint-level of the Thunder Devil Art.
When he opened his scarlet eyes, dark purple sparks flashed in their depths before disappearing.
"You are indeed the right person to inherit my mantle as the Demon King." A dark voice spoke, followed by a booming laugh tinged with evil. "This body is as talented as I always thought. You have achieved the Saint-level in a mere ten years."
The almost transparent apparition in front of the young man was an aged man who looked like he was one step into the grave. He danced with excitement, looking at the young man with unconcealed greed in his eyes.
The black irises shone with evil.
"When I was alive, it took me three hundred years to reach the Saint-level. If it were not for those dreadful righteous cultivators from the Cardinal Towers Sect, I would have reached Godhood. The God level always seemed like a myth." The ghost flitted around with madness leaking from his words.
The handsome young man remained calm and unmoved.
"Now, I can become a God!" The ghost of Master Guo laughed maniacally. "Return the body to me."
Yuan Haoran looked at the ghost with light amusement in his eyes. He found the situation a little unbelievable, and it was not just because the ghost wanted to possess his body. He knew this moment would come.
It was also accurate for the ghost of Master Guo to claim the body he was inhabiting was his.
What made the situation incredulous to Yuan Haoran were the experiences that brought him to this moment, facing a mad ghost in an ancient necropolis. He had yet to meet another person since he found himself in the necropolis, but he knew he was not in his old world.
He had transmigrated and reincarnated in a strange world.
Before he came to this place, he was a regular Joe from Earth with the joys and woes of a normal man. Pfft! Yuan Haoran could not even complete the ridiculous and fanciful thought in his mind. He would not have ended up in this situation if he was ordinary.
When he was on Earth, he was known as the Demon King. He did not need spiritual cultivation to earn the title, unlike Master Guo. He forged his path with blood and a heart of villainy. He never hesitated in his path to get what he wanted.
From kidnappings to illegal imprisonment, from assassinations to organ harvesting, and from human experimentation to inhumane torture… He had done it all.
Even in his final moments…
His mind drifted to the moment before his death. He had taken over a hundred people to death with him when he blew up that island. He never felt guilty for the things he did... but he could still not forget her face when he plunged a knife into her chest just before the explosion.
He did not regret it.
He wanted her to die before him. How else could he make sure she did not suffer too much as the glorious explosion engulfed them? He was right to kill her. Being torn to death while conscious was as excruciating as he thought it would be.
So, he did not regret it.
But the look on her face as she struggled to talk, and the explosion hit them…
He could not forget it.
When Yuan Haoran opened his eyes after that painful moment of being torn and on fire, he was in an ice coffin in the necropolis with Master Guo. Unfortunately, he did not get memories from the original owner of the body.
From what he gathered from Master Guo's slips of the tongue, the body belonged to a young cultivator from the year he died, hundreds of years ago. Master Guo's followers captured the young man to allow him to shift his soul and keep living.
But as it turned out, his soul was not compatible with the body of his cultivator. Therefore, he needed to find someone else to use because his soul was too damaged. He wanted someone more compatible.
Unfortunately, after delivering the body of the cultivator, the followers of the Black Thunder Sect obeyed him and followed his instructions on activating the traps around his necropolis. He could not leave, and no one could enter his mausoleum.
Master Guo could only wait for his disembodied soul to recover. He planned to cultivate as a ghost and try possessing the body again once he gained strength.
But as fate would have it, Yuan Haoran transmigrated into the body before he could achieve his dream. There
"I said, surrender your body to your master!" The old ghost shouted again.
"Why should I?" Yuan Haoran asked in a raspy voice, rusty from disuse.
"You can talk?" The ghost was a little shaken.
In the ten years they spent together, Yuan Haoran never said a single word. Master Guo assumed he was mute and treated him as such. Now that he learned his disciple could talk, he was a little off-kilter and afraid.
That kind of focus and discipline was frightening.
"Otherwise?" Yuan Haoran said.
"It is a relief, then. I will not need to look for a doctor to treat my tongue after I leave this place."
The old ghost composed himself and smiled eerily. "Now, I will be taking the body."
"You can try." The response was careless and unconcerned.
"Is that any way to speak to your master?" The ghost would have turned red in the face. "Do you not know that a master for a day is a father for life?"
Yuan Haoran stood up and stretched his limbs. He could feel the power brimming after reaching Sainthood. But unlike the burden of chaotic power in the lower levels, being a Saint felt like he was a normal human being.
Except he could topple a skyscraper with one hand.
"First, I have never acknowledged you as my master." Yuan Haoran replied with a slight quirk of his lips, but his scarlet eyes were cold like ice. "Second, I killed my father when I was a mere boy. You are no one to me."