The last thing Xian Hei remembered was the taste of blood in his mouth and the overwhelming sensation of betrayal. The celestial ritual had promised godhood, but his closest allies promised him death. They delivered.
Or so they thought.
He awoke to pain, not the searing, all-consuming agony of his body being torn apart, but the dull, persistent ache of a body long abused. His fingers brushed against his chest, and the skin was foreign to him, thin and stretched over protruding ribs. His breathing wheezed as though every inhalation was a labor.
"Where am I?" His voice came out raspy, weak, and hollow.
The answer came in the form of memories not his own. They struck like lightning, flashes of a life filled with shame and suffering. Li Shen, the name whispered through his mind like a ghost. The name of the body he now inhabited.
Li Shen was the son of an aristocratic family that was once influential in the Eastern Province. His father had become the object of hate from the Crimson Lotus Sect-one of the most heinous and powerful organizations on this earth. In turn, the sect destroyed the Li family, leaving behind the youngest son to writhe in dishonor. A young boy wandered in slums, begging for his survival with scraps of foods, hated by everybody including himself.
Xian Hei groaned, pressing a hand to his forehead. The memories were all jumbled and disjointed, but the emotions came through loud and clear: anger, despair, and an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. It was infuriating.
"This… despicable existence," he hissed, strength returning to his voice. "How dare the heavens mock me like this? To cast me down and place me in the body of a worm?"
His anger flared, and with it came a flicker of the power he once wielded. He tried calling his qi, only to feel it slip away like water through his fingers. His dantian was shattered, useless-a broken vessel.
"No," he growled with his teeth clenched in anger. "No, no, no. I am Xian Hei. I was fated to ascend, to be the ruler of heavens. I will not be made to be reduced to this!"
But with this rage burning, another thread of memories arose hazy but insistent. There were the ruins of Li's family estate. Ruins that covered the vault in its belly. And hidden in it, the family secret-a forbidden technique nurtured through generations of transmissions.
The Nine Veils of Shadow.
Xian Hei froze, his mind ringing with the name. He had heard of it in his previous life, a technique so reprehensible and corrupting even the most depraved of cultivators avoided it. It fed on the life force and emotions of others, converting pain and hate into power.
A cruel smile twisted his lips. "Perhaps the heavens haven't mocked me after all. Perhaps they've given me exactly what I need.
His mind was racing, putting together a plan. He would recover his strength, rebuild his cultivation, and rise again. This time, no hesitation, no trust, no mercy. The Crimson Lotus Sect had destroyed the Li family. The heavens had cast him down.
They would all pay.
But first, he needed to find the ruins of the Li estate.
With great effort, Xian Hei struggled to his feet. The room around him was dark and cramped, reeking of mildew and rot. A ramshackle hut—Li Shen's final refuge. He stumbled toward the doorway, legs weak and unsteady, but his determination unbroken.
As he stepped into the alley, the light of the rising sun revealed a city teeming with life yet indifferent to