Heaven-Collapsing Start [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 27

Chapter 27

This is an era where humans and yōkai (demons/monsters) coexist, and yōkai are rampant. Among humans, Spiritual Masters were born capable of contending with them, obtaining powerful strength through mediums that communicate with heaven, earth, people, ghosts, devils, and yōkai.

The original owner of this body was born into the Ji family, the most powerful Spiritual Master clan of the current era. The Ji family has been passed down for twelve generations; with several hundred years of accumulation, the clan has become massive, flourishing and branching out into countless offshoots. The original owner was born into one of the lowliest branch families.

If the original owner’s talent had been mediocre, it would have been fine; he would have spent his entire life in that small corner of the branch family, marrying and having children—an ordinary but happy life.

However, the original owner was born awakening a powerful spiritual energy, which caused his mother to die from a difficult labor. Thus, in the original owner’s early childhood, there was only the cold neglect of his father and the melancholy gaze sometimes cast upon him.

Then, at the age of seven, the original owner was taken to the main family to be groomed due to his powerful spiritual energy. His lost childhood began to be filled with all sorts of rigorous training, eventually growing into the image that everyone adored.

Flawless etiquette, restrained emotions, a friendly demeanor, proper conduct, and refined speech.

And, ever-increasing power.

In the same generation, the original owner left the “favored children” of the main family far behind. He then met their admiring gaze and was valued by the Head of the Family, gaining a place of his own within the massive Ji clan.

Then, when the original owner was twenty-two, the Head of the Family perished in a battle against a Great Yōkai. The vacant position of the Head of the Family fell into the original owner’s hands.

In the eyes of the world, the original owner held a high position and possessed powerful spiritual energy; he was the most outstanding figure of this era, revered by ten thousand people.

On the surface, this was true.

But in the shadows, the original owner could hardly be called “pure as the moon and breeze”; he could only be considered a base villain, because the position of the Head of the Family was obtained through ignoble means, and even the previous Head’s death was orchestrated by him.

Deceiving the heavens to cross the sea, cold and ruthless, a flattering sycophant, and full of intrigue.

A lost childhood, a complex environment, and strict education taught the original owner to act like a modest gentleman while simultaneously nourishing his dark inner heart.

However, all of this followed a logical path or rather, it was as it should be, a matter of fate.

After all, at the very beginning, when a child from a lowly branch family appeared alone before a group of the main family’s favored children with standout spiritual power, what would happen?

Oppression, insults, violence, and coldness were all predictable outcomes.

Unlike the “Ji Liang” of the previous world, whose jealousy and hatred only arose due to Gu Yun’s intervention leading to the series of subsequent events this world’s “Ji Liang” had an upbringing that was anything but smooth and harmonious.

The “Ji Liang” of this world could be said to have seen the dark side of the world since childhood. To survive, to stay alive, he learned endurance at a young age and learned much more: only by making himself more outstanding, only by turning the jealousy in those fellows’ eyes into admiration, could he prevail.

In the end, the original owner did it. Step by step, he walked to the front of everyone. The process was unimportant; what mattered was that he finally sat in that highest seat and no longer needed to watch others’ expressions.

Clearly, the price paid to reach this step was immense. But setting aside those superficial things, for the original owner himself, there was another primary reason, a reason that forced him to only succeed and never fail.

It was a secret about his own body that he gradually discovered over time, after arriving at the main family and gaining an understanding and improvement in his control over spiritual energy.

It turned out that he was not merely a pure human; he also harbored the bloodline of a yōkai.

No matter how shocked the original owner was upon discovering this secret, in the next second, he only knew one thing: once this was known by others, everything he currently possessed would cease to exist.

Precise, deep, and calculating since a young age, the original owner ground this secret between his teeth and swallowed it into his stomach, burying it deep in the core of his heart like a forbidden “reverse scale.”

To this point, not a single person had discovered this secret. Under the original owner’s plotting, the Head of the Family fell, and he successfully sat in that position.

However, as a massive clan passed down for hundreds of years and the most powerful Spiritual Master family of the age, the Ji family was not solely the word of the Head. There were also the Ten Great Elders, whose status was slightly lower than the Head but who possessed real decision-making power.

And the original owner wanted to unify the power in his own hands.

After all, only when power is fully in one’s own hands can the position of the Head be sat securely and comfortably, isn’t that so?

Thus, the original owner continued to lay his traps, calculating the “accidental” deaths of the Ten Great Elders one by one so that he could smoothly gather the power under their command into his hands and expand his sphere of influence.

However, even a flawless plan has moments of oversight just as one who often walks by the river is bound to get their shoes wet. After the Fifth Elder was killed by a Great Yōkai, someone suddenly pointed out that they had seen the original owner together with that Great Yōkai.

At the time, the Fifth Elder’s death was indeed suspicious. A route that should have been traveled in secret suddenly collided with that Great Yōkai, resulting in him being torn to shreds. It was all too coincidental, was it not? Furthermore, that route had already been scouted, and no Great Yōkai should have appeared.

If that person’s accusation were true, even as the Head of the Family, the original owner could not escape blame. Colluding with yōkai to kill the Fifth Elder was no small matter. Aside from his reputation plunging and his position becoming unstable, in severe cases, he might even be besieged by the crowd.

And what did the original owner do then? He said nothing, nor did he defend himself; he simply set an example with concrete action—he voluntarily walked into the confinement room, showing his innocence to everyone.

In fact, the truth behind this matter was indeed inseparable from the original owner. It could be said he planned it with his own hands; it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call him the mastermind. It wasn’t just the Fifth Elder’s death; if he wanted total power, his actions would certainly not be aimed only at the Fifth Elder. The deaths of the Tenth and Eighth Elders prior were also his handiwork.

It was just that in the matter of the Fifth Elder, a variable appeared that even the original owner didn’t expect, leading to him being suspected.

Of course, he didn’t show the slightest panic. With a normal expression and amidst voices defending him, he voluntarily walked into the confinement room.

The original owner’s talent was outstanding, and this was not reflected solely in his cultivation but also in his unparalleled mind and wisdom. This was an undeniable fact.

When Ji Liang opened his eyes in the dim confinement room and finished sorting through the memories in his head, he couldn’t help but admire the original owner’s schemes.

…

In the dim and silent confinement room, only a few night-luminescent pearls embedded in the stone walls emitted a faint light, illuminating this space.

On the central circular platform covered with soft turf, a figure sat cross-legged. He wore white robes like snow, and his ink-black hair hung down like a waterfall.

After an unknown amount of time, his eyelashes trembled slightly and he slowly opened them, revealing a pair of lifeless eyes, pitch black like mercury.

He reached out his hand; his wide sleeves slid down, revealing slender wrists and long, fair fingers, as clean and beautiful as jade carvings.

However, in Ji Liang’s vision, everything remained a pitch-black void, unable to see even the slightest outline or light of an object.

A blind man indeed.

Due to the powerful spiritual energy he awakened at birth, not only did his mother die because of him, but his tiny infant body could not bear the excessively massive spiritual power, resulting in his eyes being blind from the moment he was born, unable to see things.

So, after losing his martial arts and becoming weak and powerless, he has now become blind? Ji Liang’s mouth twitched as if he were smiling a cold, mocking smile.

However, Ji Liang’s fingers moved slightly, gradually tightening into a fist. The feedback told him this was a healthy and powerful body, along with that unusual power within him.

He gradually restrained the emotions on his face, returning to a calm and waveless state. Only his pair of lifeless eyes stared vacantly forward, appearing as if he were in a trance.

After another unknown length of time, the sound of a door softly opening suddenly echoed in the quiet room. A maid walked in, carrying the faint fragrance of food.

The maid came before Ji Liang, knelt on both knees, set up a small table, then took out exquisite dishes from a food box and placed them one by one on the small table.

Throughout the process, the maid’s beautiful face was filled with indignation—not directed at the Ji Liang before her, but at those who dared to frame him.

Indignation aside, the maid’s movements were smooth and swift, without a hint of negligence. After finishing, her gaze toward Ji Liang was filled with both worship and admiration.

“My Lord.”

This was already the third day since Ji Liang had voluntarily entered the confinement room; he had not stepped out a single time in those three days.

As the maid stepped back a short distance, within that admiring gaze, she saw the figure sitting cross-legged on the circular platform slightly lowering his head as usual. His ink-black hair slid from his shoulders. His jade-white fingers reached out and, despite his blindness, accurately picked up the chopsticks placed on the small table. He ate slowly and methodically, an elegant and pleasing sight.

A while later, the maid packed up the used dishes and backed out of the confinement room.

Silence returned to the air.

Ji Liang closed those lifeless eyes and continued to feel the active, massive spiritual energy within his body.

In a world like this, where the body is intact and the situation hasn’t reached an irreversible point among the countless lives he had experienced, this was rare indeed, very rare.

Though in the end, he still wouldn’t be able to escape the control of this ridiculous fate.

However, as Ji Liang’s eyelids closed, someone stopped letting him have his peace. Or, to say it was a “person” isn’t quite right, because the other party had no physical form; it was a “yōkai soul” that could only coexist with him in one body.

“Why haven’t you gone out yet? This place is boring to death. I’d rather go outside and look at those old men’s faces.”

Inside Ji Liang’s mind, the other party’s cold voice rang out. In the next second, a following roar made him knit his brows slightly.

“Get out now! I can’t take it! I want to kill! Aaaaaah!”

Just like a mad dog.

Ji Liang’s gaze turned slightly cold. He slowly and unfamiliarly mobilized the spiritual energy in his body, aiming it at the other consciousness within him. That roar suddenly stopped, as if someone had abruptly grabbed its throat.

“—Ugh, what happened just now? Did you do something? Impossible, you can’t seal me, because I am you! Hahahaha—”

It became increasingly arrogant.

Indeed, in the original owner’s memories, he could never do anything to the other party. It was born from the deeply hidden yōkai bloodline within the original owner; even if he didn’t know what was going on, it just suddenly appeared.

And the thing wasn’t lying; it was a part of the original owner. No matter what method he used, he could not expel or separate it; it was like an inner demon.

So, usually, the original owner ignored it, though he was sometimes provoked by its unbridled and wicked words. However, sometimes it was somewhat useful, for example, when the original owner needed to disguise himself as a yōkai.

But it was only useful for that. Aside from that, the original owner never stopped thinking about how to get rid of it, yet he never succeeded. After all, with the original owner’s personality, it was impossible to keep such an unknown hidden danger stirring up trouble in his body.

It seemed to be another external manifestation of the original owner; the words he didn’t dare say and the inner heart he didn’t dare show were manifested vividly in this thing.

At this moment, like demonic music piercing his ears, it laughed arrogantly and wildly in Ji Liang’s mind.

But it had miscalculated, for this Ji Liang was no longer that Ji Liang.

Enduring the harassment of the demonic sound, Ji Liang’s expression remained motionless. The circulation of spiritual energy in his body transitioned from unfamiliar to increasingly practiced.

Then, as if tireless, Ji Liang displayed infinite patience, trying and improving over and over. Finally, after an unknown amount of time, the voice in his head ceased completely.

The world became peaceful in an instant.