Rising.
My consciousness was rising from the deepest depths of slumber. Though I had long since forgotten myself, slowly but surely, I was regaining everything.
Yes... Yes.
The air. The light. The scents. The prayers. The voices.
Those gentle things I had felt over many years and months were now nothing more than sensations.
Sensations that were now prying open the dark curtains of emptiness over my consciousness.
Yes... Yes.
A memory returned to me.
An unfortunate memory returned to me.
I remembered the one desire that I had never fulfilled in the end.
That’s right.
That’s right.
I had never desired a peaceful death. I had wanted to die in battle. I had wanted my flesh pierced, my blood flowing, my bones mangled.
Though my fighting spirit remained, though my determination to keep going remained, my body had reached its limits. Unwilling to listen to my wishes, it wanted nothing more than to listlessly collapse to the ground.
The absolute precipice of the martial arts...
The deepest abyss of the martial arts...
Just what was the answer I had ultimately reached?
I believed all I had desired for many a year was to meet an existence stronger than mine.
That’s why, this time...
This time for absolute certain...
I will find something that can kill me.
“Ngh?! Coff, coff!”
Though my awakening arrived gently, it was interrupted by a sudden discomfort... No, it was a physical pain.
What is this body?!
My coughs wouldn’t stop. Each one wracked my body, sending a shivering chill up my spine—almost as if the grim reaper itself had a hand upon me.
I could feel it. My life was withering away.
The continuous coughing that scraped away at what was left of my life was accompanied by a visceral fear of death. My insides were screaming so hard it was like they were being torn apart. My survival instincts were raising their own cry.
Death itself would peek out and then duck back into hiding.
No matter how many times I experience this, death is frightening. No matter how many times I experience this... No matter how many times I experience this?
My coughing fit subsided.
I was so exhausted I could barely lift a finger, and I limply let my body fall back into what I now realized was a bed.
The moment I was able to take in my surroundings, I heard a man’s voice from right beside me. “Has it stopped?”
I turned my gaze towards him, but the man was unfamiliar to me. He wore a black robe with the hood pulled far over his head. I couldn’t see his face properly.
Though, if we were to catalog all that which was unfamiliar, it would include my current location and the original owner of this body. In fact, I felt like the things I did know numbered far less. Actually, no, perhaps I could state definitively: I knew not a single thing.
The room I was in was dimly lit, with only the bare minimum lighting. It appeared to be someone’s bedroom.
This body was most likely diseased. It was marching towards death, not due to anything external, but entirely internal. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew: my new body was not long for this world.
“I have a request,” the hooded man said. “Survive for just one single day. You need do naught else.”
I parted my lips.
“Tell me...what is going on...”
My mouth was dry and my voice was hoarse. Given the high pitch, this body must have belonged to a child.
“I was hired to use the art of spirit invocation. The soul of this body has already left this world...and so I was able to insert another soul as a replacement. Namely, yours.”
My soul was but a replacement?
No... Of course. I understand now.
“The body you now reside in formerly belonged to the daughter of an aristocrat. Her parents hired me to keep her alive at great monetary reward. They don’t want their daughter to die, and I require money—more than words can express. I imagine that, should nothing change, you may have only a few days left to live. This body already passed its limits long ago.”
Yes, I imagined so. I could feel it keenly.
“I have no idea who you are,” he continued. “You could be some great villain, or perhaps you aren’t even human. Maybe you’re a demon. Maybe you’re some vengeful ghost. But regardless, I must ask this of you: Just for one day, do nothing but survive. Survive until I receive my payment and leave this island. Please live until that time comes.”
This hooded man was making quite the selfish demand. After saying what he needed to say, he left my side.
“I’m sorry. I truly am,” he apologized as he left the room. “If we meet in hell, you’re welcome to kill me.”
And then I closed my eyes.
That man had forcefully awakened my dead self and shoved me into a terminally ill body that would meet its end within a few days.
In other words, that man had called my spirit back only to make me experience death once more.
In other words, that man was asking me to taste death a second time after having already suffered through it once.
In other words, that man had forced this dying body on me despite not knowing who I was—all to make this host live for one day more.
“Ha ha... Ha ha ha!” Could there be anything more laughable? I’d never imagined I would get the chance to die twice. Life truly was unpredictable, even if my last one had already ended long ago.
“If...anyone else had been put into this body...it most certainly would’ve died.”
I raised both of my heavy hands, each cloaked in death, and layered them over my heart as if I were a corpse inside a coffin. But my doing this was to bring myself closer to life.
I was lucky. If I had not been trained in chi, my second death would have already overtaken this body.