Liu Chen sifted through the remnants of the boy's memories, piecing together the tragic puzzle that now made up his new life. Bit by bit, the confusion unraveled and he gained a clearer mind, being able to reflect upon the events that had taken place.
He slowly exhaled lightly.
No point in sitting around.
First thing's first — he had to get used to this new body… and the extra limbs it came with.
He called upon his new memories to help navigate the feeling of commanding his nerves, bones, and muscles to move as one.
With a steady breath, he willed his lowest set of arms to move, and they surprisingly obeyed. Pressing against his knees, they helped lift him upright with unexpected strength.
The motion was smooth and controlled. Almost unnervingly natural like he had done this action every day. Which technically, this body has.
Still standing, he flexed the lower pair once again.
Fingers curled, he turned his palms completely flat. Then, He made a fist. And finally, he held up two fingers on each hand.
Then came a quick game of 'rock, paper, scissors' for no particular reason.
"…Still got it."
So far, so good. One pair worked just fine.
And chances are if this one obeyed, the rest would too. Or so he hoped.
Liu Chen then started working on his middle pair, and found that they fully functioned in perfect fluidity like the set before. This time to test it out, he practiced moving his arms in a wave-like motion, mimicking a dance from his old world.
Finally, with the last batch, he practically knew they would also work since the original owner of the body had no problem using his six arms in tandem with each other, and he couldn't be worse than a seven-year old boy right?
'Hmmm...what should I use to test these ones out? ...Oh I know!'
He thought to take inspiration from a certain Japanese show with a nine-tailed fox demon.
His hands then started to take on different signs. First he crossed two fingers over the over, then he clasped his hand together, and lastly he stuck up a middle finger from each hand and pushed them together.
After he finished testing out his nearly perfect control over his arms, he decided to play around a bit and get used to having them.
'This kid sure is lucky...If I had this many arms in my last life, that could be six women at the same time!' But as soon as he thought that he inwardly reprimanded himself for having such desires.
Focusing his attention back onto the main task, he walked over to the middle of the room to have more space for movement as opposed to the corner he was just in.
He eventually found out that he could move multiple at the same time, but if he wanted to use all six to do a specific task each, it would be mentally taxing.
After a few minutes of playing around he heard muffled footsteps coming towards the room.
"One Thousand Years of De-"
"He should be in here my Lord." A soft female voice said.
'Oh sh*t!'
He quickly got into his original position in the corner of his room and assumed his meditative position once again.
'I have to act like my usual self or else everybody will know there are some abnormalities in my condition. They would probably accuse me of being an imposter and knowing this family, it wouldn't be a problem for them to quickly execute me.'
'I really have to leave this place or else I might really die!'
As he further contemplated his current position in the household, he felt a weird sensation enter into his stomach and quickly fill it up. It felt warm yet seemed to cool his insides off.
'Is this qi?'
As the sensation gathered into his body, it slowly started to spread through all of his meridians and back to his stomach all in one big cycle.
'So this is my dantian or sea of qi, and my meridians are the points the qi spread to throughout my body. Cultivating seems easy if all I have to do is sit like this and wait for my body to naturally accumulate qi.'
The cycle continued. And the longer it flowed, the more addictive it became. The warmth turned into a soft ecstasy, a bliss that dulled his mind and tempted him toward a deeper meditative state.
But just as he was about to slip under a trance, the door slammed open.
A young man strode in without so much as a knock, his voice casual and filled with a mockery that rang in Liu Chen's ears.
"How's your cultivating coming along Junior brother?"
Liu Chen opened his eyes to see what looked like a teenage boy with dark purple hair in a low ponytail and brown eyes. His facial structure appeared to be crafted by God himself from his cheekbones to his jawlines.
He wore a sky-blue robe with drifting white cloud motifs, and at his hip hung a purple katana with a star-shaped guard.
But for some reason this perfect face stirred up an emotion of anger deep inside of Liu Chen. He did not recall this face in Asura's memories and did not know what he did to garner such hatred from a child.
But the man currently standing in front of him made Liu Chen want to jump up and punch him in the face with all six of his fists!
Seeing the boy in front of him snap awake, the young man's smirk twisted into a disgusted sneer.
"Bastard, you smell like a pig! Don't you know once you purge your impurities to clean yourself up. Oh... that's right, you've spent so much time with the pigs lately that you've started to grow accustomed to their ways of life. But that is only fitting such a bastard freak like you hang around pigs and share their filth."
He stepped closer, his voice growing sharper with each word.
"You should be grateful. Maybe I'll bring you some pig feed next time and make you eat it off of the floor. Or better yet, a pile of shit. You can roll in it, Bastard freak. It's probably the only real comfort you'll find in this world. Hahahahahaha—"
Listening to this fellow's ramblings Liu Chen finally figured out where that hatred had stemmed from.
However, there was a stark difference between Liu Chen and Asura, and that difference was no matter in this life or the last, he would not be disrespected like this.
"You talk too much." Liu Chen swiftly said, interrupting his hysterical laughter.
And the laughter died instantly.
The man shut his mouth and slowly lowered his gaze to see the boy in front of him meeting it. The boy even had a look in his eyes that showed an insurmountable will.
Liu Chen hadn't expected his words to work, but just as he was about to say something else, the young man's foot landed squarely in Liu Chen's stomach, sending him crashing into the wooden wall behind him creating a small, six armed human-shaped crater.
"What gave you the courage to actually defy me, Wang Junli? Has that Bitch Wang Mei told you something in secret to boost your courage? Well...tell me Asura!"
He walked over to Liu Chen, who was now gasping for air and had blood trickling out of his mouth.
'Wang Junli, that's Asura's elder brother.' That was all he could glean from the fragmented memories at this point in time, but it was enough.
As he tried to regain control over his breathing, Wang Junli once again kicked him ferociously in his stomach. This time though, he continued non-stop.
At that moment, he was thankful that the maidservants had not given him breakfast that morning or else it would have all been laid out in front of him.
Liu Chen could barely even scream in pain as he kept getting pummeled repeatedly without any breaks. He had never gotten beaten up before in his past life so he didn't know what it felt like, but now he wouldn't even wish this pain on his former CEO.
It was as if a freight train was being repeatedly rammed into his body.
Finally, after thirty more seconds of abusing Asura did Wang Junli finally stop. But once he did, Liu Chen was already knocked unconscious.
Wang Junli cast a glance at Asura and walked out of the room with a scornful frown on his face. "Pathetic Weakling."
...
The night sky stretched vast and endless, painted deep indigo, with two colossal moons casting silver and pale-blue hues across the sleeping world. Their twin lights bathed the land in a strange, dreamlike glow.
They cast a light over the Wang Compound, where Liu Chen was currently recuperating in the family medical division.
As he woke up from his unconsciousness, he at long last realized the dire situation Asura had been in his entire life.
He had been nursed back to health by the Wang family's doctor, who held no animosity towards Asura. Her name was Dr. Yue.
She was a kind and elderly soul who had seen everyone's treatment towards him and always comforted him when it happened.
She had to take her leave shortly after healing him however, since the Patriarch had called for her assistance in an important medicinal task.
After an hour of lying in bed, he slowly sat up, each movement weighed down by pain and exhaustion.
He looked down at his shirtless body and saw he was covered in bandages all around his waist.
Liu Chen had to admit though, for a seven-year old, Asura had a well built physique. He was the first child he had seen with an eight pack of abdominal muscles.
After taking a moment to appreciate the boy's hard work, he slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed and stared into the circular mirror resting above a cushioned pillow.
Only now did he truly see the reflection of his new self—Asura.
His skin was a rich bronze, glinting with a faint golden hue under the moonlight, as if kissed by the sun and tempered by fire. Lean muscles coiled beneath his frame, subtly flexing with every breath and movement he made.
His snow-white hair, inherited from his mother, cascaded in sharp contrast to his tanned complexion. And then there were his eyes—crimson, not with warmth or gentleness, but brimming with defiance and a smoldering rage that dared the world to challenge him.
He then cast his gaze downwards, looking at the puffed out black trousers on his legs. All in all, he was no a handsome young man.
While admiring himself, Liu Chen heard a knock on the door and instinctively yelled "I am not prepared for visitors at this time, please leave!"
The knocking stopped and an elegant and gentle voice replaced it. The voice seemed to contain all of the kindness and love in the world as it spoke.
"Asura, it is your mother."
Asura immediately turned around and a shocked expression came onto his face.
'Mother...?'