drip drip drip
Rain was continuously pouring down from the sky as dark clouds covered the forest along with the darkness of night, leaving only a dilapidated old temple-like building from where a tiny ray of light shone out – a ray of light in the darkness.
Inside the temple, the ground and walls were dirty, with cobwebs gathered all over them.
At the front stood a tall stone statue of Buddha. A faint smile remained on its lips, but the area above its mouth was missing, leaving only a flat surface, as if it had been cut clean by a blade.
In this temple, a small distance away from the statue, a fire burned quietly. A skewer was placed above it, with pieces of meat shaped like a rabbit roasting over the flames.
In front of it sat a young man, around sixteen or seventeen years old, with soft black hair tied in a bun, a clean, beardless face, and his eyes closed as if in meditation.
He wore cheap-looking armor – likely made from cotton and wood – and an old-looking tandao (similar to a katana, but slightly different) hung at his waist.
A few moments later, his nose twitched as he smelled the food nearing readiness. His eyelashes trembled slightly as he opened his eyes, revealing a pair of deep, dark black pupils.
He twitched his nose as he looked at the skewer in front of him.
"It's done, eh," he muttered, raising his hands. They looked rough and calloused, darker than most of his body.
As he took the first bite of the so-so tasting meat, he fell into a daze, his thoughts drifting back to the past.
He, Ye Yuan – sixteen years old – was a resident of Blackwood City, a small city in Feng Province, Jin Kingdom.
But he carried a deep secret within him. He wasn't truly a native of this world. To be precise, his body was, but his soul was not.
He was a man who had experienced rebirth – after dying in a traffic accident that ended his lonely life in the previous world.
"Sigh..."
Ye Yuan let out a soft sigh, still missing that peaceful world a little, as his mind wandered again into old memories.
Although he had been reborn, his case was nothing like those of other so-called protagonists – the ones who became children of emperors, noble heirs, or rich merchants. Yet, he wasn't as unlucky as those born as beggars or servants either.
He had been born into a common pharmacy run by a kind couple who mostly treated ordinary townsfolk.
As their son, he was fortunate enough to be well-fed and raised peacefully under their care. After some time, he had accepted them as his real parents, even though the feeling had been strange at first.
But the good days didn't last long.
When he was around fourteen, a terrible gang war broke out between two local groups – the Two-Headed Viper Gang and the Red Wolf Gang.
While he was out for a few hours, buying herbs from another part of the city, a piece of news struck his world apart.
In the fight between two high-ranking members of those gangs, the Red Wolf member beat the Two-Headed Viper one half to death, though he also suffered heavy injuries himself. In the chaos, the master of the Two-Headed Viper Gang was taken to a nearby pharmacy for emergency treatment.
He was treated at the clinic and somehow managed to survive.
Not long after, a mid-ranked member of the Red Wolf Gang attacked the same clinic, accusing it of "helping the enemy," and beat everyone inside to death.
Ye Yuan ran back like a panicked beast, not even caring about the expensive herbs he had dropped. He desperately hoped the attacked clinic wasn't theirs – there were two other clinics in that part of the city.
But his hopes were shattered as he reached the scene after running for more than a quarter of an hour.
The once ordinary but peaceful-looking clinic was now in ruins – the door broken, windows shattered, bloody footprints scattered around the entrance and walls.
Just to the left of the main door, two bodies lay on the ground, covered with white cloth. A small crowd of townspeople and a few patrolling officers stood nearby, murmuring among themselves.
With trembling steps, Ye Yuan pushed through the people and stood before the bodies. He looked down at the familiar faces beneath the cloth with a blank expression. The exhaustion from running and the shock of the sight hit him all at once, and his body gave out.
The next thing he remembered was waking up in the clinic, where some officers asked a few half-hearted questions before leaving.
Later, members of the Two-Headed Viper Gang came to express their condolences. They cursed the Red Wolf Gang for attacking innocents and even arranged his parents' burial, despite his refusal.
And then, as he expected, they took the deed of the clinic – along with most of the money and jewelry – as "payment" for the funeral costs. Ye Yuan silently watched them, their fake sympathetic faces no different from the ones they wore while pretending to grieve for his parents.
It wasn't that he didn't want to fight back or seek justice. But who would listen to a fourteen-year-old orphan daring to oppose such powerful gangs?
And he wasn't strong enough to fight them anyway.
This world wasn't some ordinary ancient land – it was a world filled with supernatural power. Monsters, ghosts, and other beings roamed freely, while humans walked the path of warriors, practicing martial arts strong enough to destroy nations.
And among those gangs, there were certainly warriors as well.
Ye Yuan could only close his eyes, swallow his hatred, and promise himself that one day, he would take revenge – but only when he became strong enough.
The best way to do that was to become a warrior.
So, he took the money he had secretly saved over the years, used about seventy percent of it as tuition, and joined one of the city's most reputed martial arts dojo – the Black Bear Dojo, whose master was said to be stronger than the leaders of both the Two-Headed Viper and Red Wolf Gangs.
But luck played another cruel joke on him. Despite a year of effort, he wasn't talented enough to become even an entry-level warrior. When his training period ended, he was expelled from the Black Bear Dojo.
The following year passed in a haze. He spent his days doing small jobs while continuing to practice the martial arts he had learned at the dojo.
As for the two gangs, whether out of fear of the dojo's name or simple disinterest, they never came after him again.
And finally, after two years of hard training, he became an entry-level warrior – or more precisely, a quasi skin-refining warrior.
...
Now, he works as a ghostwriter – a person who takes on tasks from the government of the Jin Kingdom and receives rewards upon completion. These tasks range from hunting wanted fugitives to escorting valuable goods.
At the moment, he is on a mission to hunt down one of the lowest-ranked criminals – "Ink Face" Ji Yao, who, like him, is also a quasi skin-refining warrior.
Rather than his strength, Ji Yao is infamous for his disguise techniques, which have allowed him to remain free while committing several murders over the years.
But, the government still somehow got trace of him, this putting his wanted notice as many along with him went off to bring his head back after getting clues from government.