[You were brought into the core of the inner city. A private residence was assigned to you—spacious, quiet, and fully equipped with everything one might need. Yet it felt less like a reward and more like a gilded cage. Patrol teams passed outside your doors constantly. Every step, every breath of yours was under silent watch.]
[You already knew what this meant. In their eyes, you were not a guest, nor an ally. You were a useful freak—tolerated but not trusted.]
[You soon learned the name of the young man who brought you in: Wang Li. He was one of the initiates of the Wang Clan. From scattered overheard whispers and observing your surroundings, you pieced together that there were many initiates in the clan—each powerful, each dangerous.]
[Questions burned in your mind—about the Wang clan, their power structure, how they tracked you in simulations—but the guards refused to speak. No one came close unless necessary. Even those assigned to "serve" you were martial artists, capable of resisting you if needed. The message was clear: if you ever posed a threat, you'd be eliminated on the spot.]
[But you didn't complain. You didn't protest.]
[You just worked.]
[You healed whoever they brought. You smiled when they demanded, obeyed when they ordered. You pretended not to notice the surveillance, the isolation, the cold calculation behind every smile.]
[Because deep down, you understood one thing: the only way forward… was through them.]
[In your fourth year, you remained diligent and silent, continuing to work as a healer. Your reputation for performing medical miracles grew, and so did your proficiency in medicine that defied common sense.]
[By the fifth year, your skills reached new heights. You had treated four Initiate Realm cultivators—true elites. From their conditions, you began to grasp the foundation of their cultivation. Unlike most, their bodies and inner breath were fully unified. This hinted that the "Initiate Realm" was not just a realm of power, but the culmination of body cultivation and inner breathing merged into one. It was a revelation—and the beginning of a new research path.]
[In your sixth year, for the first time, you were granted limited permission to walk the outer premises of the Wang estate. You seized the opportunity. Through careful observation and subtle questioning, you confirmed there were at least eight Initiates in the clan.]
[More importantly, you made a breakthrough: you discovered the general mechanism of the Wang Clan's detection method. It was not just a spiritual scan—it was a reaction. Your body, lacking proper immunity to yin energy, marked you as a "freak."]
[With this knowledge, you began researching how to artificially create a yin-resistant layer—something that could mimic the aura of a normal person. Your studies led you to a conclusion: the best method was exposure or infusion with materials of pure yang.]
[After extensive elimination, you narrowed your target to the rarest and most effective: Yang Stone. Used exclusively by top-tier sects and powerful martial artists to exterminate yin-based beings, Yang Stones were practically nonexistent. Even in the Wang Clan treasury, such items were considered too valuable to touch.]
[You knew escaping the Wang Clan was impossible. And getting your hands on a Yang Stone while under constant surveillance? A dream.]
[Then, in your seventh year, Wang Li returned.]
[He visited you in secret. When you examined him, you found something disturbing: a parasitic centipede nestled within his body. With extreme precision, you extracted it. After confirming it with his own eyes, Wang Li left for war with the Iron Army.]
[Three months passed.]
[The Iron Army returned… broken.]
[They had lost three Initiates. It was unthinkable.]
[You were shocked. What force existed in this land that could slay Initiates under Wang family protection? Even more terrifying: the soldiers who survived were maimed, shattered. You worked tirelessly, healing all that could still be saved.]
courtyard—not alive, but corpses.]
[The bodies were wrapped in thick ceremonial cloth, but even death could not hide their presence.]
[One of them was Wang Li. Despite being over sixty at the time of death, his physique remained that of a vigorous warrior. His face bore no fear, only cold stillness—as though he died standing.]
[The other two were elderly—a man and a woman—but their bodies emanated a residual pressure that weighed down the air like a fading storm. They had been Initiates as well.]
[You understood immediately: these were honored dead. The Wang Clan did not entrust such corpses to common morticians. You had been chosen to restore their bodies before the burial rites.]
[As you stepped closer, you saw the wounds. They hadn't just died—they had been slain. Quick, precise strikes. You could almost read the battle in the scars.]
[The corpses bore clean, surgical cuts—the kind only the most refined blades could make. To any ordinary physician, they were unsalvageable. At best, someone could stitch together a shell, a puppet of flesh with no spirit.]
[But under Shen Li's hands, flesh recognized flesh. Skin realigned. Muscle reformed. He brought them back whole—not alive, but so pristine that one might expect them to sit up and breathe.]
[In the process, he traced the lingering echoes of their power. The way the meridians curved, the muscle fiber coiled—vestiges of Initiate-level martial mastery. It wasn't enough to replicate, but it confirmed his suspicion: these bodies were valuable far beyond their surface.]
[He gazed at Wang Li's corpse—the most formidable of the three. A body tempered through decades, yet unmarred by age. A vessel of power.]
"To stay here is to be collared like a dog."
[He had long sensed it—the invisible cage. Wang family offered protection, but it was not freedom.]
[You don't see any future as Wang Family's lap dog. The thought of living under their command, healing their wounds, and being studied like some strange beast—it disgusts you.]
[You've given them everything they asked for—miracles, obedience, results—and in return, they've given you a golden cage. No freedom, no trust, just silent fear behind their respectful masks.]
[And now? With Initiates dead and your hands on their untouched bodies, a door has opened—a dangerous, fragile door.]
"If I stay, they'll peel me open one day… see what I truly am. And then I'll be useful—until I'm not."
[You decide. You will escape Wuhan.]
[You will risk everything. Your soul. Your life]
[You decided to play your final cards.]
[If you could bind your soul to one of these Initiate corpses, you might gain an unrestrained Initiate's physique—a power beyond anything your pseudo first-grade body could offer. Better to gamble for greatness than flee like a stray dog in soul form.]
[Among the three, Wang Li's body stood out—his physique was flawless, refined through decades of elite training. If you were to bet your life, it would be on this vessel.]
[You sat your current body down in the wooden chair, let out a long breath, and your soul rose silently from your flesh.]
[The air turned still. The world slowed.]
[With your years of soul cultivation and repeated use of Cicada Shell Rebirth, you began the binding process. A delicate dance of intent, spirit, and will.]
[For four hours, you toiled inside the corpse. Stitching soul to bone, latching thought to muscle, weaving your will into every fiber.]
[No alarms were raised. Your old body remained slumped peacefully on the chair—just another eccentric physician resting after overexertion.]
[And when it was done…]
[You were lucky enough to successfully bind your soul to Wang Li's body.]
[But the moment your soul settled, something felt… wrong.]
[You felt nothing. Heard nothing. Saw nothing. You couldn't even move a finger.]
[Trapped.]
[You cursed your luck and tried a thousand methods—circulating soul energy, stimulating meridians, invoking breathing techniques—but the body remained a corpse.]
[You were conscious, aware, screaming silently within flesh that refused to obey.]
[Outside, they noticed your original body had gone unresponsive. Concerned, the Wang family summoned a physician. Meanwhile, Wang Li's body—your new vessel—was taken for burial, along with the other Initiates, the treatment considered complete.]
[The next day, you were lowered into the earth.]
[The darkness of the coffin wrapped around your mind. Unlike any of your simulations, unlike any pain you'd felt before… this was true despair.]
[You had left your own body, and now your soul was sealed inside a corpse, buried beneath stone and dirt.]
[You knew one thing: if this body began to rot, you would die with it—forever.]
[Desperation turned into clarity.]
[You calmed your spirit, called upon the Yin Longevity Sutra—the . You began to subtly circulate its energy, adjusting and reshaping it to better suit the powerful, inert body of Wang Li.]
[Eighth Year][Your theory proved correct. The body didn't rot.Thanks to the Yin Longevity Sutra and your relentless will, something began to change.Faint noises reached your ears—a distant heartbeat, the subtle shifting of soil, whispers of wind above.Your eyelids twitched.]
[Ninth Year][A finger moved. Just one.The effort nearly shattered your mind, but it moved.The rest of the body still felt like a coffin within a coffin—cold, inert, unreachable.But you endured.]
[Tenth Year][The Yin energy you cultivated seeped deeper.You could now flex your arms and legs—barely. You opened your eyes for the first time and saw compact layers of dirt pressing down.You smelled rot, moisture, roots—but taste still eluded you.One sense at a time, one inch at a time, you were returning.]
[You knew it would take another four or five years to truly reawaken Wang Li's body.So you continued to lie in silence—cultivating, waiting, growing.You wouldn't be buried forever.]
[10-Year Simulation Concluded][Please choose your reward:]
[Body and Cultivation: Original Physique – 27-Year Peak] [You reclaim the body of your original self, strengthened by decades of compound simulations. It carries the strength of a peak pseudo–First Grade martial artist, bolstered by battle experience and high-grade martial arts from memory imprints.
[Body and Cultivation: Yin-Fused Corpse Physique] [You awaken in the Initiate corpse you inhabited. Ten years of Yin energy has made this body terrifying. Muscles are firm like dried meat, nerves are rewired through undead willpower. You do not feel hunger. You do not sleep. You are half-corpse, half-cultivator—a silent revenant standing on the threshold of undeath.]
[Memory Imprint] [All insights from ten years are burned into your soul. You retain unparalleled knowledge of Yin cultivation, medical miracles, and the secrets of Initiate anatomy. You also gain understanding of burial resistance and partial soul-body harmonization.]
[Item: Coffin-Sealing Stone] [This relic put on your dead body tomb]
Shen Li smiled to himself. "Just as I thought. You must follow the lion to its den." He praised his past decision to bend the knee to the Wang family, if only in appearance.
He gazed at the reward panel, feigning surprise. "I knew I could bind my soul to another body, but this... this zombie form? It's something I only imagined once, briefly. I thought such a path was far too complex to ever be real."
The memory imprint held immense value—years of medical refinement, firsthand experience treating Initiates, and most importantly: a road map. A rough draft of a martial technique that could one day let him step into the Initiate Realm.
"What good is a map if I die before the road begins? I can barely survive ten years as I am now. I need strength—strength to resist fate itself."
He chose—
[Body and Cultivation: Yin-Fused Corpse Physique]
The moment he made his choice, a cold wind surged over his limbs.
A breath later, all sensation vanished. His nerves dulled. His skin turned pale, the color of faint ash. And then it began—
His height stretched, rising to nearly 1.9 meters. His already-dense muscles and sinew grew harder, tougher—like reinforced meat dried beneath a merciless sun. Shen Li felt his five internal organs twist, compress, and reform. A transformation that should've made him scream for death instead left only dull tingling.
His signature bloated stomach—once a result of hidden muscle compression—flattened, folding back into his frame. At last, he looked almost... normal
Too pale. Too tall. Too still. But normal
He rolled his shoulders. Then he flexed.
The flesh that had once been suppressed deep within his body now surged outward, swelling until he looked fat again. But this time, there was no compression—only real, undead mass.
"I made the right choice," Shen Li whispered, admiring his new form. "Back then, I had to suppress my muscle, nerves, and veins just to appear ordinary. Now..." He lifted his arm. There was only strength. Cold, slow-burning, undying strength. "...Now I feel nothing but a faint tingle."
Shen Li couldn't resist.
He stepped out from his carriage, boots crunching the dry dirt below. With silent intensity, he walked to the nearest tree—an old elm, thick-trunked and rooted deep.
He curled his fingers, forming a fist. He could feel it—the monstrous tension in his muscles, the eerie harmony of flesh and organ, the silent hum of cold, undead power pulsing just beneath his skin.
With a calm breath, he punched.
He had expected resistance. Expected his fist to sink in slightly, perhaps deform the bark and leave cracks.
Instead
CRACK!
The trunk split with a deafening snap. The entire upper half of the tree tipped backward and crashed to the earth with a thunderous boom, kicking up leaves and dust like an explosion.
Shen Li blinked
Then he grinned, wide and sharp
"This... this is beyond First Grade!"
Shen Li looked at his pale, veiny arms—stronger than tempered steel, yet without warmth. He flexed his fingers, feeling the dull tingle of power.
"So… it's not just because I turned into some walking corpse," he muttered, his voice raspy but calm. "It's because I used Wang Li's body… an Initiate. Refined for decades. His bones, his muscles, even the inner breath channels... they're still there."
He clenched his fist, recalling the punch that shattered a tree trunk in one blow.
"I've been feeding this body with Yin for three years… like marinating iron in poison until it becomes something else entirely."
His lip curled into a half-smile.
"This isn't a normal zombie. No... I've made a new kind of vessel. Half corpse, half Initiate… and completely mine."
He looked up at the gray sky.
"Maybe I was never meant to cultivate the old way… maybe I'm the cultivation."