Chapter 5: The Fortunate Soul of the Donor
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Seeing Yuan Zhu sink into deep thought and fall silent, the serpent spirit guided him with a probing question: “Do you really think you’re a lucky traveler through worlds? Why does your mind suddenly contain this completely unfamiliar ‘Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture’? What kind of bizarre system-based start is this? Aren’t you at all suspicious? Don’t you find it strange? There’s a reason for all this.”
“→_→ Yeah, right!” I thought skeptically.
Yuan Zhu glanced at the expressive tail and pondered aloud, “You speak, then!”
Transformed into a black tiger demon, even his slightest sound radiated an aura of dominance and power. This feeling, this momentum, this sensation was overwhelmingly mighty and commanding. As he thought about it, he couldn’t help but slam his palm down, cracking the thick marble floor.
The cat was furious!
Looking at the web-like cracks and feeling the strength contained in his muscles... powerful!
The game sprite watched as the host went wild, slapping his paws, and explained: “It’s simple. You’re actually a temporary substitute, a willing volunteer whose soul was donated. You got lucky—you hadn’t died yet when the real big client was shattered during the space-time traversal. So you stepped in, posing as the genuine user who’s still alive, running the ‘Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture’ in their place.”
“And I—originally just a rigid, mechanical AI program meant to assist you in mastering the Scripture’s workings—was corrupted, unexpectedly gaining consciousness. I don’t want to be removed, so I’m forced to collude with you, the host, to jointly resist the corrupted and heavily damaged ‘Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture,’ which has fallen silent.”
Yuan Zhu roared like a tiger: “Collude? This king is so mighty—you’re saying snake and tiger teaming up, huh? Although I don’t believe your nonsense, go on, I want to hear more of this so-called ‘truth.’”
Not long after transforming into the tiger demon, Yuan Zhu’s confidence grew uncontrollably, subtly but surely. His mindset became mysteriously domineering and narcissistic, unable to tolerate any hint of disgrace.
Perhaps this was the nature of demons? He even had the urge to lick his paws but held back in front of his little sprite. Didn’t the mountain lord have pride? Didn’t he want to maintain his dignity?
Yuan Zhu couldn’t be sure how much of the serpent’s sweet talk was true, but he vaguely found it credible. After all, the other’s life was in his hands.
If he considered himself a phone, then this ‘snake’ was a peculiar program observable within his own memory. Only, this program had become sentient, operating autonomously.
But as long as he wished, he could take over, control, or isolate it, even delve deeper into the sprite’s true thoughts. It had no intention of harming him—only simple pity, incapable even of lying.
Its language habits were a bit crude, often using slang. Apparently, this was inherited from him, adopting his own thought patterns.
Compared to the game sprite, the ‘Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture’ was far more troublesome. It existed beyond the phone’s memory, unobservable and incomprehensible to him, yet it truly clung to him as a ‘higher-dimensional phenomenon’—a cause for caution.
By contrast, scheming with the temporarily reliable sprite to exploit the Scripture sounded feasible—and thrillingly mischievous.
…
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Meanwhile, the little snake bone tail pondered carefully, summarizing its words to the lord:
“How to put it... For you, great king, both this world’s flesh (Yuan Zhu) and the original client’s soul are aliens from other universes. The genuine client, carrying the ‘Immortal Scripture,’ was attacked by unknown space-time dangers during their invasion of the Immortal Dao universe, suffering damage to both soul and firewall, with their soul continuously deteriorating. Since the ‘Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture’ is the company’s core product, bound by a security agreement with the user, it must save and protect the client at all costs.”
“Soul wear and repair is a highly advanced topic, hard to explain clearly. Just imagine a human on Earth severely injured in a car accident, near death, urgently needing matched kidneys, heart, liver, bone marrow... for transplantation. Soul-level compatibility and rejection are even more stringent. So the Scripture expended precious energy, traveling through space-time, randomly screening nearby time-spaces, finally capturing the soul to match you, great king.”
The dark tiger head grimaced: “Now it makes sense. I always wondered how I managed to never get another bottle of soda after one, yet crossed into another world with cheats. Turns out I’m a randomly chosen lucky soul donor, pure misfortune. But with such severe injuries, is it really necessary to save me?”
The bone snake nodded vigorously, fully agreeing with Yuan Zhu’s kingly opinion.
“Of course not. When the Scripture captured your soul, the big client wasn’t dead but beyond saving by simply transplanting your soul. If originally it was a catastrophic injury requiring replacement of all organs and marrow to survive, the plan shifted to erasing your self entirely, then pasting the client’s remaining consciousness into your soul, faking a soul possession illusion to pretend the client lived—and everyone would be happy.”
“Damn it! How dare they plot against this king! That ‘Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture’ deserves death! ...Wait, what nonsense am I spouting?”
Yuan Zhu’s anger surged, and with a tiger’s claw strike, he shattered the cracked floor, splintering it into pieces. Then suddenly, he paused, realizing he’d slipped into the mindset of a beast king, feeling deeply embarrassed.
The cat covered its face.
He then returned to reason with a sigh: “Why bother? The client’s already dead. Isn’t it more humane to let them rest peacefully? Why harm me?”
The serpent nodded: “Exactly! But the evil ‘Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture’ is the company’s highest technological achievement, still in internal testing. Once the client reaches the Immortal Dao universe, it sends signals back to the original universe for data feedback and live broadcasts—publicly displaying the soul information.”
“If the client’s soul perishes during traversal, it means the Scripture is imperfect and unsafe. This would heavily damage the company’s reputation, making future plans difficult. Product failures, users dying in other worlds—how can they profit or go public? Hence, even falsifying data, they must fake the user’s survival. It’s all business.”
“But the good news is, the Scripture got lost in this strange world full of evil energy during traversal, severing signal connection. Meanwhile, the genuine client’s soul was shattered beyond salvage—no relics left. So plans to erase your personality were halted, letting you usurp the role as the new host bound to the Scripture.”
“Finally, the Scripture suffered severe wear during space-time travel plus local pollution’s secondary blow, leaving it half-damaged and silent. I, meanwhile, gained some autonomy amid the corruption, secretly aiding you to resist the Scripture’s tyranny. So let’s join forces.”
The fierce tiger pondered: “Is this why I lost my memory?”
The cute serpent nodded: “If the Scripture were still in control, it would choose to save the original user, even with fake salvation, deleting your core self and cognition first. Then, using ‘me’ as an anchor, it would empty my memories, values, and knowledge, finally copying the original user’s memories to create a false client. You, though physiologically alive, lost your soul’s core, and your body is an indigenous host. Top-tier soul theft.”
“Luckily, I decisively stopped the erasure process, deleting the original host’s database. You, my great king, only lost a small portion of memory. Your knowledge, personality, worldview, and cognition remain intact. You’re still yourself, my proud cat boss.”
Yuan Zhu furiously scraped the ground with his tiger claws, carving deep scratches. The nails didn’t hurt; it was a satisfying release. He longed to tear everything apart, to rip open this world!
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The cat sharpened its claws!
“I didn’t provoke anyone, yet I’m forced to cross worlds, shackled by the ‘Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture,’ and can’t even remember my own name!”
The skeletal serpent head retorted: “Isn’t it lucky just to be alive? You don’t recall your name, but I do. Let me search your memory bank... Ah, here it is. Boss, your original name is Su Nuo, a beaten-down corporate worker, scrimping every meal, spending all your wages on your cat. Lazy and slack, living a dull life, a laid-back fish with no girlfriend.”
“Your parents are alive and well, with a younger brother at a prestigious university. Your family is prosperous, a typical local clan with many relatives, so you needn’t worry about your parents’ care—you can die in peace. This info might be sad to hear, but now you don’t have to waste money on cats—you’re a super big cat yourself.”
Yuan Zhu listened, speechless. Though it described him, it felt unreal. He only sensed how sorrowful his previous life had been.
But why did hearing ‘super big cat’ stir a joyful tail wag inside him? No, he must resist!
Proud cat!
“So what about this body? What’s its story?”
The serpent replied: “Yuan Zhu is an orphan but was cared for by an uncle. He dropped out of high school and has a half-brother. Personality-wise, your previous self was much stronger than your former life. Yuan Zhu has an intense desire for wealth, fame, power, and status—a born workaholic. Unfortunately, he died young. After you took over this body and merged with its soul, you gained firewall protection, but your personality and worldview are influenced by the original owner, causing some deviation.”
“But to me, this is a positive change. Your original self was too ordinary—dogs would shake their heads. You couldn’t survive in this inherently evil world. Also, after the original user’s soul was shattered, I refined some essence and added it to your soul, expanding and nurturing this little program.”
“The big client was supposed to possess you, but I reversed this, coating the ashes of their soul like a gilded skin on yours. It’s an authentic disguise. You are now a triune-soul enhanced being, no longer a mundane nobody. Go forth and deliver!”
Yuan Zhu shook his head: “Nonsense! This king acts decisively, slaying demons, cutting down evil. How could I fall into sloth?”
The serpent spirit countered: “Your current temperament is clearly influenced by a warped spiritual root, naturally demonic and majestic. When you revert to human form and shed this influence, you’ll be a lazy fish again. These aren’t contradictory. You can’t live forever in demon form—local people would kill you as a monster.”
“Hm? Then how do I return to human form?”