Jiang Yang lay engulfed in swirling amethyst mist, his eyes tracking blazing swords that clashed like warring dragons across the heavens. Each collision birtched supernovae of light that scorched his retinas, shockwaves rippling through the air like stone cast into water. Gritty sandstorms born from these celestial duels battered against the translucent dome shielding him - this fragile soap bubble standing between his mortality and annihilation.
Jiang Yang lay engulfed in swirling amethyst mist, his eyes tracking blazing swords that clashed like warring dragons across the heavens. Each collision birtched supernovae of light that scorched his retinas, shockwaves rippling through the air like stone cast into water. Gritty sandstorms born from these celestial duels battered against the translucent dome shielding him - this fragile soap bubble standing between his mortality and annihilation.
A lifelong disciple of empirical truth, Jiang Yang had built his worldview upon steel girders of quantum physics and chemical equations. Gods were fairy tales for children, magic mere sleight of hand for the gullible. Yet now his trembling fingers dug into violet-tinged soil as reality itself unraveled before him. The laboratory of his mind scrambled for rational explanations - plasma weaponry? Holograms? Mass hallucination?
The ordinary university student laughed bitterly at the cosmic joke. His twenty-two years had been painted in monotonous grays - middling grades at third-tier institutions, bank accounts echoing with emptiness, romantic endeavors ending before they began. While peers chased internships or campus crushes, Jiang Yang drowned himself in webnovels where truck accidents became portals to cultivation realms, where zeroes transformed into heroes amid harem conquests.
Lately though, even these fantasies curdled in his throat. "Pathetic!" He''d mutter over his cracked smartphone screen, watching yet another protagonist grovel before some jade-skinned beauty''s cruelty. When icy sword maidens severed limbs or poison vixens melted organs, these so-called heroes simply sighed about "unresolved sexual tension." Jiang Yang''s fist would clench until his instant noodles went cold. Were he the protagonist, he''d...
"FUCK THIS SHIT!"
The sudden roar shattered the computer lab''s drowsy atmosphere. Two dozen heads swiveled towards the disheveled figure now standing amidst humming terminals, face flushed crimson. Jiang Yang''s plastic chair screeched as he collapsed back into it, pulse thundering in his ears. In his mind''s eye, the fantasy played clear - slapping the venomous goddess until her pearly teeth scattered across jade tiles, grinding his heel into her perfect cheekbone while spitting crimson phlegm across ruined beauty. Now that would be true poetic justice.
Reality returned through the stench of instant ramen and buzzing fluorescent lights. Jiang Yang hunched deeper into his threadbare hoodie, acutely aware of his single status in this engineering school''s mechanical department - where the gender ratio made Buddhist monasteries seem promiscuous. His last romantic hope had evaporated sophomore year when even the girl with facial burns chose the basketball team captain over him.
As violet light pulsed beyond the protective bubble, Jiang Yang''s lips twisted into a bitter smile. Perhaps the cosmos had finally answered his silent prayers - not with truck-kun''s embrace, but through whatever cataclysm now painted the sky in dying stars. Let the pampered young masters keep their abusive immortal beauties. If survival meant wading through blood and broken jade, so be it. His fingers curled around a jagged stone as the shield began flickering.
Somewhere beyond the maelstrom, destiny''s loom began weaving threads of violet flame.
Twilight painted the campus in bruised purples as Jiang Yang stumbled from the convenience store, empty beer bottles clinking in his wake. Thunder growled like an awakened primordial beast, its vibrations thrumming through his alcohol-warmed bones. He chuckled darkly at the cliché - wasn''t this how every transmigration story began? A drunk protagonist, a stormy night, then BAM! Truck-kun''s glorious isekai baptism. His head lolled back to challenge the heavens. "Come on then! Where''s my fucking lightning bo-"
The curse died as amethyst fire split the firmament.
A comet trail of violet radiance streaked across the cloud layer, pursued by a dozen silvery missiles that hummed with malicious intent. Jiang Yang''s beer-addled brain struggled processing the sight - meteor shower? Military tech? Before logic could intervene, his feet already carried him toward the campus''s forbidden zone where the lights had descended, sneakers crunching gravel with desperate urgency.
The Lover''s Hill lived up to its reputation as Jiang Yang crashed through undergrowth - devoid of canoodling couples, yet thick with the scent of ozone and something... metallic. Rain began its first tentative taps against maple leaves as his drunken haze lifted, replaced by prickling unease. What the hell was he doing chasing UFOs like some B-movie extra?
Then it pulsed.
A siren-song glow throbbed between ancient cypress trees, painting their gnarled trunks with otherworldly light. Jiang Yang moved as if sleepwalking, unaware of the firefly-sized ember materializing behind him. The violet spark spun lazily, revealing a miniature pupil that dilated hungrily before dissolving into his scalp.
There, suspended in a clearing where moonlight dared not tread, floated his destiny.
The blade drank starlight and excreted nightmares. Its crystalline form shimmered with liquid mercury intensity, wreathed in flames that danced like captive demons. Every fractal edge whispered promises of empires unmade, of bloodlines severed with a sigh. Jiang Yang''s hand rose unbidden, fingertips grazing-
"Fool! Withdraw!"The command detonated like flashbang between his temples. He collapsed as silver lightning bisected his vision, the projectile striking the sword with cathedral-shattering force. Violet fire roared skyward in retaliation, reducing ancient oaks to charcoal skeletons in milliseconds. A vise-like grip yanked his collar as the ground disappeared beneath him.When the world stopped spinning, Jiang Yang found himself sprawled before living art - a man carved from jade and winter moonlight. Flowing white robes rippled with suppressed energy, their hem hovering centimeters above scorched earth. Most arresting was the levitating artifact at his shoulder: a silver mandala disk crowned with a pearl the size of a child''s fist, its surface etched with constellations unknown to modern astronomy."Stay down, mortal," the stranger commanded without turning. His fingers danced intricate patterns as the silver projectile - now revealed as a dagger-sized flying sword - harried the violet flames. "This Netherblade''s corruption is beyond your feeble-"A chorus of wolf-like howls pierced the storm. Answering cries came from all directions as more white-clad figures descended like vengeful spirits. Men and women materialized amidst the downpour, each accompanied by floating artifacts - miniature cauldrons emitting crimson smoke, jade tablets carved with glowing runes, bronze mirrors reflecting impossible vistas.Jiang Yang''s scientific worldview crumbled like ash. These weren''t cosplayers. The air itself curdled around their presence, reality warping to accommodate their power. His fingers dug into mud as two truths collided:Xianxia novels were fucking manuals.He was about to die.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The lead cultivator''s mandala disk flared. "Seal formation! The Netherblade''s core is vulnerable after consuming that mortal''s essence!"
Wait. Consuming? Jiang Yang''s hand flew to his scalp where the spark had penetrated. His scream merged with the sword''s triumphant shriek as violet flames erupted from his pores, weaving an armor of damned stars. The clearing detonated in argent and amethyst light, trees vaporizing as opposing forces collided.
When the smoke cleared, twenty-four eyes widened in horror.Jiang Yang stood wreathed in living flame, the cursed sword now singing in his grip. Its edge traced lazy arcs through rain that evaporated before touching steel. He met the cultivators'' gazes and smiled with teeth like shards of obsidian."Who''s feeble now?"The cultivators'' laughter died as Jiang Yang rose with unnatural grace, violet runnes burning beneath his skin like subcutaneous lightning. Senior Brother Bai''s silver mandala dimmed in response, its celestial engravings recoiling from the possessed mortal."Something''s wrong," murmured Junior Sister Zhu. Her water-drop artifact quivered, revealing the pearl at its core now cracked. "The Netherblade''s spiritual signature... it''s merging with his life force!"Jiang Yang''s mouth twisted into a smile that didn''t belong to him. "Fledgling immortals," the voice emanating from his throat resonated with millennia of contempt. "You dare cage what heaven itself cannot contain?"His body moved with precision that mocked human anatomy - fingers bending backward to form forbidden mudras, tendons snapping like overtuned zither strings as dark cultivation arts reshaped flesh. The clearing''s atmosphere curdled, rain freezing mid-air into crystalline daggers."Seal formation!" Bai roared. Eighteen flying swords streaked toward Jiang Yang in intersecting trajectories, their paths weaving an inescapable net of destruction. The possessed youth simply raised a palm, violet flames coalescing into a rotating shield etched with primordial runes.Metal screamed as divine weapons disintegrated. A female cultivator collapsed vomiting blood, her connection to the shattered sword severed. "Impossible!" She choked. "That was a seventh-grade spirit artifact!"Jiang Yang''s stolen body began levitating, tendrils of amethyst energy erupting from his pores. "You insects presume to judge a heavenly tribulation survivor?" The voice now carried dual tones - Jiang Yang''s mortal timbre layered with something ancient and metallic. "Your bones shall fertilize this realm''s rebirth."Bai''s hands blurred through emergency seals. "Fall back! We need-"Too late.The possessed figure snapped its fingers. Reality itself tore along violet fault lines, spatial rifts vomiting forth creatures of living shadow. Junior Sister Zhu''s water-drop artifact shattered completely as a clawed appendage materialized through the breach, raking across her torso. Her scream cut off abruptly when a second shadow-beast devoured her head whole.Chaos erupted. Cultivators scrambled to activate escape talismans, only to find spatial coordinates rewritten in eldritch fire. Bai watched in horror as his junior disciples fell like wheat before the scythe - one man''s golden cauldron artifact melting over his screaming face, another woman''s jade tablets exploding into shrapnel that impaled three comrades.Through the carnage, Jiang Yang''s consciousness floated in numb horror. He witnessed his own hands performing atrocities, felt alien satisfaction as cultivator blood steamed against his skin. Somewhere in the mental maelstrom, the Netherblade''s voice purred: Witness true power, little worm. This is but a fraction of what we''ll achieve.Bai''s mandala disk flared with desperate light. "Ancestral Sacrifice!" he bellowed, slamming both palms against the artifact. The massive pearl at its center exploded in a supernova of silver energy, momentarily freezing the shadow creatures mid-assault.The lead cultivator''s hair turned snow-white as he grabbed Jiang Yang''s corporeal form. "Hear me, Netherfiend!" Blood streamed from Bai''s eyes as forbidden arts ravaged his body. "You want this realm? Then choke on it!"With a final incantation, Bai detonated his remaining cultivation base. The explosion tore through dimensional barriers, hurling Jiang Yang''s possessed body into the screaming void between worlds.When consciousness returned, Jiang Yang found himself kneeling in alien soil beneath twin moons. The Netherblade''s presence simmered beneath his consciousness, weakened but not destroyed. Before him stretched a ruined cityscape of obsidian spires, their surfaces crawling with familiar violet runes.A ghostly laugh echoed through his skull. Welcome home, vessel.Senior Brother Bai’s fingers trembled as he unfurled the Violet Qi Celestial Net — a relic woven from starlight and whispers of forgotten heavens. The artifact pulsed like a living heartbeat, its threads shimmering with fractal patterns that hurt the eyes to follow. Around him, disciples scrambled to reinforce their formations, their flying swords screeching as they corralled the rampaging violet flames.The possessed Jiang Yang had become a marionette of chaos. His limbs jerked in unnatural angles, violet fire spewing from his mouth as the Netherblade’s consciousness puppeteered his flesh. Yet when Bai hurled the net, spacetime itself seemed to snag. The air thickened like syrup, the net expanding into a galaxy of interlocking hexagons that descended with glacial inevitability."Seal!" Bai roared, blood trickling from his nostrils.A fatal miscalculation.The violet flames — now split between Jiang Yang’s body and its crystalline sword form — shrieked in dissonant harmony. The physical blade shot skyward, evading the net’s grasp, while the spiritual essence anchored in Jiang Yang’s marrow remained trapped. The mortal crumpled to the mud, the Celestial Net contracting around him like a second skin.Jiang Yang’s Perspective:
The net’s threads burrowed into his pores, icy filaments rooting through muscle and bone. For one crystalline moment, control flooded back — his fingers twitched, lungs gulping air that tasted of burnt ozone. Somewhere deep within, a seething presence hissed:
<You think this changes anything, meat?>The voice vibrated in his molars. Jiang Yang clawed at the glowing net, only to freeze as Senior Brother Bai materialized before him. Up close, the cultivator’s beauty turned uncanny — pores too perfect, irises flecked with unnatural gold."Peace, mortal." Bai’s smile didn’t touch those alien eyes. "The parasite nesting in your marrow cannot harm you now."Around them, the battle crescendoed. A junior disciple’s flying sword shattered mid-air, shrapnel embedding in ancient cedars. The violet blade circled overhead like a starving hawk, its rage shaking rain from the clouds."Then why," Jiang Yang croaked, "do I still taste blood?"The Trap Sprung:The Netherblade’s split consciousness became its undoing.As disciples harried its physical form with talismans that exploded like miniature supernovae, Bai knelt before Jiang Yang. His hands moved in precise surgical gestures, the Celestial Net’s threads glowing hotter.
"Your body is now a prison," the cultivator murmured. "The Samadhi Flames in this net will slowly purify the demonic essence. In three months...""Three months?!" Jiang Yang recoiled. The thing inside him laughed.A thunderous crack split the sky. The violet blade plunged earthward, aiming directly for Jiang Yang’s chest — a kamikaze strike to reunite with its essence. Bai moved faster.The cultivator’s hands blurred, weaving a shield of liquid moonlight. Blade met barrier in a cataclysm that flattened surrounding trees. When the glare faded, the sword stood impaled in the shield, its fires guttering.
"Now!" Bai barked.Disciples chanted in a tongue that made Jiang Yang’s teeth ache. The Celestial Net constricted, violet threads burning through his shirt to brand fractal sigils across his flesh. Somewhere deep, the Netherblade’s screams merged with his own.Epiphany in Agony:As the sealing ritual reached its crescendo, Jiang Yang’s mortal eyes saw truths no human should witness.The Netherblade wasn’t mere weapon — it was a refugee. A being forged in the corpse of a dead star, fleeing the entropy gnawing at reality’s edges. Its "corruption" was simply alien physics, incompatible with this fragile dimension.The Samadhi Flames lancing through his veins carried echoes of dead gods. Jiang Yang’s fingernails tore bloody furrows in the mud as two cosmic truths warred in his cellular structure.When blackness finally claimed him, his last conscious thought was a plea:
Let me forget.