The outskirts of the Star Dou Forest, right at the human-defined border with panels warning of danger and death.
Below a lone tree near the river, a seven-year-old child lay, barely breathing. Behind him was a trail of blood stretching from the riverbank to his position.
Seconds passed, and he opened his eyes, revealing fox pupils. He looked around, confused. "What happened?" he asked absently. Soon, his brain caught up. He looked at his surroundings.
Sigh.'So it's real, and...' His thoughts stopped short when he noticed the condition of his body.
He had purple, almost black hair that faded to snow-white tips, as if losing color. His body was suffering from malnutrition, and his right leg was missing below the knee, likely severed by a sharp edge.
The situation needed no explanation, as his current six-year-old body was jolted with a fresh wave of memories. All of a sudden, he was hit with pain all over, and images began to play in his mind—memories that were more torture than gift.
Huff... huff... "That was a life I wouldn't wish on any kid, or even an adult." After the pain calmed, he looked again at his right leg. "Sigh, so that's why the Ancestor mentioned it."
To put it simply, he had been reborn in the body of a dead child, an ex-slave to be precise. After his mother died, the boy tried to run but got his leg cut in the process, dying here from blood loss. The soul—now Ray Light—had simply taken over the body.
"I don't even know what timeline I am at. All the memories are focused on the hell hole he lived in... and I didn't even get the complete memory. Also, I didn't awaken my Martial Soul yet... no, that isn't even important right now." Noticing his thoughts starting to jump around, he calmed himself. Taking a deep breath, he started to look around again.
"Let's just keep going one step at a time. Now, let's find the base the Fox Lady mentioned," he murmured to himself, trying to stand to search around.
At that moment, he heard a mechanical ringing in his ear, and a pointer appeared in front of him, signaling toward a small tree to his right. 'What is this?' Thinking while observing the little tree, he soon figured out that it was actually a fake.
With a little struggle, he got closer to the tree, but the small effort left him completely out of breath, and the restriction started to anger him. 'Man, I never knew losing a leg would be this bad. All my respect to those who live their whole life like this,' he thought.
He touched the trunk of the tree, and right after that, the ground in a three-meter radius, with the tree at its center, began to sink down, taking him with it.
The boy was about to freak out, but thankfully the ground stopped sinking quickly. Light began to shine around, revealing an open living room with a warm and "homey" atmosphere. Just the sight of it calmed him down.
"I have to say, it looks cool," he murmured, surprised. "You would never guess this is underground if you came inside with closed eyes."
He looked around and found a wheelchair. 'Well, I guess I have been seen in this situation,' he thought. He maneuvered into the chair, but his malnourished body didn't help much, leaving him out of breath after riding it.
Observing the place, he noticed several items on a table centered in the room: three books, a glass globe, and something wrapped in cloth. From the shape, he guessed it was an artificial leg.
He investigated the items and found a letter on top of the cloth. A kind, heartwarming emotion filled his chest after reading it.
Hi little one,
If you read this, it means you have woken up and found your base. So, first thing first, the artifact leg is something I made to suit you for now, and the little globe will help you wake your Martial Spirit and latent potential, along with healing and cleansing your body.
As for the books, they are grimoire type. One is part of my insights into cultivation that will help you; the other is about this underground house and how to manipulate it.
The last one is a bit special. It's linked to its host and contains knowledge about Alchemy and Formation from basic to the highest level. Every time you master a chapter, it will unlock others for you. Hopefully, it will come to help in the future.
Lastly, sorry that you had to experience what you went through. It's just memories for now, but the fate of the boy still clings to you, so take it as a warning of what weakness means in this world.
I hope it gives you a vision of the difference before it's too late. So make your life count.
P.S. When awakening your Martial Spirit, lay down as the globe has a healing and cleansing effect on the body while you will be forced to sleep.
P.S. 2: After you wake your spirit, just think of scanning yourself, and you will see my gift (Appraisal).
P.S. 3: I know you won't use your old name, so use 'Ray Light' from now on. You will know why later.
"Sigh..." Looking at the letter, then the still-wrapped artifact leg, he looked up at the ceiling and said, "Thanks for your care. Really."
Considering how his past life had been void of close relationships and care, this was strange for him, in a good way, for the first time in a long time.
He unwrapped the cloth, finding a black metal leg with golden patterns on its sides. "Well, it's cool. At least I won't be stuck with something ugly," he thought. Despite accepting the loss of his leg, the normal reaction of his body and the thoughts he brought from his past life still brought him down from time to time.
After that, he opened the book titled "Crystal Moon Residence." It blew into light particles and hit him like a shock to the forehead.
Zoning out for a second with his head flung back, he soon got back to normal before letting out a wary smile. The new information appearing in his head revealed that the underground house was actually an artifact.
"Wow, this thing is amazing!" he murmured seriously. After all, the house had a lot of specs and formations. The coolest part was that it could shift into a necklace and be established anywhere he wanted, complete with a design interface to customize the house however he liked. The house had dozens of bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, an Alchemist and Forging Laboratory, the living room he was currently in, a swimming pool, and many more features.
And that was just the default design setting. Finally, there was a giant library with countless books of all kinds and types. Crucially, the main areas were a Training Room and Storage Room, each with a size impossible for a normal underground space, but he understood the internal space was expanded.
The jolly mood he was in vanished when he remembered he was still in a wheelchair. Letting out a deep breath, he calmed himself again.
He grabbed the leg and put it in place. Like some Iron Man armor part, an extension hugged his leg just around the knee.
It was hard to walk at first, but he managed to walk to a nearby bedroom, laying down on the fluffy bed, looking at the globe in his hand with a serious expression.
"I was never a fighter... and probably never will if I stay the way I was," he murmured, remembering his past life. He was a man who worked on the beach after a certain accident, and because of his love for nature, he stuck close to the sea—a man who would walk beside the wall just to keep to himself.
"But just from the memories of this body, describing this world as one 'where might makes right' is the perfect projection." Observing the globe for a moment, he wrapped his fingers around it.
"I will live the way I want: free from others, free to pursue what I love to do." He announced this, not just as an exclamation of his decision for his next action, but also as a promise to himself so he wouldn't go astray or back down later on.
Putting strength into his hand, the globe started to crack. "So from today, I live on my rules as Ray Light. And for that, I need strength."
Crack! The globe broke, turning into pure energy and covering him in an amber, egg-like shell.
'It feels like... yes, like taking a bath after a long day of work,' was his last thought before he lost consciousness, floating inside.
The Awakening
After the globe turned into energy and covered Ray like an eggshell, his body began to strengthen rapidly. His bones became sturdier, his muscles firmer and more flexible, and his inner organs and meridians were reinforced, leading his body to become more tuned to cultivation and energy assimilation and control.
Soon the process stopped, leaving the kid suspended in the air. This time, the malnourished body was gone; instead, he had a healthy physique and tanned skin.
Right after that, his hair turned silver as if the silver ends were invading the rest of the hair. Then, he sprouted nine tails and fox ears of the same color on his back and atop his head. With their appearance, the light around his new house intensified, and a surge of heat rose for seconds.
After the tails and ears formed completely, a shockwave spread from Ray's body, causing the shell to crack.
This was his first Martial Soul: a Nine-Tailed Fox type. Contrary to the normal type that gains tails with each level, Ray had a full set of tails from the beginning. And in reverse of the most known fox types that usually possess illusionary and spiritual attributes, he had Light and Fire elements, with a purity level almost at the extreme.
Soon, the ears and tails vanished, and Ray's body began to show unique changes once again.
His chest took on a golden shine behind his rib cage as his lungs glowed. This was because his lungs had started to assimilate the soul energy, absorbing it directly—not from breathing, but from the dimension Ray was linked to.
This was something that shouldn't happen, but thanks to the way Ray awakened his Martial Soul, and the mutation put upon his body type, the Martial Soul was far from what was normally possible. With it being an essential and vital part of the body, it took quite a curve in this evolution. This mutation was gained not only from transmigrating but also from his bloodline—something Ray would come to know later.
After the glow vanished, he slowly floated back to the bed. The moment he was settled, white tree roots grew around him as if protecting him. While he lay down, his hair turned green with a few golden highlights, and then his body started to suck in spiritual and soul power.
His body continued absorbing spiritual and soul power the whole night while he slept.
Almost at the break of the next day, the absorption stopped, and the process reversed. Instead of drawing energy in, every breath he took was followed by breathing out a faint mist—the purified and concentrated energy his lungs had processed.
by the time he woke up, the bedroom was completely transformed. It was filled to the brim with a beautiful, swirling white Crystal like mist that refracted the ambient light into soft rainbow sparkles. It was so dense he could barely see the end of the bed, and yet, it was the purest, cleanest air he had ever breathed.