Lin Mo woke up lying on dirt.
Not pavement. Not stone.
The dirt was cold, damp, it was hard beneath his cheek.
He didn't move.
Moving without information was how most people die.
Voices drifted nearby.
"…still breathing?"
"Doesn't matter. If he's faking it, we can cut him anyway."
Lin Mo opened his eyes a little.
Night sky. Two moons. Wrong.
He lay in a clearing surrounded by trees. Three figures stood a few steps away, silhouettes outlined by torchlight.
People.
Before he could react, pain slammed into his skull.
Memories flooded in.
Not his.
Name: Xu Liang
Age: Eighteen
Status: Outer sect disciple, Black Mountain Sect
Cultivation: Qi Refining, third layer
Hated chores. Afraid of night patrols. Owed spirit stones to the wrong people.
Lin Mo absorbed it all in silence.
[Descent Successful]
Host Body: Stable
Identity Synchronization: 58%
Warning: Low Compatibility
Low compatibility? It's fine, it doesn't matter right now.
A boot hit his ribs.
"Hey. Wake up."
Lin Mo let his eyelids open, breath shallow, expression confused—but not too confused.
He needed to give them what was expected.
"Senior… brothers?" he muttered, voice hoarse and weak. He then pretended to faint again.
The man holding the torch relaxed slightly.
"Tch. Just fainted again," he said. "I told you his cultivation was trash."
Lin Mo remembered everything.
Three people. Two Qi Refining fourth layer. One fifth.
Armed. Relaxed. Maybe for the better.
They weren't here to help him. Not in the slightest.
"Get up," the fifth-layer disciple said. "You still owe us."
Debt.
Of course.
Lin Mo pushed himself up slowly, staggering just enough to look weak. Inside, he tested circulation.
Qi responded, but sluggishly. The quantity and quality was lacking, well it was not like he has anything to compare it with.
This body was worse than his real one back on earth.
One of the men sneered. "You really thought you could dodge us forever?"
Lin Mo lowered his head.
"I'll pay," he said quietly. "Give me some more time."
The fifth-layer disciple laughed. "With what? Your corpse?"
The torchlight flickered.
Lin Mo felt it then, a slight pull, like a thread tugging at his chest.
The mirror.
Not visible.
But present.
He had options.
Run? No.
Negotiate? Unlikely. They would stab him in the back the second he looked away.
Fight?
He could kill one. Maybe two.
Not all three.
Unless-
The fifth-layer disciple stepped closer.
Lin Mo acted.
He lunged forward suddenly, grabbing the man's wrist with both hands and twisting hard, not to break it, but to pull him off balance. At the same time, Lin Mo slammed his own forehead.
Bone cracked.
The torch fell.
Lin Mo snatched a dagger from the ground and drove it upward into the nearest man's thigh. He didn't aim to kill, he aimed to cripple him.
A fist smashed into his jaw.
Stars exploded across his vision.
The third man drew his sword.
Too slow.
Lin Mo rushed him, ignoring the blade slicing into his side, and buried the dagger under the man's ribs.
Hot blood soaked his hands.
The fifth-layer disciple roared and unleashed qi, slamming Lin Mo into a tree.
The trunk shattered.
Pain tore through his body.
This was the limit. He was going to die here.
Lin Mo laughed.
The sound startled them.
"What's wrong with him?" someone shouted.
Lin Mo met the fifth-layer disciple's eyes.
Then he relaxed.
He gave up.
The blade pierced his throat.
Clean.
Darkness folded inward.
Earth.
Lin Mo convulsed on his apartment floor, hands clawing uselessly as pain ripped through his soul like chains.
The death hurt.
Not stab was not clean enough. The pain was still there. Not the wounds though.
He lay there shaking until the pain dulled into a constant throb.
[Return Complete]
Soul Integrity: 92%
Death Classification: Prolonged Physical Damage
Penalty Applied
Lin Mo stared at the ceiling, breathing slowly.
He sat up.
The mirror lay against the wall, surface dull.
"One item huh," he murmured.
He chose spirit stones.
The mirror pulsed.
Several low-grade stones clinked onto the floor.
Not much.
But enough. For now.
Lin Mo stood, steady despite the lingering ache in his soul.
"So," he said quietly, looking at the mirror, "this world rewards aggression."
The mirror did not answer.
Lin Mo wiped the blood from his nose.
"Fine."
He activated it again.
This time, he wouldn't wake up owing anyone anything.