Lin Chen was running for his life.
Blood soaked through his torn robes as the forest blurred past him. His breathing was uneven, his spiritual energy nearly depleted. Behind him, footsteps cut through the night—calm, deliberate, merciless.
"Stop struggling," a cold voice echoed. "Your fate was decided the moment you touched what wasn't yours."
Lin Chen clenched his teeth and leapt forward.
Too slow.
A flash of black light tore through the air.
Pain exploded through his chest.
The world spun as his body slammed against stone. The ground vanished beneath him, and Lin Chen fell—down into darkness, into a cold, silent cave.
The last thing he felt was his soul tearing loose.
Aavesh—Aavi—was crossing the road while thinking about absolutely nothing.
The city lights blurred, horns screamed, and for a split second he saw it:
a massive truck, too close, too fast.
This is cliché, his mind noted uselessly.
Impact.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
Three days later.
Lin Chen opened his eyes to silence.
Not the peaceful stillness of meditation, but a dead, suffocating quiet—broken only by a faint, rhythmic beeping. His breathing felt wrong. Too shallow. Too loud. His chest moved without his permission.
He opened his eyes wider.
A white ceiling. Harsh lights. Transparent screens filled with symbols he didn't recognize.
No spiritual energy.
No heaven and earth qi.
Nothing.
This is not my body.
Panic surged. Lin Chen crushed it instantly, forcing his thoughts inward.
His cultivation foundation—gone.
In its place, something unfamiliar pulsed in his skull, restrained, humming, dangerous.
Footsteps approached.
A woman rushed in, eyes red, relief flooding her face.
"Thank God… you're awake."
Her voice cut deeper than any blade.
She reached for his hand.
Lin Chen pulled back.
Wrong.
Everything was wrong.
Far away, beneath a crimson sky, Aavesh opened his eyes to pain.
His body felt heavy, rooted to the earth. The air burned his lungs. Energy—raw, violent—flooded through him without warning. Symbols carved into ancient stone walls glowed faintly, reacting to his presence.
Okay. Okay. Calm down.
This wasn't a hospital.
No steel. No screens.
Only bloodstained ground and ruined pillars.
A group of men stared at him in horror.
"He's alive?"
"That technique should have erased him."
Aavesh laughed—short, nervous, automatic.
Bad move.
One of them staggered back.
"Demonic deviation…"
Aavesh raised his hands. "Wait—listen—I'm not—"
The ground cracked.
Energy surged out of control.
The mountain trembled.
Two worlds.
Two bodies.
Two lives stolen.
And neither boy understood the price—yet.
End of Chapter 1