"Yes! I finally managed to obtain it!"

A person exclaimed, with a voice full of excitement but also exhaustion as he held a glowing stone on his palm.

The voice was quite soft but also had the ability to put a genuine smile on the face of someone who heard it. His hair that should've been ink-black appeared dull-white while his straight nose made him look sharp.

But his lips were dried that also made look like a cool homeless spirit.

This person's haggard appearance was overlaid with a bit of wrinkle on his cheeks yet made him look young at the same time, like a youth who had aged a bit.

'It's been ten long years since I, Tian Long, managed to obtain the Death Book.'

A deep glint flickered in his eyes, and the thought that he had managed to obtain the item that he had been searching for more than five years left him with the feeling of excitement and nostalgia.

'I have only used the Death Book to kill my only enemy back then, and I haven't used it for killing since then…'

Numerous scenes flashed past his eyes. Feeling the passage of time, he gently sighed.

On the one hand, he had only used the Death Book to kill his one and only enemy while in the other, he managed to carefully traverse his way into succeeding in his endeavor, the matter of searching for this item without even having to dirty his hands.

'It's time to go back to my homeland and pull off this crazy idea that has been gnawing at my heart since eight years ago!'

Walking out of a cave, he proceeded to leave the mountains to get back to the airport, which was situated in a city a few kilometers away.

He finally cast a look at the virgin mountain range not trespassed by anyone to his knowledge, nor did he see a single soul who engaged in the sports of trekking in this place.

Then without encountering many problems, he descended down the mountains the whole way before encountering a vehicle on the elevated roadway.

Luckily, he managed to hitch a ride along the way to the city. After arriving at the airport, he boarded the airplane and returned to his home country, China.

After returning to his home and resting for a while, he did nothing as he sat on the sofa, feeling refreshed from the hot water bath. However, he started to have second thoughts about his plan at the last minute.

Numerous matters flashed past his eyes. The acquaintances he formed a little connection with but didn't dare to improve it due to his near-death situation.

'Tch! It's do or die! I don't have much choice.'

'In any case, I don't have much time to live in this world anyways.' He composed himself.

He packed his things and went out of the house, locking it behind with two more locks than the usual, making it look like he had gone for a vacation again or had sealed the house for some reason.

"Alright, it's time to leave this world." Silently muttering to himself, Tian Long left for the place that has many rumors, including that it's connected to another world. Although he heard rumors, he did his homework and flushed out the possibility that it might be fake.

'Honestly, my chances of crossing over are pretty low, way low…'

'I only thought of this idea because having only a few more years left to live made me feel hopeless and empty; after all, I want to live more.' He thought, introspecting his own thoughts about this mad plan and his actions.

After arriving at an ancient temple in a certain region in China, he searched the whole place for any unusual signs. Unfortunately, he found none, and the day was almost about to end.

"This place is notably abandoned yet it's kept clean, why is that?" Tian Long muttered in an inquisitive tone to himself. Being alone for a long time, he had developed the habit of talking to himself, both mentally and physically.

After seeing that he hadn't found anything for today, he decided to just sleep and continue the search tomorrow. However, just as he was sleeping in the makeshift tent that he had set up, a sound startled him awake.

"Who's there!?" Tian Long shouted as he turned cautious.

"Whoa! Don't jump scare me, old man!"

A young man exclaimed.

Tian Long examined the young man with his eyes, but hearing that he was called an 'old' man, his eyelids started to twitch in annoyance. Nowadays, people calling him an old man was a common occurrence, and he didn't put much thought into it since his vitality was waning due to his lifespan being reduced.

"Who are you, little boy?" Tian Long asked even though he knew the answer.

"Me? I'm Xiao Yi." The young man replied. He looked as if he was not at all bothered or scared about by the presence of an old man in this ancient temple. After all, a person could also mistake Tian Long's countenance to be the same as a pale ghost.

Just when Xiao Yi was about to ask with a curious and confused expression on his face, he was interrupted by Tian Long.

"Why are you here?"

"Me?" Xiao Yi was first taken aback as he thought of asking the same question. He blinked and then answered, "I'm hired by the nearby temple to clean this place every week and patrol once in a while…"

Hearing that, Tian Long was astonished.

"Isn't this place abandoned?"

"Yeah, it was… but it's now the property of the nearby temple. They bought it about a month ago." Xiao Yi replied in a casual tone.

"Oh, I see." Tian Long nodded.

"Now that you understand that it's private property, shouldn't you be leaving?"

Xiao Yi questioned in an annoyed manner.

"Uhh, yeah, once it's dawn… I'll leave. It's pretty late right now…" Tian Long yawned and said.

"Reasonable, I don't want you camping out here tomorrow. Old man, just leave after resting…"

"Alright…" Saying so, he went back to his tent.

A few minutes later, after routine patrolling, Xiao Yi left the ancient temple.

From the transparent part of the tent, Tian Long saw him leave.

'Ah, how young… He is rather nice inwardly even though he appeared to be rude and pretty blunt…' He felt that he had rather managed to see through the young man in a glance.

'Still, what is he doing here at midnight? Patrol once in a while? Do people usually pick this time to patrol?' Tian Long chuckled as he thought, 'Or was he having a rendezvous with a woman or something?'

His brows creased for a moment.

'Looks like I don't have any time left to sleep, this worn-out body of mine can't take this anymore!' Shouting in his mind, he stormed out of the tent and started searching the place again.

Switching on one of the numerous torchlights he brought and hid in the tent, he started looking around for any kind of unusual signs in the place he hadn't searched for yet. There were many statues of lions and tigers, but they were all different in a way that he couldn't put his finger on… There were even murals that were depicting some kind of history.

However, the statues and the murals were all more or less shattered, making the ancient temple look more like a ruined temple.

An hour passed since he continued his search, from the time Xiao Yi left.

Moving around, Tian Long entered another one of the many wide rooms. He moved towards the front of a wall and started tapping around.

*Tokk tokk!\~*

As he kept tapping around the wall, a muffled kind of sound echoed across the room.

Tian Long blinked, and the next moment, his dried-up lips widened into a smile.

"Yes! Found it!"

He pushed that certain part of that wall, which created a muffled sound.

An underground door opened in the room, which made Tian Long glance at it instantly. He checked if it bore some traps for quite some time, being a bit patient.

An hour later, he couldn't find any traps, and that made him feel a bit assured.

If he were to lose his life even before crossing to another world, then he didn't know how many people here who were in the know would laugh at his dead body/

Ensuring that were no dangers to be found with his current expertise, he then started to descend the underground door. He encountered a lot of stairs leading down and arrived in front of an iron door etched with some kind of decrepit patterns.

Tian Long stared at the switch right beside the iron door and yanked it down. The iron door opened up, and he entered the underground area, lighting up space with the torchlight in his hand.

An unfamiliar and eerie sight came into his view!

Tian Long gasped in astonishment as he saw the unknown formation, which was like a circle. The outer circle appeared spherical, while the inner circle looked oval with an eye on it.

It looked like a demonic eye that almost gave him the chills!

"Oh, this must be the formation which makes this ancient temple unusual enough to be rumored as a ghost temple…"

There were indeed people who came here for fun and found this place, making it rumored to be a temple that worshipped evil gods. They spread the information but never came back, and neither did people come to check this place out of fear.

In any case, it was just a local myth that didn't garner much attention from the authorities.

Tian Long muttered and walked towards the formation as he arrived at the eye of the formation.

'That's a creepy looking eye alright… I should probably be in the center of this formation to increase my chances…'

The rumors that were circulating around were mainly related to ghosts, but the moment the picture of this formation circulated throughout the internet, it was quickly taken down.

However, Tian Long noticed it in a timely manner and even jotted down the name of the ancient temple in his notepad since he was on the lookout.

Originally, he only thought of it as a prank, but noticing the mysterious groups he had been keeping an eye on behaving like they had been fed ecstasy pills, he was quite sure that this was the place he was looking for from 8 years ago.

Tian Long took out a stone from his backpack, which emitted a faint green and purplish otherworldly light. It was the item he found before returning to China.

"The transmigration stone…" Tian Long's eyes shone brightly under the illumination as he muttered. At least, that was what the others called it since it rumored to be capable of hosting souls in it.

"If the characters of the nearby temple knew if that I had the stone, would they become mad?" Tian Long laughed loudly.

That nearby temple which Xiao Yi mentioned is one of the factions he had his eye on, but the matter of them purchasing this ancient temple seemed to be so secretive that he didn't manage to even hear a word of it.

He then walked to the stone that looked like a podium, 'Hehe, an obvious place to keep the switch to activate the formation, I like it.'

The switch itself was half-spherical in shape, and it kept glowing.

"Does this mean they have charged this formation already? Perfect!" Tian Long exclaimed.

The temple nearby painstakingly used its resources to charge it. This formation took at least two years to charge to a certain level, which Tian Long didn't know about. If he knew, he certainly wouldn't have approached this place that easily because of the uncertainties involved.

"But, why did they charge this formation? It can't be that they are warmly welcoming me? is it?" Tian Long was deeply in doubt and couldn't help but joke.

He pondered about this for a while but creased his brows.

"Hmph, thinking about this is useless, after I activate this formation, either I die or live in another world!"

Tian Long stomped the ground and stopped his indecisiveness. He took a deep breath before reaching out to his inner pockets over his shirt and took out the Death Book as he exhaled.

'It's time…'

He took out a pen and positioned above the Death Book. His right arm stiffened in place while his fingers which held the pen quickly moved.

[

Tian Long

After the activation of the formation and during the space-time travel, his soul gets jolted out from his body, then enters the transmigration stone. After reaching the other end, his soul possesses a weak body that is below twenty years of age using the transmigration stone and, after five minutes, dies of a heart attack.

]

*Hissss!\~*

Tian Long drew in a cold breath of air as his heart palpitated in nervousness. Tumultuous waves rose in his heart as his blood boiled, threatening to overwhelm his mortal heart and mind.

To use the Death Book on himself, he had to write his own name!

'The Death Book can control and kill people to a certain extent meaning that it is capable of manipulating the soul, so it should be able to control the soul to quite an extent.'

He consoled himself as he thought.

'It's fine, I will be tying the Transmigration Stone behind my head, and there's not much distance between my soul and the stone, so it shouldn't be a problem for the Death Book to succeed.'

"If only my theory is correct that is…" His hands shook as he almost dropped the Death Book. After all, he just put an end to himself if things didn't go the way he thought it would.

The moment he wrote his name on the Death Book, he knew that he would undoubtedly meet his end. He cannot extend his lifespan with the Death Book because he had tried it on people who were going to die before.

So writing his name on it is just killing himself at this point. He didn't know how much time he had left to live, but judging by how he lost his vitality, he inferred he had one or two years at best.

That five-minute leeway was just for him to test… To test if the Death Book still worked on the other side. If it worked, then he would die in five minutes.

If he didn't die in five minutes, then he would die within two years due to his waning lifespan.

Tian Long felt that his lifespan being crippled applied to his soul as well. However, he also felt that the crippling of lifespan didn't affect his body directly but was a byproduct of affecting his soul. After all, a rather famous doctor had found him to be an enigma since that doctor couldn't find the reason for his rapidly aging body even though Tian Long was just below his thirties.

Hence, Tian Long thought that his limited lifespan directly affected his soul, which in-turn made his body experience an enormous drop in vitality.

That's why it's also a do or die situation for him. He felt that he should die quickly rather than waste two years in a new body before dying because of his crippled lifespan.

That would be just too pitiful, perhaps even pathetic.

This plan came to his mind when he completely realized that the Death Book was capable of controlling the soul to manipulate people other than directly killing them. He had also included in his plan about the fact that the Death Book can arrange strange coincidences, so he felt that it could make the Transmigration Stone search for a rather appropriate body to possess.

In short, his entire plan to live relied on the fact that the Death Book will stop working the moment he reached the other side! He was relying on pure luck and unconfirmed facts!

Tian Long's legs shook uncontrollably.

'Damn! Stop getting cold feet already, I've done it now, and there's probably only two years left for me to live! There's no going back!'

Tian Long expressed a determined expression on his face and patted his thighs before he started the formation.

As the underground area trembled, space-time fluctuations appeared, activating a vertical space-time passage. Tian Long went to the eye of the formation immediately and left his fate to luck.

He looked at the iron door one last time before feeling like a traveler.

'Goodbye, Earth…'

*Bzzz!\~*

Tian Long got instantly absorbed into the space-time tunnel; however, the moment he entered, he suffered a fate extremely worse than people getting crushed by a huge rock. He became enormously pressured by the spatial tunnel. His body felt like being shredded by thousands of blades, causing him to scream in pain.

"Arghhhhhh!!"

'Is this spatial tunnel not stable? I'm doomed!'

Tian Long saw his hand disintegrating by the chaotic spatial turbulence.

"Haha, It's over…" Letting out a faint laugh, he looked at his disintegrating shoulder. Just when his shoulder started to disintegrate, his soul jolted out of his body and entered the Transmigration Stone.

Tian Long didn't notice the Death Book being shredded to dust. A black shadow flew out from it and also entered the Transmigration Stone.

He passively observed his body being disintegrated into nothingness, which made him feel nauseous, wanting to puke, but he couldn't as he was in his soul form.

The Transmigration Stone then flew in the space tunnel, encountering many spatial storms that made him feel like he was traveling on a tiny boat surrounded by a colossal storm without any sight of an island in the distance.

Tian Long couldn't figure how much time had passed, he was listless throughout the whole journey, mourning the loss of his body and the Death Book.

The Death Book he had tried harming before but never made a dent on, actually disintegrated! He had been able to tear its pages in the past, but as for damaging the cover, he had not been able to do it, not even once.

Its disintegration actually made him lose half-hope for the future.

Initially, he had just wanted the Death Book only to stop working, but never did he imagine that it would disintegrate in this spatial tunnel.

If his soul form were to have eyes, there was no doubt that it would look dull about now.

Even then, he could still observe. However, he couldn't even perceive at this time as his surroundings were completely black, only making him capable of feeling his existence that was still alive in a sense.

After some unknown time, the Transmigration Stone finally flew out of the spatial tunnel, arriving in a brand new world.

======

Meanwhile, on Earth…

"Who activated the formation?!!" The nearby temple's head priest flew into an angry fit and started breaking the furniture beside him.

"Check the abandoned temple immediately!" The head priest shouted out loud.

Many people in mysterious robes moved away to check the abandoned temple quickly.

The head priest then calmed down after a minute and then harrumphed.

"Hmph, I don't know who activated the formation, but traveling in it is useless. Countless experiments have been done, and we don't even know if a person has managed to reach the other side. Sometimes, the body disintegrates even before one enters that incomplete and unstable formation. It is useless!"

"What do you mean by useless?" Suddenly, a voice could be heard coming out of a bald man who appeared out of nowhere.

"We have confirmed that it is indeed connected to another world through various means. If only we had the Transmigration Stone, which can host a soul, we might perhaps be able to reach the other side…" The bald man sighed gently.

"Hmph! What use is there to have the stone? If you can't move the soul to the stone, it is still useless!"

'Heh, you may not have a method to move your soul, but I do!' The bald man sneered.

"Too bad, the Transmigration Stone appears every thousand years, and we have used up all we had on experiments. Judging by the time it last appeared, it should've have appeared by now. Quick, search for it!"

"I know…" The head priest replied with an annoyed expression.

Suddenly, a man came sprinting before stopping at a respectful distance.

"Head priest, we found Xiao Yi outside the temple, and he…" The man hesitated.

"He what?"

The Head Priest looked quite impatient.

"He…"

The man's forehead was stricken with black lines, his facial expression full of hesitance.

"Quick, out with it!"

"He was doing a woman under a tree nearby the abandoned temple but escaped once he saw us!"

The Head Priest became stunned while the bald man started to laugh as he rubbed his beard.

"Kill both of them and feed them to the dogs!!!!"

The Head Priest had coldness flickering in his eyes as he echoed.

However, the man who came to report was trembling from head to toe, "Hea… Head Priest!"

"What!?"

"That woman…… is your i-illegitimate daughter!"

*Pui!!\~*

The Head Priest's eyes widened before he sprayed a mouthful of blood and collapsed while the bald man laughed out loud like a mad man.

The Transmigration Stone finally disintegrated in the skies and generated a green, purplish glow to wrap around Tian Long's soul. The radiance then suddenly shot towards in a certain direction, faster than the standard speed of light.

In a place few kilometers away from the Transmigration Stone that appeared in the middle of nowhere a few seconds ago.

"Not good, he's not going to make it…" A middle-aged man sighed; his expression was full of gloom. His pupils were trembling, but it looked like it was out of fear rather than sadness.

This middle-aged man stood wearing a blue armor with a tiger's image imprinted on it. Other than the armor being intimidating, it was quite damaged, looking ruined.

"He's been in a coma ever since you found him, is it even worth to care that much for a child you don't even have any relations with, Grey?" Another middle-aged man with the same blue armor asked.

"I arbitrarily picked him up, and then I should be the one to take care of him, shut your mouth, Mel." Grey snapped back.

His loose red hair made only one of his eyes visible. He possessed an irritated expression on his face that instantly made Mel's expression turn ugly.

"That's it! I had enough of your righteous act, Grey. You don't even do the things our Captain commands properly, and all you do is take care of that child. Is that child your illegitimate son?!" Mel shouted in anger.

However, to Grey, Mel just couldn't help but find trouble once again.

Grey's eyes became a little cold. He unsheathed his sword out of his scabbard as the blade reflected the sunlight.

"I know you have some enmity with me, Mel, so stop finding fault with me time and time again. If you have the guts, let's end this once and for all."

"You think I am afraid of you? I'll show you who's going to obtain the Captain's status after our Captain retires in our Blue Tiger Mercenaries!" Mel also unsheathed his sword, taking a battle stance to fight.

Hearing that Mel indirectly accepted the fight, Grey shot out with an unbelievable speed for his current cultivation base. He created a blinding light with his sword that instantly covered the whole area with brightness.

'What!? A new battle technique?' Mel momentarily went stiff.

He almost peed his pants when he saw his vision being obstructed by the light. He didn't move since he couldn't see as his eyes were blinded and even experienced momentary pain in his eyes because of the light.

And at the subsequent moment, a unique glow dimmed by the brightness released by the battle technique shot to the child who had just stopped breathing momentarily.

Both of them who were entangled in the battle didn't notice the strange phenomenon.

Mel opened his eyes only to see a sword in front of his neck. He could feel his life slipping out of his hands, or it was better to say his neck. He started shivering involuntarily out of fear, afraid for his life. His lips trembled, wanting to talk but couldn't.

"I think I had enough of your provocation, moron…" Grey coldly uttered. His arm moved, and just when he was going to sever Mel's head off, a voice sounded, prompting him to stop.

"Wait!"

"Tch, it's the captain…" Grey muttered as he backed off.

This was rather a critical time, and he had no leisure to bother with Mel or the Captain.

Meanwhile, Tian Long, who had entered the child's body, started to feel warm but disoriented at the same time. Tian Long faced absolutely no resistance when he entered the body. It was as if the child's soul didn't exist in this body in the first place.

However, he felt rather weak but at the same time, felt something inwardly, a warm, pleasurable, and a relaxing sensation.

'Is the Transmigration Stone healing this child's weak body?'

At the same time, Tian Long couldn't believe the fact that this child's body is his own from now on! It was such a fantasy that even he felt disoriented from reality for the moment!

However, his calm thinking still operated his mind even while he felt slightly unreal.

"Haha, I'm saved! I'm saved! Captain, Grey tried to kill me for real. Kill him! He's a traitor!" Mel exclaimed full of happiness and framed Grey without even caring for his own image. It was as if he became crazy for the moment.

"Is that so?"

The Captain walked to where Mel was pathetically shouting.

Just when Mel thought that he could get his revenge, a fist appeared in front of his face, making his eyes widen in shock!

*Boom\~*

The Captain punched with force, not holding back at all.

Mel's cheeks slightly caved as he flew two meters away from where he stood, crashing on a wall. The wall did not completely break but held Mel.

Grey blinked to this scene, not understanding the gist of it, feeling confused as to why the Captain didn't protect Mel this time.

"Why!?" Mel, who was stuck on the wall, muttered with a dumbfounded tone while the pain he felt made him feel quite humiliated.

"You think I don't know your ploy? How many times have I told you not to mess with Grey?"

Captain reproached Mel and turned to look at Grey.

"Grey, please forgive my nephew Mel, he won't do this again, and I will personally handle the punishment for him." He slightly bowed.

Grey nodded his head and didn't say anything. He could only accept his hardships out here and do his best currently. However, the situation seemed rather hopeless for a long time, with the child's health weakening over all these years.

The Captain sighed at his gesture before his eyes imperceptibly flashed, "By the way, did you see anything glowing around here?"

"The only thing glowing here was my sword…" Grey gave a harrumph.

"Not th… Alright," The Captain suddenly stopped giving information. He thought he had found a treasure and so he wasn't willing to share it with anyone.

Tian Long, who possessed his new body, started sweating a little when he heard their speech. Not because he heard the Captain mention the glow but because he couldn't understand anything they said.

'Is my fate so terrible? Of all the weak people under twenty out there, why a child? I couldn't even take care of myself in this state. I'm doomed!'

Tian Long had a listless expression on his face.

He looked upwards, towards the cloudy sky which looked similar to his fate, gloomy as ever. The little sunlight that fell on his face failed to provide him warmth.

He suddenly made a determined face to keep on living in this world, which was quite cute in itself. However, there was still the matter of five minutes, so he was rather waiting for that moment to pass.

Although the Death Book had disintegrated, the damage to his soul was already done, so he remained doubtful on whether if he would survive the five-minute time limit.

Grey turned around and returned to where the child was lying down with his back. He was instantly astonished to see that the child was awake!

"Kid! Can you hear me? Are you fine?"

Grey shouted in excitement as he kneeled beside the child.

"Calm down, Grey. He's just a kid who was in a coma ever since the time you found him. Do you truly expect him to talk?" The Captain chuckled.

"Ah, right, I just lost myself in happiness, sorry…" Grey replied in a slightly embarrassed tone.

"Alright, take care of the kid, I got things to do…" The Captain bid farewell and left. His eyes flashed with a deep glint as his head moved left and right, trying to find the source of the glow.

'What the hell are these guys talking about? I can't understand… What language is this?' Tian Long's mind only after calming down did calmly tried to make sense of the situation, 'Actually, where is this place and who is this child?'

He then looked at the middle-aged, who seemed rather worried about him.

'Could this person be my… this child's father?'

Suddenly Tian Long's glabella, the prominence between his eyebrows, started throbbing painfully.

"Arghhhhh!"

"Kid! What's wrong?"

Grey panicked as he looked at the child, shout in pain, "Oh no!"

He felt his body going cold!

'What is this black thing in front of my eyes?' Tian Long saw an eerie sight in front of him. His vision suddenly disappeared, and it became pitch black as if lost all sight, but a moment later, the pitch-black became an anomaly in his view.

A rather familiar anomaly if he should say…

Tian Long tragically screamed as he kept holding his head until he fainted from the immense pain.

Grey, who panicked quickly became eerily composed as he saw that the child stopped suffering. He checked the child's pulse and heaved a sigh of relief.

"He's just fainted, thankfully… Perhaps, he just got scared of my face… It makes sense. After all, its the first time I'm seeing him open his eyes…"

'This child sure does like to keep me hanging on a thread.'

He laughed ruefully and sighed as he thought about the hardships he had faced until now.

'It's almost this child's third birthday, good thing he woke up before that or else I would have had my head severed…'

Noticing the coincidence, Grey thanked the heavens.

He then carried Tian Long to his room and made him sleep in his bed. He then sat before the table and wrote a letter in clean strokes, imprinting it along with a somewhat moderately patterned secret seal.

He stood beside the window and whistled. A beautiful pigeon flew through the window and stood on Grey's shoulders. Its eyes looked sharp, and it rather had an imposing presence when compared to its tiny stature.

Grey then tied the letter to the pigeon's leg. The next moment, the pigeon then flew away from him his shoulder to its pre-determined destination.

'That's about it. My mission is finally going to be over soon… If everything goes smoothly, I guess…' Grey had experienced too many hardships in these two-plus years. He had used every coin on him to look after this child, leaving him to be worse than a beggar.

He had no choice but to join a mercenary group to support the child and himself.

"It's been almost three years since I left the Empire, and hopefully, the tide has crossed over, and if it hasn't, then we'll both die." He again laughed ruefully and collapsed on the floor, his eyes completely shut, making him appear as if he was dead. However, he rather let out a sound snore in a few seconds.

For the first time in his life after accepting the mission handed down to him personally, Grey peacefully slept.

After three days had passed, Tian Long still hadn't woken up.

Constantly suffering from pain in his head during this time, he looked as if he had been suffering from a nightmare.

"What happened to this kid? Is he suffering from some illness? But the apothecary I hired told he was perfectly healthy for his age, which is unusual in itself because he's been in a coma from the time he was born…"

"Is the heavens helping us?" Grey murmured as he found it difficult to understand this situation.

'Whatever, I'll just report it to the higher-ups as it is…' He opened the door and left the room.

After a few moments of silence in the room…

A child groggily opened his eyes.

'Where am I? What is this place? Why am I not dead?' Tian Long had a lot of doubts and many questions in his mind, but the most prominent one was…, 'What the hell is this black thing in my soul?'

'Ehh…wait! I can sense my soul?' Tian Long was utterly confused and even a bit scared. The feeling over his glabella, it was undoubtedly a new sensation.

The soul is in the glabella… This was rather a preconceived notion to him. Hence he automatically related this sensation to be his soul.

His heart palpitated in reaction at this sudden discovery.

Tian Long bit his lips as he whispered to himself in Chinese, "Alright, calm down me! If I think calmly and carefully, perhaps, I will be able to make sense of this situation!"

He took a deep breath to calm himself down, but it wasn't enough. He had to empty his mind and take a few more breaths to calm down. Then once his expression became quite calm, he started connecting the dots one by one.

'The Death Book was destroyed in the spatial tunnel, and I witnessed the scene with my eyes. I am sure of it, so what is this black thing in my soul that looks like a book?'

'Is this the Death Book? It looks similar…'

Tian Long heavily bit his lips but then stopped realizing that it might harm the child but then recognized that it was just himself. Feeling conflicted, he then continued to think.

'But if the Death Book followed me into this world, then it should've been able to kill me after exiting the spatial tunnel and gaining this body. If it didn't kill me, then I was right… The Death Book is probably restricted by the laws of this world!'

Tian Long felt elated! He had relied on luck, and this basis of entering another world should either destroy or reset the Death Book!

He had not been able to kill or manipulate animals with the Death Book, so it was within logic to think that the Death Book worked on some kind of principle, some kind of law within the set world.

He was also prepared for the Death Book to not work in this world. Hence, he rather felt disbelief at its presence in his soul.

'This world probably needs time to detect the arrival of an unknown object, so the Death Book was able to fulfill the condition of me being able to obtain a weak body below twenty years old, but it wasn't able to kill me after the five-minute time limit meaning the Death Book should've either been intrinsically destroyed or reset according to the laws of this world.'

'Then, if this black thing is the Death Book, how was it able to infuse into my soul? Is it because I am the current owner?'

'Yup, this should be the case; it somewhat makes sense of the situation.'

Even though Tian Long had many doubts, he was somewhat able to make sense of this situation. Even though it could turn out as nonsense, he felt that he was not far from the truth.

Tian Long got out of the bed, and just when he tried to walk, he fell.

'What!?'

He tried to stand up, but he couldn't, so he crawled his way to the mirror at the corner of the room, using every ounce of strength that he could muster.

'How weak!' He lamented but was able to understand since he was in a child's body. He asked for a weak body so he would be able to possess the body easily, but it seems like, for this child, he shouldn't have rather included that condition.

He looked around ninety-one centimeters in height with fair skin, a pair of sapphire eyes that looks adorable, but his face seemed quite emaciated, sunken in along with his body. His short blonde hair was messy, and with a tiny frame that is normal for 3-year-old children, he looked not much different from a child who was not taken care of, an orphan.

However, he looked clean without any dirt considering the circumstances he was in, probably taken care of by someone or the middle-aged person who looked after him and also seemed to be the child's father at first glance.

But now, he felt that this child didn't resemble that person at all.

'A 2 or 3-year child? An orphan? I guess it's alright since I can perfectly blend into this environment…'

'I don't know who you are, but sorry for possessing your body, I'm not going to make any excuses since I indirectly killed you…'

Tian Long didn't know that this child was in a coma from the time he was born and was going to die three days ago. He held complex feelings about killing an innocent child, but that didn't stop him from persisting to live his life.

'I swear that I will live your part as well.'

However, he felt ridiculous as a child became his first casualty in this world.

======

After Grey left the room, he headed for the room where the Captain's stayed.

*Knock!\~*

"Come in…" A voice could be heard from inside the room.

*Creek!\~*

Grey opened the door and went inside, his footsteps creaking on the wooden plywood.

"Oh, Grey, what's the matter?"

"Captain, it's time I left the mercenaries…"

There was a moment of silence in the room.

"Sigh, did the two year period come to an end already? Time sure flies fast…" The Captain reminisced as he sighed.

"Yes, I thank you for taking care of me in the mercenaries. The compensation will be given once the people from the Empire comes to pick me up."

"Taking care of you? Protecting a man with a cultivation base higher than mine? You must be jesting. Is it the child?" The Captain chuckled.

"You've already figured it out?"

Grey uttered, but he didn't look surprised.

"I have been together with you for almost two years, yes. If I can't even figure that out, I should just retire from being a mercenary…"

Grey blinked and said, "Good thing you told me this just now. If it were a month ago, I would've been forced to kill you…"

"Is it an order?" The Captain wryly smiled.

"Yes…"

Grey inclined his head, replied as if it was a matter of fact.

"The Loret Imperial Family sure is scary, considering that it managed to survive and execute the noble families who participated in the rebellion."

"What? The Loret Family has managed to quell the rebels?"

"Yes, I just received this news two days ago." The Captain nodded.

Grey stood, shivering from excitement!

'From this, both of us have survived…' Grey heaved a sigh of relief as he calmed down.

"Then, I'll return to my quarters, Captain!"

"Alright…"

The Captain sighed, once again at the thought of how he was going to lose his best and powerful subordinate. However, he knew that this was inevitable.

=======

*Creak!\~*

Grey opened the door to his room and stepped in, but he almost got a heart attack.

"Where is the child?" Grey instantly unsheathed his sword and quickly rushed inside in a panicked manner.

Tian Long hurriedly turned back his head at the corner of the room and saw Grey rushing into the room.

'Ray Nolan, that's his name, huh?'

'Seems like I still possess the Death God Eyes, then that means that I still have the Death Book with me…'

With this, Tian Long confirmed that he still had the Death Book with him, but he felt that it was best to say that the Death Book is within him.

Ray Nolan heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that the child was safe, albeit trying to do something.

"Nie…yay…udel…"

Tian Long immediately started putting on an act with a cute face.

'Considering that I was sleeping in a bed, this guy should've been the one taking care of me, and it's not farfetched for a 3-year-old orphan to not know how to talk!'

Ray Nolan immediately walked towards the child and carried him up.

"Huh, will I get beheaded if they found out that the prince doesn't know how to talk?" Ray Nolan got scared a little but then thought with clarity, 'Probably not…'

Tian Long had no idea what this guy was mumbling about because he still couldn't understand any of it.

The Death God Eyes displayed a person's name and lifespan, except the latter, seemed to be displayed by a thread.

'Dude, please talk in a language I understand…' Tian Long wished both sincerely and lamentably.

"Child, it's almost time for you to return to the empire, and there you can officially start learning the language of the world." Ray Nolan started lecturing and teaching the child even though he knew that the child couldn't understand him because his life depended on it.

"…"

The lecture continued for about ten minutes, leaving Tian Long with a face full of black lines.