"My philosophy is simple: if you treat me well, then I will treat you ten times better. But if you dare to threaten me, or even touch a hair on the people I love, then I swear to the heavens, to the gods and devils, that I will take your life. I will not just take your life; I will take whatever you have and kill them. I will show you fear—a fear that transcends time and space, a fear that will make you understand what it means to provoke someone like me."
Huang Shi spoke his thoughts with an aura filled with murder. As the words left his lips, the air around him began to shake. Golden Sunfyre flames erupted from his body with a violent roar, coating him in a blinding light that seemed to melt the very pebbles beneath his feet.
But that was not all; just a few seconds later, jagged streaks of crimson Calamity Lightning began to dance across his skin. Each spark made a low humming sound that vibrated deep in his bones, giving off a terrifying physical pressure—a heavy, suffocating weight that promised total destruction to whoever dared to face him in battle.
What was happening to Huang Shi was actually a bit strange. In both of his lives, he had never actually killed anyone before; in fact, he rarely got himself into fights at all. That was the reason why, when some gym rat had previously stabbed him with a knife back on Earth, he wasn't able to defend himself and had died a cruel death.
This meant that it was very strange how pure and real his murderous aura felt. It wasn't the messy anger of a beginner; it was the cold, scary feeling of a killer. It was as if he were the kind of person who had slaughtered millions of both gods and devils alike, standing on top of a mountain of bodies. It was a feeling that should not have come from a person who had lived a life of luxury and waste, or a person who had been raised in a modern world of rules and laws.
What Huang Shi had not noticed was that this change was not organic. The system, in its attempt to ensure its master's survival in this cruel world, had subtly started to adjust his state of mind to be similar to apex cultivators—people who are natives of this world, people who have long since been used to the killing and death associated with the world of cultivation. All of this was to ensure that its master would not be bullied or die an unreasonable death.
Bai Xinyue, on the other hand, had been stunned into a long silence. She stood frozen, the tip of her silver bamboo sword shaking just a little bit. Clearly, this was not the answer she was looking for.
Her mind was a mess of confusion; she had spent so long thinking that if Huang Shi had been replaced, it would be by one of her enemies—people sent to kill her or stop her from reaching her true potential. She expected a cold spy, not a soul who seemed to be screaming at how unfair the world was.
I think I made a mistake…
Bai Xinyue felt her heart hurt with a sharp pain—a feeling she didn't even fully understand. Looking at the bloodshot eyes and the shaking anger of the man before her, she felt a wave of guilt. All she knew was that she had made a big mistake in judging him, and that she had to fix it before things got even worse.
Seeing that Bai Xinyue was staying quiet and just staring at him with wide eyes, Huang Shi's heart started to beat wildly inside of his chest. While he looked like a god of death on the outside, covered in golden fire and crimson lightning, the thoughts inside of his head were a total panic.
FUCK!! IS IT DONE? WAS MY ACTING PERFECT??!! PLEASE TELL ME SHE BOUGHT IT! IF SHE DOESN'T LOWER THAT SWORD SOON, I MIGHT ACTUALLY PASS OUT!
Huang Shi was screaming inside of his head, shivering in anxiety. He started to worry about whether or not telling her the partial truth about his identity was the right decision.
No! I shouldn't doubt myself. Under those circumstances, any semblance of a lie would have been detected by her. Instead, telling her a mix of both lies and truths would be more appropriate.
Huang Shi patiently waited, trying to gauge her reaction to his words, fearing that despite all of the things he said, she would still choose to kill him to at least eliminate a potential unknown variable.
Come on, come on, come on, say something damn it!
A long silence followed as Bai Xinyue's face cycled through a whirlwind of emotions before finally turning calm. When she finally spoke, the words that came out of her mouth were so unexpected they made his eyes widen in disbelief.
"I… am also not from this world. But unlike you, my memories are fragmented. I don't know who I was before I got here… and I got here as a child. So from my perspective, I've lived in this world all of my life. I don't even know who I am."
This time, it was Huang Shi's turn to speak with a trembling voice, as the fingers that he used to point at her started to shake.
"Y-you… you are also a transmigrator? What the fuck? So that's why you're the protagonist?"
Bai Xinyue looked at him, not with her usual regal and cold expression, but with a strangely anxious tone as she replied.
"I don't know what you mean by protagonist, but all I know from my fragmented memories is that I have a mission. I have an enemy that I have to face, but right now I'm still too weak. I have to get stronger—strong enough that nothing can stand in my way, strong enough that even if the heavens block my path, I have the ability to slay the heavens themselves."