Chapter 2: All Are Neighbors

Gu Changqing’s vision flickered, and the next moment he found himself standing in an unfamiliar room.

A computer, a sofa, a dining table, a kitchen—everywhere bore the marks of modernity.

Yet, something was off.

The computer monitor, for instance, had an old-fashioned bulging back, and the windows were framed in plywood—a retro style straight out of decades past.

Even as his gaze took in the contents of the room, a woman’s agonized scream and a man’s furious curses echoed through the wall.

The woman’s cries were sharp and piercing, unsettling to the point of agitation.

“Is this that world?” The thought had only just crossed Gu Changqing’s mind when his eyes landed on a human head placed on the table beside him.

It was a woman’s head, skin a bluish-grey, lips sewn shut with needle and thread.

And the eyes of that head were fixed right on him.

“Shit!” Gu Changqing jumped in fright, cursing instinctively as he upended the table in alarm.

The severed head rolled several times across the floor and came to rest against the wall, its face still turned toward Gu Changqing, those lifeless eyes never leaving him.

“Damn it, scared me half to death!” Gu Changqing thumped his chest while swearing. To transmigrate straight into a murder scene—how was anyone supposed to handle that?

From next door, the screams rose even louder…

Gu Changqing began to suspect that some deranged killer might be right in the neighboring room.

He shifted his gaze, unwilling to dwell on the grisly scene, for he was neither particularly brave nor callous and could not stomach such bloodshed.

His eyes fell upon a pair of long legs lying nearby.

Surveying the space further, Gu Changqing confirmed that this was not his hometown, though it was a similar kind of place.

A calendar hung on the wall.

“What’s this… year 1162?” Gu Changqing arched an eyebrow. The numbers weren’t Arabic numerals, but with a little comparison to the calendar’s notation, he could more or less decipher them.

Beneath the numbers were words he recognized as well.

They matched the script from the “Flesh and Blood Refining Divine Law.”

Having just read that text, a portion of its characters and their meanings had already imprinted themselves in his mind.

It was less than a thousand words, only a few hundred if you discounted repeats, but enough for him to grasp the basics.

“The writing in this world is the same as that of the ‘Flesh and Blood Refining Divine Law.’ What connection could there be between the two?”

For now, there was no answer.

Still, being in a modern society was a relief.

He checked his belongings—the pouch and the “Flesh and Blood Refining Divine Law” were there, his clothes intact, the flint tube still at his waist.

The hatchet he’d left by his side had not made the journey.

As for the bead and the portal, they now hovered indistinctly in his mind—obviously out of commission for the time being.

When he might be able to use them again, he had no idea.

Gu Changqing set those thoughts aside and, almost desperately, flung open the fridge. He was suffering from a dire sugar craving, in desperate need of some sugary soda to save his life.

And he was starving for meat.

It had been five days since he’d had a proper meal.

Lastly, he needed anti-inflammatory medicine—he was convinced his throat had been scratched raw by some coarse bread.

Meanwhile, the eyes of the severed head at the base of the wall followed Gu Changqing’s every move.

He glanced inside the fridge, then silently shut the door.

Apart from a gutted torso, there was nothing inside.

Gu Changqing decided he couldn’t stay here. He headed to the kitchen, grabbed a thirty-centimeter-long knife and held it reverse-grip in his hand. In the sink, he saw a pile of intestines.

He rummaged through the room searching for anything of value he could take before making his escape.

A glance at the severed head on the floor made his heart lurch.

Its eyes were still fixed upon him.

But he was no longer in his previous spot.

Gu Changqing stared at the head, moved a few steps left, then a few right.

Despite the dead glaze, the pupils shifted ever so slightly to follow his movement.

“Shit!” A chill ran down Gu Changqing’s spine, every hair on his neck standing on end.

The continued screams next door only heightened the chaos—this room was growing ever more haunted by the second.

His expression darkening, Gu Changqing walked up to the head, grabbed its hair, and lifted it, staring directly into those eyes.

This time, he saw a boundless malice lurking in their depths.

“Shit, it’s alive?”

What kind of monstrosity was this?

After a moment’s thought, Gu Changqing decided to do a good deed.

“I’ll let you get some sun!”

He set the head on the windowsill, the spot where the sunlight was strongest, positioning the eyes to face the sun.

Immediately, the torso in the fridge began to bang against the fridge door, the long legs on the floor started to twitch, and the pile of intestines in the sink writhed like snakes, trying to slither out.

From beneath the TV cabinet, a drawer slid open a crack, and two fingers poked out.

All the body parts seemed to come alive at once.

Gu Changqing drew a palm-sized jade dagger, his gaze sweeping the room.

If this thing was alive, maybe he could make use of it while it lasted.

A glimmer of anticipation sparked within him. He opened a box jumping in the corner and, sure enough, found a heart the size of a fist inside, beating steadily.

A grin split Gu Changqing’s face as he drove the jade blade down, skewering the pulsing heart.

Strands of blood, like spider silk, crept up along the blade’s surface.

A rush of blood energy surged into Gu Changqing’s body through his palm, rampaging through his veins.

He felt every blood vessel swelling, each muscle flexing, his entire body flushing with heat.

Had there been a mirror, he would have seen the veins beneath his skin bulge and crawl like tree roots.

A shrill, hateful wail rose up from the windowsill.

But Gu Changqing paid it no heed, his eyes fixed on the heart as it gradually withered and shrank.

The piercing screams faded away.

At last, like a bursting bubble, the heart collapsed into a pile of ashes.

At the same time, the severed head, the long legs, and the rest of the body parts in the room all crumbled to ash.

Gu Changqing reveled in the torrent of power surging through him, his grin nearly splitting his face before he burst out laughing.

Yet, a surge of violent intent welled up within him too—those screams from next door were maddening.

He stood, feeling his clothes stretch tight across his muscles, as though about to burst.

He went to the mirror and saw the blue-green veins receding beneath his skin, his muscles noticeably more defined than before.

He glanced around—every piece of the woman’s body had been reduced to piles of ash.

Peeling off the clothes stretched taut over his body, he rifled through the room for something to wear. After a moment, he stared in silence at the set of women’s clothing he’d found.

His old clothes were clearly unusable.

Nor did the style suit him.

But this outfit… Never mind the courage required to put it on—it simply wouldn’t fit him.

The screams from next door continued unabated. Anger flared within Gu Changqing, emboldening him.

He tore a bedsheet and wrapped it around his lower body, then strode out and kicked the door to the neighboring room.

Again, he kicked.

Suddenly, everything went silent. After a moment, the door unlocked from within.

A man nearly two meters tall, shirtless and bulging with muscle, glared at him menacingly.

“Who the hell are you?”

The surge of confidence from Gu Changqing’s newfound strength faded slightly as he sized up the man, then turned and walked back into his own room.

The burly man spat on the floor in contempt as Gu Changqing’s back receded. “Coward!”

Gu Changqing found the long knife, slung it behind his back, and went out again to kick at the neighbor’s door.

The burly man opened the door again, glaring. “You son of a—”

Gu Changqing plunged the knife into the man’s right thigh, then stabbed his left.

The man howled, clutching his legs and stumbling back.

A woman wrapped in a towel stumbled out in panic, saw the man collapse clutching his legs, then spotted the knife in Gu Changqing’s hand—and screamed.

Gu Changqing glanced at the man, then at the woman, and after a moment’s thought said seriously,

“You two are too noisy.”

“We’re neighbors—lend me some clothes!”