The sound of splashing water seemed to come from a distance, causing Li Zexi's eyelids to twitch slightly, and his consciousness to rotate like a rusty machine.
"Is the water in the restroom open? No, I have to get up..." Li Zexi, who gave instructions to herself, tried to concentrate and opened her eyes little by little.
In his vague sight, he vaguely saw the wooden ceiling, and saw a blushing quietly blooming.
Li Zexi's mind was stunned, and he didn't feel abnormal, so he subconsciously looked around.
He found that this was a not very spacious room, with a bed, a table and a cabinet, and a bronze mirror hung on the wooden wall. The mirror reflected the night sky with the crescent moon hanging outside the window. As well as, A man sitting on the bed, leaning against the wall!
The man lowered his head, with a bullet hole on the center of his eyebrows, and his face was covered with blood stains. He looked particularly hideous in the crimson spilled outside the window,
"Dead person?" Li Zexi gave a shock and woke up completely. Only then did he realize that the colors in the room were very rich, and the scene in his field of vision was like a brightly colored oil painting.
Right in front of my eyes, the flying dust freezes, and an unknown flying insect stops in the air, as if the
Then Li Zexi noticed that he was holding a thick book in his hand. It gave off an indescribable sense of illusion, with shimmering colors flickering faintly around its edges. A strange symbol was emblazoned on the dark cover.
It was an eye—with an equilateral triangle pattern in its pupil. Surrounding the eye were seven more symbols.
Strangely, no matter how hard Li Zexi tried to focus, he couldn't see those seven symbols clearly. They seemed shrouded in mist, hazy and indistinct. Beneath the eye pattern were words:
At that moment, the cover of the book flipped open on its own, revealing slightly yellowed pages. On the first blank sheet, a single word appeared on the top line:
Li Zexi had no idea what it meant. In the blink of an eye, the strange book began to fade, and before long, it had completely vanished—as if it had never existed at all, as if what he had seen was just an illusion.
As the book disappeared, the vivid colors of the room returned to normal.
Li Zexi suddenly remembered the corpse on the bed. He sprang to his feet, feeling his shoulder lighten, and heard the heavy thud of something falling to the ground.
He looked down instinctively—and saw a man dressed as a sailor lying lifelessly on the floor, a pool of blood silently spreading beneath him.
"Another dead body! What the hell is going on?!"
Li Zexi glanced around in horror, quickly confirming that this wasn't his tiny rental apartment. Outside, the splashing of water echoed now and then, and the floor beneath his feet trembled slightly—as if he were on a ship.
By chance, his gaze fell on the bronze mirror hanging on the wall, and he saw a stranger reflected there.
The reflection was that of a young man, about seventeen or eighteen years old, with short black hair, dark blue eyes, pale skin, and a faint scar under his left eye—like a tear mark.
He had a slender build, was dressed in a black formal outfit stained with blood, the shirt's collar askew and missing buttons.
"Who is that…?" A terrifying thought flashed through Li Zexi's mind.
He tentatively raised his hand. The strange young man in the mirror copied the movement perfectly.
"Hum…"
Li Zexi stumbled back, unable to believe what he saw. As panic swirled in his mind, one terrifying realization became clear: "That person in the mirror… is me? I've crossed into someone else's body?"
Just then, his foot nudged something on the floor. Looking down, he spotted a beautifully crafted revolver. The barrel and frame were decorated with patterns resembling snake scales.
Li Zexi picked it up and spun the cylinder—two bullets were missing. Where had they gone? The answer was obvious. Those two missing bullets had taken two lives in this room.
"Could I… have been the one who killed them?"
That thought alone made him shudder. In an instant, scattered images flashed through his mind.
He saw himself fighting with two men—one dressed like a passenger, the other a sailor. They'd crashed into this room. He'd kicked the passenger aside and raised the snake-scale revolver, killing him with a single precise shot.
The sailor had lunged at him in a frenzy, stabbing a dagger into his left ribs—only to receive a fatal shot under the chin at point-blank range.
"Blergh—"
Li Zexi doubled over, retching against the wall, but nothing came up.
He lifted his shirt and saw the wound on his ribs. But the flesh there was already wriggling, knitting itself together, healing before his eyes.
Relief washed over him.
Still, even though his body was recovering, the room bore witness to what had happened. There was no denying it—"he" was the killer.
Li Zexi gave a bitter laugh.
As a patriotic youth raised under the red flag, he'd never killed so much as a chicken. Now he had two lives on his hands—and his heart trembled with fear. And as more memories surfaced, he began to piece together the life of the body's original owner.
His name was "Sifa Disraeli", from Enqi Town, Dixi County, in the Kingdom of Loen on the Northern Continent.
His father, Baron Bison Disraeli, owned a manor, a logging yard, a textile mill, and vast lands around Enqi. A respected noble who made generous donations to the local Church of the Goddess of the Night.
His mother, Ainilu, was a gentle woman, always supportive of her children. Sifa also had a younger sister and a younger brother...
By Li Zexi's logic, with such a background, the original owner should have been an upstanding young noble, full of promise, working for the good of the common people.
But the reality was the opposite.
Sifa had a terrible reputation in Enqi Town. He oppressed the poor, behaved arrogantly, and led a life of debauchery.
This time, he'd even tried to violate his maid. Pressured by public outrage, his father had disowned him and sent him away on business.
He'd traveled first to Sibeilang, stayed there for nearly a month, and then boarded the 'Sativa' for Enmat Port...
Li Zexi wanted to collapse on the spot.
Isn't this the template for an evil young master? The kind the protagonist stomps on to earn fame? What bad karma did I have to end up crossing into 'this' kind of person?
He felt like crying.
More memories flashed.
Five days after leaving Caesar Harbor, the 'Sativa' was attacked by pirates.
Nast, the so-called "King of the Five Seas," and his crew looted the ship. Luckily, they spared the passengers' lives.
But the nightmare didn't end there.
Once the pirates left, the passengers and crew turned on each other. A minor quarrel escalated to fistfights, then blades, then guns.
People fell one by one. Blood soaked the decks. Despair gripped the ship.
At last, the captain led the last sane survivors, Sifa included, to hide in the lower decks. There they waited nearly a week, planning a desperate counterattack.
Since Sifa had a gun, he was sent ahead to scout. But before he reached the upper deck, he was discovered by the two men—and the deadly fight had ensued.
The memory fragments faded. Li Zexi sorted through what he'd learned.
*"King of the Five Seas" Nast? Never heard of him… But…Loen Kingdom... Dixi County... Church of the Goddess of the Night… I've seen these names before…"
Suddenly, Li Zexi froze. His face went pale, his body weak.
"I know this world. This is…"
The Lord of Mysteries!"
A famous novel, one his friends had recommended countless times. He'd only read fifty chapters—but that was enough.
A world of danger. A world of horror and mystery.
A world where gods truly existed. Where ancient evils lurked, waiting to awaken.
Where the most ordinary thing—a bug underfoot, a cat on a windowsill, even a stray dog—might hide unimaginable power.
"And I crossed into 'this' world?!"
Li Zexi stared at the revolver in his hand and gave a bitter laugh.
For a moment, he even thought of ending it with the gun. Compared to the gruesome ways one could die in this world, a bullet to the head would be merciful.
But he lowered the revolver. Life was precious. And who knew if death would really free him? He couldn't take that risk.
Just then, there was a soft knock at the door. A voice called: "Mr. Sifa, are you alright?"
Li Zexi turned. A young man stood in the doorway—about twenty-seven, blond, with an aquiline nose.
Li Zexi's memory supplied his name: 'Joyce:. A merchant from Tingen, returning from the Southern Continent.
"I'm fine, just..." Li Zexi glanced at the corpses. "They found me first—I had no choice."
Joyce paled at the sight of the bodies. "We heard the gunshots. The captain feared the worst. Mr. Trice said we should act before those lunatics do."
"The gunfire will have drawn attention. We've left the lower deck. Will you come with us?"
Li Zexi took a deep breath, nodded, and stepped forward.
There was no going back now.
All he could do was survive this nightmare. And then—change this body's reputation, win back his family's support, and find a path to the mysterious. Only by becoming Extraordinary could he hope to protect himself in this mad world.
As he passed Joyce at the door, Li Zexi muttered as if to himself:
"From now on, I am Sifa…"
"Sifa Disraeli."