Pain.
It was not the sharp, clean sting of a bullet—the way Li Ye had expected to die when the barrel of the silenced Glock flashed in his penthouse office. No, this was a dull, grinding agony, as if his bones had been removed, soaked in vinegar, and jammed back into his flesh at the wrong angles.
Li Ye gasped, his lungs rattling like a broken bellows. The air tasted of rot, wet straw, and dried blood.
He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt glued shut with crusted rheum. With a sheer act of will, forged through twenty years of climbing the corporate underworld of Shanghai, he forced them open.
He was not in his penthouse. He was not in Hell.
He was lying on a pile of damp, mildewed hay in a wooden shack that smelled of excrement and rust. Sunlight pierced through the cracks in the rotting timber walls, dancing on dust motes that floated in the stagnant air.
"Where..." His voice was a cracked whisper.
Suddenly, a headache split his skull. It wasn't a migraine; it was an invasion. Memories that did not belong to him flooded his neural pathways, violently overwriting his own.
The Heavenly Sword Sect. The Outer Court. The Waste, Li Ye.
Orphan. Seventeen years old. Stuck at the 1st Layer of Body Tempering for five years. The laughingstock of the sect.
The cause of death: A savage beating.
The memories sharpened. The previous owner of this body, a pathetic, cowardly boy driven by hormones he couldn't control, had been caught peeping at the female disciples' bathing pool near the Spirit Waterfall. He hadn't even seen anything—he had been spotted by a guard and beaten within an inch of his life, then thrown into this woodshed to rot.
"Pathetic," the modern Li Ye hissed, the word tasting like iron on his tongue.
He tried to sit up. His body screamed. He looked down at his hands. They were slender, calloused not from holding a pen or a gun, but from menial labor—chopping wood, hauling water. There was dried blood caked on his chest, staining the tattered grey hemp robes he wore.
"I survived a corporate coup and three assassination attempts, only to end up in the body of a pervert who got killed for looking?" Li Ye let out a dark, raspy chuckle.
He closed his eyes and took stock. He was a shark placed in the body of a minnow. In his past life, he was a liquidator—a man who stripped companies of their assets and destroyed lives with a signature. He understood power. And right now, he had none.
Ding.
A sound, dissonant and electric, rang inside his skull. It sounded like a computer crashing.
[SYSTEM REBOOTING...] [ERROR. DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED.] [ATTEMPTING TO LOAD 'SUPREME HERO' MODULE...] [FAILED.] [ATTEMPTING TO LOAD 'DIVINE SAGE' MODULE...] [FAILED.]
A translucent blue screen flickered into existence before his eyes, glitching with static. The text was jagged, red and unstable.
[EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.] [LOADING: CELESTIAL PLUNDER SYSTEM (DAMAGED VER. 0.9)]
[HOST STATUS: CRITICAL] [LIFESPAN: 3 HOURS] [CULTIVATION: BODY TEMPERING 1 (CRIPPLED)] [YANG ESSENCE: LEAKING]
[WARNING: SYSTEM ENERGY LOW. YIN-YANG IMBALANCE DETECTED. THE HOST'S SOUL IS UNSTABLE. IMMEDIATE REPLENISHMENT REQUIRED.]
Li Ye stared at the floating text. "Plunder System? Explain."
[DIRECTIVE: THE HOST MUST CONSUME HIGH-QUALITY 'YIN' ESSENCE OR SPIRITUAL ROOTS TO REPAIR THE BODY AND SUSTAIN THE SYSTEM. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN SOUL DISSIPATION.]
[METHOD: DUAL CULTIVATION. ABSORPTION. THEFT.]
Li Ye's lips curled into a cold smirk. In his old life, he stole fortunes. In this life, the heavens were telling him to steal life itself. "So, I must become a demon to survive. Fitting."
Creaaaak.
The rotting wooden door of the shed groaned open.
Bright, harsh daylight flooded the dim space, blinding him for a moment. A silhouette stood in the doorway, blocking the sun.
"Still alive, trash?"
The voice was melodious, like water hitting jade, but laced with an arrogance that could cut glass.
As Li Ye's eyes adjusted, the figure stepped inside.
It was a woman. A disciple of the Sect. And in this squalid shed, she looked like a goddess descended into a pigsty.
She was tall, her posture radiating the practiced elegance of someone who knows they are being watched. She wore the standard robes of an Outer Sect Senior Disciple, but on her, the uniform looked like haute couture.
The robes were white silk, embroidered with azure clouds along the hemlines. The fabric was exquisitely thin, clinging to her form with sinful obedience. A wide sash of azure silk cinched her waist tightly, emphasizing the flared curve of her hips and the slender, willow-like fragility of her waist.
But it was her chest that drew the eye. The robes were wrapped in the traditional cross-collar style, but the fabric strained against the swell of her bosom. Every breath she took caused the silk to tighten, outlining the heavy, soft mounds underneath. The white fabric was slightly translucent in the shaft of sunlight, hinting at the rose-colored shadow of a dudou (undergarment) beneath.
She had a face that could launch wars—oval, with porcelain skin that looked as if it had never known the touch of the sun. Her lips were painted a deep crimson, a stark contrast to her pale complexion. Her eyes were long and narrow, shaped like phoenixes, holding a gaze of utter, freezing contempt.
Li Ye searched the previous owner's memories.
Han Ruoxue. 19 years old. Body Tempering Stage 8. One of the top beauties of the Outer Sect. And the fiancée of the man who had ordered Li Ye's beating.
She held a handkerchief over her nose, her eyes scanning the filth of the shed before landing on Li Ye's bloodied form.
"My fiancé, Senior Brother Wang, is too soft-hearted," Han Ruoxue said, her voice dripping with disdain. She took a step closer, her silk boots avoiding the puddles of grime. "He thought a beating would teach a dog its place. But I see you're still breathing."
Li Ye didn't answer immediately. He leaned back against the rotting wood, his dark eyes sweeping over her. He didn't look at her like a fearful servant. He looked at her like a butcher inspecting a prime cut of wagyu beef.
He looked at the way her long, ink-black hair was pinned up with a silver hairpin, leaving her slender, creamy neck exposed. He looked at the way the slit of her robe parted as she walked, revealing a flash of white trousers and the curve of a calf.
[SYSTEM ALERT] [TARGET DETECTED: HAN RUOXUE] [ATTRIBUTE: WATER/ICE] [PHYSIQUE: LOW-TIER YIN BODY] [STATUS: VIRGIN YIN INTACT] [PLUNDER VALUE: HIGH. CAN RESTORE 20% OF SYSTEM INTEGRITY AND HEAL HOST.]
The red text flashed over her head like a neon sign.
Li Ye licked his dry, cracked lips. "Did you come here to finish the job, Senior Sister Han? Or did you come to check on me because you were worried?"
Han Ruoxue froze. She blinked, taken aback. The Li Ye she knew was a stammering, head-bowing coward. He should be begging for mercy, kowtowing on the floor. But this man... his eyes were terrifying. They were abyssal, devoid of fear, burning with a strange, cold heat.
"Worried?" She laughed, a sharp, cruel sound. "For a peeping tom? A piece of trash with no background and no talent?"
She stepped closer, looming over him. The scent of her hit him—cool lotus and winter plum, overpowering the stench of blood. It was intoxicating.
"I came to deliver a message," she said, looking down her nose at him. "If you survive this, you will leave the sect. You will cripple your own cultivation—what little you have—and vanish. If I see your disgusting face in the Outer Court again, I will gouge your eyes out myself."
She lifted her foot—encased in a pristine white boot embroidered with silver thread—and placed it squarely on Li Ye's chest, right over his broken ribs.
She pressed down.
"Nngh." Li Ye gritted his teeth, sweat breaking out on his forehead. The pain was blinding, white-hot needles stabbing into his lungs.
"Do you understand, dog?" she sneered, applying more pressure. She enjoyed this. She enjoyed the dominance, the feeling of crushing something beneath her heel. Her breathing quickened slightly, her chest heaving, the silk straining further against her breasts.
Li Ye looked up at her. Through the haze of pain, his mind was razor-sharp.
She was close. Too close.
"I understand," Li Ye rasped. "I understand... that you have something I need."
"What?" Han Ruoxue frowned, confused.
Li Ye's hand shot out.
It was a movement born of desperation and the System's sudden surge of adrenaline. His hand, bloodied and dirty, clamped around her ankle, right above the boot, his fingers digging into the silk of her trousers and the soft flesh beneath.
"How dare you!" Han Ruoxue shrieked. Her face flushed with rage. A man like this touching her was a blasphemy. Qi surged in her body. She prepared to kick his head off.
"Activate," Li Ye whispered.
[PLUNDER INITIATED]
A black shockwave, invisible to the naked eye but deafening to the soul, erupted from Li Ye's hand.
Han Ruoxue's eyes went wide. The Qi she was gathering to strike him didn't materialize. Instead, she felt a sudden, terrifying vacuum at her ankle.
It felt as if a hole had opened up in her meridians.
"Ah!" She gasped, her legs giving way. She collapsed, falling forward onto the dirty straw, her knees buckling. Her pristine robes were instantly stained with muck, but she couldn't move.
A strange sensation washed over her—a mix of numbness and a horrifying, violating warmth spreading from where his hand gripped her ankle. It was as if he was drinking her.
"What... what are you doing?" she stammered, her voice losing its arrogance, replaced by genuine panic. She tried to circulate her Qi, but it was draining away, flowing down her leg and into his hand.
Li Ye dragged himself up, ignoring the screaming of his ribs. He didn't let go. He could feel it—a cool, refreshing stream of energy rushing into his arm, soothing his burns, knitting his bones. It was the sweetest thing he had ever tasted.
He pulled himself closer to her. She was sprawled on the floor now, looking up at him with wide, fearful eyes. The predator and prey had switched in a heartbeat.
"You wanted to cripple me?" Li Ye whispered, leaning over her. His face was inches from hers. He could see the pores on her nose, the tremor in her red lips. He could see down the collar of her robes, the deep, creamy valley of her cleavage heaving with terrified breaths.
"Get off! I'll kill you! My grandfather is an Elder!" she screamed, but her voice was weak, breathless. The drainage of Yin Qi was making her body soft, pliable, weak.
Li Ye ignored her threats. His other hand reached out, grabbing her chin, forcing her to look at him. His thumb smeared a streak of his own blood across her perfect, pale cheek.
"Your grandfather isn't here, Ruoxue," he murmured, using her given name with a deliberate, insulting familiarity. "It's just us. And the System is hungry."
[SYSTEM NOTICE: VIRGIN YIN DETECTED. PHYSICAL CONTACT REQUIRED FOR DEEPER EXTRACTION. RECOMMENDATION: KISS.]
Li Ye smiled. It was not a nice smile.
"Let's see what a genius tastes like," he said.
He crushed his lips against hers.
It wasn't a kiss of romance. It was an assault. He forced her mouth open, his tongue invading with the ruthlessness of a conqueror. Han Ruoxue's eyes bulged. She tried to bite him, but her strength was fading fast, her body betraying her. The loss of Yin Qi was creating a perverse reaction—her body was heating up, her skin turning pink.
As he plundered her breath and her energy, Li Ye felt his broken ribs snap back into place. His skin hardened. The stagnant, trash-tier Qi in his dantian began to boil and turn a dark, violent red.
[ABSORBING WATER ATTRIBUTE QI...] [REPAIRING HOST BODY: 10%... 20%...] [NEW TECHNIQUE STOLEN: FROST PALM (INCOMPLETE)]
Li Ye didn't stop. His hand moved from her chin, sliding down the column of her neck, over the silk collar, and grasped the soft, heavy swell of her breast through the fabric.
"No... please..." Han Ruoxue moaned into his mouth, a sound of despair and unintentional pleasure. The sensation of her Qi being forcibly extracted from her chest was agonizingly sensitive.
Li Ye squeezed, feeling the erratic beating of her heart beneath the silk and flesh. He was alive. He was powerful. And he was just getting started.
The world of cultivation was cruel? Good.
He would be crueler.