Chapter 1: Seizing the Body

Shen Siyuan jolted awake from a dream, gasping for breath, and felt a sharp ache and numbness in his arm.

"Where is this?"

Before Shen Siyuan could recover from the all-consuming Lei Jie, his physical body destroyed, his soul damaged, his divine sense sluggish, his mind was somewhat dazed.

"Old Shen, what's wrong with you? Sleep-fogged?"

His colleague Li Kang, seeing him sitting there in a daze, poked him with the tip of his pen.

Only then did Shen Siyuan come back to himself and turned to look at the other.

"Pockmark Kang?"

"You're the damn pockmark, call me Brother Kang."

Li Kang tossed the pen in his hand onto the desk, looking thoroughly annoyed.

Shen Siyuan ignored him, looked around at the familiar surroundings, and slowly let his awareness clear.

"Had a nightmare?" Li Kang asked again.

Shen Siyuan nodded.

He had indeed just had a nightmare — dreaming of a demonic cultivator from the Great Wasteland who, having failed his Tribulation Crossing, was left with only a wisp of a remnant soul, crossed over into This World, tried to devour his soul and seize his body to be reborn, but unexpectedly was counter-killed and devoured by Shen Siyuan instead.

But the dream was far too real, especially the bits of memory he gained after devouring the demon's remnant soul — as if they had truly happened.

The demonic cultivator in that memory called himself the Nine Youmingjun, had stirred up countless storms of blood across the Great Wasteland, and under the Nine Heavens Lei Jie was further beset by the righteous sects' siege, ultimately dying and his Dao vanishing, leaving only a wisp of a remnant soul, which his natal dharma treasure protected as it fled — no one knew how it ended up in This World and entered Shen Siyuan's sea of consciousness.

Thinking of this, Shen Siyuan's mind stirred, and a palm-sized Ten Thousand Souls Banner appeared in his palm.

"Holy crap, it really wasn't a dream." Shen Siyuan was startled too.

He examined the Ten Thousand Souls Banner in his hand closely — pity the soul banner was already badly damaged, but even so, one could still see it was no ordinary item.

He saw that the banner's shaft was the color of jade, crystalline and translucent, with specks of starlight upon it as if stars were flowing across it; the banner's face was deep purple, with divine patterns along its edges flickering in and out of sight, resplendent and extraordinary; upon it were the two characters "Youming," as if burned by fire, constantly wavering and shifting.

Even now, broken and ruined as it was, an ordinary person who glanced at it would feel dizzy and faint, as if their very soul would be dragged straight inside.

With a thought, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner was withdrawn back into his body, as natural as an arm, without the slightest hitch.

If this was real, could he cultivate?

As a workhorse of society, who doesn't harbor a heart of being master of his own fate, who doesn't want to shout aloud, "I don't want to eat beef."

But with a body like an ant, even if one harbors soaring ambitions, how could one ride the wind straight up into the nine heavens?

But now it was different — if he could cultivate, it would be as if a pair of wings had been grafted onto him, soaring straight into the nine heavens.

So he hurriedly rifled through the remnant memories of the Nine Youmingjun in his mind, but soon a look of disappointment crossed his face.

It turned out This World had no spiritual qi whatsoever, and the air was unbearably foul — the path of internal dharma was completely cut off. That was also why the Nine Youmingjun had abandoned ghost cultivation and wanted to seize a body to be reborn, taking the path of tempering the flesh until the body became a saint.

Though the Nine Youmingjun was a demonic cultivator, he had toppled dynasties and stirred up countless storms of blood, so naturally he was not short on methods for tempering the flesh.

Moreover, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner contained a spatial realm within, storing all the things he had plundered over the years — among them no few heavenly materials and earthly treasures.

But Shen Siyuan had no cultivation whatsoever, and simply had no way to drive the Ten Thousand Souls Banner or open the space within it; and the banner's face was badly damaged, so no one knew how much of what was stored inside still remained.

A treasure mountain within reach, yet no way to enter — he could only sigh in helpless frustration, and it truly felt most unpleasant.

"Old Shen, your reimbursement forms."

Just then, Zhou Chuan, sitting opposite, reached over the partition and handed him a stack of reimbursement forms, breaking his train of thought.

Shen Siyuan took them casually, only to realize they were his own reimbursement forms.

Though he was an ordinary company employee, he did have a certain monthly reimbursement quota each month — mainly overtime subsidies and taxi fares.

But all of these required his department manager's signature, then had to be taken to the finance department for the finance officer's signature, and only then could the money be collected.

And Zhou Chuan was precisely the manager of their operations department.

"Brother Chuan, then I'll make a trip to finance." Shen Siyuan stood up and glanced around.

Under the onslaught of those powerful memories, Shen Siyuan felt not the slightest discomfort — everything around him was still just as familiar, as if what had just happened truly had been nothing but a dream.

"Brother Shen, please take mine along."

"And mine."

"Since that's the case, take mine too."

Even manager Zhou Chuan handed his reimbursement forms over.

"You guys really are..."

Shen Siyuan was speechless, but still took them one by one.

Guanghui Animation wasn't very large, but it had three or four hundred people, divided into the Online Games Department and the Standalone Games Department — two independently operated divisions; Shen Siyuan belonged to the Online Games Operations Department.

But departments like Finance and Administration had only one each, managing all employees of the entire company.

The Finance Department wasn't very big — only seven or eight people.

Shen Siyuan knocked on the door, and the noisy chatter inside instantly fell silent.

Then a pleasant female voice rang out from within.

"Come in."

Only then did Shen Siyuan push the door and enter, immediately feeling a cool breeze, along with the scent of cosmetics and powder.

Shen Siyuan didn't take in much of the Finance Department's interior, but walked straight over to a young girl wearing glasses.

"Accountant Fu, I'm from the Online Games Operations Department — these are our reimbursement forms." Shen Siyuan didn't waste words and handed the forms straight over.

Accountant Fu was around twenty-four or twenty-five, slightly plump, wearing a pair of black-framed glasses.

She reached out, took the forms, and quickly flipped through them.

Shen Siyuan didn't leave right away, but waited quietly, because some invoices, if not pasted up properly, would be sent back to be redone.

Sure enough, Accountant Fu quickly pulled out one reimbursement form from the stack and handed it back to Shen Siyuan.

"Take this one back and re-paste it."

"Okay."

Shen Siyuan was just about to take it when a small head popped out from the side.

Shen Siyuan looked down, his heart filling with joy, and saw a little girl clinging to the edge of the table, standing on tiptoe, gazing at the tabletop with a face full of curiosity.

He never expected that ghosts still existed in this world, and moreover, the little girl's soul was pure and flawless, making her excellent material for repairing the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

No, no, what nonsense am I thinking? Shen Siyuan quickly suppressed this terrifying thought; indeed, having swallowed the remnant soul of the Nine Nether Demon Lord, he had been influenced by the other party.

"Gege, what are you doing?"

The little girl looked up at Shen Siyuan.

Only then did Shen Siyuan clearly see her appearance.

The little girl was about three or four years old, exquisite like a porcelain doll, with a pair of very lively big eyes; her chubby, fleshy appearance was extremely endearing.

And when the little girl saw that Shen Siyuan did not answer her question, she seemed not at all surprised; after all, so much time had passed, and she had grown accustomed to being ignored.

Shen Siyuan felt she looked vaguely familiar; he should have seen her at the company before.

This was not strange; on workdays, some children with no one to look after them temporarily were brought to the company, especially during winter and summer vacations when there were many more, and as long as they did not affect everyone's work, no one minded.

Presumably, this little girl must be the child of some employee in the Finance Department.

So Shen Siyuan looked up and scanned the area; the entire Finance Department consisted of female employees. Besides the Finance Department Manager, who was about forty or fifty years old, there was also a thirty-something flower-age young married woman; the rest were mostly little girls like Accountant Fu.

Therefore, this little girl was very likely the daughter of that young married woman.

Since they were all in the same company, Shen Siyuan naturally knew her.

The young married woman was named Jiang Wenxin; she was not actually an employee of Guanghui Animation but a finance officer dispatched by the investors, holding an extremely special status within the company.

Shen Siyuan merely glanced around and did not linger long in the Finance Department.

However, before leaving, he reached out, circled around, and placed his hand on the little girl's shoulder.

The little girl first looked up in some astonishment, then her face was filled with delight.

"Gege, can you see me?"

Shen Siyuan merely gave her a faint smile, turned, and walked out.

The little girl immediately trotted after him on her short legs, running like a penguin, waddling back and forth, which was quite adorable.