章 4: A New Body

rumble...

...

RUMBLE!

Lightning roared through the sky as rain fell heavily in the middle of the night in Chengdu City.

The city has all kinds of tall buildings erected in every part of its landscape and a serene river flowed gracefully alongside the city, its waters shimmering in the moonlight as they meandered through its outskirts. Coupled with the dense greeneries around, it was a scene of unique beauty and became quite popular among many tourists all over Jianghu.

But due to the harsh weather, restaurants, smithies, brothels, and many other places were empty despite the city's massive population. Everyone was deep asleep as the rainwater continued dripping on the roof of every household, while the trees around were swayed by the strong wind.

In the middle of the city lies a massive manor that extends for a couple of kilometers while being guarded heavily by dozens of powerful guards. It was the Tang Clan's manor, one of the five great noble families of Murim!

Inside the Tang Clan's manor, In an unknown room...

...

GASPP!!

Jo Do-Yoon woke up with a sharp gasp as cold sweat was present all over his body. His whole body was shivering intensely despite currently lying on a soft warm bed. The shock and fear he was feeling at the moment was something he had never felt before and his whole body aching didn't make the experience any better.

Turning his head frantically to look around, he saw nothing but pure darkness in this room...

'W-Where am I?! Didn't I die just a moment ago!? What in the world just happened!?' Panic was present in his face. Just a few moments ago, he had fallen down a massive ravine and met a gruesome death, but now he suddenly woke up in a random room...

'Was it all a dream...? No, that's impossible. Everything from the battle just then felt too real... then how did I get here in the first place?' His brain worked like an engine as he recalled every moment of the previous battle from his memory, yet he still couldn't remember the details.

His memories feel very blurry for whatever reason, it seems like the previous injury had taken quite a toll on him. Jo Do-Yoon sighed briefly before focusing his mind on the present, 'Regardless, this is not a safe place to think about it. I have to get out of here...'

Trying to get a feel of the room, he carefully used his hands to navigate through the darkness. He noticed that this darkness was unlike the usual case of the room lacking a source of light. Instead, it was a complete blackness.

Even most underground places had some traces of light in them so that one could somewhat make a shape of their surroundings, but not here. He could see absolutely nothing even if an object were just centimeters away from him, and this made him raise his eyebrow slightly.

'Damn it, did my eyes accidentally get injured after the battle? To think I'd manage to go blind from something other than my enemy...'

...

As he continued touching things around him, he started to discover more things around the room.

He was currently lying on a small ordinary bed that was covered in some thin layers of blanket. Beside him lies two simple desks, poorly-made ones he presumes that most commoners use. Lying on top of them were some food and drinks that had long gone cold, along with a few herbs of some kind. The cold walls around him were made out of solid layers of stone and the floor also seemed to be made out of thin planks of wood.

After getting a picture of the room around him, Jo Do-Yoon was quite confused, 'This room... seems to be a simple bedroom?? What in the world? If someone had captured me, then they would have put me in a much rougher room with high security, but a simple bedroom? Which dumbass had the balls to put me in something like this?'

But nevertheless, Jo Do-Yoon continued to let out a smirk. He was currently very weak and would most likely struggle a little to get out of a high-security jail on many large Clans, but this one he was confined to was just a bedroom! To think he would be blessed by such good luck! This will make his escape hundreds of times easier than expected!

He proceeded to throw the blankets away as he swiftly got out of the bed. But as he got out, he realized both of his feet didn't even manage to reach the ground. That's pretty strange, were furniture always this big nowadays?

'Oh well...'

Nevertheless, he decided to ignore it. Even though his surroundings were covered in many simple and ordinary household features that seemed welcoming, he refused to let his guard down. Right now, he still considers himself to be inside an enemy territory and he didn't want to get distracted by such measly things.

He made a quick stretch to ready his body and proceeded to walk slowly around the room while trying to navigate the door. He made sure to walk as slowly and quietly as possible in order to not alert anyone who might be living in this place, but his body didn't seem to cooperate. His body felt strangely weaker than he had ever felt before in his entire life and every movement felt heavy as if he was in the body of an untrained child.

'Ugh, damn it damn it damn it! What's wrong with my body today!? I thought I was simply tired, but now that I notice it, my strength was actually reduced to that of a kid! Not to mention, my dexterity was also similar to someone who has barely trained their Qinggong¹ at all! Ugh...!'

Jo Do-Yoon continued to complain and cursed in his mind as he slowly made his way around the room. Along the way, he stumbled on many different things from chairs, random piles of books, piles of clothes, candles (that were thankfully unlit), and many kinds of things. To be honest, he felt quite happy as he struggled through the room. He didn't think there was someone with a messier room than his previous old garbage dump of a home.

After a few minutes of wandering around, he finally found the door.

'Finally, I found it...! That took quite longer than I expected, there's so much stuff around I thought this room was a goddamn maze...' he complained in his heart. Without much time to waste, he quickly grabbed at the door and twisted the handle before opening it wildly.

The moonlight shone across his face as the night's gentle cold wind caressed his cheeks. The familiar feeling of the outside world overwhelmed his senses, it was way better than the cramped air of this messy room, it gave his heart a good sense of freedom and peace. At this moment, his face contorted into a smile. 'As always, there's nothing better than this feeling of freedom...'

Taking a large step forward, his heart soared as he clutched his hand.

Images of his enemies such as the Murim Alliance that ambushed him flashed in his mind, and most importantly, the mysterious man, Gong Ma. His eyes burned like a raging fire as he thought of how badly they played with him, making him suffer and all sorts of stuff. Just thinking about these things is already starting to drive him crazy.

'Just you wait, you bastards... I will make every single one of you pay!'

...

As he took a large stride to the outside world, thinking about ways of taking revenge on those bastards before, he suddenly hit something solid that stood right in front of him. Confusion once again resurfaced in his mind, 'What? Isn't this supposed to be a door...?"

Then as if answering the question in his mind, an old raspy voice was suddenly heard right in front of him.

"Ah! Young Lady, you are awake?"

Jo Do-Yoon immediately froze in place before his neurons fired like crazy, sending a million alerts to his brain. His head instinctively turned toward the owner of the voice despite not being able to see anything in this absolute darkness.

'An enemy! Damnit, I've been caught!' he cried internally as he dashed backward out of instinct. However, luck doesn't seem to be on his side as he accidentally stumbled upon a nearby pile of books and fell, before slamming the back of his head on the solid stone wall.

THUD!

"OW!" a small shriek accidentally escaped from his mouth.

"Young Lady!?"

Seeing him injured, the person in front of him seems to be shouting in panic before approaching him quickly. He lifted Jo Do-Yoon's head and kept rubbing his injury rapidly, before finally letting him go with a sigh.

Jo Do-Yoon could only watch the old voice do his thing. He was petrified out of pure shock by this old voice's behavior.

'What the hell is wrong with this old man!? Why is he treating me like this!? Am I his son or something?!' he thought before he quickly backed away from this goofy old man. His expression was that of disgust and confusion, but the old man didn't mind that. The old man simply smiled as if he was just satisfied that he was safe and sound.

"Young Lady, please refrain from injuring yourself like this! You know this old servant had told you to be careful many times in the past..." He said gently as he helped Jo Do-Yoon stand up.

Jo Do-Yoon however, was extremely uncomfortable with this. He would much prefer this person to act aggressively and attack him rather than behave in a strange way to him just like this. But even so, he quickly calmed himself down and decided to cautiously observe this old voice.

"But nevertheless, Young Lady, I'm truly glad you have recovered this much and managed to gain consciousness... It has been ages..." the old voice continued to ramble with a longing tone as if he had known him for a long time. Every word that came out of the man's mouth felt extremely sincere no matter how much Jo Do-Yoon tried to discern it. But then again, he refused to have this simple detail in tone to obtain his trust. Jo Do-Yoon had no idea what the hell he was talking about and just silently refused to believe any of it.

He clearly remembered that he had been through a tough battle and a life-and-death situation a little while ago, there was no recollection of him ever meeting this old man before. Yet, this he expected him to believe any of this nonsense? Rather, it made him feel even more suspicious of the old voice instead.

'What a creepy guy, I can't believe I was captured by this kind of dude... Wait, did he just call me Young Lady? He wasn't talking about me, right?' he thought as a bad premonition suddenly appeared in his heart.

The old voice noticed that he was looking at him in such a hostile way as if he was unfamiliar with him and his gentle smile slowly shifted into a concerned frown, "Young Lady, are you alright? It's me, your servant Old Jiang...".

'No no no no... What in the world is he saying? M-maybe there's a girl somewhere beside me, that old man might be calling her or something...!' he laughed nervously in his mind as he tried to hide away his worries. Yet to his dismay, he could not feel anyone's presence in the room other than the old man and himself.

At this point, he realized. The Young Lady that the old man keeps referring to was actually him!

'Is this guy high on drugs and had mistaken me for a Young Lady?' he scoffed in his mind. There's no way someone like him who has a rugged face and a toned, hairy body could be mistaken for a young girl.

After internally mocking the crazy old man, the bad feeling in his heart kept on growing for some reason. His face scrunches as he rethinks about everything he experienced in the last few minutes.

'But then again, now that I think about it, all of this is truly strange!'

His body feels way too rusty for someone like him who has reached the peak of the Unrestrained Realm. Just a moment ago, he stumbled on a random pile of books and fell off. How could someone like him, who can lift massive boulders with one hand and dash hundreds of meters in a second lose to a pile of books? It feels as if he was in someone else's body instead...

'Wait a minute.'

At this moment, he noticed that something was truly wrong with his body.

Weak strength and agility that is incomparable to his original ones? Check. A build so short that even his feet didn't manage to reach the ground when sitting on a bed, unlike his previous majestic 190 centimeters tall body? Check. Terrible senses? Check. And not to mention, he still has his right arm hanging down his shoulder...

Realization struck him as his face turned grim.

'This is not my body!!!' he screamed in his heart.

Panic washed over him, and he hastily ran his hand over his body.

From his small shoulders hung a pair of delicate-looking arms, slowly moving towards his face. Jo Do-Yoon felt his willowy eyebrows arch in astonishment as he realized how smooth his skin had become. His once rugged and masculine face had transformed into an exceedingly youthful and feminine visage. A cute button-like nose and slender lips poked out, complemented by a pair of sharp, light-gray eyes with a hint of green in them. Long, luscious black hair flowed down his back like a waterfall, perfectly matching his pale complexion. Overall, he could sense that his appearance had shifted into that of a beautiful girl!

'What...!? No, there's no way...' he mentally mumbled as panic and denial overtook his mind.

He then shifted his hand to the lower part of his body...

Not only had his face transformed, but his entire body had also undergone massive changes. His once imposing stature had become significantly shorter and slimmer, with subtle curves appearing in all the right places. Two small mounds were now evident on his chest—though they were quite unnoticeable, he could tell that they were a pair of boobs. His hips had subtly widened, and his formerly muscular legs had been replaced by a pair of slender ones.

And as a final blow, he slipped his hand between his thighs and realized,

'My cock!! It's gone!!'