Chapter Text
There was a man's voice beside his ear lightly asking, "Shidi, Shidi? Can you hear me speaking?"
Wen Ruohan shuddered, and then blinked his eyes open. He didn't register the man's questions the moment he opened his eyes, or the strange phenomenon around him. His mind seemed to be blanking out, repeating that moment a thousand times.
…His neck hurts.
There was phantom pain from where it was stabbed through with that traitor's sword.
His neck hurts.
What.
Quickly, Wen Ruohan blinked out of his reverie to stare in shock at the roof of a canopy bed with a wide spread of white muslin and exquisite scented sachets hanging from the four corners. Wearing white inner robes.
"Qingqiu?"
Wen Ruohan jolted up to a sitting position, holding back a wince from the sudden headache as he turned to the man sitting beside him. The man wore dark robes with hints of navy, gray and black. The top half of his hair except the bangs is pulled back into a tight bun, with the rest hanging loose down his back. And is that a sect leader crown?
Unbelievable.
This man is staring at him in concern. As if he's not facing the Tyrant Wen who slaughtered countless sects to the ground and tortured hundreds of people.
Wen Ruohan glared at him (which made the man wilt. Unbelievably pathetic), he was about to say something along the lines of "who are you" when something seemed to become strange.
Everything around him became quiet, and frozen. The man seemed to not be moving, frozen in that noodle expression. Even the leaves outside an open window is staying there mid-air.
[Activation code: "That Traitor"]
{Activation code: "I'll Kill Him"}
[Logging in…]
{Logging in…}
[Welcome to Shackle System, Host!]
{Welcome to Selfless System, Host!}
Two rectangular panels appeared in his vision. One navy blue and the other yellow. The white-colored words written in them seemed so organized and tidy, as if written by a master teacher.
What.
[We are the Shackle and Selfless Systems, Host. We hope to provide you with the best service available. It is our sincere hope to give you a second chance in life. As you can see, "Shen Qingqiu", the body you're possessing, is the Qing Jing Peak Lord, Xiu Ya Sword.}
As Wen Ruohan processed that buffoonery, he slowly turned to the man. That frozen thing stopped and the man blinked.
The man prodded like one of Wen Ruohan's healers, "Qingqiu, can you talk? Tell me if there's something wrong."
He talked as if he didn't realize he was frozen just a moment ago.
And that cursed window popped up beside the man, and he didn't look like he noticed it.
[Pardon, Host. But only you can hear and see us.]
{Sect Leader Yue Qingyuan, Qiong Ding Peak Lord, Xuan Su Sword, Shen Qingqiu's Shixiong.}
Before the man— Yue Qingyuan could talk more, Wen Ruohan sent him a glare.
"Zhangmen-Shixiong, please get out of my abode for now. This Shidi wants to have some rest," he said, trying to sound impassive as he doesn't know where the hell he is.
"Oh. Then, if you're sure. You can call for me if something's wrong, Shidi."
Unsurprisingly from Yue Qingyuan's previous actions, the man is he melting? and stood up from his seat. He sent a brief nod towards Wen Ruohan (not without that apologetic face that makes him want to gag) before quietly exiting the house.
Now Wen Ruohan is left with himself.
He turned a glare towards the two panels that hung beside him, as if they'd been waiting for his attention.
"Who are you and what do you want from me? What are you."
What are they? Wen Ruohan's never seen these kind of things before. That man, he could feel the dominating power emanating from him and yet, Yue Qingyuan did not notice one bit there are two creatures looming beside him in Wen Ruohan's vision.
And only he could hear them. What is this?
It's dangerous.
[We are the Shackle and Selfless Systems, Host. We hope to provide you with the best service available. It is our sincere hope to give you a second chance in life.}
Repeating a statement. Lifeless beings, then. Or it could be that they're trying to hide their origins from him.
"What's your motive? What do you want from me?"
[Host activated our code and we immediately searched for a soul to bond to and swap as it is our duty. Coincidentally, Host and Shen Qingqiu are similar in some aspects so we found the perfect match.}
"...Repeat that again." The words held a deep hostility and grudges. Yet these "Systems" didn't seem to be scared as the female voices indifferently repeated their statement.
Swap.
Wen Ruohan fell back to the bed, noting how his back ached at the shock of the impact and how his head felt like it's going to explode.
"Explain. Now."
He feels like roaring and laughing.
Basically, both him and this Shen Qingqiu have died in the hands of the traitors. Then, Shen Qingqiu is now possessing his body with the same Systems taking care of him. But that body, Wen Ruohan's body has came back into the past. So practically, Shen Qingqiu is probably currently dealing with that Waterborne Abyss from years ago.
But it's not years ago, it's now. Not years ago, because Wen Ruohan's body has returned into the past. But with a different soul instead.
Shen Qingqiu was supposedly dead, but he was thrust into the body of the infamous tyrant of Qishan. Wen Ruohan was also supposed to be dead. He experienced the same thing with the other's body.
But it's too much of a coincidence for both of them to think 'That traitor. I'll kill him' at the same time in their moment of deaths.
Wen Ruohan stared at this "Selfless System"'s window panel that's filled with explanations. And yes, he started snickering.
That snicker turned into a full-blown manic laughter.
So. Swap.
***
Yue Qingyuan came back with a random man. Until it wasn't some random man.
Facing another "genius healer" is admittedly strange, but intriguing. Wen Qing is the proudest doctor QishanWen ever had, his distant cousin's daughter, his niece. And being faced with a man with the same intelligence and diligence as Wen Qing gives Wen Ruohan a sense of slight familiarity, even without that fierceness she had.
"Shixiong, may I examine your wrist?"
Unlike Wen Qing, Mu Qingfang is calm and gentle. Far contrasting the tyrant's distant cousin. He talks in that soft tone of his, much like that noodle.
{Host does not need to worry. System can guarantee that no one will ever find out about the body swap.}
Wen Ruohan stared distrustfully at the man, but complied nonetheless. It'll be troublesome to randomly have a Qi Deviation when you're, say, having a fight with a saber brute or debating with pissy sect leaders. Because the ridiculous state of Shen Qingqiu's meridians and foundation are enough to make Wen Ruohan bulge his eyes wide.
(If this man could become this powerful with broken meridians, how powerful would he be if he actually had the proper foundation? It was a miracle Shen Qingqiu hadn't keeled over and died. Yet.)
As Mu Qingfang examined his pulse, Wen Ruohan stared at the man's face. Which was laughable. He doesn't know what he's mentally laughing about, perhaps the eyebags under Mu Qingfang's eyes.
Then, Mu Qingfang lets go of his wrist. What a wonder. Usually average healers would need some time to examine someone's pulse, but this man only took a few seconds before releasing him. Like Wen Qing.
Then a sour feeling pricked in him. Wen Ruohan should stop thinking of that traitor or even his clan. She betrayed him. He should kill her if he managed to go back to his body.
"Shen-Shixiong is getting better, but I suggest Shixiong to rest until tomorrow as he's still having headaches. However, there's no need to worry," the Qian Cao Peak Lord concluded.
At that, Yue Qingyuan breathed a discrete sigh of relief. Wen Ruohan stayed silent even when Mu Qingfang stood up, said a few words to Yue Qingyuan, then the two left him alone with also a few instructions.
Wen Ruohan's pride is pricked. What is he, a child? He knows how to take care of himself. If he's a sect leader, he would've easily barked the man to shut up and mind his business. But he's a mere Peak Lord (whose strength is actually at the same level as him. Huh.), and there's a sect leader who has a higher rank than him and certainly, stronger than him.
It feels like swallowing an extremely bitter pill and Wen Ruohan almost forgot to keep his face impassive (though maybe it half-failed since the two looked at him as if this is an usual occurrence. What a wonder you have there, Shen Qingqiu.)
Suddenly, he feels like when he was just a mere young boy again. A mere heir who's not a sect leader yet, whose father was far stronger than him he could just behead Wen Ruohan by only lifting a finger.
He hates this. He hates not being in power. He hates these creatures who wouldn't let him sleep in peace. He hates these creatures who forced him into this accursed, broken body. Who bonded him with someone he's completely unrelated to.
Shen Qingqiu has nothing to do with him and Wen Ruohan has nothing to do with the man. Even if they're both cruel in different ways, it doesn't mean they have to be related in some way.
However, those useless mere words in a moment of dying definitely caused them to be like this. For the first time, Wen Ruohan hates to admit that he feels a bit uneasy. About what? Perhaps the possibility of Shen Qingqiu being angry with him, and the man had the backing of a powerful, powerful sect leader whose power is twice bigger than Wen Ruohan's.
Perhaps.
Doing his habit (which consists of glaring, threatening, blackmail, torturing or anything similar) here should be contained until he knows what the hell is happening. Albeit his inner rage.
{Selfless is glad Host is thinking for himself! ^-^}
The one with the ridiculous name popped up in front of his vision like the damn fly Wen Ruohan couldn't drive away when he was 7 years old.
{It would do no good if Host dies earlier.}
He furrowed his brow, "What are you saying?"
{The duty of the Selfless System is to lead Host through this world's fate. Or more precisely, Shen Qingqiu's fate!}
What.
{If Host fails to fulfil his mission, Host will face his punishment.}
A hand passed through the window panel at the speed of light.
Wen Ruohan glared scathingly at his hand, then at the creature. He can't touch it and it makes him extremely powerless in front of it. It's not a ghost, it's not a spirit either. It's just a parasite living in his vision, slowly eating his mind until he succumbs to madness.
"So what if I rebelled?" He sneered while grinning simultaneously, "Can you do anything to me besides living inside my eyes? No one can stop me. No one ever stops me."
The screen buzzed for a moment as if contemplating an answer.
{True. In order to do that, Shackle System is here to stop Host from doing things that could lead to unnecessary storms in the future. In other words, Shackle System will keep Host in check and healthy for the continuation of our journey!}
That toneless declaration sounded so cheerful it gives Wen Ruohan the urge to either kill someone in sight or bang his head on the nearest wall. He resorted to doing nothing as he let his fists clench.
[Host is going into a Qi Deviation. Shen Qingqiu's body was just in the process of healing, Host can't ruin it more!]
He doesn't care shit about this. All he knows is that he's gonna be forced into a show of catastrophe as a puppet. Who knows what Shen Qingqiu's so-called future fate will be. Well, he would know after he finishes destroying this simple-looking bamboo house.
And then a sudden force went through him and Wen Ruohan couldn't feel anything more than the feeling of oppression. Like something invisible was blocking his— Shen Qingqiu's spiritual energy from going more astray. However, It's not spiritual energy and that confuses him.
So now, Wen Ruohan was just a powerless tyrant who could only punch the air.