Ji Yuan came to this world as a result of dying. His body was hit by a car and flung hard enough his shoes flew off. His neck snapped on impact and he passed away without much pain relatively quickly.
He did not come to this world in the same body. This wasn't a convenient transmigration in the first place, so why would he get a benefit of having his body come over fully restored?
This is someone else's body.
Upon this realization, Ji Yuan stopped walking. He placed a hand on a rough tree and looked down at his feet. His dark-brown clothes were stained with a reddish-brown color reminiscent of dried blood.
The clothes weren't torn, so they'd be perfectly reusable after a good wash.
It's strange how he doesn't feel strange and can think about pointless stuff like that.
The sense of disharmony that a normal person should've felt from being in a different body was completely absent in him.
If he were to be honest, he was more uncomfortable in his old body. That doesn't mean he was comfortable with this one.
He wasn't excited to take over someone else's body, but he wasn't actually depressed over it. His issue was something else.
"Did I kill this person by taking them over or were they dead and my spirit took over a corpse?"
This detail was of crucial importance for him.
After successfully holding back from killing a person for all his life, he accidentally killed someone as a byproduct of transmigrating. He wouldn't have even been aware.
If that's what happened...
Ji Yuan anxiously bites his thumb.
That would be the most irritating thing in his entire life.
If he's going to kill someone, he wants to consciously do it. He wants full awareness of himself as he acts with lethal intent to rob a person's life.
No, he can't go forward unless he figures out what happened. It's impossible for him to move on from this without a care. Murder is wrong, but it's also an important wrong.
"Dammit, did I do it or not? I have to know!"
He stopped biting his thumb and looked at his right hand. It was rough, but it wasn't the hand of a killer.
"Huh? What is...?"
It was faint, but there was a dull gray mark at the center of his right hand. It was in the shape of a cross.
Ji Yuan brought his left hand next to his right and looked at his palm.
There was a similar symbol in the same spot with the same dull gray color. However, it was only similar.
While the right hand contained a standard cross, what was etched onto the left hand as a tattoo was an upside-down cross.
"The Christian cross and St. Peter's cross."
This was the religion he believed in as a means of restraining himself, so he understood that an upside-down cross wasn't necessarily a representation of the Devil or anti-religious sentiment.
But with the two crosses juxtaposing each other in this way and the fact that it was on his left hand gives it a certain weight to the idea that it represents the opposite of what the standard cross is supposed to represent.
Ji Yuan threw those thoughts in the back of his mind as he analyzed the meaning behind these tattoos.
Did this person like tattoos? That was his first thought, but it was immediately replaced with something else.
"C-could this be the standard cheat every transmigrator gets?"
He was anxious. It was a blind hope, but he was thrown into an unknown place and there's no telling just how he can find some security. Looking at something special and attributing it to tropes from fiction because he's in a scenario straight out of fiction is merely a method of leaning on a pillar to support him.
He was anxious, but there was also a secret thrill running through his body.
"If it's a cheat, then how do I activate it?"
It's better to be optimistic, so he assumed it to be related to his golden finger.
"Should I bring my hands together?"
Like the start of an applause, the nervous young man brought his two hands together, the opposing crosses facing each other. There was no shine or glow that would be a sign of something activating.
Before disappointment could set in, something poofed out of the air and fell onto Ji Yuan's scrambling hands. He caught the object and identified it instantly as a book.
"It's not thick at all..." he said in muted shock.
He felt triumphant and even wanted to yell in joy, but this was a forest. What if he attracts some wolves or even a bear? He would kick himself in the afterlife if he made an error like that.
After subduing his excitement, Ji Yuan looked into the book with quickly growing expectations.
He pulled open just the cover, yet the pages flipped on their own, swishing despite the lack of a powerful wind. It stopped in the middle, showing a diagram of a person with arrows pointing to a red gash on the neck. His name was listed.
"Xiao Yuan? Our surnames are different, but at least our given names are the same."
Black ink slowly appeared next to the image of the black-haired young man. It was basically a summary of his life trajectory from birth to death.
He was a young member of the Xiao Sect who wasn't particularly talented, but wasn't all that bad either. He was slightly above average and that little bit of talent that pushed him just a bit beyond his competitors aroused the envy and jealousy of those around him. If he was far more talented, they would only feel awe and respect, but the fact that he was merely a single leap in front of them gave them the idea that they could catch up.
However, this man was hard working. In addition to his acceptable talent, he put in two times the amount of effort compared to those around him and reached the fifth level of the Nascent Profound Realm at the age of 17. He was just good enough to enter the Blue Wind Profound Palace.
However, Xiao Yuan was no more than a retainer to a higher level member of the Xiao Sect whose bloodline was also superior. He followed the son of an elder who followed a member of the Blue Wind Empire's royalty, so he had some meager ties to royalty as well.
"Oh, that might be a contributing factor to his death." But to make sure he wasn't making a hasty assumption he continued reading the appearing text.
It was just as he thought. Xiao Yuan was a cultivation idiot who barely paid attention to things outside of training himself into a frenzy. He didn't even notice just how envied he was to be looked upon favorably by a higher up in the Xiao Sect and an opposing side made use of the jealous people to assassinate him on his way to the Blue Wind Profound Palace's assessment.
After resting at one of the Xiao Sect's branches, he left South Moon Mountain and journeyed through Dark Forest all by his lonesome to let it double as training while he walked to his destination.
The book says he was killed by an unknown individual. A blade to the back of the neck nearly decapitated him, but it was being vague about it This proves the book isn't completely omniscient about all details, so he can't be overly reliant on it in that aspect.
At the bottom of the book is written two words: Existence Terminated.
The words pulsed with a dark light, like it was about to drip black blood. It made for a severe contrast against the white paper.
He wanted to touch it.
He ignored that strange pull and flipped to the next page. Just like before, the image of a person was being autonomously sketched out. It was the same person, but there was a smirk instead of a serious frown. That differentiated the two.
"Ji Yuan..." It was him.
He let out a sigh of relief.
It's good he didn't kill this person unaware. He began reading the text to see if it would give him pertinent information about his situation.
"'A strange existence born from the death of Xiao Yuan.' He didn't inherit memories, personality, or even...power? 'The only thing he kept was Xiao Yuan's talent.' I didn't inherit his power?"
That's annoying and unfortunate.
That's really bad too.
He already figured this was a fantasy world—probably of a Xuanhuan variety—that would allow him to slowly release the shackles he set on himself.
However, worlds like these are entirely power-centric. One's might is the only rule in these types of worlds for the most part. Might makes right, and without power he cannot do anything right.
"Oh, text is still being written."
Not all of Xiao Yuan's power dissipated upon his death. The proof of his efforts, his profound veins, still existed. With new life being born within him, the surging vitality entered those dead veins and revived them.
Ji Yuan is currently at the 10th level of the Elementary Profound Realm. Just one stage away from advancing to the Nascent Profound Realm that Xiao Yuan was formerly at.
At least he had some power, but given this was the first realm and standard fantasies have a lot of realms with plane divisions too, he's basically an ant.
He's also an ant someone wants to step on.
Ji Yuan's eyes snapped to the bottom of the page. The obsidian ink was slowly etching something in, with the care and caution of an adult handling a baby.
The Holder of the Book of Genesis and Terminus.
"A fancy name," he remarked. "But what does it actually do other than record information?"
Don't get him wrong, he sees the value in something like that, but he would like to have more. His current situation is a person who got himself lost in a forest with dangerous creatures who could be stronger than he currently is.
Ji Yuan knows how to fight. He was very good at it in his old world. He's a bit rusty because he stopped doing that kinda stuff a while ago, but the memories remain.
However, this is a world of superhumans. He only knows how to fight as a common man. He also has zero experience fighting bears and wolves. All he knows about animals is that their noses are sensitive. Should he run up to them and punch them in the nose?
"Come on, you gotta have something more for me. A newcomer's benefit? Something I missed? Could you give me a compass? Anything else?"
As if responding to his desires, the book flipped multiple pages and stopped at something.
Text was preemptively written at the top.
Current Map: Dark Forest.
Map Progress: 0.04%.
"Hey, that's pretty good."
This is a way to explore and not get lost in the process. Very useful for him right now.
"Anything else?" he asked, treating those two words like a magic key to unlock more of the book's abilities.
It worked once. Can it work again?
To his great delight, it did!