Zhang Ji, The Demon Emperor.
The man known as the epitome of evil. The plague of the lands. The curse of life itself.
The man who started a campaign of terror to wipe out all opposition through force, temptation and betrayal, and came just one step away from achieving it all.
That man was now lying in a pool of his blood, his armies slaughtered around him. Not a single one of his men was still standing.
And the culprit for all of this was right before him, looking down on him indifferently.
The demon emperor looked up at the man with great difficulty. "Who are you?" He yelled out with eyes filled with rage.
The man did not reply. The demon emperor did not know who the man was or where he had come from. The man had appeared out of nowhere just as the demon emperor was about to succeed in his campaign. He then proceeded to rip apart the demon emperor's armies in the blink of an eye.
The demon emperor, other than being a terrifying schemer, was also considered by many to be the strongest being in existence. That is why, even with his personality, he still had decent support. And also why he was able to overwhelm all who stood against him. And yet the man had defeated the demon emperor in just one move.
The whole event was completely incomprehensible to the demon emperor. He couldn't understand how such a strong being could even exist, much less who he was. But none of that mattered now.
The man raised his sword to bring it down on the demon emperor's head. The demon emperor just looked back at the man with eyes filled with insanity and rage.
"I don't know who you are. But it doesn't matter. Do not think that something as mundane as death will stop me. I shall crawl my way back from the depths of hell itself to have my vengeance. Nothing can stop me from razing this world to ash. And then one day I shall find you. And when I do, I will inflict upon you tortures the likes of which the universe has not even dreamt of. I shall find everyone you have ever known and make them suffer pain until you regret any of them ever knowing you. And then I will figure out where to go from there." The demon emperor yelled back at the man in defiance.
Hearing this, the man froze his sword. For a moment, the two of them stared at each other. Madness clashing with indifference.
Then the strange man's lips twisted in a strange smile. "Interesting." He mumbled.
For a moment, the demon emperor was confused.
"In that case, good luck." The man suddenly spoke. The next moment, he swung his sword down.
And that was the last thing the demon emperor saw.
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Zhang Ji suddenly sat up with a start. For a moment, he was completely lost and couldn't understand what was happening.
He slowly blinked his eyes and looked up. He found himself in a strange, small room. But even as he did, he could somewhat recognise it as familiar. He just couldn't place it.
Zhang Ji then looked around the room. He found that he was in a room barely large enough to hold its four small beds, with him in one of them. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be much else in the room.
The sense of familiarity grew. But he was still not able to understand where he was or what happened.
Just as Zhang Ji was about to stand up and investigate, the door of the room slammed open. And then three children who seemed to be around ten to twelve years old came rushing in.
The three children were wearing some kind of standard uniform. They were led by a slightly fat child. Seeing them, Zhang Zi felt the feeling of familiarity grow.
"Zhang Ji. Why aren't you up already? The instructor yelled at me because you were not at the grounds during roll call. How dare you make me look bad?" The fat young man said.
Hearing this, Zhang Ji froze. No one had dared to speak to him in such a manner for aeons.
Zhang Ji glanced at the fat young man, wondering if he was brain-damaged. But somehow this only set off the young man even more.
"What the hell are you looking at?" the young man screamed as he lunged forward. He then pulled back his hand and threw a punch at Zhang Ji.
Seeing this, Zhang Ji sneered. But a moment later, he froze.
Because the punch coming at him was coming too fast. He could barely see anything.
Seeing this, Zhang Ji decided to move. But he was horrified to find that his body didn't seem to react at all. It was as if his body filled with years of battle instinct, had disappeared.
In desperation, Zhang Ji tried to move, but somehow his whole body was turning very slowly. Then he heard two snaps.
The first one came from his spine, trying to do what it could not do. The second came from the fat young man's fist landing on his face.
In an instant, Zhang Ji flew back and crashed against the walls of the room. It took a few moments for him to come to his senses.
"Get going, you fool. And make sure to do my tasks well this time. If I get yelled at by the instructor once again, I will let you know the meaning of regret." The fat child yelled as he left with the other two.
For a moment, Zhang Ji was completely confused. He couldn't understand what was going on. He had appeared in a strange place and was then beaten up by a fat child. Even for the demon emperor who had experienced myriad things in his life, this was a confusing experience.
As Zhang Ji finally cleared his head, a rage the likes of which the world has rarely seen took over his heart. Who does this child think he is? As he stood up with eyes cold enough to freeze air, he saw a mirror peeking out of a corner.
When Zhang Ji caught sight of his reflection in the mirror, his eyes widened. Looking back at him was not the old man who stood at the peak of the world. But a young, childish looking face.
As Zhang Ji caught sight of the childish face, a torrent of memories flooded his mind. Memories he had spent countless years trying to forget.
Memories from a lifetime ago, when he was still a child and had just started his martial journey.
In an instant, Zhang Ji understood where he was. This was the Golden Dragon Dojo's training hall that he had joined when he was young.
When he realised what was happening, Zhang Ji froze and stared back at his reflection for a while. And then he started to laugh.
Zhnag Ji finally realised what had happened. He had gone back in time to when he was young.
But he quickly calmed down. After all, he was the demon emperor. He first had to verify that he had indeed gone back in time and not just fallen into an illusion.
Zhang Ji sat cross-legged on the ground and started to meditate. For the next hour, he fell deeper and deeper into meditation, using every method he knew of to make sure that this was not an illusion. He finally woke up with a terrifying calmness in his eyes.
Then a small smile appeared at the edge of his lips. He had finally confirmed his state.
"Good. Very good. I have no idea what happened, but it doesn't matter. This is great. The fact that I have returned to the past means that I have one more chance to redo everything I already did. I won't make the same mistakes as last time. All those who dared to anger me in the past will not even have a chance to try this time around. And since I already know their secrets, I can use them to kill them even faster." Zhang Ji muttered under his breath.
"And you bastard. You never expected this, did you? I will find out who you are, and have my vengeance. I swear it."
After spending some time plotting various tortures, Zhang Ji started thinking about his current situation.
When Zhang Ji was young, his situation was quite bad. He was born as a low level member of a large clan. And to make matters worse, his father also abandoned his mother and him to move up the clan's ladder.
This meant that he had no support or help when he started his martial path. He barely managed to get onto the golden dragon dojos outer disciple training program.
The fat child from earlier was the son of a high ranking member of the Huang clan. Since his talent was low, he was also assigned to the outer disciple training program. The more talented and the truly rich ones were all accepted into the inner disciple level at least.
As a result, the fat child was angry and usually took it out on Zhang Ji. The other two who got assigned to the room immediately suck up to the fat child and made things difficult for Zhang Ji.
And to make matters worse, the Zhang clan's cultivation methods clashed with Zhang Ji's physique, causing his terrifying talent to be hidden at this point. As a result, his status in the clan was very poor, often being the punching bag of anyone who wanted to vent their anger.
Thinking of his younger days, Zhang Ji could not help but tremble in anger. Even after all that he experienced, this time was one of his worst memories.
"But none of that matters. Currently, I have just joined the Golden Dragon Dojo. Just like in the past, I shall once again rip all of those bastards into bits and pieces. Except this time, I shall do it before they even dream of me." Zhang Ji muttered. As he spoke, a colossal killing intent permeated the room, almost solidifying into a red river.
And then, just as Zhang Ji was about to plan his vengeance, a sound he never expected to hear sounded out inside his head.
"Ding. One Good Deed a day System has activated."