Darkness.
A strange feeling cloaking Joseph’s consciousness. He felt alive yet at the same time dead.
No. He knew he was dead.
Yet a part of him was still active, his mind replaying all the events that had occurred in his life as if it were some kind of movie.
Which it was not, unfortunately, for Joseph would have gladly skipped many parts of his life. Especially the last few months of it.
’Where... where am I?’ He thought to himself in a daze. ’Am I... not actually dead?’
How was it possible that he was not dead? He still remembered the ugly face of that man piercing his stomach.
Joseph didn’t know what was going on, but his dream had always been to die beside his wife. And after that unfortunate reveal, it had shifted into dying at the hands of a beautiful doctor.
Yet even that simple wish was not granted by heaven.
If he had been able to speak — which he had already tried and failed — he would have cursed the heavens for all the pain and suffering he had gone through his whole life, only to die for nothing.
After all, what was worse for a man than leaving this world without someone to continue his bloodline, his legacy?
As those thoughts swirled inside his hazy consciousness, while he tried in every way he could to curse the heavens aloud, a voice suddenly began to echo deep within him.
"I am innocent!"
Joseph halted.
"I am innocent! I didn’t do it! I am innocent!"
The voice was different. Male, but younger than his own, and gentle with a touch of fragility.
At the sound of it, a sense of sadness and indignation appeared inside him for no reason, as if he himself were the one who had been betrayed.
Joseph frowned, confused, listening to the repeated "I am innocent" of that male voice until he finally grew weary of it.
"I am—!"
Light.
Joseph’s consciousness jolted awake as a blinding light flashed inside his mind. Instinctively, he snapped his eyes open, feeling a bodily sensation he hadn’t felt just a moment ago...or had it truly been just a moment?
He looked beneath him, noticing he was on a floor paved with white stone, kneeling. Lifting his head in a daze, Joseph took in a sight that sent his heart racing.
"What in hell is this..." he muttered.
"Ming’er is innocent!" A woman said.
She wore a beautiful white flowery robe, her long black hair falling behind her like a waterfall. "You have no right to question him about anything! Know your place!"
She moved faster than he could follow, appearing in front of him as if to shield him from the dozens of people surrounding him on all sides.
They were looking at him with hardened eyes.
"Second Madam, please don’t make our task difficult." A man with a longsword resting in a black sheath in his right hand said. "The patrols of Elder Luo Zhen witnessed the scene themselves. And besides, everything points to the second young master Luo being guilty. Just look at her."
He said with gravitas, pointing at a slender, pale-skinned woman, naked except for a wide coat wrapped around her. She was crying, sobbing.
"Do you think this can be a lie? We must at least take him for interrogation."
"And I said," the woman growled, a surge of power slowly erupting from her, causing the surrounding men and women to step back and Joseph to stare in complete disbelief mixed with utter confusion, "no one will touch my son until all evidence has been gathered. You think I will believe a servant over my own son? Call the Patriarch if you wish! And I dare any of you to take one more step! Do not blame me for whatever happens next!"
Her voice carried power, sending shockwaves that made the onlookers uneasy.
’Did I find myself in the middle of a television drama?’ Joseph thought in a useless attempt to fool himself.
He still couldn’t believe all the sensations he was feeling at that instant.
However, every last shred of doubt disappeared as a surge of memories swept through his mind, making him instantly scream in agonising pain, his skull felt like it was cracking apart.
"Arghhhh!!!"
The woman — called Second Madam — immediately turned and looked at her son thrashing on the ground, holding his head tightly while screaming, crying, wailing.
Her face fell into worry as she dashed forward and hugged him tightly against her.
"Ming’er! Ming’er, what is happening to you?" Her eyes began to tear up. She snapped her head back toward the clan members still watching with a hint of surprise and spoke with a venom befitting a snake:
"If any of you are still in this room in five seconds," she hissed, her black eyes glowing with spiritual energy as a slender silver sword materialised just above her, "I will kill all of you! All of you!"
Her threat worked faster than anything. They reluctantly turned and left, promising it was not over.
Joseph, meanwhile, had completely lost consciousness, his mind reliving a life he had never lived, and witnessing a lie that was about to destroy that very life.
...
"Argh."
Joseph groaned softly as he opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling. He stayed in that position for a moment before sighing under his breath.
’...it truly was not a dream.’ He thought, remembering the memories he had received that caused him to lose consciousness.
At that point, there was no use thinking otherwise: he had actually transmigrated.
’This is completely ridiculous. Since when are things from fiction supposed to happen in real life? How is this possible? No wait... don’t tell me some Supreme-like entity found my life pathetic and decided to give me another chance?’
That was the only explanation he could think of, based on the numerous transmigration and reincarnation novels he had read back on Earth.
However, there were two things that bothered him.
First, he had been reincarnated into a cultivation world. Not that he hated the genre, but...
’...am I going to be face-slapped by some young masters? Or refined into a pill by demonic cultivators? Used as a stepping stone for some heaven-chosen genius? Why cultivation of all things? There were so many other genres to choose from.’
Was it because he had been killed in China? Joseph almost cursed aloud.
But that was only the first problem, or rather, a complaint.
The second problem was the real one. One that might end his new life before any random young master got the chance to.
’I am being framed for raping my own maid.’ He thought at last, with a serious weariness. ’Obviously, he — or rather I — have done nothing. But why did she frame him, and who ordered her to?’
Joseph had read enough novels to have at least a basic understanding of how these things worked. He knew that most of the time, a simple maid would never dare do something like this on her own, especially not against a young master of a great clan like the Luo clan.
Someone had sent her.
But who? And again, why?
Joseph closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.
’I ended my last life surrounded by lies, and here I begin a new one with another lie.’
It was almost ridiculous.
However, he would be damned if he allowed the same thing to happen again.
He had just realised he had transmigrated, but Joseph had barely any attachment left to Earth to feel any sadness about it.
If anything, he felt a hint of happiness and relief. Because at least — at least — he had another chance.
Another chance to make things right. Another opportunity to live and build something meaningful.
He didn’t want power. He had had it back on Earth and still died alone in a random teahouse.
He didn’t want fame. He had that too, and no one had taken any interest in him when he was at his lowest.
What he wanted was a family. What he wanted was a home, not a house. That had always been his wish, because he had grown up as an orphan.
He might have failed back on Earth.
But that didn’t mean he would give up because of betrayal.
And in this new world...
Joseph opened his eyes and turned to look at the woman sleeping beside him. The same woman who had protected him.
His own mother.
’...I will not fail. This time, I want a real family. Not one built on lies.’
As that goal settled inside his mind, anchored deep within him, Joseph’s eyes glazed over; an overwhelming, heavenly voice thundering through his mind.
His body vibrated, and his eyes glowed with a gentle but piercing silver light.
At the same time, words began to echo inside his mind:
[You have awakened a Soulblade: Affinity of the Damned.]
[You have awakened a Soulblade: Soul Record.]
’...what?’
—End of Chapter 2—