"This is… different from before," Han Yu muttered. "Last ti, my body was reset, but not changed like this."
If his last revival was like removing the flaws of his original body, this was a total improvent of it on top of it.
Curiosity and unease gnawed at him. He stood up and stretched, feeling his joints pop slightly. His body was lighter, yet more solid. The movent of energy within him was smoother, almost instinctive.
When he looked down, he noticed his torso too had changed. His chest was broader, the muscles better defined. His abdon, once lean but not particularly striking, now carried the faint outline of firm muscle beneath the skin. The change was subtle but undeniable.
Then he noticed sothing else. His field of vision had risen.
Han Yu blinked, surprised. He had spent three years training with others of his sect, and he knew roughly how tall he was by how the world appeared around him. But now the perspective was different.
The trees, the rocks, even the faint slope nearby... everything seed lower than it should have been.
He was taller.
After a quick estimation, he guessed he must be at least one hundred and eighty centiters now. That ant he had grown by nearly ten centiters since his last 'life'.
Han Yu felt a mixture of awe and dread settle over him. "What kind of revival changes height?" he murmured.
He needed to see his face. That thought pressed against him insistently. Everything else could be examined later, but he needed to know if his face had changed too.
His eyes darted around, searching for anything reflective. The marsh waters nearby were too muddy and uneven to act as a mirror, and there was nothing smooth enough to reflect light clearly.
Then his gaze fell upon the sword lying nearby, the weapon of the man he had slain.
Without hesitation, he picked it up. The blade was long and thin, its surface dark but gleaming faintly under the moonlight. He wiped the edge carefully with a piece of cloth from the enemy's robes, clearing away dirt and dried blood until the tal shone like a polished mirror.
He leaned closer to the reflection.
And froze.
"What the…"
He blinked, his hands trembling slightly as he turned the blade this way and that to get a clearer view. The reflection did not change.
The face staring back at him was not his own...
His heart began to pound violently in his chest.
"What the fuck!?" he shouted, the sound echoing through the marshland.
The face in the sword was older, sharper, and far more nacing than his own had ever been.
It had defined cheekbones, a slightly longer jawline, and eyes that glead a cold gray under the moonlight. His hair, once a very dark brown, was now a dark ash color, almost black with faint streaks of silver.
He stumbled back, staring at the sword in disbelief. His mind reeled as realization crashed into him.
The face reflected on the blade.... the very face he now wore... belonged to the very man he had killed.
"Seven hells..."
CLANG
Han Yu's legs gave out, and he dropped to the ground, the sword clattering beside him.
His hands went to his face, tracing the unfamiliar contours of his jaw, his nose, his brow. It all felt real. There was no illusionary fluctuation, no faint ripple of disguise Qi. This was his face now.
"How… how is this possible?" he muttered, his voice shaking.
His thoughts raced.
The Undying Life Charm had revived him once before, but it had never done anything like this. It had restored his body, yes, but this… this was a full reconstruction. It was as if his entire being had been rewritten using the materials it had absorbed.
'Could it be that the charm had used the corpse of the man I killed as part of the restoration?' The thought chilled him.
If the charm had absorbed the corpses and used their essence, then maybe it had fused part of that man's physical or spiritual imprint into his own new form.
Han Yu shuddered. "Does that an… I'm part of him now?"
He didn't know.
There were too many unknowns.
The charm was a mystery even to him; he had pieced together fragnts of its function through observation, not understanding. It was so forbidden artifact from a realm far beyond him, crafted by soone whose knowledge of soul Qi exceeded anyone known.
To what extent could it change him? Could it alter his cultivation? His body? His very soul?
He had no answers. Only a gnawing uncertainty that threatened to consu him.
But then, as his breathing steadied, another thought crossed his mind.
He looked again at the reflection, then down at the black and red robes beside him.
"Wait…" he whispered.
Slowly, the pieces began to fit together in his mind.
If his appearance now matched that of the man he killed, then perhaps others would think he was that man. They would not see Han Yu of the Twin Leaf Peak Sect. They would see whoever this black robed cultivator had been.
His heart began to race for a different reason now. This could be his chance.
"If I can pass myself off as him… then maybe I can survive long enough to find a way out of this place," he muttered, determination rising in his voice.
It was risky, but it was a path... a path with more hope than aimless running and hiding.
He crouched down again, picking up the spatial storage ring from the dirt. The silver band glead faintly, runes still flickering along its surface. His fingers tightened around it.
It would certainly not be easy though. After all, looking like soone and acting like them was entirely different. Han Yu didn't even know the man's na in the first place.
"If this ring belonged to him, then maybe it'll tell who he was," he said softly. "And if I'm lucky… maybe it'll even accept ."
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