Devouring the Reincarnation

Night time. In an inn.

Phew.

I looked at the black book with a silver lining on my hand. The cover had a drawing of an eye on the cover which was staring at me.

The book was the only form Sera can materialise outside of my soul. 

I was deeply thinking of what to do about Zhou Fan. After knowing he was once a reincarnated figure I had moved out of the crowd, knowing that he will faceslap that Elder Wang as it always happens in the cultivation novels. 

My first thought was to kill him silently, devour his memories and run away from the town. But I hesitated. Not because I'm soft-hearted or he was innocent. Because Sera was with me. I didn't want to show her my bad side. Even though this is a world where people with strength can do anything. In the future when she grows up, she will learn how cruel this world is, but after going through Earth's memories I think she should enjoy her childhood. 

I sighed. Zhou Fan had done nothing to me. He doesn't even know me. But the knowledge he has will help me a lot to complete my goals. Wait, my goals…yes, I can do this.

Hehehe. Zhou Fan, be ready because soon your world will turn upside down.

' Dad, why are you laughing like that?' Sera asked confusedly.

Cough cough.

' Nothing. I just had a great plan to devour the reincarnation.'

***

After two days, I gathered a lot of information about the young Mayor or Zhou Fan. If my estimation is not correct then he got his memories after the beating he got from some people, which usually happens in a lot of tropes. Before he got his memories he was lazy and an introverted guy who didn't want to focus on the cultivation and gets bullied frequently. But after the current beating, he became ambitious and wanted to do something related to the three powers of the town.

" State your purpose for coming here." The guard spoke coldly. 

I was standing in front of the two guards who were guarding Zhou Fan's courtyard. They had the cultivation of peak mortal foundation rank. 

" Just call your young master outside, he will understand it. '' I said through my black hood which was a real one, not imitated through LoT.

" Who are you to order us around?!" Another guard spoke fiercely as readied his sword to threaten me.

Sigh, plan A failed. I thought I could reason through them but after that incident, the Mayor might have increased the protection of his son. So let's go with Plan B.

I took a deep breath and started to release an intent which I learned from the Bloody Forest. It was killing intent. In truth, after killing a few beasts from the forest, a cultivator can use a small amount of killing intent subconsciously. But with the help of Origin Dual Cultivation, I was able to comprehend killing intent a little. It can be used in many situations. And after killing a lot of people or beasts one has a chance to even understand the Law of Slaughter.

But presently, I used my killing intent to put pressure on the guards. If they thought they could threaten me, a peak mortal refinement realm, with their peak mortal foundation realm, then they are daydreaming. Soon under the pressure, they started to tremble a little and tried to keep themselves ready for any attack.

" What are you both doing? Let him in, I was waiting for him." A voice said as a boy of my age with black hair and brown eyes came from the courtyard. 

He then looked at me carefully and after a moment he said," Come inside Senior. I was just waiting for you."

I smirked inwardly and stopped releasing my killing intent on the guards and entered the courtyard while following the boy or Zhou Fan. We entered a room where a table was arranged with two chairs to sit on. While I carefully sat while looking at Zhou Fan, Sera was using Scan to check if there were any hidden dangers or not. After knowing that it is safe here I broke the tense atmosphere. 

" Why did you lie outside to guards that you were waiting for me?" I asked in a curious tone.

He snorted and said," Well, I didn't want it to look suspicious for a stranger to come inside. You should know many people are targeting me. " 

" Oh, well then why did you let me in with you? Don't you fear I will attack you?" I said in a different voice. From the start, I never intended to leave behind a clue so that no one would suspect me. I imitated a different height, voice and even cultivation ( which are one whole rank above me, which means I can imitate the peak of the foundation realm).

" Humph. If not for you to release the killing intent openly, I wouldn't have come to invite you inside. But it is very rare to find a person who understands intent in this remote town." He said with a smirk. 

Huh. Did he think he could outsmart me? Even though he has an unknown number of years of experience, he is too weak to use it against me.

" Oh. I could also say the same. It is very rare to find a person who understands rebirth intent in this remote mortal continent. " I replied.

Hearing my response he remained calm but his whole body had stiffened for a second when I mentioned ' mortal continent '. 

Heh. So that means he had travelled to many places before coming into this body. If my appraisal is not wrong, he might have reached the peak of saint cultivation but failed to assimilate his life and death laws to enter God cultivation.

He said in a cold voice," What is your purpose for coming here?"

But my goal was never to talk to him. 

' Daddy! He is secretly invading your body with life and death intent together to weaken you.' Sera said worriedly.

Of course, even though he has a young body he is like a thousand-year-old cunning fox with many tricks in his sleeves.

Without giving him a chance I used LoT to partially block his movements with chains for a second. But I only needed that one second to touch his hand to activate my devouring power.

He was shocked as his eyes opened wide and said, " A Law?? How is it poss-" 

But he couldn't complete his sentence as I had used my power to devour his memories of the past and even his intent luckily. As soon as I finished devouring it, his body slumped down on the chair as he lost all his reincarnated memories and now had only the memories of the previous lazy Zhou Fan. 

I also sat and used my cultivation technique to dual cultivate life and death intent. Ah, I liked this feeling of power but soon dismissed that thought. I should not pursue power, my goal is decided and I will walk on that path only.

**"

Ugh. My head hurts.

This beating was much worse than the previous one. Can't they be a little gentle while beating me? But no. Those jealous bastards just had to beat me like pulp. 

Huh. Where am I? This is not my bed where I most of the time recovered from injuries. Why am I in this dress?

 I got scared like hell. But then I noticed an unknown person with a black hood covering his face, sitting in front of me as he calmly drank tea elegantly and profoundly.

" Took you more time to wake up. Do you even know how much danger you were in?" He said in a deep voice. 

By danger did he mean beating…?

Before I opened my mouth to speak, he continued.

" After you were beaten till you got unconscious by your enemies, an evil soul had taken control of you. For the last week, it was controlling your body and doing many things under your name. If I had not noticed the anomaly about you, you would have ruined many lives or could have harmed your father." 

All the words said by the Senior hammered my heart with pain. Each word made me feel powerless and hopeless. Why is it like this? Of course, it was always like this, if I was strong nobody would have pointed their fingers at me. Father always tried to show me this but like a coward, I tried to run away from reality. 

I clenched my fists tightly. For the first time, I felt helpless. Why should I always endure this? From now I won't run away, I will face all my challenges head-on. For that, I have to become strong. To protect my family I have to become strong enough so that nobody would dare to think about harming them.

I looked at Senior who was now calmly blowing tea and drinking tea. I just hope the Senior helps me…

" Even though this is shameful of me to ask after Senior has saved my life, I would be very grateful if Senior helped me become stronger," I asked desperately.

Knowing well that the Senior would refuse me, I had built a lot of courage to say those words. 

He kept his tea down and said in a deep voice," And what would I get in return for helping you?"

I should have known that nothing comes free in this world so I did a reckless move, trusting Senior's belief. 

"...My life. I can give my life." 

There was a tense atmosphere which just increased the sweat behind my back.

" Sigh. I will do a test. If you pass it, I will make you a subordinate of my organisation. " He said.

I was…shocked. This opportunity was for me. I was trembling in excitement but I tried to control it and asked, " Senior, I won't disappoint you."

He nodded his head and said, " I will give you a cultivation technique suitable for you, you have to reach the peak of the mortal core realm by next year. If you do, meet me at Jupiter City." 

Before I could open my mouth Senior vanished in thin air, while I felt a sudden prick in my head as I got the cultivation technique mentioned by Senior.

I, Zhou Fan, won't disappoint you Senior.

***

' Dad, why did you give that boy his own technique back, after you devoured his memories?' Sera asked.

' So that he would remain grateful to me forever.' Orobas said.

' And why were you drinking hot water so slowly while blowing it??' She asked innocently.

'...I was savouring the taste. Yes definitely I was savouring it, I was not trying to look cool.' He muttered.

***

Fun fact: Sera's personality was inspired by my friend Loveq. Hope she doesn't know this.