#2 Reincarnation...

As Hyeol Ryong realized that his struggle was futile, he quickly calmed himself down. Instead, he focused on the sensation of the bite.

He could feel something rather unusual happening. Ever so slightly, he noticed a minuscule amount of his life force thinning.

'Are they using my body as some kind of battery to recharge their own life force?'

But this made no sense. Such a practice was strictly forbidden within the Orthodox Faction. He was perplexed. Could it be that the Orthodox were not the ones who had captured him? Perhaps some backwater Demonic Sect or rogue Orthodox Sect was responsible?

'But why?'

He was the Celestial Blood Demon, one of the Four Elders of the Heavenly Demonic Cult. The repercussions of detaining or humiliating him would be too severe for anyone to bear—except, perhaps, the combined might of the United Orthodox Faction.

Squirming to rid himself of the biting man, he spoke for the first time, his voice filled with pure anger.

"How dare vermin like you desecrate my body like this! I demand that you let go before I make you regret it!"

The man stopped biting, stood up, and glared down at Hyeol Ryong arrogantly. Then, with a sneer, he spat, "Shut up, you slave bitch. You're nothing—how dare you talk to me like that? Just shut up and accept it. You're nothing but a chakra battery."

The man's sneer deepened as he continued, "Stop fucking annoying me, or I'll rape you. After all, that pathetic mother of yours expired early. Who knows how long you'll last before breaking? Doesn't matter anyway. When you're gone, we'll just need another heal slut to replace you."

Inwardly, Hyeol Ryong was dumbfounded. 'What nonsense is this man spewing?'

'What is chakra?'

'He's saying I'm a slave? Me? A slave?'

'And rape? How could I possibly be raped by a man? That's absurd—I'm a man myself! I know how basic biology works!'

Reaching this conclusion, an unsettling thought formed in his mind. His voice—when he had spoken—had sounded off, lighter and higher-pitched. At first, he attributed it to his theory of being reverted to a child's body. But now, a darker possibility emerged.

'Did they… Did they change my body into that of a woman?'

Or worse yet—'Could someone have transferred my soul into the body of a girl?'

The idea sent a ripple of indignation through him. It wasn't that he looked down on women—he respected many powerful women in the martial world. Some even held the highest positions, as Elders or Sect Leaders, wielding techniques rooted in mystic arts or poison cultivation.

But his cultivation path was different. Hyeol Ryong was a pseudo–body cultivator. His strength came from decades of refining his physical body into a weapon, a discipline fundamentally unsuited for the generally weaker frame of a female body.

On top of that, he now found himself in the lowest position imaginable: a slave. If his suspicions were correct, life as a female slave in the Jianghu was arguably worse than death.

He clenched his fists, frustration boiling beneath the surface. 'This can't be anything but soul reincarnation. There's no other explanation!'

Reincarnation wasn't an unheard-of concept, though the techniques surrounding it were rare and shrouded in secrecy. He recalled two infamous examples.

The first was the Golden-Eyed Emperor, a legend who created a reincarnation technique allowing him to parasitize and take over the bodies of exceptionally talented individuals. The Golden-Eyed Emperor had walked the earth centuries before even the First Heavenly Demon founded the Heavenly Demonic Cult. Some called him "The Primordial One," "The Overseer," or "The Oldest and Strongest Force in the Murim."

The second was Xia Hui, the Dark Heaven Demoness and Mistress of the Assassin Guild. Her technique was equally fearsome. She had sealed her mind, body, and soul into her cultivation jade, creating a practice that allowed foolish young girls to inherit her power. As they cultivated, their bodies warped to resemble hers, their personalities and mannerisms overwritten. Eventually, they became perfect vessels for her spirit, allowing her to transfer between them at will.

Yet, for all his vast knowledge, Hyeol Ryong had never learned any such technique. Nor was he aware of a method that could forcibly transfer another's soul into a different body. Theoretically, it might be possible—but how could anyone have achieved this with him?

'So then, how is this possible?' he thought, his mind racing. 'How did I become a young girl with no internal energy, a clogged meridian system, and some sort of… healing constitution?'

The answer eluded him, no matter how deeply he searched his thoughts. But whatever the explanation, this was his current reality. And no matter how humiliating it was, he would have to adapt and work within these circumstances.

The answer eluded him, but whatever it is, this is his current reality and something he has to somehow work with.

(AN: I decided to clean up my writing in this chapter a bit with Chat-GBT: I simple used the command - Please add " " for dialogue and ' ' for thoughts. Don't change the text much and rewrite it sligthly with my already established english level. - Honestly i think it did a Great Job.)