Wu Zhiqi was an eighty-nine-year-old demon ape.

What did that even mean?

In Leyu's previous account-hacking days, Qian Yuliu was the easiest to steal. He was naturally cold-blooded, emotionless, and his memories were like a library, barely affecting Leyu at all.

Yin Yinyin, though scarred by a traumatic past, actually led a monotonous life, either killing or en route to killing, devoid of familial or romantic ties, so Leyu found it easy to digest him as well.

Zhengwei was like a movie that had been heavily censored—although he committed countless crimes, he didn't feel proud of them, subconsciously forgot the bloody scenes, and lived a life both lonely and cruel—so as long as Leyu didn't foolishly pick at the dregs of his memories, nothing happened, generally speaking.

The hardest to digest, on the other hand, was Qin Leyin. He was born ambitious, emotionally charged, always intense, his memories complicated and his mind sharp as a blade. When Leyu hacked his account, he instantly passed out and took a long time to recover, needing a whole month to gradually digest everything.

But compared to Wu Zhiqi, all of them were child's play.

An eighty-nine-year-old Wu Zhiqi—what did that even mean?

He had killed more people than Leyu had ever met, suffered more twists of fate than Leyu had ever seen in movies, and his willpower and values were as solid as rock; by comparison, Leyu's entire mindset seemed as fragile as eggshell.

More importantly, his emotions could shatter Leyu's psychological defenses, so much so that Leyu couldn't tell if a feeling was his own or Wu Zhiqi's.

For example, when Wu Zhiqi was twenty-three, he stepped into the realm of masterhood and, swollen with newfound power, went looking for trouble with humans—only to be caught by a martial pillar in the Xiama district. Rather than kill him, the martial pillar locked him up and kept him as a cook.

So, what kind of dishes did Wu Zhiqi need to cook in order to survive?

You've probably guessed it—monkey brains. That martial pillar had a particular craving for monkey brains—specifically, those cooked by demon apes. Sometimes he'd even round up several demon apes to work as cooks, because, compared to the food itself, the real satisfaction seemed to come from watching cooks butcher their own kind, grovel to survive, trample on their dignity. That was the pleasure the martial pillar couldn't give up.

Wu Zhiqi cooked for five years, watching countless kin dragged into the kitchen and slaughtered, watching other ape demon cooks hang themselves, unable to endure the torment, only to have their corpses show up on his chopping block as well.

He raised the chef's knife and butchered his own kind, removing their brains, tossing in carrots, onions, potatoes, celery, crushed garlic, bay leaves, all kinds of spices, making dishes guests would never forget... His cooking was the best in the martial pillar's household, so much so the martial pillar couldn't bear to kill him, even though the customary fate for ape cooks was to become ingredients after one year.

"The cowardice of clinging to life, the shame of butchering your own people, the rage of surviving through humiliation..." Those five years had burned themselves into the deepest part of Wu Zhiqi's soul like a brand.

Even after reaching the Peak of Perfection, even after becoming the strongest of his generation, he still dreamed at midnight of being back in the martial pillar's house, casually grabbing the corpse of an ape, slaughtering it, cooking it, and even tasting it himself!

Wu Zhiqi never slept in peace for a single night!

Even if Leyu now had the Ice Blood Physique, if he even brushed up against Wu Zhiqi's branded memories, he'd be spiritually incinerated into nonexistence.

So even though Leyu accepted some of Wu Zhiqi's memories, he was constantly on the verge of being back-hacked, or more accurately, overwhelmed by those memories. "If a soul was a country, then memories were its voters. Now, it was as if a whole new voting bloc called 'Wu Zhiqi' had just appeared, holding three-fifths of the ballots, overturning the entire regime."

Maybe, given enough time, Leyu could slowly digest those memories and set things right, reawakening his true self. But there was no need to gamble. He'd rather burn some available points to activate the Ice Blood Physique and keep his soul firmly under control.

"Old Wu, you okay?"

Leyu snapped back to himself and gazed at the pink-gold ape before him, then, after a moment of silence, nodded, "I'm fine, just... thinking back on those years as a cook."

Hearing this, the barely-alive 'Qin Leyin,' who owed his survival to 'Undead,' suddenly thrashed. Leyu smacked the top of his head. The pink-gold ape nodded in perfect understanding, "Sigh... after tonight, the humans will have their hands full. Nobody's going to find out about that again. Old Wu, you should just let it go."

"It's not that I won't let it go, it's that the memories won't let go of me." Leyu looked at 'Qin Leyin's' head under his hand, "Right?"

'Qin Leyin' stared daggers at Leyu, his expression not just angry, but—shockingly—ashamed.

"Come on, Old Wu, if you're all right, hurry up and save him. He's going to die!" The pink-gold ape hurried him along, "And time's almost up, too. We need to get everyone out!"

"Got it, Lao Shi."

Digging through Wu Zhiqi's surface memories, Leyu learned that this pink-gold ape was named Shi Pantuo, a member of the Golden Silk Ape tribe. Including him, there were three demon beasts lurking in Yanjing: Smile, Wu Zhiqi, Harleman, and Shi Pantuo.

Other than Smile, who wasn't an ape demon, the other three were all Peak of Perfection ape demons. As for why only apes remained... it was because the rest of the demon race was basically extinct.

Under absolute superiority and the gulf of technology, the demon race had almost no chance to fight back against humans—and they got wiped out on a regular schedule. They didn't even get the chance to establish their own culture or legacy. There used to be hundreds of different demon races; now you could count them on your fingers.

Those that still survived all had something in common: they were very human-like.

Because they resembled humans, they could learn human Combat Techniques. Combat Techniques were designed for humans—if you didn't have two arms and two legs, there was no way you could learn, and those who couldn't were killed off.

It's not like learning Combat Techniques made them better fighters than humans, but, as the old joke goes, "when you're being chased by a bear, you don't need to be faster than the bear—just faster than the other guy." In this artificial struggle for survival, demon races that couldn't master Combat Techniques went extinct over a millennium, leaving the survivors to live like Huyao people, using stolen codex chips to awaken their spiritual power and practice Combat Techniques every day and night.

Some demon races had tried to invent their own Combat Techniques, but, as the saying goes, rent, don't build—humans already had everything ready-made, so they just stole and learned. Plus, humans upgraded their techniques so quickly that there was a new version every couple years—there was no way the demons could keep up.

More importantly, with the frequency of Border Army purges, the demon races just never got a breather.

Leyu glanced at 'Qin Leyin' and sighed softly, "You've got it rough, too."

After that, Leyu pressed a paw to his mouth, dislocated his jaw, then slashed lightly with his claws, severing the tendons in both hands and feet!

Shi Pantuo jumped back, "What are you doing?"

"This guy's vicious to the core. Even if you want to heal him, you have to take away his ability to fight back first."

Leyu grabbed 'Qin Leyin's' left hand, pressed on the iron wristband, and with a thought, the band molded itself to Leyu's wrist like putty.

Saint's Relic recovered.

"Can you... maybe..."

On the other side, Ning Xinyuan gasped out, barely clinging to consciousness, "Can you... get off him...?"

"No problem."

Leyu got up and flipped 'Qin Leyin' over, then used Wu Zhiqi's built-in Scenic Battle Technique to treat him. Shi Pantuo seemed worried that 'Qin Leyin' would die and came over to help with the healing.

Leyu noticed 'Qin Leyin' staring at Shi Pantuo and warned, "Lao Shi, this guy's all about dying—he's insulted Grandpa me more than once already. Don't heal his arms, legs, or jaw, or you'll just help him kill himself."

"Understood."

'Qin Leyin' glared at Leyu in rage, but Leyu's mind was on the system, sorting through everything that had just happened.

First off, he and Wu Zhiqi had obviously swapped souls, and the reason was clear: a BUG had triggered.

'Undead' worked like this, upon death, you entered the 'Undead' state.

'Substitute' worked like this, when you die, your soul replaces that of your killer.

Both skills triggered on 'death.' So, when Leyu died, a double-check happened: he replaced the killer's soul and entered the Undead state.

Which meant a BUG: even though Undead worked, Leyu had already swapped souls.

Meanwhile, the question that had haunted Leyu's mind for so long was finally answered: the soul he replaced didn't just disappear, but got logged out and banned alongside his old account.

But because of 'Undead' this time, Wu Zhiqi didn't just get logged out of his account—he'd stayed in the Undead Qin Leyin body and kept on living. If Leyu and Shi Pantuo healed 'Qin Leyin,' he could even survive after leaving Undead—living on as a human!

If Leyu hadn't had a Saint's Relic, if he hadn't touched the Book of the Dead, if he hadn't triggered Undead... if not for this wild chain of events, the soul swap would never have happened.

But since it had, Leyu had to make the best of it. He wasn't going to live as Wu Zhiqi, but tonight, this maxed-out account was far more useful than Qin Leyin's.

But since he'd taken the opportunity to swap accounts, Leyu took a careful look at the system's changes and Wu Zhiqi's panel.

Qin Leyin's Calamity actually had a 15% progress rate, meaning becoming Ming Shuiyun's scabbard now counted as holding 15% of Huyao's authority? It looked like Qin Leyin's Calamity could be refreshed, but Leyu had no intention of trying—Wu Zhiqi's Calamity was definitely more insane, probably about exterminating humanity.

Qin Leyin's death gave Leyu one usable point—but because Leyu immediately reactivated the Ice Blood Physique, that point was gone as soon as he got it... Wait, what?

On his panel, 'Ice Blood Physique' had disappeared, replaced by a brand-new name:

'Immortal Blood Physique.'

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