Chapter One: Xiao Wenzi

Buzz, buzz, buzz...

A constant droning filled his ears, like countless mosquitoes swarming in flight. His last memory was of being struck by a car and sent flying—Xiao Wenzi had thought surely he was dead. Yet now, there was no pain at all.

“What the hell, why are there so many mosquitoes? Where is this place? Wait, my body feels strange…”

His consciousness gradually cleared. Xiao Wenzi found himself surrounded by towering trees in a dense forest; the trunks were so massive, it would take seven or eight people to circle just one. All around his head, mosquitoes of various sizes whirled in the air, and for some reason, every one of them was far larger than the mosquitoes he remembered.

His first instinct was to run. No matter how he’d gone from the bustling city to this bizarre place, the least he could do was escape before being sucked dry by these monstrous mosquitoes. But soon he realized something was off—though he could control his body, he couldn’t sprint off the way he used to. His field of vision was also much wider, as though he had dozens of eyes.

“This… this can’t be. I must be having a nightmare…”

Horror dawned as Xiao Wenzi discovered his body was no longer human at all. He had become a mosquito, no different from the ones buzzing around him. He let out a scream that would have curdled blood—if only it were human—but the sound that emerged was nothing but a furious buzzing, devoid of any human articulation.

Buzzing wildly, he attracted the attention of a nearby mosquito with spotted wings and a noticeably swollen abdomen—clearly a female. She fluttered towards him, wings a blur.

No way, is she going to…?

He couldn’t guess what the female mosquito wanted, nor could he understand her, but judging by the way her abdomen swayed, it seemed she intended something unspeakable. Xiao Wenzi shuddered in disgust.

Suddenly, the croaking of a frog echoed closer and closer in the woods, and the mosquitoes scattered in chaos. Some shot upwards, others darted behind leaves to hide. Even the flirtatious spotted-wing female beat a hasty retreat, clearly terrified of the approaching threat.

Xiao Wenzi didn’t flee. He almost wished to be eaten, just to end this “nightmare” sooner.

But when he saw the creature bounding towards him—a toad the size of a small hill, its warty skin bristling—he couldn’t help but feel a stab of fear.

With a whoosh, the toad opened its cavernous mouth and flicked out its long tongue. Xiao Wenzi’s world went dark; consciousness fled.

The toad had plunged into the undergrowth, hunting for food. A single mosquito wasn’t even enough to fill the cracks in its teeth. It hopped along, tongue darting out again and again, scooping up mosquitoes and other insects as it moved deeper into the forest.

The toad never noticed, however, that several yards behind it, the air shimmered—and the little mosquito it had just swallowed abruptly reappeared.

As consciousness returned once more, Xiao Wenzi found himself still trapped in this perilous forest. The nightmare hadn’t ended. He groaned in despair, “What’s going on? What the hell is happening?”

Suddenly, in the sea of his mind, a glowing screen appeared.

It looked like a high-definition monitor, with a mosquito floating in the center. In the upper left corner were nine heart-shaped icons—eight red, one now a dull gray. In the upper right corner, nine droplet-shaped icons. Along the bottom were buttons marked Home, Next Page, and Previous Page. Nothing else.

“What is this? A system? Did this thing turn me into a mosquito? Do these hearts mean I have nine lives, and that damned toad just cost me one?”

As a well-read young man of the twenty-first century, Xiao Wenzi was no stranger to systems. Seeing the last heart turn gray, he almost instantly grasped the truth.

He didn’t know what the nine droplet icons meant. He tried flipping to the next page, and his face shifted through a palette of emotions.

The page turned easily, and words appeared before him:

Nine drops of ordinary human blood can be exchanged for one basic system coin.

Five system coins can be exchanged for the first level of the Blood Spirit Demon Technique.

Nine system coins can be exchanged for one red heart, granting the host an extra life to replace a lost one (only available with no cultivation; cannot be exchanged when all nine hearts are full).

Ten system coins can be exchanged for a low-grade Demon Gathering Stone. Note: Demon Gathering Stones are crystals imbued with demon spiritual power, used to assist in cultivation.

Twenty system coins can be exchanged for a drop of Rock Spirit Essence. Note: Rock Spirit Essence is more potent than the Demon Gathering Stone and serves as an auxiliary elixir for low-level demon cultivators.

Thirty system coins can be exchanged for a drop of Demon Spirit Dew. Note: Demon Spirit Dew instantly restores all cultivation at the initial demon energy stage…

Besides these introductions to various techniques and materials, a status bar at the bottom listed his character’s “money” value, just like in a game.

Xiao Wenzi was at a loss—he didn’t even have a single system coin, and could only stare longingly at these treasures, powerless to claim any.

Still, as a mosquito, sucking a little human blood shouldn’t be all that difficult. With the system at his side and nine lives to spare, his spirits rose a little.

“My former self must have died in that car accident. Now, just like those characters in webnovels, I’ve crossed into another world. I just need to find a way to cultivate and grow stronger.”

Convinced this was no dream, Xiao Wenzi began planning for his future. At the very least, as a promising youth of the twenty-first century, he ought to cultivate until he could transform into a human form again and regain his original appearance.

He couldn’t help but wonder if the system offered even more treasures beyond the ones displayed. He tried to flip to the next page, but the glowing screen wouldn’t budge—only the Previous and Home buttons functioned, returning him to the mosquito page.

Perhaps his cultivation wasn’t sufficient yet; once he mastered some techniques, more options would unlock.

Studying the icons on the home page, Xiao Wenzi pondered their meaning.

Suddenly, the croak of the toad startled him from his thoughts. Realizing the damned creature had circled back, he frantically beat his wings and soared skyward.

A mosquito’s senses are keen, and Xiao Wenzi, far more intelligent than an ordinary insect, easily avoided spiderwebs and other traps as he flew through the “towering trees” and emerged onto a grassy hillside.

Only then did he realize that what he’d taken for a primeval forest was nothing more than a patch of low shrubs on a hillside. His earlier misjudgment was simply a matter of habit; he’d been used to a human body, and suddenly saw the world through the much smaller eyes of a mosquito.