How Unfortunate

Carnage filled the area to the brim, corpses of both human and beast origin strewn across vibrant blue silver colored grass tainted a peaceful forest. Plunging the tranquil surroundings into one of tension supplemented by mass hysteria. Yao Guai stood at the heart of such a battlefield, blankly trying to get his mind working again.

'What the hell is happening? I passed out from drinking and then I'm here?' Everything just felt surreal to him, he felt numb to the massacre unfolding around. Over sized animals whether it be mammals or reptiles frantically tore men to shreds as they wailed. The humans weren't exactly defenseless either, glowing ring of colorful light surrounded their bodies. Others transformed into half beasts themselves, some pulled out weapons from thin air.

Blinking twice, Yao Guai shook his head at the sight of light rings appearing above beastly bodies. Those rings and the rings that surrounded the men shocked him to the core out of familiarity. Were they not spirit rings?

Finally getting his brain to function, his heart sped up at the looming crisis about to overtake him. He would soon die if he just stood there like an idiot. Looking around, the former alcoholic picked up a large piece of wooden plank. It wasn't much, but it would be better than having nothing to use.

Broken carriages, slaughtered horses and despaired dead eyes met his gaze. He had to leave the area somehow else die helplessly. Sneakily making his way away from conflict, the recently woken up man inside a body which wasn't his own soon faced a dilemma after managing to escape successfully.

'Now where do I go next?' He was utterly lost in the forest teeming with dangers at every corner. Scratching the back of his head further reinforced his ignorance of which action to take next. Looking up at the forest canopy, sunshine piercing through emerald leaves told Yao Guai how much time was left before nightfall.

Resolving to find shelter, Yao Guai carefully walked through the forest, heading deeper inside in search of a temporary shelter.

'Something like a cave should be fine.' He nodded and patiently searched. Thoughts riddled his head with questions and his confusion grew more apparent. The vivid memory of the earlier event crossed his mind, the familiarity of those things he had seen could only match the descriptions of that book.

Yao Guai shook his head, a bitter smile hung on his face as his eyes seemed to lose a bit of hope in them. 'I died from alcohol overdose and my soul crossed over to this absurd location'

Death, Yao Guai could accept it any day since his past life had been meaningless. One mistake ruined everything for him, a mistake that could not be fixed no matter what he did. He had drunk for so long and so intensely that he was sure he would kick the bucket soon. And that really did happen to him. Dying a nasty drunkard's death.

Though the sudden shift of events sent him smiling wryly. 'Transmigration, ah it truly is transmigration.'

A foreign set of memories invaded the young boy's consciousness, stings of pain forced him to grit his teeth and endure a sudden migraine threatening to split his skull open. Minutes passed and Yao Guai who had been clutching his head finally understood his identity.

He had died and now his soul had taken this child's body as its own. The child shared the same name As Yao Guai, a humble little kid from the Yao family living in a village where birds and beasts don't even shit. A younger brother to an envious older brother, Yao Guai was deemed as a genius by his parents.

Able to speak fluently and read at 3 years of age. They expected the young man to awaken a strong martial soul and turn their lives around. Unfortunately, the martial soul he awoken at 6 years old was not the what that everyone had expected to be. Unlike his family which possessed a beast type martial soul, Yao Guai had a tool martial soul.

One event led to another and the father found out of the mother's treason against the husband. Out of rage, the mother was r*ped by the father before being ruthlessly killed and Yao Guai was soon targeted. Due to the humiliation of the village speaking against the Yao family and calling them all sorts of things, Yao Guai was beaten half dead and then sold to slavery.

Yao Guai's father killed the elder brother and committed suicide shortly.

Yao Guai found a cave, it was clean and devoid of any beasts's traces or territorial markings. Instead of being elated at succeeding in finding shelter, he was deeply infuriated due to the memory that had clouded his mind. The previous owner of the body had died due to malnourishment and exhaustion. Used as live bait to draw out spirit beasts, the previous Yao Guai lived a terrible life.

Until the end of his life, the previous owner of Yao Guai's new body never blamed his parents. He only wished to come back home and apologize if he were to escape slavery. Thoroughly ticked off, Yao Guai pinched the bridge of his nose and calmed himself down.

"As thanks for lending me this body, I shall live this new life and do whatever I want." Taking a solemn vow, he entered the cave and sat down to rest. In this new world of fiction turned reality, Yao Guai had a new goal in mind. He would seek strength and travel the land, spreading his name across eternity.

Yao Guai wished for fame and success. In the past life he was halfway there only to stumble and fall. In this new life, it was his second chance. He would make sure to use it well and wisely.

Sighing once more, Yao Guai focused, he felt a something hidden inside him and his will wanted it to come out. Extending his right hand, his spirit power surged for a second and a brown glow of light illuminated the cave interior. Floating humbly atop his palm was a card. One side was colorlessly white and blank. While the back had a brown, golden spiral leading into a dark void etched onto it.

He could only smile wryly at the martial soul. "I'm not gonna complain but jeez. Why do I have a Yugi-oh card as a martial soul?" Sheepishly scratching his head, Yao Guai stared at the card in wonder.

He had no spirit rings yet and does not know what the blank yugioh card could do at the moment. Using his memories, he tried to remember what it does but the previous body owner simply could not ascertain its real functions. Deeming it as worthless and giving up on it, Yao Guai was now helpless as well. Everything that he thought of to try to test the card had already been done.

Chanting magic words. Setting the card face down on the ground and shouting "I end my turn!"

Hell, Yao Guai even shortly headed out to look for a weak spirit beast, provoked it and screamed "You activated my trap card!" He ran away after failing. Long story short, the usual yugioh rules didn't seem to apply to the blank yugioh card.

After his charades, Yao Guai lay in the cave on his back, thinking of what to do next until a natural response answered his question for him. His stomach churned, issuing growling sounds and at the same time, Yao Guai was both hungry and thirsty.

"I'm hella screwed." Alarmed, he shot to his feet and headed out of the cave. This new body of his was both malnourished and weak. He needed to recuperate and eat badly. The only problem was that spirit beasts were exceedingly dangerous. A ten year spirit beast was just like a wild animal but a little stronger. Recently awakened children could use their martial souls to kill one with ease if they were careful.

And Yao Guai's martial soul at the moment was temporarily useless unless he finds out what it really does. Aside from those two problems, another was that he was in the wilderness far from civilization. Spirit beasts are abundant, and there may be a few hundred year spirit beasts or even stronger lurking around his area.

"Oh yeah..." Yao Guai remembered something. He stopped walking around in search for berries or edible fruits and returned to his shelter to think things over.

"I'm really... Really screwed..."

Before dying from excessive drinking, Yao Guai had only managed to finish reading Soul Land 3. He had planned to read the other books but unfortunately he died. And based on how the world around him was spinning so far, he could only conclude that he was in Soul Land 1, in Tang San's era.

He came to that conclusion since spirit beasts were nearly extinct by the time the third book rolled by. And at the moment, there were too many spirit beasts around him to be that case.