1 The Balance Scale of Soul Exchange

Pain!

Unbearable intense pain!

That was what Tang Qi first felt after he woke up. Like the tide, it was the kind of pain that could not be avoided by any means and felt as though it acted directly upon his soul. The sources of his pain were his head, his wrists, and his ankles, respectively.

While he was instinctively wailing due to the pain, old and hoarse voices, like buzzing flies, kept digging into his mind. It was a complex and obscure language, but strangely, Tang Qi understood all of it.

"The great demon of adjudication, please listen to the call of your believer, Old Morgan. —Help the soul of your lowly believer change into a young body. For this, I offer a delicious and young soul as a sacrifice. May the great demon of adjudication enjoy to his heart's content…"

Demon of adjudication? Who?

Is this a prank? Wasn't I drinking at the pub with my colleagues?

Could it be I was kidnapped?

Something like that?

Am I being hung on the cross by someone?

When Tang Qi became aware of this, his pain seemed to be relieved slightly. He finally stopped wailing and opened his eyes with great effort. His gradually expanding range of sight was first filled with shadows, and then haziness. Gradually, it became clearer. At this point, an extremely terrifying and strange scene entered his eyes.

There was a hazy, black shadow bubble in front of him. Judging from the boundary where the bubble extended, Tang Qi himself was also inside this bubble. This huge black bubble was produced by a gigantic weird-looking balance scale that was covered with mottled colors and seemingly made of bronze.

There was a cluster of hazy lights on the bronze plates at both ends of the scale. They seemed to be… humanoid?

That's right. They were humanoid figures.

Tang Qi's gaze penetrated the hazy lights and saw their true form.

At one end was a teenager in a comatose state. His features looked pretty and delicate. However, his face was pale, his body thin. He seemed as though he was having a nightmare and had a frightened expression on his face

At the other end, there was an extremely old man with wrinkled black skin. He was awake and kneeling on the bronze plate with his bent body. His hands were in a strange pose while he chanted phrases. He looked like he was praying and pleading.

And the direction he was praying was where Tang Qi was.

That's right. It was him.

Although the entire scale was swaying and changing direction among the clanking noises, the old black man continued to face Tang Qi as he prayed.

"Could it be that I am that demon of adjudication?"

When Tang Qi realized this and summoned his courage to look down, he felt an intense pain in his head, as if he was severely struck by a sledgehammer. Countless overlapping images materialized, and in the midst of his wailing, he finally saw his real situation clearly.

He was indeed tied to a cross, a very special cross.

On the center portion of this huge scale, there were imprints of bright red skulls no matter where Tang Qi looked. They seemed to be either symbols or text and had a strange and terrifying aura floating around them.

When Tang Qi wanted to twist his body to see more, a pain more intense than before surged forth. The pain continued to originate from his head, wrists, and ankles.

After another painful wail, Tang Qi saw his body clearly. He was also wrapped in a layer of hazy light as he hung on a skeletal cross. There were a total of five sharp nails piercing into his head, wrists, and ankles, respectively.

Tang Qi was terrified. How could he still be alive after suffering such injuries?

"No, that's wrong. I'm already dead. I'm just a soul now."

"The two over there are souls too."

Tang Qi suddenly realized this terrible fact, and his face was distorted by the terrified look he had. He looked like a twisted soul, wailing as he hung on the cross. That old black man who appeared as if everything he was witnessing was normal began to pray more excitedly.

At the same time, Tang Qi's eyes suddenly penetrated the black bubble and saw the outside world: a spacious and luxurious study room, a huge bookcase, a kind of mahogany desk, and a luxurious crystal chandelier on the ceiling. These beautiful and exquisite items all demonstrated the wealth and taste of the owner.

But at this moment, this scene was destroyed by the two "corpses" on the ground.

There was no blood nor any signs of struggle or fighting. However, there were indeed two bodies lying side by side on the ground.

One of the corpses was a youth with dark hair and beautiful facial features. His complexion was pale, and his body thin. His clothes were well-fitted and elegant, with an air of exoticness which he had never seen before.

The other corpse was an old black man with ordinary facial features. He had an air of somberness around him. From his clothing, he seemed to be a housekeeper of some sort.

The two were surrounded by burning blood-colored candles, each with a strange pattern drawn with white powder in the center. Placed on top of their heads were old-looking bronze balance scales.

"This is…"

Calm down, I definitely have to calm down and try my best to keep still. After taking a few deep breaths, Tang Qi managed to force himself to calm down.

After a long time, his mouth trembled, "So, I had a drink, woke up, and transmigrated into a demon. My soul even ended up on this damned cross, obviously being dragged into an evil ritual. This old man who looked like an old housekeeper seemed to be the initiator of this ritual. He prayed to me and asked me to place him into a younger body. He even found himself a target?"

Tang Qi combined the old man's prayer language and the scene before him, and slowly inferred his exact situation.

However, he was still unable to move or get rid of those five nails. Any movement would result in limitless pain for him.

Tang Qi had two options now.

One was to promise the old black man to help him change his body and complete this evil ritual. At this moment, a sign appeared in Tang Qi's mind. As long as he opened his mouth, he could consume the soul of that comatose youth placed on the left of the balance scale.

This was the process to complete the ritual. As long as there was no soul at one end of the scale, the other end will naturally sink — triggering a mechanism that allowed the soul of the old man to enter that incomparably young body below; thus, turning that old man into a handsome young man.

And Tang Qi's second choice naturally was to reject that old black man. However, Tang Qi simply did not know the consequence of this option. What would happen after rejection? Never mind that he had transmigrated into a demon he couldn't understand, it would be worse if he couldn't even be a demon.

"How do I choose?"

Tang Qi suppressed his pain while swallowing the saliva that didn't exist, moving his gaze away from that "sacrificial offering".

He was now a hungry demon, filled with cravings for souls. Tang Qi could feel that he was quickly becoming weak. The five nails were not just bringing him pain. If things were to continue, Tang Qi felt that he would soon completely disappear.

But if he promised the old black man, Tang Qi's best outcome was to continue being the so-called "demon of adjudication", attached to this scale and being pinned to the bottom of the box, waiting for the next customer to come.

No, not only that. He still would have to suffer from pain all the time, forever unable to free himself?

Was he able to accept this outcome?

"No, there has to be another way. There's got to be."

"Think. Come up with a way!"

The strong desire to survive made Tang Qi's mind work like never before. However, he was just an ordinary urban white-collar worker in his previous life, and he only spent a short while being a demon. Faced with such a difficult situation, how could he come up with a path of survival quickly?

However, time was fast slipping away.

One second!

Two seconds!

Three seconds!

Tang Qi's twisted soul was getting fainter. The old black man who had been praying raised his head, looking slightly stunned. He seemed to be wondering why his ritual was not working. At this moment, Tang Qi clearly saw that this old man was definitely an evil existence.

His aged face was full of gloom and brutality, and his hazy soul was filled with black silk threads, appearing like a murky evil man.

However, what kind of existence the old man seemed to be was no longer important. Tang Qi's head was getting heavier as he became more befuddled. He felt that he had even lost the strength to devour that sacrifice. Maybe he might disappear at the next instant.

Or perhaps descend into a deep sleep.

At this final moment, Tang Qi suddenly had a ridiculous idea. He wanted to see if his current posture was really exactly the same as Jesus?

Just as this thought appeared, Tang Qi's gaze suddenly turned, and he actually saw his hazy soul nailed to the cross in an awkward posture, looking exactly like Jesus.

"Eh?"

"This is…"

Tang Qi suddenly froze. His eyes looked dazed, as if he saw something incredible.

Fortunately, he was not stunned for long and quickly recovered.

He stared seriously at the strange interface which unknowingly appeared in front of him.

Name: Tang Qi

Status: Weak

Occupation: Demon of adjudication

[Information Fragment 1: As the demon of adjudication, your duty is to put the soul of the sacrificial offering into the target body after receiving the sacrifice.]

[Information Fragment 2: Before you make a ruling, the souls of both parties cannot leave. You can devour the sacrifice on the left. However, you cannot hurt the sacrificer on the right unless he takes the initiative.]

[Information Fragment 3: As the demon of adjudication, once you leave the Balance Scale of Soul Exchange, your soul will dissipate within three seconds.]

[Information Fragment 4: If you choose not to adjudicate this time, the sacrifice will be automatically absorbed by the balance scale, and you will fall into a deep sleep.]

"What is this? The implausible plot that is beneficial to me?"

Tang Qi who was a veteran online literature enthusiast in his previous life was naturally well aware of the standard treatment after entering a new lease on life. It should come along with a certain kind of implausible plot that benefited the character.

Tang Qi thought that he had not received this treatment after becoming a demon. Unexpectedly, it suddenly appeared at this moment.

"There is a chance, my one and only chance."

Tang Qi did not care about other parts of the interface as he concentrated his gaze on the second and third information fragments.

The sense of excitement was like a warm current which suddenly made Tang Qi's faint soul solidify a little. Relying on this small amount of recovered energy, Tang Qi opened his mouth, spitting out a hoarse and deep voice that surprised himself.

"My lowly believer, your sacrificial offerings… are not enough."

At this moment, Tang Qi's exterior, like a real twisted demon, wailed and roared.