I am becoming the ultimate demon.

Chapter 1: The Mad Taoist, Demonic Blood; Golden Finger, His Life Begins with This!

The snow fell heavily.

Xiong'an County, outside Dongshuimen.

Countless refugees, dressed in thin cotton clothes and carrying broken pottery bowls, huddled in the snow, shivering like withered stalks.

Along the official road lay many corpses, buried in snow like ice sculptures, frozen to death in the cold winter.

On the official road, a Taoist priest dressed in a red robe with a full head of white hair, holding a strange bone flute, ran wildly through the snow, laughing maniacally.

"The ancient books are true. The previous dynasty didn't perish due to natural disasters, uprisings, or powerful clans vying for power... but rather it was destroyed by demons, calamities, and strange occurrences...!"

"In the thirtieth year of the Yuanjing era, five years before the fall of the Yuan dynasty, natural disasters struck one after another, heralding a chaotic and treacherous world..."

"And now, natural disasters have struck, and so has the chaos and turmoil of demons! I see demons! I see demons!"

At that moment, Ji Lin was watching all of this from a short distance away.

He sat in a large, luxuriously decorated carriage, dressed in fur, with a tall, beautiful maidservant in his arms. He sat on a soft, warm, white fox fur cushion, warming one hand on a small copper stove burning charcoal, watching everything through the side window.

"What a chaotic world..." Ji Lin sighed.

He was originally a college student who just went through the motions of attending classes, but he never expected to wake up in this world and find himself there for more than ten days.

Fortunately, the original owner of this body was a young master from a wealthy family, the Ji family, a prominent clan in Xiong'an, and had a good father.

He could only travel by carriage, carrying a maid, and in winter he would warm himself by a charcoal fire in the carriage, unafraid of the snow, living a carefree life.

Even just passing the time here is more comfortable than in my previous life.

"Young master, that Taoist priest ahead looks like Kua Wencang..." The maid beside her, who had been squinting, suddenly opened her eyes wide and began to breathe heavily as she looked out the window at the Taoist priest on the official road ahead.

"Yun Cui, are you sure?" Ji Lin asked, somewhat doubtful.

In the original owner's memory, this was a Taoist priest who was famous in Xiong'an County and several surrounding villages and towns.

He was a top-tier martial arts master, never lacking food or clothing, and loved studying various ancient scriptures. He publicly preached, exuding an air of otherworldly wisdom. He even performed rituals for the deceased members of the Ji family...

How could this be...? He seemed to have gone mad, running wildly across the snow with a strange, maniacal laugh.

They were talking about strange events, how the previous dynasty actually perished due to demons, calamities, and eeriness, and how they themselves had seen demons...

In the original owner's memory, this was just an ordinary, low-level, chaotic world. The most famous martial arts masters in the entire dynasty could only defeat ten armored soldiers at most.

"Perhaps I'm mistaken..."

As the snow fell heavily, the Taoist's figure became somewhat blurry in the snow. Yun Cui felt that he looked very familiar, but she couldn't be sure.

"Then let's wait and see when the carriage gets closer..."

.....

The horses' hooves clattered, steadily turning the wheel hubs.

The coachman drove the carriage forward at breakneck speed.

Through the side window, the snow continued to fall heavily, but the mad figure on the official road was getting closer and closer.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

The sound of horses' hooves continued, while the red-robed Taoist priest who had been galloping earlier slowed down more and more...

In the end, before the carriage arrived, the figure in front of him crashed heavily onto the snow.

It remained motionless, as if it had lost all vitality and strength, becoming an ice sculpture swallowed by ice and snow outside the East Water Gate.

"Stop!" When the carriage arrived next to the figure that resembled the Taoist "Kuwen Cang", Ji Lin called out to the driver to stop.

Upon hearing the young master's words, even though the coachman was a little confused, he immediately stopped.

Whoosh! With a loud shout, the sound of hooves stopped a moment later, and the wide carriage drawn by four horses came to a halt.

It happened to be right next to the "corpse" of the red-robed Taoist.

"Young master, I'm here..." Yun Cui stopped Ji Lin, who was getting up to go down and check.

She brought it up herself; there's no need to trouble you, young master...

When the tall, beautiful woman walked to the motionless "corpse" and turned it to face up, her eyes widened and her mouth gaped open.

He had eyebrows shaped like the Chinese character "一" and his aged face was covered with wrinkles—it was none other than Kua Wencang!

That Taoist priest, renowned in Xiong'an County and several surrounding villages and towns, with an air of otherworldly wisdom, and that top-notch martial arts master who loved to study various ancient scriptures and publicly preach.

However, its body was covered with fine black lines, as if it had been possessed by a strange evil spirit.

"The Huai River, a huge black shadow, a demon, a bone flute..." He was still forcing himself to keep his eyes open, looking at the sky, muttering to himself, and tightly gripping the bone flute in his hand.

"Young master, it is..." Yun Cui wanted to report to Ji Lin.

The old Taoist priest closed his eyes completely and loosened his clenched hands.

.....

"Young master, how terrifying..."

In the blink of an eye, Yun Cui had arrived beside him, her face still showing signs of shock.

Hu Wencang died, and his death was so bizarre, it was as if he had been possessed by an evil spirit.

After learning everything, Ji Yun's face turned ashen, as if frozen in water. He felt his heart tighten with coldness.

His understanding of this world began to feel unfamiliar... A strong sense of crisis enveloped him.

The carriage, the fireplace, the fur coat, and even the personal maid were no longer comfortable or warm...

"This is the only thing we found on him, young master..." Yun Cui handed over a bone flute.

The bone flute was two inches long, made of some unknown animal bone, and incredibly cold and hard. It had two strange plum blossom-like blood-red patterns; one was already faded, while the other was unusually vibrant, blood-red...

Ji Lin accepted it without making a sound.

"Absorbing abnormal substances..."

A cold, mechanical voice suddenly echoed in his mind, followed by a blood-red, game-template-like object appearing in front of him.

【Season Arrival】

[Outliers: 1]

【Strength: 6/10】

【Minyi：5/10】

[Constitution: 5/10]

[Spirit: 5/10]

Below that are ten small, blood-red squares, nine of which are dark, while only the first one is lit, containing "a drop of blood".

[Can be fused with one demon blood. Incomplete] A line of small text appeared on the lit square.

Ji Lin suppressed his shock and glanced at it, only to see that the crimson plum blossom print on the strange bone flute had completely darkened...

He then put away the bone flute and looked out the window.

A vast expanse of white snow, and refugees huddled together, frozen and exhausted...

"This world..."

A few days ago, the Huai River in Yunmu County flooded, inundating several villages and towns along the river, causing tens of thousands of people to be affected and displaced.

Also due to recent droughts, locust plagues, and heavy taxes.

Mountain bandits and uprisings broke out everywhere, causing the government to lose control of many localities and lose important information hubs, and imperial power did not extend to the local areas.

If granaries cannot be opened to provide relief during disasters, the responsibility falls on the county magistrate and powerful clans.

But these local tyrants were extremely greedy and inhumane. Powerful clans bought up the land and fishing boats of these disaster victims at low prices, completely disregarding the lives of the people.

This resulted in the tragic scene of refugees scrambling and scattering outside the city...

These people were not subject to any control; the government wouldn't let them into the city because getting through the winter was already difficult in ancient times.

With winter and recent drought, food is already scarce in the city, and these people are too weak to work. They'd only disrupt order if they went in; they'd be useless for food...

Natural disasters struck frequently, man-made calamities continued unabated, uprisings broke out everywhere, the people suffered terribly, and corpses littered the roads...

This chaotic scene of an ancient dynasty nearing its end, with its edifice about to collapse, is enough. Now, according to the Taoist priest, we will also be greeted by demons, calamities, and strange and terrifying things that only exist in anecdotes and tales.

Will the human world become a hellish slaughterhouse...?

Living in this world, I'm afraid I can only rely on the "attribute bar" and so-called "fusion" in this blood-red game template to survive.