Chapter 1: The Demonic Star Appears, the Great Qing in Chaos

Ancient city, night, shooting stars.

"Demonic stars appear frequently, the nation is in turmoil... cough, cough!"

In a dilapidated courtyard, a sallow and thin middle-aged scholar took a bite of his hard, dry cornbread, gazing at the sky with melancholy as he spoke.

Immediately after, as if suddenly energized, he picked up a newly released compilation of essays by the latest successful candidates in the imperial examination, and, under the dim light of a bean-sized lamp, began to read aloud with fierce determination.

And at the same time...

"Ah!"

With a cry of pain, Eric Bennett opened his eyes in confusion. His hands instinctively pressed downward, and just as he felt a soft warmth, he found himself staring into the eyes of a delicate, youthful face.

"Uh, I didn't mean to."

He hurriedly stood up. In front of him was a pitch-black alley. By the starlight overhead, he could see the rain-soaked ground beneath his feet was all mud, and in the corner of the wall, there was even a pile of shit left by some bastard.

"Why are you dressed like that? Watched too many queue dramas? And, what the hell is this place?"

He asked the girl in confusion.

The girl, dressed in a Qing dynasty maid's outfit, was clearly still dazed from being knocked down and groped by him. Clutching her stomach and frowning, she slowly stood up. Just now, Eric Bennett had landed right on her abdomen, and it was obvious that his over a hundred jin of weight had dealt quite a blow to her underdeveloped, slender body.

Eric Bennett reached out to her apologetically.

Suddenly, several torches appeared ahead.

"There she is, little bitch, let's see where you run this time! This time, I'll make sure you get a taste of the whip."

The torchbearers were several men in Qing attire. One of them, whose bulk was at least twice that of Eric Bennett, pointed at the girl, panting and shouting. Two thuggish-looking men beside him rushed forward, and amid the girl's terrified screams, each grabbed one of her arms and roughly dragged her toward the fat man.

"Help me!"

The girl cried out to Eric Bennett, the despair in her eyes chilling to the bone.

Only then did the two thugs notice him.

"No queue!"

"Grab him!"

"Send this rebel to the Chief Inspector of the Nine Gates!"

...

Amid a series of chaotic shouts, even the fat man lunged at him. The two thugs in front even let go of the girl, each drawing an iron ruler from their waists.

"What do you want?"

Eric Bennett instinctively took a step back, raised his right hand to block, and suddenly, as if wiping condensation from a glass, with a wave of his palm, a bright window appeared out of thin air, inside which was a row of handle-like objects. At that moment, the iron ruler was already upon him. Without time to think, he grabbed one of the handles and yanked it back. A flash of cold metal gleamed before his eyes. He immediately swung it to the side, and as he felt the resistance of the blade hitting bone, a shrill scream rang out. The iron ruler that had nearly struck his shoulder fell to the ground.

Eric Bennett stared blankly at his hand.

In his hand was a bone-chopping cleaver from a kitchen, its blood-stained blade stamped with a row of Chinese characters.

Kang Mazi Brand.

On the ground lay a severed half-hand and the iron ruler. The thug opposite had already fainted from the pain.

Including the fat man, the remaining five all froze, staring in shock at the scene, at the cleaver in his hand, but none of them looked at the strange window in the air. Eric Bennett immediately realized that they couldn't see the window.

"Quick, seize this demon! Gouzi, help me to the Chief Inspector of the Nine Gates!"

The fat man suddenly shouted.

"Demon, demon your damn mother!"

Eric Bennett roared furiously, flinging the cleaver at him.

With a flash of cold light, the sharp cleaver struck the fat man's forehead, the blade instantly sinking a third of the way in. The fat man's shout was cut off, and he fell backward to the ground like a heavy sack.

Almost simultaneously, Eric Bennett reached out with both hands for two more handles in the window.

However, as he drew a slicing knife with his right hand, his left hand passed right through the rack in the window as if through air. Clearly, this hand couldn't touch anything inside.

"Demon, demon!"

The remaining four, seeing another kitchen knife appear out of thin air in his right hand, were completely overwhelmed by this reality-shattering scene and fled in terror without hesitation.

"Damn it, I told you I'm not a demon!"

Eric Bennett angrily threw the kitchen knife at their backs, and a scream echoed in the darkness—then nothing more.

At this moment, the darkness around the window in front of him began to spread, and soon it vanished eerily, the air returning to normal. Clearly, this thing had a time limit. Eric Bennett looked at his right hand and, for some reason, found a golden dragon's head vividly appearing in his palm, the dragon's body winding up his sleeve. Pulling up his sleeve, he saw his entire forearm was wrapped, like a pillar entwined by a coiling dragon.