After the Most Hated One Came Back from the Dead

Barrier: An Atypical, Angsty Xianxia Novel / Haven't Decided on the Main Love Interest Yet / Some Characters Are Pretty Normal, Others Are Extremely, Extremely Not Normal

A super narcissistic, overdramatic, chatty, breathtakingly handsome bottom

Synopsis:

The most famous lackey under the Demon Cult Leader met his end at the spear of a great general.

In the year 126 of Chengde, after the great general returned to court with the villain's corpse and the unharmed princess, the entire hall burst into cheers. The emperor was especially delighted, and immediately issued an imperial decree arranging a marriage between the two, to reward the great general for his glorious achievements.

Since the Demon Cult's rise, the righteous sects had rarely enjoyed such a moment of triumph. Meanwhile, the Demon Cult was thrown into chaos.

It was said that the Demon Cult Leader, already violent by nature, became even more deranged after losing his capable subordinate. While his followers battled the imperial court, he locked himself in his room for days and drank, then vanished not long afterward.

The Left and Right Guardians searched the entire cult but could not find their leader, so they could only try to keep the remaining cultists from panicking.

But the Demon Cult was full of cowards who preyed on the weak. Most had submitted only because the leader's strength was unmatched. Now that the two most powerful fighters were gone, one dead and the other missing, nearly everyone left had their own plans, and none would obey another.

Such a disorganized rabble could hardly withstand attacks from the righteous sects. After they were hunted down and wiped out, the cultists were either dead or crippled, while those who escaped fled in every direction.

"And that," the storyteller concluded, "is how the general eradicated the Demon Cult."

If the tale had truly ended there, it would have made a fine legend, passed down among the righteous for generations.

Unfortunately, the overlooked supporting character in the story, the once-famous dog of the Demon Cult Leader, not only saw his reputation gradually turn around afterward, but also... came back to life.

The rumors were somewhat off, actually. Huo Zhixing never thought he was all that famous. Compared to his adoptive older brother, he was practically a nobody. His brother was a handsome and elegant man, the leader of the righteous martial world, the sort everyone praised as a fine, refined gentleman.

As for Huo Zhixing, he had once served as the Demon Cult Leader's covert guard, rarely appearing in public. Whenever his skills were needed, it was always for something major. But that had been a long time ago, because Huo Zhixing was actually a spy, a righteous sect operative who had spent nine years infiltrating the highest levels of the Demon Cult. And, in the end, he'd accidentally been exposed halfway through...

His old friend, now the Demon Cult Leader, had once been on good terms with him. Now he looked at Huo Zhixing like a dead man every day, and even fucked him while wearing that same dead-eyed stare.

Huo Zhixing had endured humiliation and paid a heavy price to get where he was today.

And now, with the great general's spear pointed at him, Huo Zhixing still had time to think that this time he really was going to become a dead man. The thought made him burst out laughing, prompting the general to coldly prod his shoulder with the spear again.

Huo Zhixing had never been one to act properly. Even with wounds so severe he was nearly dead, he still had the energy to laugh.

His smile was infectious. Even the general secretly relaxed a little, thinking the demon might be holding up all right.

Otherwise, how could he still have the strength to laugh? And laugh so... seductively?

Huo Zhixing did feel a little regretful. He wondered whether this general, with whom he'd shared both friendship and enmity, would develop a heart demon because of what he was about to do. He was honestly a little excited to find out.

Before they parted, he wanted to play a little joke on the general.

More regrettable still, he could never tell anyone he had been a spy, not even before his death. And afterward... when a person died, their light went out. Those things would surely be buried beneath the dust of history.

He didn't really regret anything. Ever since the Demon Cult destroyed his village, he'd been thinking that one day, sooner or later, the cultists would pay. But if you asked what Huo Zhixing still yearned for or regretted, it was probably that he hadn't lived to see the Demon Cult fall. He had already infiltrated the cult from within and planted deep-rooted dangers. Surely the righteous sects would have little trouble wiping it out completely...

In a daze, the impatient general, seeing that he still hadn't answered, pushed the spear a little farther in.

With no time left to think, Huo Zhixing figured that since he was going to die anyway, he might as well disgust his old nemesis. He braced himself against the spear and impatiently reached up to remove the helmet hiding the general's face.

Then he leaned straight in and bit the beautiful man's thin lips. The spear point pierced his right shoulder. Huo Zhixing felt hot blood gushing from the wound. The general's spear hadn't actually hit anything vital, but Huo Zhixing knew that even without this injury, he didn't have long to live.

The process of dying wasn't difficult. His body went limp, his limbs gradually lost their strength, and as the pain dulled and faded away, his consciousness sank with it. Then, slowly, it returned.

"...Huh?"

Huo Zhixing, still able to see the world, was confused. What was going on? Wasn't he dead?

He was dead, but not completely. Huo Zhixing hadn't expected to become a wandering ghost lingering in the mortal world. But, on second thought, it made sense. This was a xianxia world, after all. Not quite dying was practically commonplace.

It was thanks to the cultivation method he'd practiced. While drifting around as a ghost, he happened to learn from a physician friend that, apparently, this was an extremely obscure bit of insider knowledge: when practitioners of his method received a fatal attack, there was a chance their souls would leave their bodies and enter a state of suspended death.

Heaven hadn't abandoned him!

Before Huo Zhixing could deliver a victory speech about how he might not be dead after all, he heard his physician friend sigh and quietly tell someone else:

"It's still unclear when his soul will return to his body."

The good news was that, before his death, he'd entrusted his upright older brother, the leader of the martial world, to take care of his corpse, so his body was still intact. The bad news was... he didn't know how long his dear brother would keep him alive with his internal energy.

After all, his brother was always such an upright man. He didn't seem to like Huo Zhixing, the great villain, very much.

Huo Zhixing decided to lie flat again. It seemed that a perfect man like him was destined for a tragic fate.

Since he was probably still going to die, but had spent his time as a spy constantly walking on eggshells, Huo Zhixing decided to enjoy life while he could.

The capital was bustling. He'd died in the spring, just as fresh shoots were sprouting, and with the Demon Cult no longer harassing them, the people were living peaceful, prosperous lives.

Huo Zhixing knew plenty of people. Most of them didn't think very highly of him, but now that he was a ghost, the ties he'd had in life no longer mattered. After casually giving himself that excuse, he began following people around and enjoying a life he'd never experienced before.

...Then he watched as his acquaintances gradually uncovered the truth about his life.

After that, he watched them go from utterly shocked, to consumed by regret, to... slowly losing their minds.

No, no, no, no, that made no sense at all. After several attempts to visit his acquaintances, each ending with him fleeing in fright, Huo Zhixing fell into deep thought. It was true that his charm was unquestionably irresistible, but... but this was way too much.

The ominous feeling that came over him scared Huo Zhixing so badly that he no longer wanted to come back to life.

But things didn't go as he wished. When he wanted to live, he couldn't. Yet now, long after his death, at the critical moment when the Demon Cult Leader, driven mad by memories and burning with demonic cultivation, was fighting several others for his body... his soul returned to it.

His eyes flew open. His long-dead body suddenly began breathing again. Nearly everyone present was a master, and in an instant they sensed movement inside the ice-sealed coffin. They all turned to look at him in unison, leaving him no chance to play dead.

...Sure enough, a perfect man like him was destined for a tragic fate.

Theme: Sometimes you have to tear things down before you can build them back up.