Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e - Volume 1, Chapter 4: Friend Part 1

When the Soul Plague arrived, it struck fast, transforming its victims into soulless monsters. The horde swept across the land unchecked—until the Awakened appeared. These survivors, immune to the plague, turned the tide of war into a bloody stalemate. But while the front lines held, the plague continued to spread and the horde only grew in number.Desperate for reinforcements, the World Government began conducting controlled infections of its able-bodied citizens to produce more Awakened. Hill was one of the conscripts. After going through a harrowing trial induced by the plague, his life was torn apart and remade: he emerged Awakened, endowed with strange new powers—but also bound by a dark curse that resides deep within his own soul.As Hill learns to wield his abilities alongside fellow survivors, he uncovers unsettling truths about the plague’s true nature and the hidden price of becoming one of humanity’s last line of defense.

There are times—far too many times—when you feel that uncontrollable urge to kill someone.For Kaya, this… this was exactly that moment.“Repeat what you just said?”She’d seen hell on the battlefield—second-in-command of a military unit, dodging bullets, dragging traitors by the collar, and coming out alive with grit under her nails.But nothing, absolutely nothing, prepared her for the sight of her spineless husband flirting with her own sister. Right in front of her.“I could never marry a barbarian like you. The one I... I like is Meera—”Blah blah. The same pitiful nonsense again.You think—what could possibly be worse than this?And then, right on cue, your idiotic sister chimes in, completely serious, “I just poisoned you.”Wow.BANG.Before anyone could even react, Meera collapsed.Dead.Her so-called husband gasped like a fish dragged out of water.“Y-you…”He dropped to his knees, staring at Kaya like he was seeing a monster rise from the dark.“You killed your sister?! How could y—?”BANG.Second bullet.Same spot.He dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.Silence....Just when Kaya thought her story had finally reached its bitter end, the universe—no, god himself—decided to throw in one last, ridiculous twist.“Wife… wife, didn’t you say you were gonna eat me? Why’d you stop?”A snake beast, ridiculously charming and glowing like some immortal fantasy, clung to her, eyes gleaming.Another voice interrupted.“Shut up! My wife wants to cuddle me now—”A sparrow beastman leapt into her arms, like that made any sense.“Hic… wife, don’t you want me anymore?”A panda-like beastman sat beside her, huge, sniffly, and wronged like a child abandoned at a festival.Sitting in the middle of all this, Kaya was absolutely dumbfounded.‘When the hell did all of this even start?’

Ash Flameheart, a young boy who aspired to be a Greatest Beastmaster Of All Time, was on the verge of death. Betrayed by the Hero’s party, they left him to die in the hands of the Demon King’s army.As his llife gently ebb away after he muttered his last word to the world.“Ahh, I wish I could fly, free as a bird, soaring through the skies and beyond.”After his untimely demise, his soul transmigrated into another world. The Immortal Beast Realm!An eternity later, Ash opened his eyes and found himself encased in a dark space.Beep![Beast Master System has been installed into a new host][Calibrating the Host…][Name: Ash Flameheart][Species: Heavenly Phoenix][Growth Stage: Hatchling Phoenix][Cultivation Arts: Heavenly Beast Taming Art | Feather Swords Gather Array (Not Not Yet Learned) | Eternal Blood Flames(Not Yet Learned) | Ten Thousands Faces Mantra(Not Yet Learned)]Survival of the fittest!Tame or be tamed. Kill or be Killed!

The Heavenly Dao exists.

It decides what is right and what is wrong. To act against it is to sin, to act according to it is to be blessed by its graces.

The world of cultivation is difficult, an unchanging principle. Yet there are those who are cherished by the Heavens, cuddled into rising above all and everyone else. How can this be? Why must this be?

What is moral and just? What is evil and immoral?!

WHY DOES IT GET TO DECIDE?!

So we, the Sinners, we act against the Heavenly Daos, grasp our own fates in hopes of truly overturning them.

This is a Journey of a young boy born Blessed, but turned Sinner.

The greatest sinner of them all.