A full day had passed since I fell into this damned cultivation world.
Morning broke.
This damn sun rose and set on its own, without even waiting to be asked.
Bathed in the pouring sunlight, I sat there blankly, lost in thought.
The body I had awakened belonged to a cultivator named Yun Xian, a Qi Refinement Stage 2 cultivator.
If I was going to transmigrate anyway, how great would it have been to wake up as the only son of a cultivation clan or a direct disciple of a sect.
As expected of a luck-dependent trash game, what he possessed was a seventeen-year-old wandering cultivator with fourth-grade spiritual roots.
The one saving grace was that his parents had been cultivators.
Both of them were merely low-ranking cultivators at Qi Refinement Stage 11, but they were outer disciples of a sect called Qingyun Sect.
They had died a month ago after being caught up in a demon beast subjugation mission.
No matter where I go, I can’t escape being an orphan.
Even the clouds drifting across the sky looked lonely.
Meow.......
The image of that little guy staring at me with terrified eyes came to mind.
The explanation on the status window, which I had read so many times I could recite it by heart, flashed past my mind.
[Upon reaching the supreme realm of ‘Fresh Immortal,’ the Great Luo Immortal, you will gain dominion over time and space. Return to the moment you desire in your original world!]
Great Luo Immortal.....
Just when would I succeed in Foundation Establishment and reach Core Formation?
And that wasn’t the end of it.
After that came Nascent Soul, Spirit Severing, Fusion, Mahayana, and Ascension stages.
Only after all that was the realm of the Great Luo Immortal.
Among the countless cultivators, only a handful had ever reached that realm.
It was a level that required tremendous investment, fortuitous encounters, and innate talent to support it.
The stats engraved on the status window caught my eye.
[Name : Yun Xian
Age : 17 Alignment : Normal
Level : 1
Spiritual Roots : Fourth-Grade Roots (Wood Fire Earth Water)
Vitality : 3
Agility : 1
Wisdom : 3
Luck : 5
Trait : Immortality (You can live an eternal life as long as you are not killed by injury, natural disasters, disease, or poison.)
Owned Skills :
Talisman Art Lv. 1 (Proficiency 14)
Alchemy Lv. 1 (Proficiency 4)
Qi Refinement Art Lv. 1 (Proficiency 3)
Formation Art Lv. 2 (Proficiency 28)
Minor Dao Arts (Owned Arts 2 / Earth Escape Art Lv. 2, Flame Art Lv. 1)
Owned Points : 3 (Points increase when you top up with spirit stones.)]
...Even here they were talking about spending money.
Still, the aptitude wasn’t that bad.
Reaching Qi Refinement Stage 2 at the young age of seventeen meant his cultivation had been fairly solid.
Compared to geniuses with second- or first-grade roots, it was nothing, but it was better than fifth-grade roots.
The fact that his Formation Art proficiency had reached Level 2 was also welcome.
Arts like Qi Refinement, Alchemy, and Formation required talent to gain proficiency at all.
But the trait...
[Immortality : You can live an eternal life as long as you are not killed by injury, natural disasters, disease, or poison.]
Was that really immortality?
You’d die if you got sick, die if you got injured, and die if you were poisoned.
Wasn’t that just an ordinary human with an infinite lifespan?
Well... better than nothing.
As always, I was grateful for what I was given.
Once you started resenting the world, there was no end to it.
Still, wasn’t this fortunate?
Since this was a game world, I knew where fortuitous encounters were and when they would appear.
The thought of having to go on adventures was a bit frightening, but if I proceeded with the mindset of tapping even a stone bridge before crossing, I’d manage.
At least I wouldn’t have to fight like a madman just to get a Foundation Establishment Pill before turning seventy, like others did.
Above all, even as a mere Qi Refinement cultivator, I didn’t have to worry about dying from illness.
If so, the only thing to worry about was violent death.
Avoid conflicts as much as possible, and wherever I go, always check for escape routes.
With the system, if I cultivated step by step, my realm would rise someday.
Cultivation realms, however, had to be raised by one’s own efforts.
Time was on my side.
Even if it takes a long time, I’ll cultivate and cultivate again, and return to that night.
Just locking the windows and securing the doors would have prevented the criminal’s intrusion.
After all, the criminal had testified that he entered because the window was open.
If only that were possible.........
My parents wouldn’t have had to die so horribly.
My childhood of crying alone while hugging Ginger would disappear.
I could escape the school violence I suffered in middle school.
My body wouldn’t hurt anymore.
I could live a normal life, loved like everyone else.
Make friends, maybe even date....
My fists gradually clenched.
Yes, this was a good thing.
It was a turning point in a life that had no dreams or hope.
I need to think of a way to earn spirit stones.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
To use the shop window and break through realms, spirit stones were necessary.
Even to gain points, I needed spirit stones.
First, I needed to check Yun Xian’s financial situation.
On the desk in his parents’ room were several jade slips.
Basic Dao arts prepared for their son.
Spirit stones totaled 127 in all. That was everything.
How did Yun Xian’s parents make a living?
Even cultivators had to eat.
To remain even as a nominal outer disciple, one had to grease the wheels of human relationships.
They also had to buy cultivation methods and materials for their son.
To them, with little lifespan left, their only son Yun Xian was literally everything.
His parents occasionally drew talismans to sell and sold medicinal herbs they gathered.
They also earned spirit stones by carrying out missions assigned by the sect.
But their greatest source of income came from a spirit field leased through the sect.
They had obtained the spirit field by paying a deposit.
They had to pay rent, but they could still keep half of the harvest.
Wait, a spirit field?
I sprang to my feet without realizing it.
Though my parents had died, the spirit field lease rights still remained.
With my parents, their backers, gone, maintaining the spirit field might be difficult.
But even so, it made no sense to just sit back and have it taken away.
After all, a deposit had been paid to obtain the field.
More importantly, the lease period still had plenty of time left.
Inheritance existed in this world as well.
Even if his parents had died, the rights to the already leased spirit field belonged to him.
The problem was that maintaining a spirit field required the Water Nurturing Art and Pest Control Art.
The original body was still studying the basics, and since his parents had handled the farming, he hadn’t learned either art.
You foolish bastard. You have to protect your own rights.
If I didn’t learn those two arts as soon as possible, the spirit field lease rights could be confiscated.
That would be far too unjust.
Unless I age and die someday, if I want to cultivate, I’ll have to leave this place. But I need to get compensated before I go.
The house was the same.
Though I had settled here with the sect’s approval, a deposit had been paid for this as well.
The stubbornness I’d had when I sued my relatives to reclaim my inheritance flared up again.
Being timid and being unable to secure one’s own interests were two different things.
I need to hurry and learn those arts.
Fortunately, all the sect’s spirit fields had their planting delayed due to the demon beast subjugation campaign.
Otherwise, the field would have been taken before I even transmigrated.
Cursing the original body’s utter complacency, I opened the status window.
Golden letters shining at the top caught my eye.
[Welcome to the world of ‘Fresh Immortal.’ You are granted 3 points.]
I had been agonizing over where to use my points, but now there was no need to hesitate.
I stood up and headed to my parents’ quarters. The wooden floor creaked.
Several cultivation method jade slips carefully placed to one side came into view.
I’m sorry. I’ll make good use of this body and safely raise it all the way to the realm of the Great Luo Immortal.
After apologizing to the original body’s parents, I picked up the jade slips and examined them.
Fortunately, the Water Nurturing Art and Pest Control Art were there.
When I pressed the jade slip to my forehead, a cool sensation spread along with a system notification sound.
[Do you wish to use points to learn this art?]
It was possible to enter without points, but it would take a long time. With no idea when the spirit field manager might come, rapid mastery was necessary.
I shut my eyes tight and decisively used the points.
[1 point has been deducted. You have learned the Water Nurturing Art. Proficiency 1]
I learned the Pest Control Art as well.
After learning both arts, I had 1 point remaining.
Still, my heart felt at ease.
Perhaps because I was relieved, hunger set in.
Fried chicken and beer, hot dogs, pizza, burger.....
There were so many things I wanted to eat, but I couldn’t.
Fuck my life....
Dragging my feet, I headed to the kitchen.
Calling it a kitchen was generous—there was only a single pot hanging over a dirt floor.
Sighing, I opened a jar.
Scraping the bottom where spirit rice was laid with a ladle, I got barely enough for one meal.
Ha....... so poor, so poor.
Screaming internally, I scraped up the spirit rice and put it into the pot.
I wanted to at least eat my fill of this.
But spirit rice was too expensive.
From now on, I’d have to live on fasting pills.
The more I thought about it, the more I sighed.
Still, let’s eat first...
After letting it steam sufficiently, I lifted the pot lid.
It was fortunate that the body’s original owner was skilled in housework.
A fragrant aroma spread out.
Blowing on the hot spirit rice, I swallowed it down.
The more I chewed, the richer and nuttier the flavor filled my mouth.
I was eating carefully, cherishing each bite, when a loud throat-clearing sound came from outside the wooden gate.
“W-who is it?”
I sprang to my feet and roughly wiped my mouth with my hand.
If I acted suspicious and got found out that my soul had changed, I might be sold off to demonic cultivators.
“Heh heh, it’s me.”
Entering through the gate was a thin old man with a goatee.
The way he rolled his eyes and inspected the house didn’t make him seem like a good person.
He was the village head of the cultivation village where he lived.
He was also the spirit field manager and steward for the sect, Qingyun Sect.
Perhaps sensing the wariness in Yun Xian’s gaze, the village head smiled benevolently, yet straightened his back and released his presence. A kind of show of force. He had reached Qi Refinement Stage 12. Though he looked like an old man, his underlying strength was formidable.
“Have you been well? I came to tell you some good news.”
Good news?
Given the village head’s personality, there was no way he’d smile like that unless it benefited him.
Keeping my guard up, I greeted him politely.
I didn’t forget to let a tear fall.
Thanks to years of watching others’ moods, acting came naturally.
Thinking of the apartment I’d left behind and Ginger, tears welled up on their own.
“I’m still grieving, but I’m enduring. My parents would want me to live on steadfastly.”
When I cried while mentioning my parents, the village head’s expression stiffened slightly.
His imposing presence faded as well.
As expected, he definitely had an ulterior motive.
“Well, about that.... the sect has issued compensation. Among the disciples who died participating in this demon beast subjugation, if they have relatives living in a cultivation village under Qingyun Sect’s jurisdiction, they are given 150 spirit stones.”
The village head’s eyes gleamed with cunning as he spoke.
My relatives who had taken my parents’ property came to mind.
Was the given amount really 150 spirit stones per person?
But now wasn’t the time to argue about that.
“I-is that so? That’s truly fortunate. I was at a loss about how to live from now on. There is the spirit field my parents left me, but that alone is far from enough...”
I laid the groundwork first.
The village head’s eyes gleamed once more.
Watching him made me want to sneer.
It seemed that wherever you went, a lone orphan was always prey.
Fortunately, my underdog instincts kept my expression from betraying me.
“Hmm, about that, it’s become a bit troublesome.”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“Ahem. You haven’t learned the Water Nurturing Art and Pest Control Art yet, have you? As such, recovering the spirit field is unavoidable. According to the contract, if the lessee becomes unable to manage the field, it is reclaimed after confiscating the deposit. Your situation is unfortunate, but rules are rules....”
Just as expected.
The contract did indeed contain such a clause, but in cases of death caused by sect-led missions, a grace period was granted. The village head was trying to deny even that grace period.
Suppressing my resentment, I put on a shocked expression.
“No! I failed to learn both arts this spring, but I successfully entered them recently.”
The village head’s face, which had been set on swallowing the deposit and lease rights whole, went blank.
“...What? You learned both arts?”
“Yes. My parents told me to learn the arts just in case before leaving for the subjugation. Please look.”
As if to prove it, I performed the Water Nurturing Art in front of him.
Water sprang from my hand, drawing a rainbow as it poured onto the ground.
“O-oh ho... well done. Your parents were quite foresighted.”
The village head’s expression rotted away.
Seizing the moment while he was flustered, I put on a pitiful look.
The original body was only seventeen years old.
Tears began to flow again down my still-youthful face.
“Waaah, it’s all thanks to my parents. Mother, Father!”
After wailing loudly for a while, neighbors living nearby began to gather at the noise.
***
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. Why is Yun Xian crying like that?”
There were always people who loved to meddle in others’ affairs.
The village head’s face darkened further.
Now that Yun Xian had mastered the required arts, to reclaim the spirit field lease rights, they would have to return the entire deposit and even add extra compensation.
His attempt to handle things as quietly as possible had gone down the drain.
T-this isn’t the result I wanted? Was this brat always this sly?
