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(This wasn't a system; it was traditional xianxia. If you have questions, please keep reading. Everything has a reason.)

The young scholar with the fair face, dressed in cotton clothes, was holding up none other than half of the game console Li Qi had thrown away back then!

Then, to his even greater surprise, another burly man walked out from the Mighty Gang and pulled out the other half from his chest!

Fuck! His home had been robbed?!

These people had gone to his house and stolen his game console?

Though the thing had already been broken, and even when he found it, only half remained, it was still a keepsake of his. He had always kept it close, stored away in his house.

The Mighty Gang had actually taken advantage of the River Opening, when no one was home at the Wave-Pushing Gang, to have someone steal it?

What secret did his game console hold? How had they even found the half he threw away, and stolen the half from his room as well?

Were they courting death?! That thing was not only useless, but if they reported it to the authorities and got caught, they would be severely punished.

The constables of this world were no pushovers. Every one of them could fly through the skies and burrow through the earth, divine and track traces, and were exceptionally good at their work. The thieves who normally dared contend with them had to be at least on the level of Thief Saint Bai Zhantang.

A mere boatman daring to steal would definitely be caught and made an example of.

He had always kept his transmigration a tightly guarded secret, but now... something seemed wrong.

He cautiously kept silent, his eyes locked tightly onto that young scholar.

The man held up the reassembled game console with both hands and looked at the crowd again.

"Do you know why I came here, why I offered a reward, and why I promised you an art so that you would bring this strange object to me?" the young scholar asked, holding the game console.

The burly men below shook their heads in unison. Even the leader of the Mighty Gang beside the young scholar was no exception.

Watching them shake their heads, the young scholar's expression took on a trace of superiority.

"Among those of us who pursue the Paths, some pursue the Heavenly Path. They command the forces of nature, grasp Earth Fire, water, and wind; with a snap of their fingers, they summon wind and rain, and with a wave of their hands, condense earth into steel. They know the Heavenly Mechanism and understand gains and losses, seek fortune and avoid calamity, free from disasters and tribulations."

"Some pursue the Human Path. They gather the hearts of countless people as one and wield the fortunes of all beneath heaven. Amid clattering battle, they rout ten thousand armies; seated in halls, they enjoy the offerings of the realm. They can found states and forge Divine Dynasties, taking the strength of the masses for themselves. All the nations of this world belong to practitioners of the Human Path."

"Others pursue the Reason Way, seeking the principles behind the workings of objects and making those principles their own. They attack by crafting weapons, machinery, and mechanisms; defend by building mighty passes and towering cities. They distinguish patterns and perceive truth. This is called 'clarifying all things through reason'—using reason to discern all things clearly."

He spoke eloquently, his expression smug.

But just as he was about to continue, he saw that the burly men around him all wore blank expressions, their faces full of foolish bewilderment, utterly at a loss.

His pride and smugness deflated at once. His face fell, and he sighed. "Ah, forget it. You are as stupid as pigs and dogs. Naturally, you cannot understand the great meaning within."

Then he regained his calm expression and raised the game console slightly. "Still, though you are like livestock and know only how to sell your strength, I have no wish to deceive you. This is an object born from one of the Paths, called the Outer Dao."

"Among all Paths, the Heavenly Path stands highest and governs the Ten Thousand Paths. Yet there is one Path that refuses the Heavenly Path's rule. No one knows where it came from, and even the Reason Way cannot make sense of its laws. This Path was thus named the Outer Dao."

"More than three years ago, while in the mountains, I divined an anomaly. But objects of the Outer Dao are strange and unfathomable, and Divination Methods find it difficult to trace them."

"So I spent two and a half years conducting a grand sacrifice. Only then did I calculate the clue of your Mighty Gang. The result of the sacrifice implied that the Mighty Gang could obtain an Outer Path Artifact for me. Thus I descended the mountain and had you labor on my behalf, using manpower to search for it."

"That was why, over the past few months, you all had to search the mountains. It was also why you failed to obtain the qualification for the River Opening. After all, all your energy was spent helping me search for something. I did not tell you before only because I feared you would leak the news."

He explained this to the burly men of the Mighty Gang.

But on the other side, Li Qi, listening to all this, was utterly stunned.

The Mighty Gang failing to obtain River Opening qualifications had been this man's doing?

Outer Dao? Wasn't that fucking a transmigrator!? This man had divined his existence? Fuck, didn't that mean he was in deadly danger!?

Wait, calm down. He had just said, "Objects of the Outer Dao are strange and unfathomable, and Divination Methods find it difficult to trace them." That was precisely why he had only calculated that an Outer Dao object existed, without knowing what it specifically looked like.

Even for the game console alone, he had only sensed a tiny anomaly. Later, he had spent a full two and a half years conducting a grand sacrifice before confirming the single clue of the "Mighty Gang."

He did not know what a grand sacrifice was, but if it took two and a half years, it definitely was not some easy task.

Looking at it this way, his identity as a transmigrator should not have been exposed?

Never mind that for now. He would keep watching.

He knew the game console's origins. That thing was junk. Aside from being an Outer Dao object, it was completely useless. Even its motherboard was broken. What could it possibly do? It was just a collectible.

But the art the young scholar was giving the Mighty Gang might very well affect the future balance among the city's three boatman gangs. He needed to at least gather some information here.

And besides... this was the first time he had truly encountered a side of this world beyond its lowest strata.

He had never heard of the theory of the various Paths. Having spent these three years as a boatman, he knew far too little about this world. He was confined to the very bottom of society, needing to think twice even before eating vegetables, while meat could only come through rewards.

He did not want to work in the Boatman Gang for the rest of his life.

Yet no one cared about Li Qi's inner thoughts. The young scholar, after rambling on about why he had sought out the Mighty Gang, happily put away the game console.

"Ahem. We practitioners of the Shaman Path cannot go against our true hearts. My true heart is pure, kind, and honest, so I was unwilling to hide anything from you. That is why I have told you here about making use of you, and I will not begrudge you the reward you deserve."

"This art shall be your reward." The young scholar lightly waved his hand, and a beam of purple light gathered in his palm.

The moment Li Qi saw that purple light, his brain suddenly rumbled!

It was as though a huge hammer had smashed into his head. Golden stars exploded before his eyes in an instant, a violent urge to vomit surged up, and his legs went limp. He slid straight to the ground and tumbled out from the corner of the wall!

Shit!

Cold sweat burst from him in fright. Though his head still throbbed violently, he forced himself to raise his head, trying to stand.

But when he looked up, he discovered that the other burly men were just like him, clutching their heads and howling on the ground, some even rolling about, while the young scholar had already turned around and was preparing to return to his room.

Not a single person had noticed him!

A chance!

Though cold sweat streamed down his face from the pain and his vision darkened, he immediately forced his body onward. With his brain seeming to boil, he staggered toward the distance.

But before leaving, he looked back once more.

That glance happened to catch the leader of the Mighty Gang rolling on the ground and meeting Li Qi's eyes.

"Someone's there!" he struggled to roar!

Danger and terror swept over Li Qi's entire body, until he could not even think anymore. He remembered only one thing.

Run! Run! If he did not run, he would never escape!

Staggering and sprinting all the way, he even knocked over quite a few people along the road, prompting who knew how many passersby to curse him furiously.

One burly man he ran into even punched him straight to the ground, swelling half his face.

But Li Qi seemed not to notice. He crawled along the ground, his eyes vacant, muttering only, "Run... run..."

The burly man had wanted to hit him again, but seeing this, his anger became disgust. He spat. "Pah, so he's a madman. This lord won't lower himself to your level."

With that, he kicked Li Qi once more and strode away.

Li Qi felt nothing at all.

Because he could no longer feel his body.

It felt as though someone were driving iron hooks into openings like his nostrils and ears, then slowly scraping out his brains.

Pain beyond imagination completely shattered his mind. Aside from the thought of "escape," he could no longer think of anything.

Like that, practically rolling and crawling, he charged back to the riverbank.

The second channel had not yet finished, so the people of the Wave-Pushing Gang were still there.

He barely managed to run over before collapsing to the ground and rolling twice.

"Brother Li!?" someone spotted him first.

"Brother Li is hurt! Go call Uncle Liu!" a boatman said immediately.

Only after reaching this place did Li Qi finally breathe a sigh of relief. The instant the taut string within him slackened, overwhelming dizziness struck and dragged him straight into the abyss of unconsciousness.

Everything before his eyes turned black.

His body felt pinned beneath a massive boulder, unable to move.

Then streams of data suddenly flashed before his eyes.

He had studied programming before and vaguely remembered... did this look like memory being called and loaded?

Why... could he see data streams before his eyes?

In his hazy state, Li Qi's faint consciousness formed that question.

But the data sped past and vanished.

At last, a string of error messages appeared!

The entire data stream turned red, piling up in his mind in a flood, filling his vision.

Then a huge error occupied all his thoughts.

"Urgh—! Ah!" The sensation made him howl in agony!

Then all sensation abruptly ceased. He suddenly rolled upright, drenched in cold sweat, his clothes soaked through as if he had just been pulled from water.

"Brother Li is awake! Water, bring water!" a boatman shouted.

"Water my ass, meat soup, meat soup!" Uncle Liu smacked the man beside him and shouted to the nearby boatmen.

"Right, right, meat soup! Bring the soup over!" the man hurriedly said.

A bowl of meat soup was passed from hand to hand. Though the boatmen kept swallowing their saliva, it was quickly delivered into Li Qi's hands.

Li Qi stared in horror, completely at a loss. He was trembling so badly he could not even hold the bowl.

Seeing the soup was about to spill, Uncle Liu immediately reached out, took it, and brought it to his mouth.

Li Qi instinctively gulped it down, drinking the soup and meat clean. His strength and fluids replenished, and he finally regained a little energy.

Seeing this, Uncle Liu helped Li Qi up and waved at the other boatmen. "Stop crowding around and staring. It stinks to high heaven! Make some space and let the wind blow through. If you have nothing to do, go guard the second channel. It'll soon be our turn. Don't delay the important work."

Though the other boatmen were worried as well, they still followed Uncle Liu's orders and all headed outside.

Uncle Liu supported Li Qi and slowly helped him into the shed by the riverside dock, a place where fishing folk rested.

"What happened? How did you end up like this?" he asked anxiously after helping him inside.

Li Qi's expression was one of horror. Half his face was swollen, and he was covered in dust from head to toe, as if he had rolled all the way back.

He knew this young man Li Qi. Though his origins were unknown, he was steady in his work, clever-minded, able to speak many truths, and highly talented. In just two years, he had cultivated Wave-Pushing Strength to great mastery, something many old boatmen who had trained for ten years could not accomplish.

Though Wave-Pushing Strength was a crude cultivation method with only one level before it reached its end, it was still a cultivation method. Reaching great mastery in two years made Li Qi the most talented person Uncle Liu had ever seen.

How could someone like that have been frightened into such a state?

But Li Qi did not answer him.

Because the world had changed in his eyes.

He did not look at Uncle Liu. Instead, his eyes were fixed tightly on the River Opening site outside.

Beneath the great ship conducting the River Opening, an extremely conspicuous box with an incredibly tacky design had appeared.

A line of Chinese characters was written on it:

"River Opening Ceremony, progress: 46%."

Corresponding to that line, there was a progress bar inside the box, its fill reaching just under halfway.

He looked toward another boatman drinking soup.

A line of text appeared beneath the boatman, along with the same tacky box.

"Eating, progress: 84%."

There was an identical progress bar in that box as well. It swiftly filled to one hundred percent.

At the exact moment the progress bar reached one hundred percent, that boatman finished drinking his meat soup.

Then he set down the bowl and let out a long breath.

The progress bar above the boatman's head changed to "Resting, progress: 1%."

"Little Li? Li Qi?" At that moment, Uncle Liu's face appeared before Li Qi. He leaned close, worry on his face and his brows tightly furrowed.

Li Qi could clearly see that Uncle Liu had a progress bar above his head, identical to the previous two.

"Reading expressions, progress: 21%."

The box plainly displayed exactly what Uncle Liu was doing right now!

"Little Li?" Uncle Liu raised his voice.

"Yes!" Li Qi answered hurriedly. He suppressed the doubts in his heart and did not investigate, for now, what had appeared before his eyes.

"What happened? What did you run into? Are you hurt?" Seeing Li Qi finally respond, Uncle Liu quickly asked.

"No, no. I'm fine." Li Qi stood, shaking his head as he walked to the edge of the shed and looked around. Then he asked, "How long was I unconscious? Did anyone come after me?"

"You were out for less than a quarter of an hour. No one came after you, though. Were you discovered by the Mighty Gang?"

"Yes. I saw it—the Mighty Gang somehow got involved with an expert, and he taught them a new art!" Li Qi said.

An art!

The instant he heard those words, Uncle Liu's face turned deathly pale.