Life After Failing to Find Immortals

The mountain peaks towered majestically, shrouded in clouds and mist.

The blazing sun gradually sank, its afterglow soft and bright as faint crimson clouds spread across Taiyi Immortal Mountain.

Yet atop the mountain peak that pierced the clouds sat a handsome young scholar on a stone stool. Clad in white robes, he possessed an ethereal, tranquil air, as though he had stepped out of a painting.

But on closer inspection, one would find that the young man's expression was rather peculiar.

"I never expected our appearances to be exactly the same..."

This young man's name was Lin Tianlu.

He was a transmigrator.

The instant he awakened here, a flood of memories surged into his mind. After spending half a day digesting them, he finally understood why he had transmigrated and possessed this young man's body.

The original owner had been orphaned from childhood, living a lonely, miserable life and barely surviving on aid from relatives in the village. Knowing all too well how harsh the world was, he had studied diligently day and night, hoping to pass the imperial examinations and change his fate.

But he had unfortunately failed the examination in the capital. More than a decade of hard study had ultimately become nothing more than a pipe dream.

In his sorrow and despair, he had finally remembered the rumors circulating among the common folk. It was said that an Immortal Sect Mansion existed somewhere in the Taiyi mountains. As long as one's sincerity was sufficient and one possessed Immortal Destiny, one could join the sect, seek the path of immortal cultivation and longevity, and live a life of carefree freedom. Even one's worldly relatives could rise with the tide and enjoy a lifetime of blessings.

Clinging to his last sliver of hope, he had gritted his teeth and begun climbing the mountain alone.

The terrain of Taiyi Mountain was steep and precipitous, its paths incredibly slick. Even ordinary farmers would never casually venture into it, let alone with ferocious beasts and venomous insects lurking within. Yet he had held fast to his resolve without the slightest hesitation, braving wind and meals in the open as he gritted his teeth and persevered. After two days and two nights, he had successfully reached Taiyi Immortal Mountain.

But—

What greeted him was not the legendary Immortal Sect Mansion, wreathed in drifting immortal aura and dreamlike beauty.

It was a wasteland overgrown with weeds, long since reduced to a desolate ruin.

—The Immortal Sect Mansion did not exist.

Or rather, it might have existed several decades or centuries ago, but by now it had long since vanished without a trace into the river of history.

After the extremes of joy and sorrow, the exhausted scholar, already drained of all strength, could not draw another breath. He collapsed on the spot and died, perishing amid unwillingness and regret.

"What a pitiful man." Lin Tianlu's expression twisted.

Although the scholar's life had been exceedingly bleak and his appearance was remarkably similar to his own, suggesting a deep bond of fate, Lin Tianlu truly had no energy to sigh over it.

The reason was simple: his own situation was no better.

He... couldn't get down the mountain.

Taiyi Immortal Mountain towered into the clouds, standing at least a thousand meters above sea level. The scholar had reached the summit purely by forcibly hanging on with his last breath, repeatedly escaping danger along the way as if aided by divine intervention. The mountain paths and cliffs he had traversed were far easier to climb than descend. Trying to force his way down would be no different from leaping off the mountain to his death.

And now that he had transmigrated and been reborn...

How was he supposed to get down?

Surely he couldn't settle down on this barren, bare mountaintop?

There was no water, no food, no shelter, and certainly no immortal or immortal sect. With his frail body, newly risen from the dead, he probably wouldn't even last through the night. Once the cold wind blew, he would likely freeze to death atop the mountain.

Even if this was supposedly an immortal mountain, and even if he, a modern man, was quite interested in immortal cultivation, all of that had long since been destroyed, leaving behind nothing but ruins. Staying here would be completely meaningless.

He had already walked around the mountain peak once and was certain that descending from any direction would be exceptionally perilous. The slightest carelessness would send him tumbling off a cliff, leaving no bones behind. As for this immortal sect's ruins, forget immortal inheritances or heavenly treasures—after searching for ages, he had found only half of a rotten plaque and a broken jade pendant, both of which he had discovered by accidentally stepping on them in a mound of dirt.

Blood recognition and master recognition? Completely useless.

An unparalleled secret manual? Not even a hair.

Lin Tianlu was utterly helpless.

"Can't transmigration let me land somewhere decent?"

"Fine, if that's impossible, at least give me some kind of system, some kind of spatial treasure, some kind of chat room. Heck, even if an old immortal crawled out of a crack in the ground, that would do!"

Lin Tianlu was vexed, so he simply spread his arms and shouted toward the heavens.

"Hey! Old Heaven, could you drop a beautiful girl down here for me?!"

"Beautiful girl... beautiful girl... beautiful girl..."

Only the three indistinct words "beautiful girl" echoed repeatedly through the mountain clouds until they faded away.

"..."

After a long silence, Lin Tianlu shouted again, "If there isn't a beautiful girl, a handsome young man would do too!"

"..."

With a melancholy expression, he sat back down in his original spot.

This was a desolate mountain. What person could possibly hear this nonsense of his?

In these hundred li of continuous mountains, he was probably the only living person still bouncing around alive.

Rumble!

Suddenly, dark clouds blanketed the sky, and thunder boomed.

Lin Tianlu stared blankly at the sky for a while before hurriedly rising to find somewhere to take shelter from the thunder.

He had just found a cave in a broken cliff and ducked inside when a steady drizzle began falling outside.

Watching puddles gradually form beyond the cave, Lin Tianlu sighed again and again.

He had asked for a person. How had he summoned a thunderstorm instead?

Could he have called down the Lord of Thunder and the Mother of Lightning?

"Ugh. Forget getting down the mountain. Now I can only curl up in this lousy place and leave my fate to Heaven."

He casually slapped away the fine droplets clinging to his body, then hugged his cold, stiff arms and leaned helplessly against the chilly stone wall of the cave.

He was hungry and thirsty, the surrounding temperature was cold as winter, and his entire body was utterly drained of strength.

Lin Tianlu wanted to gather some firewood to warm himself, but after moving his hands and feet, he gradually felt exhaustion wash over him. His breathing grew weak, his eyelids trembled, and before he knew it, he slumped back into his original position and drifted into sleep.

Before his consciousness faded completely, all that remained was a trace of self-mockery.

I must be the most inexplicably dead transmigrator of all time...

Forget carving out a resounding reputation or witnessing the countless wonders of this world—even a single person had yet to cross his path before he died all alone atop this solitary mountain.

Hopefully, in my next life, I can be born into a simpler, more stable family.

Morning.

After the rain, sunlight filled the divine mountain, draping the desolate range in a faint radiance that made it seem half immortal, half divine.

Within the cold, damp cave, a slightly pale hand soon reached out. It gripped the stone wall with force as its owner slowly emerged.

Lin Tianlu was completely dumbfounded.

He had spent the entire night frightened out of his wits. He had even run through the lantern of his life and composed his own eulogy in his head.

How had he woken up first thing in the morning—

Hey, he hadn't died?

Even his body, originally cold and stiff, was no longer rigid. His temperature had risen, and his stomach, which had been growling nonstop, no longer felt the stabbing pangs of hunger.

On the contrary, he even felt a little comfortable?

"Could this immortal mountain really have something going for it?"

Lin Tianlu crawled out of the cave and took several deep breaths.

Hmm—

He couldn't seem to smell any of the so-called Spiritual Energy or immortal aura, only the subtle scent of earth after rain.

It was a little stinky.

"I can't make heads or tails of the situation... But at least I'm still alive."

While flexing his body, which creaked and popped, he returned to the ruins atop the mountain.

After a night of heavy rain, the place remained just as dilapidated and desolate, devoid of life.

But after looking around, Lin Tianlu's mood was somewhat calmer than yesterday.

After all, he knew that he wouldn't die for the time being... well, for the time being.

He sat down once more on the familiar crooked stone stool and sank into thought.

Since he couldn't get down the mountain and couldn't starve or die of thirst, what should he do now on this desolate, uninhabited immortal mountain?

Farm? Scavenge garbage? Recite poetry?

Or—gaze at the sky and count the stars?

On the second day, Lin Tianlu spent the day in confusion.

The third day.

Lin Tianlu still hadn't died. He remained full of life.

Bored and restless, he began making tools and digging through the relics in the ruins. Even if all he unearthed were moldy, rotten lumps of unknown material, it was still something to pass the time.

The fourth day.

Still digging.

The fifth day.

The things in these ruins seemed to be almost completely excavated.

Lin Tianlu rummaged through the huge pile of things he had dug up. After picking through them for a long while, he ultimately selected only a rust-spotted broken sword and a jade-green flute. One corner of the flute had been smashed, and only two or three bare strands remained of its decorative tassel, making it look rather comical.

But out of his yearning for the arts of the immortal sect, he washed the jade flute with great interest, brought it to his lips, and blew once.

"Pff, pff pff pff pff squeak—"

Very good. This flute was best kept as a decoration.

The sixth day.

Lin Tianlu discovered treasure!

A perfectly intact board game!

The black and white pieces were stored separately in two jade boxes, preserved extremely well without the slightest trace of damage.

He eagerly set up the board, carefully placing the two boxes of pieces on either side. He took out a black piece, pondered for a long while, and placed the first stone.

Then he moved to another seat, sat down opposite himself, picked up a white piece, and racked his brains in distress before slowly placing one.

Back and forth he went, and the match was actually rather intense.

In the end, Lin Tianlu successfully connected five black pieces and won the game. Congratulations were in order.

—Mm, he didn't know how to play Go.

The fourteenth day.

Lin Tianlu was still sitting before the stone table he had built, silently holding a black piece while contemplating the board.

Playing Gomoku against himself was one of the few pleasures atop this lonely mountain.

As for his other amusements, they included the mountaintop KTV and homemade text-adventure RPGs. Those were fairly interesting too.

"These five stones... No, this won't do."

Looking at the crisscrossing black and white pieces on the board, Lin Tianlu was deeply troubled.

But he wasn't impatient.

He had now gradually become certain that he wouldn't starve or die of thirst in these mountains. As long as he kept a regular schedule, he woke up feeling bursting with health every day. Rather than panicking and crying out to the heavens, it was better to rest and recuperate, remaining calm and easygoing.

Click.

But at that moment, Lin Tianlu faintly heard an unusual sound.

He turned his head—

A beautiful young girl dressed in a silver-white cloak suddenly entered his field of vision.

Surprise had parted her exquisite, dignified lips ever so slightly. Astonishment filled her lovely eyes as she stood frozen in place, speechless.

Lin Tianlu stared blankly for a moment, then silently raised his head toward the brilliantly glowing sky.

"Old Heaven—

Looks like I wronged you.

So you really did hear what I said. The distance was just too great, and the Wi-Fi signal was a little unstable."

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