The Shepherd

Zhong Shenxiu slowly opened his eyes.

All he could see were two bright moons.

His head felt as if it were splitting apart. He let out a low groan and pressed his temples, feeling as though a lump of paste had been stuffed inside his skull.

After a long, long while, some crucial memories finally surfaced: Blood Moon Night, the Ancient God, the ritual...

"System!"

Zhong Shenxiu spoke instinctively.

A faint glow appeared before him, displaying information only he could see.

At the very top was a mass of characters resembling gibberish. It was clear enough that the system had indeed been invaded and severely affected.

Not only was the glow dimmer than before, but operating it had also become far more mechanical and rigid.

Zhong Shenxiu instinctively began complaining. "Could it be that the idiot system has become a fucking moron? Why is it all gibberish? Hey, hey, don't censor it—I want to see..."

After fiddling with it for a while, he simply stopped looking at that section of historical records and turned his attention to his attributes:

[Title: Shepherd]

[Zither, Go, Calligraphy, and Painting: Third Layer]

[Spiritual Turtle Breathing Technique: Third Layer (Cannot Be Improved)]

[Azure Dragon Probes the Clouds Hand: Third Layer]

[Profound Yin Soul Control Fragment: Third Layer (Cannot Be Improved)]

[Heavenly Show Points: 5 (5%)]

[Gate of Ten Thousand Doors: Opening (1%)]

"So many things have been added. Is this... feedback from the ritual?"

Zhong Shenxiu muttered to himself.

He knew very well that Ancient Gods would not deliberately satisfy their believers' needs. Whether they granted anything depended largely on luck.

When he recalled the earlier sacrificial ritual, all he felt was a complete blank in his memory.

Yet several records had appeared on the Attribute Panel. Amid the mass of gibberish, they were the only characters he could make out:

[Information Fragment One: Its Honorific Name—Gate of Ten Thousand Doors, High-Dimensional Overseer...]

[Information Fragment Two: Shepherd profession discovered. Employment requirements—Vengeful Spirit's approval, a flesh-and-blood ritual, Soul Herder secret medicine...]

[Information Fragment Three: Foreign power being digested. Traversal function mutated... Gate of Ten Thousand Doors activated!]

"Heh..." The corners of Zhong Shenxiu's lips curled slightly.

The reason he had even tricked the system was to guard against some hidden mastermind burying secret traps or the like.

Now it seemed that this was merely an idiot—or rather, a fucking moron—of a system. The results of his test were decent enough, and there had even been plenty of unexpected gains.

"My Heavenly Show Points have increased a lot too. Looks like although the audience is small, the quality is high enough..."

"And my body..."

He looked at his palm. His fingers, which had previously been pitch-black and stiff, moved nimbly now. His skin had regained its rosy luster, clearly returned to normal.

Even the wound on his chest had vanished without a trace.

"I seem to be able to completely control the Vengeful Spirit inside me... It seems to have died. Even its instinctive madness has disappeared. Is this the influence of facing the Ancient God? Or the ability of my profession title?"

Zhong Shenxiu had a feeling that he had already taken up the [Shepherd] profession, which was why he possessed the title.

In reality, taking up such an advanced profession was extremely difficult in the Western world, and required a series of prerequisites.

For example, to become a [Shepherd], one first had to take up the prerequisite profession of [Spirit Medium], completely subdue a Vengeful Spirit, gain its approval, complete a ritual, and use secret medicine. Only then would there be a certain chance of successfully taking up the profession.

But in the clash between the power of the Ancient God and the system, he had somehow bypassed all those requirements and forcibly taken up the profession.

"As for the abilities of the [Shepherd], I can manipulate souls, command them to fight for me, and even directly use the skills of the Vengeful Spirits themselves..."

"At present, I don't know how many souls I can control, but merely driving the Headless Count should still be more than manageable. This crisis of life and death has finally been resolved..."

Zhong Shenxiu lay there for a long while. Feeling much better, he finally climbed to his feet and let out a great laugh.

After crossing over and living a third life, he had discovered that this thing was inside his body. Who knew how much torment and pressure he had endured?

Fortunately, now that it had been broken through in one stroke, the rain had finally passed and the sky had cleared.

After laughing, he looked around and discovered that the altar had somehow already shattered.

That strange, sinister feeling had vanished without a trace. Even the black weeds beside it had withered completely at some point.

"A ritual like this requires the right time, place, and people to begin with. After this attempt, who knows how many years it'll take before I get another chance... Even if I did get one, I might not be willing to try again. I was simply forced into a corner before. If I hadn't done it, the Vengeful Spirit inside me would have killed me before tonight was over..."

He walked down from the altar. After thinking for a moment, he used the Shepherd's ability to control the Headless Count inside him. An alternate dimension immediately appeared before his eyes.

Unexpectedly, someone was still alive in that space: Feng Xi'er.

After the Headless Count's head had been sacrificed, the darkness had stopped attacking, allowing Feng Xi'er to survive. Dilia and her servants, meanwhile, had all been brutally slaughtered by Zhong Shenxiu, leaving not even their bones behind.

"Looks like there's still something I can do?"

Zhong Shenxiu stroked his chin and thought for a moment before suddenly snapping his fingers.

Inside the alternate dimension, Feng Xi'er suddenly felt darkness surge around her and fainted.

With a flash of light, her body appeared in the real world and collapsed limply onto the ground.

"The Headless Count's alternate-space ability really is useful!"

Zhong Shenxiu praised it, though he had no intention of killing this beautiful Colonel.

He still wanted to maintain his identity as Su Daozhi. This was also for the sake of his future cultivation.

After all... the [Shepherd] profession was clearly part of a Western system, with neither head nor tail. Although by controlling the Headless Count he could now nearly match a fourth-realm cultivator—a Divine Ability expert—there was no more potential to tap into.

To make his way in the Eastern Empire, finding an immortal cultivation method was still the most important thing.

He glanced at Feng Xi'er, then searched her from head to toe without the slightest hesitation. Unfortunately, aside from her token, handkerchief, and other miscellaneous items, he found no cultivation incantations.

It made sense. How could an ordinary person carry Daoist Arts around casually when traveling outside, creating an opportunity for them to be leaked? Unless she was a spy!

He sighed and looked at his chest.

A blood-red wound had appeared there once more. It looked like a sword wound, though it was bleeding very little.

This, too, was done by using the Vengeful Spirit's power to manipulate flesh and blood and fabricate an injury.

Zhong Shenxiu bandaged himself, then waited around Feng Xi'er for the little lass to wake up on her own.

In any case, others had only seen him struck by a sword and fall to the ground. They were not necessarily sure he was dead.

Now that he had rescued Feng Xi'er, the chief officer, it was also a great achievement!

This was the true meaning of surviving until the end and lying down to win!

If there had been any outsiders present, they certainly would have complained: Where was his sense of integrity?

Zhong Shenxiu shrugged as if to say, "Didn't you see that I even tricked my own system? Where do you think my integrity is?"