Who Was the Golden Finger, Really?

In the Primordial World, Lu Changsheng stayed secluded within his sect. As the Sect Master's personal disciple, he should have been the sect's Senior Disciple Brother, a dazzling figure admired by countless disciples.

Yet from the very first day Lu Changsheng entered the sect, he had never shown his true face. Other than the Sect Master, almost no one in the entire sect had ever seen what he looked like.

This greatly frustrated the Sect Master. His disciple was clearly so handsome and talented, so why was he unwilling to leave the house?

Lu Changsheng was a transmigrator, and he possessed the essential Golden Finger—the Myriad Realms Chat Group.

He firmly believed that in the danger-filled Great Thousand World of Hong Huang, as long as he waited for the Chat Group to finish loading, he would be able to transcend the mundane world and become one of Hong Huang's foremost experts.

"System, how much of the Chat Group has loaded?"

[Fifty percent. Loading will be completed soon.]

"Good. Then I'll cultivate with this cheap master of mine for now. Call me when it's done loading."

Several years passed in the blink of an eye. Lu Changsheng remained hidden within the sect, cultivating diligently. His realm had risen to the pinnacle of the great cultivators below immortality, making him a powerhouse in the mortal world.

Among all the disciples in the sect, none cultivated faster than he did.

"System, how is the loading going? Master wants me to go out and gain experience, telling me not to hide in the sect all day. Damn it, this master completely disregards his disciple's safety! Hong Huang is so dangerous. At my level, what if I accidentally get cursed, hacked to death, or captured by a female cultivator and made into a furnace?"

[Almost there, almost there. It has already loaded eighty percent.]

Before descending the mountain, Lu Changsheng made countless preparations. He even asked a senior proficient in disguise techniques to give him a new face, traveling under the alias Huang Yechu.

Hong Huang was dangerous. Whenever Lu Changsheng encountered an enemy, he thought three times before acting. When he killed, he eradicated the roots, often using formations to grind his enemies to death without even showing himself.

He regularly drank Divine Beast Milk to cleanse and improve his talent, and did thirty thousand squats every day to maintain the stamina and speed needed for escape...

"System, people outside are already calling me Demon King Huang. Why the hell haven't you finished loading yet?"

[It's already at ninety-nine percent. Stop rushing me, it'll be done soon.]

Having entered the Immortal Realm, Lu Changsheng was already an expert among the Human Race.

He knew very well that although Hong Huang was currently filled with experts, calamity after calamity would cause many of them to perish in the future, eventually giving rise to the Heavenly Court.

What he needed to do was avoid karma whenever possible and quietly lie low until the end.

Lu Changsheng began doing more good deeds in the mortal world, accumulating merit in an attempt to eliminate the karma caused by his past slaughter.

As time passed, a saying began to spread through Hong Huang—Demon King Huang killed and set fires, while Lu Shanren was revered by ten thousand people.

"System, you really are garbage. That last ninety-nine percent just won't move. Bah, having a system like you is embarrassing. I've already reached the Heavenly Immortal realm."

[...Almost there. Really, almost there.]

After finishing his trials and accumulating enough merit, Lu Changsheng returned to the sect.

Over the years, he had forcibly explored many ruins and gained numerous divine abilities through murder and plunder.

All he wanted was to quietly lie low in the sect and cultivate. When the future Investiture of the Gods War came, he would head to the Heavenly Court and get himself an official position. With the strength of a Heavenly Immortal, he should be able to secure a decent post there.

After cultivating in seclusion within the sect for a thousand years, Lu Changsheng's realm rose like a rocket. Compared to Hong Huang's cultivation methods, he had read many cultivation and fantasy novels in his previous life, giving him far more ideas about the path of cultivation.

Gathering those ideas together and allowing them to collide, Lu Changsheng advanced triumphantly.

In the blink of an eye, he reached the level of a Grand Unity Golden Immortal.

"System, I've suddenly realized that my sect is really weak. Since its founding, apart from the founding ancestor being a Grand Unity Golden Immortal, its strongest member is only a Golden Immortal. How has it survived without being wiped out?"

[...]

Lu Changsheng stopped cultivating and turned instead to studying formations, pills, and puppetry.

Several thousand more years passed, and Lu Changsheng's attainments in every field had reached their peak.

He arranged tens of thousands of formations throughout the sect: the Green Bamboo Spirit Bewilderment Formation, the Circulation Spirit Gathering Formation, the Endless Slaughter Puppet Formation, the Seven Kill Art Formation, the Stars and Sea Illusion Formation...

Every formation was linked to hundreds of others. Once an enemy invaded, it would be equivalent to facing tens of thousands of killing formations at once.

Lu Changsheng continued cultivating in seclusion.

Another thousand years passed in a flash. Lu Changsheng still sat with his eyes closed, cultivating relentlessly, while the system watched everything outside.

During the years of Lu Changsheng's seclusion, the sect suffered three invasions.

Yet each time, the enemies failed to break in before being slaughtered by the formations Lu Changsheng had set outside.

Because Lu Changsheng always eradicated the roots, after the enemies retreated, the puppets he had refined would set out on their own and destroy the enemy sect again and again, hundreds or thousands of times, until both body and soul were utterly annihilated.

The puppets used Immortal Realm experts as energy supplies, while everyone below the Immortal Realm was exterminated.

The system was stunned by the brutality of his methods. It could not understand how the youth who had once shouted every day about lying low until the end had become someone who killed and burned without blinking, who slaughtered entire clans without the slightest ripple in his heart.

No one knew how much time passed before Lu Changsheng emerged from seclusion.

He was now at the level of a Grand Luo Golden Immortal.

It was as though countless worlds rose and fell within his eyes, and his strength had reached an extraordinarily terrifying level.

Yet within the sect, aside from Lu Changsheng, even the most talented disciple had only barely entered the Heavenly Immortal realm.

"System, I've been in seclusion for so long. What has happened outside?"

[Nothing much. The sect is holding a grand competition soon, and your master is debating whether to have you leave seclusion.]

Master? Lu Changsheng paused slightly. He had nearly forgotten that he even had a master.

Come to think of it, his master seemed to be only a Mystic Immortal, not even a Golden Immortal.

With a thought, Lu Changsheng separated an Avatar with the strength of a Mystic Immortal and placed a seal upon it. To outsiders, this Avatar possessed only the strength of a Heavenly Immortal.

He would use this Avatar to participate in the competition.

Then he took out a Nine Revolutions Golden Elixir that he had refined years ago from his storage pouch and quietly placed it in his cheap master's tea.

After drinking this tea, his cheap master would likely be able to break through to the Golden Immortal realm as well.

After finishing all this, Lu Changsheng began considering how he should walk the path ahead. To become a Saint required Primordial Violet Qi, but that would restrict him to Hong Huang.

He left the sect and traveled through the mortal world.

Nearly ten thousand years passed in the blink of an eye, and Lu Changsheng unknowingly broke through to the Quasi-Saint realm.

He was only one step away from becoming a Saint, yet that one step was akin to a hundred million steps. It was incomparably difficult.

Lu Changsheng found a Blessed Land and entered seclusion once more.

He did not want to become a Saint within Hong Huang. He wanted to become a free and unfettered Saint, able to travel through the Great Thousand World.

Lu Changsheng pondered, synthesizing everything he had seen and heard throughout his years of cultivation.

He recalled every memory from before his death and remembered the novels he had read before transmigrating.

Several hundred years later, Lu Changsheng suddenly opened his eyes.

"Use the flesh as a seed to contain the universe. Even if Hong Huang is destroyed, I will endure forever. An Immortal Emperor? It does share similarities with a Saint. System, keep watch on the outside world for me. I'll leave this Grand Luo Golden Immortal puppet under your control."

[Yes...]

The system was in despair. Things had reached this point.

Lu Changsheng no longer needed the Chat Group at all. As the Chat Group system, it had instead become a useless Golden Finger that merely chatted and handled Lu Changsheng's errands.

During that time, some fools tried to approach Lu Changsheng's seclusion site, but the system-controlled puppet killed them.

Who knew how many more tens of thousands of years passed. Great Dao Golden Lotuses bloomed where Lu Changsheng resided, and immense merit descended from above.

A Nine Revolutions Merit Golden Wheel appeared behind him.

Lu Changsheng had become a Saint.

A Saint who had attained sainthood solely through his own Dao.

All of Hong Huang was thrown into an uproar. Who was it?

After the Primordial Violet Qi had been divided among others, someone had actually still forced his way into sainthood.

Everyone in Hong Huang mobilized, wanting to meet this extraordinary figure.

With a flicker, Lu Changsheng tore through space and arrived beyond Hong Huang.

A Saint's Body was sufficient to withstand the spatial turbulence capable of destroying worlds. When it swept over him, it felt no different from a breeze.

"I've finally become a Saint. Among these myriad Great Thousand Worlds, where can I not go?" Lu Changsheng raised a hand and created a small world, nurturing life within it.

At that very moment, the Chat Group system finally arrived late and completed its loading.

[Host, would you like to join the group?]

"Group? What's that?" Lu Changsheng frowned.

[The Chat Group, your Golden Finger.]

"Golden Finger? A spell that turns stone into gold? Why are you telling me about such a low-level technique?"

[No, Golden Finger means the Chat Group! It's basically a cheat!]

Only after a long while did Lu Changsheng recall that when he had first arrived in Hong Huang, he had confidently believed in something. That thing had been the Chat Group.

"That kind of thing is already useless to me." Lu Changsheng said calmly, "There's no need to join this group."

[...]

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