Qingshan Town, Bairen Hall
Near dusk, the Great Sun reluctantly cast down its final rays, filling half the sky with sunset clouds.
At a second-floor window in Bairen Hall,
a boy in coarse clothes gazed quietly at the evening clouds on the horizon. His face was a little sallow, but he was quite handsome, and looked only thirteen or fourteen.
His lips moved slightly, though his voice was barely audible. He murmured to himself,
"Three years. I've been in this world for a full three years! And only now have I discovered that cultivators actually exist here!
"Before, I paid no attention to those rumors.
"I thought they were nothing but tricks performed by swindlers.
"I was careless. Luckily, I haven't missed this chance at Immortal Fate!"
Cheng Buzheng turned around and looked at the familiar room.
The room had only simple furnishings—a bed and a set of tables and chairs—but he had been staying there for over a year.
Now he stared blankly at the familiar room, lost in thought.
Originally, he'd been a low-level programmer on Earth, enjoying the blessings of the "996" work schedule. One night, after working overtime, he'd been heading home when a speeding white SUV struck him and sent him flying. He'd felt pain throughout his body, then the sensation of soaring through the air—and after that, he'd lost consciousness!
When he woke again, he found that he'd taken over this young body.
After a brief look through its memories, he realized he'd transmigrated and been reborn in another world.
At first, he'd thought it was an ancient world and planned to make a name for himself and live like a man above all others. But reality had slapped him hard across the face.
Three years earlier,
newly reborn, he'd faced his unfamiliar parents, not knowing what to call them. He'd planned to stay quiet and be an inconspicuous little nobody.
But life was unpredictable.
In just a few hours, his parents had realized something was wrong. They'd panicked and planned to spend what little silver the family had on inviting a spirit medium to perform a ritual and drive out evil spirits.
In their eyes, since nothing was physically wrong with him, there was only one possibility: he'd encountered something unclean.
As his parents pooled their money and discussed hiring the spirit medium, he'd finally been unable to hold back. He couldn't keep pretending to be an utterly quiet nobody.
He knew the little money the family had saved was meant to help his elder brother marry, and was also the hope of his aging parents.
So he'd made up an excuse to explain things to them, then quietly imitated his old habits, acting as if nothing at home had changed and everything was as it had been before.
At the time, he'd only been a small child, unable to help the family at all. He also didn't want them wasting their savings on something pointless.
It was just as the family was preparing to spend all their savings to treat him.
He'd stopped them from hiring the spirit medium, but that warmth of family affection had moved him completely.
As time passed, he'd slowly come to accept his parents in this world.
In this world, he had parents, an elder brother, and a younger sister. He was the second son. At first, the boy had no formal name, only a childhood nickname—a lowly name, Er Gou.
His father was an honest, simple man, the sort who couldn't get a fart out of a stick. People in the village called him Cheng Hanzi. He cherished his children deeply, and Cheng Buzheng remembered this especially well.
Half a year after his soul had crossed into this world,
his elder brother had once come to a beauty's rescue, only to be beaten black and blue by a boy from a neighboring village. His father had gone over to confront the other family.
But they refused to back down and looked down on "Cheng Hanzi" from the neighboring village.
His father, always called "Cheng Hanzi," was a good-natured man, but the strength of his love for his son made him lose his temper for once. It was also his first time getting into a fight.
As a matter of course, he'd been beaten black and blue.
Father and son returned home in silence, one after the other, both with a pair of black eyes and bruised faces.
After all,
a father who'd never fought in his life, along with an elder brother who likewise couldn't fight, stood no chance against them—especially in their village.
Villagers from the same village were always united. Otherwise, they'd be bullied by more united villages. The villagers had always helped their own, right or wrong.
When they got home, their hot-tempered mother saw the pair of black eyes, one big and one small, and flew into a rage. After cursing their father,
she went straight to the neighboring village and berated them without a care. She kept at it for a full three days. The other family's parents weren't skilled in that art, and in the end they were soundly defeated.
This showed what sort of position their mother held in the household.
His elder brother was called Da Gou. Like their father, he was honest and simple, an exceedingly decent man.
By his reckoning, he was now sixteen, about the right age to marry. Given the family's income, Da Gou would have had to wait several more years before he could afford a wife.
A year and a half ago, he'd happened upon a physician from Bairen Hall. Knowing this was a rare opportunity, he'd used his small size, sweet tongue, and quick wits to charm the physician into giving him a chance to work as a Medicine Boy.
That was how he'd gotten the chance to leave the village and work in town.
After that, he sent most of his monthly wages home, allowing his elder brother to marry sooner.
His sister-in-law was the young woman from the neighboring village, the very heroine of Da Gou's rescue. In the end, father and son had both been beaten black and blue, and a marriage had come of it.
His sister-in-law was a capable, thrifty wife. She treated their parents and younger sister well, too, clearly regarding them as her own family.
His younger sister was called Xiao Cao. She was only six, still a little child, and lively to a fault. She spent all day tearing around the village with her playmates, causing chaos wherever they went.
Her temperament resembled their mother's somewhat. The first shoots of that fiery nature had already begun to show.
Children from poor village families generally had no formal names, only childhood nicknames—lowly names, chosen in the hope they'd be easy to raise.
Whether the names sounded good was not something their families considered.
Even if a child disliked their name, they could just be beaten once. If that didn't work, they could be beaten twice. Ideals always yielded to reality in the end, and unruly children would eventually learn to obey.
That was the educational philosophy handed down in the village.
Poverty was one reason; the families had no spare copper coins to hire a tutor to give their children proper names.
It was also a village custom. The names might not sound pleasant, but they carried the parents' earnest hope that their children would grow up safe and sound.
Thinking of this, Cheng Buzheng couldn't help smiling.
His eyes happened to fall on a painting hanging on the wall: the Immortal Sword Flying Painting.
A scene of an immortal flying on a sword naturally appeared in Cheng Buzheng's mind, and he'd etched it deeply into his heart.
"If I hadn't seen that immortal flying on a sword that day, I wouldn't have believed that immortals really existed in this world.
"No wonder there are so many folk tales about immortals and demons!
"There isn't much time left. It's time to act, or I'll have to wait another ten years.
"I can confirm the news is true. The traveling merchant in town is an exceptionally honest man. His words, logic, and expression all showed no trace of a lie.
"If I hadn't once used the Chest Pressing Technique to save his drowning child, he probably wouldn't have told me about it!
"Afterward, I made a point of asking around. All the signs showed that immortals would be recruiting disciples in the county town at the end of this month.
"But the trip from Qingshan Town to the county town would require crossing the Cangqing Mountain Range and fending off wild beasts. There are countless beasts along the way.
"At not yet thirteen, if I traveled there alone, I'd likely end up as beast fodder before I even reached the county town.
"In the blink of an eye,"
so many thoughts flashed through his mind, and a look of determination crossed his face.
"Long life and eternal youth"—how many emperors had pursued those four words all their lives, hearing of them but never finding them? They were also the dream of countless ordinary people.
Now that such an enormous opportunity had fallen right before him, if he didn't fight for it with everything he had, then even if he gained great wealth in the future, he'd spend the rest of his life regretting it.
The plan was already underway.
They were using each other, and the other party was a complete scoundrel, so Cheng Buzheng felt no guilt at all.
But when Cheng Buzheng thought of his target, Young Master Qian, and the family behind him,
he sighed inwardly. Yet the determination on his face only grew stronger.
He silently ran through his plan, checking for anything he might have overlooked.
Tomorrow, he'd take the final step. Now he could only count on him; there was no other suitable target.
Life is hard; don't make it harder for others. I ask all the great masters out there to go easy on me.
Well!
If that's too much to ask, then at least go easy!
This little Daoist thanks you.
Before you continue