Golden Light Lotus Glazed Bell

On the edge of a university town in a city in Northeast China, five students with sour expressions sat inside a back-alley internet cafe.

Seeing that dawn was approaching, a chubby guy said with unconcealed dissatisfaction, "Can you listen to my commands when you're playing support!"

"It's not that, they have Purification. I die the moment I hook in!"

Watching the two people who were usually friendly and harmonious start arguing again, a teammate on the side said, "It's not that serious, let's play one more round!"

Matthews said, "No, I'm a bit sleepy, so I'm heading back to sleep first."

"Fine, we'll play two more. Can't log off in disgrace!"

Matthews stood up, put a glass lotus wind chime he had been swindled into buying for forty-nine yuan by a bald man before his all-nighter yesterday into his right pocket, and took the empty instant noodle cup he had just finished out with him.

After leaving the internet cafe, he looked up at the sky. The sky, which should have been bright by now, looked like dark clouds were pressing down on the city due to the rain. Matthews reached out to squeeze through a gap in the school's iron fence; this was the shortcut everyone usually took to return to the dormitory early after surfing the web.

"Ouch--"

Matthews' right hand was scratched by a sharp spike. He reached out to feel for the tissues in his right pocket, and accidentally, his blood smeared onto a small lotus petal of the glass wind chime.

After simply bandaging his wound, Matthews grumbled and cursed as he walked toward the school.

"Bang--"

It was pitch black and he didn't see clearly, so he stepped on a banana peel. His head was about to slam into a utility pole when a bolt of lightning struck from the sky, and Matthews, unlucky as he was, fainted on the spot.

When he woke up, he was in a spatial turbulence, with a lotus flower resembling a Buddhist Merit Golden Lotus supporting him as he drifted along.

"Whoosh--"

A blue crystal suddenly darted into the golden lotus beneath Matthews, embedding itself firmly in the position of the lotus root. He tried to pry at it, only to find it seemed to have grown onto it; it wouldn't come off at all.

Matthews remembered a legend that when people die, they ride a lotus boat to the Naihe Bridge. He also wanted to try to escape the lotus and go back; he didn't want to die so miserably.

After struggling for a while, Matthews collapsed onto the lotus, exhausted. Just then, a Death Scythe drifted over, and Matthews sat up and pulled it in.

Bored in this deathly silent space, he poked around with the scythe. Suddenly, an unknown corpse drifted over from not far away. Primarily, this corpse wore a glittering golden crown, and operating on the logic that money can move the gods, he acted.

Matthews immediately used the scythe and spent a great deal of effort to pull the corpse onto the golden lotus. However, while he was hooking the corpse, he didn't notice a massive plane approaching behind him. As the Merit Golden Lotus swayed, he lost his footing while hooked onto the corpse.

"Ah--"

A series of sharp sounds echoed inside a mountain cave. Matthews fell out of a spatial rift, holding the Death Scythe in his hand. After he stood up and patted his body, he found he wasn't injured.

It was just that the golden Merit Golden Lotus beneath him was gone, and the strange corpse he had just pulled up was also gone. The golden crown he hadn't had time to take off was missing as well. Matthews looked at the Death Scythe in his right hand and muttered to himself in confusion, "Is this what reincarnation is?"

But what kind of reincarnation involves holding a Death Scythe! In ancient times, Jia Baoyu was born with a piece of jade, gaining a fated golden-jade connection. Matthews figured his golden crown wouldn't be too bad either. But what was this supposed to be!

After Matthews followed the light out of the cave, he didn't find the reincarnation as a child he had expected. Instead, he saw patches of forests with trees as tall as buildings. Standing halfway up the mountain, he was stunned.

Because these were definitely not trees that should exist on the familiar Earth; even the tropical rainforests known as the lungs of the Earth wouldn't have trees this thick.

"A bit hungry. Better find something to eat and fill my stomach first!"

Leaning on the Death Scythe, he walked for half an hour before finally finding a river. Regardless of whether the river water had been heated or if it contained parasites, Matthews drank a few mouthfuls and sat on the ground to start eating the fruit he had just picked.

"Boom--"

"Roar--"

Just as he was sitting there eating, he heard the sounds of beasts roaring and explosions coming from across the river. These sounds were definitely comparable to the mining blasts at the quarry behind his school, and the roaring of the beasts was like the deafening thunder of airplanes taking off and landing.

"Something is definitely fighting over there. How unlucky, can't even get a proper rest!"

Matthews had no choice but to get up and leave in a direction along the riverbank.

What he didn't know was that not far away on the other side of the river, two Saint-level magical beasts were fighting. They were competing for a fruit that was about to ripen. This fruit could greatly enhance a magical beast's physical strength, which was why one of them, a Saint-level Purple-Striped Black Bear, had been guarding it for a long time. The one challenging it now was a Saint-level Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Matthews walked for ten minutes before he felt something wrong with his body. He felt dizzy and lethargic, as if he were drunk.

"No way, are the parasites in this world this extreme?"

He leaned on the Death Scythe and stood at the edge of a cliff, gasping for air.

"My stomach hurts too. I'm not going to die here, am I!"

He looked around and discovered a cave on one side of the cliff. He crawled straight inside and saw a fruit with a soft glow and moist vitality hanging on a small tree.

He could clearly feel the moist, refreshing sensation rushing toward him: "Should I eat it or not!"

Matthews thought for a moment. He had already upset his stomach, so he decided against it.

Although many novels write about protagonists obtaining heaven-defying treasures in caves and having their strength skyrocket, only to go on to crush various villains, he didn't think he was that kind of lucky protagonist. First struck by lightning, and now seemingly poisoned by bad food.

He found a flat rock and planned to lie down for a while to rest. Once this wave of discomfort passed, he would leave this damned forest.

Just as he lay down and fell asleep, because he had drunk the first mouthful of water and eaten the first mouthful of fruit in the Coiling Dragon world, it was like Sun Wukong jumping out of a stone crack and eating mortal fruit—he became tainted with the aura of this world and transformed, much like a monkey.

He had consumed items from the Coiling Dragon world, and these substances began to collide with the matter from his original world inside his body. They began to align his body with the Laws of the Coiling Dragon world and started to reshape his physique.

At this moment, his Merit Golden Lotus began to emit energy to start repairing his damaged body.