Dou Qi Continent.
The Xiao Clan, Wutan City.
"Where am I?"
In a pitch-black space with no visible end, a hazy white orb of light enveloped a blurry figure. The voice came from within the orb.
"Yao Chen..."
"Have I really transmigrated? Is this the story of Battle Through the Heavens? And have I become Old Yao?"
As his soul merged with Yao Chen's in the void, memories slowly surfaced, and the transmigrator gradually understood his situation.
In his previous life, he had been a college graduate, freshly out of school. While standing beneath an office building, he'd been struck squarely between the brows by someone who'd jumped from above.
He didn't know whether transmigrating here was a stroke of bad luck or good fortune.
"Since I've transmigrated, there's no going back. I might as well settle in and make the best of it."
"Old Yao was no ordinary man! I stayed up late reading Battle Through the Heavens several times back in college. And now I'm Yao Chen, Old Yao himself!"
In Battle Through the Heavens, Yao Chen was the guiding hand who led Xiao Yan to defeat Hun Tiandi and rule the Dou Qi Continent.
After the Soul Clan secretly plotted against him and manipulated his longtime disciple, Han Feng, into ambushing him from behind, Yao Chen's body was destroyed. Fortunately, he had been a Nine-Turn Peak Dou Zun, as well as the continent's foremost alchemist, reaching the Peak Eighth-Tier as an alchemist. Relying on his formidable soul power, he had managed to escape with a wisp of his soul. He now lay dormant in the Storage Ring of Xiao Yan, here in Wutan City.
As he was lost in thought, a gentle voice rang in his mind.
"Ding! Binding to host in progress."
"What? A system?"
Hearing the voice, Yao Chen was overjoyed.
"Hahaha! I knew it. If I've transmigrated, how could I not have a system?"
"Ding! Binding to host complete!"
"Supreme Master System successfully bound!"
As soon as Yao Chen heard that the system had bound itself to him, he eagerly asked, "System, what does the Supreme Master System do?"
"By teaching disciples Dou Techniques, cultivation methods, cultivation, pills, and other things, you can receive a random-multiplier return, up to ten thousand times! The higher the multiplier, the lower the chance of receiving it!"
"For each disciple, you may grant one item of each category—Dou Techniques, cultivation methods, cultivation, pills, and others—per month and receive a return!"
It took Yao Chen a while to process the system's words. Then he voiced his questions.
"If I give away the things I get back, couldn't I keep chaining the rewards?"
"And if I just find a few random passersby to take as disciples, then give them things, wouldn't I become invincible in just a few days?"
"Warning! Warning! Host has discovered a system bug. System upgrading..."
Yao Chen was left utterly speechless.
I shouldn't have said anything. I wonder if helping the system find a bug comes with any compensation.
"Ding! System upgrade complete!"
"New rule: rewards returned by the system cannot be given away again. If the host attempts to do so, the item will be destroyed automatically. Rewards are triggered only after the system evaluates the host's disciples."
"In recognition of the host's initiative in discovering a system bug, one system compensation gift pack has been awarded."
While Yao Chen was still speechless, the system had already answered his questions.
"Would the host like to open the gift pack?"
"Open it!"
Yao Chen answered without hesitation.
"Ding! Congratulations, host. You've obtained a Yin-Yang Soul Pill!"
"Ding! Congratulations, host. You've obtained the Secret Art of Teaching!"
"Ding! Congratulations, host. You've obtained the Secret Body Restoration Technique (Express Version)!"
At the system's prompts, Yao Chen looked at the three items in his system space and was left speechless again.
"Only three items? The first one, the Yin-Yang Soul Pill, looks useful. What are the other two? The Teaching Art might come in handy once I find Xiao Yan, but this Body Restoration Technique is the express version? I already have the complete version."
"Items delivered. Please claim them promptly." After speaking, the system fell silent again.
Hearing the system, Yao Chen hurriedly called out:
"System, what does the Yin-Yang Soul Pill do?"
"The Yin-Yang Soul Pill acts directly on the soul. It nourishes and repairs the soul."
"Sounds pretty good." Listening to the system's explanation, Yao Chen's lips curled into a faint smile, and he quickly swallowed the pill.
The pill dissolved as soon as it entered his mouth, turning into a cool yet tremendous surge of energy that rushed down his throat and straight into the depths of his soul.
In an instant, Yao Chen felt a gentle yet powerful force unfurl within his soul.
His soul, once riddled with holes and utterly frail, was like parched earth drinking in rain after a long drought, greedily absorbing this power.
Black-and-white light seeped from within his body, enveloping him completely.
His face twisted in a complex expression, pain mingling with relief. The pain of his soul being repaired and nourished was like ten thousand ants gnawing at his heart, yet it came with an indescribable lightness and delight.
As the pill's power continued to spread, Yao Chen could clearly feel the wounds in his soul gradually healing. Broken fragments were pieced back together, and the missing parts were slowly filled in.
His soul grew stronger, more solid and resilient.
Light flashed throughout the ring, and waves of energy surged in every direction.
Yao Chen immersed himself in the process of healing, almost able to hear the joyful cries rising from the depths of his soul.
After a long while,
The light gradually faded. Yao Chen slowly opened his eyes, their brilliance shining. His soul had been greatly restored and nourished, its powerful vitality renewed.
"I didn't expect it to work this well. I feel like I can condense a soul form outside the ring now."
"System, what does the Teaching Art do?"
"Host, using the Teaching Art consumes your own cultivation and grants another person seventy percent of the same amount of cultivation."
"The Teaching Art doesn't sound all that great. But I have the Ten Thousand Times Return System, so if I use it on a disciple, I can get a return. The system does have that restriction, though: it only works once a month."
Yao Chen was happily thinking about how to use the Secret Art on Xiao Yan.
Just then,
Behind the Xiao Clan in Wutan City,
beneath a secluded cliff,
Xiao Yan was sitting cross-legged in a cave barely over a meter wide.
He had carefully chosen this spot beneath the cliff as his place of cultivation.
Across from the cliff, clouds swirled in the air, concealing the perilous Magical Beast Mountain Range below. Beneath the cliff lay an abyss whose bottom could not be seen. As for the narrow path leading to this spot, he had already hidden it behind branches and loose rocks.
Xiao Yan was about to break through to the tenth stage of Dou Qi and become a Dou Zhe. He didn't want anyone interrupting him.
"If I can break through in one go this time, I'll be the greatest genius in the Xiao Clan in a hundred years!"
Xiao Yan's breathing gradually deepened and evened out. He focused all his efforts on guiding the Dou Qi within him, driving it against the bottleneck that led to becoming a Dou Zhe.
He could feel that he was already infinitely close to that crucial moment of breakthrough.
The Dou Qi within him gathered in greater and greater amounts, crashing again and again against the sturdy barrier.
Every impact brought a burst of pain, but Xiao Yan gritted his teeth and showed no sign of backing down.
Suddenly, the Dou Qi within Xiao Yan erupted like a volcano, unleashing a tremendous force as it launched its final assault on the bottleneck.
For an instant, it was as if time itself had stopped.
Then Xiao Yan felt his body grow light. A brand-new, far more powerful force began to spread through him.
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