"What are you standing there for? Get up there!"
A hoarse, brutal shout exploded beside Lin Changqing's ear.
A moment later, a rough, calloused hand grabbed the back of his neck and lifted him off the ground like a chick.
"Get up there? Where?"
Lin Changqing opened his eyes in confusion.
The first thing he saw was a face covered in bulging muscles, with a pair of fierce, bell-like eyes glaring at him.
"Where do you think?! The city wall!"
The officer shoved a rust-spotted spear into Lin Changqing's hands, then kicked him in the butt.
"Get moving! The demons are about to attack. We're short on men at the wall!"
Lin Changqing staggered forward a couple of steps, his mind still a muddle.
Where was he? What had happened?
Hadn't he been staying up late playing games in his rented apartment? How had he ended up in this godforsaken place the moment he opened his eyes?
As he stood there dazed, a flood of unfamiliar memories surged into his mind like a burst dam.
The violent pain nearly sent him crumpling to the ground.
He braced himself against the battlements and gasped for breath, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.
It took him a good ten seconds to digest the memories.
The Heavenly Martial Continent was an ancient world of high martial arts, a hundred times vaster than Blue Star. Dynasties and sects stood everywhere.
Martial artists reigned supreme, and demons ran rampant.
They said that tens of thousands of years ago, humans and demons had been two races living in the same world. After the great battle of antiquity, the demons were sealed away in the Demon Realm.
Over the past thousand years, the seal had begun to weaken, and demons had gradually invaded.
The original owner of this body had escaped from a village massacred by demons. Three days ago, he had finally made it to Qingshi County, thinking he could catch his breath.
But after wiping out the nearby villages, the demons had not only routed the local Prefectural Army—they had besieged the county seat itself!
The understaffed City Guard Army had wasted no time forcibly conscripting refugees like them as cannon fodder.
"So I've been transmigrated—and into a cannon fodder, at that?"
Lin Changqing looked down at himself.
His armor was tattered, and several holes exposed his thin body.
The spear in his hands was rusty, its tip blunted.
He had no cultivation at all—not even First-Rank Martial Artist. A textbook cannon fodder.
In his previous life, he'd been an ordinary man who worked nine to five. His biggest worry had been what to eat for lunch.
And now they expected him to take a rusty spear and fight demons?
What a joke!
"What the hell is this..."
Lin Changqing wiped his face. This was a start straight out of hell.
Other transmigrators got noble-born sons, cultivation prodigies, pills and beauties galore, and even if they got nothing else, there'd be an old master in a ring who could save their lives at a critical moment.
Him? A refugee forcibly conscripted to defend the city right from the start.
Just... you know.
Just then.
"ROAR!!!"
A deafening roar came from beyond the city.
Lin Changqing glanced outside—and froze.
A vast, black horde of demons stretched as far as the eye could see!
The monsters were as large as oxen, their bodies pitch-black and shrouded in roiling demonic energy. Their eyes glowed red, and their fangs jutted out.
Drool ran from their jaws, eating little pits into the ground wherever it fell.
A rough estimate put their numbers at tens of thousands!
And on the wall defending the city, aside from a handful of surviving elite troops who had gone out to destroy the demonic army only to be surrounded and routed, most of the defenders were forcibly conscripted refugees—or the old, weak, and infirm.
Fear was written across every face.
Some could barely hold their weapons. Their hands shook like sieves.
"There must be at least thirty thousand in this demonic horde..." a hoarse voice said beside him.
Lin Changqing turned and saw a gray-haired veteran, his cloudy eyes fixed on the city beyond, his lips trembling.
"We've only got three thousand defenders, and fewer than fifteen hundred can fight. Those newly conscripted refugees can't even hold a blade."
The veteran's gaze fell on Lin Changqing. He seemed to realize that Lin Changqing had been forced into service too.
He sighed and patted Lin Changqing on the shoulder.
"Son, when the demons attack... stay behind the battlements."
"Don't stick your head out. The longer you stay alive, the better."
Lin Changqing nodded blankly, his throat too dry for words.
At that moment, a blood-soaked soldier rushed onto the wall. "General! The nearby Demon Suppressing Division outpost has also come under attack by demons!"
"The reinforcements won't arrive for at least three days!"
The words weren't loud, but they burst across the wall like a thunderclap.
Three days?
Every soldier froze.
The general in charge of the defense turned ashen, the veins bulging on the hand gripping his saber.
He was only a Fourth-Rank Martial Artist.
And the County Magistrate, who was at the same rank as him, had been assassinated by demons who had infiltrated the city just hours earlier.
Among the demonic army outside the city were several Fifth-Order Demons!
Otherwise, he wouldn't have suffered such a crushing defeat.
Without reinforcements, they wouldn't last three hours, let alone three days...
At the news, Lin Changqing scanned his surroundings.
The demonic army had the city surrounded like an iron barrel, leaving not so much as a gap for a fly to escape through.
Their retreat was completely cut off.
Even if he wanted to run, there was nowhere to go.
"Where's the standard transmigrator system? At the very least, give me a cheat ability or an old master in a ring!"
"Did my system get sent to the wrong person...?"
As Lin Changqing's thoughts raced, the demonic army outside the city began to move.
Amid deafening roars, the black tide of demons surged toward the wall.
The earth trembled.
"Loose!"
The general roared his order.
A scattered rain of arrows flew out, most of them bouncing off the demons' tough hides.
They barely did any damage.
The demons reached the foot of the wall and began climbing, their claws digging into the gaps between the stones as they scurried up like geckos.
"Prepare to engage!"
Lin Changqing gripped his rusty spear, his palms slick with sweat.
He watched the soldiers fall one after another on the wall, his head buzzing as he hoped the armor he wore would protect him.
The veteran beside him suddenly shoved him.
"Son, get down..."
He didn't finish.
A dark blur flashed past.
A bone spike pierced the veteran's body, pinning him to the wall.
Blood splashed across Lin Changqing's face.
Warm and metallic-sweet.
Lin Changqing's pupils shrank. His mind went blank.
He stared at the veteran's wide eyes, staring at his body pinned to the wall.
His hands began to tremble violently. Death... was this close.
The blood in his veins turned to ice.
A demon leaped onto the wall. Its blood-red eyes fixed on him, and it opened its gaping maw, blasting him with a stench of blood.
It was over. He was really done for. He hadn't even thought of any last words.
And just as the demon pounced—
["Ding!"] ["Binding complete: 100%. Congratulations, host, you have bound the Sign-in System!"] ["System functions: The host may sign in once per month, with no restrictions on time or location. Signing in grants a random reward!"] ["Random missions may also be triggered at any time. Complete them to receive additional rewards, including but not limited to cultivation, cultivation techniques, divine weapons, pills, and Heavenly Treasures..."] ["Would the host like to sign in now?"]
Lin Changqing froze for a tenth of a second.
A system! He had a system!
Holy shit, it had finally arrived! He'd thought the system had gotten lost!
So it had been binding this whole time!
"Sign in! Right now! Hurry!" Lin Changqing roared in his mind. His survival depended on the system!
["Congratulations, host. Sign-in successful! Reward: Peak Ninth-Rank Martial Saint cultivation (including complete comprehension of the realm, physical enhancement, and Spiritual Power resonance)."]
Peak Ninth-Rank Martial Saint?!
Lin Changqing's mind exploded all over again.
According to the original owner's memories, martial artists on the Heavenly Martial Continent were ranked, from lowest to highest: First-Rank Martial Artist, Second-Rank Martial Artist, Third-Rank Martial Artist, Fourth-Rank Martial Artist, Fifth-Rank Martial Artist, Sixth-Rank Martial Artist, Seventh-Rank Martial Artist, Eighth-Rank Martial Artist, and Ninth-Rank Martial Artist.
Seventh-Rank Martial Artists were called Grandmasters, Eighth-Rank Martial Artists were called Great Grandmasters, and Ninth-Rank Martial Artists... were called Martial Saints!
Martial Saints stood at the very pinnacle of the entire continent!
Every realm was further divided into four minor stages: early, middle, late, and peak.
This system... really did love him!
Lin Changqing was so excited he nearly cried.
So that scare he'd just gotten hadn't been for nothing. The system had been saving up something big!
He'd suffered enough. Now it was time for a little sweetness.
"Confirm reward!"
Lin Changqing silently repeated the words in his heart.
The next instant—
An indescribably immense power surged into his body!
His meridians expanded, his bones were reforged, and his blood boiled. Every muscle fiber rejoiced, and every inch of his skin breathed in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Beneath his tattered armor, his body underwent a complete transformation.
"BOOM!!!"
A terrifying aura erupted from Lin Changqing, sweeping out in every direction.
The heavens and earth changed color, and the clouds burst apart!
Spiritual energy from a hundred miles around rushed toward him, forming a gigantic vortex above his head.
Purple-gold light shone from within his body, illuminating the entire wall.
The demons surging onto the wall suddenly stopped. The ones climbing up it also froze.
Every demon began to tremble violently, as though it had seen something unimaginably terrifying!
The legs of a Fifth-Order Demon gave way.
"Thump!" It fell to its knees.
Then a second, a third... wave after wave of demons dropped to their knees.
Whimpering moans came from their throats, and their bodies shook like sieves.
The soldiers fighting desperately for the city were all stunned.
The general nearly dropped his saber.
He stared dumbfounded at Lin Changqing and the spiritual-energy vortex in the sky, a phenomenon unique to a Ninth-Rank Martial Saint. His lips trembled violently. "Th-this is... a Ninth-Rank Martial Saint?!"
As everyone gaped at him, Lin Changqing slowly opened his eyes and felt the incredible power surging through his body.
"So this is... the power of a Martial Saint Peak?"
Lin Changqing clenched his fist, the corners of his mouth slowly rising.
From fear, to despair, to the system arriving and carrying him straight to the top.
That trip from hell to heaven had been exciting as fuck!
Lin Changqing looked up at the tens of thousands of demons beyond the city. He'd looked like such a coward a moment ago. It was downright embarrassing.
But no matter.
Now it was their turn to be afraid!
Lin Changqing blurred from sight, appearing high above the ground outside the city wall.
He stood in midair, his robes snapping in the wind.
His ragged armor fluttered in the wind, but the aura he exuded kept tens of thousands of demons from even daring to lift their heads.
Lin Changqing looked down at the demonic army below, wearing a faintly amused smile.
"Playtime... is over!"
Before you continue