A Missing Piece of Life's Puzzle

"According to the records of the Book of Supreme World Ordering, today is the only chance in my life to defy the heavens and change my fate."

"Huh? Is it this place? The... lottery kiosk across the street?"

"That's it. The jackpot has accumulated to two hundred million; it is fated for me to defy the heavens and change my fate."

Lu Bian waited for the traffic light to turn green before immediately dashing out.

He was going to the other side of the road to change his miserable life!

"Huh?"

A "Dayun" truck suddenly lunged out from the road.

"Ah..."

Lu Bian woke up in the middle of a forest.

The feeling of waking up naturally, with his body and spirit feeling incredibly comfortable—he hadn't felt this refreshed in many years.

Sitting up and rubbing his temples, Lu Bian began to recall.

He remembered that at the final moment of his attempt to defy the heavens and change his fate, a "Dayun" truck had appeared and taken him away.

So, I didn't win the two-hundred-million-Yen super jackpot?

Where have I been sent to?

A gust of wind blew, the shadows of the trees swayed, and Lu Bian felt a chill on his body.

He was naked, so it was only natural to feel cold when the wind blew.

This is a bit tricky.

He had transmigrated; he had arrived, but his clothes hadn't come with him. What would happen if someone saw his donkey-sized equipment?

Survival instincts from the ancient era naturally surfaced in Lu Bian's mind. After gathering wild grass, leaves, and vines to crudely weave a grass skirt to cover his vital parts, Lu Bian began to move and observe his surroundings.

Surrounded by deep mountains, the vegetation was lush, and birds chirped in the woods. In the distance, broken walls and ruined pillars stood in silent stillness.

"I have a place to spend the night."

Lu Bian approached, first passing through a crooked wooden archway with four pillars and three openings, followed by a road paved with bluestone slabs. The bluestone road was uneven, with unknown weeds sprouting from the cracks between the slabs—it was clearly a state of neglect for many years.

He was curious, yet also somewhat afraid.

Was this the same feeling Ning Caichen had when he sought shelter in a desolate ancient temple?

At the end of the bluestone road were wide stone steps. Looking up, one could see the mountain gate building with its doors wide open.

Lu Bian sat down on the stone steps; he didn't intend to go in.

A feeling in his heart told him that if he entered this mountain gate, there would be no turning back.

It was still broad daylight, with the sun hanging high in the sky, yet this decaying temple complex was filled with gusts of eerie wind, sending a chill through Lu Bian's heart.

"I should have defied the heavens and changed my fate, right?"

"But what is the logic behind sending me to the set of a Chinese horror movie?"

"Where is my cheat as a transmigrator?"

"..."

"Is it the traditional school or the reformist school?"

The traditional school would be jade pendants, rings, secret manuals of divine arts, or a portable old master; if it were the reformist school, it would be a system, stat points, or talent traits...

After sitting in meditation for half a day, Lu Bian found no benefits of being a transmigrator.

"Fine."

He stood up and looked back at the dilapidated mountain gate.

Lu Bian thought that he would probably have to follow the traditional route.

Looking at this abandoned complex of Chinese-style ancient buildings, it was very likely the ruins of some ancient cultivation sect that had suffered a terrible catastrophe, just waiting for a "fated person" like him to walk in and obtain the sect's inheritance or the remnant soul of an old master, to continue the lost arts of his predecessors and shoulder some inexplicable mission.

This was definitely not what Lu Bian wanted.

Lu Bian didn't consider himself a lucky person.

If he were lucky, he wouldn't have been obsessed with studying the Book of Supreme World Ordering, thinking about how to defy the heavens and change his fate.

When Lu Bian was fourteen, an incurable illness appeared in his body. The pain was as if his whole body had been crushed by a steamroller several times over, accompanied by high fevers. He saw many doctors and finally managed to alleviate the condition. However, what seemed like effective hospital treatment was actually just the end of the disease's active phase.

Every three years, Lu Bian's illness would enter a violent active phase. During these periods, Lu Bian, trapped in endless pain, could do nothing. It wasn't just physical pain; it was mental as well.

He took a year off in middle school and another in high school. Each active phase became increasingly severe. By the time Lu Bian was a sophomore in college, he had completely dropped out due to his illness. This time, the active phase of the illness had never subsided.

Sitting on the stone steps of the mountain gate, Lu Bian wore a look of serene contentment on his face.

He now felt that his body was a "newborn" one. In the past, he had always suffered from low-grade fevers, but since transmigrating, he felt his body was cool and refreshed.

His breathing was smooth; there was no bone pain from the movement of his ribcage, nor were there muscle cramps.

His waist felt fine, and his calves felt strong.

Is this what a normal person's body feels like?

Lu Bian felt satisfied now.

His heart had found peace.

He hoped he could welcome his eventual death in this state of normalcy.

Ascend to immortality?

He had no desire for that.

All Lu Bian craved was to live a fulfilling life as a healthy, ordinary person.

In the first half of his life, Lu Bian had lived like a stray dog on the side of the road; no one had cared about his existence at all.

"Time to find something to eat."

"Bear Grylls, Ed Stafford, lend me your wisdom!"

"Even as a savage, I am happy now, and I don't need to imagine that I am."

Leaving the ancient ruins behind, Lu Bian searched the nearby woods and fields for something to fill his stomach.

He found nothing.

Before the sun set, Lu Bian returned to the mountain gate, clutching a handful of things that looked edible and some firewood.

"That's strange, why am I still not hungry?"

At forty kilograms, he was nothing but skin and bones for someone one meter seventy-five tall; that was the state of Lu Bian, the patient.

"Friction, make fire..."

Lu Bian failed to start a fire even after rubbing his skin raw.

The moon rose, illuminating the earth with its bright light, and Lu Bian realized that getting by without a fire was manageable.

Clearing a clean patch of ground to lie flat, Lu Bian looked up at the moon in the sky.

He could be certain that this was not the moon that orbited Earth.

Closing his eyes, he prepared to sleep...

[Beep--!]

[Beep beep beep--!!]

[Chat group creation in progress--!]

[Beep, chat group creation complete. Please name your chat group...]

"Huh?"

Lu Bian opened his eyes.

"The cheat has arrived?"

"Let's just call it Peaceful Remainder of Life."

[Beep, chat group named successfully: Peaceful Remainder of Life chat group.]

"..."

"Nothing else?"

Lu Bian stared at the chat box that had appeared before his eyes and began to explore the group's functions.

He was the group leader, and currently, he was the only one in the group.

"Hey? Where are the other members?"

"Wait, in the novels I've read, didn't the group members automatically join as soon as the chat group was created?"

After some fumbling, Lu Bian discovered there were two ways to add members: automatic addition by the chat group, or manual addition.

"Add members automatically for me~!!"

Lu Bian confirmed the automatic addition of members with his consciousness, and then...

[Shi Tianwu] has joined the chat group.