"Grandfather, are you all right?"
After ordering the people nearby to clean up the battlefield, Shen Changchuan turned his gaze toward Han Qinhu, who stood not far away.
"I'm fine. I just got knocked over by that beast because I wasn't careful. It's nothing serious."
"Go inside and recover your spiritual power first. The road ahead isn't far, but until we reach our destination, there may still be times when we need you to step in."
Han Qinhu had already gotten to his feet. He casually brushed the dust from his clothes and spoke with complete nonchalance, his voice strong and full of vigor.
Seeing that Han Qinhu wasn't seriously hurt,
Shen Changchuan nodded and turned back to the carriage.
That enormous wild boar had been at least at the fourth level of Qi Induction!
To kill it in one strike, he hadn't dared let his guard down for even a moment, and that attack had consumed nearly half the spiritual power in his body!
Although they were still ten li from their destination,
who knew whether they'd run into another mishap along the way?
And even if they reached Dawan Village,
he was, after all, being sent there out of the blue. He had no idea how Dawan Village would react to his arrival, or whether the clan cultivator originally stationed there would make trouble because he'd taken his place.
He needed to quickly restore his spiritual power and get himself as close to peak condition as possible.
So Shen Changchuan skipped the pleasantries and hurried back inside the carriage to meditate and refine his spiritual power.
Han Qinhu didn't mind.
He walked over to the enormous wild boar lying on the ground like a small hill. He looked at the shadow cast by its massive body, its sturdy muscles, hard as if they had been cast from steel,
and the tiny wound on its neck that he'd managed to hack into it.
He couldn't help but sigh.
This was the difference between mortals and immortals.
He was merely a martial artist who'd spent most of his life training, with decades of cultivation behind him, and yet he'd barely managed to break the skin of this monster.
Meanwhile, Shen Changchuan had practiced immortal arts for only a few years, yet he'd been able to kill this very same Demon Beast with a single strike!
The difference between them was truly enough to make anyone feel disheartened.
But then he remembered—
Shen Changchuan was his grandson, one of his own, one of the younger generation of his family. Han Qinhu couldn't help but straighten his back.
"My grandson has the makings of an immortal!"
Han Qinhu secretly marveled to himself, his heart swelling with pride.
"Father, what do we do now?"
Just then, a deep, rumbling voice pulled Han Qinhu back to reality.
Han Dayong came over, carrying his Mace.
"What else can we do? Tell the men to clean things up!"
Han Qinhu glared at his foolish son and said crossly,
"Clear out all the odds and ends from the rear carriage. Get a few men to lift this beast onto it!"
"Also, have someone take the magic artifact out of the Demon Boar's head. Clean it carefully and bring it to Young Master's carriage."
Han Qinhu issued one order after another, taking charge.
His father's cross words made Han Dayong hunch his neck. He didn't know why his father was angry, but the slow-witted Han Dayong knew what he ought to do, so he quickly went to help clean up.
Half an hour later,
after a brief rest, the group set off again.
By then,
inside the carriage,
Shen Changchuan had finished meditating and recovering his spiritual power.
He was only in the late stage of the third level of Qi Induction, so he didn't have much spiritual power in his body. It hadn't taken long to meditate until he was fully restored.
After a quarter of an hour of focused meditation and refinement, he'd already recovered ninety percent of his spiritual power.
It might have seemed a little slow, and in a fight it would undoubtedly be a major problem.
But this was still considered good.
Once he reached the late stages of Qi Induction—that is, the seventh level and above—simply meditating to recover would take at least a whole day!
The only way to shorten the recovery time would be to use spiritual items like Spirit Stones or pills, or cultivate in a place rich in spiritual energy.
Clearly,
for Shen Changchuan right now,
he could only rely on meditating to refine and recover his spiritual power. He wasn't yet in a position to indulge in using Spirit Stones or pills.
Shen Changchuan rolled his wrists.
Inside his sleeves were specially sewn needle sheaths. The two Gold Needles had been cleaned by the men below and brought to him, and he had carefully tucked them away inside.
They were a little uncomfortable against his skin,
but at least if anything unexpected happened, he could use them at once.
A little inconvenience—
he'd get used to it.
It never hurt to be cautious.
He adjusted his sitting position,
then, as was his habit, focused his mind and stared straight ahead into empty space.
At that moment,
a faint light screen appeared in his field of vision.
Name: Shen Changchuan Realm: Late Stage, Third Level of Qi Induction Cultivation Method: Elephant Mountain Qi Absorption Art Magic Artifacts: Two Gold Needles (quasi-low-grade magic artifacts) Spells: Golden Needle Stab: 100% (Perfect Trait: Slightly improved accuracy with hidden weapons; negligible experience in cultivating Metal-element spells) Light Body Technique: 81% Wind Blade Technique: 52% Fireball Technique: 43% Vine Technique: 13%
It was an extremely simple panel,
with no other functions,
and it could only display a general overview of Shen Changchuan's condition.
The percentages showed the progress bar—or, in other words, his level of proficiency in cultivating each spell.
Once a progress bar reached one hundred percent, traits would appear after it, just like the ones shown for Golden Needle Stab above.
Shen Changchuan had no idea how these traits appeared, or what principle they followed.
But he could clearly feel that after the traits appeared, his accuracy when using Golden Needle Stab had improved.
The feeling was
like gaining fresh insights after mastering a spell.
Or like having certain knowledge and experience poured into him.
As for the specifics,
he couldn't say.
But one thing was certain:
those traits at the end were useful.
Just now,
after he activated Golden Needle Stab, his two Gold Needles had struck both eyes of the enormous wild boar with pinpoint accuracy. That was the effect of the trait he'd gained after raising his Golden Needle Stab progress to one hundred percent.
"What a pity. This thing's progress bars can only be raised by cultivating on my own. I can't allocate points. Whoever designed it must've been a flop of a writer."
"These days, the way to go is a cheat protagonist who's invincible right from the start, a brainless point-allocation system, or a kill-enemies-to-gain-experience-or-lifespan system!"
Shen Changchuan couldn't help but complain to the panel in front of him again.
But clearly,
just like dozens, even hundreds of times before, the panel didn't react at all.
Shen Changchuan could only accept reality.
There was no helping it.
His cheat was pretty lame, but at least it was still a cheat.
It gave him enough confidence to establish himself in this other world.
That's right,
to Shen Changchuan, this was another world.
He wasn't a native of this world,
but a transmigrator who'd been here for two and a half years.
About two and a half years ago, he'd been an office worker who'd graduated only a few years prior, loved slacking off at work, and enjoyed reading novels and playing games.
Then, one day, after staying up all night playing a grueling little game with a progress bar, his vision went black, and he transmigrated into the body of Shen Changchuan, who'd been grievously injured in a Demon Beast attack while out traveling.
The small, useless Progress Bar Panel before his eyes had come along with him.
At first, Shen Changchuan had been quite uneasy. This was, after all, a world with a path to immortality, and he'd transmigrated into the Shen Clan, a powerful cultivation clan. Who knew whether possession was possible here, or whether someone might see through him?
Fortunately, the worst-case scenario hadn't happened.
He was merely an inconspicuous illegitimate son, and few people paid him any attention.
Besides, after transmigrating, he'd absorbed the memories of the original Shen Changchuan and done his best to keep quiet and act cautiously.
So to outsiders, it seemed that the grievous injuries that had left him unconscious for seven days and seven nights, bringing him to the brink of death, had caused a drastic change in his temperament.
Apparently, that sort of thing was perfectly ordinary in this world.
Even his mother hadn't suspected a thing.
And so Shen Changchuan quietly settled into the Shen Clan.
After getting through a month of adjustment,
Shen Changchuan learned that he'd transmigrated to a vast and boundless world of cultivation. He also discovered the progress-bar cheat he possessed,
and at the time, his excitement had been beyond words.
Back then, he'd imagined that he would use it to soar to the heavens, become an immortal patriarch in this world, and even transcend the world itself!
However,
before Shen Changchuan could use the Progress Bar Panel to reveal his talent, attract the attention of his cheap father or the clan, and receive special training,
something that happened within the Shen Clan doused his enthusiasm like a bucket of cold water.
One of his half-brothers—young, reasonably talented, and recently advanced to the sixth level of Qi Induction—died by suicide with seven knife wounds in his back!
How did Shen Changchuan know he'd died with seven knife wounds in his back?
Because he happened to run into the Shen Clan servants, who were carrying the body to a physician in a panic.
At the time, he'd personally seen the knife handles, still gleaming, sticking out of the man's back!
Shen Changchuan didn't know what had really happened.
He only knew that a couple of days later, his cheap brother was declared dead,
and the official explanation was suicide.
Not long afterward, it was said that his "suicidal" brother's birth mother had gone mad. She was sent to a small temple on West Mountain outside the city to recover, while her younger brother, born of the same mother, was also sent to the temple under the pretext of filial duty, where he was ordered to serve their mother.
Shen Changchuan was just an office worker who'd spent barely two years in the workforce and had only begun to catch a glimpse of the darkness of office politics. How could he have ever witnessed such sinister, treacherous power struggles within a great clan?
And then it suddenly hit him that the reason the original Shen Changchuan had lain unconscious in bed for seven days and seven nights was that he'd been attacked by a Demon Beast while out traveling!
Who knew whether that really had been an accidental Demon Beast attack, or whether there had been some other reason?
Scared nearly out of his wits, Shen Changchuan immediately shoved aside all his ambitions and carefully made himself invisible within the Shen Clan.
He didn't even dare cultivate too diligently, afraid that if he accidentally showed exceptional talent, someone would give him the same script: seven knife wounds in the back, ruled a suicide.
That was why, after two and a half years since his transmigration, his cultivation and progress bars had only reached this level.
But it was also precisely because of this that Shen Changchuan had seen the darkness beneath the bright exterior of this great cultivation clan—and, without realizing it, escaped a possible death sentence.
Over the past two years, two more of his cheap brothers had met untimely ends. One drowned, and another fell off a cliff. Someone else had gone missing, while two of his sisters had eloped with men, and so on.
Even Shen Changchuan, who kept to himself inside the Shen Clan, could feel the undercurrents surging within it.
The First Madam and Second Madam were locked in an increasingly fierce struggle for favor, the various factions fought harder and harder for power, and even outside forces had become involved.
Watching from the sidelines, Shen Changchuan had been on tenterhooks.
Fortunately, he'd made some arrangements in advance, and with his mother's help, he had now managed to secure an assignment away from home. At least he'd escaped the whirlpool of the Shen Clan's main residence in Tiannan City.
Otherwise, Shen Changchuan couldn't have been sure he'd survive the future infighting within the Shen Clan.
"Alas, this useless progress panel. Becoming an immortal patriarch is out of the question. I should focus on staying alive first, and then try to live a little better."
Thinking back on what he'd gone through over the past two and a half years, Shen Changchuan couldn't help but sigh to himself.
Reality had already worn down his rough edges.
He no longer dreamed of becoming an immortal or anything like that.
His greatest wish now was simply to reach the Out of Body Realm someday, gaining enough ability to keep himself out of the Shen Clan's affairs,
then return to Tiannan City and bring his mother out, away from that whirlpool.
Thinking of how much his mother cared for him, and how much she'd sacrificed to help him secure an assignment away from home, Shen Changchuan couldn't help but sigh again.
He could release his aura, but it was no easy feat.
Before leaving,
he had heard that his mother had been ordered by the First Madam to remain confined in the Ancestral Hall for half a year.
His mother said nothing about it,
and Shen Changchuan hadn't asked.
After all, as someone who had reached only the third layer of the Qi Induction Realm, he had no ability to change anything.
Only by advancing to the Out-of-Body Realm could he hope to gain some say in the Shen Family.
But although the Out-of-Body Realm was the next stage after Qi Induction, the Qi Induction Realm had nine layers, each harder than the last.
To complete all nine layers and break through to the Out-of-Body Realm, one needed talent, wealth, and luck—none could be lacking.
The entire Shen Family was said to number tens of thousands,
yet there were only a few dozen true cultivators in the Out-of-Body Realm.
It was only with the Progress Bar Panel that Shen Changchuan had gained a little more confidence.
But even so, he couldn't say that he would definitely break through to the Out-of-Body Realm someday.
The path to immortality was truly a hard one!
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