A Heavenly Hand

He Sheng was panicking now—really panicking!

Last night, he had finally finished a project he had slogged over for an entire month. He was just debating whether to play a few rounds of King of Glory and fry some noobs, or watch pretty girls dance for a while to unwind.

Before he could decide, he had dropped off to sleep. When he woke up again... he found that he had become a corpse!

What was more, the corpse was lying at the bottom of the muddy river, its mouth and nose covered by silt as swift undercurrents along the riverbed slowly carried it away.

But that was not why He Sheng was panicking. He had a strange feeling that, if he wished, he could awaken and return his soul through this corpse!

Yet he did not dare. After receiving the memories of this corpse's former owner, he discovered that its previous occupant, who had flown too high into the sky, had apparently been wounded by a Golden Core True Person, fled into the Muddy Dragon River, and died from his severe injuries.

Under such circumstances, how could He Sheng dare return his soul through the corpse so casually? What if that Golden Core True Person was still nearby?

What if he got another plum blossom blooming twice and was sent back through time again?

And if he could not travel back... wouldn't he just croak on the spot?

"What a sin. How did such a heavenly-hand opening turn into this kind of mess?"

He Sheng sighed inwardly.

He had actually accepted the matter of transmigration rather quickly. Especially after learning that this was a world of immortal cultivation, his satisfaction shot steadily upward.

Once he had initially absorbed the memories left behind by the former owner, he had even thought he was about to soar...

Top-grade dual water-and-earth spiritual roots, Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivation, patriarch of the He Family of Long Sun Mountain, master of Lower River Market!

This former owner really had some skills. He Sheng had transmigrated over to take the reins, practically launching off like a catapult—his opening alone crushed ninety-nine percent of his fellow transmigrators.

But he had never imagined that, beneath the former owner's outward splendor, he had also dug countless enormous pits!

To be precise, this former owner had also been a transmigrator, likewise named He Sheng.

The difference was that this guy had transmigrated through reincarnation. Decades ago, he had been reborn into the He Family of Hundred Herbs Valley.

Back then, the He Family had merely been a small Qi Refinement family in the Silver Sand River region south of the Muddy Dragon River.

When the former owner reached ten years old and was tested to possess top-grade spiritual roots, the family immediately raised him as a child of the divine unicorn, nearly using the strength of the entire clan to support his immortal path.

What followed was the usual story: the steady rise of a youthful genius.

The former owner began cultivating at ten, reached the great perfection of Qi Refinement at eighteen, successfully established his foundation at twenty-three, entered the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage at thirty, and had not yet reached forty when he died.

As the former owner rose, the He Family naturally leaped from a tiny Qi Refinement family to become one of the few Foundation Establishment families in the Silver Sand River region.

A family's rise naturally could not do without bloody slaughter. Even Long Sun Mountain, their current ancestral inheritance grounds, had been seized from the Xu Clan, a Foundation Establishment family of years past.

After the former owner advanced to the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, he had forcefully subdued the Foundation Establishment Ancestors of several other cultivation families around Silver Sand River, seizing the position of master of Lower River Market in one stroke.

The He Family thus flourished for a time, becoming the most prominent cultivation family throughout the several-thousand-li stretch along Silver Sand River!

The former owner himself was revered as the number one cultivator of Silver Sand River!

And then...

"A mere Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivator—fine, you ruled like a tyrant in the beginner village, but you even dared imitate Old Devil Han and enter some kind of duct-tape phase? That's like carrying a lantern into a latrine—looking for death!"

Yes, after becoming the so-called number one cultivator of Silver Sand River, the former owner had floated straight into the sky. The kind who believed himself invincible.

Anyone in the Silver Sand River region who had ever borne a grudge against him was either killed or crippled.

Even a dog that dared bare its teeth at him would be beaten to death and eaten for meat.

He had even abducted his early object of admiration—the white moonlight who had already married another—and turned her into a bed-warming maid.

His whole creed was to indulge his every desire and give free rein to his passions.

As those above acted, those below followed. The He Family disciples all copied his example, each one swelling with arrogance beyond measure.

In just a few years, the He Family committed countless sins, wreaking no small havoc up and down Silver Sand River and offending every cultivation family in the region, great and small.

Some had tried to advise the former owner, but he retorted with a single sentence:

"I've cultivated for decades and become the number one cultivator of Silver Sand River. What's wrong with cutting loose a little?!"

So he kept enjoying himself, doing whatever felt best.

And as he enjoyed himself, there came the final scene in the memories left behind by that infamous "Sky-High Bro"—

Outside Ten Thousand Stars Mountain, A valiant youth carrying a longsword on his back, appearing no more than fifteen or sixteen years old, suddenly appeared before Sky-High Bro and said flatly:

"A mere wild-country rogue cultivator dares act so arrogantly? You truly know neither heaven's height nor earth's depth!"

The other party did not even draw his sword. From several dozen zhang away, he merely pointed a finger, and Sky-High Bro was unable to resist; his heart meridian was pierced through at once.

Though Sky-High Bro forced himself to hold on to one last breath, turned and fled, and leapt into the Muddy Dragon River, he soon died from his grave injuries after his heart meridian had been completely severed.

"This guy didn't even know which old score had brought such a terrifying existence down upon him, killing him with a single strike.

Seriously..."

He Sheng was speechless from the bottom of his heart. All he could say was: when Heaven wishes to destroy a man, it first drives him mad.

The key was that Sky-High Bro had died, but the entire mess had now landed on his head.

"I should first think about how to escape this dangerous situation!"

Piao Ge had come to Ten Thousand Stars Mountain at the invitation of Wan Chaonian, a senior brother with whom he had once studied, to attend the latter's Foundation Establishment celebration.

Back when they were young, he and Wan Chaonian had studied formation arts under Li Daoyun—the formation master of Lower River Market at the time.

Whether in spiritual root aptitude or personal comprehension, Wan Chaonian was far inferior to Piao Ge. His parents had also been mere Rogue Cultivators, so he yielded to Piao Ge in every respect and was willing to play the green leaf. Instead, the two had forged a deep friendship.

"Still, this Senior Brother Wan is hardly some pure and virtuous man."

Wan Chaonian's aptitude was clearly ordinary, and he had achieved little in formations, yet he had ultimately entered the Golden Cloud Sect within Ten Thousand Stars Mountain.

Ten Thousand Stars Mountain lay ten thousand li north of Lower River Market, beyond the Celestial Capital Mountain Range. It was the foremost False Core sect in the surrounding region.

"Piao Ge encountered a stranger of formidable strength outside Ten Thousand Stars Mountain and was killed in a single blow. Whether this had anything to do with Senior Brother Wan is hard to say."

He Sheng had no intention of heading to Ten Thousand Stars Mountain for help. At present, he could trust no one.

"But I can't keep dragging this out. Piao Ge is already dead—if I don't possess his corpse and return to life soon, what if this guy's body rots? Could my transmigration fail outright?"

He Sheng was not borrowing trouble from the sky. He could vaguely sense that, as time passed, the feeling that he could live so long as he awakened was quietly fading.

"What was that?!"

He Sheng had still been hesitating when a sudden sense of danger rose within him.

Immediately after, he felt as though something had bumped into him. The impact was not particularly strong, but it was exceptionally clear amid the muddy, heavy river water.

He Sheng's current state was quite strange. He was like a glimmer of spiritual light attached to Piao Ge's mind—unable to investigate anything outside, yet possessed of one or two passive senses.

"I can't wait any longer!

There might be some demon creature in this river. If I stay 'dead' any longer, what if it gnaws off some important parts?"

He Sheng had no desire to come back to life missing an arm or a "leg."

"Awaken!"

At that thought, He Sheng immediately felt himself drawn by some force, slowly sinking into the depths of Piao Ge's sea of consciousness.

Tap tap tap...

As though a riverbed parched for ages had suddenly been struck by a torrential downpour, He Sheng felt a boundless surge of vitality wash over him.

He suddenly realized that he could feel again, and then he felt pain.

Excruciating pain!

An indescribable agony exploded from the region of his heart meridians—the wound where Piao Ge had been pierced through in one strike by that suspected Core Formation cultivator.

Yet, unimaginably, as that vast vitality spread, the piercing wound rapidly closed, the severed heart meridians began to mend, warmth returned to his cold body, and his depleted dantian gradually filled...

At the same time, the chill of the river water, the suffocating sensation of silt, and the unknown creature drawing near—all his senses returned in an instant.

Whoosh!

He Sheng abruptly opened his eyes, his pupils contracting sharply in the murky river water.

Yet the riverbed was pitch-black. He could see nothing.

"Piao Ge was a Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivator while he was alive. According to those cultivation novels, there should be something like spiritual sense or divine sense that can replace the eyes to inspect one's surroundings, right?"

At that thought, his glabella throbbed violently. At once, he felt his perception spread through the surroundings like spider silk, and he quickly discovered what had struck him before.

It was a fish!

He Sheng felt strangely wondrous. Though his eyes could see nothing, after that suspected divine sense probed the strange fish, its appearance was manifested in his mind down to the finest detail.

It was a black-scaled monster fish as large as a millstone, with a mouth full of jagged, interlocking teeth. Its pair of gray eyeballs stared at He Sheng with uncertainty, as if puzzled by why a corpse that had clearly possessed no aura had suddenly come back to life—and why its aura was growing stronger and stronger.

Looking at the black-scaled monster fish manifested in his mind, He Sheng felt not the slightest fear. His first reaction was... hunger.

It was not that He Sheng was craving food. Rather, after that vast vitality had repaired this body, its recovering functions had triggered an instinctive reaction.

He Sheng could not help sweeping his divine sense toward his waist. Tied there was a small pouch patterned with purple markings and golden threads—Piao Ge's storage bag.

In an instant, the contents of the storage bag manifested in his mind: bottles and jars, jade slips and books, as well as several magical artifacts arranged in neat order.

Following his memories, He Sheng locked his divine sense onto an azure parasol.

Then he tried to imitate Piao Ge and channel spiritual power...

Whoosh!

An azure streak of light flew out from the storage bag.

In the blink of an eye, the azure parasol opened above the black-scaled monster fish.

As the parasol slowly spun, thin streams of water descended, forming a whirlpool around the black-scaled monster fish below.

"So this is how spiritual power is used to control a magical artifact?"

He Sheng felt as though he were playing a first-person shooter game, with his divine sense serving as the scope.

The difference was that the artifact was not only the gun, but the bullets as well.

With his divine sense, he could not only clearly perceive the trajectory of the artifact's attacks, but further control them.

The black-scaled monster fish sensed that something was wrong. With a flick of its tail, it prepared to flee.

Unfortunately, it was too late!

The vortex spun faster and faster, trapping the black-scaled monster fish within it. It could not escape at all.

Pop...

A soft sound rang out.

The black-scaled monster fish was wrapped in a huge bubble, then swiftly taken into the gauze umbrella.

Seeing how easily he had captured the black-scaled monster fish with the aid of an artifact, He Sheng was overjoyed.

"So this is the method of an immortal cultivator?

"This immortality... I'm cultivating it for sure!"

He Sheng controlled the azure gauze umbrella back above his head. The umbrella turned slightly in the opposite direction.

A radiant blue glow immediately blossomed over his body, like a thin membrane that separated him from the river water, as though he were avoiding water entirely.

With a turn of the spiritual power within him, all the mud and sand that had entered his mouth and nose were expelled. Even his soaked clothes dried in an instant, leaving his entire body clean and at ease.

"Comfortable."

He Sheng opened his mouth and spoke his first words since arriving in this world.

"This divine sense is so wondrous. Doesn't that mean I can extend it beyond the river and investigate the surroundings?"

As the thought arose in He Sheng's mind, his divine sense stretched toward the river's surface. Yet in the next instant, an inexplicable warning flared in his heart!

"Not right!

"Foundation Establishment cultivators have divine sense. That expert who seems to be at the Core Formation stage would only have even stronger divine sense.

"If that person is sweeping the river's surface with divine sense... I wasn't discovered before only because I was a corpse, sunk to the riverbed and buried beneath mud and sand.

"But if they catch my divine sense now..."

Whoosh!

He Sheng hurriedly withdrew his divine sense, then raised his hand to retrieve the gauze umbrella, terrified of exposing himself because of it.

Unexpectedly, a blue light bloomed from his palm.

Looking closely, He Sheng discovered a water clock within the blue light. Every drop of water flowing from it contained rows upon rows of information.