Leaving the Mountain

Yu Chen frowned as he looked at the man lying before him on a large bluestone. With a flick of his hand, his slightly long nails effortlessly slit open the man's wrist. A faint serpent shadow emerged from the wound and slipped inside.

A few minutes later, streams of foul-smelling black fluid flowed from the wound. Even when fresh blood began to run, Yu Chen did not stop.

Several old men nearby watched their chief's face turn pale atop the bluestone and stepped forward to say something, only to be stopped by Yu Chen. He lightly pressed several points on the man's body. A lump rose beneath the man's skin and crept steadily toward the wound. Finally, a serpent shadow crawled out through the cut, clamped around a small bug in its jaws.

Yu Chen pointed a finger, and a speck of golden light appeared at his fingertip. It landed on the bug, immediately igniting it in pale golden flames.

He picked up several bean-sized fruits from nearby and crudely stuffed them into the man's mouth. After pressing the man's jaw and throat a few times and watching him swallow, he turned to the elderly men crowding around him. "I told you long ago that Hundred Poisons Valley is extremely dangerous. Don't casually think about venturing deep inside. Why wouldn't you listen?"

"Isn't the Great Serpent Ritual almost here?" An old man with grizzled hair and a face full of wrinkles gave a bitter smile. "After all, Aya isn't a snake shaman like you. She can't communicate with the totem at every moment. To prepare for any eventuality, the chief wanted to venture deeper into Hundred Poisons Valley and gather more materials as offerings..."

Yu Chen frowned and cut him off. "I have already passed my position to Aya. She is the snake shaman now. If you still call me that, how is she supposed to feel? This situation is unusual, so I won't say more this time. Go down the mountain. Do not disturb my cultivation again!"

With that, Yu Chen swept his sleeve and turned away. The old men nearby wanted to persuade him further, but the one in the lead stopped them and shook his head. The others sighed one after another, then called over several warriors and had them carry the chief down the mountain.

Watching the tribal warriors and elders leave, Yu Chen let out a long breath.

He looked up into the air. A bamboo scroll that only Yu Chen could see appeared in the empty space. It slowly unfurled, revealing lines of information traced in cinnabar.

[Name: Yu Chen]

[Profession: Shaman / Qi Refiner]

[Three Treasures: Essence - 0.8, Qi - 1.2, Spirit - 3.1]

[Yin and Yang: Yin - 1.5, Yang - 0.9]

[Magical Power: 30]

[Realm: Shaman / ??]

[Cultivation Method: <Incomplete Orthodox Three-Mountain Talisman Energy Formula>]

[...]

At the very bottom of the bamboo scroll was a nearly milky-white bar with only the faintest trace of gray remaining. Yu Chen stared at it for a moment, then withdrew his gaze. The bamboo scroll naturally vanished.

This was Yu Chen's cheat, and one of the main reasons he had chosen to leave the tribe.

Yu Chen was a typical transmigrator blessed with all three: a cheat, an inheritance, and luck.

Though he had been quite young when he first transmigrated and had struggled to adapt to this era, everything changed after he turned six. Following tribal custom, he studied the shamanic script inherited by the tribe alongside children his own age. Once he successfully activated his cheat, he became the disciple of the previous generation's snake shaman. His standard of living soared, and many of life's inconveniences ceased to be problems.

As for Yu Chen's cheat, it looked somewhat like the legendary system, though the two should have differed in essence. At the very beginning, the information displayed by the system consisted only of his name, profession, and the gray bar at the bottom that was constantly turning white. The attributes that came later had been compiled as the number of people he encountered increased over the years.

Moreover, after cultivating shamanic arts and gaining a vague grasp of his own aura, Yu Chen discovered that every time he activated the cheat, his essence, qi, and spirit suffered an extremely slight drain.

If he used the cheat's additional functions, such as deduction and recording, that depletion became even more apparent.

Yu Chen guessed that the thing's birth might have been related to the fact that he had been inside a virtual game world when he transmigrated.

The virtual game world was a virtual realm jointly launched by nations around the world in the middle and late twenty-first century. It was hailed as black technology that had leapt beyond the limits of the age. It consisted of countless game worlds based on myths from countries across the globe, folk legends, modern myths, urban legends, and all manner of derivative creations based on mythological tales.

Because this virtual world came too close to reality, and because various nations intentionally or otherwise directed resources toward the game worlds, vast numbers of people found work, made money, and rose to wealth through it. By the time Yu Chen transmigrated, rumors had long circulated online that those game worlds were real, and that some things within them could be brought into the real world.

Of course, before Yu Chen transmigrated, such claims had been considered rumors. After all, there were still many differences between game worlds and reality. For example, every instance world contained impassable walls of air; people had catalogued seven hundred and sixty-three changes in leaves, flowers, grasses, and other vegetation in the wind; six hundred and forty-two changes and forms of ripples and ocean waves; and endlessly resetting plots. Cultivation methods and divine abilities could be learned rapidly without needing to understand them. All of these had been used as proof that game worlds were not reality.

Before transmigrating, Yu Chen had wholeheartedly agreed with that view. After transmigrating, however, he regarded it as utter nonsense.

Because at the very end of his cheat lay one mysterious pattern after another, interwoven to form one hundred and eight seal-script characters. Every character was ancient and sacred, radiating a faint spiritual glow that allowed anyone who saw it to understand the meaning contained within.

"Manipulating creation, overturning yin and yang, shifting stars and exchanging constellations, the Great Five Elements Escape... Passing into the Netherworld, driving gods, bearing mountains, forbidding waters, borrowing wind, spreading mist, praying for clear skies, praying for rain..."

These were the one hundred and eight divine abilities of the Celestial Dipper and Earthly Fiend paths. Of course, in Yu Chen's case, they ought to be called the one hundred and eight arts of the Celestial Dipper and Earthly Fiend paths. They came from the Yu Chen Golden Slip Elixir Book, which he had collected in his previous life after spending seven years completing a series of quests exclusive to the immortal path in the game world.

Within the game world, this Yu Chen Golden Slip Elixir Book had been revered as one of the supreme scriptures of the immortal path. It was also known as the <Yu Chen Golden Chapters of the One Qi's Profound Mystery> and the <Supreme Clarity Yu Yu True Ascension, Numinous Treasure Wondrous Existence Heavenly Book>.

Legend had it that the book recorded the true meaning of every inheritance among the one hundred and eight arts of the Celestial Dipper and Earthly Fiend paths. Every inheritance contained a corresponding method of becoming immortal. Master all one hundred and eight arts, and one could attain the fruit of Taiyi and ascend to Da Luo.

Yet what left Yu Chen helpless was that, among the one hundred and eight arts now in his possession, one hundred and seven appeared black. Only Talisman Water among the Earthly Fiend arts appeared milky white, signifying that this inheritance had been activated.

Likewise, the <Incomplete Orthodox Three-Mountain Talisman Energy Formula> Yu Chen currently cultivated was the accompanying cultivation method for the Earthly Fiend art of Talisman Water.

To speak of how this cultivation method came into being, one had to mention Yu Chen's seven years of questing.

During that time, to complete certain quests, Yu Chen had memorized quite a few Daoist scriptures and studied many cultivation methods. He developed a systematic understanding of breathing exercises and qi refinement, even beginning to practice breathing exercises and refine qi in reality.

That was why, after the Talisman Water inheritance activated, the cheat had used a sliver of the inheritance's true meaning as its core, combining the tribal shamanic script with the verified basic breathing methods in his memories to deduce the <Incomplete Orthodox Three-Mountain Talisman Energy Formula>.

This was also a major reason Yu Chen believed his cheat was not a true system. It did not possess so many miraculous, unreasonable functions.

Even with the inheritance's true meaning as its core, the deduced method could only condense thin and rudimentary magical power.

Apart from possessing some subtle marvels in preserving the purity of his shamanic arts, it was not merely incapable of granting immortality—even its health-preserving effects were mediocre.

Of course, it was precisely through the cultivation method deduced by the system, as well as its built-in functions of recording, analysis, and deduction, that Yu Chen had learned all the shamanic script of the Snake Tribe in the shortest possible time, rapidly mastered shamanic arts, survived steadily under the previous snake shaman, and ultimately became the Snake Tribe's third most important person at the age of fifteen, second only to the old snake shaman and old chief.

Over the following ten years, Yu Chen gradually took control of the tribe's authority. He made modest improvements to its hunting system, shamanic arts system, and medical system. He also found many edible plants, ensuring that most of the tribe would not go hungry.

After the old chief and old snake shaman died, he led the current chief in reclaiming the two surrounding splinter tribes, the Mist Serpent Tribe and Poison Snake Tribe. He completed the shamanic script originally inherited by the tribe and earned the love of everyone in the Snake Tribe. Honored as the Great Serpent Shaman for his identity as a shaman.

That was why, even after Yu Chen stepped down, the tribe's elders still liked to seek his help.

In truth, the present-day Snake Tribe was already one of the largest tribes in the region. Yu Chen did not need to do much anymore. He believed he had pushed everything within his capabilities to its limit, and all that remained was maintenance.

Furthermore, the tribe's inherited shamanic arts were closer to primitive divine ways. Without a totem's aid, every shamanic art learned added another strand of magical power, while casting them required sacrificing one's own essence, qi, and spirit. Over time, the magical power within one's body became impure and one's vitality depleted. Let alone immortality, shamans often had shorter lifespans than ordinary people.

Yu Chen had witnessed the old snake shaman's aged appearance after repeatedly sacrificing himself to summon the totem while protecting the tribe and waging war beyond it. He had also witnessed the old snake shaman's madness in sending one fellow disciple after another into the altar and absorbing their vitality just to stay alive.

Yu Chen understood the truth with perfect clarity: the shaman's path had no method of immortality.

Thus, after his cheat sensed that the tribe's worshipped totem had grown stronger and was attempting to influence him, he decisively abandoned the Snake Tribe's authority and came to Teng Mountain beside the tribe to cultivate and seek enlightenment.

What a pity. The totem still refuses to let me go!

Yu Chen narrowed his eyes slightly and looked toward the tribe.

Under Yu Chen's Dharma eyes, wisps of gray-white fate and thin earth qi gathered there, forming an illusory great serpent coiled in midair. Upon sensing Yu Chen's observation, a faint gleam rose from the serpent's body, attempting to follow his gaze and reconnect with him.

Yu Chen immediately felt a serpent-shaped shamanic character within his mind throb incessantly, trying to draw down that lustrous radiance. He promptly closed his eyes. A long banner appeared behind him. Its hemp-cloth surface bore one strange pattern after another, forming the image of a figure holding a long serpent. With a gentle shake, a serpent shadow flew out and coiled around Yu Chen, bearing the descending radiance.

After devouring the totems of the Poison Snake and Mist Serpent Tribes, the serpent totem's divine nature has indeed advanced another step. It seems to have acquired the traits of an earth deity. I cannot remain here any longer!

With a sigh, Yu Chen rose and returned to his dwelling to pack his things.

When he had first chosen to cultivate on Teng Mountain, one reason had been his fear that leaving too hastily would cause unrest within the tribe. Another was that Teng Mountain grew many plants suitable for serpents to consume, making it well suited for cultivation and the ritual refinement of magical artifacts.

Now, Yu Chen had already arranged another place to settle outside. The Snake Tribe's totem had also digested its earlier gains and now had free hands to bring him under its control once again. Naturally, Yu Chen could not remain here.

He even suspected that the chief's injury this time had been influenced by the totem, which wanted to force him to draw upon the totem's power again and use powerful shamanic arts to heal the chief, thus making it easier to erode his foundation.