Watermirror Peak's Legacy

The teleportation point was located halfway up Watermirror Peak.

Clear springs burbled, streams flowing down from different directions and converging into a lake.

The lake reflected the full moon and a sky full of stars, making the stars and moon seem close enough to touch.

As the cold wind blew through the high sky, ripples shimmered across the surface.

The area around the lake was filled with unknown species of trees, ranging from several meters to dozens of meters tall.

Beneath his feet was a long path paved with what seemed to be rough jade. To the left, up the jade steps, stood a wooden pavilion building in the style of ancient China, five stories tall and nearly a hundred meters wide.

On the mountainside path, where the woods grew sparse, stood a wooden gazebo.

To the right was a downhill road, with scattered buildings below.

Not far from where Su Lin stood was a broad stretch of flat ground.

It resembled a plaza.

Occasionally, dry leaves drifted down and scattered across the rough, ancient jade steps.

The cold wind carried the scent of soil and leaves into his nostrils.

Looking at the scenery before him and breathing in those scents, Su Lin was briefly at a loss.

Only after a while did he remember what he was supposed to do.

He walked along the stone steps while taking in the scenery around him.

Come to think of it, he had once imagined a place like this.

As a student, he had loved reading novels. Though he read almost anything, he still preferred cultivation stories.

Everyone's youth was different. Some had vibrant, colorful youth: idol dramas, ordinary people's rise to success, the legend of top students, or regretless chapters of friendship and love balanced alongside their studies.

But those who possessed such youth were ultimately few.

And Su Lin belonged to the majority.

Crushing academic pressure, family pressure, and pressure from every other direction.

The only things that could relieve that pressure were novels and manga.

Whenever he was exhausted, he would fantasize about embarking on the path of cultivation, cultivating in a sect removed from the mortal world, in an environment like this—watching the stars, gazing at the moon, discussing the Dao.

Compared with continuing to sink among the masses and struggle against all the troubles of real life, being chosen by the system undoubtedly made him lucky.

As for what lay behind it, he would deal with that later.

He slowly approached the lake. Not far away stood another wooden gazebo, nestled among the trees. Its exquisite pavilion and waterside terrace complemented the clear bend of lakewater beautifully.

Beneath the gazebo was a stone table, along with several bamboo and jade tubes.

Curious, Su Lin walked over, sat on a stone chair, and picked up one of the scrolls to inspect it.

It was written in a script he had never seen before.

It was not any common ancient script from Chinese history. No, it might not even have been a script from Earth.

Su Lin secretly guessed that if that was the case, perhaps Earth was not as shallow as it seemed. Perhaps the system encompassed items from other worlds? A trace of relief rose in Su Lin's heart.

If Earth's waters truly ran deep, would he not have to race against time for strength?

He had been a wage slave for two lifetimes. Couldn't he just cultivate leisurely and enjoy himself for once?

Wouldn't it be nice to farm at leisure and visit harmless worlds whenever he had nothing to do?

Before Su Lin could examine it for long, a belated realization surfaced in his mind.

[Transforming Rain]

After staring blankly for several seconds, Su Lin hurriedly picked up another tube.

[Weaving Starlight]

These were spells?!

The next morning, Su Lin experienced what felt like a real-life Zelda—or perhaps real-life Genshin Impact.

After exploring a small part of Watermirror Peak, an indescribably strange feeling arose in Su Lin's heart.

Drawing Watermirror Peak might have been an enormous win.

The various cultivation techniques and inheritances within seemed to have been preserved. This was the complete inheritance system of Watermirror Peak from the cultivation sect known as the Fine Condensation Sect.

What he had drawn in the lottery was not merely a floating mountain, but a complete immortal sect.

But.

It was too complete.

During his exploration, Su Lin had sensed something deeply strange.

It was as though the people of Watermirror Peak had merely gone out for a while.

The mountaintop pavilion contained cultivation manuals and spells.

Not to mention the tables, chairs, tea sets, brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, and decorative greenery.

In some of the rooms he entered, there were sect robes and even personal clothing.

In those scattered houses beneath the plaza, there were books left half-read on the tables, tea in the teapots, and even some pills to be found after rummaging through boxes and cabinets.

In one room, there was even women's clothing belonging to some unknown senior sister or junior sister.

The more he thought about it, the more horrifying it felt.

After returning home, Su Lin stored Watermirror Peak away and carefully checked the system's description of the item again.

The description went on for tens of thousands of words, until Su Lin reached the final passage.

[Established in the 334th year of the Tianwu Calendar—destroyed in the 1745th year of the Kuiyue Calendar]

He fell silent for a while.

Destroyed?

Could Watermirror Peak have been reconstructed?

Recalling the scenes inside, Su Lin guessed that the system might have restored it from a particular point in time—perhaps the moment before its destruction, or perhaps even earlier.

The system had reproduced a complete copy of Watermirror Peak as it had been at a certain moment.

As long as it had not moved someone's home over from another plane, it was fine.

Otherwise, all he could do was apologize.

The following night.

Su Lin sat inside Watermirror Peak's Wangshu Pavilion. On the table were a pot of tea and a platter of Sea King chilled meat.

Several exchanged fire-element essence stones lay at his feet.

There was no helping it. At an altitude of ten thousand meters, the cold was enough to freeze his feet.

He ate while following the cultivation manual and learning the basics.

It had to be said—

His talent was probably around the level of an ordinary person.

Well, he did not know what level ordinary people were at, either.

If he had to learn it completely on his own, without anyone guiding him through the basics, it would probably take him some time.

No rush. No rush.

Although he could achieve it in one step through the system, this was still a rare experience.

If it really came down to it, should he find someone to teach him?

Emmm.

Wangshu Pavilion had its own separate space within it, far larger than it appeared from outside.

Though it did not have many cultivation resources, it possessed a core inheritance technique that pointed straight toward the immortal path, along with all kinds of spells.

The group members... if he opened this place to them merely to find someone to teach him, would he not become the group's opportunity?

Just yesterday, he had wanted to cling to powerful thighs. After visiting another world, the situation had completely reversed.

In the end, it turned out that I was the opportunity.

Excluding Luffy, he had only known the people in the group for one day. They had not even met offline yet.

Of course, the pole-vaulting protagonist had not even shown up yet.

But when he had needed help yesterday, everyone had immediately sent over a pile of items without a second word, giving him considerable assistance.

Looking at the bigger picture, although some people in the group were a little scheming and some were somewhat overly cautious, they all shared one trait: they repaid kindness and valued loyalty, provided they truly considered you a friend.

He would not lose anything by sharing these things. It was simply that the shift in roles had happened too quickly, and he had not quite adapted yet.

Sure enough, skipping the beginner phase of starting a business and going straight into the nouveau riche stage felt pretty good.

His fingers slowly tapped against the wooden table as he turned to look at the many bookshelves floating in the space behind him.

In a barren region of the Shrouding the Heavens world, Ye Fan, while evading pursuit from the major holy lands and suppressing their holy sons and holy maidens, leaned against a massive boulder.

He was reading the novel in which he himself was the protagonist.

Ye Fan ignored the big black dog beside him as it bragged about its glorious past and urged him to have children with the Purple Mansion Holy Maiden.

Reading Shrouding the Heavens when he had nothing to do, then chatting idly in the group—wasn't that much more interesting than having children?

Wasn't his romantic storyline already complicated enough...

Thinking of the contents of the book gave Ye Fan a headache.

(End of chapter)