"This is my fourth year since transmigrating. Foundation establishment! A piece of cake!"
His physique was as rugged as mountain rock, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and a spine straight as a sword. His face was blessed with naturally divine features-brows like ink paintings, eyes like cold stars, a sculpted nose, and lips touched with vermilion. People called him strikingly handsome; a faint smile from him was enough to rob a whole room's spring breeze of its splendor.
He wore plain blue-green cloth robes without so much as a jade pendant at his waist, yet when he raised a hand to straighten his cuff, the arc traced by his fingertips seemed more distinguished than a prince's jade thumb ring. His neighbors took him for a scholar who had failed the examinations, little knowing that even the wind hushed when he turned-that unhurried bearing carried more weight than a golden crown and jade-studded belt.
Yet this man, who possessed both rugged good looks and exquisite beauty, was a comedian through and through.
Just then, a mechanical female voice sounded in his ears.
"Hey, hey, host! Aren't you forgetting that all the credit belongs to me?"
"Bullshit! I worked hard to finish those missions too, okay? Back then, I nearly ended up in Widow Wang's bed next door just to complete one!"
At the thought, this man of rugged good looks and exquisite beauty could not help shedding tears.
When Lu Shang had first transmigrated, he had been lucky-but only a little.
Lu Shang had originally been an office worker just starting out in the world, not yet fully adjusted to society. After a single day at work, he had returned to his rented room, fallen asleep, and transmigrated.
When he first arrived in this world, Lu Shang's situation could hardly have been more miserable.
He had a Spirit Root, but he was far worse off than the original story's protagonist.
Everyone called Han Li's four-element Spirit Root a false Spirit Root, but Lu Shang had an even more useless five-element Spirit Root.
All Lu Shang had to say about that was that he wasn't the Five-Element King, so why did he need the complete set of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth?
He would have been better off staying an office worker.
Still, as befitted someone who had transmigrated, he had a system backing him, which gave Lu Shang the motivation to keep living.
But upgrading his Spirit Root had put him through no shortage of suffering.
Not long after he transmigrated, System Sis had issued missions to upgrade his Spirit Root.
To avoid remaining at the bottom of society, a piece of trash in the cultivation world, Lu Shang could only complete missions day after day.
If every completed mission hadn't rewarded him with cultivation, Lu Shang probably would have collapsed long ago and never gotten back up.
Lu Shang wiped away his tears and gazed at the green mountains and clear waters before him.
"I'm a foundation establishment cultivator now! I'm going to claim a mountain and rule it! Hahaha!"
Having transmigrated, Lu Shang might someday roam heaven and earth with his towering cultivation and command an enormous harem, but even now, he had never so much as held a sword.
The system had never even mentioned cultivation techniques, and Lu Shang had never thought about them either.
After all, he was already at the Foundation Establishment Stage. He could take a little mountain and play the immortal that mortals spoke of; anything else could wait until his cultivation rose.
Once upon a time, Lu Shang had wanted to venture out too, but whenever he thought of the possibility of meeting a high-level cultivator, he abandoned the idea.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, Lu Shang had long since distanced himself from places where cultivators gathered.
Although Lu Shang was still in the Heavenly South, he was in a small country near the Far West.
Because of its proximity to the Far West, cultivators here were pitifully scarce. Even Lu Shang, an early-stage foundation establishment cultivator, could truly pass for an immortal here.
The country Lu Shang lived in was called the Ten Thousand Nations. In fact, it had originally been nothing more than a gathering of people, only gradually becoming a country as time passed.
Both to avoid encountering Han Li and for his own safety, he had absolutely no intention of wandering outside, even with a system.
Lu Shang looked at the desolate stretch of sand before him. It really was rather barren.
"Looks like I'll have to build my own house if I want to become the boss!"
There were only some trees and rocks here, nowhere near enough to build a towering palace.
Just then, he suddenly thought of System Sis inside him.
"System Sis, the systems in other novels can all whip out palaces. Can you do that?"
"Of course not! I'm a system blessed with nobility, elegance, and beauty. How could I let my host move into a 'villa' so casually?"
The mechanical voice echoed in Lu Shang's mind.
"You can't do this, you can't do that. System Sis, what can you do besides handing out a little cultivation and issuing missions? Are you some defective product that ended up with me because nobody else wanted you?"
Faced with Lu Shang's soul-searching interrogation, the mechanical voice actually fell silent for a moment.
"So it's true!"
Lu Shang was rather shocked.
Then the voice sounded again. "This system is no defective product! I'm not some mass-produced model. I'm one of a kind! And a palace isn't out of the question."
Hearing that, Lu Shang brightened.
"Really?"
"Do I have to complete some mission? If it's too hard, I'd be better off just buying a big house in the city. That would be easier."
"Of course it won't be too hard. I'm omnipotent!"
"Then what is it? Finish what you're saying, System Sis," Lu Shang asked impatiently.
"Hey, hey, hey! Remember, I'm a proud and elegant system! As for the mission, it's-"
Lu Shang eagerly prompted her, "It's?"
"It's-bring over the materials."
Just those few simple words left Lu Shang a little confused.
"Huh? And then?"
"That's all."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
Lu Shang clearly did not understand, and he found it hard to believe that was all there was to it.
Wasn't this blatantly making Lu Shang do the work himself? And what kind of mission was that, anyway?
"System Sis, do you think I'm that easy to fool? Besides, what kind of mission is this? Haul materials? Once I've finished hauling them, you'll have me mixing concrete, won't you?"
"I'll say it again: I'm omnipotent! Don't question System Sis's abilities! Just do as I tell you!"
There was a clear edge of anger in those words, as though System Sis was upset that Lu Shang had questioned her abilities.
Ding! System mission issued.
A mechanical voice rang out.
System mission: Place sufficient timber and stone here before tomorrow afternoon. Failure penalty: Sealed for ten years. Success reward: One palace.
Lu Shang looked at the words before him.
"What? Sealed? What the hell? What kind of penalty is that? You've made a mistake, haven't you, System Sis?"
"Nope! Better hurry! Otherwise, someone will be sleeping here for ten years!"
After that, the voice fell silent.
"System Sis! System Sis!"
Lu Shang called several times, but no voice answered.
"To think that a dignified Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator like me has to do this kind of heavy labor-and if I don't finish, I'll lose ten years! I can't let that happen."
Lu Shang lingered in the mountains for a while.
"There should be plenty of timber and other stone materials nearby, shouldn't there?"
After a while, Lu Shang finally understood: the timber here really wouldn't do. Since it was unsuitable, perhaps he would have to bring some from elsewhere. With no other choice, he headed down the mountain.
Before long, Lu Shang returned to the same spot.
This time, however, Lu Shang carried some things on both shoulders.
Lu Shang set the materials down beside the spot where the mission had just been issued.
Of course, that amount was nowhere near enough.
Back and forth he went, and time swiftly slipped away.
Lu Shang asked System Sis too, but the response he received was that it was nowhere near enough.
And so the next day arrived.
Lu Shang made countless trips back and forth, hauling materials without a break.
Finally, a cold mechanical voice sounded in Lu Shang's mind.
Congratulations, host, on completing the mission! System reward: One palace!
As soon as she finished speaking, a brilliant light blazed before Lu Shang, leaving him completely unable to see anything ahead.
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