Chen Ming woke in excruciating pain.
It wasn't the dull ache of a car crash. It felt as though someone were drilling an awl into his skull. His eyes flew open, revealing low wooden beams, dim candlelight, and a medicinal odor so thick it tasted bitter.
Chen Ming tried to raise a hand, only to find his arm as heavy as lead. Stranger still-these hands were withered, their veins bulging beneath loose skin. They weren't his hands at all.
Memories surged in like a tide. Mo Juren, hall master of the Seven Mysteries Sect's Wild Wolf Gang Alchemy Hall, known as Doctor Mo. Thirty-eight years old, at the first level of the Xiantian Realm.
His power had been severely depleted, and he had begun searching for disciples, intending to possess one of them to prolong his life.
According to the original owner's memories, he had just taken in two disciples yesterday. One was Zhang Tie, a simple, honest boy. The other was Han Li.
A buzzing filled Chen Ming's head.
Chen Ming remembered this novel. He remembered how Doctor Mo had tested Han Li at every turn, how the "incantation" he taught him was actually a possession technique, and how Han Li had ultimately killed him instead, scattering his soul into oblivion. He remembered Doctor Mo's dying words: "I cultivated for decades, only to end up sewing a wedding gown for some greenhorn brat."
Now he had actually transmigrated into that very Doctor Mo.
"Mo, you're awake?"
An icy voice sounded in his mind. It wasn't a hallucination-it was Yu Zitong.
In the original novel, Mo Juren had harbored Yu Zitong's remnant soul for years. The fellow had been living inside him all along, secretly prying into his possession technique and waiting to reap the benefits.
Chen Ming remained silent. He kept his eyes closed, pretending to still be unconscious as his mind raced.
His situation: a remnant soul was parasitizing his body, a protagonist disciple destined to kill him was waiting outside, and he himself was a martial artist without a spirit root, nearing the end of his lifespan.
Chen Ming reached a conclusion: A hell-difficulty start.
"Mo, why are you playing dead?" Yu Zitong spoke again, impatience creeping into his voice. "How are those two new disciples of yours? Zhang Tie has decent aptitude, but that Han Li..."
"Shut up."
Chen Ming sneered inwardly. He had no intention of wasting words on Yu Zitong-keeping this fellow around was like keeping a ticking time bomb.
Just then, a voice sounded in his mind. Unlike Yu Zitong's icy tone, it was a crisp electronic voice:
"Lottery System integration complete. Beginner gift pack issued. Open it?"
Chen Ming didn't dare respond immediately. Instead, he first asked a tentative question in his mind: Yu Zitong, did you hear any strange noises?
"What noises?" Sure enough, Yu Zitong was baffled. "Has the corpse poison cooked your brain?"
Chen Ming breathed a sigh of relief. Only he could hear the system.
Open it, he said silently.
"Ding. Beginner gift pack opened."
A translucent virtual panel appeared before his eyes, with three items displayed on its glowing surface:
[Purifying Pill]: Removes all curses, toxins, and parasitic conditions. [Soul-Expelling Pill]: Forcibly expels soul-type entities from the body. [Soul-Slaying Nail]: Deals fatal damage to souls. Single-use consumable.
Chen Ming's breathing nearly stopped for a moment.
These three items might as well have been tailor-made for him.
Take them out.
The panel flashed faintly, and three objects materialized in his hand-a jade-green pill, a grayish-white pill, and a pitch-black iron nail an inch long.
Chen Ming didn't hesitate. First, he stuffed the Soul-Expelling Pill into his mouth. Bitterness burst across his tongue before sliding down his throat.
Within a quarter of an hour, Chen Ming felt a churning inside his body, as though something were being pushed out from its depths. A translucent, ghostly green figure drifted out of his chest-its features were blurred, but there was no mistaking that icy aura.
"You... what have you done to me?!" Yu Zitong's remnant soul writhed in midair, his voice carrying terror for the first time.
Chen Ming said nothing. He raised his hand and hurled the Soul-Slaying Nail at the ghostly figure.
The iron nail became a streak of black light in the air, driving straight into the center of Yu Zitong's forehead.
"No-!!"
The scream lasted only an instant. Like a punctured soap bubble, the soul burst into countless motes of light with a pop, and the Soul-Slaying Nail turned to ash along with him.
Chen Ming let out a long breath.
The chill inside his body was gone. So was that feeling of being watched, of someone coveting his body.
Chen Ming picked up the last pill, the Purifying Pill, and swallowed it.
Then a violent, sea-churning cramp tore through his belly.
Chen Ming's expression changed drastically. He sprang out of bed and staggered toward the privy. Just as he pushed the door open, a burst of crackling, splattering noises rang out, and he felt his trousers instantly fill with something wet.
When the cramps finally subsided, Chen Ming slumped in the privy, staring at the wooden bucket with a face ashen as death.
Luckily, this was his own room.
Following his memories, Chen Ming found some clothes, changed, took a bath, and threw the soiled trousers off a cliff behind the mountain. He stood at the cliff's edge in the wind for a while before slowly returning to Divine Hand Valley.
It was late autumn in Divine Hand Valley, and dead leaves blanketed the mountains. Chen Ming followed the path toward Red Water Peak at an unhurried pace.
He had nothing urgent to deal with now. Yu Zitong was gone, and the poison in his body should have been mostly flushed out by the Purifying Pill. His most pressing concern was his spirit root.
The panel listed his condition as "no spirit root." That meant he couldn't draw qi into his body and would never become an immortal cultivator. In the original novel, it was precisely his lack of a spirit root that had driven Doctor Mo into cultivation deviation and forced him to resort to possession.
But things were different now. He had a system.
Halfway there, the distant clash of weapons and cheers reached him. The disciples of Red Water Peak were training. Chen Ming looked up, and his mood suddenly sank.
He gazed at Zhang Tie nearby. The young man he had taken as a disciple should now have been practicing the Elephant Armor Skill beneath the waterfall. In the original novel, Zhang Tie had mastered its first layer and gained the strength of an ox, yet he had still died in Doctor Mo's possession scheme-his aptitude hadn't been good enough, so he had been discarded like a pawn.
Chen Ming stopped, recalling the original plot: Doctor Mo took Han Li and Zhang Tie as disciples, ostensibly teaching them alchemy and martial arts, but in truth selecting a vessel to possess. Zhang Tie had average aptitude and was abandoned; Han Li had a spirit root and received special attention, only to ultimately kill his master instead.
Now that he had transmigrated into Doctor Mo, following the same path would only lead to death. He resolved to change the original ending.
Chen Ming turned and headed back. Passing the training grounds, he saw Zhang Tie practicing bare-chested beneath the waterfall, his skin flushed red by the cold water, his teeth clenched with every punch.
"Zhang Tie."
Hearing his voice, Zhang Tie turned. Once he recognized the newcomer, he immediately stopped training, ran over, and bowed deeply. "Master!"
"Come with me."
Chen Ming led Zhang Tie back to his wooden hut and pointed at the two buckets by the door. "Fetch water and wash down the front and back of the house."
Without a word of protest, Zhang Tie shouldered the buckets and left.
Chen Ming found a stool in the herb garden, sat down, and opened the system panel.
[Identity] Mo Juren (Human) [Cultivation] First level of the Xiantian Realm [Spirit root] None [Condition] Fair
No spirit root. Those words were like a thorn.
He stared at the panel for a long time before suddenly noticing an extra line of small text in the lower-right corner:
[Rechargeable energy detected. Current energy: 0]
Energy?
Chen Ming took three Low-Grade Spirit Stones from inside his robe-the savings Doctor Mo had accumulated over many years. He tried placing them against the panel.
"Recharge?"
Yes.
The three spirit stones vanished instantly. A number appeared in the panel's lower-right corner: 3.
"Sufficient energy. Draw a prize?"
Draw.
The panel turned into a spinning wheel, its densely packed segments glowing in different colors. It spun for roughly ten breaths before stopping on a segment shining with golden light.
"Congratulations. You have obtained one [Pseudo-Spirit Root Pill]."
Chen Ming took out the pill. It was jade-green, about the size of his thumb, and smelled faintly of grass and wood.
Pseudo-Spirit Root Pill: Grants a pseudo-spirit root upon consumption, providing the basic requirements for drawing qi into the body.
Chen Ming swallowed the pill without hesitation.
The instant it reached his stomach, he felt a warm current rise from his dantian and travel through his meridians, spreading throughout his body. A layer of black impurities seeped out through his skin, as though something were remaking him.
Chen Ming sprang to his feet, his expression changing abruptly-not from pain, but because he had suddenly sensed something in the world around him that he had never perceived before.
Spiritual qi. Thin, cold, but undeniably real.
Chen Ming drew a deep breath, then broke into a run toward the waterfall. He had to find somewhere quiet as soon as possible and see whether he could draw qi into his body.