Obtaining the System: Writing a Diary Makes Me Stronger

The Primordial World.

A place countless miles from Jin'ao Island.

Nearly at the edge of the Interception Sect's cultivation grounds.

There stood an ordinary-looking little mountain peak.

Vegetation was sparse on the peak, and its Spiritual Qi was not abundant either.

On the somewhat desolate peak stood only a rather rudimentary wooden hut.

A rather handsome young man walked in from outside.

He set the firewood he had chopped on the stone platform in the courtyard.

Then he stared at the empty mountain peak and sighed helplessly.

"It's been eight hundred years since I transmigrated."

"So why hasn't a system shown up? Can systems be late too?"

The young man's name was Lin Tian.

He had transmigrated to the Primordial World eight hundred years ago.

He had the cultivation of an Earth Immortal as soon as he transmigrated, and he had felt pretty good about it.

But as time went by,

Lin Tian realized he had been seeing things through rose-colored glasses.

Eight hundred years had passed.

His cultivation had remained at the Earth Immortal realm, without the slightest progress.

That had made Lin Tian increasingly anxious.

During the Investiture of the Gods,

Quasi-Saints walked everywhere, and Great Luo were worth less than dogs.

An Earth Immortal's strength was simply nothing to look at.

Yet in those eight hundred years, Lin Tian hadn't seen even the shadow of a system.

Without a system, his cultivation progressed slowly.

And the Investiture of the Gods tribulation was the greatest tribulation to date.

Even Saints thought of danger in times of peace, let alone a mere Earth Immortal.

At that thought, Lin Tian couldn't help feeling helpless.

Just then, however,

a mechanical notification sounded in Lin Tian's ear.

[Ding-dong]

[Great Dao Diary System loaded successfully]

[Activating... Host, please wait a moment]

The mechanical voice rang out.

Lin Tian's eyes flew open, and his gloomy mood vanished like smoke in thin air as a surge of delight welled up inside him.

A system?!

[System activated successfully]

[Congratulations, Host. The Great Dao Diary System is at your service]

[First system activation detected. Host is being granted a special newcomer gift pack]

[Opening newcomer gift pack]

[Ding-dong]

[Host rewarded with the Great Dao Diary and the Great Dao Writing Brush, stored in Host's purple mansion]

[Host, please check your rewards]

[Explanation: Great Dao Diary: can be used to keep a diary; Great Dao Writing Brush: can be used to write a diary]

Lin Tian: "..."

"Have I forgotten how to read?"

"Or is there something seriously wrong with this system?"

Hearing the system's explanation,

Lin Tian felt as though a basin of cold water had been dumped straight over him,

dousing the bit of excitement he had felt at obtaining the system.

But before Lin Tian could complain,

two plain, unadorned objects appeared in an instant on the stone platform before him.

One was an antique-looking diary with a blue cover.

Four Dao characters were written on it, shimmering with astonishing laws of the Great Dao.

Ripples of light emerged and undulated in all directions, impossibly profound.

Beside the diary, a writing brush floated quietly in midair.

The space around the brush was warped by the power of the Great Dao drifting from it.

It radiated an immensely profound power, and strange phenomena appeared one after another.

With the appearance of those two objects,

an incomparably profound Dao resonance spread through Lin Tian's bamboo hut.

Even the space within it became clear.

But Lin Tian, who was only at the Earth Immortal realm, did not notice the change in the bamboo hut.

He stared at the two objects on the stone platform, the corners of his mouth twitching.

The newcomer gift pack is a diary and a writing brush?

"System, did you load the wrong one? This is the Primordial World!"

"Shouldn't you casually give me a sign-in system, a Hongmeng Great Dao system, or a Great Dao choice system to help me cultivate?"

"You want me to write a diary at a time like this?? I really don't know what to make of this..."

As Lin Tian spoke, he felt somewhat speechless.

The place where he lived was beyond the edge of Jin'ao Island, and although he wasn't a disciple of the Interception Sect,

he could at least be considered a native of Jin'ao Island.

If he didn't change things and improve his strength soon, he would be finished when the tribulation erupted.

After all, as someone from a later age, Lin Tian could not have been more familiar with the Interception Sect's fate.

During the Investiture of the Gods tribulation, the Interception Sect was essentially finished as a whole.

Tongtian took the Saint-Slaying Pill and was then placed in confinement.

Some Interception Sect disciples betrayed the sect, while others ended up on the Investiture of the Gods.

It was a tragedy to the very end.

Now a system had finally arrived.

Instead of hurrying to help me improve my strength so I could run away,

it gave me a diary?

You want me to write a diary?

What good could writing a diary possibly do?

The instant that thought crossed Lin Tian's mind,

the system's voice rang out.

[Host, you have misunderstood. The Great Dao Diary System is a product that stands above the Primordial World]

[The Great Dao Diary possesses the power of the Great Dao and can disregard all rules of the Heavenly Dao]

[The writing brush also bears the power of merit. It has already been thoroughly dealt with for Host, and all traces of the Heavenly Dao have been removed. Host, please use it without worry]

[You need only write one diary entry reflecting on your experiences each day to receive a reward]

[Rewards are not limited to treasures, laws, heavenly and earthly treasures, comprehension of Dao principles, cultivation realms, and so on]

[As long as you write a diary entry, you will receive a corresponding reward]

When the system finished speaking,

Lin Tian couldn't help finding it a little strange.

"As long as I write a diary entry about my thoughts, I get a reward?"

"Wouldn't that be as easy as picking something up?"

Lin Tian found what the system had said a little hard to believe.

Still, willing to give it a try, he picked up the Great Dao Writing Brush.

Then he opened the Great Dao Diary.

A strange ripple suddenly radiated from the Great Dao Diary.

A faint, hazy Qi emerged, looking incomparably profound.

Lin Tian did not notice it.

He stared at the first page of the Great Dao Diary, his eyes flickering as though he were thinking.

It wants a diary entry about my thoughts?

There doesn't seem to be much to write...

Hm? I've got it!

A few thoughts flashed through his mind.

Lin Tian took up the Great Dao Writing Brush and wrote his first diary entry on the first page of the Great Dao Diary.

[Some year, some month, some day, some minute, some moment in the Primordial World. I'm in a very bad mood...]

[I chopped a huge pile of firewood, and it'll only last a few days]

[If I could chop down the trees near Biyou Palace for firewood, I reckon they'd burn for tens of thousands of years]

[But the Interception Sect probably won't last another tens of thousands of years]

[So even if I chopped down the trees there for firewood, I wouldn't get to burn them for long. It's not worth it]

[It's just that the Interception Sect is so powerful, yet it played a good hand so badly. I reckon there's an eighty percent chance it's because the sect has traitors]

[Leaving everything else aside, Long-Eared Dingguang Immortal's betrayal alone led to many Interception Sect disciples ending up on the Investiture of the Gods. What a pity]

[Dingguang Xian became the Joyful Buddha of the West in the end. Good for him, all right-good for his fucking mother!]

[One man brought ruin to an entire sect. Might as well kill him sooner rather than later.]

Lin Tian wrote at length about his mood that day, as well as his views and experiences over the past few years.

Before long, Lin Tian had filled the first page of the Great Dao Diary.

Once he was done, Lin Tian closed the Great Dao Diary, put the writing brush away, and muttered to himself.

"Ah, if Tongtian could see what I wrote, he could at least keep the Interception Sect from declining so quickly."

"Then it wouldn't be crushed under the Chan Sect's heel, would it?"

"The Interception Sect, to which ten thousand immortals came to pay homage, which seized a sliver of hope from heaven and earth for living beings, ended up meeting such a miserable fate."

"It really was tragic."

As Lin Tian's muttering died away,

a subtle strand of Great Dao Qi suddenly emerged from the Great Dao Diary.

It transformed into a stream of gray specks of light that darted out the window.

They flew off into the distance.

In that direction lay the center of Jin'ao Island, Biyou Palace!

Lin Tian did not notice any of this.

Just as Lin Tian's muttering died away,

the system's voice rang out in turn.

[Congratulations, Host, on completing your first day's diary entry. Issuing reward]