Chapter 1: An Irrelevant Existence
Lu Yang’s vision blurred, intense pain shooting from his severed legs, the only thing keeping him conscious being the powerful vitality of a peak Body Tempering Realm cultivator refusing to go out.
But even that would at most last a few minutes.
It couldn’t be helped; his injuries were too severe, the blood loss too intense.
Lu Yang’s gaze landed on the dark robed figure in the main hall, as if wanting to engrave it upon his mind.
"W... why..."
His aged voice was terrifyingly hoarse, spoken out through gritted teeth and eyes that burned with intense hatred.
The black robed figure looked down at him calmly, no hint of an emotion in those merciless eyes as he crouched down.
"Dead men don’t ask questions."
*Swoosh!*
The figure swiped his palm, causing blood to splatter.
The reflection of a headless corpse appeared in Lu Yang’s eyes.
That was his own body.
Memories flashed through his mind, of towering skyscrapers, rockets launching towards space, a brilliant civilization hidden amongst the stars, advancing in every step to explore the mysteries of the universe.
Of laughter in high school cafeterias, the pain of teenage love, of countless lights filling the night sky, not belonging to the stars, but a proof of human warmth.
The screeching of tires, dim lights of a hospital room ceiling, faces filled with sorrow...
And then, endless darkness, darkness that seemed to devour everything.
The scenery changed abruptly; great mountains that seemed to obscure heaven and earth, palaces and pavilions that reached the sky, an ancient civilization where the strong prey on the weak, and ordinary commoners are no different from cattle and sheep.
A sword light that pierced the clouds, a magnificent figure in flowing robes stepping on still air, a single man forcing back an army of thousands...
A world where the law of the jungle prevails, where strength is revered above all else.
A world... where true invincibility, eternity, and transcendence are not mere dreams but true possibilities.
It has been exactly 79 years since Lu Yang was reincarnated into this vast world.
Combined with the memories of his past life, his mental age was around a hundred years old.
In the first few years of his life, he had learned that there were extraordinary beings in this world known as cultivators, practitioners of mystical and martial abilities capable of overturning heaven and earth, pluck the stars and grasp the moon, living as long as the mountains and rivers.
However, these powerful beings were too far away from Lu Yang, who was born in a small village of less than a hundred households, where the only true cultivator was the village chief, at the Third Stage of Body Tempering Realm.
As fate would have it, when he went to the county town for the first time with his father at the age of 8, it happened to coincide with the annual disciple recruitment ceremony of the Azure Spirit Sect, a top tier force in the Luoyun Prefecture, and he was accepted as a menial disciple.
With the path to immortality right before his eyes, Lu Yang never considered refusing.
He believed that since he had reincarnated, then there must be something special about him.
So what if he was just a menial disciple?
He would undoubtedly achieve great heights on the path of cultivation, becoming an Emperor and a God, perhaps even touching that elusive goal of immortality!
He toiled day after day for more than ten years, barely managing to break through to the Fourth Stage of Body Tempering Realm, and was promoted to the outer sect.
No system panel appeared, he didn’t find any tattered book recording an unparalleled cultivation technique, and no elder with seemingly unfathomable cultivation emerged to guide him.
Yet, Lu Yang refused to believe he was ordinary.
Perhaps his talent was perseverance, once proven, always proven, great effort always leads to success, no bottlenecks in cultivation, the kind which six out of ten protagonists of mortal stream novels would have.
This was the beginning of his comeback, he thought.
But he was stuck at the Sixth Stage of Body Tempering Realm for years, a true bottleneck and the end of the path for many with low level talent.
Nearly forty years old, he finally managed to grind away the bottleneck with bitter effort, and achieved the Seventh Stage of Body Tempering Realm, becoming one of the higher end outer disciples.
It was at that time he was noticed by Liao Cheng, a inner sect disciple of the Azure Spirit Sect, at the Spirit Awakening Realm!
An ordinary Spirit Awakening Realm cultivator would be a powerful figure in any Prefecture, much less one who was a inner disciple of a major force such as the Azure Spirit Sect, considered a distinguished guest even for the Prefect.
Most importantly, Liao Cheng was a direct subordinate to the only personal disciple of an Azure Spirit Sect elder, one of the most influential figures in the Luoyun Prefecture, a true Essence Gathering Realm powerhouse!
Lu Yang thought that his opportunity had finally arrived, perhaps, his path to Spirit Awakening was not yet cut off!
And indeed, with the support of Liao Cheng, Lu Yang broke through to the Ninth Stage of Body Tempering Realm much faster than anticipated, at just a little over 50 years.
However, even with all the resources, Lu Yang’s own talent was abysmally low, and he only barely managed to reach the peak of the Ninth Stage of Body Tempering Realm just before turning 60, with virtually no hope of Spirit Awakening.
Liao Cheng’s contact with him became less and less frequent until their so-called friendship completely disappeared.
Now, at 79 years of age, Lu Yang, still an outer sect disciple of the Azure Spirit Sect, was just going through the monotone days, waiting for his lifespan to end.
His parents had passed away, and he no longer had anyone left from his village he knew.
Obsessed with cultivation, he had few friends within the sect and never married, certain that his destiny was far more than just that.
By now, he had already accepted his fate, that he was an ordinary person in an extraordinary world, just like the rest, not any special just because of his status as a transmigrator or reincarnator.
Yet, there was still a trace of extreme unwillingness in his heart.
When he was about to continue his cultivation for the night, a black robed figure silently broke into his house, and without wasting any words, brutally severed both his legs from the waist level with a single wave of hand.
He had no idea who this person was, but to display such high level of skill, it was very likely to be someone who cultivated powerful cultivation techniques and martial arts while being at the peak of Body Tempering Realm, just like himself.
He had a vague feeling about why this person targeted him, but now...
He had no need to dwell on it any further.
He was already dead.
In the endless expanse of primordial darkness, just as the final trace of his consciousness was about to dissipate...
*Boom!*
A blinding light erupted in his field of vision, followed by a great roar, causing him to become clear headed in an instant!
A towering script unfolded before his conscious, the ancient, blank pages flipping for what seemed to be an eternity yet also a mere instant before settling on the very first page.
Words began to appear on the page as if written by an invisible, absolute ink.
[Name: Lu Yang]
[Cultivation: Ninth Stage of Body Tempering Realm.]
[Lifespan: 79 years.]
[Fate Trajectory: Born into a world of cultivation, you had boundless aspirations, and with the right combination of luck and talent, you managed to enter the Azure Spirit Sect. Struggling at the bottom for over a decade, you achieved the status of a outer disciple with unceasing effort, believing destiny to be in your hands, only to be crushed when the constraints of talent began to bind you. Developing cautiously, yet involuntarily drawn into a conspiracy, you died at the age of 79, at the peak of the Ninth Stage of Body Tempering Realm. Perhaps the only virtue you had in life was having a good sworn brother, who achieved a breakthrough to the Spirit Awakening Realm after your passing and searched relentlessly for your murderer, vowing to bring you justice. Your death in itself was a small matter, but it triggered a series of chain events that caused a small upheaval in the Azure Spirit Sect, nearly leading to the fall of two Spirit Awakening Realm great families and the deaths of more than one Spirit Awakening Realm cultivators.]
[Life Evaluation: An ordinary person with no special achievements, with ambition but no ability, dying in boundless regret, like a spark being extinguished.]
[Obtained 47 Reincarnation Points.]
[Allocate attributes for your next life]
[Talent: 0(+)]
[Comprehension: 0(+)]
[Background: 0(+)]
[Luck: 0(+)]
A golden finger...
Looking at his Fate Trajectory and Life Evaluation, Lu Yang fell silent.
A spark being extinguished, an ant trying to shake the heavens...
He turned his gaze towards the points allocation, and a trace of determination flashed past his mind.
"No matter what, this is a golden finger, my only chance to transform this faint spark into a prairie fire, an all-devouring flame capable of swallowing the heavens. So what if it’s some higher being playing games with me? I, Lu Yang, have nothing to lose!"
With a thought, he completed his stat allocation, distributing all his Reincarnation Points across his four attributes.
[Talent: 15]
[Comprehension: 15]
[Background: 7]
[Luck: 10]
At that very instant, he seemed to have touched upon some invisible rules, becoming entangled with the Karma of the Script of Reincarnation.
[Erasing all karmic traces related to the True Name "Lu Yang" of your previous existence in process... process completed.]
[Turn the page?]
There was only a brief silence before Lu Yang’s thoughts moved, and the Script of Reincarnation trembled.
The new page turned, the first Chapter officially concluded, beginning the next Chapter of Lu Yang’s nearly endless journey across countless lifetimes.
