In the Mysterious Heaven Realm, on Spirit Continent, stood the legendary Celestial Dipper Sect.
As the most badass immortal cultivation sect on Spirit Continent, every time the Celestial Dipper Sect opened its doors to recruit new blood, it would draw hordes of hopefuls from every corner of the realm, each one dreaming of catching that golden ticket to immortality.
Rich kids with family connections naturally wouldn't let a few thousand miles stand in their way.
But for regular folks? They had to roll the dice—either get lucky enough to live close to the Celestial Dipper Sect, or hit the jackpot and catch the eye of some big-shot elder.
As someone who'd been isekai'd from another world, Li Hanfeng figured he must've racked up some serious good karma in his past life—you know, dying while saving people and all that hero stuff. After getting reincarnated, he somehow kept all his memories from before, and even though he was born into a totally ordinary family, he lucked out big time by landing right in the Celestial Dipper Sect's backyard.
Thanks to the sect's protection, nasty demons and psycho evil cultivators were basically extinct in the area, so he managed to grow up safe and sound until twelve. Once his bones finished developing, boom—he finally got his shot at the immortal cultivation game.
Your bone structure and natural talent basically determined how fast you could level up, and to a huge extent, how far you'd make it on the cultivation ladder.
Cultivation talent was ranked from bottom to top as: Trash-tier, Low-grade, Mid-grade, High-grade, Supreme-grade, and the legendary Heaven-grade.
Before joining the sect, Li Hanfeng totally expected to get stuck with the classic "trash protagonist" talent, but plot twist—his test results showed high-grade bone structure. Not too shabby!
Of course, the Celestial Dipper Sect, being the absolute powerhouse of the Mysterious Heaven Realm, definitely valued talent, but they were also cool with giving the underdogs a fighting chance.
Anyone who managed to make it to their doorstep was considered destined to be there.
As long as you weren't completely hopeless in the cultivation department, even trash-tier talents could join as probationary disciples—and here's the kicker: no matter your family background or bone structure, everyone started as probationary disciples. Even heaven-grade prodigies had to prove themselves first.
After becoming a probationary disciple, you got three months to show what you were made of.
After those three months? Final exam time.
Pass, and you'd become an official disciple. Fail, and you either got the boot or became a menial disciple—basically the sect's grunt workers.
Menial disciples could still climb their way up to official status, but with tens of thousands of them competing in the Celestial Dipper Sect, only a dozen—sometimes just a handful—managed to make the cut each year.
Li Hanfeng definitely wasn't planning to go the menial route, so after joining up, he threw himself into cultivation like his life depended on it. Having memories from his past life meant he understood just how precious opportunities like this were—way better than most twelve-year-olds, anyway.
Plus, he could already read before entering the sect, so he only needed three days to get the cultivation basics down before jumping into the real deal.
The perks of high-grade bone structure showed up fast. After starting cultivation, he nailed meditation in just one day, and after two hours of drawing qi into his body while meditating, he hit the Qi Refining realm.
Now, a month later, he was already cruising at the third layer of Qi Refining, just one breakthrough away from the fourth layer.
Most other high-grade talents were still stuck at the first layer, and anyone who managed to break through to the second layer was considered a total rockstar.
Besides being way more dedicated than the competition, there was another reason for his lightning-fast progress.
Resources, baby! Lots and lots of cultivation resources!
The Celestial Dipper Sect had seriously deep pockets. Even probationary disciples got one Qi Refining Pill every ten days from the sect.
One pill every ten days wasn't nearly enough for someone with high-grade talent's cultivation speed, though. High-grade bone structure burned through pills faster, needing about one and a half pills per day to keep up the pace.
For probationary disciples wanting more goodies, they either had to become official disciples—then the sect would shower them with resources—or hustle through sect missions.
On this particular day, Li Hanfeng strolled into the sect's Mission Hall like he owned the place.
The Celestial Dipper Sect was absolutely massive, so they had Mission Halls scattered all over. Each one was huge, and he just hit up the closest one.
Walking in, he saw rows and rows of tables and chairs, each table projecting some kind of holographic light screen.
This was supposedly cutting-edge tech from a hundred years back—spiritual energy projection technology. Anyone wanting to grab missions could browse through the options on these spiritual light screens, then use their sect tokens to claim them.
Sect disciples were pretty stoked about this setup—it was crazy efficient.
But Li Hanfeng walked straight up to the Mission Hall's management desk, where the official sect disciples handled the more complicated stuff.
The Celestial Dipper Sect had solid moral standards, and the official disciples didn't act all high and mighty toward the probationary ones.
"Senior Brother, I'm back to ask if there are any missions that might work for me?" Li Hanfeng, rocking the sect's standard white robes, flashed a friendly smile at the managing disciple Zhou Xuan.
Zhou Xuan looked like he wanted to bang his head against the desk. "Junior Brother Li, are you seriously messing with me right now? You could totally handle this yourself, but you keep insisting on asking me."
"Senior Brother, you know I'm still—"
"A newbie who doesn't know jack about how things work around here," Zhou Xuan cut him off. "Fine, I'll buy that excuse—it's normal, otherwise there wouldn't be any point to my job. But you've been bugging me about this every single day for a whole month, which is getting a little ridiculous, don't you think?"
Li Hanfeng kept his poker face on. He'd been pretty shy at first, but after a month of this routine, his skin had gotten thick as leather. He looked at Zhou Xuan with the most innocent expression he could muster. "Senior Brother Zhou, please help a guy out!"
Zhou Xuan threw his hands up in defeat and let out a long sigh. "I can't deal with you anymore. Fine, I'll cherry-pick a few that might work for you!"
"Thanks a million, Senior Brother. Same as always—just hook me up with two missions!"
"Got it. First up, we've got this one: [Spirit Field Maintenance]. The mountain range where these spirit fields are located is absolutely loaded with spiritual energy—perfect for getting some cultivation done while you work. Three days max, and you can score one Qi Refining Pill worth of contribution points... And then there's this other one..."
Actually, Li Hanfeng wasn't really listening to a word of it.
Because the second Zhou Xuan started describing the first mission, mysterious text popped up in his head—not in any language he recognized, but somehow he understood every word.
[Senior Brother introduces mission with great enthusiasm]
[Accept mission, receive weak karma, can obtain one Qi Refining Pill]
Seeing this text, Li Hanfeng wasn't even slightly surprised.
High-grade bone structure plus a top-tier cultivation sect already had him playing the cultivation game on easy mode.
Turns out, it could get even easier.
A month ago, when he first rolled up to the Celestial Dipper Sect, he'd awakened his cheat system.
The system's power was pretty straightforward—after certain events got triggered, text would appear in his mind, showing him the potential karma that event might generate.
Karma came in four flavors from strongest to weakest: Great Karma, Minor Karma, Strong Karma, and Weak Karma.
Whether he chose to accept karma or cut it loose, both options could score him rewards.
If he went with accepting karma, the stronger it was, the better the loot.
But here's where it got really wild—when the system said "sever karma," it meant business. It would completely cut him out of that fate line.
For example, with this sect mission, if he chose to refuse and sever the karma, someone else would snag the mission immediately, and he'd be totally locked out of it.
Of course, he could only sever karma three times per day, so he had to pick his battles.
To trigger karma in the first place, he needed to interact with people who had brains, which is why he kept bothering Zhou Xuan for mission recommendations.
After Zhou Xuan wrapped up his pitch, he asked, "So, Junior Brother, how do those two missions sound?"
Li Hanfeng snapped back to reality. Two missions had triggered two karma events, both weak karma, and the really pathetic kind that wouldn't offer much in the way of rewards.
He decided to pass, shaking his head. "Ah, sorry to be a pain again, Senior Brother. Those two won't work for me."
Zhou Xuan gave him that classic "I knew it" look and shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat!"
Before, he used to ask what wasn't working about the missions, but by now he was used to this song and dance. At least the guy had patience!
Right then, new text flashed in Li Hanfeng's mind.
[Refuse mission, sever karmic entanglement, obtain two Qi Refining Pills]
After turning down both missions at once, two Qi Refining Pills magically appeared in his pocket.
To score the really good rewards, he'd have to accept karma.
If he chose to sever karma instead, the current rewards were always the same boring "Qi Refining Pills"—one pill per karma thread.
This was the main reason he kept refusing these sect missions.
Same reward for accepting or refusing? Why would he accept and then have to actually do the work?
Even if the missions themselves came with rewards, his current cultivation level only needed two Qi Refining Pills per day, which was already plenty—maybe even too much. No point in going overboard.
Getting exactly what he wanted, he felt pretty pleased with himself.
Time to chow down!
After that, with Zhou Xuan giving him that helpless stare, he bounced from the Mission Hall and headed back toward his place.
With these two fresh Qi Refining Pills, he could smoothly break through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining.
But just as he reached the probationary disciples' living area, a pretty cute female disciple blocked his path.
He knew this girl—she was from his hometown. Wang Mingyue, also blessed with high-grade bone structure.
In their village's generation, only he and Wang Mingyue had any cultivation potential at all, and both had scored high-grade bone structure.
Of course, the reason Wang Mingyue kept tracking him down was because they'd always been tight. Wang Mingyue had always been glued to his hip, and that hadn't changed after joining the sect. In just one month, she'd hunted him down seven or eight times.
"Big Brother Hanfeng, I snagged a really sweet mission that requires going off the mountain. Want to team up with me?" Wang Mingyue's eyes were practically sparkling with affection and hope.
One of life's three biggest delusions: she's into me.
Besides, he was only twelve years old, and the junior sister standing in front of him was also only twelve.
Li Hanfeng naturally stayed completely unmoved.
At the same time, text appeared in his mind.
[Junior Sister's invitation brings great joy to the heart]
[Accept invitation, descend mountain to eliminate demons, receive Great Karma [Path of Destiny], can obtain immortal-level technique [Great Celestial Immortal Art]]
[Accepting this karma will also bring Great Karma [True Immortal's Gaze] [Ascension Tribulation] [Extraterrestrial Demons]...]
[Accepting this karma will also bring Minor Karma [External Enemy Attack] [Sect Crisis] [Rebuild Sect]...]
[Accepting this karma will also bring Strong Karma [Auction] [God Transformation Son] [Ten Thousand Mile Escape]...]
[Accepting this karma will also bring Weak Karma [Conspiracy]...]
"..."
Holy crap, this karma can multiply?!