The Profound Path was the only thing that mattered in this world.
The Profound Veins were like a Tree that grew within people's bodies and allowed them to follow this path.
In this world, strength was everything.
As the profound strength increases and new realms are reached, the overall abilities of cultivators improve, enabling them to practice profound arts and acquire new profound skills, while the range of abilities becomes broader and more extensive.
... ...
Illusory Demon Realm, Demon Imperial City.
It was a populous and wealthy place; despite being nighttime, one could see lines of horses and carriages in the streets, and the city was bathed in the bright light of streetlamps.
It was midsummer, and dark clouds filled the night sky. The muffled rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance, and due to the dense humidity in the air, it seemed that rain would soon begin to fall.
What was truly impressive was that the population was a mix of various races, including humans, beasts, demons, and even fairies!
Everyone seemed to be living in harmony.
Ten thousand years ago, the Illusory Demon Realm was a sea of chaos. The human and demonic races were at war, and the flames of conflict spread to the four corners of the realm. The first Demon Emperor inherited the legacy of the Golden Crow and became invincible. He led the Twelve Guardian Families and embarked on a centuries-long campaign to conquer and unite the Illusory Demon Realm.
Under the brilliant leadership of the Demon Emperor, the human and demonic races ceased their fighting. He was able to gradually eliminate the conflict between the races and bring peace to the realm. The primordial divine beast, the Golden Crow, became something in which the people of the Illusory Demon Realm placed their greatest faith over the past ten thousand years. Thus, the Demon Emperor became a beloved and revered figure among the citizens of the Illusory Demon Realm across generations.
On the eastern side of the Demon Imperial City stood the domain of one of the oldest and most respected among the Twelve Guardian Families: the Yun Family.
Long ago, the Yun were nothing more than a barbaric tribe from the Northern Passages. Isolated among icy mountains and cutting winds, they fought merely for survival. But then, a leader emerged. The ancestor of the Yun patriarchs created an unparalleled technique, the legendary Purple Cloud Art. With it, he led his tribe on a meteoric rise, dominating vast territories and earning the title of Guardians of the Realm, becoming one of the Twelve Guardian Families and eternizing their name in history.
The era of the Yun Family's greatest splendor came during the generation of Yun Canghai.
At that time, the Yun's influence rivaled even that of the Royal Family. Yun Canghai was considered the second greatest cultivator in the entire Illusory Demon Realm, surpassed only by the Demon Emperor himself. The relationship between the two was not merely political but one of profound friendship and mutual trust. As a symbol of this trust, the Emperor entrusted Yun Canghai with the greatest treasure of his lineage: the Demon Emperor's Seal.
But every light casts a shadow, and tragedy soon befell the Yun.
About a hundred years ago, the Demon Emperor vanished under mysterious circumstances. Yun Canghai, determined to save him, set out with ten advanced-stage Monarchs of the Yun Family on a desperate expedition to the distant Profound Sky Continent. None of them returned.
The loss of the Imperial Seal, combined with the absence of their most powerful cultivators, plunged the Yun Family into a vertiginous decline. As punishment, they were denied access to the sacred Golden Crow's Lightning Flame Valley for a hundred years, and their resources were severely limited. The younger generation, without support, began to lose ground to the other guardian families.
With Yun Canghai's fall, his son, Yun Qinghong, took up the mantle of Patriarch. Despite his efforts and noble character, the decline deepened. Sent by the new ruler of the Illusory Demon Realm, Yun Qinghong and his wife embarked on a dangerous mission to the Profound Sky Continent to try to save Yun Canghai's life.
They returned only with failure, profound wounds... and a young man of unknown origin, declared as the new "Young Patriarch."
All this led the Yun Family to its lowest point. Marginalized, stripped of power, and under constant scrutiny from the other families, the great Yun House was on the brink of the abyss, about to be erased from the history of the Twelve Guardian Families.
Currently, in the family's territory...
The ancient walls surrounded the estate like stone arms, tall enough to block the view of curious onlookers and sturdy enough to withstand centuries of storms and, more importantly, intrigues. Within, the dark wooden buildings with curved roofs seemed to rest under the faint light of spiritual formations, which illuminated the stone paths with a soft glow, as if the clan itself avoided disturbing the night.
The wind blew gently, carrying dry leaves and small fragments of fallen petals from the plum trees.
The sound of leaves scraping across the ground was the only thing heard in most of the territory.
In front of the main hall, two rows of guards stood motionless. Their black armor gleamed under the magical light of floating lanterns, and no one there exchanged a single word.
The gardens, which during the day exuded a faint fragrance of spiritual flowers, at night seemed like a maze of shadows. The stone sculptures, some depicting ancient patriarchs, took on sinister contours in the dim light, as if they could move at any moment.
In the western pavilion, a stronger breeze made the wind chimes hanging under the roof eaves sway.
Behind the mountains flanking the Yun Family's territory, those same mountains that looked like stone teeth cutting into the night sky, there was a narrow and profound valley, surrounded by tall trees with twisted trunks and branches that seemed like fingers pointing to nowhere.
By a not-so-large lake, a teenager of about 17 or 18 years old sat. His appearance was exceptionally beautiful and elegant, so perfect it didn't seem to belong to this world. His long, black hair, smooth as silk and gleaming like the purest obsidian, flowed gently down to his waist, while his eyes, black as the deepest abyss, held a calm and dangerous glint, like two black stars suspended in the night sky. His slender and imposing figure emanated an ethereal and distant aura; he wore snow-white robes and was holding a stone, which he threw into the lake, immediately causing several "splashes."
Ren Zu was, in a way... lost.
Not that this was exactly anew; he always had a certain tendency to feel out of place, but literally crossing into another world definitely took it to a new level.
Originally, he was just another psychology student in his final semester, living his mediocre life in the 21st century. No grand plot twists, no epic romances, no cultivation systems—just exams, theses, and anxiety.
And then he died.
In a completely stupid way, no less.
He didn't expect great rewards from the afterlife, but he also didn't imagine his soul would be thrown into a cultivation world like garbage tossed from a moving truck.
Now here he was, just over a week in this new world, throwing stones into a lake as if that would solve anything.
He picked up another stone, twirling it in his fingers, an automatic gesture. He threw it with more force.
Splash.
Gentle ripples spread across the surface.
A sigh escaped his lips.
The only thing that saved him from an immediate mental breakdown was the fact that he had somehow inherited the memories of the original body, the "predecessor," as he liked to think.
And that's when the gut punch came: he had been reborn into a cultivation novel. More precisely, into *Against the Gods*, a story he remembered reading two years ago... and hating with every fiber of his being.
The protagonist? An arrogant, toxic, petty, and spoiled piece of trash who seemed to collect women like they were achievements in a game, all while acting like a misunderstood messiah. He recalled with particular resentment the nickname fans gave the protagonist: Scum Che.
And the worst part...
Later in the story, he had read an even more ridiculous spoiler: everything was part of an elaborate plan by the so-called Ancestral Goddess, the creator of the world, who was completely obsessed with love for this same Scum Che.
In short?
He was screwed.
Not in a comedic or exaggerated way, not like waking up naked in the middle of the city with a hangover, which had happened once in college. This was the kind of "screwed" that came with knowing the world around him was literally designed to revolve around Scum Che, the egocentric messiah of a celestial harem sponsored by the universe's creator herself.
But you know what was worse?
His identity.
That's where the story started to unravel completely, because here, unlike the original novel he vaguely grains, things were quite different...
His new identity was Yun Ren Zu, son of none other than Yun Qinghong, Patriarch of the once-glorious Yun Family and one of the pillars of the Demon Imperial City.
...Or at least, that's what everyone believed.
The real story was even more absurd:
His "biological" father was Xiao Ying, the man who, according to what he remembered from the novel, had swapped babies with Yun Qinghong years ago to protect the true heir, Yun Che, from potential pursuers after the disastrous expedition of his adoptive parents to the Profound Sky Continent.
In other words?
He was Xiao Ying's biological son but was raised as Yun Qinghong's allged son.
In other words, he should have been named Yun Xiao; but, for some bizarre reason, perhaps a cosmic joke, he kept the same name from his previous life: Ren Zu.
Or rather, Yun Ren Zu, as he was officially called here.
But how exactly did he conclude that he had replaced "Yun Xiao" in the "original novel"?
Well, he remembered being treated as the "Young Patriarch" of the Yun Family, yes... But he also remembered being ridiculed for not being able to activate the Profound Handle of the family lineage, something everyone expected from a true member of the house. His adoptive father's illness only made things worse: the rumors, the looks, the whispered doubts about his true origins—it was all that he remembered from what was said in the novel about "Yun Xiao."
And when he realized that the name Yun Xiao was never mentioned in this world, not in the gossip of the guardians, nor in the Yun Family's records...
It clicked.
He was Yun Xiao.
Or rather...
He was who should have been Yun Xiao.
That character the story treated as a mere sidekick. Well, if the baby swap had never happened, he would have had a fiancée, though even that wasn't guaranteed, since Xia Qingyue was raised by Scum Che's ultimate fangirl. Still, it would have been him who met that genocidal tsundere loli named Jasmine, with enough power to blow up an entire kingdom with a sneeze.
But without the Sky Poison Pearl, he wouldn't have been able to save her.
So, it was useless...
Truly, the support of the [Ancestral Goddess], who apparently had a thing for bad-boy jerks and decided the entire reality should bow to Scum Che's ego, was essential.
There was no point in thinking about how his predecessor's life would have been if the baby swap hadn't happened.
Either way, he had to think of a way to get stronger.
Here, strength was everything.
Those who didn't cultivate were dust waiting for the next gust of wind.
He clenched his jaw.
The only weapon he had was his knowledge of the plot, and if the events still followed the original story, then everything had already begun. He remembered that his predecessor first appeared at twenty-one years old, which meant there were about three years until the encounter with Yun Che... Though his memories weren't perfect, he was almost certain the protagonist was already on his journey through the Profound Sky Continent. And even if they were still ten years before those events, with his current strength, he would never be able to cross continents to seize the opportunities that existed beyond.
In the region where he was, the only truly valuable heritages were the Golden Crow's Legacy and the Evil God's Lightning Seed, but both were completely out of his reach at the moment as well.
Still, he wasn't exactly weak. Thanks to his predecessor's efforts, he had reached the First Level of the Emperor Profound Realm. Cultivators at this level are known as Thrones and have the ability to manifest a Domain, a zone of influence where everything around is affected by their will.
At this stage, he no longer needed food or drink to survive. And once a Domain is formed, everything within it can be transformed into something beneficial to the cultivator, even fully controlled. There are various types of Domains: offensive, defensive, amplification, restriction, intimidation, among others...
In this world, cultivation was divided from bottom to top like a pyramid: Elementary Profound Realm, Nascent Profound Realm, True Profound Realm, Spirit Profound Realm, Earth Profound Realm, Sky Profound Realm, Emperor Profound Realm, Tyrant Profound Realm, Sovereign Profound Realm. Each realm ranges from level one to ten before advancing to the next, and the tenth level of a realm is considered its peak. When someone surpasses the tenth level of a realm but doesn't enter the next, they can be considered a "Half-Step" to the next realm.
When someone's profound strength grows, it essentially means that the density of profound energy in their profound veins is increasing, that their profound energy has become slightly more compressed. When it reaches a certain level of compression, a fundamental change occurs, and that's when one enters a new realm.
Once a cultivator ascends to much higher levels than normal, such as with the help of medicines or legacies, it is crucial that they dedicate time to stabilizing their new power. The most direct consequence of not doing so is that they wouldn't be able to wield their strength stably, and the time their physical bodies could sustain that level of strength would be very short. Their power also wouldn't have the refined control corresponding to their realm: they might be able to release power matching their level, but their defensive abilities would show a lack of strength. In a power clash between two people with the same intensity of power, the one with an unstable realm would suffer a significant backlash, while the one with a stable realm would emerge unscathed.
If they are injured, this condition would be far more severe than before, and they would start losing control over their energy and internal breathing.
Entering a new realm is typically an extremely difficult barrier for profound practitioners. That's why many get stuck at the tenth level or the half-step level and never progress in their entire lives. It's also why medicines that can boost cultivation are highly valued. The gain in strength from crossing a realm is so significant that it's generally impossible for someone at the half-step level of a realm to defeat the first level of the next realm.
The distant sound of thunder rumbled in the heavy sky, and a gust of colder wind came from the valley. The trees shivered, their long branches scratching the air like skeletal hands.
"Well, no point thinking too much about it..."
Ren Zu shook his head and, without much thought, crouched and sat by the water's edge, legs crossed, elbows resting on his knees. His eyes got lost in the distorted reflection of the cloudy sky on the dark surface, where distant lightning left fleeting traces of light with each thunderclap.
"Now what do I do...?"
He ran his hand through the water, his fingertips tracing small circles. The temperature was icy, but he didn't mind. In fact, the cold helped distract from the whirlwind in his head.
Ren Zu leaned a bit closer, letting his entire hand sink into the lake. The water was surprisingly clear, even at night, and he could see his wavering reflection.
But the face he saw there wasn't his.
He had to admit it was very handsome. But what good was having such a beautiful appearance? When he was destined to remain a mere low-level cultivator?
Was it a lack of talent?
He had only twenty profound entries open... which, by normal standards, categorized him as a genius...
The purpose of profound veins is to contain profound strength. Every person is born with a set of profound veins. They begin to grow from birth and reach maturity around the age of fourteen. Although profound veins don't affect a person's life and death, they are still part of the body. The profound veins within the human body are like a sturdy, mature tree, with many "branches" spreading in all directions, and on each "branch" was a profound entry. As for the "trunk," it was the most important central position of the profound veins, the base of all profound veins. At this base, there were no profound entries.
In total, a person can have only fifty-four Profound Entries. An ordinary person is endowed with about ten profound entries open, while a person with high innate talent may be endowed with about fifteen profound entries open. A person with twenty naturally open profound entries can be considered an exceptionally gifted talent. If someone has more open profound entries, their cultivation and activation speed increase. A practitioner with twenty open profound entries would undoubtedly cultivate and activate their profound strength twice as fast as a practitioner born with only ten open profound entries.
The number of innately open Profound Entries essentially determined the height someone could reach in their lifetime, as it was extremely difficult to open Profound Entries after birth. Extremely advanced miraculous medicine, chance, and luck—none of these factors could be absent. Using external forces to open Profound Entries would come with extremely high risks; even the slightest mistake would cause irreparable damage to the Profound Veins...
But although he could be considered a genius by normal standards, he was far lacking compared to the true talents capable of reaching the Divine Realm, above these low-level cultivators in this world; and being honest, he wanted that...
No.
He had always wanted it.
Even in his past life, in that monotonous existence surrounded by bills, exams, fake relationships, and empty promises, Ren Zu had never settled for being just another face in the crowd. He smiled, made jokes, pretended to be content... but the truth was different.
Deep down, he despised that banal existence.
He despised complacent people.
He despised friends who accepted their mediocre fates.
He despised himself, for being trapped in that miserable routine.
There were moments, at night, when he stared at the ceiling of his small student apartment and imagined what it would be like to possess true power. Not the petty power of an HR manager or a corrupt politician, butsony, but the kind of power that made worlds tremble at the sound of his name.
A power that allowed him not only to control his own life but to decide the fate of everything around him.
He never told anyone.
He never dared admit it.
But that cruel, insatiable desire burned in his soul from the start.
And now...
Now that he had been reborn in this absurd world, where strength defined who was a man and who was dust... where the concept of "right" and "wrong" was shaped by the sharpest blade and the strongest fist... he had an opportunity.
No.
The only opportunity.
Because he wouldn't accept being a bystander.
He wouldn't accept being a sidekick in someone else's story.
Especially not in the pathetic tale of a spoiled brat like Scum Che.
That's why he was thinking so much about it and was so frustrated with his situation. Although he had this ambition, he didn't have the means to achieve it, no way to leverage his meta-knowledge of this world, and he had the crazy bitch of a creator of this world as a sword hanging over his head, ready to come down at any moment...
But before he could sink further into that whirlwind of thoughts, something... different happened.
His submerged hand touched something that shouldn't have been there.
Before he could pull his arm back, a faint bluish light emerged from the water and spread over his fingers, enveloping them like ethereal threads.
Ren Zu's eyes widened, a shiver running up his spine.
"What the hell...?"
The light climbed up his arm, toward his chest, and then... vanished.
The moment the glow entered Ren Zu's body, the world before his eyes turned monochromatic...
"Ughhhhhh...…"
In that instant, he felt as if he were being stabbed by tens of thousands of swords. Immense agony violently erupted from the corner of his mouth, causing him to let out a groan of pain. His entire body began to tremble violently, while his vision also blurred until it became completely a red shadow, and he fell to the ground, writhing.
Due to the consciousness of his predecessor, who had cultivated up to the Emperor Profound Realm, he was familiar with the cultivation of the Profound Path and could internally sense his Profound Veins. He was shocked to discover that they were being remade! He could "feel" it perfectly, as if he were "seeing" it with his own eyes; his cultivation vanished entirely...
Instantly, his cultivation disappeared completely! He could only "watch" helplessly with his inner vision as his Profound Energy vanished from his Profound Veins, leaving him as weak as an ordinary person again; a second later, his Profound Veins were devoured.
Obviously, he would have panicked at losing all the strength he inherited from his predecessor, but his mind entered a strange state as it processed sudden information that appeared in his brain about what was happening. He felt the growth of new Profound Veins in his body, and the growth speed was extremely fast: roughly ten times faster than the speed at which they had vanished before. The empty feeling from moments ago was replaced by a new sense of fullness, and the pain he had experienced also dissipated like the tide of an ocean.
Next, all the impurities in his body were removed, and his bones and muscles seemed to become transparent. He could feel that his body had profoundly changed to accommodate the new set of Profound Veins...
He collapsed sprawled on the ground, panting, with his arms and legs spread out. For a moment, he could almost hear the muffled sound of "Sii Sii Sii Sii Sii," coming from the Profound Entries opening one after another. Not even half a minute passed, and all fifty-four Profound Entries of his newly reborn Profound Veins were fully open.
According to the information that had appeared in his mind, he had absorbed the [World Prime Liquid], a legendary treasure originating from the novel "Emperor's Domination". In fact, it was a diluted version of this mythical substance, but it still carried an endless primordial chaos, as if it contained time itself before the formation of heaven and earth. This liquid was capable of completely refining a being, restructuring their body and granting them infinite potential. In practice, it seemed as though this mythical treasure had adapted to the laws and rules of this new world, molding itself to function perfectly within its structure.
His Profound Veins were completely rebuilt. Unfortunately, he lost his cultivation, but in exchange, he gained unparalleled potential. He now possessed the Heavenly God Spiritual Veins, which are achieved when all fifty-four Profound Entries are opened. Having these veins means that the speed of profound cultivation, flow, gathering, and release of profound energy are elevated to a higher level, as if operating under different laws, allowing the profound veins to ascend to a realm beyond "human." There would also be no limit to any profound skill practiced, and they would never encounter a bottleneck in profound strength...
But his were an infinitely superior version even compared to those granted by Yun Che and the Sky Poison Pearl with its unmatched purification power. They didn't just offer this "benefit"; he had gained maximized affinity with any element due to Chaos coming before all else, and he had also gained some other innate abilities.
When he advanced to the next level in his cultivation base, his foundation would be updated, and all his flaws would be eliminated instantly and automatically. Additionally, he had gained the ability to completely conceal his cultivation level and could manipulate his Profound Energy to an unparalleled degree; its release was dozens of times better than someone with Heavenly God Spiritual Veins...
All these benefits left his mind in shock... But nothing compared to the surprise of how he had managed to acquire the [World Prime Liquid].
This was due to the unique ability he had received upon being reborn in this world. Essentially, he could plunge his hand into any liquid surface and randomly pull out something from among the myriad existing worlds. Anything he fished out would automatically be converted to fit the rules and cultivation system of this world.
In the case of the [World Prime Liquid], since it was the first item he "fished," the liquid was immediately absorbed, merging with his body without any resistance. However, he soon realized that from then on, everything he pulled with this ability would appear in the palm of his hand.
If they were physical objects, they would be there intact. If they were techniques, manuals, or arts, they would automatically convert into Profound Jades, which could be crushed so that the knowledge contained within would be directly imprinted in his mind. This mechanic made his ability even more formidable, allowing him to access even the mind of someone from other worlds to take their techniques...
Since this ability didn't yet have an official name, he decided to call it "Fishing the Heavens."
Ren Zu lay there on the ground for a few seconds, breathing deeply while observing his Profound Veins and thinking about his new ability. His heart was still racing in his chest, but the pain had vanished. In its place, only a slight burning remained in his veins, as if his entire body was adapting to something new.
He opened his eyes and stared at the cloudy sky, with thunder booming in the distance.
"Holy shit..."
He murmured, feeling the strange energy still coursing through his body.
He sat up slowly and, for the first time since arriving in this world, realized something had truly changed. He could feel the energy around him in an absurd way, as if the elements in the air were more... alive?
He closed his hand, clenched his fist, and felt the strength spread through his arms. Although he was a mere mortal who wasn't even a cultivator now, he could feel as if he had been reborn and literally swapped bodies...
"Hahaha…"
A wide smile spread across his face.
"This is what I'm talking about, damn it!"
The excitement was building.
"Fishing the Heavens, huh...? Sticking my hand in the water and pulling treasures from any world?"
He looked at the lake in front of him and laughed to himself.
"Is this for real? Man... this is ridiculous... and I love it."
He jumped to his feet, his hair swaying. His body felt lighter, sharper, as if everything had been optimized. He looked at his reflection in the water and let out another laugh.
The excitement was written all over his face. For the first time since waking up in this hell of a world, he felt thrilled.
He needed to test the limits of his new ability!
__________________
A/N: Quick Notice
Good afternoon, everyone!
I'm still a bit sick, but since this chapter was finished a few days ago, I decided to post it so you can check it out and let me know what you think.
About Ren Zu's ability — it obviously has much greater limits than it seems at first and was basically meant to give him an initial boost. Don't expect it to keep showing up or carrying the plot all the time… the idea is for him to build his own foundation to reach this world's highest levels, without relying on a system or some god's blessing. I wanted to give my own touch and create a "golden finger" without falling into the usual clichés.
As for the harem: I'm open to your suggestions! I'm still deciding who will be part of it, so feel free to drop your ideas in the comments about which characters you think would fit this story.
Oh — just to be clear: this story will be a side project. It'll probably be a bit long, but it won't have daily chapter releases. My main focus is still the DxD story, and in fact, I'm finishing up the next chapter and should be posting it tonight.
Anyway, I'd love to know what you're thinking of this new story so far. Let me know in the comments!