Kunlun Continent, Dijiang Empire, Swordleaf Forest.
On top of the mountain, there was a deserted temple, with weeds, vines and wild flowers growing in disorder, and there was a dead linden tree lying at the door, cut from its main body that held the temple board sign.
In the centre of the temple stood a tall stone statue with vague facial features of a plump man with grown-out curved teeth on his canines, with eyes closed and hands broken off.
Below the statue, a beggar sat in ragged clothes that were torn and filled with holes, with an unkempt face. He was rubbing his stomach with his right hand, and with his left hand, he jerked it — the only solace he had.
And lying on the floor of the statue, the stick in his left hand, he kept snapping while he looked out at the vast darkness of the midnight sky outside the temple. It was nighttime, and his face was lifeless, with eyes as hollow as those of a starving man.
"Damn old man, if you hadn't died, your precious disciple wouldn't be starving to death."
The beggar's name was Dà Nüèwéi, meaning great disaster, for that is what he was; three years ago, he reincarnated from planet Earth to the Ancient Crystal World and became a student of the Heaven's Origin Sect, with his master being the sect leader.
Three months ago, the Heaven's Origin Sect was destroyed by five other sects, forcing him and his master to flee westwards to the great Dijiang Empire, and with his Ancient Eternal body, that only made the journey worse.
He suffered as countless monsters pursued him and his master across the continent, day and night. Fortunately they arrived at this temple at the Empires Boundary but… His master, to protect him, placed a formation at the temple entrance, sacrificed the little life he had left and created a protection boundary for him.
And this time, he didn't leave him any tools to survive with. It's been two months of living off the temple's meagre offerings, but for the past month, the flood of ghosts haunting the temple has driven people away. With no one bringing food, he's been starving and surviving only on raisins, leaves, grass, and rainwater.
Nüèwé— shortened form of his name—sighed.
"It would be better if I had not inherited the Ancient Eternal body."
On this continent of Kunlun, there is a legend that the body belonged to the son of the Ghost Immortal Venerable, who had made and refined the boy's body for him to ascertain divinity, but the boy killed himself right when he was to be refined, entering Naraka and repeating till reincarnation.
Bringing its original intention, as the one who wielded it couldn't cultivate it, but became meat for the strong. Whoever eats the flesh of the body can ascend to immortality.
When Nüèwé learnt of this legend, he panicked and vomited litres of blood. And more importantly, although this Ancient Eternal body could give one the opportunity to reach immortality, it was tasteless to Nüèwé, and it didn't help at all when he consumed his flesh.
Although he couldn't cultivate at all, he and the old man tried many methods to awaken a single meridian, but they couldn't do it. This meant, in the past years on the Kunlun Continent, he had always been an ordinary person, a little ant that others could squeeze to death with one hand just to eat and cultivate immortality.
And through his time for the past three months, he didn't dare step out of the boundary his master had made, not even for a stretch, unless he wanted to be killed.
After all, there are monsters, ghosts and even abominations beyond comprehension beyond that formation that his master died fighting from.
And unless that Old man formation had a crack, those ghosts and monsters will never break it…
*Crack*
'I am fucked' – with a straight face, that was all he had in his thoughts; the formation was beginning to break and when it broke completely, he would be a pig for the chopping.
At that moment, a cloudy wind blew into the temple, causing Nüèwé to shiver from the cold. He wrapped his tattered clothes even tighter around himself. With no shelter or extra clothes, he slept under the midnight sky day and night—whether it snowed or rained. Yet, thanks to his Ancient Eternal body, he could neither get sick nor catch any disease.
"It's the end of another day for this salted fish."
"I hope a maiden will take me to reincarnation."
Nüèwé yawned, huddled under the stone statue, closed his eyes, and prepared to sleep as before, adjusting himself in the lower wooden cupboards.
But at this moment, Nüèwé suddenly felt a chill of terror on his back; his sleepy head suddenly woke up and looked back. I do not know when, but not far behind stood a white shadow.
She was dressed in white, her feet were hanging in the air, her hair was dishevelled, her face was white and ferocious, her eyes were sunken, and her eyes were red.
Through his hair, he could see the blood-red eyes, which were staring at him at the moment.
Those eyes were so wide that they seemed to burst. In an instant, there was a feeling of cold from head to toe, which made his spine chill, his hair stood on end, and the cold sweat broke out.
Nüèwé's heartbeat was so fast that it almost seemed to pop out of his chest!
"Am I seeing things?"
He said this, and as he closed his eyes and opened them again, the figure had completely disappeared. He closed his eyes one more time, reopened them, and saw nothing. Closing his eyes again, he returned to sleep.
It was morning, and the downpour had begun, accompanied by chilly winds that seemed intent on destroying the temple. The wind whistled through the perforations in the temple, making the mountain even creepier.
A cold voice suddenly sounded in his mind.
[Host Detected]
[Initialisation proceeding...]
[Initialisation completed...]
[Matching the ego with the host's voice…]
[Match completed...]
[Domain Opening…]
[Domain Expansion]
[Default setting activated]
[Acquiring from Nearest Formation]
[Range Limit Exceeded]
[Range Optimized: 10 Metres]
[Domain field range: a circular area with a diameter of ten meters in the center of the current statue.]
Nüèwé's eyes widened. Why was a voice suddenly echoing within his head? He looked left and right for a person to blame, but there was no one to be found. He was stunned, and then he had a strange feeling.
He was standing and staring at the stone statue, but everything which belonged in a ten-metre diameter from him was inextricably linked to him and he could sense every fibre of detail on them.
[Mission: Conquer the World of Cultivators]
[Yo, man, what's up?]
Nüèwé's mind was in full frenzy; what was happening? What was this voice in his mind? Was he becoming schizo due to the isolation, or was he running insane?
He kept looking left and right for a person to blame, but there was no one to be found.
[You can't see me, dumbass.]
[I'm in your head.]
'I have gone mad.' He was sure of it at first with the sunken maiden when he asked out loud and now a voice was speaking inside of his mind and what's more, his senses were going haywire with so much information that he could smell it burning.
"Okay, okay, what is your name?"
"Where do you come from?"
"What are you?"
"What purpose do you serve?"
[I'm your golden finger.]
Blood hadn't flown upwards, but Nüèwé felt ecstatic. For the past 17 years of his life, he had been living on the streets, always running, always trying to stay alive. But today, he had received it: a system.
His golden finger as a reincarnator had arrived. A purple screen with various information then appeared within Neuwe's mind and the nature of the system was clarified.
[Preview Page – Initiated]
[Name: Dà Nüèwéi]