Chapter 3: This Daughter Is Clearly a Genius Yet Taken for Trash
Time flew like a shuttle; the years passed like an arrow.
Unknowingly, another six years went by.
Inside the valley, a little girl as delicate as carved jade sat cross-legged on the ground. Her ears twitched slightly, and just as she was about to scratch them, a stern voice suddenly rang in her ear.
"Focus your qi, concentrate your mind, and unify your thoughts."
Chen Chang'an, holding a ruler in his hand, watched every movement of the small figure before him while idly glancing through the system panel.
This system had awakened the day he transmigrated — his so-called golden finger — with a name as blunt as it was arrogant: the Strongest Across the Worlds System.
Yet, for reasons unknown, aside from the daily sign-in and system space, every other function was greyed out.
Still, through the years, Chen Chang'an had gradually figured out some patterns.
For example, daily sign-in rewards could be roughly divided into three categories:
The first was a certain number of years of cultivation — guaranteed with every sign-in — ranging from one to one hundred years.
The second was items, a dazzling variety that ranged from basic spirit stones to the highest-grade imitation immortal artifacts. True immortal artifacts, however, had never appeared, perhaps because the probability was too low.
The third was Supreme Immortal Techniques, which the system directly implanted in his mind all at once. Though he didn't need to cultivate them himself, he had become a veritable theoretical master in cultivation.
Supreme Immortal Techniques, however, were extremely rare — in five hundred and seventy years of sign-ins, he had only obtained five: the Four-Phase Sword Formation, Nine Heavens Thunder-Moving Sword Art, Graceful Soaring Swan Art, Heaven-Defying Single Sword, and Great Sun Heaven-Burning Scripture.
He turned his focus back to the small figure before him.
The infant from back then had grown into an adorable little girl.
Though he considered himself a useless man, he still held the wish for his daughter to soar like a phoenix. When she turned five, he began guiding her in cultivation.
Out of all his Supreme Immortal Techniques, he chose for her the one he felt best suited for a girl — the Graceful Soaring Swan Art.
— As swift as a startled swan, as fleeting as flowing light, traversing a thousand li in a single thought, beyond the reach of all techniques —
Now, the girl's breathing was steady, her body radiating a soft, mystical glow. Clearly, she had already entered the threshold of mastery.
In any sect, she would be treasured beyond measure.
But unfortunately… her teacher was a father with no perception for talent, whose only benchmark was himself.
Sensing the rate at which his daughter absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, Chen Chang'an sighed inwardly. Faster than my own cultivation by a good margin, but still not by much. At this speed, it'll take at least a thousand years for her to reach my current level.
Ah, the daughter of a useless man is useless too.
Wait, Xingcai isn't my biological daughter…
No, she carries my bloodline. That's no different from being my own.
His thoughts wandered, but he didn't stop her training.
Even if she had no exceptional talent for cultivation, giving a girl some self-defense ability was still a good thing.
When the sky began to darken, the day's practice ended. The little girl leapt up, wrapping her arms around his neck, and said with a joyful smile, "Daddy, I think I've hit the bottleneck you mentioned today. I should be breaking through to the Profound Connection Realm soon."
"Mhm, mhm, my Xingcai is amazing. Daddy will make crispy ribs for you tonight, how about that?"
"Yes! I love Daddy the most!"
Hopping down from her father, Chen Xingcai dashed toward their little house.
Watching her adorable back, Chen Chang'an felt completely healed inside.
Forget it, so what if she's a waste? She's my daughter after all.
Cheerfully following after her, he began to debate in his head whether to add more salt or more sugar to the ribs. Xingcai's loved sweets since she was small… I'll make them sweet.
…
"You little brat! You've gone too far!"
A massive grey bear roared, speaking in human tongue, as it wildly swung its thick claws. A layer of earthy-yellow light coated those claws, and each strike came with the faint howl of wind and thunder.
On its somewhat honest-looking face twisted an all-too-human expression of rage.
This grey bear was the demon king of a blessed land a thousand li away. Three hundred years ago, it had found a Dragon Soul Grass seedling and had painstakingly nurtured it.
Now, after three centuries, it had matured. Just as it was about to pluck it and attempt a breakthrough to the Returning Origin Realm, three disciples from an immortal sect ambushed it, seizing the herb before it could react.
Though it was one major realm above those disciples, they were clearly sect elites, skilled in a defensive formation that blocked all its attacks, while bombarding it with endless magical treasures and talismans.
Their cultivation was far beneath its own, yet they fought it to a standstill, leaving the grey bear seething with frustration.
"Heaven-born treasures cannot fall into the hands of beasts like you," one disciple sneered, flicking out a few thunder talismans. The grey bear failed to dodge in time, its fur singed black, crying out in pain.
"Bullshit! What damned heaven-born treasure? I watered it with morning dew every day, nurtured it with spirit arrays — what the hell does that have to do with 'heaven-born'?"
"This…" The talisman-using disciple was momentarily at a loss for words. The other disciple beside him, looking as though he hated iron for not becoming steel, said coldly, "Junior brother, why waste words with it? Heaven-and-earth treasures belong to the virtuous."
"Virtuous? Ha! Hahaha! As expected of immortal sect disciples — killing to seize treasures while dressing it up in such righteous-sounding words." The grey bear laughed angrily and struck out with full force again.
The disciple who had just spoken was grazed in the chest, light flashing around him as his defensive artifact shattered instantly, leaving several deep claw marks across his torso. Yet his mouth was as unyielding as ever. "You don't count as human. Demonic creatures should be slain by all. I am of the orthodox immortal sect — what's wrong with slaying demons and eradicating evil?"
"We of the demon race are also the true orthodox of the Xuan Ying Continent. You're the heretic — your whole family are heretics!"
The disciple sneered. "Can you claim that in your hundreds of years of cultivation, you haven't taken a single human life?"
The grey bear was struck speechless, then flew into a rage. "You humans eat meat every day — do you know how many living beings you kill for that? So what if I kill a few people?"
"Humans are the leaders of all living beings. How can we be compared to wastes like you?"
"Heaven and earth are unkind, treating all living things as straw dogs."
The three disciples and one demon traded both blows and words.
After a long exchange, the three disciples shouted in unison, "Three Talents Sword Formation — break for me!"
A beam of golden light descended from the sky, slashing straight at the grey bear's face.
The bear's expression grew solemn. Hastily forming a hand seal, it opened its maw wide, spitting out a crimson sphere the size of a chicken egg.
Boom! Red light collided head-on with golden light, the impact blasting shockwaves in all directions. Four figures were thrown back dozens of meters. The grey bear's face turned ashen, and it coughed up a large mouthful of blood.
This was a huge loss — its cultivation would at least regress by a minor realm.
Smiling bitterly, it glanced toward the settling dust where three figures were already climbing back to their feet. Suddenly, it realized that while the Dragon Soul Grass was important, it was nothing compared to centuries of hard cultivation.
Now gravely wounded, who knew what other strange methods these disciples still had up their sleeves? If it died here over sheer stubbornness, that would be the greatest loss of all.
Time to run!
With no more thought for the spiritual herb, it summoned a gust of demon wind and fled toward a nearby valley.
"Haha! That bear demon ran!"
Seeing it retreat, the disciples decided to quit while ahead, happily flying off with the herb.
The grey bear's demon core was damaged. After flying only a short way into the valley, its internal injuries flared up. With a swoosh, it fell from mid-air, crashing into a patch of flowers and grass. Just before losing consciousness, it vaguely saw a small figure running toward it.
…
It didn't know how long had passed when it slowly awoke.
The first thing it saw upon opening its eyes was a pair of round, bright eyes looking at it with curiosity.
A human little girl.
The grey bear's heart instantly filled with hostility.
Demons, as true spirits born of heaven and earth, possessed senses entirely different from humans.
For instance, right now, it could smell the pure scent on the girl and feel the rich spiritual energy flowing within her.
This was… Penetrating the Profound Realm?
Just a few years old, yet already having broken past the innate shackles to attain mastery at the Penetrating the Profound Realm? Such extraordinary talent could only be the result of immense favor from the heavens.
If she did not die prematurely, she would likely become a future Saint Venerate of the human race.
Thinking of how his painstakingly nurtured spiritual herb had been stolen by humans, the grey bear's thoughts turned dark.
Heh… Heaven helps me after all. They take my breakthrough herb, I'll destroy one of their future Saint Venerates. That's a trade worth making.
Still, this little girl had already reached the Penetrating the Profound Realm — she could not be treated as an ordinary child.
And in his current condition, he would have to gather all his remaining power to ensure a single killing blow.
With that decision, the grey bear began condensing the last of his strength.
Then, he heard the little girl's soft, milky voice call out:
"Daddy, come quick! This bear seems to have woken up."
Daddy? There's someone else? All the better, I'll—
Just as the killing intent rose in his mind, alarms blared in his instincts. From the depths of his being, a primal fear drove him to curl up tightly.
In the next instant, a vast, star-river-like aura surged across every inch of his senses, blotting out the sky.
It was not an unfamiliar feeling — he had experienced it centuries ago at a demon saint's birthday banquet.
Even now, he could recall the grandeur of that scene.
Tens of thousands of demon kings, each dozens or hundreds of times stronger than him, kneeling in unison across a plaza thousands of zhang wide, performing three bows and nine kowtows, loudly offering congratulations.
At the time, he hadn't even been qualified to step onto the plaza, only able to watch from afar—
The figure, small as any ordinary human…
But the billowing demon aura rose like desert smoke, soaring into the heavens—
And then… it blotted out the sun and sky!