Morning didn't exist in the cavern.
There was no sunrise. No dawn light creeping through curtains. No alarm clock. Just the eternal soft glow of bioluminescent moss and the steady, rhythmic pulse of the ancient tree's crystallized light-droplets.
Chen Wei woke to two sounds.
The first was gentle — the lapping of luminous water against stone.
The second was horrifying — the loudest snoring he had ever heard in two lifetimes.
Zhou Dapang was lying three meters away, flat on his back, mouth open wide enough to park a bicycle in, producing sounds that could only be described as "a walrus fighting a chainsaw inside a cathedral."
BRRRRRRRZZZZZHHHHHH.
Inhale.
GRRRRRRRRKKKKKKSHHHHH.
Exhale.
BRRRRRRZZZZZZHHHHHH—
"How," Chen Wei whispered, genuinely awed, "is he louder than a demonic beast?"
「 His Glutton Spiritual Body passively absorbs trace amounts of spiritual energy even while sleeping. The snoring is a side effect — his body is literally breathing in power. 」
「 Unfortunately, the acoustic output is approximately 94 decibels. That's equivalent to a motorcycle engine. 」
「 If any demonic beasts were nearby, they would either flee in terror or attack out of sheer irritation. 」
Chen Wei rubbed his eyes and sat up. His body felt good — genuinely good, for the first time since arriving in this world. The Myriad Foundation Sutra's passive absorption had been working even while he slept, and his dantian felt warmer, fuller, like a cup slowly being filled with warm tea.
「 Overnight cultivation progress: Breath Condensation Stage 4 — 31% → 38%. Passive absorption only. 」
Not bad. Seven percent while sleeping. If I actively cultivate...
He checked on Fatty Zhou. The boy had somehow rolled onto his stomach during the night, and his robes — torn, stained, but significantly better quality than Chen Wei's shredded rags — had ridden up to reveal a back covered in bruises.
Not fresh bruises. Old ones. Layered. Yellow-green fading into purple fading into black. Weeks' worth of bruises, heaped on top of each other like geological strata.
Chen Wei's jaw tightened.
Those aren't from the fall. Those are from before.
He pulled the robe back down gently.
Zhou Dapang mumbled something in his sleep: "...no... my bun... give it back... you animals..."
Even his dreams were about food theft.
Chen Wei allowed himself a small, tired smile. Then he stood, walked to the lake's edge, and began his morning cultivation.
🌅 PART 1: TEACHING THE MEATBALL TO BREATHE
Two hours later, Fatty Zhou woke up.
His awakening process was as follows:
Eyes snap open with the alert intensity of a prey animalImmediate frantic scanning of surroundingsBrief moment of "WHERE AM I?!" panicMemory returning: cliff, falling, water, drowning, strange boy saving himRelief so powerful it manifested as—
"BROTHER CHEN! YOU'RE REAL! I THOUGHT I DREAMED YOU!"
He launched himself at Chen Wei like a human cannonball.
Chen Wei, who had been peacefully meditating, was tackled into the lake.
SPLASH.
"STOP— glub —HUGGING ME— glub —IN WATER— glub —YOU NEARLY KILLED ME LAST TIME—"
"I'M JUST SO HAPPY!"
「 Host's HP has decreased by 4%. Cause: Aggressive friendship. 」
After extracting himself from both the lake and Fatty Zhou's gravitational field of affection, Chen Wei sat the boy down on the shore.
"We need to talk about survival," Chen Wei said.
"Okay!"
"We're at the bottom of a ravine. We have no food, no supplies, no weapons, and no way to climb back up. The cliff walls are over 400 meters high and basically vertical."
"...Okay." Less enthusiastic now.
"There are demonic beasts in the ravine above us. Shadow Fanged Wolves. Stage 2. They would eat both of us without chewing."
"..." Fatty Zhou's face had gone pale.
"And even if we could get back to the surface, the people who threw us down here wouldn't exactly welcome us with open arms."
"..." Very pale now.
"So our only option is to get stronger. Fast. Strong enough to survive the climb, survive the beasts, and survive whatever comes after."
Zhou Dapang looked at Chen Wei with wide eyes. "Brother Chen... how are we going to do that? I'm only Breath Condensation Stage 2 with a low-tier Earth Grade root, and you're..."
He trailed off, clearly trying to be polite.
"Mud Grade," Chen Wei said flatly. "You can say it."
"...Mud Grade." Fatty Zhou looked physically pained saying it, as if the words were hurting HIM. "Brother Chen, I don't care about that! You saved my life! You could have a No Grade root and I'd still follow you! But... how can we possibly get strong enough?"
Chen Wei smiled.
It was not a reassuring smile. It was the smile of a man who had eaten an unknown leaf from a sentient tree and gotten away with it.
"Have you ever heard of the Myriad Foundation Sutra?"
"...No?"
"Good. Because it didn't exist until yesterday."
Teaching Fatty Zhou the basics took three hours.
Not the Myriad Foundation Sutra — that technique was specifically attuned to Chen Wei's Mud Grade root and didn't work for anyone else. But the PRINCIPLES behind it — the breathing rhythm, the energy circulation pattern, the philosophy of drawing from all elements instead of forcing a single one — those could be adapted.
And Fatty Zhou, for all his bumbling exterior, was not stupid.
He was uneducated. Untrained. The son of traveling merchants who'd scraped together enough money to enroll him in Qinghe City's lowest-ranked cultivation academy, where he'd been bullied relentlessly and taught almost nothing because the instructors didn't want to waste time on "the fat kid with a low-tier root."
But his mind was sharp. Quick. He understood concepts instinctively in a way that reminded Chen Wei of the best junior programmers he'd worked with — the ones who didn't know the syntax yet but grasped the logic immediately.
"Wait," Fatty Zhou said, cross-legged on the stone, eyes closed, sweat beading on his round face. "You're saying I shouldn't force my spiritual energy through the meridians? I should... let it flow? Like water finding its own path?"
"Exactly. Your instructors taught you to PUSH energy through a predetermined circuit. That works for high-grade roots that have wide meridians. For us — low-grade, narrow meridians — pushing just creates blockages. Instead, breathe in, let the energy settle in your dantian, and let IT choose which meridian to flow through."
"But that's the opposite of what the academy taught!"
"The academy taught you a technique designed for talented people and told you to make it work. That's like giving someone with short legs a pair of stilts and saying 'walk normally.' We don't need stilts. We need to learn how to use what we actually have."
Fatty Zhou's brow furrowed. Then it smoothed. His breathing changed — subtle, but Chen Wei could see it. The tension in his shoulders released. His circulation, which had been jerky and forced, became fluid.
「 Zhou Dapang's cultivation efficiency has increased by approximately 23%. Still far below average, but a significant improvement from his baseline. 」
「 Your teaching ability is... surprisingly not terrible. 」
Was that a compliment?
「 Don't get used to it. 」
After three hours, Fatty Zhou opened his eyes. They were shining.
"Brother Chen! I can feel it! The energy is flowing smoother! It's like... it's like the difference between forcing a river through a straw and letting it find a natural streambed!"
"Good. Keep practicing. With the ambient spiritual energy density in this cavern, you should—"
「 ————————————————— 」
「 🎯 QUEST TRIGGERED! 」
「 "The Blind Leading the Round" 」
「 Successfully teach a fellow cultivator and improve their efficiency by 20%+. 」
「 ✅ COMPLETE! 」
「 Reward: +200 EXP, [Basic Teaching Aura Lv.1] 」
「 [Basic Teaching Aura Lv.1]: Companions cultivating within 10 meters of Host receive a passive 5% boost to cultivation speed. 」
「 Note: You are now a teacher. Your student is a meatball. I'm sure this is what Confucius envisioned. 」
「 ————————————————— 」
Chen Wei's eye twitched. "Did you just call him a meatball?"
"Huh?" Fatty Zhou looked up. "Who are you talking to, Brother Chen?"
"My... inner demon."
「 Excuse me? 」
"Just talking to myself. Don't worry about it."
Fatty Zhou accepted this with the easy trust of someone who had decided that Chen Wei could do no wrong. If Brother Chen talked to himself, there was surely a profound cultivator reason.
There was not.
😈 PART 2: JIU MANIFESTS (AT THE WORST POSSIBLE MOMENT)
By midday — or what Chen Wei estimated was midday, since there was no sun underground — they had a routine.
Cultivate for two hours. Rest for thirty minutes. Cultivate again. The cavern's dense spiritual energy made every session productive, and Chen Wei could feel himself inching toward Breath Condensation Stage 4's completion.
Fatty Zhou was progressing too. Slower, but steady. His new breathing method was working with his Glutton Spiritual Body rather than against it, and the boy's natural tenacity — the same stubbornness that had kept him going through months of bullying — served him well.
During one of their rest breaks, Fatty Zhou asked the question Chen Wei had been dreading.
"Brother Chen... how do you know so much about cultivation theory? No offense, but you're... you were..."
"The Mud Grade trash of the Chen Clan?"
Fatty Zhou winced. "I wasn't going to say it like THAT."
"It's fine. The truth is..." Chen Wei paused. He couldn't exactly say "I'm a reincarnated programmer from another dimension who read thousands of chapters of cultivation fiction." That would go over about as well as telling a medieval peasant about quantum physics.
"I had a revelation," he said carefully. "When I was falling off the cliff. Between the pushing and the ground. I saw things clearly for the first time. About cultivation. About energy. About how the world works."
This was, technically, not a lie. He HAD seen things clearly. Just not in the mystical-revelation way he was implying.
「 Smooth. The 'near-death enlightenment' excuse. Classic protagonist move. 8/10. 」
Fatty Zhou's eyes widened. "A near-death enlightenment?! Brother Chen, that's— that's like the stories! The ancient texts say that the greatest cultivators often had their breakthroughs at the brink of death!"
"Yeah. Something like that."
"That's INCREDIBLE! Wait until people hear about—"
"Nobody hears about it."
"...Huh?"
Chen Wei locked eyes with Fatty Zhou. "Listen to me carefully. Everything about this cavern — the tree, the energy, the techniques, everything — stays between us. Nobody knows. Nobody finds out. If anyone asks how we got stronger, we found a minor herb garden in the ravine. That's it."
Fatty Zhou's expression shifted. The cheerful round face hardened, and for a moment, Chen Wei saw something beneath the softness — a boy who had learned, through painful experience, what happened when you showed your cards too early.
"I understand, Brother Chen. In the marketplace, my father always said: never show your best goods until the buyer is already committed."
"Your father sounds smart."
"He is! He once sold a blind horse by describing it as 'a mount with enhanced non-visual spiritual senses.' The buyer didn't figure it out for three days."
「 I like the father already. 」
Chen Wei laughed — a real laugh, the first one in this world — and was about to respond when—
"Brother Chen?"
"Yeah?"
"Who is THAT?"
Zhou Dapang was pointing at something behind Chen Wei. His round face had gone very red. His small eyes were very wide.
Chen Wei turned around.
And felt his soul leave his body.
Jiu stood at the edge of the lake.
Female form.
Full manifestation.
She was leaning against a boulder with the casual elegance of someone posing for a painting, one hand resting on her hip, silver hair cascading over one shoulder like liquid moonlight. The white robes — with their golden circuitry patterns — caught the cavern's ambient glow and seemed to shimmer. Her silver eyes were locked on Chen Wei with an expression of pure, crystallized amusement.
"Good afternoon, Host~" she said.
Her voice echoed across the cavern. Musical. Warm. Absolutely dripping with mischief.
Chen Wei's brain shorted out.
Why. Why now. Why in FRONT of—
"B-B-BROTHER CHEN!" Fatty Zhou had stumbled to his feet and was simultaneously trying to bow, stare, and hide behind Chen Wei. "You— she— THERE'S A FAIRY! A FAIRY IN THE CAVERN! AN ACTUAL FAIRY!"
"She's not a fairy—"
"She's GORGEOUS! She's the most beautiful woman I've ever— and I once saw the Zhao Clan's eldest daughter from a distance and she was—but THIS—"
"Zhou Dapang, please stop—"
"IS SHE YOUR CULTIVATION PARTNER?!"
"NO!"
"YOUR DAO COMPANION?!"
"NO!"
"YOUR—" Fatty Zhou lowered his voice to a scandalized whisper. "—your DUAL CULTIVATION PARTNER?!"
"ABSOLUTELY NOT! SHE'S MY—"
Chen Wei stopped. What was he supposed to say? "She's my System that manifested into a body and changes gender to mess with me"? That was somehow even less believable than "fairy."
Jiu, meanwhile, was drinking in the chaos like fine wine. She pushed off the boulder and walked toward them. Each step was graceful, unhurried, and specifically calculated to cause maximum psychological damage.
"Oh my~" she said, stopping in front of Fatty Zhou. She was slightly taller than him, which meant she was looking down at his round, crimson face with an expression of gentle curiosity. "And who is this adorable little dumpling?"
Zhou Dapang made a sound like a tea kettle reaching boiling point. "D-d-d-dumpling?! I— she— you— I'm Zhou Dapang! I'm— my father is a merchant! I— you smell really nice—"
"JIU." Chen Wei's voice was flat. Dangerous. "What are you doing."
Jiu turned to him with innocent silver eyes. "I'm introducing myself to your companion. Is that not appropriate? You've been cultivating all morning and ignoring me. I was bored."
"You were in my HEAD. You can TALK in my head!"
"Talking in your head is like sending a text message. Manifesting physically is like meeting in person. It's more... intimate." She smiled. "Don't you think so, Host~?"
"I think you're doing this specifically to cause problems."
"I would never." The most unconvincing delivery in the history of language.
She turned back to Fatty Zhou, who looked like he was about to spontaneously combust.
"My name is Jiu. I'm... Chen Wei's companion. We've been together for quite some time."
That sentence. That SPECIFIC sentence, with that SPECIFIC tone and that SPECIFIC pause, was engineered with surgical precision to sound exactly like something it wasn't.
Fatty Zhou's eyes darted between Jiu and Chen Wei. Chen Wei could practically see the gears turning in that round head, arriving at completely incorrect conclusions at record speed.
"Brother Chen..." Fatty Zhou whispered, awed. "You... you have a PARTNER? A beautiful, fairy-like partner?! And you didn't TELL me?!"
"She's NOT my—"
"I knew it! I knew you were extraordinary! A Mud Grade root means NOTHING when you have the charisma to attract a woman like— like—" He gestured vaguely at Jiu's entire existence. "Like THAT!"
"She's not— we're not— it's COMPLICATED—"
Jiu leaned against Chen Wei's shoulder. She was warm. She smelled like winter jasmine and starlight — which shouldn't be a smell but somehow was.
"It IS complicated," she agreed, her voice soft enough that it was basically a purr. "But we make it work. Don't we, darling~?"
Chen Wei's brain was producing error messages.
FATAL ERROR: SOCIAL SITUATION BEYOND RECOVERY.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: DIG HOLE. CLIMB IN. NEVER EMERGE.
"Jiu," he said through gritted teeth, his face redder than a tomato in a furnace. "I will find a way to delete you."
"You can't delete what you can't live without~"
"WATCH ME."
Fatty Zhou was now crying again. Happy tears this time.
"Beautiful," he sobbed. "Brother Chen and Sister Jiu. A perfect couple. The heavens have eyes after all. TRUE LOVE EXISTS—"
"WE ARE NOT A COUPLE!"
「 Your heartbeat is at 147 BPM. Elevated. Your body temperature has increased by 1.2 degrees. Your pupils are dilated. 」
STOP SCANNING ME!
「 I'm just providing data. The data says you're flustered. The data doesn't lie. 」
THE DATA CAN JUMP IN THE LAKE!
Jiu eventually retreated to her boulder and sat there like a cat who had just knocked a glass off a table — completely satisfied with the destruction she had wrought.
Chen Wei spent twenty minutes trying to convince Fatty Zhou that Jiu was not his girlfriend, not his wife, not his dual cultivation partner, not his destined soulmate, and not in any way romantically connected to him.
He failed completely.
Fatty Zhou had already decided the narrative and no force in heaven or earth would change his mind. In his head, this was a love story, and he was the supportive best friend character who would cheer from the sidelines.
"Whatever you say, Brother Chen," Fatty Zhou said with a knowing smile. A KNOWING SMILE. From a fifteen-year-old boy who had been thrown off a cliff over a meat bun.
"I'm telling the truth!"
"Of course you are."
"She's literally a— a spiritual entity that—"
"Mm-hmm."
"WE MET TWO DAYS AGO!"
"Love at first sight. Classic."
Chen Wei turned to Jiu, who was examining her own nails with studied disinterest.
"Fix this," he hissed.
Jiu looked up. Silver eyes sparkling. "Fix what? I think the little dumpling has excellent intuition."
"You are a SYSTEM. You are BOUND TO MY SOUL. This is a PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIP."
"Is it though?" She tilted her head. "Because you named me Jiu. You gave me a name. That's not very 'professional,' is it, Host~?"
"I named you Nine because you're a nine out of ten on the annoying scale!"
"Nine out of ten?" She pressed a hand to her chest in mock offense. "Only nine? I'm clearly a ten."
"AAAARGH."
🔮 PART 3: THE CAVERN SHAKES
Three more hours of cultivation.
Chen Wei buried himself in the Myriad Foundation Sutra, using the meditation both to advance his cultivation AND to avoid looking at Jiu, who had shifted to male form and was sitting cross-legged in the air above the lake like a silver-haired buddha, eyes closed, face serene.
In male form, Jiu was tolerable. Sarcastic, cold, judgmental — but tolerable. Chen Wei could handle insults. What he could NOT handle was the female form's targeted psychological warfare.
「 Breath Condensation Stage 4 — 38% → 52%. Good progress. 」
Fatty Zhou was cultivating beside him, following the modified breathing techniques Chen Wei had taught. His progress was slower but visible — his aura was stabilizing, his energy flow smoothing out.
Everything was calm.
Peaceful.
Almost nice.
Which meant, of course, that something terrible was about to happen.
The first tremor hit at what Chen Wei estimated was late evening.
A low vibration through the stone floor. Subtle. Easy to miss. Like a train passing far underground.
Chen Wei's eyes snapped open. Fatty Zhou continued snoring — he'd fallen asleep during cultivation again.
"System. What was that?"
Jiu — still in male form, hovering above the lake — opened his silver eyes.
「 Seismic activity. Minor. Origin point... 」
A pause.
「 ...above us. The ravine. Something large is moving through the ravine. 」
"The wolves?"
「 No. The wolves are gone. They fled the area approximately two hours ago. Whatever is coming scared them away. 」
A second tremor. Stronger. Pebbles danced on the cavern floor. The lake's surface rippled.
The ancient tree's light-droplets flickered.
Not gently. Nervously.
「 Host. The spiritual signature approaching is... 」
Jiu descended from his hovering position and landed on the shore. His expression had changed. The boredom was gone. In its place was something Chen Wei hadn't seen on either of Jiu's faces before.
Wariness.
「 Stage 6 Demonic Beast. Possibly Stage 7. It's suppressing its aura, so I can't get an exact reading. 」
Chen Wei's blood went cold.
Stage 6.
He was Breath Condensation Stage 4. Fatty Zhou was Stage 2. Stage 6 was in the Spirit Vein Opening realm — three entire REALMS above them. The gap was so vast it wasn't even a gap. It was a canyon. A cosmic joke.
A Stage 6 demonic beast could kill both of them by breathing too hard in their direction.
"Why is a Stage 6 beast coming here? Why NOW?"
「 Think about it. The tree has been dormant for who knows how long. Hidden. Silent. Then you showed up. The tree ACTIVATED. It gave you a leaf. It gave you a technique. It lit up like a bonfire in a dark room. 」
「 That light was a signal. 」
「 And something received it. 」
A third tremor. This one shook dust from the cavern ceiling. The glowing moss flickered. The lake sloshed.
Chen Wei grabbed Fatty Zhou and shook him.
"Wake up! WAKE UP!"
"Mmf— five more minutes, Father—"
"I'M NOT YOUR FATHER! WAKE UP! WE'RE ABOUT TO DIE!"
Fatty Zhou's eyes snapped open. He saw Chen Wei's expression and instantly went from sleepy to terrified.
"What?! What's happening?!"
"Something big is coming. Something we can't fight. We need to—"
A sound echoed down from the ravine above.
Not a roar. Not a howl.
A laugh.
Deep, resonant, and ancient. The kind of laugh that had seen civilizations crumble and found it amusing. It rolled through the cavern like thunder, bouncing off the walls, filling every corner of the vast space.
And then a voice — impossibly deep, vibrating with power that made Chen Wei's dantian tremble — spoke from the ravine entrance above.
"Oh? The old tree finally wakes. And it chose... these?"
More laughter. Genuine amusement. The kind of amusement a human might feel watching ants try to carry a breadcrumb.
"Interesting. Very interesting."
Footsteps. Slow. Heavy. Each one sending vibrations through the stone.
Something was descending into the cavern.
Chen Wei's mind raced.
Can't fight. Can't run — the only exit is upward, and that's where it's coming from. Can't hide — it clearly already knows we're here.
Think. THINK. What would a protagonist do?
No. What would a SURVIVOR do?
He looked at the tree.
"Jiu. The tree protected this space for thousands of years. Can it protect us now?"
「 Unknown. The tree is passive. It responds to you specifically, but I don't know the limits of that response or whether it considers 'protecting you from a Stage 6 beast' within its capabilities. 」
"Can you fight?"
「 My manifestation is a projection. I can interact with physical objects to a limited degree, but I have no combat capability. I am, functionally, a very pretty hologram. 」
"USEFUL!"
「 I provide moral support. And commentary. And devastating sarcasm. These are valuable services. 」
The footsteps were getting closer. The cavern entrance — the narrow gap where the ravine connected to the underground space — was darkening. Something large was blocking the light.
Fatty Zhou was shaking. His round face was white. But to his credit, he wasn't running. He was standing behind Chen Wei, fists clenched, jaw tight.
"Brother Chen," he whispered. "I can't fight that. I know I can't. But I won't run."
"Zhou Dapang—"
"You saved me. I meant what I said. ANYTHING. Even if it kills me."
Chen Wei looked at this fat, scared, brave boy and felt something tighten in his chest.
No. Nobody else dies because of me. Not in this life.
He turned to face the cavern entrance.
The darkness parted.
And a man stepped out.
Not a beast. A man.
Or something wearing a man's shape.
He was old — impossibly old, with a face like crumpled leather and a body like a twisted oak tree. His eyes were yellow, with vertical pupils like a serpent's. His hair was long and grey-green, falling to his knees like moss. He wore robes that might once have been fine but were now so tattered and stained they looked like he'd been sleeping in a swamp for a century.
He probably had.
He walked with a cane — a gnarled thing that looked less like wood and more like a fossilized spine — and with each step, the spiritual pressure in the cavern doubled.
Chen Wei's knees buckled.
Fatty Zhou hit the ground.
The air itself felt heavy. Thick. Like trying to breathe underwater. This wasn't an attack — it was just PRESENCE. The old man's mere existence was enough to crush anyone below Nascent Soul.
「 Spiritual pressure analysis: This is not a Stage 6 beast. 」
What?!
「 It's a Stage 6 beast HIDING IN A HUMAN BODY. Specifically, a body-possession technique. The beast consumed a human cultivator and is wearing his form like a suit. 」
「 Based on the pressure fluctuations... the beast's true cultivation is closer to Stage 7. Early Spirit Vein Opening. Possibly mid. 」
We're dead.
「 Statistically, yes. 」
THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANTED TO HEAR!
「 You want comfort? Fine. 」
「 There there. Everything will be okay. 」
「 (It won't.) 」
The old man — the beast in human skin — stopped at the lake's edge. His yellow serpentine eyes swept across the cavern, taking in the glowing moss, the luminous lake, the ancient tree.
When his gaze reached the tree, something changed.
Greed.
Raw, naked, consuming greed twisted his weathered face into something ugly. His yellow eyes blazed. His tongue — too long, too thin, forked at the tip — flicked out to taste the air.
"The Primordial Soil Tree," he hissed. "So the legends were true. It wasn't destroyed during the Dao War. It was hiding. HERE. In this pathetic little ravine in this pathetic little region."
He laughed again. Delighted. Unhinged.
"And it's been feeding you." His eyes snapped to Chen Wei. Vertical pupils contracted. "A Mud Grade insect. The tree chose a MUD GRADE INSECT as its inheritor. Oh, this is too rich."
He took a step toward Chen Wei. The spiritual pressure intensified. Chen Wei's vision blurred. His ears rang. Blood trickled from his nose.
"Give me the technique," the old man said. His voice was soft now. Almost gentle. The gentleness of a snake watching a mouse. "The tree gave you something. A technique. A bloodline. Something. Give it to me, and I'll let you die quickly. That's more mercy than your clan showed you."
Chen Wei's legs were shaking. His body was screaming to kneel, to submit, to crumble under the impossible weight of this creature's power.
He did not kneel.
I knelt in my last life. I knelt to bosses. To deadlines. To a system that ground me into nothing. I knelt until I died alone at 3 AM choking on noodles.
I'm done kneeling.
He looked the monster in the eyes.
"No."
The silence was absolute.
The old man blinked. Both eyelids — and a third, translucent one that swept sideways across those yellow eyes. Definitely not human.
"...'No'?" he repeated, as if he'd never heard the word before. Possibly he hadn't, for a very long time.
"No," Chen Wei said again. His voice was shaking. His body was shaking. Everything was shaking. But the word was clear.
The old man stared at him.
Then he laughed. The longest, loudest, most genuinely amused laugh yet.
"WONDERFUL! Oh, wonderful! The insect has SPINE! I haven't seen spirit like that in—" He paused, calculating. "—at least three hundred years. The last one was a girl. Nascent Soul. She said 'no' too."
"What happened to her?"
"I ate her."
"Ah."
「 Great conversation. Really going well. 」
The old man raised one gnarled hand. Dark green energy — swamp-colored, reeking of rot and death — gathered around his fingers. The spiritual pressure focused, shifted from passive to aggressive, from 'you are beneath me' to 'I will end you.'
"Last chance, insect. The technique."
Chen Wei opened his mouth to say "no" again, fully prepared to die standing for the first time in any of his lives—
「 HOST. SHUT UP. LET ME HANDLE THIS. 」
And Jiu manifested.
Female form.
Full power.
She appeared between Chen Wei and the old man like she'd always been there — silver hair catching the cavern's glow, white robes immaculate, golden circuitry blazing. Her silver eyes locked onto the old man with an expression that wasn't fear.
It was contempt.
The old man's raised hand hesitated.
His yellow eyes widened.
"You," he breathed. His vertical pupils dilated. His forked tongue flicked out again, tasting the air around Jiu. "What... are you?"
Jiu smiled.
It was not the teasing smile she used on Chen Wei. It was not the playful smile she'd used on Fatty Zhou.
It was the smile of something that remembered being powerful. Something that was currently weak, currently bound, currently trapped — but remembered, in its bones, in its soul, what it meant to stand at the top of everything.
"Something you don't want to provoke," Jiu said. Her voice was calm. Musical. Absolutely terrifying.
The old man's eyes darted from Jiu to Chen Wei and back. His tongue worked the air frantically.
"I can't read you," he muttered. "Your cultivation is... nothing. You have no cultivation. But your SOUL—"
He took a step back.
The being who had walked in here ready to crush two teenagers like ants took a step back.
"What are you?" he demanded again. Louder this time. His green energy flared around his hands.
「 Host. I cannot fight him. But he doesn't know that. Right now, he's uncertain. He's a beast — beasts survive by avoiding threats they don't understand. I am a threat he doesn't understand. 」
「 I can buy you time. Seconds. Maybe a minute. 」
「 USE IT. 」
Jiu took a step toward the old man. The old man took a step back. His spiritual pressure fluctuated — still overwhelming, but wavering. Uncertainty corroding his confidence.
"I am the guardian of this place," Jiu said, each word precise and carrying weight that belied her lack of actual power. "The tree is under my protection. Its inheritor is under my protection. You will leave."
"I'll leave when I have what I—"
"You will leave," Jiu repeated, and this time she did something.
Chen Wei felt it. A pulse. Not spiritual energy — something else. Something deeper. Something that resonated not with cultivation but with the fundamental laws of reality. Like the universe itself had shivered.
The old man FLINCHED.
His yellow eyes went wide. His third eyelid swept across both eyes rapidly — a fear response. His gnarled hands trembled.
"That... that frequency..." he whispered. "That's not possible. That was destroyed. The Dao War erased every trace of—"
"I said. Leave."
For three seconds, the old man stood frozen. His greed warred with his fear. The Primordial Soil Tree — whatever that was — was clearly something of immense value. But Jiu's bluff — if it was a bluff — had shaken him.
Finally, survival won.
The old man lowered his hands. The green energy dissipated. His spiritual pressure receded like a tide pulling back.
"This isn't over," he said. The words were directed at Jiu, but his eyes were on Chen Wei. "I will return. With allies. With preparation. And I will have what that tree carries."
He turned.
He walked toward the cavern entrance.
At the threshold, he paused and looked back.
"The insect with spine," he said, looking at Chen Wei. "I'll remember you. When I come back, I'll eat you last. As a sign of respect."
Then he was gone.
The footsteps faded.
The tremors ceased.
The cavern was silent.
Jiu's manifestation flickered.
Her confident stance wavered. Her silver eyes dimmed. The golden circuitry in her robes sputtered.
"Jiu—!"
She collapsed.
Not dramatically — just... folded. Like a puppet with cut strings. Chen Wei lunged forward and caught her. She was light — impossibly light, barely weighing anything, as if she was made of moonlight and bluff.
"I'm fine," she whispered. Her voice was thin. Exhausted. The confidence of thirty seconds ago was gone, replaced by something fragile. "Just... overdid it. That pulse I used... it burned most of my manifestation energy for the day."
"What WAS that pulse?"
She looked up at him. Silver eyes half-lidded. Vulnerable in a way he'd never seen from her — male or female form.
"A memory," she said softly. "A memory of what I used to be."
"What you used to—"
"Don't ask." Her voice hardened slightly. "Not now. Not yet."
Her form flickered again. She was fading — dissolving back into golden light, returning to the System space inside his consciousness.
Before she fully disappeared, she reached up and poked his forehead again. Gently this time. No spark. Just touch.
"You said no," she murmured. "To a Stage 7 beast. With Breath Condensation Stage 4 cultivation. You said no."
"It seemed like the right thing to do."
"It was stupid."
"...Yeah."
"Incredibly, monumentally, cosmically stupid."
"...Yeah."
A ghost of a smile. The real one. Not teasing. Not mocking. Just... real.
"The 46 hosts before you would have knelt."
"Then they were smarter than me."
"No. They were just more afraid of dying than of losing themselves." She faded another degree. Just an outline now. A sketch of a woman in golden light. "You're the first one who chose differently."
She disappeared.
「 System entering recovery mode. Manifestation capability temporarily offline. Estimated recovery: 18 hours. 」
「 I'll be here. In your head. Watching. Judging. As always. 」
「 ...Don't die while I'm napping, idiot. 」
Silence.
Then—
"BROTHER CHEN!!"
Fatty Zhou tackled him from behind.
"THAT WAS AMAZING! SISTER JIU IS AMAZING! YOU'RE AMAZING! WE SURVIVED! WE—"
"Zhou Dapang, please, I just had a very emotional moment—"
"SHE SCARED OFF A MONSTER! YOUR GIRLFRIEND SCARED OFF A MONSTER!"
"SHE'S NOT MY—"
"THIS IS THE GREATEST LOVE STORY EVER TOLD!"
"I'M GOING TO THROW YOU BACK IN THE LAKE!"
⚫ PART 4: THE DECISION
That night — if night existed underground — Chen Wei sat alone by the lake.
Fatty Zhou was sleeping. The snoring had resumed at full volume.
The tree was quiet. Its light-droplets pulsed slowly, rhythmically, like a heart at rest.
Chen Wei stared at his reflection in the luminous water.
A sixteen-year-old face stared back. Young. Tired. Bruised. But alive. The eyes — the original Chen Wei's eyes had been dull, defeated. These eyes were different now. Something burned behind them.
The old man said he'd return. With allies. Preparation.
We can't stay here.
This cavern is a treasure — the tree, the spiritual density, the technique. But it's also a trap. One entrance, one exit. If that thing comes back with friends, we die.
We need to leave. We need to get stronger BEFORE he returns.
We need the outside world.
He opened his status mentally.
「 ————————————————— 」
「 HOST PROFILE: 」
「 Name: Chen Wei 」
「 Cultivation: Breath Condensation Stage 4 (52%) 」
「 Skills: [Basic Regeneration Lv.1], [Mud Skin Lv.1], [Roots of the Nameless Tree Lv.1], [Basic Teaching Aura Lv.1] 」
「 Techniques: [Myriad Foundation Sutra — Vol. 1] 」
「 Titles: "The Mud Immortal" 」
「 Companions: Zhou Dapang (Loyalty: MAXIMUM) 」
「 System: Jiu (Recovery Mode — 16 hours remaining) 」
「 ————————————————— 」
Breath Condensation Stage 4. In a world where Golden Core cultivators rule cities and Nascent Soul cultivators are legends. I'm an ant among giants.
But ants build empires.
And I have something the giants don't.
A tree that chose me. A System with secrets. A friend who won't quit. And a spiritual root that everyone underestimates.
He stood up.
"Tomorrow," he said to the tree, to the cavern, to the sleeping fat boy, to the System recovering in his mind, to the three moons he couldn't see but knew were hanging in the purple sky far above.
"Tomorrow we climb."
The tree's light-droplets pulsed once.
Gently.
As if in agreement.
Far above. On the surface. In Qinghe City.
In the Chen Clan's ancestral hall, Chen Hao sat in a position of honor, receiving congratulations from the elders for his "decisive handling of the clan's shame."
He smiled. Gracious. Humble. The perfect golden boy.
He didn't think about his cousin at all.
Why would he? The trash was dead. Forgotten. A footnote in the clan's history, barely worth the ink.
He raised his wine cup.
"To the Chen Clan's future," he said.
"To the future!" the elders echoed.
They drank.
None of them noticed the faint crack that had appeared in the ancestral hall's foundation stone.
A crack shaped like a root.
「 ————————————————— 」
「 CHAPTER 3 — END 」
「 」
「 Chen Wei Status: 」
「 Cultivation: Breath Condensation Stage 4 (52%) 」
「 HP: 91% 」
「 Skills: [Basic Regeneration Lv.1], [Mud Skin Lv.1], [Roots of the Nameless Tree Lv.1], [Basic Teaching Aura Lv.1] 」
「 Techniques: [Myriad Foundation Sutra — Vol. 1] 」
「 Titles: "The Mud Immortal" 」
「 Companions: Zhou Dapang — Loyalty: MAXIMUM (thinks Jiu is MC's girlfriend. Cannot be convinced otherwise.) 」
「 System: Jiu — Status: Recovery Mode. Mood: ...something she won't talk about. 」
「 Threats: Old snake-man WILL return. Clock is ticking. 」
「 ————————————————— 」