Chapter 1#
No. 001 chapter#
Duan Wei was awakened by pain.
A fine ache spread from his chest, and an irrepressible itch surged up from his throat. He coughed softly and tasted blood.
The sensory connection succeeded, and the world abruptly came alive.
He heard screams ahead, delighted humming laughter, choked curses, and weeping.
The noise struck his ears all at once, and he frowned slightly.
As he opened his eyes, he habitually said to the system, “Give me the files.”
Inside his mind, there was silence. No response.
Duan Wei was fully awake now, remembering that this job was special—he couldn’t bring the system.
He was an employee of the Administration, and his daily work was to travel through various worlds completing tasks in order to earn points to repair his body.
Once his body was fixed, his contract would also expire, so he chose to retire. He happily attended his farewell party and returned to his original world.
But on the very first day of retirement, he was hit by a car. The protection program bound to his soul activated and sent him back to the Administration.
He stood at the farewell party venue, which was still uncleaned, first exchanging wide-eyed stares with a group of colleagues who were reaching out to catch good luck, then going to have a silent stare-down with the bureau chief.
The chief gave him a recruitment notice, which stated that a certain world was in danger of destruction and that talent was needed to save it.
He was feeling depressed at the time and argued, “Did the calculations include these people? Maybe it’s precisely because you people recklessly sent a bunch of people over that the world is going to be destroyed.”
The chief scoffed. “Don’t worry. It’s precisely because they were included that there’s a sliver of hope.”
This was a serious matter involving multiple parties working together, and the bureau only had one slot.
The chief said, “Do this job, and I’ll give you another chance at rebirth.”
Duan Wei agreed readily, and once everyone was assembled, he was sent over.
This was a cultivation world, with no common story line like in past missions—everything had to be explored on one’s own.
He couldn’t bring the system, but he could carry energy along the threshold, so he used that energy to roughly patch up this body.
After making sure it wouldn’t die, he began extracting the original body’s memories.
The past gradually surfaced, and he also took in the situation before him.
He lay on stone steps, and before him stood a young man.
The other wore blue close-fitting clothes. Seeing him open his eyes, he immediately grabbed his shoulders and hauled him up.
As if forcibly suppressing his emotions, the man’s eyes were red, and his whole body was tense. “You’re finally awake.”
An itch surged up Duan Wei’s throat, and he coughed again. He heard another scream nearby, and someone nearby sobbed. The man’s hand suddenly tightened, squeezing his bones painfully.
He grabbed the other’s wrist. “Cough… l-let go.”
The man in blue snapped back to himself, released him, and sat down beside him. “Are you alright?”
Duan Wei propped himself up and sat properly, discovering he was in the audience stands.
This was a place like an arena—a broad circular plaza in the middle, with tiered open-air seating rising on both sides.
The difference was that in a normal arena, the audience stands were connected; here, they were two separate semicircles, with a large gap between them that easily revealed the scenery outside. The sea of clouds stretched out, shimmering with golden light, and the entire structure was actually high in the sky.
The grounds were paved with enormous white jade bricks, carved with intricate patterns, which—set against the external environment—almost radiated divinity. That is, until blood stained them.
At this moment, a duel was taking place inside the grounds.
One side was a young man; the other was a burly beastman with a human body and an animal head.
Even as Duan Wei observed, the beastman neatly sliced off one of the opponent’s fingers, and blood splattered instantly.
The young man screamed, clutching his hand and collapsing to his knees, then broke down wailing, “Just kill me!”
Only then did Duan Wei see that four of his fingers had already been cut off. He had many wounds across his body, and most of his clothes were red.
The beastman said, “No, this is a duel. I can’t kill you before a victor is decided.”
He coaxed, “What, you don’t like me cutting off fingers? Don’t cry. Next time I’ll cut off flesh.”
The man in blue beside him cursed, “Beast!”
His eyes grew even redder as he stared at Duan Wei. “He Er, I remember you studied chess, right?”
He paused, then asked, “Did Young Master Zuogiu ever give you a messaging artifact?”
The people around them all turned to look, their expressions a mix of hope and numbness, tears on their faces not yet dried.
Duan Wei had already finished receiving the original body’s memories.
The original was eighteen this year. After all his close family died, he left his hometown to study at the academy in Xianqing City. On the way, his convoy was swept into an ancient realm. Fortunately, Young Master Zuogiu was nearby, rescued them, and was very kind to him along the way.
In this cultivation world with its many powers, Young Master Zuogiu was a great figure at the very top of the clouds. The original had good looks, so he developed thoughts of currying favor.
After entering the city, he was sent to the academy by the young master’s people. To his surprise, he found an old acquaintance there—a childhood rival who had lived on the same street. The other recognized him too, and seeing that this young lord had fallen on hard times and that his cultivation was also inferior, smilingly offered to look after him.
The original cared too much about face. On the spot, he blurted out the matter of knowing Young Master Zuogiu, declaring he would go follow the young master. Every day it was “Young Master” this and “Young Master” that, as if he couldn’t speak without throwing in “Young Master” somewhere.
Young Master Zuogiu didn’t linger in the city, but the original overheard that the other would return to Xianqing City in ten days.
So after tormenting the academy people for ten days, he waited in the city and met the young master.
But things didn’t go as he wished. The young master didn’t take him in and had someone send him back to the academy.
That day was the academy’s assessment, and the teachers were all at the secret realm in the back mountains.
The original had low cultivation and didn’t need to participate. The teachers tossed out an order for him to go back to his room and rest, then hurried off to see off the young master’s guards.
But he had lost the ladder to climb upward, and he hadn’t heard the teachers’ words at all. Absent-mindedly, he entered the secret realm, ran into a demonic beast inside, and was slammed in the chest and lungs.
At the critical moment, a senior apprentice who was leading a team saved him, and then he passed out.
And the memories ended there.
Duan Wei tasted a faint medicinal bitterness in his mouth. It seemed the original had been fed medicine while unconscious, but unfortunately his injuries were too severe and he still died—which was why the Administration selected him as the target for transmigration.
He looked at this unfamiliar place, utterly unlike the academy’s secret realm, and two words flashed through his mind: ancient realm.
There were many kinds of ancient realms, each with different rules, and he had no idea which kind this one was.
He first answered the man in blue’s question: “He didn’t give me an artifact.”
Even though everyone knew the young master surely didn’t think much of him, they still felt disappointed.
The man in blue said, “Then you know how to play chess, right?”
Duan Wei said, “Tell me first: what happened after I passed out?”
The man in blue explained in a few words.
Today was the assessment. Only by completing the task could one leave the secret realm.
They couldn’t send him out, so they fed him medicine and carried him as they continued walking. They walked like that for over an hour, and without knowing it, they stepped into this ancient realm.
The academy had split into four teams, and the other three had long since been swept in. At this point, everyone participating in the assessment was trapped here.
The man in blue listened to the screams in the arena, clenched his fist, and couldn’t bear to look anymore.
He said hoarsely, “This is a trial ancient realm. Let me tell you its rules.”
The rules were straightforward: a contest of talents; whoever lost, died.
Talents couldn’t be repeated. Every five rounds, the right to choose the topic switched. The students went first, then the beastmen.
Currently, the academy had eight losses and one win, with eleven dead. The tenth round was in progress, and once it ended, they would get the right to choose again.
Duan Wei didn’t understand. “Why eleven people?”
The man in blue shook his head. “I don’t know either.”
They were the last to arrive, just as the tenth round was beginning. After hearing the full rules, he understood time was pressing, so he came over to try to wake this young lord.
People from the other teams wept, “If you concede, it costs one more life. Someone conceded before. Only then did the beastman mention that rule. Two people couldn’t stand it and attacked, and the formation sent them straight into the beast pack—that’s how the extra three came about.”
Duan Wei glanced at the arena and finally understood why the person down below would rather die than concede.
Before transmigrating, he had studied the information on this world and knew about trial ancient realms.
This type of ancient realm generally had simple, fixed scenes. Pass through and you could leave. With good luck, if you met one that wasn’t out to make things difficult, you could even get a clearance reward. But if you had bad luck and met one that was hellish, it often meant total annihilation.
He asked, “Until when does it count as over?”
The man in blue said, “Until the beastman voluntarily concedes, or until one side is entirely dead.”
Duan Wei looked at the oppressive sea of demonic beasts across the stands and inwardly thought: wonderful, this is hell mode.
The man in blue gripped his shoulder and said seriously, “He Er, if we want to live, we can only stall until the teachers notice something wrong and come in to investigate, then report to the sect. Understand?”
Duan Wei cooperatively nodded.
He was still gravely wounded, his face pale. Set against his delicate features, he looked both fragile and helpless.
Everyone looked at this good-for-nothing young lord who only sought to climb the high branches, and thought about having to rely on him to bear the heavy burden. They all felt despair.
The man in blue softened his tone. “Among everyone here, you’re the only one who knows chess. You go compete next round. Remember, take half a day to place one stone. Don’t aim to win—just aim to stall him.”
A senior apprentice who led the team also walked over.
The duels had left him looking grim, but he was very gentle with Duan Wei. He felt the other’s pulse and said, “Don’t be afraid. If you can’t stall him and lose, I’ll die in your place.”
The man in blue’s eyes were red as he gritted his teeth. “That plan was mine—if someone has to die, it should be me! Out of the four teams, you’re the only leader left. If you die too, there’s no one left to make decisions.”
Someone from the other team who had spoken before wept, “No, let me die! If he can’t stall him, we all die anyway. I’d rather die than let him torment me!”
The team leader had just been about to comfort him when a miserable wail came from beside them, and several people stood straight up.
Their hearts jumped, and they hastily turned.
Inside the arena, that student had already collapsed unconscious.
The beastman went over and kicked him twice. “Wake up. Can’t even last an incense stick? I was already holding back.”
The student’s breath was faint. No reaction.
The beastman said helplessly, “Fine. Then this round is my victory.”
As the words fell, the entire structure dissolved like smoke.
Duan Wei only felt his vision blur, and then he was on ink-colored grass.
The sky was dim, the ground covered in bloodstains. Demonic beasts surrounded them in dense numbers, the atmosphere gloomy and oppressive.
The open space in the middle was very small. The beastman sat on a chair made of white bones, and the students stood about a zhang away before him, clear boundaries drawn between the two sides.
The student was still unconscious. The beastman raised a hand lightly, and the other’s heart flew across the air into his palm. Then the body was hurled into the air by some force, splitting apart in an instant and falling into the beast pack, where it was frantically devoured.
With a soft thud, the head landed beside the chair to join the other skulls there.
The last team, witnessing this sight for the first time, turned pale.
Duan Wei thought—no wonder the people from other teams looked both numb and broken. Making it this far without going mad was already good enough.
The beastman wolfed down the heart in two bites and laughed, “Next.”
The team leader stepped forward. “If one of our people loses, can someone else die in his place?”
The beastman shrugged. “No.”
The man in blue was indignant. “Then how come when you lose, you can have demonic beasts die in your place?”
The beastman reasoned, “If I concede, the whole thing ends. If you concede, it only costs one extra life. Each has its pros and cons.”
The man in blue’s face was ashen. Everyone else looked at the good-for-nothing young lord, feeling increasingly certain he wouldn’t go down there, and grew even more despairing.
Duan Wei didn’t make them worry. He raised his hand. “I’ll go.”
The beastman said, “Good.”
Both sides returned to the arena.
This time, Duan Wei went directly to the plaza. Sweeping his gaze to the side, he saw the clouds outside had become broken ruins of buildings. He found it curious and thought—even the scenery is randomized.
He looked at the beastman before him.
The beastman grinned at him, almost amiably. “I see you’re injured. Are you alright?”
Duan Wei said, “Doing fine for now.”
The beastman was very considerate. “Then let’s start soon, so you can rest sooner. Tell me, what do you want to compete in?”
Duan Wei wasn’t as naive as the students. Just from the fact that “conceding costs one extra life,” he could deduce that stalling tactics probably had hidden pitfalls too.
He said, “I have a few questions about the rules I don’t quite understand. Answer them for me first.”
The beastman nodded. “Fine.”
Duan Wei said, “If I wanted to pick something time-consuming like chess or sleeping, are there conditions?”
The beastman grinned, flashing white teeth. “There are! Sleeping has to be done on a designated bed. As for chess—ten incense sticks’ time limit. After ten sticks, the outcome is decided by the state of the board.”
He paused meaningfully. “Ah, right. If a whole incense stick passes without placing a stone, someone from your own team dies.”
The students’ faces went pallid in an instant.
The academy assessment was counted by days. Their strongest team would take at least a full day to complete the task. This meant the teachers wouldn’t notice anything wrong until evening at the earliest, and reporting to the sect plus their arrival would take more time.
It was just past noon now. There were still a bit over twenty of them left—nowhere near enough to last until rescue.
The beastman saw two people collapse in the stands and made a fake exclamation of surprise. “Oh dear! Last round I watched you lot plotting for ages. I couldn’t hear the voices, but you weren’t planning to pick chess or sleeping, were you? What’s to be done now?”
Duan Wei said, “Then I’ll just have to pick something else. Could you list which topics have already been used, so I don’t repeat one?”
The beastman stared at him for a few extra moments.
Low cultivation, injured, so weak he couldn’t even withstand a single blow—but unlike the ten before, he was neither fearful nor angry, nor putting on a show of calm. When his planned move was blocked, he stayed steady, not a trace of fluster.
If he breaks later, it should be quite a show… The beastman’s smile deepened, and he answered patiently.
Duan Wei asked, “What if I pick something you don’t know?”
The beastman said, “Then you’ll have to teach me first. Don’t be fooled by my looks—I learn pretty fast. If I pick something you all don’t know, I’ll teach you too. That way everyone has a chance to win. I already mentioned that earlier, didn’t you know?”
He let out a “tsk.” “Injured and pushed out to compete, with everything hidden from you—are they not holding a grudge, deliberately tricking you into coming here to die?”
Duan Wei continued, “Where do the things needed for the contest come from?”
The beastman still didn’t see any extra emotion on his face, so he temporarily gave up on teasing him. He raised a hand and gathered a clump of spiritual energy. “They can all be conjured on the spot. You can do it too.”
Duan Wei tried it and found he could conjure things with a thought.
The beastman said, “What do you want to compete in?”
Duan Wei said, “Do you know embroidery?”
The beastman said, “I learned it once before. Lost that round.”
Duan Wei decided to first see what this beastman’s learning ability was like.
With a thought, a vase appeared in his hand, holding three delicate flowers.
He set the vase on the ground and said, “Then let’s do embroidery.”