1: Yu Xuzi

Foreword:

1. I have an ongoing long-form novel of 1.6 million words, a group-portrait story about Spiritual Qi recovery and Sect building. It is logical, not mindless, with a well-developed setting.

Both books share the same Universe worldview, and there will be extensive plot crossovers in the later stages. Everyone is welcome to click on the author's homepage to check it out.

2. This book has been in preparation for a long time and has plenty of saved chapters. It is not AI-written, so everyone can feel free to add it to their collection.

3. This book has no female lead and no ambiguous relationships (friends who have read my old books know that the protagonist won't have any ambiguous plotlines; the author has been single since birth and cannot write about romance).

4. The protagonist of this book has a cold and solitary personality. He will watch the destruction of worlds and the rise and fall of dynasties with indifference, but he will not actively slaughter living beings on a large scale or kill randomly over a single disagreement.

In other words, he is definitely not a "Saint Mother," but it is not a dark novel either.

5. The protagonist of this book will transmigrate through many worlds, meeting one child of Luck after another, and witnessing many wonderful stories firsthand.

He will watch them build high towers and host guests, until finally the tower collapses, and the Opportunity returns to the protagonist.

Watching coldly from the sidelines and recording destiny is the main theme of this book.

6. Finally, I wish my readers and myself great fortune!!!

———————Main Text———————

It was late autumn in the Southwest region of the Yu Kingdom, in Nanlin Commandery.

Cangqing Mountain.

The continuous rain had just stopped, and the mountain streams were shrouded in mist, adding a touch of chilliness.

An old Taoist temple named "Yuxu Temple" hung solitary on the mountainside. It was small, and its incense offerings had been cut off for many years.

As twilight fell, a new grave was erected on the barren slope of the back mountain.

In front of the grave was only an unpolished bluestone serving as a tombstone, engraved with "Tomb of Xuan Chengzi."

Standing silently before the tombstone was a handsome young man with a slender build, wearing a washed-out green Taoist robe.

He looked young, about sixteen or seventeen years old, but there was an indifference in his eyes that did not match his age.

Yu Xuzi was an orphan!

While still in swaddling clothes, he was abandoned at the temple gate. It was his Master, Xuan Cheng Master, who picked him up and slowly raised him.

The name was also given by his Master, meaning a child of Yuxu Temple.

It was simple and crude, but it also carried a hint of hope for the continuation and expansion of Yuxu Temple.

Unfortunately, he would not live to see that day.

Three days ago, the old Taoist Xuan Cheng Master had reached the end of his life.

His withered hand tightly gripped Yu Xuzi's wrist, his breath weak: "Xu'er... this temple, this mountain... if you cannot stay, then leave it... live well..."

Before he could finish, his hand dropped.

At the very end, he still couldn't bear to bind Yu Xuzi to this barren mountain.

Although Yuxu Temple claimed to have a Legacy of hundreds of years and was once a famous large Taoist temple within a thousand miles.

However, it had fallen into ruin in the last century or two, almost passing down through a single Disciple in each generation, without even a servant or a Taoist boy.

Xuan Chengzi did not want this child to be like him, guarding the green mountains alone for decades.

Yu Xuzi did not wail; he just silently fetched clean water to wash his Master and change his clothes. Then, he found a place with a wide view on the back mountain to bury his Master along with his few old belongings.

"Woo~ woo~~"

The mountain wind swept past, kicking up withered grass and fallen leaves, swirling them around Yu Xuzi's feet.

He stood for a long time until the last glimmer of daylight was swallowed by the mountains. Only then did he turn and step onto the cold stone stairs to return to the even emptier Taoist temple.

From now on, he would be the only one in Yuxu Temple.

In the foreseeable future, he would spend the rest of his life accompanied by this green mountain and Taoist temple.

Although his Master had allowed him to leave the mountain on his deathbed, he was naturally fond of quiet and had a cold personality, with no interest in the disturbances of the Mortal World.

Quietly guarding the temple like this was actually quite nice.

Inside the main hall, the gold paint on the Ancestral Master's clay statue had almost completely peeled off, revealing the mottled clay underneath.

Yu Xuzi lit an oil lamp, the dim yellow glow barely dispersing a corner of the darkness.

He sat cross-legged under the lamp and took an extremely old thread-bound book from his robe. The pages were yellowed and the edges were worn.

This was an object passed down through generations of Yuxu Temple, and it was also a traditional rule of the Sect:

After the previous generation's temple head ascended, the next generation of Disciples must personally write a record of their life and place it under the Ancestral Master's memorial tablet to show that the Legacy is continuous and the incense offerings are maintained.

He spread out the book and ground the ink.

The ink block was low-quality pine soot ink, with a hint of bitterness.

Yu Xuzi picked up the brush, soaked it with ink, and after a moment of deliberation, wrote down the title:

"The Life Record of Xuan Cheng Master."

His handwriting was thin and hard, reflecting a sense of coldness.

"Master's taboo name is Xuan Cheng, the fortieth generation temple head of Yuxu Temple, of unknown origin and surname."

"As a child, he suffered from famine, his family was destroyed, and he wandered to Cangqing Mountain. Hungry and cold, he almost died in the snow. Fortunately, the Grandmaster passed by while coming down the mountain, rescued him, took him back to the temple, accepted him as a Disciple, and gave him the Daoist name Xuan Cheng."

"Master was simple and honest, a man of few words, upright in character, and sincere in his dealings with others."

"The temple was poor, so Master often gathered herbs and reclaimed wasteland for a living. When the mountain villagers were ill, regardless of the wind or rain, he would carry a medicine basket to visit them. He took nothing from the poor, only accepting a few vegetables and grains as compensation."

"..."

"In the autumn of the seventeenth year of yonghe, it was very cold. Master's old illness relapsed, and no medicine could help. He passed away on the twelfth day of the ninth month during the hour of the Rooster at the age of seventy-nine."

"Disciple Yu Xuzi, the forty-first generation temple head, has laid my Master to rest and, following the ancestral instructions, recorded his life."

The tip of the pen rustled across the rough paper, without any ornate rhetoric or exaggerated grief.

It simply used the most plain language to slowly tell the story of a mountain Taoist's ordinary and even humble life.

When the last stroke fell and the ink was slightly dry, Yu Xuzi was about to close the book.

Suddenly, a burst of burning heat came from the palm of his right hand, as if a branding iron had been applied!

At the same time, the palm of his left hand also heated up slightly.

Yu Xuzi's pupils instantly constricted to a point: "This is...?"

An astrolabe on the left hand, a green book on the right.

Since he could remember, these two marks had accompanied him.

They didn't hurt or itch, nor did they have any divine qualities. Over time, he simply treated them as birthmarks.

Unexpectedly, a sudden change occurred at this moment. Even with his naturally cold and resolute nature, his mind couldn't help but be shaken.

Before he could think further, the scene before his eyes suddenly shattered!

"Boom~~~"

His body still sat on the prayer mat, but his consciousness seemed to be seized by an invisible force and plunged into a vast Void Realm.

When Yu Xuzi stabilized his mind, he found himself in a gray Void Realm, standing on an incredibly huge bronze disc.

The disc was ancient and weathered, with countless complex star tracks engraved on it, slowly rotating.

It seemed to encompass the stars of the heavens, vast and profound beyond words.

"Is this... the mark on my left palm?"

Yu Xuzi recognized it instantly.

He looked around and saw a towering and endless bronze pavilion floating quietly ahead.

It seemed infinitely tall, yet as tiny as a speck of dust.

The doors of the pavilion were tightly closed, emitting an aura of ancient desolation. It formed a strange resonance with the slowly rotating bronze astrolabe beneath his feet.

Did they seem to come from the same source?

"Is this pavilion... the mark on my right palm?"

Waves of shock rose in Yu Xuzi's heart.

The secret of his two companion marks was actually revealed to him at the moment his Master passed away and he finished recording his life.

He tried to move, and as soon as the thought arose, his figure appeared in front of the huge bronze doors of the Library Pavilion.

In the next instant, the doors slid open silently, revealing the scene inside.

"Let's go in and take a look!"

Yu Xuzi approached as if possessed.

He saw that the space inside the pavilion was vast, with height and width beyond imagination.

The floor was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting a cold glow from an unknown source.

Countless empty bookshelves were arranged neatly, extending into the darkness at the end of his vision, dense and maze-like, filled with a heart-pounding sense of loneliness.

Only not far from the entrance of the pavilion was a white jade platform raised above the ground, its light restrained.

Yu Xuzi walked to the jade platform and looked down at the hands of his conscious body.

The "Life Record of Xuan Cheng Master" he had just written had actually turned into a solid green light scroll, floating above his right hand.

Without the need for verbal guidance, a sense of realization naturally flooded his heart: place this scroll on the jade platform.

Following his instinct, he gently pushed the light scroll in his right hand forward.

The moment the light scroll touched the jade platform, the clear light shone brightly!

On the surface of the jade platform, countless finely flowing runes appeared, slowly absorbing and decomposing the light scroll.

At the same time, a cold and heartless voice, neither male nor female, resounded directly in the depths of his consciousness:

"Recorded: One copy of 'Individual - Destiny Record: Xuan Cheng Master'."

"Recording assessment: True and authentic, pure thoughts, containing a trace of the true meaning of destiny, touching upon the essence of the Legacy."

"Following old precedents, selecting its Opportunity."

"Bestow reward!"

The light gradually faded, the jade platform returned to calm, and the life record had disappeared.

In its place was a three-inch long, warm-colored green Jade Slip lying quietly in the center of the jade platform.

Yu Xuzi reached out, and the moment his fingertips touched the Jade Slip, a massive amount of information flooded his mind like a bursting flood:

[Travelogue of Ten Thousand Miles in Ten Kingdoms] — "Basic Qi Refining Art" (Hidden).

This was not textual reading, but a direct mental Legacy!

It not only contained the complete methods from sensing spiritual opportunities to drawing Qi into the body, refining mana, and Cultivating to the Late Stage Qi Refining, but also many profound diagrams and insights regarding Meridians, acupoints, and the circulation of the heavenly cycle.

"Qi Refining Cultivation..."

In Yu Xuzi's cold eyes, a burning brilliance burst forth for the first time.

Cultivation truly exists in this world.

However, the numbers are very few.

According to what his Master said, in the current world, only the State Preceptors Mansion in the entire Yu Kingdom has practitioners who can summon wind and rain, or control water and fire.

Every ten years, they would select boys and girls with "Spiritual Roots" from around the capital and take them to the State Preceptors Mansion to Cultivate.

Several surrounding kingdoms have similar forces, which are extremely mysterious.

As for further away, his Master did not know.

Because he had never left Nanlin Commandery, this information was all hearsay.

Yu Xuzi had not even been to the county town more than a few times.

He didn't expect that without even leaving his home, he would have such an Opportunity!

Before he could carefully experience the mysteries of the Cultivation Technique, ripples appeared in the surrounding space again, and a gentle force pushed him out.

His vision blurred, and his consciousness returned to his body, still sitting on the cold and dilapidated prayer mat in the main hall of the Qingwei Temple.

The oil lamp was like a bean, and the night was thick outside the window.

The burning sensation in his palm had faded, but the book mark became increasingly clear.

With a slight thought, he could vaguely perceive the existence of that mysterious Library Pavilion and the bronze astrolabe, as if a Bloodline connection had been established with him.

And in his right hand, he was tightly clutching that cold and lustrous Legacy Jade Slip.

Everything was not an illusion.