1: Fellow villagers meeting

"Don't run!"

"Stop right there, you bold thief! How dare you peek at the Zhao Family's young lady bathing!"

"Stop that fellow and chop him into pieces to feed the dogs!"

In the deep mountains and old forests, a young man was fleeing at high speed, darting through patches of thickets.

However, the injuries on his body were far too severe. Wounds of all sizes covered his entire body, causing his escape speed to plummet.

Sensing the killing intent drawing closer behind him, the young man was burning with anxiety. Suddenly, abandoning all dignity, he began to shout incessantly at the ring on his left finger.

His voice was urgent and filled with terror.

"Senior, quickly lend me your power!"

"Senior, hurry! I know you're still in there. Why aren't you saying anything?"

However, the power he craved was not granted; the only response he received was a helpless sigh from within the ring.

Too late.

At that very moment, the pursuers from behind caught up to the young man in the blink of an eye.

A grim-faced Middle-aged Man appeared before the youth like a ghost.

He wore luxurious brocade robes, and his body radiated a powerful pressure, like a towering mountain that made it hard for one to breathe.

The Middle-aged Man raised his hand, and an air vortex gathered between his fists. The next moment, he swung a heavy punch. The vortex spun rapidly like a whirlpool, erupting with terrifying might.

"Die!"

Powerful energy fluctuations accompanied the punch as it blasted out. The power of a single punch seemed capable of shattering space, and the violent force destroyed half the forest. Its momentum was unstoppable, like a hot knife through butter.

No!!!

The world before the young man's eyes suddenly slowed to a standstill. All the memories of his life flashed by like a revolving lantern, and finally, his consciousness returned to darkness... In an unknowable land, within a chaotic void.

This place was empty of everything. The only thing that existed was a mass of the purest fluctuations in heaven and earth, like a brilliant pearl emitting dazzling light.

A sigh came from within the fluctuations.

Within the boundless chaotic void, a small and ancient bronze eye slowly opened.

Like a mysterious gemstone, it flickered with a strange light.

"Failed again..."

Li Jinian felt the power of the origin within his body. Compared to when he first crossed over, when it was as large as a basketball, the power now was only the size of a fist.

That's right, he had crossed over. He had crossed over and become the Heavenly Dao.

The only Heavenly Dao in the world that possessed emotions, yet this Heavenly Dao of his was incredibly weak.

He didn't even need any heaven-defying cultivators to take action; before long, he would dissipate on his own within this chaotic void.

"It's still better to have a Fellow Countryman."

What Li Jinian was referring to were fellow transmigrators from his original world.

Fellow Countrymen were well-rounded in ethics, intellect, physique, aesthetics, and labor. They all possessed advanced knowledge, flexible moral compasses, and the precious experience of living a second life.

Even if they were ordinary before crossing over, they would surely shine brilliantly afterward. Unfortunately, he had yet to encounter a good one.

Li Jinian had given his power to a total of three people.

The first person was an otherworlder, but upon hearing that there was something called a "system" in his head, he feared being possessed by some powerful being and decisively hung himself from a southeast branch.

The second person was also an otherworlder, and the start was a bit better this time.

Li Jinian disguised himself as an old man in a ring and provided a lot of help.

However, that guy was far too arrogant. With just a bit of a reputation as a genius, he went around acting tough and offended many factions, eventually being dealt with in secret.

As for the third person, he was even more ridiculous. He was punched to death just for peeking at a young maiden bathing. It couldn't have been more pathetic.

Li Jinian felt the heavenly dao origin power within him once more. Now, he could at most give his power two more times. If he didn't get any spiritual energy replenishment, he would be truly finished.

One of the ways he could restore his origin power was to first plunder the spiritual energy of other Heavenly Dao worlds and then refine it into his own heavenly dao origin.

The good news: he transmigrated as the Heavenly Dao.

The bad news: he was a mass of Heavenly Dao that was about to be extinguished.

The void fell into silence once again.

After an unknown amount of time, while Li Jinian was still contemplating his next move, a familiar aura quietly arrived across the endless sea of stars.

It only appeared for a fleeting moment, but Li Jinian still keenly captured this familiar aura.

"This is actually... a transmigrator!"

Li Jinian was ecstatic; this was simply the favor of the Heavenly Dao!

Wait, that's not right. I seem to be the Heavenly Dao myself. Whatever, I need to act quickly.

After locking onto the location of that aura, Li Jinian decisively activated his heavenly dao origin power. After the Heavenly Dao projection aimed in a certain direction, it crossed billions of miles of nothingness and streaked straight into the distance.

The Heavenly Dao projection traversed the myriad worlds. Even so, it took several months to reach the location of that aura... Meanwhile, at the Qin Family in the Canglan Realm.

Outside the delivery room, everyone paced anxiously. The most restless among them was a Middle-aged Man in fine clothing.

The Qin Family elders were doing their best to comfort the Qin Family Head, but their own moods were not much better than his.

Because their Qin Family Head was a well-known cultivation genius. He had broken through to the Foundation Establishment Realm at less than fifty years old, earning the Qin Family a place in Desolate Mysterious City.

If their Qin Family were to produce another great Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator, they would surely have more of a say in Desolate Mysterious City!

In this world, cultivation was divided into the Qi Refinement Realm, Foundation Establishment Realm, Golden Core Realm, Nascent Soul Realm, Soul Transformation Realm, Void Returning Realm, Heavenly Human Realm, Saint Realm, and Immortal Realm.

The higher the realm, the more difficult the cultivation became. Even for the Qin Family Head, who was known as a genius, his cultivation had stagnated after breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

"Bless them with safety."

Qin Yuanyi stared intently at the delivery room. It was extremely difficult for cultivators to produce offspring. To him, what was more important was the safety of both mother and child.

"Where am I?"

Qin Dong curiously tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids were unusually heavy. He only felt himself in a strange state.

"Why am I here? Could I have transmigrated?"

Qin Dong was dazed, but he quickly felt relieved when he thought of various bizarre reasons for transmigration. Even waking up from a nap and transmigrating was perfectly reasonable, right?

After all, who wouldn't want to transmigrate to a world full of vitality where all things flourish?

As an old bookworm, Qin Dong reacted quickly and began to call for his golden finger in his mind.

As a member of the transmigrator army, can a transmigrator who starts without a golden finger even be called a transmigrator?

However, despite his affectionate calls, the golden finger never appeared.

"Am I really going to have to start in 'pure survival' mode?"

Qin Dong felt a surge of sorrow.

Scenes of him being hung up and whipped by various geniuses of the other world already appeared in his mind... At that moment, an obscure aura quietly tore through the boundary of the Canglan Realm and flew toward the Qin Family.

Li Jinian arrived above the Qin Family, revealing a nearly transparent eye pattern. He then began to use his origin power to explore the area.

Wherever the origin power went, all things were laid bare, but its range could only reach a small portion of Desolate Mysterious City.

Under his origin scan, information on many items was recorded. As long as Li Jinian was willing, consuming a certain amount of origin power would be enough to perfectly replicate them.

By using this method over time, Li Jinian had already collected information on over a thousand items.

However, this collection ability of Li Jinian's had two drawbacks.

First, his origin projection could not exist for long and could only reside within a living being's body.

Second, the range for recording item information was limited and could not exceed a certain distance from the Host.

Although Li Jinian's origin information contained a lot of item data, because his previous Hosts had all died early, those things were only some of the lowest-grade items.

Even though he was the Heavenly Dao, he could not personally take action to plunder resources from other Heavenly Dao worlds.

He could only rely on Fellow Countrymen to obtain energy for him.

Otherwise, if he were to act and be noticed by another Heavenly Dao world, he would surely be pinned down and beaten senseless.

After finishing the scan, Li Jinian arrived at the room where his Fellow Countryman was.

Now, Fellow Countryman meets Fellow Countryman.

Inside the room, a beautiful woman was in labor, and many midwives around her were busy and overwhelmed... Li Jinian looked at the scene in the delivery room and couldn't help but smile slightly.

With a flick of his finger... suddenly, a mechanical voice sounded in Qin Dong's mind, making him ecstatic.

Then, the system's light screen lit up in his world of consciousness.

[Respected Host, the Stealthy Dao System is at your service.]

"Huh? Stealthy... Stealthy Dao?"

Qin Dong was extremely confused. He was hoping to use the system's power to sweep through this other world and dominate the land.

He didn't expect that this system of his would be centered on the Stealthy Dao.

"Unreasonable!"

"A man like me, living between heaven and earth, how can I be content to stay under others for long? I might as well not have this measly system."

[Ding! Do you wish to claim the System Newbie Gift Pack?]

"Claim it quickly, no mistakes allowed."

[Ding! The Host has opened the Newbie Gift Pack and received a realm increase, raising cultivation to the early stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm (Extreme Realm).]

[Ding! The Host has opened the Newbie Gift Pack and received the constitution: Thick Earth Spirit Body.]

[Ding! The Host has opened the Newbie Gift Pack and received a wisp of Heavenly Dao Qi.]

A mass of the purest power in heaven and earth obscurely gathered above the Qin Family and quietly surged into Qin Dong's body.

Under the gentle washing of this power, not only was Qin Dong's cultivation rising, but a faint earthy-yellow halo also covered his skin.

An indescribable wisp of purple Qi followed closely into his soul, severing Qin Dong's karmic ties to reincarnation and eliminating all soul barriers caused by his transmigration.

After Li Jinian finished all this, even his original body, the bronze eye trillions of miles away in the void, was bloodshot and looked like it was about to collapse.

[Ding! The Newbie Gift Pack has been distributed. The system is entering a locked state.]

"System, how can I unlock this state?"

Qin Dong's consciousness asked somewhat anxiously.

Although he didn't know what was going on with this locked state, he found that the system interface was becoming increasingly blurred, as if it were collapsing. He didn't want to lose his golden finger so soon.

[Ding! No big deal. The Host only needs to wait patiently for five hundred years, or, inject enough spi... Spirit Stones into the system.]

The system's voice gradually faded from Qin Dong's mind. No matter how much Qin Dong called out in his mind, he received no response from the system.

Only the surging aura of cultivation within his body reminded Qin Dong that the system had existed.

After the previous incidents, Li Jinian only hoped that this Fellow Countryman could be a bit more steady; otherwise, he would also be reduced to ashes.

After all, he had really invested a lot this time.

After using this power, he would have to fall into a long sleep before he could recover his strength.

"Fellow Countryman, oh Fellow Countryman, I hope you don't let me down. We're grasshoppers on the same string now."

The bronze eye slowly closed, and then the chaotic void churned for a while before finally falling into a dead silence.