29: Newcomer to the world of cultivation: Are even the rats here stronger than me? (New Chapter)

"Bleegh—"

After a bout of world-spinning dizziness so intense it felt as if his Soul were being flung from its shell, Gu Yang felt like he had been tossed into a stone-filled industrial washing machine and spun ten thousand times at supersonic speed.

He snapped his eyes open, bracing himself against the ground with both hands. He crouched there, dry-heaving as his stomach churned violently, almost bringing up bile.

"Where is this..."

Gu Yang shook his head, which felt as heavy as lead, and struggled to climb up from the ground.

Before him lay an utterly desolate, crimson-red rocky desert. Fierce winds whipped sand and gravel against his face, stinging with every impact.

The sky above was no longer a familiar azure, but a murky grayish-brown, as if obscured by a thick layer of dust.

More bizarrely, two massive blood-red moons hung in the sky, one on the left and one on the right, resembling a pair of demonic eyes peering down at the earth, emitting a heart-palpitating, eerie red light.

The air was thick with a violent, chaotic, and heavy aura.

Gu Yang tried to take a deep breath.

Cough, cough, cough!

A searing, burning pain shot through his lungs.

The air here contained some kind of extremely active energy particles. It was like breathing in glass shards; every breath sliced at his trachea and lung lobes.

"Spiritual Qi? But this Spiritual Qi is too violent; it's practically like explosives."

Furthermore, what made Gu Yang most uncomfortable was the gravity here.

Gu Yang lifted a foot, and his expression instantly changed.

Heavy! Incomparably heavy!

The gravity here was at least a hundred times that of the Human Realm!

With his terrifying physique that had been enough to hoist mountains and tear apart Martial Saints in the Human Realm, he actually felt a distinct strain now. With every step, his leg muscles had to tense up in resistance, leaving deep footprints in the hard, rocky ground.

If an ordinary Mortal Martial Grandmaster were to come here, their blood vessels would likely burst instantly from the terrifying gravity, turning them into a puddle of meat.

"System, report status."

Gu Yang instinctively called out in his mind while opening his attribute panel.

[Ding! Plane transition successful!]

[Current Location: Cangyun Cultivation World — Edge of the Chaotic Star Sea · Abandoned Mining Star.]

[Environment scan complete: Spiritual Qi concentration extremely high (Violent/Impure), Law suppression extremely strong (100x Gravity/Stable Space).]

[Warning: The host's original life form cannot adapt to the Laws of a high-dimensional world. The System has automatically performed an "Ascension Recasting."]

[System version updating... Data restructuring in progress...]

Several lines of pale blue data streams flashed frantically before his eyes before finally settling.

[Restructuring complete!]

Name: Gu Yang

Realm: Mortal Body (Body Cultivator · Qi Refinement Stage Level 9 Perfection)

Cultivation Technique: Primordial Indestructible Golden Body (Incomplete / Mortal Grade Peak), Heavenly Demon Tiger Fist (Mortal Grade Peak)

Divine Ability: Dharma Image of Heaven and Earth (Sealed, insufficient Spiritual Qi to activate), Extreme Dao Force Field (Range compressed to 1 meter)

Energy: 0 points (Exhausted during plane barrier crossing and Physical Body recasting)

"What the hell is this?"

Gu Yang's eyes widened, nearly losing his breath.

"Qi Refinement Stage? Mortal Body? System, did you glitch? I'm an Extreme Dao Demon God who achieved sainthood through the body and tore apart Martial Saints!"

"And where are my energy points? The huge fortune of over ten thousand points I worked so hard to save?! That's my hard-earned money!"

[Answering Host: The energy level of the Human Realm is too low, much like foam. To prevent the host's Physical Body from collapsing while crossing the Cultivation World's plane barrier, all energy was converted into "Law Adaptation" and "Physical Body Recasting."]

[Without recasting, the host would have been crushed directly into an atomic state by the Laws of this Realm. The current "Qi Refinement Stage Level 9 Perfection" is already the limit for an ascender from the Human Realm.]

Gu Yang's facial muscles twitched frantically.

So, I worked my ass off to reach max level in the tutorial village with a full set of god-tier gear, only to be forced into a reincarnation upon changing maps, turning back into a level one noob?

Not only that, he looked down at himself.

His proud three-meter height and that domineering four-armed Demon God form were gone, forcibly compressed back into his original 1.9-meter human form.

Although his muscle definition was still perfect, that world-destroying sense of power had vanished, replaced by a heavy sensation of being shackled by Laws.

"Clang."

A dull thud sounded by his hand.

Gu Yang looked down; it was his old partner—the 13,500-jin sea-suppressing coiling dragon pillar.

In a hundred-fold gravity environment, this pillar should have weighed over a million jin and crushed the earth.

But now, as Gu Yang reached out to grab it, he actually felt it was... lighter?

No, it wasn't lighter; it was "dead."

This black iron divine weapon that once shook the Human Realm was rapidly rusting and peeling under the erosion of the Cultivation World's violent Spiritual Qi, looking like scrap metal weathered for a thousand years.

"Crack."

With a slight squeeze, Gu Yang actually left a finger-print on the pillar, and a piece of iron skin fell off.

Mortal iron, after all, could not withstand the Laws of the Cultivation World.

"Really... back to square one overnight."

Gu Yang sighed, casually hoisting the nearly scrapped iron pillar onto his shoulder. Though rusty, it was still a handy tool to have for self-defense.

"Hiss—"

Just as Gu Yang was still adapting to this terrible new environment.

A sharp hiss suddenly came from the pile of rocks ahead.

A dusty-gray rat, the size of a local dog, scurried out.

This rat looked extremely hideous, its fur standing up like steel needles, shimmering with a metallic luster.

Its tiny crimson eyes were full of cruelty and bloodlust, and the two protruding fangs in its mouth were like sharp daggers, still dripping with the flesh and blood of some unknown creature.

Gold-Devouring Rat (First-Order Low Grade Yao Beast), the lowest existence in the Cultivation World, living on Ores and carrion, with a ferocious temperament.

It stared at Gu Yang, its nose twitching twice, seemingly judging if this "two-legged beast" was tasty.

Finally, it confirmed—this was a piece of fresh meat with firm texture and abundant blood qi!

"A rat dares to glare at me?"

Gu Yang laughed out of anger.

In the Human Realm, he was a ruthless man who ate flood dragons like spicy strips and treated Land Immortals like shredded chicken!

Even if he was currently a tiger in the plains, he wasn't about to be provoked by a mere rodent!

"Die!"

Gu Yang casually picked up a fist-sized stone by his feet.

The stone was extremely dense, feeling heavy in his hand, at least several dozen jin.

His arm muscles bulged as he threw it violently!

Whoosh!

The stone tore through the air with a shrill whistle, accurately striking the Gold-Devouring Rat on its forehead.

Bang!

A crisp sound like metal clashing against metal rang out.

The scene Gu Yang expected of the rat's head exploding did not occur.

The Gold-Devouring Rat was merely knocked into a somersault. It shook its head, and not even a bump appeared on its forehead!

The stones here were hard, but this rat's head was even harder!

"Squeak!!!"

This strike didn't hurt it, but instead completely enraged it.

The Gold-Devouring Rat let out a piercing scream, its hind legs kicking off as the ground exploded beneath them.

It turned into a streak of gray lightning, its speed incredibly fast, instantly crossing the distance of over ten meters to snap its bloody maw toward Gu Yang's calf!

"So fast!"

Gu Yang was startled.

This speed was actually no less than a Grandmaster-level expert in the Human Realm sprinting at full power!

He instinctively activated his golden body defense.

Primordial Indestructible Golden Body!

A faint dark-golden light surfaced on his body, but it was much dimmer than it had been in the Human Realm.

Snap!

The Gold-Devouring Rat bit down on Gu Yang's shin.

It didn't bite through; instead, a crisp sound echoed as one of the rat's fangs snapped off.

Although Gu Yang's Primordial Indestructible Golden Body was rated as Mortal Grade by the System, that was relative to the high-end techniques of the Cultivation World. Its foundation was still there, and this was only a First-Order Low Grade Yao Beast; it clearly couldn't break his defense.

But Gu Yang was also broken into a cold sweat.

He felt a sharp, piercing pain. Two deep white marks appeared on the skin of his calf, and even a trace of blood seeped out.

"Holy crap? It broke the skin?"

"This rat's bite force... is actually comparable to a Great Grandmaster in the Human Realm striking with a divine weapon at full power?"

"What kind of ghost place is this? A random rat on the side of the road has this kind of combat power? What if a cat shows up?"

Alarm bells rang in Gu Yang's mind as he cast away the last trace of contempt.

"Get lost!"

His right leg muscles exploded instantly, fighting against the hundred-fold gravity suppression to whip out like a steel lash.

Heavenly Demon Tiger Fist — Tiger Tail Kick!

Bang!

This kick landed squarely on the Gold-Devouring Rat's soft abdomen.

The Gold-Devouring Rat shrieked as it was kicked away like a ball for dozens of meters, smashing heavily into a giant rock.

Splat.

This time, it couldn't hold on.

Its internal organs shattered under the vibration of Gu Yang's monstrous strength, turning into a puddle of meat stuck to the rock, slowly sliding down.

[Killed First-Order Low Grade Yao Beast (Gold-Devouring Rat), obtained energy points: 1 point.]

"1 point?"

Gu Yang looked at this pitifully small gain, somewhat speechless.

Before, killing a small mob would give several or dozens of points. Now, killing a rat comparable to a Grandmaster only gives 1 point?

The energy exchange rate in this Cultivation World has some serious inflation going on.

Gu Yang walked over and picked up the dead rat to take a look.

"The meat is a bit sour, and it's poisonous..."

He tossed it away in disgust, then picked up the nearly rusted-out coiling dragon pillar, casting his gaze toward the vast and dangerous wilderness around him.

"Energy reset to zero, Divine Abilities sealed, techniques downgraded..."

"And the monsters here are absurdly strong, plus the gravity makes it hard to breathe."

Gu Yang took a deep breath, his gaze gradually becoming sharp and cautious.

"It seems I can't just charge in brainlessly like before."

"I need to find a place to lay low first, get some food, and adapt to the rhythm of this world."

"But..."

Gu Yang rubbed his growling stomach, the familiar fire of a foodie reigniting in his eyes.

"Since this is the Cultivation World, the 'buffet' here... should be of a much higher grade, right?"

"I've heard that the Medicinal Pills, Spirit Beasts, and Heaven And Earth Treasures of cultivators all taste quite good."

No matter where he was, the core of the Extreme Dao style remained unchanged:

As long as you dare to show a health bar, I'll kill even a god for you to see!

As long as it can be eaten, everything is energy points!