Darkness.
Complete and endless. No stars above. No ceiling. No ground below. Jin Ranyi floated there, eyes raw and swollen as if he had been crying forever.
Then-
A beam of light split the void. His body snapped back into reality.
His eyelids fluttered open to a rusty wooden ceiling. He lay on a hard bed with a thin blanket over him.
He tried to shift his body and pain blazed at once.
"Ouch…" His back felt as if sharp stones were lodged deep inside, grinding whenever he moved.
Reaching behind, his fingers brushed a thick layer of dried herbs and medicine plastered over the wound. He exhaled and gave up on moving.
He took in the room. Calling it a house felt generous; it was more a mud-brick shelter than anything familiar.
He moved his body with great pain. 'I have to at least confirm whether this place is secure.'
He forced himself up enough to peer outside the window. Life went on: people working, children running, vendors shouting, cultivators walking with the space of reverence kept around them by others.
[We're in the outskirts of the Peng Domain, Master.]
Suddenly he saw a blue screen flicked in front of him. As he read the message,
'I see, so it's a sentient system huh.' He leaned on the walls and asked,
"Who brought me here?"
[Your body was carried here by a group of passing merchants who found you on the road.]
"Only me? Wasn't Liang around me too?"
"Ahem-"
The divine feminine voice cut in again. Jin's eyes widened as he looked around, but there was no one.
Then, with a soft pop of smoke, something appeared before him: a devil no bigger than a palm. A chibi, teddy-like creature with puffed cheeks and an annoyingly smug grin. It was the same thing he'd seen before, only tiny.
"So in reality you're a pipsqueak, huh." Jin said.
A vein throbbed on the creature's head. It exploded in a high, loud squeak.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, PIPSQUEAK, YOU BRAT? I'll educate you since you clearly don't grasp the importance of my existence. I am-"
Before she could finish a blue screen blinked in front of him,
[She is an exiled mad scientist from the Upper Realms. Her name is Yin Shuye. And yes, Master. You're correct: she's a pipsqueak.]
Shuye popped up in front of the screen, riled up.
"THIS STUPID SPIRIT- LET ME GET MY INTRODUCTION. She's been driving me mad for days. I'm small because my power's sealed, but I can still-"
[She was the one who separated you from Liang after healing you, Master.]
"Listen-" the chibi devil began.
"What do you want?" Jin cut in.
Both froze as Jin's face went flat and serious. He looked straight at Shuye.
"I thought the contract only covered me giving up cultivation and you healing me. So why are you still attached to me?"
Shuye clasped her tiny hands and looked down, suddenly with the earnest, guilty face of a puppy.
"I was stuck in that tablet a long time," she said, voice small. "I wanted to see the outside world."
Her tone read more like an explanation rather than an answer.
Then a light sparked in her eyes, "But among the 'Wangzao Zhe', I'm one of the senior administrators. I can teach you most of what you need to know about this world."
"I refuse. If you want to give me anything, give me back my cultivation, my ability to cultivate." Jin laid his terms flat.
"Uhhh…" She winced, looking down, embarrassed.
Jin sighed. "Let me guess. There's restriction, right?"
She gave a small, reluctant nod.
Silence fell while Jin closed his eyes and thought, sorting the immediate problem.
'This is a huge problem. A system helps, but never being able to cultivate, I'll be a mortal forever. Mortals are crushed here like ants. I'll be made into dust if I go on like this. First: assess the damage.'
He opened his eyes. "Explain exactly what you meant by 'forfeit cultivation.' Did you shatter my dantian? Lay a curse on me?"
Shuye wriggled in place, avoiding his gaze. Her voice came small. "It's worse than a curse or a broken body. You can't heal this with a even a divine artifact."
Jin's jaw tightened. "Elaborate."
She swallowed. "I rewrote your fate. I altered the line of destiny that would let you cultivate. From now on, you won't be able to cultivate, ever."
A small, hollow noise escaped Jin. Not a cry, but the sound of a plan rerouting itself.
The words dropped and the room went dead quiet. Not even the street sound seeped in. The weight of what she'd said pressed on Jin heavily.
Jin stared at Shuye, horrified and bewildered at the same time. In a low, disbelieving tone he said, "You fuckin' pipsqueak."
The room erupted,
"I'M SORRYYY, I-IT WASN'T MEANT TO GO LIKE THIS. MOST JUST ASK FOR HALF OF THEIR CULTIVATION TO BE TAKEN."
"HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW I COULD BARGAIN. I WAS AT MY LAST BREATHS." Jin shot back.
"I'M SORRRY-" she squealed, flustered and panicked.
The same blue screen popped up in front of Jin,
[Master, don't worry. Your excellent and reliable system has found the thing to work a way around it. But we'll have to work hard to change the course of our fate.]
Jin calmed down a little, "Go on."
[First, Master, though I have a consciousness of my own and posses a huge knowledge pool. I can't access it unless you provide me some context. Think of me like a dictionary. I can provide you the exact word you're looking for but for that, you'll have to turn the pages to it. Or at least bring me closer to it.]
Jin nodded while the culprit stayed silent.
[I also have other functions, Master, but they'll only unlock as you grow stronger. Since we've starting from nothing now, I spent two days researching and finally put together a function that lets you take on missions to slowly change your fate.]
"Hey! That was me thinking for two days straight and coming up with that idea. You were just poking around," the pipsqueak chimed in.
[It's called "collecting information", thank you very much.]
"You-" Before she could say anything, Jin shot her a flat look, shutting her up.
He sighed, "So I'm guessing you bought this function? Cause I don't think there would be any type of free function for the bottom tier."
[Exactly. But I haven't purchased it yet, Master. I still need your approval. There's one more thing: connecting to this 'Quest' function isn't without risk. The missions don't come from me, they come from the energy of Fate itself. The problem is, it slowly shapes your life around them, since the rewards it grants will always be exactly what you wanted the most at that moment.]
"I see. So it's just that I have to be cautious right?"
[Very. But don't worry Master, I'll be with you.]
Jin smiled, "Okay, now it's time to witness the damage. Ahem-"
He cleared his throat to say the magical words he had been waiting to say,
"Status."