[Name: Lei Tianlong
Age: 18/150
Cultivation: First stage of the Foundation Realm
Spiritual Root: Fifth level Lightning Root
Lineage: None
Constitution: None
Gacha Tickets: None
Gacha Shop Points: 0
Sect Leader's Shop Points: 0]
Sitting against a tree trunk, Cain looked again at the translucent screen in front of him. He ran his fingers across it, feeling a slight tingle on his skin.
He knew that character - Lei Tianlong.
It was the last one he had created in Tales of Immortals and Gods - a cultivator specializing in swords and lightning. He never got the chance to play with him. The capsule had broken before that.
Everything was identical to the game: the terms, the interface, the initial cultivation realm... But there was one glaring difference.
It was real. No immersion pod, not even the most advanced ones, could simulate that level of realism - least of all his, old and outdated.
He tried to open the options menu.
Nothing.
"Log out!" he called.
Again, nothing.
Most of the menus were inactive, and several systems seemed to be down.
After thinking for a few moments, he raised his head.
"System..." he called out with some hesitation.
"Have I been reincarnated?"
A heavy silence hung in the air for a few seconds, until an answer echoed in his mind:
[Transmigration would be the more correct term.]
A masculine, mechanical voice rang out at the same time as the words appeared before Cain's eyes. Just like the game.
Ignoring the correction, he let the flood of questions that consumed him escape:
"What happened to me? Why am I here? Is this the real world or a-?"
[Access denied. Insufficient cultivation level to access information.]
Cain was interrupted by the notification. He stared at those words for a long time before letting out a tired sigh.
He looked at the horizon and pressed his hand to his chest. His heart was beating fast. His face, however, remained calm - or at least he tried to keep it that way.
It was then that he realized.
He wasn't in a game.
He had no idea how he had ended up there, but...
His thoughts wandered to the countless isekai and xianxia novels he had read.
Did it sound absurd? It certainly was.
But it was the only explanation that made sense.
He had transmigrated. Just like the protagonists of those books.
A smile broke out on his face. Memories of his past life surfaced - pain, suffering, poverty, misery and a hopelessness that seemed eternal.
It all came crashing down. The smile widened into a laugh as Cain finally fully understood what had happened to him.
There wasn't a drop of regret about leaving his old world - and his heart hadn't beaten this fast since his first kiss in high school.
He looked up at the sky, eyes twinkling, and shouted with everything he had inside him:
"I've fucking transmigrated!"
The feeling was liberating, as if decades of exhaustion had dissipated in a single moment.
His name was no longer Cain. Now it was Lei Tianlong.
He was no longer a mediocre soldier in an elite battalion - now he was a powerful cultivator who would ascend to the heavens.
Lei Tianlong closed his eyes and concentrated on his own dantian, feeling the energy circulating inside.
It was just like the game... Or almost.
The sensations was much more intense. The capsule had never been able to simulate the cultivation process properly.
When he extended his Qi outwards, Lei Tianlong felt the difference immediately.
He could perceive everything around him within a radius of ten meters - from the flapping of insect wings to the soft rustle of leaves in the wind.
It was like the game, but much deeper, almost indescribable.
His eyes fixed on a nearby tree. The trunk wasn't particularly thick, but it looked strong enough to stop a rampaging bull.
His robes fluttered and a thunderous aura enveloped his body as he began to circulate the Qi through his meridians, strengthening each muscle with precision.
He planted his left foot on the ground, rotated his right and unleashed a powerful kick against the tree trunk.
The crash reverberated in his ears. The wood broke with a dry snap, and fragments of bark and splinters flew as the tree fell with a thud to the forest floor.
As he stepped back, he felt his leg tremble slightly. Surprisingly, there was no pain - just a slight sting at the point of impact.
He stopped the circulation of Qi, and the aura around him disappeared.
So much power... so much vitality... Even without circulating the Qi, he felt refreshed, as if he had returned to his younger years.
No - his teenage self would never have broken a tree in half with a single blow, not even with the most advanced bionic prostheses on the market.
'It doesn't matter anymore,' he muttered. That old world didn't matter anymore. Who he had been there... didn't matter either.
He had been given a new chance. A fresh start. And he didn't intend to waste it.
He took a deep breath and lifted his face, letting the confidence reflect in his expression.
With a thought, he opened his inventory.
It was practically empty - except for a single item: a golden token he knew very well.
With a gesture in the air, the object materialized in his hand.
The fact that almost everything there worked exactly as it did in the game was very convenient.
[Item: Sect Creation Token
Description: A token for creating sects. It needs to be used in a lower spiritual vein by a cultivator at least in the Foundation Realm].
Quantity: 1x
Rarity: Rare
Immediately afterwards, a new window opened before his eyes:
[You have received a new Quest: The Beginning of the Journey]
[Quest: The Beginning of the Journey
Description: You are about to begin your journey as a sect leader. Find a inferior spiritual vein and use the Sect Creation Token.
Difficulty: Hard
Time limit: 7 days
Rewards:
- Access to the Gacha Wheel
- Position: Sect Leader
- 5x Premium Gacha Ticket
- 10x Common Gacha Ticket
- 2x Common Character Gacha Ticket
- 5000x Inferior Spirit Crystals
- 50x Gacha Shop Points
- 100x Sect Leader Shop Points
Punishment: Death]
Tianlong looked at the quests. It was exactly the same as the one that appeared whenever he created a new character in Tales of Immortals and Gods.
'Open map' he mentally intoned, unsure if the feature still existed.
The map was essential.
Without it, finding a spiritual vein would be almost impossible. Forget seven days - even seven years wouldn't be enough without some kind of guide.
Fortunately, a few seconds later, the map opened up in front of him, displaying an area with a radius of a few hundred kilometers. This range would increase as he advanced in cultivation - and at the highest stages, it would even be possible to see the entire continent.
"Nothing very promising..." he muttered, sliding his fingers over the interface to better analyze the region.
He was in a mountainous area, covered in dense forests. There were few towns nearby, and the nearest sect was almost three hundred kilometers away.
The map indicated a few dozen inferior spiritual veins, but all of them level one.
Still, a level one vein wasn't exactly bad. Most of them started at that level. Level two veins were one in hundreds, and level three veins, one in thousands - the ones above it were usually concentrated in the central regions, where the Qi was densest and the veins most powerful.
Lei Tianlong continued analyzing the map, studying each point - sects, cities, spiritual veins. After several minutes of searching, something finally caught his eye.
A small town, with just over ten thousand inhabitants, about one hundred and twenty kilometers away.
Nothing about it stood out, except for one detail: a spiritual vein at the foot of a mountain.
Its color was blue, like all the others, but there was something different about it. A more intense glow, a more vivid hue. The sight brought a smile to his face.
A second-level inferior spiritual vein - luck had smiled on him.
Without wasting any more time, he looked up.
The sun was still shining brightly, it was probably around one in the afternoon.
He still had plenty of time, but after confirming that the fast travel system was unavailable, he started running.
A thin layer of Qi covered his body, propelling him at superhuman speed. With each leap, he surpassed the treetops, guiding himself by the map.
Even without any assistance, jumping between the branches seemed easier than in the game. His mind was faster and his body more precise, responding to his instincts with impressive synchronicity.
It was as if his feet were moving before he even decided, always landing on the right spot before launching off again.
***
The journey took just over two hours. When he finally landed in front of the city, his Qi reserves had diminished just a little and there wasn't a drop of sweat on his body - it looked like he'd just taken a stroll to the market.
He stretched and observed the scenery ahead.
It was a small town, even by the standards of that world. A wall about five meters high surrounded it, and above the main gate, a sign bore its name: Serene Moonlight City. Two cultivators at the Qi Refining Realm guarded the entrance.
At this level, they were not yet considered immortal. Their dantians didn't have Qi cores - that only was attained at the Foundation Realm.
Even so, it wasn't insignificant. Most people didn't even reach the first stage of Qi Refining.
From the look of the city, Lei Tianlong would venture to say that there were, at most, a handful of Foundation Realm cultivators, all already old, limited by their own talent and just waiting to die.
He took a step towards the city... but hesitated.
A thought crossed his mind.
Normally, he would ask the local lord for permission before founding a sect so close by. But... did he really need to? No... Should he do it?
He remained silent for a moment.
In that world, sects were supreme. Like it or not, anyone with the power to found a sect was someone to be feared. And they didn't ask permission from anyone weaker than them.
Now, he was one of those existences.
To bow one's head before the Lord of the city would be to admit weakness.
The right thing to do was simply to establish his sect and wait for the City lord to come to him - willingly offering his tribute.
That was the law of the strongest.
He was no longer just a foolish player in a virtual world. He was now among the powerful.
And they would bow... willingly, or with broken knees.