"System!—" Li Mingli was about to say something else but was interrupted by a screen in front of him.
< Reward: ???
Hint: Run in a zig-zagged line>>
After he read the screen, Li Mingli could hear the beast gaining on him, so he decided to do what the system recommended. Running in a zig-zagged line slightly deterred the creature, but it was still gaining on him by relying on its scent and remaining eye. While desperately running, Li Mingli used the terrain to his advantage by twisting and turning through corners, giving his pursuer a hard time. This was still not enough, however, as the beast was still steadily catching up. Li Mingli noticed this and started to think of a plan.
"If I keep running like this, I will surely get caught! If I could just evade the beast for a couple of moments..."
As Li Mingli kept thinking, he suddenly caught a scent of something very pungent nearby. Without dwelling any longer, he quickly headed over to where that scent carried. Arriving at the source of that smell, a grotesque poop could be spotted on the ground bigger than Li Mingli's hands. Aside from its size, the smell it emitted was on a whole other level of stink. This was the perfect opportunity to evade the beast! He smeared as much of it as he could on his body and then hid in a nearby bush. The gray wolf arrived at the same place it last smelled its prey's scent only to be befuddled. The disgusting scent was enough to confuse the wolf's sensitive smell, so it couldn't know where Li Mingli was hiding. After searching the place for a solid 10 minutes, the wolf decided to give up as wasting any more time on this prey would be detrimental for it instead. Watching the beast walk away, Li Mingli celebrated in his mind as he barely escaped this life threatening situation.
Suddenly, the system popped up and showed the same screen, this time with the question marks revealed.
< Reward: Map
Hint: Run in a zig-zagged line>>
"A map?" Li Mingli questioned.
The screen then changed into an interface that Li Mingli was more familiar with as it was the familiar transmigrator system. There were three tabs at the top of the screen that were titled Cultivation, Stats and Map. He could also see the name of the system in bold letters titled Heaven Reforming System.
Li Mingli became very excited as this was the legendary system he heard of. He then pressed the cultivation tab and the screen changed again.
< Body Realm: Mortal (1)
Soul Realm: Mortal (1)
Talent: Heavenly-Reforming Talent (can reform the heavens)>>
"Can reform the heavens? Also, there is a soul realm? I only know of the cultivation realms and body realms from the cultivation novels I read. Could there be some mistake?" Li Mingli was full of questions, but there was no one to answer them. He then pressed the stats tab.
< Intelligence: 0
Vitality: 4
Luck: ???
Charm: 0
???: ???>>
"Apparently this system knows less than me. I can barely count the amount of question marks on both my hands. What even is the last stat?" Li Mingli was going to die of frustration from how many questions the system gave him, no pun intended.
"Also why is my intelligence and charm 0? Are these the stats of the previous owner?" Li Mingli said not expecting an answer, when the screen suddenly flashed and changed displaying information.
< Li Mingli slowly read the information, his expression becoming stupefied.
"I thought the previous owner would be an idiot, but to this extent?"
Reading the information a couple times more, Li Mingli finally digested the information and then pressed the last tab. The screen changed and showed a map of the whole world with 3 continents. The only one that wasn't blacked out was called the Eastern continent. Currently he was in a relatively large forest called the Yuan Forest. The nearest territory was 200 li away from him according to the maps measurements.
*1 li is 0.5 kilometers in Chinese measurements or around 0.3 miles in length.
"200 li... That would take an entire day and night to walk not mentioning any breaks..." Li Mingli sighed with a gloomy expression.
The nearest settlement was called Yuan city named after the Yuan forest. Li Mingli hoped that this Yuan city would be worth travelling such a large distance for.
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Grumble, Grumble
Halfway into his journey, Li Mingli was starving as he hadn't touch a crumble of food for a couple of days. He was smart enough to create a bowl of bark he collected from the trees to carry water, but besides water there were only berries and mushrooms that could contain poison. The animals nearby would pose too much of a risk, so Li Mingli quickly disregarded that idea. Not only because of the risk but also because he couldn't find a single animal while walking.
Having to endure days of sleeping in shrubs, Li Mingli was determined to arrive at Yuan city. Setting aside his hunger, he followed the most efficient path outlined by his map.
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Grumble! Grumble!
"Did I finally arrive?" Li Mingli hopefully stared in front of him as the trees began to recede and new scenery emerged, his stomach sounding out like the rumbles of joy.
There were grassy plains with some hills and in the distance you could make out a city. Extending from the city was a path with some caravans and people walking on it. This was certainly the moment Li Mingli had endured for!
He took a few sips of water from the bark bowl he carried as a way to liven up himself and then took his first step forward.
"This would be the first step I take before actually starting my journey!" He thought to himself and as he walked up to the path, he realized just how long the line actually was, instantly defeating his moment of glory.
"..."
Forced to go all the way to the back of the line, Li Mingli sighed, not from that but from the fact that he'd have to wait half the entire day in this line. While in line, Li Mingli was wondering if he could even talk to the people of this world and hoped that Chinese would work.
"Hey." Li Mingli tried to bring up the attention of the merchant-like person in front of him.
"What?" The merchant-like person turned around.
Inwardly, Li Mingli sighed from relief before saying, "How long do we have to wait in line for?"
"Around half a day. Why?"
"Do you mind if I borrow enough money to get in? I just got out of the Yuan forest and I haven't ate anything for a couple days." Li Mingli pleaded.
"What! The Yuan forest! How on the Eastern continent did you get back here alive!" His shouts alerted the people around him.
Li Mingli was shocked by his reaction, especially because it was mostly a smooth ride here. Except for that one wolf he encountered at the start, there were no dangers he was aware of.
"What do you mean? Is the Yuan forest actually dangerous?"
The merchant-like person looked at him in shock. "Everyone around here knows that the Yuan forest is very dangerous. There are many beasts with a cultivation of Qi Gathering and the strongest is at the Qi Refining realm! Even the weakest monster is at the pinnacle of the Mortal realm, so how did you survive?"
At first Li Mingli was more shocked than the merchant, but he managed to hide his disbelief. By deceiving him, he could manage to gain some funds from the merchant and finally buy some food!
"Ahem. Of course I killed all the beasts that dared to attack me! Some of them were even at the peak of Qi Gathering stage. If you lend me some of your money, you will surely not regret it." Li Mingli spoke in a confident tone.
The merchant's mouth was agape with his eyes in disbelief.
"O-Of course. How much money does senior want?" His hands were trembling as he took the pouch of money from his right side.
"Enough to get into the city and buy a whole heap of food." Li Mingli replied, inwardly questioning why the merchant who was clearly older than him called him senior.
The merchant gave him 5 silver coins and bowed his head in respect. Of course Li Mingli was a scrupulous man, so he gave his thanks in return. As he chatted with the merchant to learn more information, he managed to learn a lot by convincing him that he was a hermit. He learned that there were 5 cultivation realms from the man in the following order: Mortal, Qi Gathering, Qi Refining, Foundation Realm, and Core Formation Realm. The last two realms, the merchant was unsure of. Regarding body realms and soul realms, the merchant knew nothing. The merchant also said that he could introduce him to someone who knew way more than him to which Li Mingli replied yes.
Aside from that, he also taught him the basic currency system where copper coins were the cheapest with the conversion of 100 to 1 silver coin. Silver coins were the third most valuable with a conversion of 100 to 1 gold coin. Gold coins were the second most with a conversion of 100 to 1 platinum coin. And platinum coins were the most valuable where even a couple of them could buy a small city.
As the two neared the city gate, the merchant decided to let Li Mingli know where he'd stay.
"I will stay in the Blossoms Inn in case you want to find me. Also, my name is Qing Feng. May I ask for yours?"
"My name is Li Mingli. When we meet again, I will surely repay you with interest."
Qing Feng looked at him with a bright face. While he was a little startled from hearing that Li shared the same name as the famous idiot, he thought that there was no way under the heavens that they were the same person. He was after all someone with intelligence.
Qing Feng then went up to the city guards and payed the toll to get inside the city. Li Mingli also did the same and went up to one of the city guards.
"2 silver coins." The city guard said with a clearly tired look.
"Here." Li Mingli took out his pouch and handed the guard two silver coins before he was allowed entry.
As he entered, the bustling city and noticeable bright mood brought Li Mingli's spirits up. The different vendors at the city's entrance, lively people who walked around, and relative sized residential buildings greeted Li Mingli.