Chapter 2: This Man Is Clearly Overpowered Yet Excessively Cautious
"Welcome to the 'Strongest Across the Worlds System.' Would you like to use your sign-in opportunity? (Today 1/1)"
"Yes."
System prompt: Sign-in successful. Reward: twenty years of cultivation. Reward: Supreme Immortal Technique — Heaven-Defying Single Sword.
Chen Chang'an felt the true essence within his body surge wildly, while in his mind appeared, unbidden, a defensive sword technique capable of blocking any attack.
He showed neither joy nor sorrow.
At this moment, his legs were crossed, each breath in harmony with heaven and earth — a sign that his cultivation had reached its limit, Saint Realm perfection, and was beginning the stage of Refining the Void and Uniting with the Dao.
Chen Chang'an did not know that even if the Human Emperor of this era came, he would likely have to lower his head and address him as Saint Venerate.
Yet this so-called "Saint Venerate" now exuded an air of complete decadence.
Ignoring his world-shaking cultivation, he seemed like a middle-aged man who had lost his job but dared not tell his family, still maxing out his credit cards to repay an enormous mortgage.
I really want to go see the outside of the valley.
Chen Chang'an sighed inwardly.
But for someone useless like me, who would hesitate half a day before killing a chicken, how could I possibly defeat the ruthless figures of this world, who have endured hardship since childhood and act with decisive slaughter?
This was the Xuan Ying Continent, where the weak are prey to the strong.
Thus, the only final destination for him was to live in seclusion in this small valley until the end of time.
As for the system, it might look impressive with its daily sign-ins granting decades of cultivation in one go, but this was a cultivation world where time spans tens of thousands of years.
Furthermore, bizarre and varied techniques were as numerous as the hairs on a cow. Someone like him — a plump chicken with nothing but cultivation — might just be a human-shaped cheat tool prepared for the real protagonist of this world.
If one of them were to learn a technique like the Northern Darkness Divine Art or the Great Star-Absorbing Method, perhaps by chance they might "fall into the valley," encounter me, and with one frenzied absorption, rise straight to the peak of life.
As for himself—
Recalling the many masters in Jin Yong's novels who were sucked dry by Ren Woxing, Chen Chang'an shuddered.
Forget it. Useless trash should have the self-awareness of trash.
Isn't staying at home fine? It's just a pity that this world has no anime, games, or two-dimensional wives, which makes it inevitably boring. Still, dying well is better than living poorly.
Seventy years ago — the five-hundredth year after he transmigrated.
At that time, he was at Saint Realm perfection, full of ambition. As a dignified transmigrator blessed with a system, he thought he was the protagonist of this world.
Who could have expected that the moment he reached the mouth of the valley, he would encounter a strange black serpent that, without a word, lunged straight at him.
He had used every ounce of his strength just to escape from its jaws, fleeing back into the valley in complete disgrace.
From that moment on, the fire in his heart was extinguished.
Isn't it obvious? What kind of protagonist can't even defeat a random snake by the roadside?
Although that serpent could wield a strange sword and was clearly no ordinary snake, so what? Even at the most generous assessment, it was still just a snake demon capable of using spells.
Controlling Objects, Penetrating the Profound, Returning to Origin, Longevity, Heaven-Human, Saint Realm.
These were the six major realms of cultivation in this world, as told to him by the system.
But I am clearly at Saint Realm perfection — so why can some random snake demon I meet so easily push me to the brink of despair?
No matter how much he wracked his brains, he couldn't figure it out… until a terrifying thought occurred to him.
Could it be that my system actually comes from a world with a relatively low power level, while the world I'm in now has a much higher power level?
It was like characters from a Jin Yong novel suddenly crossing into Fengyun.
Even the invincible Dongfang Bubai probably couldn't beat a single background extra there.
Perhaps what the system calls the Saint Realm is actually very common in this world. There might even be realms above it — Great Saint Realm, Giant Saint Realm, and so on.
The more Chen Chang'an thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Otherwise, how could he explain the ridiculous fact that after five hundred years of signing in, he still couldn't beat a random black snake by the roadside?
And although this system bore the domineering name of the "Strongest Across the Worlds System"…
But aside from the sign-in function, all other features were greyed out.
So, seventy years ago, after that crushing defeat, he had indeed resolved to work hard — deciding not to rely solely on the system's sign-ins, but to grow his cultivation through his own training.
Yet after only a few days of effort, he discovered that compared to the system's sign-ins, the tiny amount of cultivation he gained from breathing exercises was utterly pitiful.
So not only is my system weak, but I'm actually a talentless waste myself?
That last shred of self-confidence in him finally disappeared completely.
From then on, Chen Chang'an truly began to let himself go — spending his days planting flowers, tending grass, taking walks, and fishing.
One evening after dinner, as usual, he set out to stroll through the valley. Suddenly, his spiritual sense stirred — somewhere far ahead, within a patch of orchids, there seemed to be an unknown living presence.
He instantly grew tense.
After all, in a valley like this, damp spots beneath flower clusters were exactly the sort of places snakes loved most.
Ever since being taught a harsh lesson by that black serpent seventy years ago, he had held an inexplicable fear toward snakes.
If his spiritual sense hadn't insisted over and over that this presence was humanoid, he might have already packed up and run.
Carefully approaching the orchid patch, he willed the lush plants aside. The grass and blossoms shifted away on their own, revealing the true face of the unknown presence.
In a small bamboo-woven boat lay a tiny infant, sleeping quietly in swaddling. She must have been carried here by the stream running beside the orchids.
Her head was round like a small leather ball, her hair black and glossy under the sunlight. From time to time, she smacked her lips, as if dreaming a sweet dream.
Such a beautiful baby. Without thinking, Chen Chang'an reached out his hand.
The moment his fingertip touched the swaddling, the entire sea of flowers stirred though there was no wind.
A Purple Jade Ice Lotus shimmered with an eerie blue glow in the dusk. The spiritual bloom, which should have only opened in the dead of winter, now unfurled its petals abnormally, gently lifting the baby toward him. Dew clung to her eyelashes, catching the setting sun like tiny fragments of diamond.
Perhaps sensing his presence, the infant suddenly awoke. Eyes that had been squinted shut to a thread while she slept now opened wide into two bright, round orbs.
There was no crying as Chen Chang'an had expected. Instead, she giggled at the sight of him, revealing two rows of tiny, pure white teeth like carved jade.
The corners of his lips rose unconsciously as he gently lifted her into his arms.
Light — far too light. And cold.
I've never raised a child, but I know enough to tell this weight isn't right.
The pitiful lightness in his hands was nothing like what a healthy infant should have.
At once, he circulated his true essence, guiding it through the baby's meridians three times — and his brow furrowed deeply.
Beneath her rosy skin, her veins were as dry as a riverbed in drought.
This tiny infant's body held not a single drop of blood — yet she was still alive!
Truly, this must be the cultivation world.
After living alone for over five hundred years, it would be a lie to say he had never felt lonely. Feeling the softness of the baby in his arms, an idea of adoption stirred in his heart.
After a moment of thought, a bead of golden-red blood formed at his fingertip.
"Now you'll have my bloodline too…" he murmured. The blood bead traced ancient blood-contract patterns in the air, each stroke stirring heaven and earth's spiritual energy into a vortex.
The infant suddenly cried out, her voice so forceful that every spiritual flower within a hundred meters withered instantly. Chen Chang'an paid it no mind — he was using a drop of his own life essence blood to replenish the child's bloodline.
When the final stroke of blood pattern sank into her heart, the seven stars of the Northern Dipper lit up at once in the sky, their silver light streaming down into the infant's crown.
By dawn, he swept her body once more with his true essence.
Guided by that drop of his life essence blood, her veins now flowed with star radiance condensed into substance.
Holding the infant, now warm again, Chen Chang'an smiled faintly. "That's right… from now on, your name will be Chen Xingcai."