A small single consciousness was submerged in a suffocating chaotic sea of darkness, that hindered all senses - sightless, touchless, deaf, feeling only his own clouded thoughts with shards of fragmented memories that weren't his inserting themselves into his own.
'What's going on!?'
'Who am I...?'
'I am... Liu Feng!'
The dizziness and cloudiness that clouded his thoughts began to clear up a bit, allowing the consciousness to remember his own life.
'The last thing I can remember is being right next to the side of the road and somehow tripping off of the sidewalk. The next thing I knew saw were blinding lights belonging to a truck right in front of me and somehow I got here...wherever this is.'
'I see...So I must've died and this place should be some sort of afterlife. So much for religion.'
Though he could remember his own life as a successful foreign languages college graduate with a girlfriend and nice home, the new memories that were forcefully integrating into his very being caused the old ones to constantly suppress to the deepest recesses of his mind.
Gradually, he began to be able to put the fragmented shards of new memories in order and make sense of them, getting to see exactly what they were of.
*There was a small nameless sect founded five-thousand years ago by a man with an immensely profound cultivation base, admired by everyone on the planet, he proclaimed himself to be the first ever immortal and was thought to ascend - leaving the sect to his one and only disciple. A man he had chosen to be the successor to all of his cultivation techniques, treasures, and legacy.
The man decided to finally name the sect the Heavenly Stars Immortal Pavilion, after his master who had earned the moniker: Heavenly Stars Immortal. The Stars Immortal's Glory and fame spread over the continent making all cultivators alike - young and old, line up to join them. Soon, their status reached its peak and they were named the mightiest sect under the Heavens, with none being able to rival their power.
Sadly, like all good things, it couldn't last forever.
Centuries passed and the sect began to lose its influence and power it previously had. The second sect master had seven disciples he had chosen to take over it equally once he passed, but greed consumed them and an internal conflict within the sect gave birth to a minor war that killed hundreds-of-thousands; both mortals and cultivators alike.
The Royal family had given the decree that the seven disciples be executed for such treacherous actions, but with their strength - they were able to escape, leaving the sect master-less for a very long time.
Several more years passed by and more and more people left the Heavenly Stars Immortal Pavilion and joined the new Sects that were quickly rising in the cultivation world. Until finally, the Heavenly Stars Immortal became a name the entire world had forgotten.*
As Liu Feng digested the load of information onto his mind, he felt that there was some type of hidden interference with the new memories. For instance, all of the faces in the memories were blurred and when he tried to recall the actual names of any important figures in the scenes, none came up.
Before he could think too heavily on the matter however, a loud static signal noise echoed inside of his mind.
'Tch! What the hell is this!'
More moments passed by with the static-like sound, but it slowly began to die down. And once It did, a light ding akin to a cell phone notification quickly followed behind it.
'DING!'
After the quick chime, a strange blue translucent screen appeared inside of his mental space with white words on it in English.
'Is this a system...in English!?'
At that moment, Liu Feng was extremely thankful he was a foreign language major in College who was more fluent in English than anything!
The light azure screen read:
[Welcome Host! Before we get started would you like to change the language or enable the voice function of the system? If so, please click the options listed below, if not click 'No'.]
[Change Language Settings: {Yes, No}]
[Enable System Voice Function: {Yes, No}]
Liu Feng just stared at the screen in a sense of shock, not believing this was really happening to him and that the entire thing was just one bad dream. But after multiple times of trying to wake up and still seeing the translucent blue screen in front of him, Liu Feng acutely realized this was in fact his new reality.
'Well, I might as well enable the system's voice function so that I won't have to read it for the entire time.'
As he mentally clicked no for the change of language settings and a yes for the system voice function, another chime resounded inside his mind.
'DING!'
[The Host has successfully activated the system's voice function! The Host has successfully integrated the System's initial memory function into his mind and has thus completely activated the System!]
A cold and mechanical female voice echoed inside Liu Feng's mind as the system spoke. Though it did not show any emotion, Liu Feng secretly thought inside that it would have been a stone-cold beauty, who was on the inside a Tsundere.
[Congratulations Host! You Have been bound to the World Tree System! The system's main function is to help the Host grow and evolve into a powerful existence in the cultivation realm!]
'Cultivation realm...So I really must have reincarnated into a different world after my death. In the memories, they mentioned and showed cultivators and mortals. Mortals are what I assume to be regular humans so what separates them from a cultivator, system?'
Liu Feng had decided this would be the first question he asked the system to act as a sort of test to see if it was actually competent or not.
[Mortals are human beings that do not gather the essence of Heaven and Earth which is called Qi. To gather the essence is to absorb and transform it into a type of energy and use it to transcend your own Earthy restrictions - which is to cultivate. This is the difference between mortals and cultivators Host!]
'...'
'Seems competent enough to me!'
[If the Host has no more questions, the System will go ahead and start the Host's awakening process into the physical realm.]
All of a sudden, an overwhelming sense of fatigue and exhaustion assaulted Liu Feng's mind as he tried to stay conscious.
'System...Wait! What do you mean awakeni-' But before he could finish his sentence, Liu Feng completely lost consciousness.
...
Inside of Liu Feng's unconscious mind, the familiar chime of the System notification once again resounded in his mind causing him to slowly awaken from his mental sleep.
'DING!'
[The Host has successfully awakened into his new body. To show the body's information panel, view the Host's properties panel.]
As Liu Feng opened his 'eyes', he found his surrdedfsfhdind as he thought he had somehow been reincarnated and awakened into a paralyzed baby alone.
He had even tried to scream a few times but realized his attempts were utterly futile.
Deciding that to think rationally was better than freaking out, Liu Feng tried to calm himself down and un-blur his vision.
Before that happened however, he had tried to use his sense of smell and hearing and came to the conclusion that he was outside somewhere based off of the chirping of birds and smell of grass and trees near him.
'What kind of horrible person would abandon a paralyzed child in the forest!'
Liu Feng became angry at the thought of it and wished he could see his parents' face to see who could do such a thing to an innocent child. But just at that moment his vision completely cleared.
Immediately looking at his current setting, Liu Feng observed that he really was outside but not in the woods. Instead, he seemed to be in the middle of some rich outdoor courtyard in an estate.
A small pond with clear water flowed around him, with Lily pads and frogs being abundant everywhere. And on the other three sides of him more grass and plants grew with the other sides of the estate looking the exact same way as the first.
'Wait a second...'
The thought of him being able to see in every direction quickly caught Liu Feng's eye and he instantly tried to look down at his own body but found he could not.
Now fully back to panicking, he looks all around him for a way to see his own current appearance in some type of reflection and remembered that he was right beside a pond. Gazing into the pond, Liu Feng wanted to scream but couldn't as his own appearance almost caused him to have a heart-attack and die on the spot - if he were human.
With all of the horror, shock, and anger inside of his heart, Liu Feng inwardly shouted to the system with all of his might: 'System...Why Am I a Tree!?'