77 6.1

Having scarcely paused in the system space long enough to absorb the rewarded energy, Chen Yu transferred to the next world without hesitation.

When he opened his eyes, he raised his brows slightly in curiosity. From a quick scan of his surroundings, he was leaning against a tree in the clearing of a thickly wooded forest, and on the ground in front of him was a boy who looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years of age in an ancient-style robe. But the interesting point was that this teenager was being beaten up by several other children wearing similar clothing, several of whom eagerly glanced back at him for approval. The only noises that filled the air were curses and thumps from the attackers, while the dusty boy didn't make a sound, merely raising furious eyes toward him. So it seemed this body was the ringleader?

Gazing indifferently at the spectacle, Chen Yu didn't interrupt the vicious pummeling, instead he turned his attention toward the plot.

Here it was a cultivation world, and the original owner of this body, Ning He, was a sixteen-year-old little master. Despite his relatively average foundations, he wielded his position as the son of the Jade Sword Mountain's leader to oppress anyone who showed a greater potential than his, using a variety of both conspicuous and inconspicuous means. What made Chen Yu facepalm, however, was that this mountain was just one of seven in Heavenly Saber Sect, and not even a powerful peak at that. What gave this fool the courage? If nothing else, didn't he worry that any of his elders would step in to preserve the quality of the disciples?

Rubbing his temples, Chen Yu pushed on and discovered that it was Ning He's father, Ning Taio, who had raised his son to be so overbearing by doting on him unconditionally. At least, that had been the case until a few years before Chen Yu had arrived. At that time, following a certain outer disciple's entrance to the sect, Ning Taio suddenly placed restrictions on Ning He.

This mysterious disciple was naturally the protagonist, a common-born boy named Zhuo Biming. Because of his talent which grew more and more outstanding, Ning He had, as usual, tried to bully him into stifling his progress. Unusually, however, he'd been dragged away by Ning Taio, who had scolded him for the first time. Further provoked by the idea that his father seemed to be siding with this outsider, Ning He had secretly carried on his tricks for several years now, and the disciples who depended on his favor for resources and status had joined in as well.

Even with the protagonist's innately benevolent personality, he couldn't take the prolonged abuse without blackening, his heart was overflowing with hatred for Ning He. Nevertheless, due to his delayed start and scarce resources, it took a while for him to catch up to the other, so that he had to endure almost a decade of taunting and mistreatment. But when Zhuo Biming finally overtook Ning He in his cultivation and eventually seized control of Jade Sword Mountain by killing Ning Taio, he vented thoroughly, spending exactly a decade to meticulously torture Ning He and his minions to death. Afterwards, Zhuo Biming left behind the sect and traveled the jianghu freely, collecting a harem of beautiful little sisters and devoted little brothers to become the most powerful cultivator.

Rubbing his temples at this YY story, Chen Yu admitted, all right, he'd been spoiled recently by the reasonably logical original owners and plotlines. For one thing, he couldn't understand this one's actions. No zuo, no die, why trouble himself seeking death? Besides, even if he had managed to curb the protagonist's halo, how would that help Ning He to shine? Secondly, the protagonist was odd as well; since Heavenly Saber Sect was quite liberal, he could have simply requested to apply to another peak rather than suffer for so long at Jade Sword Mountain.

Regardless, although Zhuo Biming's punishment of Ning He was extreme, when Chen Yu reviewed the original owner's actions, he had to acknowledge that Ning He had been silly. Perhaps, if Chen Yu had been the one the boy had targeted, this body would have suffered an even worse fate. Taking these factors into consideration, he decided that he wouldn't deal with Zhuo Biming unless he bothered him too much.

Of course, that didn't mean that he would try to hold onto the protagonist's thigh, he had no interest in exerting effort to fawn over someone else. With no intention of helping Zhuo Biming, he took note of how much Ning He had indirectly contributed to the other's progress. During this time, he had inadvertently benefited the protagonist in all kinds of ways—shoving him into a treasure cove, putting him in the path of a legendary master by shutting him out of the mountain's gates, motivating him to train passionately in order to get revenge, so on and so forth. What Chen Yu wondered, then, was if the protagonist could obtain all these advantages if he, this villainous cannon fodder, didn't get involved.

Moreover, he was puzzled by what role the other characters had played; for instance, did Ning Taio deliberately spoil his son to ruin him? And why had he made an exception to protect Zhuo Biming? Did it have something to do with why the protagonist had insisted on staying on this mountain? Also, what had the sect head been doing while this drama was playing out?

Pushing aside these questions for the moment, once he had gotten a grasp of the story, Chen Yu lazily blinked and signaled for the assault to stop. Since his antagonistic relationship with Zhuo Biming couldn't be salvaged, he merely tossed a cleaning talisman on everyone to remove the most obvious indications of the struggle that had taken place, then ordered the others to disperse. Left alone with the slumped body, he kicked Zhuo Biming over to thrust his face into the dirt and stepped on the broad back, increasing the pressure until he regained awareness of his surroundings and glared at him.

En, indeed the protagonist, while the slightly rounded cheeks lent his face a touch of immaturity, his features were still clear-cut and bold, with dark, sword-like brows and sharp phoenix eyes. Inwardly musing on what Ning He's body would look like, on the surface Chen Yu disdainfully stared down at Zhuo Biming and snorted, "Hng, I hope you've learned your lesson. If you dare to catch my eye again, don't blame me for being rude!" Having spat out the obligatory villain's line to stay in character, Chen Yu then swept past out of the forest.

---

Chen Yu spent the rest of the morning organizing the original owner's memories and familiarizing himself with this world's background. Here, the cultivation methods could largely be divided into the Righteous Path and the Demonic Path, but across the board, the stages in the Human Realm of cultivation were Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, and Soul Formation. Then the two methods diverged: if a Righteous Path practitioner was able to pass through the Soul Formation step, he would enter the Earthly Realm and, after that, the Heavenly Realm, but the original owner, and therefore Chen Yu, didn't know what the process would be for a Demonic Path practitioner. This was because while the two Paths weren't necessarily enemies, each side looked down on the other and preferred to mingle within their own groups. As for the majority of people who couldn't even touch the Qi Condensation stage, the original owner had hardly noticed their existence.

In any case, according to Chen Yu's examination of his dantian, this body was currently at the end stage of Foundation Establishment, which indicated that he was slightly more advanced than the usual sixteen-year-old. As a cultivator progressed, he would become closer and closer to an immortal, so that even if he had just stepped foot into the Human Realm, his lifespan would be extended by several decades. Still, although one of the body's two innate spiritual roots was a rare type and his potential wasn't bad, he was just barely noteworthy. Once Chen Yu's golden finger was applied, however, he immediately broke through to the Core Formation level and, in the future, would be able to speed up his cultivation considerably. The only issue was whether his soul would be strong enough to handle such rapid growth, but luckily, the rewards from the past several worlds had replenished him fully so there shouldn't be a problem.

Just as he was contentedly lying down to meditate, a fellow disciple's shouts could be heard. Apparently, everyone in the sect was being summoned by the seven peak leaders for an announcement which, from the original owner's memories, was a fairly rare occurrence. Inquisitive, Chen Yu set out for the main hall on his sword.