《Heavenly Demon Emperor》


 Prologue: A Fateful Duel

    Something big was about to happen: this many disciples wouldn¡¯t enter the Training Hall for no reason after all, nor would they gather around the raised stone platform and chatter away like newborn chicks.


    ¡°What¡¯s with the commotion? Is there an event on?¡±


    ¡°Hmm? Oh, you must not have heard. Dong Ju is going to be fighting a senior of the fifth layer today!¡±


    ¡°Dong Ju?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s one of the most impressive ones out of the latest batch of disciples, already at the third layer of Qi Refining.¡±


    ¡°How did he reach the third layer in only two months? Hmm, must be from a cultivator clan.¡±


    ¡°Right. He¡¯s a branch member of the Dong clan, so he started body-refining before joining the sect. From the beginning, everyone knew he¡¯d follow in his brother¡¯s footsteps, but even his brother waited a year before challenging anyone two minor realms above him.¡±


    ¡°What about this disciple at the fifth layer of Qi Refining?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ someone called Zhang Fei, I think. Or was it Zeng Fei? I heard from other seniors that he¡¯s just talentless trash - he spent four years doing nothing but cultivating, yet only barely reached the fifth layer despite that.¡±


    ¡°So Dong Ju is expected to win?¡±


    ¡°Pahaha, without a doubt. Why else do you think Dong Ju would pick such a nameless person as the first person of the fifth layer to challenge? He¡¯s building up his reputation through consecutive easy wins before moving onto worthy contenders.¡±


    ¡°Hey man, who are you talking to? You¡¯ve been rambling to yourself for a while now.¡±


    ¡°Do you not see the senior over¡­ here? Huh?¡±


    ¡°Tsk, this is why I told you to wear proper safety equipment while doing alchemy. Breathing in those fumes has made you go crazy, see.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°I swear, next time I see you refining pills without a mask on¡ª¡±


    ¡°Shut up! Look, that¡¯s Dong Ju coming over now!¡±


    A wave of excitement spread through the disciples as the boy of the hour made his appearance; since the outcome of the fight was a foregone conclusion, they had come to make connections with him in the first place.


    Even those inside the Training Hall uninterested in the fight couldn¡¯t help but glance over.


    No one would have guessed Dong Ju was thirteen from his outward appearance, already as tall as a grown man and thick of shoulder, likely as a result of the body refining art he practised.


    His lantern-jawed, fierce-eyed look gave everyone the impression a tiger had entered their midst, and the glimpse of vein-roped hands poking out from his sleeves hinted at the powerful musculature beneath the orange sect robes.


    Alongside him came his lackeys, their loud voices and coarse laughter better suited to a bawdy tavern than an Immortal Sect. But it was no matter as the Elder supervising the Training Hall only ever interfered if something went wrong during a disciple¡¯s training (and even in those rare cases, the Elder was said to correct the issue and leave without ever revealing their presence).


    Dong Ju took to the raised stone platform and elegantly bowed towards the crowd.


    ¡°Fellow brothers and sisters, this Dong is humbled to see so many of you gather for my minor sparring match. As some will already know, I recently made a breakthrough in my Orange Stripes, White Teeth cultivation technique.¡±


    There were multiple ohhs around him as they understood what he was trying to say.


    ¡°Indeed, I would have otherwise never dared to challenge a senior at the fifth layer with my paltry cultivation. It was my older brother who suggested I practise my new strength against an experienced partner, hence my challenge against Senior Brother Zeng Fei. Please forgive any inadequacies this Dong may display during the spar.¡±


    He flashed a charming smile to ingratiate himself with the crowd.


    Yet his expression gradually wilted as the arranged time for the duel came and went without his opponent making an appearance.


    Even though Dong Ju remained sullen and silent, his true feelings could be gleaned through his lackeys.


    ¡°What a useless Senior Brother this Zeng Fei is! How can he give any useful pointers to Brother Dong when he can¡¯t even show up on time?¡±


    ¡°Haha, too right. I wonder if our Senior Brother recognised his inability to guide Brother Dong and is in hiding right now? I always felt he was the spineless sort after all.¡±


    ¡°If so, how is his nonappearance any different from spitting on Brother Dong¡¯s face? Since Brother Dong is too kind to do anything about it, how about we ferret out our cowardly Senior Brother? Teach him a lesson on honouring his promises, eh?¡±


    Comments like these piled on until it was clear as day to everyone there that Zeng Fei should have just taken this one-time beating instead of painting a target on his back for prolonged bullying.


    Moreover, any doubt that Zeng Fei had simply been running late was extinguished once a half-hour had gone by since the scheduled time.


    Dong Ju grimaced, appearing moments away from calling the event off and apologising for wasting everyone¡¯s time when a sudden development revitalised the subdued environment.


    Every gaze in the Training Hall was fixed on the approaching figure.


    The boy had a nimbus of black curls, and wore sect robes that looked ill-fitting on his slim body.


    Those who¡¯d previously met Zeng Fei needed a second of squinting to recognise him: although his facial structure was identical to before, the Zeng Fei they recalled had possessed far more scars, acne, and blemishes on his skin, what they would overall describe as ugly; whereas the pale boy approaching them now was merely plain-faced, somewhat handsome even in a delicate, scholarly way.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    What was more eye-catching than his changed appearance, however, was his aura.


    Unlike Dong Ju¡¯s intimidating aura, Zeng Fei gave off such a faint aura that everyone inspecting him immediately dismissed him as a weakling; and yet he continued to carry his head high like an arrogant young master, unfazed by the hostile attention on him.


    Only when he got closer did one of Dong Ju¡¯s lackeys discover the reason for his diminished aura.


    ¡°Zeng Fei, you stupid bastard! Where is your cultivation base gone? How can you be at the first layer of Qi Refining when you were at the fifth layer the other day?¡±


    Like a pack of rabid dogs let loose, the others followed.


    ¡°The fool must have suffered qi deviation while cultivating. He¡¯s lost everything!¡±


    ¡°Ai, what an embarrassment of a Senior Brother! If anything, isn¡¯t it time he starts calling us Senior Brothers by now?¡±


    They barked insults and howled with laughter, yet they may as well not have even been there from the way he ignored them, taking to the stone platform opposite Dong Ju.


    Dong Ju bowed in Zeng Fei¡¯s direction. ¡°Senior Brother, I¡¯m sorry to see you¡¯ve faced inauspicious events.¡± Although Dong Ju tried to put on a sympathetic face, he couldn¡¯t hide the sneer tugging at the sides of his lips. ¡°Seeing as you¡¯re now at the first layer of Qi Refining, I am perfectly content with putting aside our friendly spar.¡±


    There were moans from the assembled disciples who¡¯d hoped to witness his power after his recent breakthrough, but Dong Ju addressed these by raising his hands placatingly. ¡°Please understand, my fellow brothers and sisters. It is not that I want to disappoint you, but rather that I cannot bear to bully my Senior Brother in his time of weakness.¡±


    A loud scoff came from Zeng Fei of all people. ¡°More like I¡¯m no longer useful in building your reputation without my cultivation, you little shit.¡±


    Dong Ju was momentarily stunned, before his eyes narrowed and voice fell to a threatening tone. ¡°Senior Brother, I didn¡¯t quite catch what you said there. Could you kindly repeat it for your junior?¡±


    One of his lackeys joined in with cackling laughter. ¡°Brother Dong, this fool Feng must have deliberately shattered his cultivation base to get out of fighting you!¡±


    ¡°Right, right,¡± another said. ¡°What a craven fellow our Senior Brother is. What guidance could he possibly offer you besides on how to run away with your tail behind your back?¡±


    Indifferent to the buzzing of flies, Zeng Fei ignored their commentary and met Dong Ju¡¯s gaze without blinking. ¡°Our spar will proceed as arranged¡­ unless, of course, you wish to forfeit.¡±


    The provocative arch of an eyebrow caused a sharp glint to pass through Dong Ju¡¯s eyes; his square jaw looked to chew over something before setting.


    ¡°If Senior Brother insists, naturally this Dong will comply.¡± He bowed. ¡°Please, Senior Brother, provide me guidance.¡±


    Zeng Fei did not return the gesture. ¡°My pleasure, little Dong.¡± He coughed and covered his smile. ¡°Sorry, sorry. I meant Junior Dong.¡±


    Incensed by this slight, Dong Ju raised his arms into a grappling position; his muscles bunched together and expanded, bulging through his robes.


    No longer was his viciousness cloaked by polite words or spoken through his lackeys as it lay bare for all to see in his bloodthirsty expression.


    Zeng Fei, meanwhile, stretched out his arm and expelled bright white mist from his palm.


    The spectators blinked from the sudden blinding light. When they turned to the stone platform again, they saw that the white mist had not diffused but rather solidified into a peculiar shape.


    As they watched, the light rapidly dimmed to reveal¡­ was that an animal?


    The crowd burst into noise as people tried to identify the strange creature in front of them.


    Donning a silvery-grey coat, it had big, round eyes and a black head with a white mask over the top. Between four and five feet tall, it had a chubby figure and stumpy flippers for arms. Given its beak, the creature was most likely a bird, yet one unlike any they¡¯d seen before.


    While they inspected the creature, the creature inspected them too, waving its head around in curiosity.


    With its cultivation at the first layer of Qi Refining, it did not appear threatening in the slightest; if anything, it looked adorable, clicking its tongue and nodding its head like it was happy to see them. Its cuteness tugged at their hearts, making the audience members want to fawn over this newborn chick.


    Even Dong Ju was thrown off by the creature; confusion overlaying his face, he released his stance. ¡°Senior Brother, what is this thing you¡¯ve summoned?¡±


    Every pair of eyes there congregated on Zeng Fei, wondering what he¡¯d say¡­


    ¡­only to discover he was the most surprised of them all!


    It took him several beats to swallow down whatever had surprised him. ¡°You know what, whatever.¡± Zeng Fei pointed at his opponent. ¡°Get him, Pingu.¡±


    At his command, the creature followed the direction of the finger and stared at Dong Ju, who, in turn, steeled his heart to fight; although bemused, he wasn¡¯t in the business of showing mercy against his opponents, no matter how cute and cuddly they were.


    The creature began to waddle towards Dong Ju with unsteady steps.


    Dong Ju, meanwhile, glanced towards Zeng Fei and gave a small nod. ¡°While your technique is indeed novel and unfathomable, Senior Brother, don¡¯t hold it against me for¡­¡±


    As the creature was about to enter his proximity, Dong Ju compressed qi into his arm and fired a vicious blow to its head, giving off the faint image of a ferocious tiger swiping down its prey.


    ¡°¡­crushing your¡ª¡±


    Dong Ju was cut off as his vision suddenly spun sideways onto one of his lackeys stood outside the stone platform. Jaw loose and tongue hanging, Dong Ju touched his cheek, receiving a prick of smarting pain on contact.


    ¡°What the¡­¡±


    Turning his head back around, his vision spun once more but this time in the opposite direction, witnessing now the stunned expression of another of his lackeys. Before Dong Ju could say a thing, there followed a sharp punch to his gut, causing him to topple over holding his stomach.


    Another stinging slap followed in his downed position, and another, and another.


    Every single spectator could see he¡¯d never stood a chance - even when he¡¯d taken the initiative in attacking, the beast¡¯s wings had moved like lightning, resembling a snake ambushing prey.


    Given the serpentine aura the beast¡¯s wings were giving off, there was no doubt it was using a martial technique, though not one any of them recognised.


    With the entire Training Hall stunned into silence, the beast¡¯s searing slaps and Dong Ju¡¯s woeful groans echoed, each subsequent hit causing the spectators to wince.


    Like them, Zeng Fei too was caught off guard by the development: his eyebrows were raised in comic surprise and mouth drooped with shock.


    But unlike them, it was for a totally different reason: a line of text had appeared in his vision.


    Congratulations! Pingu¡¯s Serpentine Slap has advanced to Level 2!


    ¡°¡­¡±


    Congratulations! Pingu¡¯s Serpentine Slap has advanced to Level 3!


    Distracted by these notifications, Zeng Fei didn¡¯t pay attention to the fight until, seconds later, his qi ran out; Pingu¡¯s figure grew hazy, then dissolved into a white mist that returned to his body.


    Suddenly reminded he was in the middle of a fight, Zeng Fei glanced up at his opponent¡¯s state.


    Dong Ju was curled into a ball, the blood spattered over the stone tiles revealing how vicious the beating had been.


    As quiet descended over the surroundings, you could hear Dong Ju¡¯s low sobbing.


    To anyone with eyes, it was obvious how Zeng Fei had not been content with simply winning and had wanted to thoroughly humiliate Dong Ju; there was no question of his cruelty or his vindictiveness.


    As this realisation pressed down on Zeng Fei, he felt the world close in around him. What were the chances that anyone here would believe him now if he claimed to have been distracted and simply forgotten to recall the overeager penguin?


    Well, fuck...


    ****


    No one tried to stop Zeng Fei as he ran out of the Training Hall; instead, they rushed to get out of his way, fearful that they too would otherwise receive his wrath.


    There was only one person who acted contrary to this: a strange disciple with long white hair stood by the Training Hall entrance did not seem in the slightest inclined to move for the sprinting Zeng Fei.


    Given how gaunt and shadowed this disciple¡¯s face was, it seemed unlikely they¡¯d ever get back up if someone were to run into them.


    To avoid this, Zeng Fei was forced to side-step the disciple to pass by.


    And while doing so, he didn¡¯t notice how the white-haired individual patted him on the back, a soft and swift touch, nor did he notice the blue Scrying Sprite this gentle touch attached to his body.


    It followed that he also failed to notice how the sprite¡¯s carefree expression turned ghastly almost immediately; before a full second was through, the sprite had spontaneously combusted out of existence.


    The white-haired individual, however, did notice. They appeared expressionless for a long moment, before the slightest of smiles curved their lips.


    ¡°Interesting.¡±

 Chapter 1: You are not fit for this office; your position has been terminated

    There was no light this deep into the cave, and yet the hand-shaped impression on the stone wall was clearly perceivable without having to use any qi over the eyes. Zeng Fei had come across it some minutes before, and a few seconds later, he was dead.


    The original Zeng Fei¡¯s, that was.


    The Zeng Fei staring at the imprint now was an Earthling who¡¯d awoken to find that his soul had transmigrated into this xianxia world without ever consulting him about the move.


    But at least he had access to the original''s memories, which revealed Zeng Fei to have been an orphan who¡¯d been inducted into the Treading Infinity Sect four years ago despite having trash-like talent (the sect recruiter had been one short of meeting his quota and had really needed the bonus that year to pay off his debts).


    This effectively translated into Zeng Fei being someone with no status, no resources, and no real connections either seeing as he¡¯d spent almost all of his time at the sect cultivating in his room, even then only reaching the fifth layer of Qi Refining.


    These memories also informed Zeng Fei that the original had believed the palm imprint to be the remnant of a high-rank cultivator¡¯s technique, and it was in desperate hope of comprehending some of its profound power that the original had placed his hand over the imprint.


    Within seconds he had died, having only obtained the insight that the stone wall was unpleasantly cold to touch.


    In contrast, the transmigrator had straight-away viewed the imprint in an entirely different light: the hand-shaped depression reminded him of those sci-fi movies where high-security rooms had scanners outside that checked people¡¯s fingerprints and irises before letting them in.


    The fact that the original had died not-so-subtly implied that he was not on the entry list and should probably bugger off.


    So he¡¯d done exactly that, making his way out of the cave¡­


    ¡­and as a result walking face-first into an invisible barrier at the mouth of the cave.


    No matter what he¡¯d tried over the subsequent minutes, this barrier had refused to budge; the walls too had resisted his attempts at tunnelling his way out. There was no question of it: he was trapped.


    As if that wasn¡¯t bad enough, he quickly realised there were no food supplies or water in here either. Nor could he shout for help as the invisible barrier seemed to absorb all sound given he couldn¡¯t hear a thing from outside.


    Anyone else in this position would have crapped their pants by this point, but the original hadn¡¯t worn any beneath his robes so Zeng Fei was safe from this.


    His first course of action was to yell out the names of all the gods he could think of and beg for their forgiveness, just in case he had offended them somehow and this was their punishment. But nothing came about from this, so eventually he gave up.


    And so, head aching from repeatedly kowtowing, he decided to finally use his brain to figure out a solution.


    For one, he knew the original had sauntered into this cave, implying that the barrier had only activated after his entry. Could it be there was a condition he had to meet to be allowed out then?


    But what¡­? The only interactable item inside this cave, the hand imprint, was a literal deathtrap.


    Say, though, that it wasn¡¯t actually a trap.


    Given the xianxia setting, perhaps this cave was the inheritance room of an ancient cultivator, which was to say, A: the hand imprint itself was the test, likely one that scanned his innate talent, and B: he¡¯d already been deemed unworthy and failed.


    ¡°¡­¡±


    Zeng Fei glared at the imprint in silence, praying that this was not the case. Surely there had to be another interpretation?


    Well, if the hand imprint wasn¡¯t the test, then maybe the test was actually to see if he could figure out how to get out of here, ie the cave was an escape room. If so, the hand imprint could very well be a deliberate distraction to take his attention away from the true solution.


    Meaning that there was probably also an entity watching and grading him right now, akin to the employees at escape rooms, only in his case it was the cultivator equivalent of Jigsaw who was gleefully slurping up the sight of him gradually breaking down.


    Well, no more, as he¡¯d figured it out.


    Chuckling triumphantly for them to hear, Zeng Fei applied qi to his eyes and began stalking the cave floors and groping its walls in search of a secret mechanism.


    In the time it took to eat a meal, he had covered the entire cave and found¡­ nothing! The cave had been swept clean, with not even the odd pebble or patch of moss growth to be found.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    By this point, all Zeng Fei felt was the depression of defeat and the discomfiting sensation of a full bladder; at least one of those was manageable.


    He was about to go relieve himself in the corner of the cave, away from the eyes of the creep, when an eureka idea occurred to him.


    In sci-fi films, tech not working or suddenly malfunctioning was a problem that cropped up frequently. Solutions to this ranged from (ordered by most common to most out-there) turning the device off and on again, giving it a smack across the back, and pissing on it.


    Okay, maybe he¡¯d made up the last one, but hey, at least it¡¯d clear some of his frustration with this bullshit escape room.


    And so, without further ado, he walked up to the hand imprint and opened up his robes.


    Revealing his gun to the clammy air, he felt he finally had something to threaten cultivator-Jigsaw with.


    Accordingly, he adopted the tone of an arrogant young master: ¡°I have shown you mercy so far, but if you keep pushing me¡­¡±


    There was no response.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think I¡¯ll remain polite if you still refuse to reveal yourself¡­¡±


    Still no response.


    This was when an intrusive thought wriggled into Zeng Fei¡¯s head and caused him to glance down: could it be cultivator-Jigsaw wasn¡¯t scared because they were looking down on his tool¡­?


    A surge of anger rushed to his head; although it wasn¡¯t the transmigrator¡¯s true tool, still, how dare they disrespect Zeng Fei¡¯s totally functional and perfectly sized tool?


    ¡°You! It¡¯s only like this because of the cold air! Don¡¯t underestimate me!¡±


    Fuelled by fury, his fire hose released with violent pressure onto hand imprint, causing a great deal of splashing.


    Zeng Fei even had to take a step back to clear himself from the blast radius, shaking his head at the sight. ¡°Sometimes I don¡¯t know my own strength.¡±


    When finally he¡¯d finished emptying his bladder, he tied the belt back up his robes and wagged a finger in the air. ¡°And if you think that¡¯s all I can do, keep testing my patience and I¡¯ll let you discover firsthand the true extent of my powers.¡±


    As the last of his words sounded, an arched doorway - visible in the dark in the same way the hand imprint was - burst open next to the hand imprint, startling Zeng Fei. He scampered back in surprise and coughed into the sleeves of his robes at the flare-up of dust.


    In truth, he hadn¡¯t believed his own wild theories and had just been saying that stuff to relieve his frustration, to get the sense he was getting back at someone; so naturally, he was floored to find out that his crackpot theory was correct.


    Maybe it was the threats that had done the trick, or perhaps the imprint really had malfunctioned after getting doused from his out-of-the-box thinking. Either way, he couldn¡¯t help but grin from ear to ear at the knowledge he¡¯d solved the impossible escape room!


    Little did he know that his conjectures had been initially correct, then turned wrong, then become so violently wrong that they¡¯d looped back around and become correct again.


    Indeed, the original Zeng Fei had stumbled into an ancient Immortal¡¯s inheritance room and awakened the spirit bound there that was in charge of assessing candidates¡¯ worthiness of becoming the Immortal¡¯s successor.


    As guessed, the hand imprint had been testing him, though not his talent or cultivation but rather his character. The spirit had gained full access to Zeng Fei¡¯s memories the moment he¡¯d touched the imprint, and it had found his character wanting.


    Orphaned early on in his life, Zeng Fei had been forced to turn to begging on the streets to survive. The daily hardships that followed had tempered his willpower, but also made him timid and distrustful of people.


    His lucky break would come several years later when a sect recruiter noticed by chance that Zeng Fei possessed spiritual roots, even if they were inferior roots of the five elements - the slowest type to cultivate with and widely considered to be trash.


    Still, Zeng Fei had managed to scrape through the entrance test and become an official Outer Sect Disciple of the Treading Infinity Sect, even if his talent constrained him to Foundation Establishment at best.


    The fact he¡¯d reached the fifth layer of Qi Refining in four years in spite of this was genuinely impressive, though less so when you realised his cultivation had been fuelled by a desperate and unfounded fear of being thrown back into his old life, and not out of a conviction to move forwards.


    These were excusable flaws for a boy of sixteen and understandable given his life circumstances, but they also made him unworthy of becoming the Heavenly Demon Emperor¡¯s successor, which was a role that required the resolve to face up to the entire universe by yourself.


    The spirit had snuffed Zeng Fei¡¯s life then - to prevent any risk of news about the Emperor¡¯s inheritance leaking before a successor was chosen - while feeling envious that this boy could pass on so easily.


    Except that he hadn¡¯t¡­


    The boy¡¯s memories had shown zero awareness of reincarnation arts, nor had he hosted any additional souls or created any second bodies, so it had made no sense for him to get up shortly after his death the way that he had.


    This was made all the more suspicious by the fact the revived Zeng Fei had gone on to display behaviour and habits distinct to the beggar boy from before.


    (One may even go as far as to describe it as wild, audacious behaviour unbefitting of an Emperor, but bloody hell the spirit just wanted to die already, and to that end it was willing to show some leniency to promising candidates.)


    As the spirit had continued to observe over the following minutes, it¡¯d grown increasingly confident that the revived Zeng Fei shared a crucial trait with the Heavenly Demon Emperor himself, one that few had ever known about but that had also contributed massively to his prowess.


    The spirit would have liked to have observed for a bit longer to have gone from 90% to 100% certainty on this, but it¡¯d been forced to make an early decision when Zeng Fei had urinated all over the hand imprint and followed up with the threat of revealing the true extent of his powers if it kept dilly-dallying.


    Naturally, it wasn¡¯t that clean-up was an issue, but rather the fact that the rules governing the spirit forced it to watch everything the candidates did. Yes, everything. It wasn¡¯t allowed to look away for even one moment¡­


    Hence, it¡¯d gone with its gut feeling that Zeng Fei, just like the Heavenly Demon Emperor, was an otherworlder who¡¯d transmigrated into a vacant body¡­

 Chapter 2: Pulling a fast one on the Esteemed Senior

    Zeng Fei peered into the arched doorway that had opened up next to the hand imprint, but failed to see anything further as although the doorway itself was visible, everything beyond was totally dark.


    Until it wasn¡¯t anymore.


    The torches lining the room ahead lit as one, bringing into view a long corridor.


    Was the gloomy aesthetic of the corridor a tad suspicious? Sure.


    And what about the ghastly blue flames dancing on those torches? Naturally.


    But come on, who in their right mind could resist searching down a secret passageway that had just opened in front of them inside a dungeon?


    Probably a lot of people, to be honest, but it¡¯s not like Zeng Fei had anything else to do here.


    So after a few beats of gathering his resolve, he took his first step into the corridor.


    To his relief, nothing happened.


    A few tepid steps followed, and still the ground did not give way to a spiked pit, nor did a boulder abruptly teleport behind him, announce ¡°omae wa mou shindeiru¡±, and start barrelling towards him.


    And so Zeng Fei allowed himself to relax a little, the deafening thuds of his heartbeat no longer building towards a heart attack.


    At the corridor¡¯s end, he found a doorway leading into a massive hall that too was lit by ghastly blue torches on its walls. The hall itself was split into two halves, one half peculiarly empty as if to provide stark contrast to the other half further on that looked to be a private library, occupied by row upon row of bookshelves, each one stuffed to the gills with time-worn scrolls.


    Whoever it was that owned this place, their view on health and safety was all too obvious from the way they¡¯d recklessly placed countless torches with naked flames next to stacks of flammable material.


    Still, Zeng Fei wanted to get on their good side, so he did the polite thing by remaining in the doorway and calling out. ¡°Hello, is anyone here?¡±


    ¡°Why, yes.¡± An answer came immediately from beside him, giving him half a heart attack.


    Zeng Fei threw his gaze sidelong to realise a figure had been next to him this entire time, only unseen until now due to its complete lack of presence.


    It looked to be a wise and kindly old man, though not entirely human as it was also eerily translucent and lacked legs with everything below its torso appearing fog-like. Since it was the wrong genre for a genie, Zeng Fei figured this had to be the spirit of an ancient cultivator.


    Protagonists in cultivation stories always obtained their spirit advisers early on, who came in one of two flavours: either the sage-like grandpa from ancient times who¡¯d gift the protagonist with a long-forgotten legacy, or the pretty girl (who regardless of her true age would act like a teenager) that had been betrayed and was hiding from some celestial power.


    Realising this was his lucky break, Zeng Fei bowed deeply towards his future spirit adviser. ¡°This junior greets Esteemed Senior. I profusely apologise if I disturbed your rest.¡±


    ¡°Ohoho.¡± The spirit adviser twirled its long white beard in its fingers. ¡°Do you know who I am, child?¡±


    ¡°¡­No?¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ huh, that¡¯s strange. I thought you would know.¡±


    The spirit adviser was caught afoot (no, not literally) by Zeng Fei¡¯s evident confusion. The question it¡¯d asked was to make certain this child was an otherworlder (and not simply funny in the head) before passing on the Emperor¡¯s legacy, and passing on itself.


    Normally, the most reliable way of doing this would have been to scour Zeng Fei¡¯s memories, but that wasn¡¯t possible here as the spirit adviser knew that bodies only contained memories made in this world; as for how otherworlders were able to access their past-life memories in spite of this, the spirit adviser had no idea.


    Either way, this meant it¡¯d have to tease out Zeng Fei¡¯s true nature through questioning, the most efficient way being to ask a question that only an otherworlder could answer and which the spirit adviser could also verify.


    It just so happened the Emperor had always attributed his oracle-like foreknowledge of how events would play out to his status as an otherworlder.


    Hence, the spirit adviser had believed Zeng Fei would be able to identify it despite meeting it for the first time.


    Zeng Fei, meanwhile, saw the frown on its face and quickly gathered that the posed question must have been another test. If he didn¡¯t want to end up like the original, he¡¯d have to pull a rabbit out of his hat pronto.


    ¡°Wait, Senior.¡± He placatingly raised his hands, palms facing out. ¡°Although I profess a lack of knowledge about Esteemed Senior¡¯s identity, I do have some rough ideas. If you¡¯d allow me to voice them¡­¡±Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Eager to give him another chance, the spirit adviser gave an encouraging nod. ¡°Go on.¡±


    ¡°Okay, so I¡¯m thinking spirit adviser, Immortal¡¯s legacy, uh, betrayed by someone close to you, far weaker than original state, either critically injured or poisoned, uh, finding a worthy successor for a forbidden or long-forgotten ability, what else um¡­¡±


    The spirit adviser raised its hand to stop him. ¡°Good, good. You have proven yourself worthy of inheriting the Emperor¡¯s Legacy.¡±


    Zeng Fei¡¯s eyes widened, somewhat surprised his strategy had worked so well but more so that the test had been so short. It caused a doubt to crop up in his mind.


    ¡°Um, Esteemed Senior, I apologise in advance for my ignorance, but what exactly did I prove just now?¡±


    The spirit adviser appeared to be in no mood to entertain him, however, as it floated away to the centre of the empty half of the hall. ¡°Never you mind your little brain about such profound and esoteric matters, child. What matters is that I have found you worthy.¡±


    It paused. ¡°Though, that being said, your body is absolute trash and could never hope of inheriting the Emperor¡¯s technique.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°Then again, the same could be said about the Emperor¡¯s body back in those days. Which is why the first step of his technique is to reforge the user¡¯s body into something higher quality, into the sole Immortal Physique capable of cultivating the Emperor¡¯s technique.¡±


    The spirit adviser beckoned towards Zeng Fei. ¡°Come here now. Oh, and remove your clothes if you¡¯d like to use them afterwards as the body forging ritual can get messy.¡±


    Since it was common for cultivators to release bodily impurities in the form of black sludge whenever making big breakthroughs (especially for those practising body refining techniques), Zeng Fei did not find its comment strange, and he took off his robes in the corridor.


    In normal circumstances, he wouldn¡¯t have been self-conscious to be nude, but since the spirit had already called his body trash (mind you, without any need to either), he feared it¡¯d make another pointed remark now. As such, he figured he¡¯d play it safe.


    Teeth clattering, Zeng Fei rubbed at his arms while shivering. ¡°Brr. It sure is cold in here. Is the heating not on?¡±


    The spirit adviser glanced at him in confusion. Given the plethora of lit torches, it would have thought a human like Zeng Fei would have found the temperature to be toasty if anything, not cold.


    ¡°You know, I can practically feel my blood vessels constricting,¡± Zeng Fei continued, as though he hadn¡¯t seen its strange look. ¡°Brr, I feel like judging anyone¡¯s body in these conditions would be an unfair assessment.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°Brr, so freezing. Brr.¡±


    ¡°Just come this way,¡± the spirit eventually said with palpable exasperation.


    Zeng Fei chuckled to clear the tension. ¡°Of course, Esteemed Senior, of course. I was just muttering nonsense to myself. Pay me no mind, haha.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    Inexplicably, Zeng Fei¡¯s ploy had somehow backfired and seemed to have lowered the spirit adviser¡¯s assessment of him, causing him to internally grumble that its expectations were too high if it genuinely believed the stuff it¡¯d seen online were realistic depictions.


    Naturally, he didn¡¯t dare voice any of these thoughts aloud, and was all smiles on the outside as he went over to the indicated spot.


    Once there, the spirit adviser left him and began inspecting the empty floor, though Zeng Fei couldn¡¯t tell what for even after using his qi-enhanced vision.


    Not knowing how long it would take, he figured he may as well gather some information while waiting. ¡°By the way, Esteemed Senior, I have yet to hear the Immortal¡¯s name whose technique I will be inheriting.¡±


    ¡°Ah, my apologies, child - I must have forgotten to mention it in my hurry. In his time, my Immortal Master was known as The Heavenly Demon Emperor.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± This time it was Zeng Fei¡¯s turn to go silent.


    He chewed over his thoughts for a bit, worried they¡¯d offend the spirit, but all the same felt he had to ask now before things went any further. ¡°You mean like the Heavenly Demon Emperor? The big baddie that everyone bands against in every story ever.¡±


    The spirit adviser waved aside his concern. ¡°Ohoho, of course not.¡±


    Zeng Fei sighed in relief.


    In truth, he knew he had little reason to worry as there was no mention of the Heavenly Demon Emperor in the original Zeng Fei¡¯s memory, which suggested that the Immortal couldn¡¯t have been the big baddie in this universe that his counterparts were in other stories the transmigrator had read.


    It¡¯d just been momentary panic out of fear he was in for a bad deal.


    Besides, the term ¡®demon¡¯ in xianxia stories referred to demonic beasts, which were better described as animals capable of cultivation. So the title ¡®Heavenly Demon Emperor¡¯ was really referring to a ¡®Heavenly Emperor¡¯ who just so happened to be a demonic beast, as opposed to someone highly skilled in Devilish Arts. This made Zeng Fei curious.


    ¡°So what is the name of the technique I will be inheriting, Esteemed Senior?¡±


    ¡°Are you worried I¡¯m tricking you into a bad deal?¡± the spirit adviser asked, flustering Zeng Fei with the startling accuracy of its guess.


    Thankfully, the spirit adviser didn¡¯t seem offended as it chuckled on seeing his reaction. ¡°Do not worry, child. The technique you are about to inherit was once the envy of the entire world, a legendary technique known as the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Forget a bad deal, he was in for the worst deal of all time.


    Knowing that he¡¯d hunted from all corners of the globe if he allowed this ritual to proceed, Zeng Fei tried to move away, but to his dismay found that he couldn¡¯t; his entire body, bar his head, was frozen in place.


    ¡°Esteemed Senior, please wait! You know, I¡¯m having second thoughts about this whole thing. In fact, I don¡¯t think I can follow up on the Immortal¡¯s legacy after all - there¡¯s too much of a culture mismatch, you know.¡±


    The spirit adviser must not have heard him over its loud humming, in which time the petrification spread onto Zeng Fei¡¯s head as well and muted him.


    Finished inspecting the floor, the spirit adviser returned to him and gave a gracious smile. ¡°Well, thank you for waiting patiently, child. Like I said before, you don¡¯t have to worry, because everything I¡¯ve told you has been the truth; in fact, I am forbidden from speaking falsehoods to the Emperor¡¯s successor.¡±


    For some reason, Zeng Fei did not feel any relief from this assurance; instead, he got the feeling he¡¯d just been hoodwinked by a master conman.


    ¡°So yes, while it may be true that the whole world did band together against my Immortal Master, know that it was all because of a big misunderstanding, honestly. My master wasn¡¯t a big villain of any sort - ohoho, he would have laughed like so if he heard anyone accuse him of such.¡±


    The spirit adviser clapped its hands. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s not waste any more time. We¡¯ve got a ritual to get through. Ohoho.¡±

 Chapter 3: Using your body as the sacrificial lamb for the ritual

    Zeng Fei, frozen in place, watched as the spirit adviser directed a sliver of qi into the floor ahead of him. It spread across the ground in thin, well-defined lanes, spreading within seconds to the corners of the empty half-hall.


    Only now could Zeng Fei see what the spirit adviser had been inspecting earlier on, for it turned out there had been an invisible ritual diagram drawn on the floor.


    Now activated, the diagram glowed bright azure and revealed itself to be exceedingly complex, composed of a dense scatter of wayward lines that didn¡¯t appear to amount to anything further.


    Zeng Fei held this thought for half a dozen beats, when suddenly the lines began to squiggle as though alive. With jerky motions they were moving closer, fusing together, standing up, circling him.


    Astonishment filled him at the sight of these finger-sized figures that¡¯d taken on recognisable forms.


    Amongst them were countless penguins of different species, their flippers raised towards him as though they were worshipping him (or, alternatively, requesting alms); over there was a polar bear stood upright on its hind legs with its arms crossed and giving him a look of contempt; in the air flew a parliament of graceful snowy owls; closer to him, two arctic foxes cackled to themselves over an inside joke, most definitely concerning his big toe; and onto his feet came boinging a pod of walruses who promptly laid down.


    And these were merely the ones he could see; he could sense many more entities out of view.


    This was when he heard a voice resound in his head, its sheer presence threatening to make him fall unconscious.


    ¡°Unto my successor, I leave the culmination of my life¡¯s workings: the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. Truth be told, I did not know what to name my technique when I first came up with it, hence the somewhat unfitting name that I chose, connected more to my Daoist name than anything to do with the technique itself.


    You see, long before I had become the enemy of the world, people used to mock me by calling me the Heavenly Emperor due to the fact that I led around Emperors and Kings, beings that were sovereigns in their own right.


    Some detractors went even further then by slanderously claiming I was a Demon, using the company I kept as proof while wilfully ignoring the fact that I was as human as any of my detractors. All the same, this was how my - then shameful - identity as the Heavenly Demon Emperor came into being.


    Their mockery abruptly stopped, however, once they experienced the power of my Heavenly Demon Divine Art firsthand. Ever since then, they only ever uttered my name with the gravity it deserved.


    Still, these small-minded folk feared my speed of growth and soon had the entire world rallied against me using a myriad lies.


    Even with my loyal companions by my side, I was nonetheless one man against the realm, and so I was unable to achieve my potential.


    But blessed are you, my successor, for you shall inherit everything that was mine and more. Let the entire realm tremble under your name, for you are my successor, the new Heavenly Demon Emperor!


    In return for my power, all I demand is that you never hide your identity as my true successor, my revenge come incarnate, so that all those who shamefully slaughtered me may feel the same terror that once plagued me.


    (The one exception is if my creditors are still kicking around and come knocking. In that situation, please inform them you have no connection to me, and that you are merely a fan who made up these grand claims to convince the public you are my true successor. A fool is he who underestimates the marvel of compound interest, I tell thee.)¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The last word hung in the air for a moment, acting as a signal for the ritual to start in earnest.


    Zeng Fei¡¯s very cultivation base began to seep out of his body towards the waiting animals, causing their forms to solidify. His cultivation rapidly fell from the fifth layer of Qi Refining to the very start of the first layer, his body weakening as the animals feasted on him.


    Yet still the penguins continued to wag their open bills towards him as though demanding more; the polar bear snorted and refused to even look at him anymore; the owls pecked at his shins; and the foxes nibbled on his toe; as for the walruses¡­ well, the walruses continued to lie there, but if you looked very closely, you could see they were not best pleased about the shoddy room service.


    The animals¡¯ collective suction force was so powerful it seemed Zeng Fei¡¯s entire life force would be drained by their voraciousness, devouring him before he ever got the chance to practice the technique.


    What saved him from this fate were a few uttered words.


    ¡°Take the rest from me.¡±


    The countless critters snapped their heads as one to register the spirit adviser¡¯s presence for the first time, lips being figuratively licked.


    No further encouragement was needed for them to start absorbing the spirit¡¯s cultivation, the effects of which were visible from the way the spirit¡¯s figure faded with each passing beat, reflected in reverse in the animals.


    As for why this technique needed to cannibalise its practitioner¡¯s cultivation base, it was a fundamental rule in the universe that the more powerful a technique was, the more difficult it would be to cultivate it - this was why the most powerful techniques were always reserved for characters with protagonist-like traits as only they possessed the borderline masochistic levels of pain tolerance to be able to cultivate them.


    The Heavenly Demon Emperor had not been about that life (he was more of a vanilla guy himself), so he¡¯d gone with a different design philosophy from the start. Instead of having insane difficulty during cultivation, he¡¯d moved as much of it as possible into the entry requirements.


    The result had been a one-of-a-kind technique that required you to sacrifice a Nascent Soul¡¯s worth of cultivation base in order to reconstruct your body into the sole Immortal Physique capable of cultivating this technique.


    When the animals¡¯ hunger was finally sated, their glow had grown so radiant that their original forms could no longer be distinguished in the blinding azure glare.


    The animals waddled, bounced, and skipped into Zeng Fei¡¯s body, each entrance adding another pang until he was under pain so excruciating that his brain was forced to shut down.


    Each entrance also caused his body to inflate more and more as it absorbed spiritual energy multiple times its maximum capacity.


    An indeterminate amount of time later, his innards had been thoroughly shredded, bones shattered into thousands of pieces, and his body was ripping at the seams everywhere, on the precipice of bursting like a flesh balloon. But it didn¡¯t, held together in one piece by a mysterious force.


    And finally the absurd amount of spiritual energy inside him began to expend, his body deflating as organs were reformed, bones recast and hammered, blood vessels and meridians relaid over flesh like gory circuitry.


    With the bodywork complete, every bit of remaining spiritual energy was directed towards a microscopic hole that had formed in Zeng Fei¡¯s lower dantian. This appeared no different from any other imperfection in his body given he was only a Qi Refining cultivator who hadn¡¯t practised body refining techniques.


    Yet, with each passing beat, this hole expanded, only stopping when it¡¯d requisitioned half of his lower dantian for its purposes.


    Here, it stabilised into a transparent bubble, and then clouded over until it became impossible to perceive what was going on inside.


    By this point in the ritual, Zeng Fei¡¯s body had returned to its original human form and lay still on the cold stone floor. His gentle frown seemed to indicate he was going through restless dreams.


    The spirit adviser made a gesture and caused the scrolls on one bookshelf to float towards Zeng Fei, where they waited for their turn to go up and touch his sleeping body like they were paying respect to a deceased relative.


    Whenever they made contact with his body, the information stored inside them in the form of ink was slurped up like noodles by the cloudy bubble, at which point the scroll would spontaneously combust into ashes.


    The spirit adviser mediated this process and cleared the ashes in between each turn. The ritual would continue until it had gone through every scroll on every bookshelf - although each scroll took a second at most, the entire process would last hours from the sheer number of scrolls stored here.


    The information stored in them made them the most valuable thing the Heavenly Demon Emperor had owned and, indeed, the the very reason he¡¯d become public enemy number one.

 Chapter 4: 🐧

    When Zeng Fei awoke, he stared at the stone tiles that made up the ceiling in a daze.


    It took him several minutes to come to terms again with his transmigration into this world and the ritual he¡¯d been forced to undergo. At least he felt like himself still.


    As for the Emperor¡¯s strange words that lingered in his mind, Zeng Fei wasn¡¯t quite sure what to make of them. Then again, they didn¡¯t matter too much to his present situation.


    Sighing, Zeng Fei rose and enrobed himself.


    When he took account of his surroundings, he was briefly stunned to find the densely packed bookshelves empty now. Did their disappearance have anything to do with him?


    Unlikely, he concluded, seeing as they had nothing to do with the ritual.


    The spirit adviser was sure to know, yet that old man spirit was nowhere to be seen.


    This was doubly bad as Zeng Fei needed the spirit to explain exactly what the ritual had done to him; while it may be a cursed inheritance he had received, the inheritance of an Immortal was still bound to come in handy if he knew how to use it.


    ¡°Senior Spirit.¡± He used his fawning tone as before, hiding his true sentiment on the trickster spirit, ¡°Oh Esteemed Senior. Are you still here?¡±


    There was no response, but when he scanned from side to side, something did catch in his vision for a split second.


    Squinting hard, he swivelled his head to try and experience that glimmer of light once more, gradually honing in to the edge of the bookshelf nearest to him.


    There, an ethereal presence lingered; the spirit adviser looked as though it¡¯d been rubbed out by an eraser, leaving only an outline and residual colour.


    It was not until Zeng Fei moved directly in front of it that the spirit adviser noticed him, raising its head. ¡°Oho, I hadn¡¯t realised you¡¯d awoken, Little Master.¡±


    Its voice had become hoarse and feeble, matching its almost transparent figure.


    When Zeng Fei tried to respond, the spirit adviser spluttered violent coughs over him.


    ¡°Little Master, the truth is I don¡¯t have much time left, so we must hurry in teaching you the basics. First, observe your dantian. There, you shall find the core of the Emperor¡¯s Divine Art.¡±


    Curiosity piqued, Zeng Fei scanned his body using his paltry divine sense - now that his cultivation had regressed to the first layer of Qi Refining - and discovered the opaque bubble in his lower dantian.


    When he touched its border, his consciousness was pulled into it and brought inside the world existing within his body.


    At the snap of a finger, he found himself amid breathtaking white terrain. It was an ice sheet, he realised after several seconds, a nival zone. There was also a hyaline lake, arctic-blue, on the edge of this domain space.


    The total area couldn¡¯t have been more than that of a small warehouse, and yet he was rendered speechless by the knowledge - from the original¡¯s memories - that stable internal spaces like this were exclusive to extremely high-ranking cultivators, not at all something a Qi Refiner like himself should be able to host.


    Moreover, the internal space should have just been empty space for storage, akin to those found in storage pouches, not inhabitable space like this.


    Indeed, the hot penny of a sun in the sky alluded to a day-night cycle, and the faint spiritual qi in the air implied that people could comfortably live here. It also appeared this domain space was independent of his body, as proven by the freezing ambient temperature which in no way reflected his soul.


    Zeng Fei had just taken in this wondrous sight when the spirit adviser appeared beside him.


    ¡°Welcome to your domain, Little Master.¡±


    Unlike him, whose teeth were clattering and body shivering from the unreasonable temperature, the spirit was faring far better in here as its figure appeared more stable and solid than outside.


    Zeng Fei¡¯s thoughts on the matter were interrupted then by a cry that sounded like a donkey braying with constant clicks, prompting him to turn around. His jaw dropped.


    Covered in silver-grey plumage, the newcomer had a black head with a white mask on top, and black button eyes that were locked on him. Its chunky huggable body did not distract him from the fact that it was also freakishly big, at most a foot shorter than him.


    The chick began to waddle towards him, meanwhile Zeng Fei turned to the spirit adviser with a look of disbelief and pointed. ¡°T-that¡¯s a penguin¡­¡±


    ¡°Ohoho, Little Master, that he is. A member of the legendary Blackcoats, the Emperor¡¯s elite infantry, once feared the world over. To think I¡¯d live to see¡ª¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s not what I¡¯m saying,¡± Zeng Fei hurried to clarify. ¡°I¡¯m asking why is there a penguin inside me?¡±


    The spirit adviser gave him a concerned look. ¡°He is your spirit beast, Little Master. Were you not paying attention to Master¡¯s last words, when he said he was given his title because of the Kings and Emperors he commanded?¡±


    ¡°Emperor¡­¡± Zeng Fei took another look at the penguin and noticed that it was indeed a baby Emperor Penguin, if a ginormous one.


    For some reason, he¡¯d thought the whole polar theme until now had been an aesthetic thing, not once having considered the animals he¡¯d seen to be combatants.


    His thoughts were put on hold as the giant plushie waddled into proximity and stopped before them. It tilted its beak and studied Zeng Fei¡¯s appearance for a long moment, its beady eyes shining with curiosity.


    It summed up its assessment by pointing its beak to the skies and giving a trumpet-like note. This made Zeng Fei look upon it more fondly, pleased that it had good taste in judgement.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    When the penguin then came closer and reared its head towards him, he scratched behind its neck and brushed at its soft down feathers.


    It wagged its head a few times until it had shaken off his hand, then pecked at said groping instrument.


    ¡°Ow! What¡¯s that for?¡± His positive assessment of the penguin had lasted all of ten seconds.


    ¡°He¡¯s peckish,¡± the spirit adviser answered, watching as the penguin waddled away towards the lake. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s not dally, Little Master. With my remaining lifespan, I must teach you the two most important things about the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. First, will yourself to leave this domain.¡±


    ¡°Wait, hold on. Are you sure you can¡¯t just stay in here and extend your lifespan that way? I mean, you look far more hale in here, so¡ª¡± Zeng Fei stopped as the spirit adviser gave a chest-wracking cough and disappeared from in front of him.


    Swallowing down his annoyance, Zeng Fei followed suit and willed himself out of his domain, returning his consciousness to the real world.


    The slight stiffness in his muscles implied that his body must have been frozen still in that pose while he¡¯d been inside the domain, meaning that the version of his body in there must have been a creation of his consciousness.


    ¡°Now, Little Master. The first thing is the method of cultivating using the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. Here, repeat as I say.¡±


    In the time it took to brew a cup of tea, the spirit adviser drilled into Zeng Fei¡¯s head the oracular formula that he¡¯d need to chant while cultivating.


    When he tried it out, he noticed how the spiritual qi in the air drew to his breath and entered his body where it could be refined; although it was too early to say, this method seemed considerably more efficient than the technique the original had been practising.


    Once this was done, the spirit adviser informed him on how to summon his spirit beasts to fight for him.


    ¡°Now, please go ahead and try it out, Little Master.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯re certain I need to do it in a passionate voice? Like I can¡¯t just do it normally, or even mumble it under my breath.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the way Master always did it, so it must be. Think of it like a tradition - while it may be somewhat strange, it¡¯s also part of your lineage so no need to feel embarrassed performing it. Ohoho.¡±


    ¡°Well, I suppose you¡¯re right.¡±


    Zeng Fei closed his eyes and grumbled as though he was convincing himself to give it a shot.


    In truth, he could hardly contain the joy at being able to live out his childhood fantasy, the long-repressed chuuni inside him surging up.


    As such, when he reopened his eyes, he thrust his hand out as if lobbing a P***ball and yelled out dramatically. ¡°I choose you, Emperor Penguin!¡±


    ¡­


    Nothing happened.


    ¡°Ohoho, Little Master. You must specify who exactly you mean.¡±


    ¡°Ah, right.¡± So he had to name his minions. There was one that immediately came to mind because of the penguin¡¯s size, but unfortunately it felt unsuitable because of the difference in species.


    And so, thinking strictly of Emperor Penguin names, it wasn¡¯t long before he recalled one from a cartoon he¡¯d watched long ago as a kid; one that felt fitting too seeing as how his minion had the cheekiness to peck at its very own master on first meeting.


    Once more he thrust out his hand and yelled at the top of his lungs. ¡°I choose you, Pingu!¡±


    His qi burst out in white threads and formed a blindingly bright penguin silhouette (in case the animators wanted to have an ad break here by asking ¡®Who¡¯s that P*****n?¡¯), before fading away to reveal the newly-named penguin.


    Startled by the sudden change of surroundings, Pingu glanced around, then shook his body vigorously to flick the freezing water off his feathers, getting it all over Zeng Fei who recoiled away like a cat.


    ¡°Fuck, fuck. Fine, go back.¡±


    The water-sprinkler did not disappear on command, however, and only went once the spirit adviser had explained to him that he needed to mentally draw the penguin back into his domain, almost like reeling in a fishing line. This was simple enough, but required a few seconds of focus due to his unfamiliarity with the motion.


    This was when he noticed how expensive the summon had been. Not only had materialising Pingu¡¯s form required a large amount of qi, but maintaining his presence in the real world had drained Zeng Fei¡¯s qi every second on top of that. At most, he¡¯d last a minute before running dry¡­ Talk about a criminally expensive PAYG plan!


    The spirit adviser clapped its hands in delight. ¡°How wonderful it is to see that Master¡¯s Divine Art has been properly handed over to the new generation. Now, this humble spirit can finally pass on with no regrets.¡±


    ¡°Woah, woah, woah, hold on,¡± Zeng Fei spoke with alarm, fearing that the spirit would once again disappear if he didn¡¯t act fast enough. ¡°I¡¯ve got a lot more things to ask about. Before anything else, what¡¯s this about the whole world banding against the Emperor? I mean, won¡¯t they just do the same against me the second I summon Pingu?¡±


    ¡°No need to worry about that, Little Master. In truth, the Immortals banded against Master because he kept ambushing them whenever they left their nests. Eventually, he didn¡¯t even care about that anymore and moved onto raiding the sects themselves.¡±


    ¡°I thought he said they¡¯d been jealous about his growth rate¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, he was facilitating his growth by raiding them, so he wasn¡¯t lying.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    Zeng Fei felt like cursing himself for thinking that the spirit adviser¡¯s fondness for telling its version of the truth had been a standalone personality trait, and not a habit it¡¯d directly picked up from its master.


    ¡°I thought you said the Emperor wasn¡¯t a villain, and that it¡¯d all been a misunderstanding¡­¡±


    ¡°Strictly speaking, it had been a misunderstanding. He had no interest in their lives, and only wanted to take their techniques - not even take, really, just to read them. But who would have thought they¡¯d feel so touchy about sharing their work that they¡¯d collude against him like that?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°Disgraceful behaviour, I know, Little Master, but that¡¯s the reality of the cultivation world. Either way, you won¡¯t have to worry about getting recognised as most of Master¡¯s detractors died in the final confrontation; and the few who survived went onto purging every mention of him to hide their shameful conduct.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯re certain that that¡¯s why they purged him from the history books, not for any other reason? Because to me it feels like the Emperor might have done a bit more to have earned such an extreme response.¡±


    ¡°Ohoho, you jest, Little Master - Master¡¯s growth was all the justification they needed to react like that. It¡¯s a tale as old as time itself for incumbents to engage in anti-competitive behaviour against promising newcomers who threaten to surpass them in the industry. If only there had been an antitrust agency to keep these bad actors in check, Master would have gone on to realise his plans of conquering the world and bringing in the Golden Age.¡± The spirit gave a heavy sigh. ¡°But alas.¡±


    So not only had the Heavenly Demon Emperor engaged in wanton IP theft, he¡¯d also genuinely been planning on world domination?! At this point, Zeng Fei was only surprised that the other sects hadn¡¯t got around to dealing with him earlier.


    The spirit adviser continued: ¡°If anything, Little Master, I would caution you more against hiding the Divine Art than displaying it. The Master hated meekness, so it¡¯s likely he engineered a mechanism into the Divine Art to punish you if you dare hide your status as his true successor. Then again, not even he thought it would take this long to find a worthy successor, so maybe you¡¯ll be punished anyway if no one around recognises the technique.¡±


    ¡°What?! How would he even know that? Isn¡¯t he dead?¡±


    ¡°I was not privy to the workings of the Divine Art, but I do know it had multiple astounding functions unseen in any other technique, including something that organised his troops autonomously to save him the effort of doing so manually. Perhaps that entity also observes your behaviour, but I unfortunately I don¡¯t know any more.¡±


    Zeng Fei pondered for a long period before speaking. ¡°Honestly, I feel like I can¡¯t unpack most of what you¡¯ve said until I get a good grasp of the art itself. So before you go any further, could you explain all the functions of the Divine Art that you do know of.¡±


    ¡°Of course. At once, Little Master.¡± The old man avatar of the spirit adviser smiled gently and nodded, hiding its true intentions.


    Now that it¡¯d activated the formation underlying this room, there was no longer any turning back.

 Chapter 5: The Golden Finger, Mr Spirit Adviser

    After the Heavenly Demon Emperor¡¯s demise, his surviving Divine Artefacts had argued feverishly over who would carry out his final order of choosing a successor for him; and once their words had failed to convince one other of their respective worthiness, they¡¯d been left with no choice but to battle over it.


    The loser of the subsequent rock-papers-scissors tournament had ripped out a fragment of their consciousness to create the spirit adviser, preferring a permanent loss to their strength over taking up the boring role of waiting an eternity for a suitable candidate to show up.


    After choosing a successor, the spirit adviser was supposed to replenish its spent lifeforce in the successor¡¯s domain, in there taking up a mentor-like role to the successor, true to its name.


    But the solitude of many millennia had caused the spirit adviser to desire death over everything else, even if this was an impossible wish due to the rules it was governed by.


    These rules also required it to listen to all commands from the successor, which the spirit adviser could not risk the Little Master learning of - already he had stopped addressing it respectfully, subconsciously having degraded it from superior to equal, so how much longer would it be before he stumbled on the fact that he was in fact the superior? In such a scenario, he could very well command it to take refuge in his domain and force it onto life support against its wishes.


    Now that he¡¯d asked to hear the functions of the Emperor¡¯s Divine Art, this was the do or not-die moment.


    Nor would the timing get better than this as the spirit adviser was currently at its weakest having officiated the ritual, and would soon pass away naturally if left alone.


    As for how it planned to accomplish this, well, it just so happened that while the rules cast on it were rigorous, they had never been play-tested in a real-life situation before. Hence, there existed loopholes that the Divine Artefact had never thought to consider.


    For example, one rule prevented the spirit adviser from ever intending harm on the Little Master, while another obligated the spirit to sacrifice itself if necessary to save the Little Master from danger, together ensuring that the spirit adviser would act as a proper guardian to the Little Master. And the spirit adviser took this role very seriously.


    ¡°So, Little Master, one of the primary functions¡ª¡±


    Zeng Fei¡¯s ears perked up at the noise of a deep rumbling, sounding like tectonic plates grinding against each other. Alarmed, he started scanning his surroundings like a meerkat, causing the spirit adviser to look at him oddly.


    ¡°Are you okay, Little Master?¡±


    ¡°Did you not hear that?¡±


    The spirit adviser showed a blank expression. ¡°Hear what?¡±


    Only then did Zeng Fei glance up at the ceiling; and his heart dropped. What he had believed to be square tiles on the ceiling were actually massive stone blocks stuck together¡­ and the one directly above him was prominently bulging out as though it was sliding out from its foundations.


    His mind flashed the image of his body being crushed into a mash of flesh and bones.


    His eyes expanded wildly at the surge of adrenaline, yet he couldn¡¯t move, frozen in fear; and so he watched the creeping approach of the stone block, staring so hard that he saw his very death written on its underside.


    And then the stone block slipped free of the ceiling, plunging through the air.


    Its looming shadow enveloped his body, its figure growing until it had encompassed the entirety of his vision.


    Suddenly Zeng Fei felt something wrench his vision from its fixed perspective, his body being shoved away as though someone had tackled into him; this shock force must have kickstarted his senses too as he could finally move again.


    Then came the peal of thunder from the stone block crashing into the floor, like an ordnance strike mere inches away.


    Shaken, Zeng Fei rose to his feet unsteady and saw what had saved him: there, trapped beneath the stone block, was the torso of a translucent old man, the rest of his body gruesomely crushed as made clear by the spirit¡¯s agonised expression.


    Yet, despite the pain it was under, the spirit adviser was screaming something towards him that he couldn¡¯t make out: a vacuum had opened up in his ears after the explosion, leaving his ears with a faint ringing and nothing else. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The spirit must have realised this as it stretched its hand towards him and released a sliver of qi into his body.


    Soon after, Zeng Fei could perceive the furious pounding of his heartbeat and, if he focused with all his effort, he could even make out what the spirit adviser was trying to say.


    ¡°The ritual must have strained the foundations of this room - the whole place is caving in! You have to escape, Little Master! Get out of here now!¡±


    Zeng Fei¡¯s mouth gaped open and shut like a fish out of water, trying to speak but finding the words to do so out of reach.


    ¡°You must survive, Little Master! Continue the Emperor¡¯s legacy! I beg you, don¡¯t let my sacrifice be in vain! Run, run for your life before the whole place collapses!¡±


    Hearing this, Zeng Fei glanced up and spotted multiple other stone blocks slipping from their foundations.


    No longer did his mind bother to think; he was running before he even knew it, his legs taking charge to flee the imminent danger.


    Every explosive crash behind him further invigorated him until he was sprinting at speeds he didn¡¯t know he was capable of.


    Within no time he was out of the corridor, into the dark cave, tripping off something but catching himself on the wall, running still, then finally leaping out of the cave towards safety.


    Only then, gulping down breaths, did he dare to pause and look behind, whereupon he saw the rocky facade of the mountain. The weathered rock had weeds growing in its cracks, no different from the surroundings. As for the cave entrance he¡¯d just exited? Gone.


    Gone with it were the violent noises he¡¯d been hearing, in its place the whispers of the wind and the bleating of a distant goat.


    Although the life-threatening danger had passed, his brain was too flooded with adrenaline for him to be able to pick apart what had just happened; it took many minutes of him standing there, staring blankly at the rock facade, for cognisant thought to return.


    And the first thing he thought of was the image seared into his brain: the translucent old man¡¯s pained and flushed expression, legs brutally crushed by that boulder of a stone block.


    Traumatic, yes; and now baffling.


    After all, Zeng Fei could have sworn the spirit adviser never had legs to begin with¡­ so what exactly had it been trapped under there?


    Zeng Fei¡¯s expression crumpled into a frown, then twisted into outrage as he realised the trickster spirit had gotten him again.


    How else was it possible the spirit hadn¡¯t noticed the stone block sliding until the very last moment when its senses were many times stronger than his?


    Or how come none of the stone blocks had shattered on impact with the ground, and caused him collateral damage? In fact, none of the bookshelves had been hit either while he¡¯d been in there, meaning no wayward splinters stabbing into him.


    And how come the crashing sounds had vanished the second he¡¯d exited the cave? Yes, that was a function of the invisible barrier set up by the entrance, so what a coincidence that said barrier hadn¡¯t been there to block him from exiting this time, yet had popped back up immediately after to prevent re-entry.


    All the signs pointed towards the spirit adviser acting in defiance of its assigned role and getting rid of him. In fact, it¡¯d rushed through the entire inheritance process from the start as though it was a just chore to get over with.


    In the end, it hadn¡¯t even bothered explaining the basic details of the legacy it¡¯d forced onto him¡­ What kind of terrible after-purchase service was this?!


    By this point, Zeng Fei was so incensed that he forgot all previous decorum and strode up to the rocky facade, threateningly waving his hand.


    ¡°Hey, you piece of shit spirit. Open this cave entrance right now! I fucking command you! You hear me?¡±


    The sole response he got was another bleating, sounding closer this time.


    Zeng Fei turned in that direction and saw a mountain goat peeking at him from behind an outcropping, bleating again as if asking him what all the ruckus was about.


    For some reason, this only infuriated Zeng Fei more.


    Over the next half-hour, an inordinate amount of cursing, complaining, and crying left his mouth before he finally gave up, unable to force the spirit adviser to show up.


    In truth, this was the best thing he could have done as the spirit adviser had not heard a single thing he¡¯d said. Immediately after he¡¯d ran out of the cave, it¡¯d rushed into a secret room it¡¯d built long ago with the specific purpose of being noise-cancelling.


    There, it had laid itself to rest in its coffin and prepared to peacefully pass away, comforted by the memories of pulling wool over the Little Master¡¯s eyes repeatedly, indulging in the occasional ohoho.


    The loophole it¡¯d taken advantage of was a simple one: although the spirit was unable to intend harm upon the successor, there was nothing stopping it from using its powers to place him in a dangerous situation with the intention of saving him before any actual harm befell.


    And if the Little Master just so happened to misunderstand the situation and run away with his tail between his legs, then what ever could the poor spirit adviser do, abandoned by its own master?


    At least the spirit adviser could be content it¡¯d accomplished the function it¡¯d been created for; even its trickery had been an extension of this, giving the Little Master a very practical lesson on how crafty old foxes would run circles around spring chickens like him if given the opportunity.


    After all, although otherworlders indeed possessed esoteric knowledge on how people would act and how events would develop, the Heavenly Demon Emperor himself had admitted that placing too much reliance on these beliefs was no different from begging for a nasty surprise.


    Now having shown this to Zeng Fei firsthand, the spirit adviser could only hope that he would glean the right lessons from this experience (and not the wrong one that it¡¯d tricked him solely to get rid of him or any other shallow reasoning like that).

 Chapter 6: 🐧 vs. 🐍

    With no choice but to give up on his golden finger, Zeng Fei made a tactical retreat down the mountain, intending to return when he had a higher cultivation that could break through the barrier.


    He couldn¡¯t tarry here as one look at the sun informed him it¡¯d been hours since he¡¯d first entered the cave, meaning his arranged duel with Dong Ju would be starting soon.


    To prepare for such an event, the original Zeng Fei would have been best served sparring against other disciples, but what could he do when the only people he could ask - the friends he¡¯d made during his time at the sect - were nowhere to be found once he¡¯d been challenged by Dong Ju?


    In this, it could be seen that their connections with him hadn¡¯t been deep, better described as acquaintances than friends, hence their unwillingness to be associated with him while he was being targeted.


    This was why the original had entered the Crooked Mountain, which was sect-controlled territory containing weak demon beasts, under the belief he¡¯d at least get some combat experience here which was better than nothing.


    And how had that gone? Not great.


    The demon beasts here ranged from the first layer to the third layer of Qi Refining as these grounds were only intended for new disciples to gain their first proper combat experiences. And although the original was a newbie in terms of combat experience, the same could not be said about his cultivation base at the fifth layer.


    Hence, it followed that the demon beasts here wanted nothing to do with him; the only experience he¡¯d gained so far was chasing down a handful of first and second layer beasts that¡¯d been too slow to flee in time.


    Because of this, the original had been anticipating a humiliating defeat in his fight with Dong Ju; the transmigrator felt no different about his prospects, worse even seeing as that the ritual had taken his cultivation, the one thing he¡¯d had going for him.


    Still, despite this, neither of them had entertained the idea of avoiding the duel for a simple reason.


    Dong Ju had already challenged several third and fourth layer disciples before Zeng Fei, none of them worthy contenders but rather filler to prop up his record.


    One of the first ones to be challenged had known how one-sided it would be and, out of a desire to not be thrashed in front of his peers, had gone into hiding after receiving the challenge.


    And his reward for such an ingenious ploy?


    When he¡¯d made his return, Dong Ju¡¯s gang of goons had harassed him for weeks on end, in total dishing out many times the punishment the poor sod would have received if he¡¯d just shown up to the fight; his friends hadn¡¯t been spared either, leading him to be ostracised even after it was all over with.


    So while the transmigrator didn¡¯t like the idea of taking a beating, it was still preferable to being bullied by brats for weeks on end, hence his reasoning for returning to the sect in a rush.


    He made good progress, quickly clearing the mountain and proceeding through the plains, which was when he ran into a problem.


    From the long grass over a dozen metres away slithered out a Green-horned Python, its murky-yellow serpentine eyes locked on him. These pythons were a common sight in the plains and one familiar to the original Zeng Fei who¡¯d caught one earlier today.


    Lacking venom, they killed their prey by using their speed to coil around their victims and asphyxiating them to death. They could also use the finger-sized horn on the top of their head to stab if given the opportunity.


    What this meant was that as long as you kept your distance or had the strength to break loose of their hold, the Green-horned Pythons were relatively easy creatures to deal with.


    But there were two problems with such a laidback assessment right now.


    One, this demon beast was at the peak of third layer Qi Refining; although it was two metres long and chunky, with that kind of cultivation there was no question it¡¯d be able to rapidly strike once it got close enough and have him dead before he knew it.


    To have lived long enough to have achieved third layer, it clearly possessed a strong survival instinct for when to hide and when to strike.


    Two, Zeng Fei was by himself and had a cultivation base at the first layer of Qi Refining, i.e. he had the strength of a critter but many times the meat of one. In light of this, it should be no surprise the python was brazenly approaching him when, to it, he must have appeared like multiple rabbits on a silver platter.


    Given the unfavourable matchup, Zeng Fei was about to leg it when suddenly he got a strong sense of deja vu from this situation. It made him curious whether the P***mon response would work.


    Well, there was only one way to find out.


    He pointed ahead of the serpent and shouted: ¡°I choose you, Pingu!¡±


    The sudden flash of light caused the serpent to halt its approach, fearing it to be an offensive technique. However, as the light faded to reveal Pingu - an animal possessing not prominent muscles or large claws but a little beak, a chunky, fluffy body, and no cultivation base - the serpent dropped its caution and advanced.


    What especially frightened Zeng Fei was that the penguin hadn¡¯t even noticed the python yet, still busy appreciating his surroundings with a wandering gaze and carefree chirps.


    Zeng Fei screamed in panic: ¡°Pingu, look, goddammit. You¡¯re about to be attacked!¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    By now, he was regretting summoning Pingu, partly because the penguin seemed about as useful in this situation as a soleless shoe, and partly because he¡¯d begun considering Pingu as his pet and therefore felt terrible for putting his baby in harm¡¯s way.


    This wasn¡¯t P***mon after all! How was Pingu, a baby penguin (albeit a humongous one), supposed to know how to fight when he couldn¡¯t even do the basic task of identifying threats in front of him?


    But since he¡¯d been summoned so close to the Green-horned Python, there was no time to unsummon him either before¡­


    ¡­the snake attacked, launching with blistering speed towards its oblivious prey. Its mouth spread wide, baring cruel serrated teeth.


    Only then did the baby penguin notice its presence and attempt to face it. But it was too late.


    Chomp!


    Sinking its teeth into Pingu¡¯s belly, the snake whipped the rest of its body up to coil around him, aiming for the neck. The penguin did manage to swing its wing into the snake¡¯s head where it was biting him, but this looked no more effective than if Zeng Fei had personally come up from behind and tried to tickle the snake off.


    Or so Zeng Fei believed until he saw the snake¡¯s airborne body shoot behind Pingu and harmlessly dump to the ground instead of coiling around. The Green-horned Python appeared indecisive for a moment, its head still latched onto the chubby belly, before releasing its jaws and falling down too.


    Fear turning to exultation, it dawned on Zeng Fei how powerful Pingu must be for his weak-looking smack to have dazed the Green-horned Python into retreating.


    Where human cultivators utilised qi by storing it in order to fuel powerful techniques, demon beasts utilised it by directly deploying it across their bodies, effectively buffing themselves; this meant that demon beasts possessed significantly more powerful bodies than cultivators their same level (barring those trained in body-refining techniques).


    But it seemed spirit beasts were a tier higher still; no wonder the Emperor¡¯s Blackcoats had been feared throughout the lands back in the day!


    And like so, the transfiguration was complete: Zeng Fei, the boy once known as Pingu¡¯s biggest doubter, took off his mask to reveal he¡¯d actually been Pingu¡¯s biggest believer all along, mirroring every sports fan ever witnessing their team kickstart the comeback of dreams.


    ¡°Get him, Pingu! Fuck him up! Show him who¡¯s top dog! Woof woof, that¡¯s you! Come on!¡±


    The snake, however, had no interest in watching the comeback narrative play out as it made to rapidly slither away.


    Although Pingu managed to place one unsteady flipper onto its body before it escaped, this was not for long as the snake¡¯s frantic attempts to flee caused him to slip and fall face-first onto its body, landing a finger¡¯s breadth away from goring himself on its horn.


    Although the snake violently squirmed and lashed its tail in a bid to escape, it had to contest with Pingu¡¯s full body weight and his¡­ bobbing head?


    Zeng Fei watched with a knotted-up forehead, unsure what the hell was going on down there but giving Pingu the benefit of the doubt seeing as the penguin had brought things around before.


    Zeng Fei¡¯s prayers were answered a dozen beats later when the snake¡¯s struggles devolved into shuddering, before then stopping altogether.


    Noticing then that his qi had dropped to 30% capacity, Zeng Fei hurried to unsummon the hungry hungry penguin before he was drained any further.


    He then cautiously moved closer to the Green-horned Python, relaxing only when he was certain the snake was dead.


    Blood oozed out of nasty puncture marks on its tube-like body, finally making sense of Pingu¡¯s head bobbing - the penguin had been pecking the snake to death during their tussle on the ground!


    The main reason Zeng Fei had gotten closer to the snake was to check if it had a demon core, a valuable component that demon beasts formed under certain conditions.


    He wasn¡¯t surprised to find that the Green-horned Python hadn¡¯t had one given how exceedingly rare they were at the Qi Refining stage.


    Having confirmed this, there was no reason to stick around, so Zeng Fei quickly continued on his way to the sect. He calculated that if he ran there without taking breaks, he¡¯d be able to reach the Training Hall in time for the duel.


    Fortunately, he wouldn¡¯t have to stop to refill his qi tank through meditation as he¡¯d naturally reabsorb enough spiritual energy on the way simply through breathing - a small blessing from having his cultivation base reset and his qi capacity drastically shrunken.


    He was excitedly anticipating the duel now. With how easily Pingu had dispatched the Green-horned Python, Dong Ju, who was also at the third layer of Qi Refining, would stand no more of a chance.


    It would also be a good opportunity to pay respect to the original whose body he had taken over: and what better way was there than by dealing with the bully who¡¯d kicked off the chain of events that¡¯d led to the original¡¯s demise?


    Zeng Fei couldn¡¯t wait to give that little thug a taste of his own medicine.


    ****


    Unbeknownst to Zeng Fei, the reason Pingu had been bobbing his head earlier wasn¡¯t simply because he¡¯d been pecking the Green-horned Python to death but because he¡¯d been fishing inside its body.


    Guided by instinct, the penguin had pierced the correct spot and pulled out the serpent¡¯s marble-sized demon core unnoticed.


    There had been no hesitation in swallowing it.


    Whenever demon cores were used in alchemy, they were always ground up and mixed with other ingredients to prevent the large amount of turbulent qi inside them from damaging the users of the resultant medicinal pills.


    That was to say that directly consuming a demon core was a stupid idea, and other cultivators would only laugh at your idiocy if they heard that¡¯s how you¡¯d died.


    Even other demon beasts tended not to eat the demon cores of their prey due to how dangerous it could be.


    The consequences weren¡¯t as bad for spirit beasts, whose bodies were solely made of qi, but still, there was no question that Pingu would gain indigestion from this and learn an important lesson on why you should not swallow random pieces off the street. The demon core itself would eventually be expelled from his body.


    Or at least that¡¯s what should have happened under normal circumstances.


    Instead, the demon core embedded itself inside Pingu¡¯s body and raised his cultivation to the first layer of Qi Refining.


    This fusion was then acknowledged by the domain, which responded by imbuing him with esoteric knowledge.


    In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Pingu had finished meditating on this newly attained knowledge (done so in his usual pose standing upright, not in a lotus position), and attained several insights.


    His wings gained a flexibility previously unseen, moving smoothly through the air, then lashing viciously like a snake lunging out from the undergrowth; they became like fangs, his body emanating the aura of a serpent eyeing you up, preparing to pounce.


    As Pingu practised this technique, the spiritual energy inside the domain began to diminish, causing it to draw more energy from Zeng Fei¡¯s dantian.


    If not for the adrenaline pumping through his veins, Zeng Fei would have noticed that his qi was accumulating far slower than it should be, almost as if there was a drain in the system somewhere.


    But as he was, he was too occupied imagining the scene of him giving his bully a good old-fashioned face-slapping to pay attention to anything else.

 Chapter 7: The System within the Cultivation Art

    Zeng Fei returned to his hut in a hurry, and activated the sealing formation on the door to lock it behind him.


    When joining the sect, Outer Sect Disciple were all assigned a hut of their own, fit with minimal furnishing and basic kitchen implements.


    Although the Treading Infinity Sect could have easily provided more, this was deliberately done to encourage disciples to provide value to the sect and earn any further furnishings they may want.


    Typically, this meant completing sect missions, which earned you contribution points that could be exchanged for items, or finding other ways of directly earning spirit stones, the primary form of currency in the cultivation world.


    The fact that Zeng Fei¡¯s hut still very much looked as it had done when he first received it four years ago spoke volumes to how the beggar boy had been content simply to have a roof over his head and a bed to lie on; outside of the completing the odd compulsory sect mission - from which he¡¯d earn the credits to meet his frugal day-to-day living needs - he had spent the remainder of his time stubbornly cultivating.


    It was plain to see why those around him had labelled him as a cultivation maniac, jealous of his willpower to be so committed to the path of cultivation but also derisive that he¡¯d only attained a mediocre fifth layer of Qi Refining despite all his effort. And now even that was gone.


    Zeng Fei ignored the memories attached to this place and went over to the rough-hewn bed. He laid down and entered his domain.


    Pingu, staring blankly into space, noticed his presence at once and began to approach him. The blood on the penguin¡¯s wings was gone, and the site where the serpent had sunk its teeth had healed up. But Zeng Fei¡¯s attention was on something else.


    ¡°So you actually are at the first layer of Qi Refining! How? You definitely had no cultivation base right before the fight.¡±


    The reason this was so shocking was because going from being a mortal to the first layer of Qi Refining was a lengthy process, requiring you to learn how to draw spiritual energy in with your breath and exhale impurities, as well as requiring you to open your meridians so that spiritual energy could circulate through your body.


    When these two conditions were met, you would be classed at the first layer of Qi Refining, which was also why Zeng Fei had not reverted to being a mortal even after his cultivation base had been consumed by those critters during the ritual.


    Zeng Fei rubbed Pingu¡¯s head and was glad to be spared from a pecking this time.


    ¡°Brr, brr,¡± the penguin said, enjoying the headrub.


    ¡°What do you mean you didn¡¯t do anything?¡±


    Those two criteria were certainly not things you could accomplish while standing around, so clearly something had to have happened.


    It took many minutes of questioning for Zeng Fei to realise that: one, although Pingu had high intelligence for a penguin, he was nonetheless a chick and was clueless what Zeng Fei meant by cultivation; two, even after simplifying the question, Pingu claimed he hadn¡¯t done anything besides eating the Green-horned Python¡¯s demon core and some ¡®stuff¡¯.


    ¡°Wait, hold on¡­ you ate the Green-horned Python¡¯s demon core?!¡±


    Eyes gleaming, the penguin proudly nodded.


    ¡°Spit it out then!¡±


    The penguin gave him a weird look. It was only after much back-and-forth that Pingu obliged, trying to retch out the demon core, though to no avail.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s hope it doesn¡¯t explode or anything. And from now on, please don¡¯t gobble up demon cores just because you can.¡±


    ¡°Peep, peep.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t make any promises?! Why not? I¡¯m being serious, you know - doing that is going to kill you sooner than later.¡±


    But the penguin was unconvinced, so Zeng Fei rolled his eyes and gave up, figuring he¡¯d just have to snatch up any future demon cores before Pingu got the chance to gobble them.


    ¡°And where did you learn that martial technique you were using? I could have sworn your wings were giving off a snake-like aura in the fight.¡±


    A few cheeps, many clicks, and two toots later, Zeng Fei stared at the penguin exasperated.


    ¡°What do you mean it just came to you? That literally makes no sense¡­¡±


    Zeng Fei rubbed the tension out of his brow. Who would have known that questioning his own minion would be this bloody hard? If only there was a more convenient way of doing this.


    Suddenly his eyes widened, the answer coming to him.


    Back when Pingu had been slapping sense into Dong Ju, notifications had popped up in his vision mentioning that Pingu¡¯s Serpentine Slap had levelled up, disappearing shortly after.


    In the heat of the moment, Zeng Fei had not known if he was hallucinating from overexerting his qi or something, but now on reviewed his memories, he was almost certain those had been genuine and not a figment of his imagination.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    He thought back to the webnovels he¡¯d read and wondered how they made the System overlay pop up.


    ¡°Status.¡±


    Nothing.


    ¡°Profile?¡±


    Nothing.


    ¡°Uh, options?¡±


    Nothing.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, notifications log?¡±


    Finally, the translucent overlay showed up with a log of its previous messages. Seeing that the word Pingu was in bold, he pressed it.


    The screen changed to Pingu¡¯s Status.


    Pingu


    Race: Emperor Penguin


    Cultivation: First Layer Qi Refining (50%)


    Demon Cores: Green-horned Python (Third Layer Qi Refining)


    Strength: 10


    Agility: 6


    Constitution: 8


    Intelligence: 5


    Dexterity: 2


    Perception: 7


    Martial Techniques: Serpentine Slap (Mortal) - Level 3


    Why did Pingu have a status screen, and not him? And what did those stats mean? If only there had been somebody here to explain it all to him¡­


    Grumbling curses under his breath at the bastard spirit adviser, Zeng Fei pressed the Cultivation row.


    True Cultivation: n/a


    Artificially Gained Cultivation: First Layer Qi Refining (50% progress) from Green-horned Python


    Total Cultivation: First Layer Qi Refining (50%)


    Ah, so it wasn¡¯t that the demon core had activated something inside of Pingu and allowed him to attain that cultivation, but rather that the demon core itself was providing his current cultivation base.


    Well, a demon core was somewhat analogous to a dantian inside a demon beast, so by that logic, it wasn¡¯t outlandish that swallowing one would give Pingu the cultivation stored inside it. But why only part of it then? And what was the 50% progress about?


    Pingu had said earlier that he¡¯d sensed the presence of this demon core when he got close to the snake, and that he¡¯d felt an instinctual need to consume the core once he¡¯d dug it out of the snake¡¯s body.


    As far as Zeng Fei knew, this was not ordinary penguin behaviour, so he could only guess that the Heavenly Demon Divine Art was influencing this behaviour.


    Moving on, Zeng Fei pressed the demon cores row next.


    Max Capacity: Third Layer Qi Refining


    Current Demon Cores:


    <ul>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Green-horned Python (Third Layer Qi Refining): granting +2 strength, +3 agility, +2 constitution, +2 perception</li>


    </ul>


    So consumed demon cores provided Pingu with not only a cultivation boost but also stat bonuses. These stats didn¡¯t appear random either as they matched up with the python¡¯s strengths as a constrictor snake.


    Unfortunately, any tactic of endlessly feeding demon cores to Pingu was off the table due to that max capacity figure. Worse still, Zeng Fei had no clue how it¡¯d been determined seeing as there was no other information provided.


    A dropdown of options did come up when he clicked on the Green-horned Python¡¯s core itself, but the options were all blank except for two: Fuse and Eject. Fuse was greyed out, so that was a no-go, whereas Eject looked normal.


    Curious, Zeng Fei pressed it.


    Immediately Pingu gave a jolt, then lowered his body until it was touching the ground. A frown of intense concentration cast over his face, followed by relief a dozen beats later.


    The penguin let out a chirp and waddled forward, giving Zeng Fei the opportunity to check out his handiwork.


    There, on the icy ground, the Green-horned Python¡¯s demon core sat pretty.


    Seeing Pingu going for it again, Zeng Fei yelled out. ¡°Oi! Don¡¯t eat it.¡±


    He had to move quick to snatch it up before the penguin belly flopped onto it. Ignoring Pingu¡¯s mournful cries, he inspected it in his palm and was glad to see there was no residue or skid marks on it despite the less-than-enviable route it had taken out of Pingu.


    The demon core was marble-sized, mostly an off-white colour with slivers of maroon and green inside that moved like the fluid inside a lava lamp. The core was unexpectedly hot too, making it quite comforting to hold inside the cold domain.


    The demon core also gave off such a potent qi signature that it was obvious it would cause harm to Zeng Fei¡¯s body if he ate it as Pingu had.


    Though this raised the question of why it hadn¡¯t already damaged him seeing as it was currently inside his domain, which was inside his dantian, which most certainly could not handle this much qi at his current level of cultivation.


    Well, just another oddity about the domain to add to the list.


    When Zeng Fei looked at Pingu¡¯s status again now, he saw that Pingu¡¯s stats and cultivation had fallen as expected.


    What was unexpected, however, was that the martial technique row had also changed, going from mortal quality to trash, despite not being listed in the Green-horned Python¡¯s demon core section.


    Pingu


    Race: Emperor Penguin


    Cultivation: n/a


    Demon Cores: n/a


    Strength: 8


    Agility: 3


    Constitution: 6


    Intelligence: 5


    Dexterity: 2


    Perception: 5


    Martial Techniques: Serpentine Slap (Trash) - Level 3


    Curious to see why, Zeng Fei expanded the technique.


    Serpentine Slap - Level 3


    Technique grade: Trash


    Positive modifiers: n/a


    Negative modifiers: Low level, Absence of Serpent Essence


    Ability effect: Increases the speed of unarmed strikes and concentrates qi into the tip of the slapping appendage, allowing for effortless piercing.


    [Emperor¡¯s notes: This was a rudimentary technique taught to disciples on joining the Venomous Court.


    Although dealing negligible damage by itself, the technique is deadly when used to administer poisons to the target¡¯s bloodstream.


    Worthwhile practising for any poison builds as it works well with the Venomous Court¡¯s advanced techniques, especially those under their Dao School of Dance. The ones that are directly linked to Serpentine Slap will be unlocked when this technique is levelled high enough.]


    Zeng Fei¡¯s mind was blown considering the manifold implications of the information here.


    At last he could see why the ancient cultivators had been so frightened of the Heavenly Demon Emperor that they¡¯d not only grouped together to kill him, but also gone through the effort of wiping his name from all the history books.

 Chapter 8: The Auto Battler Emperor

    All the same, Zeng Fei would have to leave his domain soon as his consciousness was unable to tolerate the cold in here for much longer.


    Because of this, he decided to rush through the other things he wanted to check, and then organise his thoughts and observations outside.


    ¡°Hey, Pingu. Do that slapping technique you were doing before.¡±


    Having grown bored of standing there, Pingu was halfway to the lake, going to play.


    Naturally, Zeng Fei put his foot down and ordered his unruly minion to return at once (translation: a combination attack of coaxing, pleading, and making funny noises so that he seemed more appealing than the lake; faced with such devilish tactics, the poor penguin never stood a chance).


    And so, using his commanding voice and many years of life experience over his minion, Zeng Fei won the minor power struggle and re-asserted himself as the master in their relationship.


    Pingu waddled back over and made the motions to execute Serpentine Slap, but his wings didn¡¯t snap forwards at the blistering speeds of before, nor did they give off a serpentine aura.


    The technique¡¯s drop in power also looked to be greater than what Pingu¡¯s drop in physical capabilities could explain alone. This revealed how important the technique grade was, that a drop from mortal to trash quality had caused such a large effect on performance.


    Next, Zeng Fei fed the Green-horned Python¡¯s core back to Pingu, no longer having any qualms about doing this now that he knew it was part of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, and that the core could be removed at any time.


    Pingu¡¯s status returned to how it¡¯d initially looked, with Serpentine Slap pushed back into mortal grade now that the negative modifier ¡®Absence of serpent essence¡¯ had disappeared.


    When Pingu executed Serpentine Slap again, gone was the impression that he was flapping his wings at imaginary flies buzzing around him (or maybe until now he¡¯d just been cheerily waving towards Zeng Fei, who¡¯d misinterpreted it for a shoddy martial technique).


    His wings now propelled and swished the air loudly, certain to give a crisp smack to anyone unfortunate enough to be in their way.


    As Pingu repeatedly used the technique, the spiritual qi in the domain noticeably thinned, and Zeng Fei could perceive his own tank of qi being drained as a result.


    No wonder Pingu¡¯s summon had been cancelled so quickly during the fight, then, when the penguin had been guzzling down qi like an alcoholic who¡¯d just been told the company was covering all expenses tonight.


    Zeng Fei had to beg Pingu to stop using the technique before his qi ran dry again, before departing from the domain.


    His consciousness returned to his body lying on the bed, and he wrapped himself in the coarse blanket, trembling to the core.


    Once back to normal, the first question he addressed was where this System, hitherto unseen, had come from: the answer to which was clearly the Emperor¡¯s Divine Art.


    Why else would the Emperor¡¯s notes have been included in Serpentine Slap¡¯s description if not for some personal connection between the two?


    The System as a whole seemed intimately linked to the Divine Art instead of being a personal cheat he¡¯d received for transmigrating as why else would it only pop up for Pingu.


    As Zeng Fei pondered on the topic, he realised that the spirit adviser had hinted as much when it¡¯d said - after he¡¯d asked how the long-deceased Emperor would be able to tell if he was hiding his identity as the Emperor¡¯s successor - that the Heavenly Demon Divine Art possessed many astounding features not found in other techniques, including an entity that autonomously organised the Emperor¡¯s troops.


    Was that not precisely what the System was? Without Zeng Fei moving a muscle, it¡¯d guided Pingu to seek out demon cores; and once he¡¯d eaten the core, it¡¯d bestowed him with a fitting technique.


    With the System in place to micromanage his minions¡¯ day-to-day growth, all the Emperor had to do was select their build paths through the specific demon cores he fed them.


    When viewed that way, the System¡¯s resemblance to game systems in the auto-battler genre was uncanny, leading Zeng Fei to his second conclusion: the Emperor must have been someone from modern-day Earth.


    In light of that, could it be that the spirit adviser had been the one to summon Zeng Fei¡¯s spirit over to this world to inherit its Master¡¯s technique?


    Maybe that¡¯s why the spirit adviser had asked him to identify it on the first meeting, a test on how well-read he was on the xianxia genre, and therefore how well he could be expected to do in this world.


    Assuming he was correct on the Emperor¡¯s identity as an otherworlder, this implied two important things.


    One, in proving that Zeng Fei¡¯s transmigration was not an isolated case, it opened up the possibility there were more transmigrators out there in this world than just Zeng Fei.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    He¡¯d have to be on the watch for anyone acting odd as other transmigrators had the dual-capability of being the most helpful people to him but also the most threatening.


    Two, time must flow differently here in relation to Earth for the Emperor to have already become an ancient cultivator despite having presumably been someone from Zeng Fei¡¯s era, and therefore transmigrated over a few years before him at most.


    So maybe Zeng Fei could regain his old life back if he figured out how to return to his original body (the primary appeal not being his lacklustre old life, but rather the opportunity to get out of this murderhobo-infested cultivation world where your entire clan could be exterminated for looking at some random Dong or Wong the wrong way).


    Or maybe that wasn¡¯t possible, actually, seeing as his body must have become vacant when his soul left¡­


    Did that mean he¡¯d been declared dead already, or had another spirit taken over his vacant body in the same way he¡¯d taken over Zeng Fei¡¯s?


    The person most likely to know the answers to these questions, as well as the route to return, was the spirit adviser, making Zeng Fei¡¯s action plan very simple: get strong enough to break into that damned cave, grab the negligent spirit adviser by the collar, and start screaming abuse in its face. He wanted to see it ¡®ohoho¡¯ its way out of that one.


    Oh, and to get answers from it during the interrogation process.


    Naturally, Zeng Fei wasn¡¯t so spiteful that he wanted to do this solely because it¡¯d tricked him once or twice (okay, he was, but that was besides the point). Rather, it was because of something else the spirit adviser had done that Zeng Fei had been too late to clock on to.


    To understand, you had to begin with Serpentine Slap¡¯s description, where it was plain to see the Emperor had stolen the technique from a sect known as the Venomous Court.


    This by itself wasn¡¯t anything surprising given the spirit adviser¡¯s mention of the Emperor¡¯s fondness for acting like a highwayman and shaking down any cultivators unlucky enough to run into him, eventually progressing onto robbing the banks (sects) directly.


    While such conduct would have made him many enemies, it shouldn¡¯t have been enough to make the entire cultivation realm group up against him; stealing techniques was not an uncommon phenomenon to begin with, especially amongst rogue cultivators.


    The only reason stealing techniques wasn¡¯t more popular was: A, it created needless enemies; and B, doing so was more likely to worsen your combat prowess over the long term than improve them.


    This was because learning a technique to proficiency required you to put in substantial time and effort, rare resources too in a lot of cases. Hence learning many unrelated techniques that had little affinity with you nor each other was seen as spreading yourself thin; in actual combat, the people who did so almost always lost out against counterparts who¡¯d gone narrow and deep.


    The Emperor had gotten around this disadvantage by creating a Divine Art that acted both as a unit creator and a repository of knowledge to train his units with.


    No wonder, then, that the other cultivators had been so frightened of his potential; the longer he lived and the more techniques he stole, the more powerful his army of minions would grow, each of them specialised in different Dao Schools.


    In effect, the Heavenly Demon Emperor had transformed himself into the equivalent of an aircraft carrier in this world: a mobile sect that could park itself outside your doorstep and wage war at any time. With such capabilities, world domination was less of a pipe dream and more a matter of time as long as he picked off the opposition one by one.


    That¡¯s probably why, even after killing him, the ancient cultivators had gone further in destroying all records of him: to ensure that no one in the future would be inspired by him and come up with a similarly batshit cultivation technique.


    As for the spirit adviser¡¯s crime in all this, that was for saying that Zeng Fei wouldn¡¯t get in any trouble as long as he didn¡¯t start robbing cultivators willy-nilly like the Emperor had done.


    Even better, he wouldn¡¯t even have to as the Emperor had said his successor would inherit everything, which must include the stolen techniques as well: this must be what that library next to the ritual circle had been for.


    As to where those scrolls had disappeared off to, Zeng Fei¡¯s best guess was they¡¯d somehow fused with the Divine Art during the ritual; after all, how else could the System have gifted Pingu a suitable technique without already possessing the knowledge?


    Once you understood why the entire cultivation world had feared the Heavenly Demon Emperor (or more specifically, his created Divine Art) it became equally obvious that the spirit adviser¡¯s assurance that Zeng Fei would be fine as long he didn¡¯t start robbing people was ludicrously naive.


    After all, if the survivors of the final confrontation had hated the Emperor enough to scrub every record of him, what were the chances that they hadn¡¯t prepared for the eventuality of him returning, either through a second body or by passing on his will to a successor?


    In every story with Heavenly Demon Emperors, whenever they were struck down, there was nothing they liked to do more than to pretend they were in a cutscene: theatrically professing the futility of the heroes¡¯ actions and promising them that the baddies would rise again to take revenge before long, the whole shebang.


    All the evidence pointed towards this Emperor acting no different, especially when the sole demand he¡¯d made of his successor had been one intended to ensure his enemies would know he was the one responsible for siccing this mad-dog on them.


    There left no room for doubt: the Emperor¡¯s enemies were 100% prepared for round 2.


    It could be those same guys were alive even now - old powerhouses in the xianxia setting could live for literal millennia after all.


    But even if they weren¡¯t, they¡¯d most definitely set up some sort of agency or secret group to act as world protectors, just in case their arch-rival was playing the long game.


    This all went to say that Zeng Fei was royally fucked now: in his eagerness to slap sense into Dong Ju, he¡¯d summoned Pingu in front of countless disciples, foolishly believing the spirit adviser¡¯s words that it¡¯d be fine.


    It was too late to put a lid on this Pandora¡¯s box either seeing as rumours about novel techniques spread quicker than the speed of light.


    There was no point in regrets now - better he get himself strong enough to beat up the useless spirit adviser, and also to defend himself in case the Emperor¡¯s old enemies came knocking.


    I may be fucked, but I have the time to give myself a fighting chance at saving myself, Zeng Fei reassured himself.


    Unfortunately, this was only half correct.


    He was fucked; and it was too late, as he¡¯d discover by the morrow.

 Chapter 9: &#x1F57A;&#x1F427;&#x1F57A;

    Although Zeng Fei felt a desperate urgency to get powerful, he was comforted at least by the fact that the ways to go about this were straightforward.


    Given that he relied on Pingu for perhaps 90% of his current combat strength, it was a good thing that the System was handling the heavy lifting in Pingu¡¯s training.


    Out of the limited things Zeng Fei could do to help with this, some were better than others.


    One thing he could do was ask the penguin to practise Serpentine Slap during the downtime.


    This type of self-study would level up the skill over time, although it would also leave Zeng Fei perpetually drained of qi and, more importantly, was sub-optimal from a training perspective.


    Since Serpentine Slap was a martial technique, the most effective way to level it was by using it in combat, which would allow Pingu to gain insights against real-life opponents and result in rapid levelling of the technique. This had been established earlier on by Dong Ju who¡¯d kindly donated his face for demonstration purposes (truly a selfless hero, he was).


    And once the technique was levelled high enough, the Emperor¡¯s notes mentioned how this would unlock advanced techniques that Serpentine Slap had good synergy with, which altogether made this a clearly defined and unfailing route towards more power.


    That said, there were problems with speed-levelling the technique.


    For one, the notes mentioned that this technique originated from the Venomous Court, a poison-specialising sect, where it had been classed under the Dao School of the Dance.


    Unfortunately, Zeng Fei had no idea how he¡¯d go about acquiring poison, which was a large part of this technique and likely any that it had good synergy with.


    But even if that hadn¡¯t been an issue, the truth was that Zeng Fei didn¡¯t want to work with poisons in the first place because he feared they¡¯d be a bigger threat to Pingu than any opponent. After all, this was a penguin who had already refused to change his ways of putting random things in his mouth, certainly not the smartest chick in the colony¡­


    The other problem with this route lay in the whole dancing thing.


    Now, it wasn¡¯t that Zeng Fei was underestimating the Dao School of Dance whatsoever; he¡¯d read enough cultivation novels to grasp the genre¡¯s unspoken rule that even the most mundane actions and objects could become deadly in the hands (or feet) of an expert.


    Rather, the issue with the Dao School of Dance was that he struggled to see how it could be a match made in heaven for a penguin who struggled to waddle in a straight line.


    As supportive as Zeng Fei wanted to be, if he were to be brutally honest, the truth was that he could not see Pingu ever making it into the Happy Feet cast.


    His belief was supported by Pingu¡¯s stats, which showed Pingu had an abysmal 3 Agility and 2 Dexterity once you removed the demon core¡¯s stat bonuses.


    In light of this, it seemed far more sensible for the penguin to focus on his true strengths, which incidentally lay within Strength at 8 and Constitution at 6.


    Pingu was a large lad who, although in possession of two left feet, had the physique to be a top-tier brawler, as had been shown when he¡¯d taken the Green-horned Python¡¯s hit and returned superior fire without blinking, or from how he¡¯d ripped Dong Ju¡¯s paper-tiger style apart.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Therefore, Zeng Fei felt the best way to buff Pingu would be to find a demon core and technique that complemented his brawler/champion fighting style.


    Zeng Fei didn¡¯t have any particular beasts in mind for this, mainly because the resultant technique, unlike the stats, did not appear to perfectly fit the beast it had come from.


    E.g. the Green-horned Python had been a brawler if anything given it was a large constrictor snake, yet the resultant technique had been a low damage one suited for venomous snakes, purely as a result of the serpentine essence in its demon core.


    Since it was evening and Zeng Fei was mentally fatigued by the day¡¯s events, he decided to hold off until tomorrow to head back over to the Crooked Mountain to grind out the beasts there for more cores.


    For the remainder of the day, he hoped to finally get around to cultivation, but he was unable to get a quiet moment to meditate as a result of the constant stream of people knocking on his door.


    Many of these people were unknown to him, inviting him out for tea to introduce themselves, and were best seen as rats jumping from one sinking ship to the next now that he was the new hot thing. And although he ignored their calls for him, it was never long until the next one came along to try their luck, safe in the knowledge they had nothing to lose.


    Others who visited were the original¡¯s supposed ¡®friends¡¯ coming out of the woodwork to congratulate him on the win and saying that they should celebrate together.


    There was ironic humour in that these were the same people who¡¯d been least present when the original had needed them the most, yet were all available to celebrate now that they were needed the least.


    It went without saying that every single one of them had unfaultable reasoning as to why they¡¯d been out of touch, excuses ranging from the logical - such as that they¡¯d been outside the sect on a mission - to the emotional, which comprised everything that tugged on the heartstrings.


    Zeng Fei had no interest, however, in socialising with people who were so evidently disloyal and self-interested; since the original¡¯s connections to them had been tenuous at best, he was more than happy to use this as an opportunity to cut those connections off for good.


    After being pointedly ignored, some of his ¡®friends¡¯ threw away their facades and cursed him in earshot; some tried to explain themselves further before giving up and claiming they¡¯d return later; and some simply walked away without another word uttered.


    Although these people had wasted his evening away, he was glad to see they¡¯d received his message loud and clear and wouldn¡¯t try to disturb him in the future.


    That evening, he also tried to exploit the system, doing everything he could think of to access its library of techniques and trick it into giving him a super cool and overpowered technique, alas to no success.


    After a night of terrible sleep on that rough-hewn bed, the next day could not have come any sooner, though it took Zeng Fei a good while to ready himself in his grouchy and tired state.


    It was mid-morning by the time he departed for the Crooked Mountain.


    He was recognised and greeted by many on the way, aggressively so in some instances, though they all stopped on seeing his stony attitude and let him proceed.


    His demeanour of cold indifference became shattered in a single stroke, however, several minutes after leaving his hut.


    A blaring shout came from behind and caused him to flinch.


    ¡°Zeng Fei, I demand you stop at once!¡±


    It wasn¡¯t the command itself that stopped Zeng Fei but the intensity behind it, amplified by qi so that it shook him to his core.


    Alarmed, he spun around.


    A score steps away stood a grown man in the orange robes that all Outer Sect Disciples wore, his eyes blazing balefully.


    Wait, no, not a man - Zeng Fei recognised him through the original¡¯s memories: this was actually a boy who¡¯d entered the sect at the same time as him, one of the leading members of his cohort, and without a doubt the person he least wanted to run into right now.


    Dong Fu shared the likeness of his younger brother, only with those jock-like features placed on a meathead¡¯s body; where Dong Ju had looked like a handsome leading man in a soap opera, his older brother appeared brutish and far more dangerous, embodying the barrel-chested and grotesquely muscular thug that served as any good villain¡¯s right-hand man.


    Although Zeng Fei couldn¡¯t perceive Dong Fu¡¯s present cultivation realm, news had gone around a few months prior that he¡¯d reached the seventh layer of Qi Refining. Worse still, Dong Fu been fighting above his realm for several years now.


    On watching Zeng Fei¡¯s expression crumble, Dong Fu grinned viciously, his intentions bare to see.