1: Chapter 1 You've Come Just in Time

Phew!

Blood.

It slid down his arm, forming a droplet at his fingertip before being torn apart by the whistling wind.

Gu Sheng didn't have time to care.

He suppressed his breathing, shrinking into the shadows of the mountain path, his back pressed tight against the cold rock wall. A hundred meters away, three streaks of sword light were circling the spot where he had just been, like three vultures sniffing out the scent of blood.

"He ran fast."

"What's the panic? Looking at him, he's only at the Qi Refinement Stage. Can he actually fly away?"

"He used to put on such an act; I thought he was some kind of expert."

"Don't be so sure. He is the Peak Master's personal Disciple, after all. What if he's hiding some trump card..."

"Trump card?" The speaker laughed, his voice carrying undisguised contempt. "Go ask around. That trash has been in the sect for eight years; how many times has he gone down the mountain? How many times has he fought? When that old fogey of Tianxuan Peak was alive, he could protect him. Now that the old fogey is dead, what right does he have to occupy a whole peak?"

"Exactly. Among the nine peaks of the Piaomiao Holy Land, the Spiritual Qi concentration of Tianxuan Peak ranks in the top three. A little brat at the Qi Refinement Stage like him—"

"Enough." The leader interrupted them. "Stop talking nonsense and search. I want to see a person if he's alive or a corpse if he's dead. Senior Brother Sun said that as long as we take him away today, it doesn't matter if he's alive or dead."

The sword lights dispersed, sweeping off in three directions.

Gu Sheng remained motionless against the rock wall. Only when the last glimmer of sword light vanished from his sight did he slowly let out a breath.

He looked down at his left arm.

A section of his sleeve had been sliced off, revealing a two-inch-long wound on his skin. He had grazed it while dodging the first sword strike earlier. It wasn't deep, but it kept seeping blood, soaking half of his sleeve.

It hurt.

But more irritating than the pain was the fact that he, a dignified transmigrator with twenty-eight years of life experience and social wisdom from his previous life, had been in this world for eighteen years and hadn't been able to activate a single Golden Finger.

No System. No old man in a ring. No Legacy memories. Not even a space he could talk to.

He was just an ordinary transmigrator who had been ordinarily picked up and brought to the mountain, and had ordinarily spent eight years as an ordinary Disciple.

The only special treatment he received was that his Master had passed the position of Peak Master of Tianxuan Peak to him before dying.

One peak. Thirty-six rooms. Seventeen mu of spiritual fields. And three ancient herbs said to be three thousand years old.

Then, before the first seven days of his Master's funeral were even over, people began coveting these things.

"Senior Brother Sun..." Gu Sheng chewed over the name in his mind.

Sun Yan, a True Disciple of Lingxu Peak at the Middle Stage of the Golden Core. When his Master was alive, this person would always come to Tianxuan Peak with a face full of smiles, calling out "Junior Martial Uncle" more affectionately than anyone. As soon as his Master closed his eyes, this "Junior Martial Uncle" became the first person to jump out and question the "legality of the Peak Master's succession."

But that was three years ago.

Three years ago, the Peak Master of Tianxuan Peak, Perfected Cloud, passed away, and the position of Peak Master was passed to his only Disciple—a child who was said to be only eight years old when he entered the sect.

From then on, Tianxuan Peak became a "hidden peak."

The peak gates were tightly shut, the Formation was active year-round, and except for the first day of every month when a servant brought supplies up the mountain, no one entered or left.

That new Peak Master had gone down the mountain so few times in three years that they could be counted on one hand.

Some said he was in seclusion, trying to break through to the Golden Core.

Some said his Aptitude was dull, and he was still lingering at the Qi Refinement Stage, too ashamed to see anyone.

Others said—he was long dead, and Tianxuan Peak was nothing but an empty peak.

There were all sorts of theories, but none were confirmed.

Because no one could enter Tianxuan Peak.

That young Peak Master never showed his face.

Although the voices of doubt rose and fell, no one ever dared to test him; after all, his status as Peak Master was right there.

As long as he didn't leave the boundaries of Tianxuan Peak, the other party wouldn't dare to make a move openly. After all, he was still the Peak Master in name. Publicly killing a Peak Master would be a slap to the Holy Land's face.

However, just today, Gu Sheng had wanted to take a walk in the back mountains, as staying on the peak all day was making him grow moldy. He hadn't expected them to have set an ambush long ago. Not long after Gu Sheng stepped out of Tianxuan Peak, the pursuit began.

Gu Sheng took a deep breath and stood up, supporting himself against the rock wall.

He had to move. Those three were searching separately and would find this place before long. He had to find a more hidden—

Before the thought could finish, the sound of breaking wind suddenly came from behind him.

Gu Sheng instinctively rolled to the side.

A streak of sword light brushed past his ear, slicing off a few strands of hair and nailing itself into the rock wall, causing a spray of crushed stone.

"Oh."

A man in black walked out from the corner of the mountain path, leisurely retracting his Flying Sword.

"You really were hiding here?"

Gu Sheng didn't speak; he stood up and took two steps back.

The man in black looked at him, his gaze sweeping from his bleeding arm to his pale face, and then he smiled.

"Peak Master Gu?" He emphasized the last two words heavily, as if savoring an interesting dish. "This is it?"

Gu Sheng remained silent.

The man in black took a step forward.

Gu Sheng took another step back.

"Stop backing up," the man in black said. "Behind you is a cliff."

"Stop backing up," the man in black said. "Behind you is a cliff."

Gu Sheng stopped. Crushed stones tumbled down behind his heels.

The cliff was over a hundred zhang high. Below was the turbulent Heishui River. The probability of surviving a fall was less than ten percent.

The man in black held his sword. The tip of the sword dragged on the ground, carving a white mark and producing a piercing scraping sound.

"How many Spirit Stones did Sun Yan give you?" Gu Sheng asked.

The man in black stopped and tilted his head slightly.

"Peak Master Gu must be joking. I take people's money to eliminate their troubles.

"Dead people don't need to know so much."

Sword Qi suddenly erupted. The tip of the sword pierced straight toward Gu Sheng's throat.

At this very instant, a faint blue light screen suddenly popped up in Gu Sheng's mind.

[great thousand creation system activated.]

[Detected that the host's life is in critical danger. Issuing Newbie Gift Pack.]

[Open it?]

The light screen floated in front of his retina, blocking the sword tip the man in black was thrusting forward.

Gu Sheng's thoughts stalled for half a second at this moment.

Eight years. A full eight years.

The System was two thousand nine hundred and twenty days late.

"Open," he issued the command in his mind.

[Newbie Gift Pack opened.]

[Obtained: Character Gacha Ten-Pull Ticket ×1.]

[Obtained: Destiny Gacha Ten-Pull Ticket ×1.]

[Current Spirit Stone balance: 0. Destiny Point balance: 0.]

[Use the Character Gacha Ten-Pull Ticket immediately?]

The man in black's sword tip was only 0.01 centimeters away from Gu Sheng's throat. The sword wind cut the surface of his neck, and beads of blood seeped out.

"Pull."

[Consumed Character Gacha Ten-Pull Ticket ×1.]

Ten pillars of light instantly erupted from the faint blue light screen.

Nine white lights.

One blinding light mixed with purple and gold.

[Obtained: Qi Refinement Stage Handyman ×9]

[Obtained: Void Refinement Stage Powerhouse (Phantom State, Duration: 30 minutes)]

The text on the panel scrolled rapidly.

[Summon character cards immediately?]

"Summon."

The man in black's wrist exerted force, the sword blade cutting into the flesh of Gu Sheng's neck.

To kill a piece of trash with no cultivation, he didn't even need to use spiritual power.

The task was too easy.

The reward given by that person from Lingxu Peak was enough for him to squander for ten years.

The blade was about to sever the trachea.

A massive pressure descended upon this cliff without any warning.

The air became viscous. Gravity increased hundreds or thousands of times at this moment.

The man in black's movements were frozen mid-air.

His bones and muscles completely lost their control.

"Crack."

The Hundred-Refined Steel Flying Sword in the man's hand began to shatter from the tip, inch by inch, turning into fine powder.

A tall phantom slowly emerged from behind Gu Sheng.

The phantom was dressed in coarse hemp clothes, with a towering figure and long hair falling over his shoulders.

No movement, no spiritual power fluctuations.

Just by standing there, the surrounding space underwent a visible distortion.

"You rats."

The phantom spoke. The sound waves turned into physical ripples, spreading outward.

"How dare you harm my Young Master."