1: Outrageous! I start with a max-level Emperor, and you expect me to play defensively?

Eastern Wasteland, Fallen Mountain Range.

Inside the Hidden God Sect's main hall, which was drafty on all four sides, Li Daoxuan stared at the cracked bronze mirror in front of him, having sighed for a full hour.

The person in the mirror had sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes, handsome enough to not seem like a Mortal. Clad in white robes whiter than snow, even sitting amidst this pile of junk, he exuded an otherworldly aura like a celestial being who had descended to the Mortal world.

"What a sin."

Li Daoxuan clutched his face in pain, his fingers trembling slightly.

"Transmigration is fine, but why do I start as a Peak Emperor? Isn't this just pushing me into a pit of fire?"

If any Cultivators outside heard this, they would likely drown him with their spit. Cultivators go against the Heavenly Dao; who doesn't dream of reaching the pinnacle? But Li Daoxuan was different.

He was a transmigrator, and a veteran reader who had devoured millions of "dark and cruel" web novels.

In his understanding, what kind of place was the Xuanhuan world?

It was a dark forest where people were killed without blinking, and bones were devoured without a trace!

You beat the small one, the old one comes; you beat the old one, the ancestor comes. Any dog on the roadside might carry a blood feud, and a seemingly kind old man might have two extreme dao imperial weapons hidden in his pants pocket.

In such a high-risk world, the iron rule was that the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.

"System, open the panel." Li Daoxuan muttered in his heart, harboring a sliver of Luck, hoping he had misread it yesterday.

A light blue light screen, visible only to him, instantly popped up.

【 Host: Li Daoxuan 】

【 Identity: Ninth Sect Master of the Hidden God Sect 】

【 Cultivation: Emperor Realm (Peak) 】

【 Cultivation Technique: Supreme Scripture of Forgetfulness (Perfection), Chaos Divine Grinding Meditation (Perfection)... 】

【 Physique: Immaculate Immortal Body 】

【 Current Task: Recruit a Disciple (0/1) 】

Li Daoxuan looked at the glaring words "Emperor Realm," feeling his blood pressure skyrocketing.

"Too high, it's really too high."

He paced anxiously in the hall, the rotten floorboards beneath his feet letting out creaking, miserable groans.

"What is an Emperor? That's a target for the world! A thorn in the side of the Heavenly Dao! According to the tropes, every few tens of thousands of years, there's some Dark Turmoil or source of weirdness coming to harvest Emperors. I just transmigrated, haven't enjoyed a few days of retirement life, and now I have to go fill the pit?"

No, absolutely not.

Li Daoxuan stopped abruptly, his gaze becoming incomparably firm.

Must hide!

As long as I don't expose my cultivation, as long as I disguise myself as a harmless ant, those big shots won't notice me.

To implement this policy, he had racked his brains over the past two days.

First, he used his Emperor-level Divine Ability to forcefully transform the once magnificent Hidden God Sect main hall into its current war-torn style.

The pillars were rotten, the tiles were leaking, and even the stone lions at the entrance had half their heads shaved off by him; it looked impoverished.

Secondly, he placed a Seal on himself.

Li Daoxuan took a deep breath, and the vast, star-sea-like Spiritual Qi within his body instantly converged until it was exhausted. At this moment, from the outside, he looked like a weakling who had just begun Qi Refining, or perhaps even worse than a Mortal.

"Phew... that feels a bit safer."

After doing all this, Li Daoxuan sat back down on the armchair that was missing a leg, picked up the chipped teacup beside him, and took a sip of plain water.

There was no poison in the water; he had scanned it eight hundred times with his Divine Sense.

"Xiao Chen." He put down the teacup, trying his best to make his voice sound like a worldly-inexperienced, down-and-out Sect Master.

Outside the main hall, a youth wearing coarse cloth clothes walked in quickly.

The youth was about sixteen or seventeen years old, with delicate features, but his brows were always locked with an inseparable sorrow. He was holding a bald broom, clearly having been sweeping the leaf-covered square just now.

This was the only "member" of the Hidden God Sect; calling him a Disciple was actually just a handyman.

"Sect Master, did you call me?" Xiao Chen put down the broom and bowed respectfully.

Li Daoxuan looked at this cheap Disciple, feeling a sigh in his heart.

This child was also a miserable person. He heard he was originally a Genius of some Family, but later his cultivation regressed and he became a Trash, was marginalized by the Family, and finally drifted to this godforsaken Fallen Mountain Range, where he was taken in by the original owner.

This sounded like a full-blown protagonist template!

What does a protagonist mean? It means trouble! It means explosions wherever they go!

Li Daoxuan cleared his throat, his expression becoming serious: "Xiao Chen, you have been in my Hidden God Sect for three years, right?"

"Yes, I will never forget the Sect Master's kindness in taking me in." Xiao Chen lowered his head, his voice a bit hoarse.

"Hmm, since you are a Disciple of my Sect, there are some rules I must emphasize repeatedly."

Li Daoxuan tapped the table, making a thumping sound.

"Recite the first rule of the Hidden God Sect's survival."

Xiao Chen immediately straightened his back and recited proficiently: "Be low-key, don't compete for anything. If you encounter an Opportunity, take a detour; if you encounter an enemy, pretend to be dead."

"Very good." Li Daoxuan nodded with satisfaction. "What about the second rule?"

"In this world, people stronger than us are as numerous as carp crossing the river. Qi Refining stages are as common as dogs, and Foundation Establishment is everywhere. We are just a ninth-rate Sect; we can't afford to provoke anyone. If someone spits on our face, we must wait for it to dry before wiping it off, and then ask them if they are thirsty."

As Xiao Chen recited, his fists clenched involuntarily, his nails digging into his flesh.

For a once hot-blooded youth, these "Way of Hiding" rules were simply a torture. But he knew the Sect Master was doing it for survival. The Hidden God Sect was too weak, so weak that even the hunters down the mountain could bully them.

Li Daoxuan keenly sensed the Disciple's emotional fluctuations.

His heart skipped a beat: Oh no, this kid isn't getting hot-blooded and wanting to cause trouble, is he?

"Xiao Chen!" Li Daoxuan suddenly raised his voice, his tone severe, "Unclench your fists!"

Xiao Chen trembled and released his hands: "Sect Master..."

"Do you feel stifled? Do you think I, your Sect Master, am spineless?" Li Daoxuan stood up, walked to Xiao Chen, and spoke earnestly.

"Disciple wouldn't dare."

"What is there not to dare? Even I think I am spineless." Li Daoxuan sighed and patted Xiao Chen's shoulder, "But Disciple, only by living can you have output. Only by living can you see tomorrow's sun. Those who shout 'My fate is up to me, not the Heavens' have grass growing three feet high on their graves."

Li Daoxuan pointed at the gray sky outside the main hall.

"Look at this sky, how dark it is. Look at this ground, how slippery it is. Outside is full of schemers. You, a little newbie in the Qi Refinement Stage, are just sending experience points to others if you go out."

"From today on, without my permission, you are absolutely not allowed to step out of the mountain gate! And even less allowed to go out and cause trouble! If someone attacks us..."

Li Daoxuan paused and gritted his teeth: "We will crawl out through the dog hole in the back mountain and run away! Do you understand?"

Xiao Chen looked at this Sect Master who was peerlessly handsome but cautious to the extreme, his heart filled with mixed feelings.

He wanted to retort, wanted to say that a man in this world should carry a three-foot sword to achieve peerless feats, but thinking of his current meager cultivation, it finally turned into a long sigh.

"Disciple... understands."

"Good if you understand. Go, clear the weeds in the back mountain, remember not to use Spiritual Qi, it's too flashy, use your hands to pull them." Li Daoxuan waved his hand.

Xiao Chen picked up the broom and turned to leave, his back looking exceptionally desolate.

Watching the Disciple leave, Li Daoxuan slumped back into his chair and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Close call, finally suppressed this kid's fire. As long as he doesn't cause trouble, I can safely hide in this dump until the end of time."

Li Daoxuan thought his plan was perfect.

This was the most remote corner of the Eastern Wasteland, with thin Spiritual Qi and no birds landing. Who would think a Great Emperor was hiding here?

Who would be bored enough to attack a Sect with only two dilapidated grass huts?

"This is the true meaning of hiding in the city, the highest Realm of The Way of Hiding."

Li Daoxuan crossed his legs and hummed an unknown tune, his mood gradually becoming pleasant. He was even thinking about whether to open two plots of land in the back mountain to grow green onions and garlic to live a pastoral life.

However.

Fate seems to always like to play jokes on people at this time.

Just as Li Daoxuan was planning his wonderful retirement life, the System that had been playing dead for a long time in his mind suddenly issued a crisp prompt.

【 Ding! 】

The sound wasn't loud, but to Li Daoxuan, it sounded like a thunderclap. He was so scared he almost fell off his chair, and the teacup in his hand fell to the ground with a "clatter" and shattered.

"What was that? System, are you resurrecting from the dead?"

The mechanical, icy electronic voice echoed in the main hall without any emotion:

【 Detected that the host has a Disciple with the required high Luck: Xiao Chen. 】

【 System judgment: This Disciple carries the dual protagonist templates of "Broken Engagement" and "Trash," and his Luck value is off the charts. 】

【 The Ten Thousand Times Return System for Teaching Disciples is officially activated! 】

Li Daoxuan was stunned, his mouth open wide enough to fit an egg.

What the hell?

Ten thousand times return?

Before he could react, the System's voice sounded again:

【 Newbie task released: Since you have such a perfect Disciple, how can you let him gather dust? Host, please immediately bestow an Opportunity upon the Disciple to help him regain his confidence. 】

【 Reward: According to the preciousness of the item bestowed by the host, the System will perform a random multiplier critical return (up to ten thousand times). 】

Li Daoxuan's mouth twitched frantically, pointing at the air and cursing: "System, are you sick? I just spent half a day getting him to learn how to be a tortoise, and now you want me to give him an Opportunity?"

The System remained silent, as if saying: Do it or not, I don't care.

Li Daoxuan took a deep breath, trying to calm his mood.

He looked at the broken teacup on the ground, then at Xiao Chen's lonely back outside the door.

A bold idea suddenly popped into his mind.

Since the System says "bestow" can "return," if I give him some Trash, can it also turn waste into treasure?

Not only do I not have to expose my assets, but I can also fleece the System, and incidentally soothe my Disciple...

"Xiao Chen! Come back!"

Li Daoxuan shouted at the door, "Master suddenly remembered there is a 'peerless treasure' I forgot to pass on to you!"