In a nameless mountain, a figure of about sixteen years old lay unconscious on the ground. His head ached with many sharp pains. It was a young boy. After a long moment, the boy opened his eyes.
He was breathing heavily.
"Huhh… Huh."
The boy looked around at his surroundings. He thought, "Where am I? Am I dead and this is the afterlife?"
A sharp, intense pain flared in his head.
He murmured, "I am… I am Luo Zheng. My clan threw me out because I had no talent in cultivation. After three years of struggling, when I failed to breakthrough Body Tempering from the 3rd layer to the 4th layer, I decided to steal a body tempering pill. But when I stole it, some cultivator chased after me and tried to kill me. In the end I jumped from the cliff and died."
He blinked slowly, the memory feeling like someone else's.
"This is the memory of this body's original owner," he told himself. "Has heaven given me another chance? I have been reincarnated into a trash body. Huh… I don't know if this is a blessing or a curse. I remember I was in a hospital, taking my last breath because of old age. I was already a ninety-year-old man on Earth. Now I have a young body of sixteen years."
After a few moments, he understood his situation. Luo Zheng thought, "As a reincarnated person in another world, shouldn't I get some kind of system?"
He shouted, "System, where are you? System?"
He waited. Five minutes passed with nothing happening. Luo Zheng frowned. "When I was young I read novels and clearly remembered that when a person got reincarnated, they always got a system. But why didn't I get one? Huh… I'll have to survive in this world without a system. I must check what I have."
He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a pouch. It was a silver-blue pouch with metallic patterns. He slipped his hand inside. The space within felt much larger than it looked — it was twenty times the size of the pouch's outer shell.
Luo Zheng thought, "According to that guy's memory, this is the lowest rank bag in this world." He pulled out a few items: a pill, two technique books, and some spirit stones.
He murmured, "I only have these three things to survive in this world." His gaze shifted to the pill. It was none other than a Body Tempering pill. Luo Zheng took it and swallowed it. Instantly, a terrible heat burned through his body. He thought, "Ahh. It's too hot."
He roared like a beast for several seconds as pain shook him. The heat swept through his bones. In the end, a dark warmth settled inside him. Luo Zheng breathed shallowly, then said, "It's finished. I have successfully broken through to the 4th stage of Body Tempering." He concentrated on his surroundings. "I can feel the spiritual energy around me."
His eyes rested on the two books. One was the Plum Strike martial art, the lowest rank. The other was a Qi cultivation technique, useless until Luo Zheng reached Body Tempering 7th stage.
He thought, "These two are trash."
Luo Zheng inspected the spirit stones. "Twenty-four stones in total," he counted. "They can support me for twelve days. That's enough. I don't need spirit stones at this early phase of cultivation." He glanced again at his two technique books. "Both are useless now."
He reminded himself, "As a reincarnated man from Earth, my start was not like the chosen one in the novels. But no problem. I have Earth memories that will at least save me from the early scams and tricks that young boys face."
Far away, in the Holy Sect
"Sect Master Feng, are you sure we will successfully reach Saint King Stage with this technique?" a disciple asked. "We have to sacrifice one hundred 7th stage cultivators, and each of them must be from a different path — twenty percent fire, twenty percent water, twenty percent earth, twenty percent metal, twenty percent wood. We must trick many cultivators to fulfill this number."
Back on the nameless mountain,
Luo Zheng walked and surveyed the nearby area. He had fallen from a cliff and now tried to find a way out of his pit. The steep stone walls gave him no path. He needed to climb, so he searched for the most suitable place. Suddenly his gaze fixed on a crack in the stone wall where a faint light leaked through. He placed his hand on the stone beside the crack. A hidden formation was triggered.
The stone creaked wildly open, revealing an artifact hidden within. He inspected it carefully. It was a pendant. Luo Zheng's eyes brightened. He thought, "Am I going to get an inheritance of a great expert? Like the chosen ones in every novel?"
Curiosity made him reach forward. He touched the pendant.
The pendant was yellow with metallic patterns. A silver dragon was printed on it. The moment Luo Zheng touched it, spiritual energy poured out and formed into a human-shaped figure.
The figure's gaze fixed on Luo Zheng. He said, "Li Tianchen is my name. You have found my true inheritance. I was a 7th stage cultivator in my life, but I failed to breakthrough to 7th stage, 3rd order, and left my inheritance here."
Luo Zheng's excitement rose, but it did not last long. The figure continued, and his words cooled Luo Zheng's heart. "I am a simple cultivator of the Cloud Path. In my true inheritance you will gain my Cloud Path special technique and my Cloud Path Qi refining technique. I have three special techniques in the Cloud Path.
1. Summoning type — Cloud Summoning and Rain Manifestation Art. With this art I summoned clouds and made rain in desert areas. This was my main source of cultivation resources. No one could control clouds until they reached Saint Stage. But with my special technique, you can do it.
2. Attack type — Dark Cloud Summon Lightning Flash. With this I summoned dark clouds and used thunder attributes to attack my enemies.
3. Defense type — Storm of Cloud Ring Structure. With this I controlled clouds to form a ring defense border. Inside the cloud ring, heavy storms blocked attacks. It combined wind attributes as well."
To be continued