"You conniving old bastard—you lied to me!"
"You said the Ethereal Sect was the number one sect in all of Snow Land Domain. Turns out I'm the only disciple! One! Just me!"
"And look at this place—rotting wood, crumbling walls, and you still had the nerve to call yourself an immortal?"
"The worst part? You tricked me into swearing a Dao Heart Oath. Never let the Ethereal Sect's legacy die. Do you have any idea what you've cost me?"
"I was this close to joining the Moon-Seizing Sect. Do you have any idea how many fairies are in that place?!"
"I curse you, old man. May you wander the void for all eternity and never find rebirth."
"You said I had heaven-defying talent. You said I'd reach the Emperor Realm one day. And you used that to scam me!"
"I'm a transmigrator from New York City, and I got played by a senile old hermit. You're worse than Wall Street."
At the desolate mountain that dared to call itself the Ethereal Sect, a young man stood before a crumbling tombstone and let it all out.
His name was Lu Chen. Transmigrator. Former New Yorker. Current sect master of absolutely nothing.
He'd been in this world for three years, and had only just broken through to Qi Condensation Stage 1—yesterday, and only because he'd swallowed the last spirit herb Cang Xuan had left behind.
When Lu Chen first arrived, he hadn't even had time to catch his breath before Cang Xuan—the 299th Sect Master of the Ethereal Sect—had swept in with a pitch.
Top sect in all of Snow Land Domain. Beautiful women everywhere. You'll be my direct disciple.
Lu Chen hadn't asked a single question. He'd followed the old man back without a second thought.
What Cang Xuan hadn't mentioned: "top sect" meant only sect, "beautiful women" were entirely hypothetical, and he had absolutely no intention of letting a Five-Element Root cultivator walk away. Not when disciples were this scarce.
So he'd talked Lu Chen into swearing an oath. A real one.
"Heaven above, I, Lu Chen, willingly join the Ethereal Sect and will never betray it! I will not leave until I reach Qi Condensation Stage 1—or may lightning strike me down!"
A Five-Element Root was a guaranteed washout by any standard. But it was better than an empty sect.
That night, Lu Chen had taken one look at the dilapidated mountain and bolted.
He made it exactly ten steps past the sect boundary before the sky turned black, thunder split the air, and lightning found him with terrifying precision.
He hit the ground. Cang Xuan peeled him off it.
Ten days of recovery later, he tried again. The lightning was worse. Twenty days to recover.
After the third attempt left him twitching in a ditch, Lu Chen finally accepted his fate. The oath was real. This world was not joking around.
Back in New York, I swore a hundred oaths and not one of them ever came true. Why does it work HERE?
He'd gritted his teeth and stayed. Cultivated. Endured years of grinding—working himself half to death on a dead mountain with no resources, no guidance, and no end in sight.
Over half a year just to sense a single wisp of Qi.
Cang Xuan had grinned at that and said, "Heaven-defying talent. The Emperor Realm awaits you, boy."
Three days later, the old man passed away peacefully. Smiling, apparently.
Lu Chen became the 300th Sect Master of the Ethereal Sect—sole member, sole heir, and the most reluctant sect leader in the history of Snow Land Domain.
Three years later, standing at that grave with Qi Condensation Stage 1 finally under his belt, he'd run out of things to curse.
He exhaled slowly.
"Old man. I'm leaving. Don't know when I'll be back."
A pause.
"...I won't let the Ethereal Sect die. When the time comes, I'll do exactly what you did—lie through my teeth, find some poor fool with decent roots, and drag him back kicking and screaming."
He bowed three times to the grave. Low and genuine.
Then turned, and walked down the mountain without looking back.
Cang Xuan had left him three things in a storage pouch.
The Ethereal Jue. The Ethereal Sword Art. And one gleaming longsword.
Technically four things, if you counted the spirit herb—but Lu Chen had eaten that already.
The names sounded impressive. The contents, not so much.
The Ethereal Jue capped out at Stage 3 of Qi Condensation. The Ethereal Sword Art contained exactly three techniques, all of which Lu Chen had long since drilled into muscle memory. There was nothing left to learn here, and nowhere left to grow.
He reached the sect boundary and stopped.
This was the spot. The exact stretch of ground where lightning had personally greeted him, more times than he cared to count—even after Cang Xuan died, the oath had kept its teeth.
Lu Chen looked up at the open sky.
Took a breath.
Stepped forward.
Nothing happened.
The sky stayed clear. The air stayed still. Not a single cloud in sight.
"Ha."
Then louder: "HA—HAHAHA—"
And then Lu Chen was laughing so hard his eyes were wet, standing alone at the foot of an abandoned mountain, finally, finally free. The laugh turned ragged somewhere in the middle, half relief and half something he wasn't going to think about too hard.
Three years. He'd made it.
[DING! Host has broken through to Qi Condensation Stage 1. System initializing…]
The voice hit him like cold water to the face.
Lu Chen went completely still.
For three years, he had called out to whatever system was supposed to exist in a transmigrator's life. Every trigger phrase he could think of. Every variation. He'd begged, demanded, and eventually stopped trying altogether.
And now, at the foot of the mountain he'd finally escaped, it spoke.
His eyes went wide.
I have a system. The realization landed like a second lightning strike. I actually have one.
[System initialization complete. Host may now view status.]
A panel shimmered into existence before him.
[ Host: Lu Chen ]
[ Cultivation: Qi Condensation Stage 1 — 1/100 ]
[ Lifespan: 20/81 ]
[ Talent: Five-Element Root ]
[ Luck: 3 ]
[ Skills: None ]
[ Special Abilities: None ]
Twenty years of lifespan remaining. Guaranteed washout talent. Zero skills.
Exactly as bleak as expected.
He smiled anyway. With a system, things could only go up.
"What kind of system are you?"
"Master, I am the Bandit Plunder System. Plunder the heavens, plunder the earth, plunder all living things—everything can be taken."
Lu Chen's eyes lit up. Robbery had always been the most reliable path to wealth since ancient times. This was perfect.
"System, daily check-in reward."
"Master, this system does not have that function."
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