Chapter Text
The day Shen Yuan transmigrated, it was raining.
Not a poetic, misty drizzle, but a chaotic, soul-drenching storm, the kind that turned dirt paths into mud rivers and made even the most stalwart travelers consider turning back.
Shen Yuan, however, had no such luxury. Not when he woke up in the body of a scrawny twelve-year-old with bruises on his ribs, a stomach growling with hunger, and a sharp, stabbing pain in his left ankle. And most of all, not when a mechanical voice decided to scream into his brain like an overly enthusiastic game announcer.
❝ Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations! Important things must be said three times. ❞ ❝ Host has successfully transmigrated into Proud Immortal Demon Way! System initializing... ❞ ❝ Current host: Shen Yuan. Body condition: malnourished, injured, no cultivation base. Identity: unnamed background character. ❞ ❝ Task: SURVIVE. Reward: 50 B points. ❞
“...Oh, hell no.”
Shen Yuan had never been a peak performer in the real world. He spent more time on forums flaming novels than studying or socializing. Proud Immortal Demon Way had been his guilty pleasure and his rage outlet, a beautiful, trashy mess he loved to hate. Now, it had become his reality. Or worse: he was a nameless background nobody in it.
That first year was rough. Without a family name, faction, or golden thigh to cling to, Shen Yuan had to work for everything. The System’s quests helped, low-effort tasks that gave him small B point rewards, but it also had a very annoying personality.
For the next couple of years, Shen Yuan wandered. He completed minor quests from the System: catching wild beasts, helping villagers, protecting travelers from low-grade demons. Each completed task gave him B Points, which he used in the System Store to buy low-tier cultivation manuals, pills, and even a sword.❞
❝ Task: Harvest 10 Cloud-Bursting Flowers. Reward: Beginner Cultivation Manual. ❞
❝ Host must improve survivability. Please stop attempting to sell flowers instead of cultivating. ❞
❝ Reminder: You are in a cultivation novel. It’s kill or be killed, not plant or be planted. ❞
By the time he was eighteen, Shen Yuan had painstakingly worked his way up to the early Foundation Establishment stage. He'd scrounged B points to buy healing potions, cultivated in abandoned forests, and traveled under false names. Life wasn’t glorious, but it was peaceful.
And then he showed up.
It started with a flash of sword light cutting through the trees as Shen Yuan foraged for spirit mushrooms. Before he could move, someone slammed into him like a divine hammer. One moment he was upright, the next he was upside down, literally, slung over the shoulder of a cultivator with the social skills of a thunderbolt.
“I’ve finally found you,” the man said gruffly.
Shen Yuan squirmed. “What the hell, put me down! I’m not a sack of potatoes!”
“You’re Shen Qingqiu,” the man growled. “Don’t play dumb.”
“What?! Who the hell is Shen Qingqiu?! I’m just a rogue cultivator! You’ve got the wrong guy!”
“You look like him. You sound like him. You cultivate like him. You’re coming with me.”
Hey! I’m no–t! You can’t just–!”
”People stared. No one intervened. Shen Yuan, flailing, shouted, “Put me down! This is not the protagonist experience!”
The System dinged cheerfully:
❝Emergency Quest Activated: Convince Liu Qingge You're Not Shen Qingqiu!❞ ❝Warning: Failure may result in being inducted into Qing Jing Peak!❞
❝ Reward: 300 B points. ❞
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Shen Yuan muttered under his breath.
❝ The System does not feel joy. The System is a professional. ❞
The kidnapper introduced himself, very briefly, as Liu Qingge, the Peak Lord of Bai Zhan Peak.
“That’s impossible,” Shen Yuan muttered as they set up camp one night. “Liu Qingge should be... well, taller. Scarier. More terrifying.”
“I can hear you,” Liu Qingge said flatly, glaring from across the fire.
“Good. Maybe then you’ll realize I’m not who you think I am!”
Liu Qingge tossed a spirit beast carcass onto the fire with one arm. “You’re just better at lying now. That doesn’t change who you are.”
“I’m not Shen Qingqiu! I don’t even know how to fold my laundry, let alone be a Peak Lord!”
“You’re just pretending to be dumb so I’ll let my guard down.”
“Oh my god, are all Bai Zhan Peak cultivators this stubborn, or is it just you?”
Liu Qingge shrugged. “Shen Qingqiu once said I was too straightforward. That’s how I knew you’d hide behind sarcasm instead.”
Shen Yuan nearly burst a vein. “You are the most frustrating man I’ve ever met.”
That earned him a smirk.
Shen Yuan’s protests fell on deaf ears. Liu Qingge moved like a hurricane, swift and unstoppable. Within hours, they reached the gates of Cang Qiong Mountain. Shen Yuan gave up struggling sometime between screaming at him and getting rain in his mouth.
"This is literal kidnapping,” he grumbled.
“You stopped struggling after the second hour. I took that as consent.”
“You–! That's not how that works!”
Disciples stared as Liu Qingge marched him through the sect grounds.
“Is that… Shen Qingqiu?”
“Didn’t he die?”
“He looks angrier than usual.”
“I am angry!” Shen Yuan snapped.
Shen Yuan was dirty, furious, and moments away from throwing himself off a cliff just to escape the madness.
He didn’t get the chance.
He was carried straight into the Medical Hall, where Mu Qingfang took one look and dropped his teacup.
"Shixiong!"
“I’ve heard what Liu-shidi suspects,” Mu Qingfang said, scanning Shen Yuan with a gaze sharp enough to pierce bone. “But before I accept such an outrageous claim, I need proof.”
“Finally, someone reasonable!” Shen Yuan cried.
Mu Qingfang began with aura resonance tests. Nothing matched. He tried spiritual compatibility, again, nothing. He brought out old artifacts Shen Qingqiu had used in the past.
None responded.
Then came blood resonance. A golden orb hovered over Shen Yuan’s hand and pulsed once… then fizzled.
Mu Qingfang frowned. “Not a match.”
“I told you so!”
“Yet his meridians are eerily similar,” Mu Qingfang muttered. “And his cultivation foundation, almost identical. It’s not natural.”
“It’s because I worked hard! I bought manuals and pills and everything!”
Mu Qingfang blinked. “Bought? From where?”
❝ WARNING. System access must not be revealed. ❞
❝ Penalty for breaking immersion: 1000 B point deduction. ❞
“Uh... A traveling merchant?” Shen Yuan coughed.
“Liar,” Liu Qingge said simply.
“I hate you,” Shen Yuan hissed.
"I know,” Liu replied, far too calmly.
Yue Qingyuan entered midway, pale and breathless.
Mu Qingfang looked up. “His spiritual signature matches Shen Qingqiu. No signs of possession. No illusion arrays or curses. Soul print is anomalous but within tolerance.”
Yue Qingyuan stepped forward and knelt. He took Shen Yuan’s hand gently.
“Xiao-Jiu… you came back.”
Shen Yuan blinked.
“Wha–? I told you, I’m not your long-lost Shidi. I’m just some guy!”
Yue Qingyuan smiled sadly. “It’s alright. You don’t need to remember right now.”
Liu Qingge crossed his arms. “He’s angrier than usual, but that could be the head trauma.”
Shen Yuan screamed into his sleeve.
❝New Quest: Accept Temporary Role as Qing Jing Peak Lord❞ ❝Reward: Shelter, food, income… and a growing mountain of stress.❞
“…Fine,” Shen Yuan sighed. “How bad could it be?”
Shen Yuan closed his eyes. I am going to die in this mountain. Slowly. Painfully. Surrounded by sword maniacs and ancient secrets.
And worst of all… the System was enjoying it..”
Despite everything, the system was giving him tasks now, tasks that weren’t even in line with what he had expected. He was no hero, no legendary figure. He was just an NPC dragged into someone else’s drama.
Shen Yuan sighed. He had a feeling this was only the beginning of his unwanted new life. And the System... the System was still watching him, assigning him more quests with every passing moment.
Maybe... just maybe, this world had more to offer than he thought. If nothing else, at least it would keep him busy.