Chapter 1: Summoning a Life Artifact

Easternmost Continent, Sea of Suffering Path, a mountain valley.

It was clearly noon, yet the sky above the nameless valley was shrouded in a dense, heavy mass of dark mist, leaving the entire valley dim as dusk. Only at the valley entrance could a few patches of light be seen.

Two stewards were watching the menial workers ferry cages back and forth into the valley. If anyone pushed too slowly, or dared to slack off and was spotted by them, the whips in their hands would lash out without mercy.

The glowing whips struck the workers, and even a light blow could split skin and flesh, leaving them in unbearable pain.

Because of that, not a single worker dared to cry tiredness or complain. One by one, they put all their strength into pushing the cages deeper into the valley.

They were pushing specially made cages. Inside were men and women, old and young. Some had vacant eyes, some were unconscious, and some were smashing and throwing themselves around inside the cages. But no matter what they did, these people could not escape, nor could they make a sound.

Throughout the entire valley, there were the stewards’ barking orders and the noise of the workers pushing cages. Apart from that, however, there were no insect cries, no birdsong, not even the sound of wind. It was so quiet it was almost eerie.

“It’s way too quiet today.”

Bored out of their minds, the two stewards sat at the valley entrance and began chatting idly.

“Hasn’t this place always been like this?”

“Not exactly. Wasn’t that one always yelling? Why isn’t he yelling today? Is his cage broken?”

“How could that be? These cages are specially made. Human sacrifices can scream their throats raw inside and still won’t make a sound. It’s just that one who’s especially noisy. I heard he used to be a cultivator!”

“Hiss! No wonder his voice could pass through the cage. If that’s the case, how did he end up here?”

“I only know because I once heard the immortal masters above mention it by chance. I heard that man had a problem while entering the Dao and cultivating. He went mad overnight, and actually raised a butcher’s knife against his own family. By the time law enforcement arrived, every last person in his household had been slaughtered clean by his own hands.”

“Heavens! No wonder he talks all day about being an emperor. So he really is badly mad…”

“He’s pitiful too. So young, with a boundless future ahead of him. If he hadn’t gone mad, people like us wouldn’t even be worthy to carry his shoes.”

“True. Really pitiful…”

The two stewards sighed, but there was no compassion in their expressions. Their tones carried the same gloating mockery and smug delight.

A former favored child of heaven, now a caged human sacrifice. If he had not gone mad, how could they ever have had the qualifications to pass judgment on a “cultivator”?

…

“So pitiful…”

It was a similar sentence, but this sigh held not the slightest trace of contempt or mockery. It was true sympathy and compassion.

The owner of the voice sat inside a cage deeper in the valley. His hair was disheveled, his clothes were old and ragged, and his whole body was gray, filthy, and dusty. He looked no different from the people in the surrounding cages. But if someone looked closely, they would discover that beneath his tangled hair, his eyes were lively and full of spirit, without the slightest numbness of someone long tormented.

“My name is Chi Yixuan. I come from a world called Earth,” he said quietly to this body.

Chi Yixuan was a second-generation rich kid after the fact. His career had originally been on the verge of taking off, but who knew his luck would be so bad? He fell asleep, and when he woke, he had transmigrated. A soul transmigration, at that. But perhaps once his bad luck hit rock bottom, things rebounded. He received most of the original owner’s memories, so he was not completely blind to the situation before him.

The original owner was named He Nianyuan and had once been a cultivator. When Chi Yixuan first received his memories, he was somewhat surprised. He thought this experience was truly fantastical enough. Cultivation—so it was not actually a novel setting. It really existed!

Yet very soon, he had no room left for novelty. His entire consciousness was seized by the original owner’s tragic experiences.

He Nianyuan was born into a merchant family in Donglai Kingdom, and he was the only son of the household. Since childhood, he had never lacked food or drink and had been thoroughly cherished. But the He family elders were not the sort of irresponsible parents who spoiled their child blindly. They never neglected his upbringing, so He Nianyuan grew all the way to eighteen and became an upright young man of graceful bearing.

Had things continued like that, He Nianyuan would probably have been like an ordinary person: marrying, having children, and inheriting the family business. Who knew that on the day of his eighteenth birthday, by a stroke of opportunity, he would summon his own life artifact—a cultivation manual glowing with golden light.

This was an extraordinary thing. But the He family’s ancestors had all been mortals, and they did not understand what a tremendous treasure their child possessed.

After news spread that He Nianyuan had summoned a manual, many high officials and nobles immediately came to make connections with him. There were even immortal sect cultivators who came to his door to persuade him to go up the mountain and take a master.

But He Nianyuan could not bear to leave his loved ones. Moreover, after successfully entering the Dao, he discovered that he could cultivate even without taking a master. So no matter how many temptations the visitors laid before him, He Nianyuan remained unmoved.

He Nianyuan himself did not notice, but as Chi Yixuan observed his experiences, he clearly saw that after those cultivators were rejected by him, a fierce glint immediately appeared in their eyes.

At first, Chi Yixuan did not quite understand. He felt these cultivators were far too petty. Wasn’t it just that their recruitment had been rejected? Was there any need to look like they wanted to eat someone?

He had lived too long in a peaceful world and could not imagine, for a time, how evil human nature could be. Nor did he know that they truly could eat people.

In He Nianyuan’s memories, it was late that very night that his entire family, old and young, was slaughtered clean. He himself struggled with all his might, but he was pinned to the ground and had his life artifact forcibly extracted.

The sound of rain that night covered He Nianyuan’s heart-rending screams. Having his life artifact forcibly stripped away was like having an organ peeled out of him while he was still alive. The pain made him convulse and roll back and forth across the ground.

He Nianyuan’s ancestors had all been mortals. Even though he had summoned a life artifact through a chance encounter, he did not understand much of the cultivation world’s knowledge. He knew even less that a life artifact could actually be taken away.

After his life artifact was stripped away, the tiny bit of cultivation he had just gained upon entering the Dao collapsed in an instant. Yet his enemies spared his life, because they needed a scapegoat.

Before long, He Nianyuan was taken away by the Law Enforcement Hall on the charge of slaughtering his entire family. After round after round of interrogation, he was convicted and exiled. He should originally have been exiled to the Westernmost Continent, but halfway there, someone sold him into the slave market. After further twists and turns, he became a human sacrifice to be offered to the Sea of Suffering.

After experiencing such tragedy and having nowhere to seek justice, He Nianyuan’s mind collapsed, and he went completely mad. Perhaps because he still vaguely remembered his hatred, in his madness he believed himself to be an emperor. No matter whom he saw, he called himself “We,” and every day he shouted about wanting to cut the criminals who had slaughtered his entire household into a thousand pieces.

Until Chi Yixuan soul-transmigrated here, bringing He Nianyuan’s story to an end.

There was no wind in the valley, yet Chi Yixuan felt cold all over.

He spent an hour digesting these memories and felt that his entire worldview had been shattered to pieces. Then he used roughly another half hour to drag himself out of He Nianyuan’s resentment, lest he sink too deeply into the other man’s memories and emotions and have his own state of mind affected.

But in the end, aside from sighing for him, there seemed to be nothing he could do.

This body had already been ruined. Before transmigrating, Chi Yixuan had not been some special forces expert or master fighter either. He was just an ordinary person, a weak mortal spoiled by modern technology to the point that climbing ten flights of stairs would leave him panting. What could he use to fight He Nianyuan’s enemies?

Just now, he had tried smashing the cage once. This square cage, enclosed entirely by wood, seemed to have been empowered by some spell. When his hand struck it, it felt as though he had hit an invisible barrier. He had to use all his strength just to poke one finger out through the barrier.

And that was only possible because the original body had once entered the Dao and cultivated, making its physical strength greater than that of mortals. As for the people in the neighboring cages, even if they smashed their fists bloody, they could not hope to make the slightest sound.

What should he do?

Chi Yixuan knew very clearly that he absolutely could not keep sitting here idly.

His gaze traveled into the distance and landed on the dark mist drifting over from the far end of the valley. Looking carefully, he saw it massed clump by clump, twisting into spirals. Staring at it for too long made his head swim and ache, and he could faintly hear some screams and mutters.

He quickly withdrew his gaze and looked around. He discovered that there were already more than a hundred cages pushed into the valley. There was at least one person in each cage, and every face was filled with ashen despair.

The menial workers responsible for moving the cages hurried back and forth. Compared to being afraid of the stewards’ whips, they seemed more afraid of staying too long in this valley. As for the two higher-status stewards, they both stood guard at the valley entrance and did not step inside at all.

He Nianyuan had been mad and had paid attention to nothing, but by combining the situation with his memories, Chi Yixuan quickly understood his current circumstances.

The dark mist drifting over from the other end of the valley was formed from the evil qi of the Sea of Suffering Path. And people like them, locked in these cages, were blood offerings used to sacrifice to the Sea of Suffering. Before long, they would be like livestock, their necks slit and blood drained before being pushed into the Sea of Suffering Path.

This starting point was way too miserable!

Chi Yixuan complained inwardly, trying hard to maintain calm and keep his mind from being affected by the looming crisis of death.

At this point, he had only one path left to take.

Summon a life artifact!

It was worth mentioning that a life artifact had nothing to do with the body. It used the soul as its medium. The original body’s shell had been occupied by him, and his own soul was still clean, without any record of summoning. Then according to the rules of this world, he should also be able to summon a life artifact.

“He Nianyuan, can you hear me? My name is Chi Yixuan. I come from another world.”

Once again, Chi Yixuan quietly introduced himself, then said, “Since this is the cultivation world, there should be souls after death. I don’t know whether you’re still here, but if you can hear me, please bless me so I can summon successfully. Only by summoning successfully and obtaining power can I escape. I promise that once my cultivation succeeds, I will avenge you and your whole family, and personally kill your enemies.”

The surroundings were deathly quiet. There was no sound at all. Nor did Chi Yixuan experience the kind of scene from soul-transmigration novels where, after making a promise, the body suddenly lightened and the original owner rested in peace. Perhaps it was because he was only a mortal.

Chi Yixuan did not care anymore. Right now, he could only seize every second.

He rubbed his hands hard against his inner garment, barely getting them clean. Then, with a pious heart prepared to stake everything on this one throw, Chi Yixuan followed the summoning steps from He Nianyuan’s memories and began summoning his life artifact.

A moment later, a familiar voice sounded beside his ear.

“Greetings, Player. Immortal Dynasty Simulator is at your service.”

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