Chapter 1: A System in Hand, But No Way to Use It

The sun blazed overhead, scorching the bluestone-paved streets of Shunhe Quarter at the foot of Hexu Sect's mountain until they radiated heat.

Even so, the streets of Shunhe Quarter were alive with noise and bustle, packed shoulder to shoulder with people.

The reason was simple: three days from now was Hexu Sect's annual disciple recruitment ceremony, and everyone had come to try their luck.

What if this was the day they stepped onto the path of immortality?

Every year at this time, Shunhe Quarter erupted into a festivity that rivaled — and even surpassed — the New Year celebrations.

Inside the Auspicious Wine House, Bai Chen stood with a sallow complexion, dressed in a short working outfit, scanning the establishment.

His gaze quickly locked onto a table of three young men dressed in much the same manner as himself.

He bought a bowl of wine from the server, then strode over to the three youths. Without ceremony, he slung his arm around the neck of the short, chubby boy on the left and raised his wine bowl high.

"Brothers, meeting here in Shunhe Quarter is fate itself! This round's on me — bottoms up!"

Without waiting to see the reaction of the chubby boy — whose face had gone sour the moment an arm appeared around his neck — Bai Chen clinked bowls with him and downed his wine in one gulp.

"Hey, who the hell are you?!" the chubby boy frowned, shrugging his shoulders to shake Bai Chen off.

One shrug wasn't enough to dislodge him.

Just as the boy was about to slam his hands on the table and stand up, he saw Bai Chen toss a tael of silver to the server and call out loudly:

"Another round! The good stuff!"

Hearing Bai Chen's generosity, the chubby boy — who had already half-risen from his seat — froze, then slowly settled back down.

A grin spread across his round face as he raised his bowl and clinked it against Bai Chen's.

"Now that's a generous brother! If we both make it into the sect, we'll be brothers for life!"

Someone was buying — why stand on ceremony?

Just drink!

"Come on, drink up!"

Bai Chen spent a minute drinking with the chubby boy, then moved his bowl and shifted over to sit beside another youth at the table.

He casually draped his arm over the new boy's shoulder and asked warmly, "From your accents and the way you're dressed, I'm guessing you're all from the Ansu Kingdom? Me too! I'm from Aikou Town — where are you fellows from?"

The chubby boy from before answered, "We're all from Qingshi City."

"Ah, that explains it!"

Bai Chen smiled and nodded repeatedly.

"Qingshi City isn't far from my Aikou Town at all. I knew your accents sounded familiar — we're practically neighbors!"

Bai Chen called out to the server: "Another round! And bring two pounds of braised beef!"

"Coming right up!" the server chirped, trotting over with a wine jug and the beef.

Seeing Bai Chen order beef as well, the young men exchanged glances and warmed up considerably.

The group clinked cups, called each other brothers, and carried on for quite a while before Bai Chen waved his hand, claimed he couldn't hold his liquor, settled the bill, and swayed his way out.

Once he was gone, the chubby boy's smile faded and he pursed his lips.

"He doesn't even know if he'll get into the sect, and he's already spending money treating strangers to meals. What a big idiot."

The others chuckled along: "If it weren't for that idiot, we wouldn't have eaten this well. Come on, there's still plenty of meat — keep eating!"

The group burst out laughing and continued feasting.

Meanwhile, the very person they'd called an idiot — Bai Chen — muttered under his breath the moment he stepped out of the wine house: "Bunch of trash."

He scratched his hair in irritation and tilted his head back with a long sigh.

"Damn it, what a waste. Two taels of silver, and not a single green-quality trait or above!"

A whole month of sifting through dirt for gold like this — he was nearly at his limit.

Bai Chen sighed and opened his System's personal attribute panel.

Host: Bai Chen
Age: 16
Cultivation Realm: None
Spiritual Root: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth
Talent Traits: Robust Physique (White), Disease Immunity (Green)

"Even if I get into Hexu Sect in this state, it won't amount to much."

The glaring five-element Spiritual Root entry made him want to tear his hair out.

A month ago, Bai Chen had been just another corporate drone in the twenty-first century. Then, inexplicably, he fell asleep one night and woke up in this world.

This was a cultivation world, set on a continent called the Xuancang Continent.

The continent was divided into six great regions, and he was in the Cangmang Region, located in the southwest.

The person he had transmigrated into shared his exact name — just with considerably worse luck.

The family had some money, but two years ago his parents died in an accident, and the inheritance they left behind had been seized by relatives under every excuse imaginable.

By the time Bai Chen arrived, only a large manor and a few plots of farmland remained in his name — everything else had been divided up.

Fortunately, the body had decent natural talent and that green-quality Disease Immunity trait. Without it, the original owner would have been dead long before Bai Chen ever arrived.

If he hadn't activated the System, Bai Chen would certainly have gone toe-to-toe with those "relatives" and clawed back everything that was rightfully his.

But he had activated the System — a Trait Copying System, no less.

Once a month, he could choose one talent trait from another person and copy it onto himself.

So why bother tangling with a bunch of ordinary mortals?

Once he stepped onto the path of immortality, these people would be nothing but ants beneath his feet.

And as luck would have it, Hexu Sect's annual disciple recruitment was just around the corner.

Copying a useful trait to smoothly enter the sect was his top priority.

Bai Chen had sold off the manor and farmland, taken the silver, and come to Shunhe Quarter at the foot of Hexu Sect's mountain to search for "targets."

With only one chance per month, he had to find the most suitable trait to copy.

Ideally something like Artifact Forging, Alchemy, or Talisman Crafting — the kind of talent that could earn Spirit Stones and support his future development.

Besides the monthly cooldown, the Trait Copying System had another drawback.

It couldn't directly reveal what traits others possessed. Physical contact was required to inspect another person's attributes.

And copying required uninterrupted contact for a full minute.

Who would let him stay glued to them for an entire minute without suspicion?

To get close to the people who had traveled from all corners of the world for the recruitment ceremony without raising suspicion, Bai Chen had been generously befriending them — treating them to food and drink to build rapport.

After all, people feel indebted to those who feed them. If he'd bought someone a meal, they could hardly refuse to let him throw an arm around their shoulder, right?

Over the course of a month, he had burned through nearly all his silver and had only managed to find a handful of people with green-quality traits.

Among those few, only one had a three-element Spiritual Root.

The rest didn't even have a Spiritual Root.

And every single one of those green-quality traits was something like Strong Tendons and Bones, Immense Strength, or Tough Hide — all physical constitution talents.

Nothing close to the Artifact Forging, Alchemy, or Talisman Crafting he was after.

The recruitment ceremony was three days away, and he was already saddled with the lowly five-element Spiritual Root that cultivation sects despised.

If he had no cultivation-related talent to back him up, even if he managed to enter Hexu Sect, he'd likely end up as nothing more than a Menial Disciple — with no chance of ever meeting anyone with higher-tier talents.

"If it comes to it, I'll just copy whatever trait I can find."

Bai Chen's brow furrowed as he sighed inwardly.

No matter how good a physical talent was, it only made you a stronger ordinary person.

Whatever cultivation talent he could copy, having something was better than having nothing.

Muttering to himself, Bai Chen kept his eyes sharp, scanning left and right as he circled the area a few times.

Only after confirming no one was paying attention to him did he head back toward the small courtyard he had rented.

He was alone, without any cultivation, and had been spending money freely this past month to copy traits — it wasn't impossible that someone with ill intentions had taken notice of him. Better safe than sorry.

With all his silver spent on wining and dining others, he could only afford a run-down little wooden shack on the outskirts of Shunhe Quarter as a temporary base.

After walking for a while, a commotion suddenly erupted from a dark alley ahead. Bai Chen instinctively glanced in that direction.