Sitting cross-legged upon the woven meditation mat in his private courtyard, Gu Chen listened to the soft hum of the stone noise-isolation array engaging around the perimeter. With a single intent, he turned his consciousness inward toward his dantian.
‘System. Activate the World Travel Protocol.’
DING!
A brilliant, crystalline blue window expanded before his vision, casting a soft ethereal glow across his retinas.
[WORLD TRAVEL PROTOCOL: ENTRY MODE SELECTION]
[OPTION A: LOCAL ASSIMILATION (TRANSMIGRATION)]
[Mechanism: Soul-projects into a recently deceased inhabitant of the target realm.]
[Perks: Zero Realm Rejection (No stat suppression); +50% Bonus Quest & Resource Conversion Rewards; Instant acquisition of local language, world history, and host memories.]
[Penalty: Must inherit host's physical condition upon arrival and resolve the host's final regret to permanently lock the soul anchor.]
[OPTION B: TRUE BODY PROJECTION (DESCENT)]
[Mechanism: Crosses the spatial rift in your current physical body and robes.]
[Perks: Immediate, full access to your original physical body and current equipment.]
[Penalties: Realm Rejection (-30% all attributes for 48 hours while adapting); Karma Monitoring (3 Mandatory Selfless Deeds required under 72-hour timer); Unregistered Alien Status (Triggers natural hostility from local world consciousness).]
Option B meant descending in his true body would subject him to a thirty percent stat penalty for two whole days, brand him as an alien demon to the native world, and put him back on the System's leash with its infuriating "Mandatory Selfless Deeds" requirement. Option A offered an immediate +50% yield on all converted resources, zero attribute suppression, and bypassed the System’s moral babysitting.
Furthermore, Gu Chen resolved to test a theory: whether his dual-cultivation techniques could still yield benefits for his main soul while operating through a host body. In theory, as his soul fully assimilated into this new vessel, any refined soul essence or dual-cultivation progress would directly nourish his core origin, especially since the original owner of this shell was already dead, leaving no competing consciousness to siphon the energy.
‘I select Option A,’ Gu Chen commanded cold-bloodedly.
DING!
[SELECTION CONFIRMED: OPTION A - LOCAL ASSIMILATION]
[TARGET REALM: AETHELGARD (LOWER FANTASY SUB-REALM)]
[INITIATING SOUL PROJECTION... 3... 2... 1...]
A sudden, violent tug seized Gu Chen’s soul origin. The courtyard around him shattered into endless streams of silver light as his consciousness was yanked through the void at blinding speed.
Cough!
Gu Chen’s eyes snapped open as a violent, wet cough tore through his throat. The sharp, bitter taste of black blood filled his mouth, spat out onto damp, mossy stone.
A burning, toxic fire was sloshing through his chest, eating away at his inner organs. He was lying on the cold dirt floor of a dark cave, lit only by glowing blue fungi clinging to the stone walls. Before he could move, a surge of foreign memories violently integrated into his consciousness:
Lucian Ravencrest. Seventeen years old. A disgraced second son of House Ravencrest, a fallen noble family in the Kingdom of Valoria. Lacking high-tier magical talent, Lucian had been dragged into the Gloomwood Caverns under the pretense of a cadet training exercise, only to be betrayed, poisoned with Nightshade Venom, and left to die in the dark by his corrupt half-brother, Julian, who sought to monopolize the family’s remaining estate and cadet standing.
"A petty squabble over a backwater noble title..." Gu Chen murmured in a raspy, unfamiliar voice.
Closing his eyes, Gu Chen focused his intent on his soul origin. Though his physical body remained back in the Sun-Moon Sect, his Abyssal Sovereign Soul was fully intact. With a subtle flick of his divine sense, a microscopic strand of pitch-black Abyssal Qi flared to life within his new dantian.
SWOOSH!
The black energy expanded like a hungry viper. The moment the deadly Nightshade Venom came into contact with the Abyssal Qi, it was violently devoured and refined into raw stamina. Dark, oily impurities bubbled out of Lucian's skin, while his cracked ribs and torn muscle fibers knitted back together under the sheer pressure of Gu Chen’s soul authority.
Within ten breaths, the frail, dying cadet was gone. Standing up, Gu Chen rolled his right shoulder, testing his new limbs. He took a deep breath, absorbing the atmospheric Mana of Aethelgard while the system completed its Option A synchronization:
DING!
[MAIN REALM QUEST UPDATED: PREVENT THE WAR OF ASHES]
[Objective: Stop your evil half-brother, Julian von Ravencrest, from seizing the Duchy of Ravencrest and igniting a continental war across Aethelgard.]
[Rewards: Full Host Soul Integration (Permanent +100% Soul Anchor), Ancient Ley-Line Map, High-Tier Sovereign Soul-Refining Elixir.]
[Failure Penalty: Instability of the Soul Anchor; forced expulsion from Aethelgard with a 50% loss of harvested resources.]
[Linguistic & Civilization Download: Complete fluency in High Valorian, Low Common, Ancient Elven Runes; complete geographical map of Valoria and the Duchy of Ravencrest; precise local power equivalents.]
Gu Chen looked down at the dark velvet lapels of his tunic. Embroidered upon the chest was the silver raven crest of House Ravencrest, a walking beacon for Julian’s scouts. With a quick flick of his wrist, Gu Chen drove two fingers into the seam, tearing the silver raven crests cleanly off his coat and tossing them onto the dirt floor.
Without the crests, he was no longer Cadet Lucian Ravencrest, the poisoned second heir. To anyone looking at his blood-stained, unmarked coat, he was merely an unaffiliated, wandering rogue knight operating in the shadows.
Stepping out from the damp cavern entrance into the foggy forest outside, a sharp chime resonated within his mind as a golden window flashed across his vision:
[SIDE QUEST TRIGGERED: BEAST AMBUSH ON THE FOREST ROAD]
[Objective: Eliminate the Dire-Wolf pack attacking the nearby noble carriage.]
[Reward: 1x High-Grade Mana Core.]
Gu Chen’s dark eyes narrowed as he read the prompt.
‘A quest on the nearby path...’ Gu Chen mused internally. ‘If the system is offering a free mana core right outside the cave, I might as well go with the flow.’
Moving through the dense mist with silent, effortless strides, Gu Chen reached a muddy dirt trail a few hundred yards away. A luxurious mahogany carriage sat stranded against an embankment with a broken wheel. Four guards lay dead in the mud, and an elderly butler in a torn suit stood in front of the carriage door, desperately brandishing a silver rapier against half a dozen prowling Dire-Wolves.
Before the lead Dire-Wolf could pounce on the old man, Gu Chen descended from the fog like a phantom.
BOOM!
Gu Chen slammed his boot straight onto the alpha wolf’s head, crushing its skull flat against the gravel. Moving like a black streak, he grabbed a second wolf by its jaws and snapped its neck with a violent twist, then drove his fist through the chest of a third before the rest could even react.
In less than three breaths, the remaining wolves panicked and fled into the dark forest, leaving the corpses bleeding out in the mud.
Gu Chen casually wiped black beast blood from his knuckles.
The elderly butler stood frozen, gasping for breath as he stared at the youth in the blood-stained, crestless leather coat who had just obliterated a monster pack with his bare hands.
"Are... are you a rogue knight?" the butler managed to ask, his voice trembling.
Gu Chen turned his head slightly, his dark eyes locking onto the old man. "Yeah."
"Thank... thank you for saving us, Sir Knight," the butler said, bowing his head in deep relief.
"Don't flatter yourself," Gu Chen replied flatly, his raspy voice completely indifferent. "They were just in my way."
Kneeling down, Gu Chen plunged his fingers into the alpha wolf's chest, ripping out its glowing mana core and shattering it in his palm to absorb the purified energy.
DING!
[SIDE QUEST COMPLETE: REWARD ISSUED]
[Received: 1x High-Grade Mana Core]
Gu Chen turned his eyes back to the butler. "So why are you here in the middle of this forest?"
The butler cleared his throat, adjusting his bloodied collar. "We... we just returned from an important event. Our carriage wheel broke on this forest pass, attracting these wretched beasts."
Gu Chen absorbed the answer and gave a simple, silent nod. Having gathered the information, he turned on his heel to walk away down the misty road.
"Wait, Sir Knight!"
A clear, refined voice suddenly rang out from inside the carriage. The heavy wooden door swung open, and a young lady in a regal dark-blue dress stepped down onto the muddy ground, her golden hair flowing over her shoulders.
The butler immediately panicked, rushing to block her path. "No, milady, don't-"
She ignored her servant entirely, stepping past the wolf blood on the road and looking straight at Gu Chen's retreating back.
Gu Chen stopped, turning his head slightly over his shoulder with an expression of cold indifference.
The golden-haired lady met his pitch-black eyes and asked directly, "Sir Knight... can you help us?"