The wind in the Desolate Ghost Valley didn’t blow; it scraped across the cracked dirt, dragging the stench of rotting flesh and the bitter, metallic tang of spilled Qi.
Adam Hale lay motionless beneath the shattered, maggot-infested ribcage of a low-tier demon bear. His ribs felt like powder. His throat was a dry, bleeding trench.
The body wasn’t his. It belonged to Lin Chen, a twenty-two-year-old of the Lin Clan of Cloud-Resting City, who had been stuck at the 1st Layer of Qi Condensation his entire adult life. He was the clan’s resident trash: ridiculed by his younger cousins, worked like a mule, and denied even basic cultivation resources. When elite demon beasts attacked the city weeks ago, the elders used him as bait to cover the main family’s escape, tossing him into the wilderness with a blunt steel sword to die alone.
Lin Chen had spent those weeks crawling through the dirt, starving and humiliated, clutching what remained of his pride, until his heart finally gave out beneath this carcass.
Then a soul from another world slipped into his cold corpse. Adam Hale, a man of the 21st century, had died in quiet isolation, worked to death.
’A second chance?’ Adam thought, his breath rattling against his broken ribs as dark spots danced across his vision. ’To die in a bloody ditch before this body even gets warm?’
He tried to laugh at the absurdity, but only a thick clot of black blood oozed past his teeth. The memory of the Lin Clan’s mockery burned in his mind, not as tragedy but as a cold, heavy lesson. Lin Chen had been treated like cattle because he was weak.
In this world, being weak wasn’t sad. It was a death sentence.
Ding!
A crisp, glassy chime vibrated straight through his soul, cutting through the numbness.
[Host soul synchronization complete.]
[Heavenly Sign-In System initialized.]
[10 unclaimed daily sign-ins detected from system dormancy. Claim 10 Consecutive Draws now?]
Adam didn’t hesitate. ’Do it.’
In his mind’s eye, a colossal golden wheel inscribed with ancient cosmic runes began to spin violently. Flames and thunder exploded across the darkness of his consciousness as the needle locked into the first slot.
[Congratulations to the Host! You have won the Primordial Chaos Supreme Physique (God-Tier)!]
BOOM!
A golden wave smashed into his broken chest. His ribs snapped back together with the sound of cracking timber. His clogged, threadlike meridians tore open and swelled into roaring rivers of light. Adam gasped as every trace of agony washed away in a tide of pure, liquid vitality.
’Just the first draw?’ His eyes lit up, his mouth curving into a dark grin. ’Spin it again!’
[Congratulations to the Host! You have won the Sovereign Sword God Physique (God-Tier)!]
A sharp, electric hum rang through his soul. Every sword style, every cut, every angle across time and space felt like an old friend coming home. He didn’t merely understand swords. He felt like their undisputed king.
The wheel spun wildly, dropping reward after reward.
[Congratulations to the Host! You have won the Ever-Ending Void Scripture (God-Tier Cultivation Manual)!]
[Congratulations to the Host! You have won the Slaughtering Immortal Sword (Sealed God-Artifact)!]
[Congratulations to the Host! You have won the Nine-Revolutions Reconstitution Pill (Supreme Grade)!]
The pill dissolved on his tongue. Warm, golden energy washed away every impurity and turned his skin to polished jade.
[Congratulations to the Host! You have won the Nine-Turn Chaos Origin Core (Peak Realm Seed)!]
Adam didn’t even need to sit cross-legged. The energy inside the Chaos Origin Core erupted in his dantian and tore through Qi Condensation in three heartbeats.
1st Layer... 5th Layer... Peak Qi Condensation... BREAK!
The bottleneck to the Foundation Establishment Realm shattered like thin glass. Peak Foundation Establishment!
The wheel delivered the final rewards in rapid succession:
[Congratulations to the Host! You have won the Heaven-Shaking Sword Intent (Max Level)!]
[Congratulations to the Host! You have won the Robes of the Eternal Star (Mortal-God Grade)!]
[Congratulations to the Host! You have won the God-Grade Alchemy Mastery!]
[Congratulations to the Host! You have won the Hidden Fortune Aura (Cosmic Tier)!]
Adam rose to his feet and rolled his shoulders as heavy blue robes materialized over his body, fitting him perfectly. Faint silver sword-light flickered at his fingertips.
’Thousand-year bottlenecks? Impossible domain walls?’ He let out a soft laugh, intoxicated by the surge of raw power. ’Gone in ten seconds.’
The Hidden Fortune Aura kicked in at once, clamping down on his explosive power until he looked like a weak, ordinary youth again.
Rustle.
Three men in crimson leather armor pushed out of the brush, notched sabers in hand. Scavengers from the local Blood-Feather Sect.
"Hey, look," the leader sneered, wiping grease from his chin. "A survivor. Check his pockets. If he’s broke, bleed him for the hounds."
Adam stood still, his eyes cold and calculating.
"Hey, kid, are you deaf?" the leader barked, swinging the flat of his saber toward Adam’s face.
Adam simply raised a finger.
Heaven-Shaking Sword Intent.
An invisible line cut through the air. The leader froze mid-sentence. A thin red line appeared across his neck, his armor, and his steel blade. A moment later, his upper body slid off his legs and hit the dirt.
"Mon—monster!" the other two gasped, the color draining from their faces.
Adam flicked his wrist. Two unseen sword-beams flashed, and two heads bounced off the rocks before the bodies fell.
"Trash," he muttered, picking up their storage bags. The useless Lin Chen was dead, but Adam Hale would make sure no one ever walked over him again. Caution meant concealing his strength. Arrogance meant never leaving loot behind.
The bags held forty-two low-tier spirit stones, a patched gray cloak, and a water-stained scroll titled Shadow-Stealth Movement Technique (Earth Grade). Adam skimmed it once. The Primordial Chaos Physique swallowed every line, and the technique settled into his bones as if he had trained it for years. He pulled on the cloak and tucked the rest away.
Thousands of miles away, in the Fairy Realm...
An ancient elf woman gasped as an astral pool turned pitch black. "The domain left by the Ancient Guardian... it’s cracking!"
Far beyond the atmosphere, aboard a cosmic dreadnought...
A towering figure in spiked armor stared down at the planet. "The World Nectar is ripening. Send the vanguard fleets. Kill the natives and rip out the core."
Back in the valley, the ground trembled beneath Adam’s boots. A deep, wet voice echoed inside his mind:
’...Found... you...’
The sky split open, revealing a continent-sized golden eye staring straight down at him.
[Warning: The World Will has detected the Host’s supreme physiques!]
[Warning: Cosmic Invasion fleets approaching!]
Adam stared right back into the giant eye, a vicious smile cutting across his face.
’Look all you want,’ he thought, adjusting his collar. ’You’re just next on the list.’