“Chen-zi! Grandpa Shu has fainted! Hurry home and take a look!”
When the urgent shout reached him, Lin Chen was up in the mountains gathering medicinal herbs. Without even stopping to retrieve the bamboo basket beside him, already more than half-filled with herbs, he took off running toward the village.
“Hey! Chen-zi, your herbs! Wait for me!”
The boy who had brought the news was about Lin Chen’s age, eight or nine years old. Sturdy and broad for his years, he was the acknowledged leader of the village children, and everyone called him Huzi.
Huzi had already run all the way from the village and was thoroughly exhausted. Watching Lin Chen disappear ahead of him like a gust of wind, he silently picked up the abandoned basket and followed.
By the time Lin Chen reached home, quite a few villagers had gathered inside.
It was Huzi’s mother who had first discovered Grandpa Shu unconscious.
Grandpa Shu was one of the village elders, a kindly man who had spent his life cultivating goodwill among his neighbors. That day, Huzi’s father had caught several wild rabbits and asked his wife to bring some over. It was while delivering them that she discovered Grandpa Shu collapsed in the courtyard.
The villagers had carried him inside, settled him comfortably, and summoned a physician. He had since regained consciousness, though he still looked terribly weak.
Lin Chen squeezed through the crowd to the bedside.
“Physician Zhang, what’s wrong with my grandfather?”
Physician Zhang was about to answer when he noticed Grandpa Shu shaking his head at him.
“He’s getting on in years, and the weather has been exceedingly hot. He suffered a bout of heatstroke. A period of proper rest should set him right.”
Physician Zhang was the only physician in Shifang Village. Whenever the villagers suffered headaches, fevers, or other minor ailments, they sought his treatment. Unfortunately, that was about the extent of what he could manage.
For anything more serious, patients had to be taken to Shifang City, a hundred li away. The roads were so rough that many gravely ill patients could not survive the journey.
Hearing the physician’s reassurance, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Huzi’s mother quickly ushered the others outside. Several adults had been crowding around the bed, and between the already sweltering weather and the heat radiating from their bodies, the air inside had grown unbearably stifling.
“Don’t know what’s gotten into the weather this year,” grumbled one of the men who had come to help. “The sun’s been so fierce, the crops are practically drying up in the fields.”
His complaint drew immediate agreement.
“Exactly! Other years, we’d already be putting on another layer of clothing by now.”
The conversation continued around them.
“Chen, lad, if there’s anything you need help with, just give us neighbors a shout,” Huzi’s mother said, gently patting Lin Chen on the shoulder. “I’ll go back with Physician Zhang to fetch the medicine. You stay home and look after Grandpa Shu.”
She turned toward the others.
“Come on, everyone, let’s clear out. We’ve all got things to be doing!”
“Thank you, Auntie. Thank you, everyone.”
Lin Chen bowed deeply to the assembled villagers.
“What’re you being so polite for, you little rascal? It’s not as though you haven’t helped us with our work plenty of times!”
Seeing a small child behaving with the solemn courtesy of a grown man, Huzi’s mother could not help laughing as she affectionately scolded him.
Lin Chen answered with a smile.
In truth, it was difficult to say who had helped whom more.
Shifang Village had barely a hundred inhabitants altogether, but its people were honest and warmhearted. Their simple kindness was something that could scarcely be compared with the indifference of the society he had known in his previous life, where people often looked on coldly at others’ misfortunes and preferred not to involve themselves.
That was right.
Lin Chen did not belong to this world.
He came from the twenty-first century, where he had once been a corporate executive. There had been no spectacular accident, no extraordinary tragedy.
He had simply died in his sleep.
Age at death: thirty.
Cause of death: heart disease.
When he next opened his eyes, he found himself in this little wooden house.
Back then, there had been no small courtyard enclosed by a woven fence, only two exceedingly simple wooden rooms.
Grandpa Shu had told him that he had been found lying unconscious at the village entrance. As it happened, all the villagers had already gone to work in the fields. Grandpa Shu had returned to fetch a forgotten tool, and that was how he came upon the child.
Shifang Village was remote, and the sudden appearance of an unfamiliar child had initially aroused suspicion. Some worried that he might have offended a powerful enemy and been abandoned there as a result.
But several years passed without incident.
Lin Chen was also remarkably well-behaved, sensible, and endearing. Eventually, everyone forgot their earlier concerns and accepted him as one of their own.
Lin Chen possessed none of the original body’s memories.
Grandpa Shu had estimated that he was around five years old when they found him, but that judgment had been based entirely on experience.
Three years had passed since then, yet Lin Chen had learned very little about the wider world.
Shifang Village depended almost entirely on farming. Hardly anyone ever traveled beyond its boundaries, and whatever news reached the villagers came from the carriage driver who stopped at the village entrance.
After seeing everyone off, Lin Chen finally caught sight of Huzi returning from the mountain.
Huzi set down the bamboo basket and gasped for breath.
“Chen-zi, you run way too fast! How is he? Grandpa Shu’s all right, isn’t he?”
“Physician Zhang said it was heatstroke. A few days’ rest should be enough.” Lin Chen smiled. “Thank you for coming to tell me.”
He was genuinely fond of this half-grown boy.
Though, strictly speaking, it was not only Huzi. Lin Chen was rather fond of everyone in Shifang Village.
“What’re you thanking me for? Come on, let’s go see Grandpa Shu.”
Huzi gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder and pulled him toward the house.
Grandpa Shu was seventy-six years old, making him the oldest person in the village. Whenever something important happened, the villagers invariably sought his counsel.
Now, however, the venerable old man lay upon his bed, his face plainly marked by illness.
The moment Huzi saw him, his eyes reddened.
“Don’t worry. Grandpa knows his own body well enough. I’ve still got another ten years or so to watch you youngsters grow up.”
Despite his poor complexion, Grandpa Shu smiled and beckoned the two children closer.
“Grandpa’s simply getting old. Once a person reaches a certain age, a few aches and illnesses are only to be expected.”
“Grandpa Shu, you scared us half to death when you suddenly fainted today!” Huzi exclaimed. “We’re not going up the mountain to gather herbs for the next few days. We’ll stay home and look after you properly.”
Grandpa Shu had watched Huzi grow up from infancy. If anything, Huzi’s attachment to the old man might have been even deeper than Lin Chen’s.
“Good, good. You’re both such good children.”
Grandpa Shu looked at them with evident gratification.
Although Lin Chen was presently a child not yet ten years old, he had visited hospitals countless times in his previous life and seen many elderly people around Grandpa Shu’s age.
He could tell that the old man’s cheerful assurances were merely an attempt to comfort them.
Huzi stayed until dusk, leaving only when his mother called him home.
Once he was gone, the little house fell quiet.
Lin Chen was not particularly talkative, but his temperament was steady and composed. As Grandpa Shu had grown increasingly frail over the past two years, Lin Chen had gradually taken responsibility for nearly all the household affairs.
“Little Chen,” Grandpa Shu began, his kindly face wreathed in a smile, “you should be about eight years old this year, shouldn’t you?”
“Yes, Grandpa.”
Lin Chen answered and quietly waited for him to continue.
“Good child. Grandpa’s getting old now. I’m afraid I haven’t many days left to live.”
Lin Chen’s expression changed slightly.
A complicated feeling rose within him, one he could not quite put into words.
Across his two brief lifetimes, this old man was the only family he had ever truly known.
“What nonsense are you talking about? Grandpa, you’re going to live to be a hundred!”
Grandpa Shu struggled to summon a smile.
He reached out and gently stroked Lin Chen’s head before drawing a green token from inside his robes and placing it in the child’s palm.
“Once, through a fortunate coincidence, I saved the life of an immortal. Those who cultivate immortality place great importance on cause and effect.”
Grandpa Shu spoke slowly, occasionally interrupted by a fit of coughing.
“When that immortal departed, he left this token with me. He said that if any of my descendants possessed an affinity for the immortal path, they could use it to enter his sect. Even if they lacked such an affinity, the token would still be enough to secure them a lifetime of wealth and comfort.”
When Grandpa Shu first found Lin Chen, the child had been so very small, unable to remember anything beyond his own name.
Over the past three years, however, his appearance and bearing had grown increasingly exceptional.
He was clearly no ordinary child of the mountains.
Grandpa Shu knew that Lin Chen would never spend his entire life confined to this tiny Shifang Village.
Rather than leave the boy with nothing, he wished to give him one final helping hand while he still could.
At the mention of cultivating immortality, Lin Chen was genuinely astonished.
All this time, he had assumed that he had merely traveled to some forgotten dynasty, one unknown to the historians of later generations.
He did not refuse Grandpa Shu’s kindness.
If he wished to leave Shifang Village, he would need something to rely upon. This green token was precisely what he lacked.
Seeing Lin Chen accept it, Grandpa Shu finally relaxed.
The boy had a good heart. If he accomplished great things in the future, perhaps even Shifang Village would one day benefit from his protection.
The old man waved a hand, indicating that he wished to rest.
Lin Chen quietly closed the door to Grandpa Shu’s room and returned to his own little chamber.
The candlelight inside was dim, making it difficult to discern the token’s exact appearance. Its surface, however, was smooth and rounded beneath his fingers, almost like polished jade.
Suddenly—
A thread of green light streamed from the token and flashed toward Lin Chen’s forehead.
It moved so quickly that he almost thought he had imagined it.
[Ding—]
[System activated. Binding to host in progress—]
[Binding successful.]
System Status
Lin Chen: “…”
What on earth was that?
He looked around in bewilderment but discovered nothing unusual.
Unless his ears had deceived him, that voice had sounded directly inside his head.
His gaze returned to the token.
Could it be because of this?
[That’s right!]
The voice rang out in his mind again.
By now, Lin Chen had recovered his composure.
Since he had already transmigrated into another world, the existence of a System hardly seemed particularly extraordinary.
The important question was what kind of System it was.
As though it could read his thoughts, the System proudly declared:
[This System’s designation is Dabai! I am the cultivation world’s top-tier Healing System! Well? Doesn’t that sound incredibly cool?]
Healing?
As Lin Chen understood it, wasn’t that simply a healer—a support character whose job was to keep everyone else alive?
If they were talking about looking impressive, surely something like a sword cultivator would be far more fitting.
[Host! How can you think like that?!]
Dabai sounded thoroughly indignant.
[Fine, sword cultivators are very cool, I’ll give you that. But healers like us are one of a kind in this world! Rarity makes something precious, understand?!]
Lin Chen understood.
He simply wished he didn’t.
After a moment, he asked, somewhat perplexed:
[Why are you inside my head?]
Dabai let out a soft sigh.
[Three years ago, when Host died, it was this System that brought your soul into this world. Unfortunately, we encountered a spatial rift during the transmigration. To protect Host’s soul, I exhausted every last bit of my energy, which is why I’ve remained dormant all this time.]
Lin Chen fell into thought.
In that case, the key to the System’s reawakening must have been the green token.
[Exactly! That token is a keepsake of Yuntian Sect. This System absorbed the spiritual energy attached to it and finally managed to wake up! Otherwise, who knows how many more years I’d have been stuck sleeping?]
Toward the end, Dabai’s voice even acquired a faintly tearful quality.
Unfortunately, the System’s mechanical voice lacked any genuine emotional inflection, making the attempted sobbing sound extraordinarily strange.
Lin Chen had a stomach full of questions.
Since Dabai could perceive his thoughts, it answered them one by one.
[This System can travel between the myriad worlds. My purpose is to find a suitable host and help them become a top-tier healer. As long as the missions are completed, this System will finally be free!]
[Host, you’re the only compatible person I’ve encountered in thousands of years! Otherwise, why would I have risked my own destruction to protect your soul?]
[If you had spent this entire lifetime in this miserable little place without any spiritual energy, this System would have dissipated when Host died.]
[Where did you come from? And who assigned you these missions?]
Dabai fell silent.
It did not know.
All it knew was that it had to bind itself to a host, complete missions, and advance through upgrades.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to Lin Chen.
If Dabai was a Healing System, then perhaps Grandpa Shu could—
[I’m afraid that’s not possible, Host.]
Dabai answered before he could finish the thought.
[Birth, aging, illness, and death are the natural laws governing mortal existence. Just as immortal cultivators do not interfere in conflicts between ordinary mortals, every word and action carries its own cause and effect.]
[Excessive interference can affect one’s future path of cultivation.]
[Furthermore, when an ordinary mortal’s allotted lifespan is nearing its end, even the heavenly spiritual medicines of the cultivation world cannot necessarily save them. Their bodies are incapable of enduring such immense spiritual energy, and they would simply explode and die.]
[The only exception would be a cultivator who has mastered the power of the Law of Life.]
[But Host shouldn’t even dream about the Law of Life. It disappeared more than ten thousand years ago!]
Lin Chen was not particularly surprised by the answer.
It made sense.
If anyone could freely interfere with the life and death of mortals, the world would have descended into chaos long ago.
He changed the subject.
Since the System had successfully bound itself to him, did that mean he possessed the talent necessary for cultivation?
[Naturally!]
[The body I selected for Host possesses a Heavenly Spiritual Root, making it exceptionally suited to cultivation.]
[But Host needn’t worry. Before your soul entered this body, its original owner had already passed away. There was no possession or seizure of another person’s body involved in your rebirth.]
Lin Chen had no particular understanding of what a Heavenly Spiritual Root entailed.
However, upon learning that his arrival had not caused the original owner’s death, the last of his misgivings disappeared.
Once a person finally relaxed, drowsiness was quick to follow.
After all, he was presently only eight years old.
Although his mind had endured the strain of the day’s events, his young body had reached its limit.
The moment his head touched the pillow, he fell into a deep sleep.
Please check the synopsis on the front page for the author’s listing of this novel’s cultivation levels.
| Chén-zi | 忱子 | An affectionate, familiar nickname for Lin Chen, using the suffix -zi. |
| Hǔzi | 虎子 | Literally “Tiger Boy”; a childhood nickname treated as a proper name. |
| Shù Yéye | 树爷爷 | “Grandpa Shu”; an affectionate designation for the village elder who raised Lin Chen. |
| Dàbái | 大白 | Literally “Big White”; the System’s chosen name. |
| Lǐ | 里 | A traditional Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 meters in modern standardized usage. |
Cultivation terminology:
Tiānlínggēn (天灵根), translated as Heavenly Spiritual Root, refers to an exceptionally favorable spiritual-root constitution.
Xiūxiān (修仙) means cultivating immortality, while yīnguǒ (因果) refers to cause and effect, especially karmic consequences.