Free Web NovelChapter 4: Chapter 4: Cause of Death
"What the fuck?"
The first thing Shen Yuan did after returning to his cottage was to look through the cultivation technique provided to him by the sect.
Just as he sat down to practice the technique for the first time. Shen Yuan felt a tearing sensation coming from all over his body, but the place it hurt him the most was the Dantian. It felt like his stomach was on fire and he was about to be swallowed whole in that fire.
Instantly stopping the cultivation, Shen Yuan looked through the memories of the original owner of his body and realized why this was happening to him.
Learning the reason, he finally understood why the original Shen Yuan had died.
His Dantian was destroyed. Shattered into pieces.
With a deep dive into the memories, he found out that the death of the original Shen Yuan was directly connected to the cultivation technique he was given by the sect.
It was because of the demon sect and their demonic ways that his cultivation went wrong.
Not only did his dantian shatter instead of being awakened, even his blood started flowing backward and caused his heart to explode, killing him in the process.
"How am I supposed to cultivate when I don’t even have a functioning dantian?"
The first step of any cultivation technique was to sense qi, and it was everywhere in the world.
The qi was so abundant that if there was a person who could not sense qi even after a year of trying, they were destined to die as mortals.
Such people were known to be abandoned by heaven.
When the original Shen Yuan first received the technique, it had taken him a week to sense the presence of qi.
Even by the standards of geniuses, he was extraordinary. But even though he was able to sense qi before others in his group, Shen Yuan was unable to make it his own.
Whenever he tried to draw the qi within his meridians and move it toward his dantian, a sharp pain would flair up everywhere in his body.
The more he tried to force his cultivation, the greater pain.
Thinking he had made some mistake, Shen Yuan did not cultivate for a while and worked normally as a servant.
He got accustomed to the work and would occasionally try to practice the cultivation technique.
But no matter what he did, the results remained the same. Even if he spent days cultivating without caring for food and water, the process only ended up hurting him.
His peaceful life continued on like this for a month right until he encountered a young man named Peng Guan.
As far as he knew, they had not even exchanged words, let alone had a fight, before that day. But for some reason Peng Guan seemed to be treating him like his mortal enemy.
At first things were not bad. It was just some hindrance in his work, but with time, Peng Guan’s bullying only got worse.
Whenever he came face to face with Shen Yuan, even by accident, he would beat him so much that the boy became unable to get up from the ground.
Having reached his limit, Shen Yuan decided not to remain weak and fight back. He went home, gritted his teeth, and entered closed-door cultivation to practice the cultivation technique that he had not touched in a while.
Shen Yuan forced qi down his meridians, ignoring the pain he felt. In his mind he thought if he persevered hard enough he could finally draw in a trace of qi.
Even when blood started to drip out of his seven orifices, he did not give up and persisted through it.
Just to never be bullied again.
But in the end, everything he did... was for naught.
The moment he forced qi down, his meridians gave up and his heart started to beat faster. The unrestrained qi went wild within his body and shattered his dantian.
In the end, Shen Yuan died of a heart attack at the early age of 16.
...
"To think cultivating this technique is so dangerous." Just watching the memory, Shen Yuan shivered in fear.
"But if this technique was so dangerous, why were the other servants able to unlock their dantian and become outer sect disciples? is it because their bodies are different in some way, or do they know something I don’t?"
Shen Yuan felt like he was missing a very important piece of the puzzle, something the previous owner of the body had overlooked.
Even if the demonic sect were cruel, they were not dumb enough to throw the lives of useful servants away for no reason.
As the thought passed through his mind, Shen Yuan recalled the memory from a year ago.
It was right after he was ’recruited’ into the demonic sect through deception and thrown into this hell.
"Everything you need to cultivate is within this booklet." A tall middle-aged man with an emotionless face who had kidnapped Shen Yuan warned him. "Don’t try to run away. Because even if you succeed by any miracle, you will end up dying."
The man turned around and walked away, whispering to himself. "So, struggle with all your might. Crawl through dirt if you have to. Tear away your doubts and show me that you are capable of surviving in this hell hole."
’Why is everyone in the sect so scary?’ Shen Yuan sighed in dismay while thinking. ’If I want to survive, I have to find a way to cure this broken Dantian within a month, not to mention I have to find a way to store qi inside it.’
At one point Shen Yuan thought of escaping, but there was nowhere else to go. The sect was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a dangerous forest where danger lurked around the corner. And even if he survived all of that, there was no place for him to go.
He could still hear faint roars of beasts from the Valley behind his cottage.
If it had been someone other than Shen Yuan, they would have long lost themselves to despair. But he was different, Shen Yuan’s face did not show any signs of losing self control or fear.
He just looked around with a cautious and contemplating expression.
’I wonder what would kill me first. A random attack from the beasts or the people of the cult.’
Since they were mere servants, no one cared about their lives and was willing to throw them to the beasts even to buy a little bit of time.
’But no matter what, I won’t take it lying down. I have to grow stronger to survive.’ With the fire of determination blazing in his eyes, Shen Yuan looked through the technique once more.
It was an old withered book lying on the ground right beside his feet, just waiting to be picked up.
The Sacred Scripture of the Bloody Moon
The title of the book was colored in red. The color oddly reminded him of the blood he had seen trailing behind the rolling heads earlier today.
’I should try and understand the technique more deeply. Maybe there is something hidden that one cannot find easily.’
Even though he knew nothing about cultivation before, the memories of the original Shen Yuan taught him everything he needed to know.
It also told him what happens if someone’s dantian shatters.
There was no way for them to cultivate unless they had a fortunate encounter, like an immortal treasure, or gained the favor of some powerful cultivator.
’Maybe I could get a rich demoness to fall for me and give me some treasures that could heal me.’
Putting away the useless thoughts, Shen Yuan flipped through the book once more.
["When the moon bleeds red across the heavens, so too shall your path be painted in blood. Life is the currency of power, and death is the final transaction. The weak cling to morality; the strong understand that all existence is fuel for ascension."] frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Right on the first page, he saw those messily scribbled yet arrogant words from the creator of the technique.
"Should I really be learning a technique like this?" Not just the arrogance but the cruel reality of the demonic path was laid bare before Shen Yuan’s eyes. freёweɓnovel.com
But given how desperate his situation was, he did not have much of a choice.
Flip!
One page after the other, he began to read seriously.
At first he had some troubles understanding the parts about acupoints and meridians, but the new memories helped him through it.
With the passage of time, his understanding of the book deepened.
The technique was more barbaric than one could imagine. Once someone was able to sense the qi in the air, they had to use the vitality of their own body to draw upon.
The body acted like gears trying to suck in the qi until it reached the dantian.
Ignorant masses would find nothing wrong with it, but vitality was not something directly related to health, which was then tied to the innate energy, more commonly known as the life span.
If too much vitality is burnt out of the body, it starts to draw upon the lifespan of the person, killing them faster than they were supposed to die.
It did not take long before Shen Yuan fully grasped a basic understanding of the technique, and when he did, a calm feeling washed over his body.
This feeling was not physical; instead, it was more ethereal. Like his soul was being touched all over by several hands and in a good way.
The moment this unreal feeling washed over him, something flickered in Shen Yuan.
Congratulations, You have comprehended the very first technique.
[Reward: System Activation.]
[Genuine Transcendence System—Believe It!]
