"Boss… that guy jumped off the cliff…."
"What?….shit …you idiots couldn't do one thing right?"
"Boss …he shouldn't have seen our faces and there almost no chance of him surviving the fall."
"We couldn't take any chances… we are wanted everywhere after our last gig went wrong. Fuck, leave it, there no point in worrying about things that we cannot control. Clean things here first. Remember to burn every corpse."
***
"Haha...fuckers...I survived... I survived..."
"Who would've known that there were bandits in this route...and such ferocious ones too..."
"And here I thought that this employer was somewhat kind....fuck my life."
"Ever since I came to this world, this was the first sign of things calming down..."
"Do I really have to become an edgelord and swear revenge against the heavens for fitting in this world?"
"Fuck...it seems my legs broke...obviously...it was almost a ninety-foot drop..."
"For now, I have to only think about surviving..."
***
It has been 5 years since Mike Chen has transmigrated in this world. For the first few days, he had a hard time believing that such cliche things could happen to him. But he had over twenty years of experience in dealing with far more dangerous situations so he quickly calmed down.
He had taken over the body of an eleven-year-old boy with the name Ma Chen. He was part of a middle-sized family, the Chen family, in a large city of the Purple Cloud Nation. Purple Cloud was one of 5 sects, 3 empires and 10 nations that were present on the South Sea Continent.
The society here was similar to those described in the xianxia novels, with alchemy, martial arts etc as the basis of society. Unfortunately, it was not the case like in some xianxia novels where martial arts from the Earth allowed one to soar to the peak in the other world.
The bodies of humans in this world were very different. The basis of martial arts was "roots". It was a real organ which allowed people to absorb ki into their bodies. Everyone had a root, so the average strength and life expectancy were very high in this world. There were three levels of roots - Mortal, Earth and Celestial. Mortal roots were the most common and almost everyone had them. But this root allowed a person to only reach body refining stage or the so-called Houtian stage and was thus mostly worthless. People at this stage were called normal mortals and had a life expectance of 100 years.
From the Earth level and upwards, the classification of roots was divided into grades and elements. The three grades were - Common, Greater and Rare. The elements were the basic Earth, wood, fire, water and metal and also their mutations like lightning, wind, poison etc.
These roots allowed people to step on the path of immortal cultivation who were thus called cultivators. There were many levels of cultivators with the final goal being a Celestial immortal. Unfortunately attaining such a high level was extremely hard so the people on Purple Cloud nation had not heard of one. But there were rumours that there were immortals residing in the empires and there were many immortals in the other larger continents.
Back to the situation of Mike, or rather Ma Chen. His father was a genius when he was young and had many achievements for the family. This made his standing very high and was nearly elected to be the next leader of the family. When he was at the peak of his life, a large war broke out that involved the 10 nations. His father was conscripted and fought in the wars. The war lasted 10 years. During this period, he fought bravely and gained many laurels. His contributions gained the recognition of the ruler of the Purple Cloud Nation and the Chen family rose in status and power.
At this time, he met Mike's mother. She was a very mysterious individual and her reasons for joining the war was also unclear. It was love at first sight for Mike's father. They first met during the second year of war and by the last year Mike's mother had given birth to "Ma Chen".
But this happiness did not last long. One day, Mike's father suddenly faced a very strong opponent. The opponent was so strong that he had no way of fighting back. He could only watch helplessly as the opponent crippled him. After that Mike's mother also disappeared. Mike's father who was at the top of the world fell to the depths of hell.
It was said that the strong person came from a very strong background such that even the ruler of Purple Cloud nation did not dare to offend him. So the only thing that could be done was to provide the Chen family with generous rewards and suppress the matter.
The other Chen family members were pretty divided about this. Some were sad and angry while the others were very happy about this development. They successfully managed to capture the leadership position of the family and sidelined Mike's family.
The thing that aggravated the solution the most was the condition of Ma Chen's body. It was found that Ma Chen was born with the rarest 5 element root. But the roots were broken. This meant that the organ that was supposed to absorb qi into the body also became a point of leakage. This made it as useless as mortal roots.
With this Ma Chen's fate was set in stone. Bullied, discriminated and humiliated, he had every reason to become an edgelord and massacre everybody after getting a cheat. But he didn't get a chance as he was pushed into a deep lake by his older cousins. It was at this moment that Mike took over the body. He was pretty flabbergasted by the situation but quickly saved himself and returned home.
After a week he had reconciled with the situation he was in and began to plan countermeasures. He had two options, first, wait for a heavenly chance to fall on his lap that allowed him to repair his roots. The second was to run away. He was not yet ready to choose the second option. Neither did he want to wait passively for a chance that may never come. So he came up with a third solution.
The one thing that he had an advantage in as a transmigrator was that he had plenty of experience in dealing with qi and meridians. Even if the body structure of humans were different in this world, it did not take him long to get adjusted to it. After that, he began the difficult process of treating his father. He knew that once his father came back to power, his standing in the family would stabilize irrespective of the opinions of other family members. Moreover, while his body had a hard time retaining the qi that was absorbed, his 5 element root allowed him to absorb qi at a very high rate. He just had to channel this qi into his father's body before it dissipated and cure him.
This was a very tiring process. His father was at the lowest point in his life and was wallowing in his sorrows 24/7. So first he had to convince his father to participate in the treatment. It took him 3 weeks before he could get his father to reluctantly agree. Next, he spent 12 hours every day to slowly channel qi into his father's atrophied meridians. His father's body had become very fragile and could not handle too much qi at the same time. So Mike had to be very careful during the treatment process.
2 years later, the treatment was pretty much complete. Both father and son kept it a secret and disappeared from the public eye. By this point, Mike's father was no longer pessimistic and eagerly awaited the day of his comeback. But alas, it was never meant to be.
On the last day, when they finally unlocked the dantian, a terrible curse manifested. It seems that his father's opponent was very meticulous and had taken measures against his possible recovery. The curse destroyed every last bit of vitality in his body and left him at his last breath. With his last breath, Mike's father thanked him and gave him a letter telling him to live a life for himself and not be obsessed with revenge. Then he bemoaned his fate... and died.
Needless to day Mike was super pissed at this moment. Even though he did not consider this person to be his real father, he was pretty attached to this guy. He taught him many things about the world during this two year period. Now, all that effort and emotions suddenly amounted to nothing. There was no way he wouldn't be sad and angry. He looked at the letter and his mood grew worse. It said,
"Son,
If you're reading this then that means that I have already passed away. I have to say that the last two years have been the best years for me after the day I lost everything. Do not blame yourself for anything.
I know that you were always curious about your mother. But I didn't say anything to you because without strength one cannot protect anything… nor avenge them.
Promise me that unless you reach the peak of the golden core realm you would not go to find your mother.
That year I already knew that your mother was no ordinary women. Her graceful bearing and strong aura attracted me to her. I knew that getting close to her could bring disaster to me and my family, but alas I was attracted to her like a moth to flames.
At first, she rejected my advances but I did not give up. Once we were trapped in a very dangerous situation and were surrounded by enemies in a dangerous valley. Such a desperate situation brought us closer and she finally opened up to me. She told me that she comes from a hidden family of the Silmar empire. Her surname is Long and her name Yue. Her lineage had a very special bloodline, one of the true dragons. She told that centuries ago, a Heavenly Dragon fell in love with the First Matriarch of the Long family and took her with him to his abode. In return, he changed the physiques of the Long family members to be similar to that of dragons. He also gave a drop of his essence blood which could only be inherited by the firstborn daughter. In this generation, that person was your mother. She had come to participate in the was in order to awake her dragon lineage through combat.
She told me that I was not powerful enough to be beside her. But I was young and impulsive then. I promised her that I would grow stronger and always protect her. I took advantage of her wavering feelings and made her mine. After escaping from the valley, I made her my wife. Those were the best moments of my life, seconded only by your birth, the proof of our love.
But the good times did not last for long. As the war was coming to an end, one day I was confronted by a man dressed in lavish robes. He introduced himself as the "Heir to the Marquisate of Silverwater of the Silmar Empire". He didn't say much but attacked me saying that I deserved to die. If it was not for your mother's interference, I would have died that day. Your mother seemed to know that man.
That man took her away and I could not do anything to stop him. That night I found a note that she left behind in which she told me of her regrets of not being able to accompany her husband and son. She also told me that the Marquisate of Silverwater was ruled by the Bai clan and unless I had the help of Peak Golden Core or Wanxiang level master, it was impossible to go against the Bai clan.
This is all I wanted to say to you…farewell son…may we meet under better conditions in the next life…"
After reading such a letter, Mike's mood grew even worse. He did not know why every cliche in xianxia novels was happening to him. He had no interest in getting involved in such troublesome matters, so he burned the letter and decided to forget about it.
He knew that his last supporting pillar had disappeared and he could no longer stay in this place. He wanted to hide the news of his father's death from the family for as long as possible so that he could get away from this place safely. But he could not bear to destroy this man's body. There was a very deep lake beside their house. Being a person of this world, it was not hard for him to hold his breath for a very long period of time and withstand the huge pressure at the bottom of the lake. He spent an entire week building a grotto at the bottom of the lake for his father. After which he placed and huge tombstone and carved his father's initials on it and then buried his father's body. After paying his last respects, he left. His did not take anything when leaving. Maybe because he had kept a low profile for more than two years, no one noticed him leaving.
He kept travelling without stopping. He would find some temporary work to fill his stomach but other than that he would not stay in the same place for long. After one year of continuous travelling, he finally left the boundaries of Purple Cloud Nation and entered the Mist nation. Here he joined a merchant group as a junior accountant. The boss was kind and appreciated his high talents in mathematics.
One day when they were travelling near the border of Mist nation and Silmar Empire, they were attacked by a group of bandits. These bandits were not common bandits and had 2 Xiantian experts with them. The merchant group fought bravely but they were defeated in the end. To save himself, Mike jumped off from a cliff into the river which flowed from the Mist nation into the Silmar empire.
That is how we reach the present situation.