Yuan Zun - Chapter 1: The Beginning of the Journey
The hot summer day is like a blazing fireball; the air is filled with heat waves. The dogs on the roadside keep sticking out their tongues to cool down.
The pedestrians on the road are either holding parasols or wearing sun hats, all walking in a hurry.
"Oh my god, what kind of weather is this? It's too hot!"
There is no air conditioning in the rental house. The windows are open for ventilation, and there is only one fan spinning stubbornly. However, the fan blows hot air on his face; it's as if there's no air at all.
Mu Chen sits on the computer chair, cursing.
He is in his twenties and looks quite handsome, with attractive facial features. It is so hot that his upper body is bare, revealing some well-defined muscle lines. He is wearing a pair of loose beach pants.
This rental house is the cheapest in the city and very close to the city center, but it has no air conditioning. Now, he is almost scorched by the heat.
Because the weather is so hot, Mu Chen is in a bad mood, especially since he has just been fired. Before finding his next job, he can only do odd jobs in a barbecue restaurant at night.
Mu Chen is sucking on a popsicle and watching short videos when he happens to see a video posted by the local police account, which captures his attention for a few seconds.
"Tsk tsk, a walking 500,000."
Mu Chen looks at it for a while and then scrolls past. Although the amount is very tempting, it has little to do with him. How could he possibly come across it by chance?
In the evening, Mu Chen goes to work at the barbecue restaurant as usual, serving plates and clearing skewers from the tables. He earns about a hundred to a hundred eighty yuan a night, which is barely enough to make a living.
For him, who has no elderly parents or young children to support, at least he won't starve to death.
"Hello, sir, we are closing now..."
"!!!"
Mu Chen cleans up the table and looks up to see a man wearing a mask sitting there. He reminds him, as usual.
This situation is quite common. However, when Mu Chen sees that masked face, his heart almost leaps into his throat.
This person's left eyebrow is only half the size of his right eyebrow, and there is a large sunken scar, likely caused by a sharp weapon that cut away both flesh and eyebrow. He has deep-set eyes and looks very tough.
Isn't this the walking five hundred thousand person he saw in the short video?
"Puff!"
The sound of a knife piercing flesh and blood, along with a sharp pain in his abdomen, makes Mu Chen's eyes widen. He really is so unlucky; damn it.
"Kid, don't blame me. It's your fault for seeing something you shouldn't have seen," the wanted criminal says coldly. He holds the knife in his right hand and pierces Mu Chen's stomach. His blue short-sleeved shirt instantly stains red with blood.
Mu Chen feels he has no strength left, but he grits his teeth as a hint of ruthlessness flashes in his eyes.
"Let me see what you can do, damn it!"
"Puff!"
Mu Chen stabs several sharp iron skewers, coated with barbecue residue, into the man's neck, causing blood to gush from the wound. He feels as though his throat is being pierced.
Mu Chen has worked as a barbecue waiter for a while, and he knows how sharp the skewers are; otherwise, how could they pierce meat?
"You..."
"Huh... your uncle..."
"Puff..."
The man's eyes widened. Mu Chen pulls out the iron skewer and pierces his throat again—this is called finishing him off.
The man covers his neck with his hands, blood frothing at the corners of his mouth. No ordinary person could survive being stabbed in the abdomen. He even forgets for a moment that he still has a knife in his hand.
In his opinion, Mu Chen is just an ordinary young man—nothing special, just someone you can find everywhere. It's impossible for him to possess the aura of a protagonist.
"Bad luck."
Mu Chen thinks with regret that he should have checked the almanac earlier.
His consciousness becomes increasingly blurred, and he has no strength left.
His luck is really bad. In the end, he can only do the extreme one-for-one exchange. If he hadn't been discovered, he could have called the police.
Plop!
Mu Chen can't hold on any longer and collapses to the ground, curling up.
Looking at the barbecue restaurant owner who is screaming, he thinks, "I will give you this 500,000 yuan. I hope you can help me with my funeral, or I will knock on your door in the middle of the night."
"Ah~~~"
"It's haunted!"
After the store manager calls the police, only the wanted criminal's body remains, while Mu Chen's body is nowhere to be found. He immediately opens his mouth and screams.
(Mu Chen dies - the play ends.)
…
He doesn't know how long it took, but when Mu Chen opens his eyes again, he finds himself traveling through the starry sky, a warm white light surrounding him as he moves toward an unknown direction.
"Hmm? I'm not flying to the Kingdom of Light, am I?" Mu Chen's body is unable to move, and he can't help but complain in his mind.
Surrounded by light, Mu Chen thinks he has turned into light. He had imagined becoming light when he was a child.
The scenery outside resembles the starry sky of the universe, filled with bubbles, akin to a colorful world and wonderful planes.
Suddenly, a daring guess surfaces in Mu Chen's mind: he has become a time traveler, but he is still on the road and has yet to reach his destination.
Mu Chen is not at all uneasy; he maintains the mentality of making the best of things.
Anyway, it was like that before, and there was nothing wrong with time travel. He was alone with no ties. There was no material on his computer that needed to be deleted. It was just a pity to waste half a million dollars.
He is not a billionaire with immense wealth, nor is he a second-generation rich man waiting to inherit a multi-billion-dollar fortune; therefore, there is nothing to regret.
If he try hard, a bicycle can be transformed into a motorcycle. Time travelers usually have golden fingers.
Bang!
After some indefinite amount of time, it seems as if he has hit or scraped something, causing it to shake violently. Mu Chen's heart skips a beat, wondering if a cross-country traffic accident has occurred.
Buzz!
Several light spots of different colors dive into his body. This sudden change causes Mu Chen to faint.
It's good to be young; you can fall asleep as soon as you lie down.
Cangmang Realm, Cang Xuan Heaven.
The Cangmang continent, Great Zhou Dynasty, Great Zhou City.
"Hiss..."
Mu Chen takes a deep breath and slowly opens his eyes. The dazzling light takes him a moment to adapt to.
The surrounding environment feels very unfamiliar. It is not a modern city with tall buildings; it gives him a sense of being in ancient times. The air is also fresher than anything he has ever felt before. Mu Chen realizes that he has come to a different world.
Oh yes, from today on, he is officially a time traveler.
"Hiss!"
He pinches his cheeks with his little hands; if it hurts, it's not a dream—he has truly reopened.
Now, his physical condition seems to have regressed, which should be the benefit of time travel: reliving his childhood.
Time travel can be categorized into soul travel, body travel, and fetal travel. His case should be body travel—he retains his original body, but his age has changed.
Although he retains his original body, compared to soul travel, he has no memories related to this world and must discover everything for himself.
"Bang!"
Just as he is about to take a step, his legs give out, and he loses all strength. His face comes into abrupt contact with the ground, a layer of mud sticking to his features.
Mu Chen, who is already weak, falls into drowsiness after hitting the ground. His head spins, and he can't stand up at all.
No way; he just started a new life like this.
"Grandpa, there's a person lying on the ground."
"Ahem... go check it out; it looks like a child."
In his daze, Mu Chen hears the voices of an old man and a little girl, but he's unable to open his eyes, leaving his fate to chance.
"Little guy, wake up, cough cough..." The old man helps Mu Chen up and notices that he has fainted.
"Grandpa, please take care of your health and don't do any strenuous exercise," the girl says with concern.
Her grandfather's health was poor to begin with, and now he is exerting himself so much, which makes her anxious and worried.
"Ahem, it's okay. This little guy is very weak, and I don't know whose child he is." The old man coughs and waves his hand.
(End of this chapter)