Chapter 2: Accidental Entry

Bian Chunzhou scrambled up in a rage, ready to have it out with the guy. Talk about the kind being bullied! If he swallowed this insult today, his last name wouldn’t be- “Hey, brother, why are you spitting blood? Hey, hey, hey, don’t spit so much! Don’t die at my feet! You’re trying to frame me, do you hear!”

Bian Chunzhou took three steps back in fright. Honestly, cultivation really did wonders for one’s physical fitness. Such a large person had crashed right into him, yet after a brief moment of pain, he now felt completely fine.

Having died once already, Bian Chunzhou valued his life above all else. Adhering to the principle that it was better to be safe than sorry, he popped a Qi Replenishing Pill to soothe his breathing. After all, he could fail the exam, but he had to start the game with full health.

But what was with this guy on the ground? Why did he look like he was about to stop breathing? They were both in the Qi Refining Stage, but wasn’t this guy a bit too squishy?

“Brother? Hey, brother?”

The guy on the ground remained silent. Bian Chunzhou had no choice. He was simply too soft-hearted to watch someone die without helping. Even though every second counted during the exam, he thought about it and still pulled out two Blood Recovery Pills to feed the man.

As fellow examinees, this was the most he could offer. Giving any more would be overstepping.

Wen Xu was actually awake, or rather, barely conscious. He had blacked out the moment he crashed, but the sharp pain in his chest quickly jolted him back to awareness. He struggled to slit his eyes open, but could only see a blur of blood-red.

I must be dying, Wen Xu thought with difficulty. But at least he hadn’t died at the hands of those three.

He was thinking this quite calmly when a stranger’s voice kept calling him “brother.” The voice grew louder and louder, making it impossible to ignore.

Could it be a soul-reaping envoy from the underworld?

Wen Xu couldn’t be bothered to respond, nor did he have the strength to. Besides, he was dying anyway. Why should he care what happened after he was gone?

Yet the person refused to give up. By now, Wen Xu’s five senses had faded to almost nothing. He felt as though the voice were drifting from a distant shore. But just as he tried to listen closely, the sharp pain in his body suddenly registered clearly in his mind. The next moment, he opened his eyes, and that sensation of dying had strangely… vanished.

“Whoa, you’re awake!”

Bian Chunzhou had been about to leave, writing off the two lost Blood Recovery Pills as his good deed for the day. But just as he was about to stand up, he met a pair of… lifeless eyes.

Wen Xu was still a bit dazed. Just a moment ago, he had secretly pinched himself, and it actually hurt! He wasn’t dead!

“I’m… not dead?”

Hearing this, Bian Chunzhou felt something was off, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “Of course you’re not dead,” he said. “You just entered the Poyun Secret Realm and immediately crashed into someone. Aren’t you a capable one!”

Poyun… Secret Realm?!

“You saved me?” Although Wen Xu had just escaped death, his long-practiced instinct for self-preservation made him subconsciously hide the fact that he had been pursued and forced off a cliff.

Bian Chunzhou nodded. “Of course. Who else did you think it was?” The cultivation world had always been a place where the strong preyed on the weak, and killing others for their treasures in the wild was a common occurrence. But this was the Poyun Secret Realm, the preliminary testing ground for Yonglu Mountain’s disciple recruitment. Surely no idiot would bite the hand that fed them just for two Blood Recovery Pills.

“Thank you for saving my life. My name is Wen Xu-the ‘Xu’ written with ‘yu’ and ‘you’-courtesy name^[1] Buping. May I ask your esteemed name, brother? I will surely repay this life-saving favor in the future.”

Why was this guy talking so formally, mentioning both his name and courtesy name? The more Bian Chunzhou looked at him, the stranger he found him. However, judging by the aura around him, he was indeed a cultivator who had opened his Qi sea. “Forget about the life-saving favor, it was just two Blood Recovery Pills. As for my name, it’s not important. I’m busy gathering spiritual herbs, so I’ll have to pass on the small talk.”

With that, he patted his pants and left. After all, the exam waited for no one. He wasn’t some favored genius, so he had to hurry and win by sheer volume.

Wen Xu listened as the footsteps gradually faded into the distance, only then letting out a small sigh of relief.

He really hadn’t expected to survive a fall from such a high cliff. It only proved that it wasn’t his time to die. Wen Xu couldn’t help but chuckle, but his smile quickly faded.

Because he was starving, so hungry that he could barely walk.

His savior had mentioned this was the Poyun Secret Realm, and that the medicine used to heal him was called a Blood Recovery Pill. Despite having read thousands of books, Wen Xu had… never heard of such things. Furthermore, the man had said he was in a hurry to gather spiritual herbs. Although Wen Xu had never heard of spiritual herbs either, the name was easy enough to understand. After all, there were many popular novels and folktales about lucky individuals stumbling into immortal realms. In those stories, the immortals never blamed the intruders, often gifting them spiritual herbs and pills for longevity, and sometimes even sending celestial maidens to accompany them home.

So, had he run into an immortal?

Wen Xu couldn’t help but laugh again, mocking his own wild imagination. If there really were immortals in the world, why was it so unjust? Why had he been hunted down for no reason? Well, perhaps not entirely without reason-that person had said he was born with the wrong face.

Wen Xu reached up to touch his face. What a pity. He didn’t even know what he looked like.

He had survived by some miracle, but his three pursuers were powerful. They wouldn’t rest until they saw his corpse. In a county town, a provincial scholar^[2] was respected enough, but in the capital, at the foot of the Emperor, let alone provincial scholars, even imperial scholars^[3] were as common as crucian carp crossing a river. Wen Xu understood clearly that he could not return to the capital for the imperial exams.

He couldn’t gamble with his life a second time.

What was worse, after seven days and nights of pursuit followed by this near-death plunge off a cliff, he still didn’t know who his enemy was. For someone as vengeful as Wen Xu, this was incredibly frustrating.

But a gentleman’s revenge was never too late, even if it took ten years. Since he had survived and could no longer take the exams, he would start with a small goal: gather his strength and find the mastermind behind his pursuit.

Wen Xu quickly composed himself. Perhaps because he had passed the peak of his hunger, he didn’t feel as uncomfortable anymore. In fact, his wounds were itching intensely. He reached out to scratch them, only to feel scabbed-over blood.

Looking down, he saw that his wounds had actually healed.

Wen Xu quickly checked his body. Aside from his fractured left arm, his other injuries were mostly healed. Not only that, but he also felt his five senses had become much sharper. For instance, right now, he could smell a rich, herbal fragrance.

The fragrance grew stronger and stronger, until he couldn’t help but sneeze.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Was he dreaming? But that couldn’t be right. If he were dreaming, he shouldn’t feel pain.

Wen Xu instinctively reached for his fractured left arm. The sharp, piercing pain reminded him that this was no dream, but a miracle that had actually happened to him. Thanks to his childhood as a beggar, Wen Xu knew how to set bones. Beggars had no rights and were often beaten and driven away; with no money for doctors, they had to fumble through it themselves.

Wen Xu had been clever since childhood. An old beggar in his group knew how to set bones, so Wen Xu had curried favor with him and quickly picked up some basic medical skills. Later, when a better path opened up, he had turned to studying instead.

He painfully set his own bone, but with limited resources, he couldn’t secure the injury properly. He could only bind it loosely with strips of cloth torn from his tattered hem. Now, the urgent priority was to find some food to fill his stomach.

Having lost so much blood and been hunted for so long, the fact that he could still stand made Wen Xu feel he was almost too resilient.

But as he walked, he realized his left arm no longer hurt. He stretched and moved it, finding no stiffness at all. Wen Xu suspected it was the effect of those two Blood Recovery Pills. If so, he truly owed a massive debt of gratitude.

Perhaps the other party had only done it in passing, but to him, it was a second life. If he ever had the chance, he would definitely repay this kindness.

Wen Xu had trouble recognizing faces, but he had no trouble observing other things. The grass and water here were lush, and the air smelled wonderful. The further he walked, the more he felt this was not the mortal world. After all, since leaving Bizhou Prefecture, he had visited many famous historical sites, mountains, and rivers along the way, and not a single place was as strange and bizarre as this.

The reason he called it bizarre was that he hadn’t seen a single animal along the way. If this were the mortal world, how could a place with such lush grass and water not have any snakes?

Furthermore, the fruits on the trees grew in very… bizarre shapes. Because they were too strange, he didn’t even dare to eat them.

Before long, he was unable to walk any further. To save his strength, Wen Xu closed his eyes and leaned against a tree. This was the only withered tree nearby. Its trunk stood straight without any branches, giving off a sense of security.

Wen Xu smelled the rich herbal fragrance in the air again. In fact, ever since he woke up, he had felt a strange sensation. He felt as if he could smell the breath of the wind. The wind brought fragrance and all kinds of strange information, but unfortunately, he knew nothing about this place, so he had no way to analyze it.

After waiting quietly for a moment, Wen Xu decided to walk in the direction the herbal fragrance was coming from.

Spiritual plants, herbal fragrance-it really wasn’t Wen Xu’s fault for making the connection. He had only seen his savior in this place. He didn’t know if it was just a feeling, but he had a premonition that once he saw his savior again, he would be able to leave this place.

*

Bian Chunzhou felt his luck was absolutely terrible. As soon as he entered the secret realm, someone had crashed into him. Not only did he fail to get compensation, but he also lost two Blood Recovery Pills. He had finally gotten rid of that strange fellow and wandered around half the area, but other than the Danxiang Grass growing everywhere, he hadn’t dug up a single second-grade spiritual plant.

He had written the word “ridiculous” in his heart a full eight hundred times. If this continued, let alone passing the exam, not coming in dead last would require a miracle from his ancestors.

What was going on? He had done his good deed for the day, so shouldn’t his karma improve? Why the hell not!

Bian Chunzhou squatted on the ground in a huff, searching for spiritual plants as if he needed a magnifying glass. Unfortunately, no matter where he looked, there was only low-grade Danxiang Grass. Danxiang Grass was sold in bundles like firewood; no matter how much he gathered, it was useless.

He stuck his rear in the air and rummaged through the dirt again, and then… he got tired. Let it all burn. Yonglu Mountain wasn’t even all that, anyway. If they didn’t want him here, he could be bolder and try out for the world’s number one sect, the Hehe Sect.

Bian Chunzhou thought sourly to himself. Just as he was about to get up and continue searching, he heard a joyful voice behind him. “Benefactor, is that you? I’ve finally found you.”

Bian Chunzhou cried, “Whoa! Scaring people in broad daylight, are you trying to give me a heart attack?!”

Wen Xu: …