Some of the more diligent disciples of the Verdant Shade Sect were used to routine of before the first light of dawn, heading to the training grounds to practice their cultivation techniques. Today, however, an odd sight greeted them.
"Is that a panda?"
"It must be a spiritual beast escaped from the Ironclaw Mountain! I will capture it and tame it to become my companion!"
"Wait, isn't the sect formation supposed to restrict the entry of wild spirit beasts?"
"I think that might be a human..."
Lin Ruyun was sweating bucketloads as he huffed and puffed his way around the training field. He had woken up by 5 o'clock in the morning, determined to achieve the ambitious goal of running one full lap around the training grounds!
Unfortunately, his endurance stat of 4 seemed to hold quite true as within just 15 minutes, Lin Ruyun collapsed into a panting and drooling mess on the ground.
"My dream of losing at least 90 kilograms in a months seems quite far away…"
It had been a day since Lin Ruyun had arrived in this new strange world. After getting over the initial shock, he had spent the rest of the time trying to deduce the peculiarity of his odd circumstances. If he really had transmigrated into a novel, his priority should be to avoid the sad and gruesome fate of the original Lin Ruyun.
And thus, he picked up a feather quill, which quickly lost its novelty after he realized the amount of effort it took to write with it, he recorded the entire plot of the novel [Blind Are the Heaven's Eyes] as far he could recall, at least up to where it had abruptly ended.
[Blind Are the Heaven's Eyes] was actually quite a basic cookie-cutter novel, using all the overused tropes in the genre. But people like basic and that's why the novel still garnered decent popularity among the readers.
Lin Ruyun had only tried the novel to see what the hype was about. Sadly, its generic nature soon turned him off. He would have even dropped the novel, had it not been for Lin Ruyun, his dear namesake.
After getting to know that a character with the same name as him existed in the novel, his curiosity was piqued and he wanted to know what happened to him. It was just a casual interest, nothing more than a flicker of curiosity about his fate. But as he kept reading on, this curiosity soon turned into obsession, and eventually hatred.
Yes, hatred.
But this hatred wasn't directed at the novel's Lin Ruyun. Instead, he hated the author for creating such a sad and pathetic character. Even if he had to do so, why make him carry the same name as him!
To aptly describe the original Lin Ruyun, he was nothing more than a useless, lascivious and wastrel cannon fodder. He could not even be termed as a 'Young Master', as a Young Master at least had looks, wealth and connections to accompany their arrogance.
The original, on the other hand, was not only supremely untalented, but also narcissistic and delusional, lusting after things he could not possess. His fellow disciples disdained him and the only ones willing to listen to him were the new disciples, whom he exploited and bossed around by virtue of his seniority and relatively higher cultivation level. These disciples would eventually stop following him around once they would realize that he was no bigshot and was just a sheep pretending to be a tiger.
One of these disciples happened to be Li Mouyan, the pink robed-girl he had seen yesterday. The original had become smitten with her the moment he saw her. He called it 'love at first sight'; however, it was probably just the first time a beauty had given him some attention, which he mistook as her interested.
Believing that there existed mutual attraction, each day, he would work long laborious hours, wasting away all of savings, just to refine pills that could be of use to Li Mouyan. Alchemy was one of those disciplines that wasn't as reliant upon cultivation talent, and the original Lin Ruyun could be said to be passably accomplished in the field.
In fact, the Orange-grade pills he had gifted her yesterday like a Bodhisattva were quite exorbitant and Lin Ruyun had used up all of his remaining savings to gather the ingredients needed to refine them. Only after multiple failures was he able to get a satisfactory result. Had he them at the market, he would have not only been able to recoup all of his costs, but also have made a decent profit.
Unfortunately for him, Li Mouyan stopped bothering with him as soon as she realized he was just a paper tiger with no real power behind him. Her disgust and repulsion toward the original had been repeatedly emphasized by the author. Among her admirers, one of the favored sayings used to mock him was "a toad lusting after swan meat."
Despite everything, however, Li Mouyan happened to be quite an inconsequential character in the story, even more so that the original. She was merely one of the countless women who fell in love with the protagonist. Yet, even up to the latest chapter, she never managed to upgrade her status from a fleeting love interest to an official member of his harem.
But her love did have some use, which was to igniting the original's jealousy. As soon as he got to know that Li Mouyan had fallen for the protagonist, Shen He, he one-sidedly declared him to be his life's archnemesis. Considering that Shen He had only newly joined the sect, around the same time as Li Mouyan, he didn't possess much strength at the beginning of his cultivation journey. As such, he was even weaker than the original, which the latter took great advantage of.
Daily, he would go bully the protagonist, snatching his monthly allowance, trashing his quarters to disrupt his cultivation, and even paying off other disciples to gang up on him.
All of this only drove the protagonist's killing intent and in the end, the original faced the consequences of his actions. During one sect mission, he was conspired against by the protagonist, killed, and burnt away to destroy any evidence, left without even an intact corpse.
Considering all these facts, Lin Ruyun should have perhaps looked much more desperate than his current carefree demeanor suggested.
And the truth was, he absolutely was. But as a (former) professional actor, if he didn't even know how to control his expressions, what kind of actor would he be?
But he was not that desperate.
Right now, he just wanted to relax. Although he had great dangers looming ahead of him, with every step fraught with uncertainty and risk, the problems the original had left behind for him couldn't be resolved in just one day.
Rather than panicking, he chose to observe the situation calmly—and to explore this new world. After all, this was a real cultivation world! He wanted to try out every kind of magic he could get his hands on!
Getting off the ground, Lin Ruyun went back to his hut. He took a quick bath, rubbing himself thoroughly to get rid of any odor or dirt remaining from the morning jog. After that he brushed his long hair, tying it with a wooden hairpiece.
Looking at his bloated and swollen, but still neat appearance in the mirror, he sighed. "There is still a long way to go…but I will get there! This weight might seem like a burden, but I can just take it as a motivator and reminder that I need to constantly improve to survive in this dog-eat-dog world!"
Slapping his cheeks, he felt fired up. "Alchemy Stats!" He spoke with bubbling excitement.
A window of text appeared in his vision.
───[ALCHEMY]───
Qi Condensation Pill: Red-grade 100% (ERROR) -->Red-grade 0%
Blood congealing Pill: Orange-Grade 100% (ERROR) -->Red-grade 0%
Body Cleansing Pill: Red-grade 67% (ERROR) -->Red-grade 0%
Cooling Lotus Extract: Red-grade 23% (ERROR) -->Red-grade 0%
After a day of use, he had gained some understanding of this ability of his. It wasn't anything too special. Rather, it merely indicated the 'status' of his body and his cultivation. Still, Lin Ruyun was very excited by the prospects of what he could do with it. He already had some ideas taking roots.
"The original would go regularly steal the protagonist's monthly allowance. To make up for that, I will need to pay him back. But since he wasted all of his savings on those Orange-grade pills, I don't really have any money right now. That leaves only one option…," He rubbed his hands in eagerness, "It's time for some pill-refining!"