Long Hua Continent. Ghosts Country. Hundred Thousand Mountains. Feixian Mountain
Atop the mountain stood a desolate temple, long forgotten by the world. Wild grass grew rampant across the stone steps, and a withered linden tree lay collapsed before the rotting wooden doors, as if crushed under the weight of time.
Within the temple, silence reigned. At its center loomed a tall, weather-worn stone statue with a face worn smooth by wind and age—expressionless, godless.
Beneath it, a beggar sat cross-legged in ragged clothes. His face was unkempt, eyes dim, and one hand rubbed his sunken belly. His other hand rested limp in his lap, fingers twitching occasionally with hunger.
"Damn old man," he muttered toward the darkness beyond the temple's entrance. "If you don't come back, your precious disciple will starve to death."
This beggar was named Huan Changge.
Three years ago, he'd been an ordinary young man on Earth. Then, somehow, he'd found himself transmigrated to this strange and cruel cultivation world—a priest of the famed Immortality Sect.
The "old man" he cursed was none other than his master, the leader of that sect.
A month ago, disaster struck. The Immortality Sect was annihilated by a siege of monsters and demons. Amid the chaos, Huan Changge's special constitution—the infamous Hell Body—marked him as prey for beings seeking immortality.
In the legends of Long Hua, it is said: The Hell Body breeds longevity meat. Consume its flesh, and ascend to immortality.
When Huan Changge first heard this, he nearly coughed up blood.
"This is just Tang Sanzang all over again," he'd wailed at the sky. "What kind of sick joke is this?!"
His master had no choice. He shattered the void and spirited Huan Changge away to this forsaken temple on Hundred Thousand Mountain. Before leaving, he placed a powerful seal over the temple—one meant to block out all creatures, spirits, and ghosts.
Then he left.
And never came back.
Now, a full month had passed. Whether the old man lived or died, Huan Changge didn't know.
He sighed heavily. "It'd be great if I didn't have this damn Hell Body."
For all its legendary properties, the Hell Body brought him no benefit. He couldn't cultivate, couldn't practice techniques, couldn't even sense spiritual energy. No matter what method his master tried, nothing worked.
For three years, he had remained an ordinary man—weak, helpless, a walking slab of divine-grade meat ripe for slaughter.
So he hadn't left the temple once in the past month. Not with the talismanic seal active. He wouldn't survive a day out there.
Unless his master died... the seal should still hold.
Should.
A gust of cold wind howled through the cracked windows and broken doorways.
"Woohoo—"
The chill wrapped around Huan Changge like a wet shroud. He shivered violently, tugging his tattered robes tighter.
"Another day as a salted fish," he muttered. "Please let me wake up tomorrow with the old man standing over me and some hot buns in hand."
Yawning, he curled into himself under the stone statue's looming shadow and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the ache in his stomach and the silence pressing down on his soul.
But then—
Chill.
A terrible, biting cold crawled up his spine. His eyes shot open.
Something was behind him.
He turned slowly. His blood froze.
A woman in white hovered a few paces away.
She floated above the ground, feet bare, hair tangled like seaweed. Her pale, rotting face twisted into a grin too wide to be human. Sunken eye sockets bled red light, and her stare cut through the dark like knives.
Her mouth opened.
"~Let~i~eat~you~~."
The voice was a whisper.
A death sentence.
Huan Changge's pupils shrank to pinpricks. Terror surged through him like fire and ice colliding. His skin broke out in cold sweat, his heart pounding so hard he thought it might burst out of his chest.
Boom. Boom. Bang bang bang!!
Ghost.
Hell.
How the hell did she get in?!
The temple was supposed to be sealed! The old man promised!
He tried to move—tried to run—but his body refused to obey. His limbs were frozen. Petrified. Drained of strength by fear and hunger.
He couldn't even scream.
The ghost floated closer.
Her voice dripped with malice.
"Good~ good~ no~ don't~ move~ let~ slave~ suck~ your~ soul~ eat~ your~ meat~."
Her teeth gleamed—rows of jagged, beastlike fangs.
Huan Changge's mind went blank. His soul trembled.
Was this the end?
Would he die here, devoured by a ghost in some forgotten temple?
But then—
Ding!
A cold, mechanical voice rang in his mind.
"System activated. Host has encountered a high-threat specter."
"Initializing: Invincible Domain System."
"Domain radius: Two meters, centered on current statue."
"Status: Invincibility within domain—active."
Huan Changge blinked.
Wait… System?
He felt it—an invisible force, spreading out from the stone statue beneath him. A circular field. Two meters wide.
He could sense it clearly.
Within this area—he was untouchable.
Invincible.
A strange warmth coursed through him. His fear didn't vanish, but something new took its place.
Hope.
Power.
He was no longer just a slab of meat.
He was God. Within two meters.
Tears welled in his eyes.
"Finally... Finally! I have a system!"
He looked up at the ghost with newfound confidence, no longer trembling.
Three years in this brutal world. Three years of fear, humiliation, hiding.
That ended today.