"【Brain Storage Unit】"
"【Sign in to randomly receive an ancient Divine Beast】"
Cangshan Village, a frontier village in Jin Country, located on the Eastern Continent of the Barren Realm.
The chill in the air was like a knife, scraping against Chen Lin's hand as he gripped the rough hoe handle.
The frozen soil in the furrows was as hard as rock; each swing of the hoe sent a jarring shock through his tiger's mouth grip, and the scattered clods of earth were still covered with unmelted remnants of snow.
The white breath he exhaled had barely left his mouth and nose before it was torn to shreds by the biting north wind.
"Damn it, this cursed weather! Spring is harder than war!"
In the field nearby, his Second Brother, Chen Qingfeng, spat.
He hunched his neck and stomped his feet, trying to dispel some of the cold that had seeped into his worn straw sandals.
His eyes darted around, scanning the hazy sky and the snow-covered mountains in the distance.
Chen Lin didn't respond, just buried his head and swung the hoe again.
It had been fifteen years since his Transmigration to the Eastern Continent of this Barren Realm, becoming the son of the hunter Chen Dashan.
His memories of his previous life were as blurry as a faded old dream.
And these bitter, barren days, filled with labor that left his bones aching, were the suffocating reality.
Immortals? Longevity? Flying and burrowing through the earth?
Those were ethereal legends from the storytellers in teahouses, idle tales tapped out from the pipes of old villagers.
He listened, his heart occasionally stirring, but more often, there was only numbness.
"Second Brother, you should save your Qi for hoeing the ground. Muttering to the heavens won't do any good, it can't hear you anyway."
Chen Lin wiped the thin sweat from his forehead, mixed with streaks of dirt.
His temperament was like a waterlogged piece of hardwood, steady, planning every move before acting, because in this world, recklessness and impulsiveness often meant death.
Chen Qingfeng chuckled, about to quip another remark, when he saw a small figure stumble over from the end of the field path—it was Fourth Sister, Yun Niang.
Her small face was pale, and her usually downcast, timid eyes were now wide with terror.
"Second Brother! Third Brother!"
Yun Niang rushed up, panting, her voice laced with tears.
"Quick... hurry home! Father, Father and Big Brother... there's... there's a huge problem!
They... they told you to run back quickly! Not a moment... not a moment to lose!"
"A huge problem?"
The playful smile on Chen Qingfeng's face instantly froze, and he anxiously asked, "Did a bear get into the house?"
Yun Niang shook her head vigorously, her lips trembling as she said, "No... no... it's... it's a person!
Father and Big Brother... carried back a... a person covered in blood... who fell from... fell from the sky..."
"Fell from the sky?!"
Chen Qingfeng and Chen Lin exclaimed in unison, and then a nearly greedy glint erupted in Chen Qingfeng's eyes.
He threw aside his hoe, his dirty hands instinctively wiping on his worn coarse cloth tunic.
"An Immortal? Yun Niang, did he really fall from the sky?"
Fifteen years!
Those beings who only existed in legends and storybooks, now they had crashed into their ant-like lives in such an absurd way?
Chen Lin suppressed the tumultuous waves in his heart, his voice still steady: "Fourth Sister, is that person... still alive?"
Yun Niang nodded vigorously, then quickly shook her head, clearly terrified: "Still... still breathing... Father put him... put him on the kang in the inner room... all blood... so scary..."
"Let's go!"
Chen Qingfeng didn't ask any more questions; he bolted towards the village, moving as swiftly as a fox sniffing blood in the snow.
Chen Lin followed closely, his heart pounding wildly in his chest, but his steps did not falter.
The cold air filled his lungs, bringing a stinging pain.
The Chen family's house was built of adobe bricks, appearing low and old.
The cold wind could even seep through the cracks in the mud walls, making a wailing sound.
As soon as he rushed into the courtyard, a strong smell of blood assailed Chen Lin's nostrils.
At the kitchen door, his Sister-in-law, Lin Xiu, was holding the bewildered Hu Wa.
Her face was pale, her eyes filled with fear; seeing them return, she just silently shook her head.
The atmosphere inside the house was suffocating.
His father, Chen Dashan, stood with his back to the door, in front of the kang, like a silent iron tower.
His eldest brother, Chen Shisheng, stood beside him, his usually steady face now filled with tension and unease.
His fists were tightly clenched, his knuckles white from the effort.
On the adobe kang, a blood-soaked person lay.
His tattered blue robe, stained with congealed blood and dirt, was unrecognizable.
His exposed skin was covered in terrifying lacerations.
If not for the almost imperceptible rise and fall of his chest, one might have thought he was already dead.
"Father! Big Brother!"
Chen Qingfeng rushed to the side of the kang in a few steps, his eyes fixed on the bloodied person, his voice trembling slightly with excitement: "Is it really... an Immortal?"
Chen Shisheng swallowed, his voice dry: "Yes, today we were chasing that white-browed tiger, and we went deep into the old forest.
Then we heard a 'boom' sound... I looked up, and saw him... falling straight down from the sky, breaking many tree branches..."
"An Immortal!"
Chen Qingfeng murmured, the light in his eyes growing brighter, like a hungry wolf seeing a fat sheep.
He suddenly turned to Chen Dashan: "Father! What do you say, what... what should we do? Save him?"
Chen Shisheng took over, with a hint of hope: "Father, I see he still has Qi, should we try?
What if... what if he lives, and the Immortal is kind, and lets a little good fortune leak from his fingers.
Our family, our village... then..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear to everyone—an Immortal's favor!
Chen Lin didn't speak, his gaze fixed on his father, wanting to hear what he would say.
But Chen Dashan remained silent, like a stubborn rock buried deep in frozen earth.
Chen Lin was all too familiar with this silence.
"Big Brother,"
Chen Qingfeng suddenly spoke, his voice extremely low: "Have you ever thought about how this person was injured?
Who are his enemies?
Is he good or evil?
When he wakes up, what will we be in his eyes?
Probably not even as good as the ants on the ground!"
He paused, the sharp glint in his eyes turning ruthless.
"What if he wakes up and finds our poor, shabby place an eyesore,
or perhaps he dislikes that we saved him slowly,
or simply wants to silence us... would this whole house of people be enough for him to even breathe on?"
Chen Shisheng and Chen Lin shivered at these words.
The faint breath of the person on the kang now seemed like a sharp blade hanging over their heads.
Chen Qingfeng licked his somewhat chapped lips, his voice carrying a desperate madness: "Instead of putting our lives on the line and waiting for him to decide our fate, why not..."
He suddenly raised his hand and drew it sharply across his neck, a clean, decisive motion, with a ruthlessness unbefitting his age.
"End it all! If he dies, the treasures on him are ours!
Who knows, there might be a Dao of cultivation!
Fortune is found in danger; a life is only a life when you hold it in your own hands!"