Chapter 2: Descending into another Universe

“My body’s in pain….”

　　That was Ye Feng’s first thought when he woke up,  he felt like he has been electrocuted thousands of times, it felt like he was going to explode. 

　　His hazy eyes were slowly getting accustomed to the light and he was able to see his surroundings, he thought that he had already been caught by the police, instead, he found out that he was lying in a wooden car, the scenery outside was moving so that means he wasn’t in prison.

　　Next to him were some teenagers wearing weird clothes, making Ye Feng puzzled for a sec, however, they all were sitting with their knees, like how Samurais on TV used to sit. It looked like they were meditating, they didn’t even open their eyes to look at Ye Feng even once. Ye Feng looked at himself, he seemed to have a teenager’s body, it felt stronger, but his legs and feet were obviously shorter than before. Also, he seemed to be wearing some strange animal skin boots.

　　What’s going on here? Ye Feng ignored the pain he felt in his body and started to sit up, but his brain suddenly started hurt, a bunch of images was inserted into his memory, Ye Feng grunted in pain and passed out again. 

　　“Ye Feng! Ye Feng! Wake up! You’ve already slept for two days, anymore you’ll die! Quickly wake up!”

　In the haze, Ye Feng felt like he was calling himself, and slowly regained consciousness. He peeked open an eye, and quickly closed it again.

　　“Did I travel through time and space?” Ye Feng at this moment his brain had a bunch of memories that he has never experienced, it seemed like the ten years of memories just came out of thin air, and those memories gave Ye Feng a surprise, he himself has transmigrated, his soul was passed onto this teenager who passed out from a hit to the neck in a fight, and unfortunately died. Next to him was a person shouting and squeaking like a  bird, hearing the voice he realized it was Lin Tie. Lin Tie and he, the original owner of the body, grew up together. They were both childhood friends, the original owner of the body was also called Ye Feng, in this Ox Cart, Lin Tie was the most concerned about Ye Feng. Ye Feng knows this and refuses to open his eyes, it was because he didn’t know how to communicate with him and he was still recalling the weird memories that he has just received.

　　As he was urgently sorting out the new 10 years of memories he was given, he felt like he understood this world more, this world was made of people that were yellow, it was also similar to Ancient China when there were slaves, furthermore, there were those legendary cultivators that pursue immortality! These cultivators weren’t like modern China’s Taoists, they can actually cultivate true qi through their dantian, and some powerful cultivators even have the ability to soar through skies and fly. The ability to live longer is achieved by every cultivation realm, there were some rumors that there are existences that could live to more than thousands of years, which was simply terrifying!  Ye Feng was very attracted by this new piece of information. Immortality can be said to be the dream of all living beings, but this dream couldn’t be achieved by the human beings on earth, so it could only be regarded as a dream, nothing more. But in this world, you could actually pursue this legendary dream. 

　　Also, right now his body, because they are often searching for potential cultivators in the mortal world, using spiritual beads, they detected a fourth-grade spiritual root, although this means he can barely cultivate.  The original cultivator was reluctant and not prepared to accept any teenagers below the fifth-grade spiritual root because spiritual roots are divided into ten grades, and fifth grades are considered average. First, second and third grades are born as mortals, because their Dantian can’t contain qi so they aren’t able to cultivate, the fourth grade can be considered to be the person who could only barely step into the threshold of cultivation. But Ye Su, the father of the Ye Feng paid a huge price so that he could sit on this Ox Cart that travels to the cultivation world.

　　Ye Feng sorted out his new memories, slowly opened his eyes, and looked at the person who woke him up, what he saw was a teenager that was around 1.6 meters squatting next to him. That was Lin Tie.

　　Lin Tie saw that Ye Feng finally opened his eyes and woken up, and could not help but sigh, “Ye Feng, you have finally woken up, do you know you’ve been asleep for two days, you almost scared me to death, if something happened to you in the middle of our journey, how would I talk to Uncle Ye Su in the future.”

　　Ye Feng carefully chose his words, his chapped lips open, and whilst smiling said, “Thank you Brother Tie for waking me up.”

　　This cart is called the Verdant Ox Cart, this Verdant Ox isn’t your normal Ox that slowly pulls the ground, but is a monster that can travel thousands of miles. The skin and fur of the Ox was all black, it’s very gentle and easy to tame. It’s also three times bigger than a normal Ox. Inside the cart were ten men and women, and this Verdant Ox pulled it, not only that but was going very quickly too, if it was your normal horse or ox, they wouldn’t even be able to move.

　The ten men and women in the cart, including Ye Feng, have passed the spiritual root test, Lin Tie also passed it having a fifth-grade spiritual root, a little better than Ye Feng, his father also hadn’t bribed the cultivator with money and had been chosen unlike him.

　　Ye Feng thought about Ye Su, when he was on Earth, he was brought up by his grandmother, his parents died when he was 1 due to harsh work environments, and his grandmother relied on the compensation fee to pay for Ye Feng’s needs, such as education. Then his grandmother dies peacefully when he was admitted to Qinghua University, Ye Feng has no other relatives back on Earth. Ye Feng felt nothing for his current father, Ye Su. His father has a territory of 100 squared miles (A circle 100miles in diameter), with 3000 elite soldiers in his hand, he was a famous and cruel third-class slave king, equivalent to a governor of a country on Earth, but with a territory that is as big as a country. Ye Feng drank a mouthful of water handed by Lin Tie, leaning on the side of the cart, he started recalling his memory about his weird father.

　　Suddenly he recalled an image, it was in the Slave King’s backyard, Ye Su’s whole face was covered in a beard, with his hands he took out a dark green necklace from his arm, handed it to Ye Feng and said with a cold serious voice, “My son, this is the ancestral treasure of our Ye family. It has been passed down for four generations, we have waited until one of our successors can finally cultivate and have a spiritual root, I don’t know what’s the name of this necklace let’s just call it the dark green necklace, back then our ancestor saved a heavily injured cultivator after he recovered from his injury, he found out that our ancestor only had first-grade spiritual roots and could not cultivate, so he only regrettably gave our ancestor a sum of money and this dark green necklace, this dark green necklace is actually an extradition token, I’ve spent 100,000 wooden spirit coins so that you could have a spot on the Verdant Ox Cart, it was the savings of over 20 years of my life. As long as you enter the world of cultivation and have this necklace you could join any sect you want, so you must take care of it. Whether our family can reach further in the future, and become a family with a backing of a cultivator depends on you. Don’t let me down…  ”

     Ye Feng thought about this and took out the necklace from his pocket to take a look. This necklace was very important, without it, when arriving at the world of cultivation, you could only get the recognition from mosts sects quietly, but with it, you could take the initiative and choose a more powerful sect instead, which can help you cultivation path a lot, keeping it straight and fast, not letting other influences to cause stagnation in your cultivation.

　　As for his father Ye Su, Ye Feng recalled once again, Ye Su wasn’t the best person, he has exploited tons of slaves, when Ye Feng was fifteen years old, when it was time for his coming of age ceremony, a family couldn’t afford to pay the tax due to their farmland being decreased so Ye Su forced their daughter to have her first night to Ye Feng to complete the coming of age ceremony. On Earth, this is like a politician forcing girls to have sex with him.

       “What is this? Ye Feng, are you still thinking about getting beaten? Forget about it, after all you were in the wrong, you harassed her multiple times. I remember warning you about Liu Xue’s two escorts, but you just didn’t listen.   　　

　　“Ha…”

　　Ye Feng heard the name Liu Xue and remembered the reason why the original owner died. The previous owner of the body was a fifteen years old that already had the experience of sex during his coming of age ceremony, he started to become more interested and enthusiastic with love affairs, and he couldn’t look away when he sees beautiful women. There were five carts in this group, and with a total of fifty cultivator seedlings. In another Verdant Ox Cart was a woman called Liu Xue, she was indeed very beautiful with skin as beautiful as snow, and a slim and tall figure. She was the most beautiful woman the original owner has seen since he was a child, so he chased her, three times than four, for eight days. He pestered her every day during the journey for hours, and then he touched her thighs forcefully, and finally angered the anger of two others who were also pursuing this girl. During the night they were told to rest in the cart, so the two teenagers invited Ye Feng to the woods and fought him, he was beaten up until his screams were able to wake up Lin Tie and the coachman, they stopped when they came over but on the last round, he was hit in the neck and was left unconscious.

　　“Ye Feng ah, Ye Feng, you really are an idiot, you really went with them with they asked you to go into the woods, you don’t have any talent in fighting, no less going against two people, it was weird that you didn’t die. However, we are leaving the world of mortals, and going to the world of cultivators please keep in mind that killing isn’t against the law anymore. Ha… when we leave this mortal world I’ll help you teach those boys a lesson. Those two hate your guts now, and will probably find a chance to try to kill you again, I’ll help you deal with them so please don’t try anything.”

　　“Lin Tie, how did the coachman deal with them beating me” Ye Feng wanted to know about where the coachman would stand as he could be regarded as a bodyguard for these cultivator seedlings. If he didn’t care about fighting then Ye Feng would not need to hold back at all when they exchange hands. 

  “The coachman? He only reprimanded those two and fined them one hundred wooden spirit coins, they were also the ones who paid and gave you the medicine for your wounds. To be honest, they wouldn’t care if we thought, even if we killed each other, I bet they wouldn’t even care, although if we killed each other when we are still in the mortal world we will be sent to the government for punishment according to the laws and agreements by the cultivators and mortals when we reach the world of cultivators, we seedlings will also be considered cultivators and I heard in that world, it’s a world with no laws, on the road to immortality, every step taken is robbed, and there will be cruelty and hardships. Cultivators will kill each other with no punishment, the only law is that if one kills the member of the same clan, or break the clan’s rule they may be punished.”

　　When Lin Tie spoke he trembled obviously in awe and fear of this cultivation world, whilst Ye Feng heard all of this with a cold smile, killing wasn’t against the law, an enemy is far more troubling alive than a dead enemy. In a world where killing is allowed, there will be their versions of heroes, heroes born at the wrong time can only result in them falling into a life of misfortune and poverty, but in a world where killing isn’t illegal, they will soar through the clouds. For example, on Earth the heroes of the past, keepers of peace and violence, were known as charitable and ‘heroes’ but in modern settings, those ‘heroes’ can only be regarded as murderers. 

  Ye Feng has slept for two days, and he has also starved for two days, his body was weak, he touched the dagger on his waist, and moved it closer to his right hand, then Lin Tie holding his left hand helped him leave the Cart.

　　When he left the Verdant Ox Cart, in front of Ye Feng were 10 tents, and in front of them were several people cooking and chatting, there were five carts, and in each, there’s males and females, so each cart also houses two tents, one for men and one for women to sleep at night, the coachman will sleep in the cart to care for the Ox and to look out for any beasts that might raid them. They wouldn’t care about any infighting because it wasn’t one of their duties, but they definitely have to protect them from beast attacks, that was their duty, furthermore, in the Cultivator’s Alliance they have sworn an oath to the heavens, if they don’t care they will immediately violate their oaths and be struck down by lightning from the heavens.

　　Ye Feng was assisted to the campfire, he should be able to walk normally but due to him being in a coma for two days and blood stasis which has caused his body to become numb and weak. After applying the medicine that was given for the two days, all his injuries have been healed, only a small bruise remained, right now, only some food can help Ye Feng recover his strength. 

TL note: Blood stasis is an important underlying pathology of many disease processes according to traditional Chinese medicine. 

　　Ye Feng sat in front of the campfire and quickly grabbed the meat from the box, placed it on a stick, and started roasting it. Lin Tie also filled two bowls of vegetable soup from the group pot, a bowl for Ye Feng and a bowl for himself, after finishing his soup, he started to roast his own meat whilst talking to Ye Feng. On this cart the only person he knew was Ye Feng, his father was also a Third Class Slave King who has been great friends with Ye Su for lots of years, during the two days that Ye Feng was in a coma, he hasn’t spoken during that duration. Now that Ye Feng has woken up, he couldn’t stop chatting and constantly talked. Ye Feng also chatted with him while eating his barbecue, he was able to wake me up, I guess I owe him a favor, otherwise, I would’ve woken up in the middle of the night when everyone has already slept and eaten, there wouldn’t be any hot soup to drink. It won’t hurt to chat with him, it’ll also be a good experience to know how people speak in this world.

　　After Ye Feng finished drinking his soup, he poured himself another bowl, then ate several large pieces of meat, he heard that this was wolf meat, after eating a few pieces he immediately felt energized and full of strength, in addition to the bruise he still felt a bit of pain, but no longer the weak and numb feeling.

　　“Ding! The Pathfinder of Universes System is awakening, counting down from 3 minutes.”

　　“The Pathfinder of Universes System?” A strange voice suddenly appeared in his head, Ye Feng was startled, looking left and right, he saw Lin Tie chatting with a few other teenagers, they didn’t seem to have any reaction, as if they didn’t hear anything, Ye Feng carefully asked Lin Tie who was gnawing on a bowl, “Did you hear that ding just now?”

　　Lin Tie lifted his head puzzled, “What ding? I haven’t?”

　　Ye Feng was speechless, shook his head, and said, “Forget it, continue you to eat your meat.”

　　Could it be that the voice he heard just now was only in his mind? Was he the only one who could hear it? The Pathfinder of Universes System…… Ye Feng suddenly remembered, recalling when he was on Earth when he played the game ‘Food Chain’ He seemed to remember seeing something similar on the game page of his computer, Username: The Famous Great Devil, the system is delighted with your poem, congratulations, you were chosen by the system as [The Pathfinder of Universes], in ten seconds the system will bound to you, please be prepared.　　

Is there a game system that transmigrates with you? Or am I still hallucinating…