ICTEUWMN Chapter 152.1

Although Yu Mian had to admit that this cultivation short story, as the outline of the original “transmigration” novel, was indeed a bit too stimulating.

Aside from not being very kind to readers’ hearts, it was otherwise a well-qualified original work of cultivation xianxia in need of salvation.

The stage for the protagonist to showcase his talents after transmigrating was incomparably vast.

“There are knives? I don’t believe it. Just how many knives could there be? I have to see it for myself today.”

After quietly admiring the illustrations and character designs, everyone in the office had developed an intense anticipation for this legendary cultivation world.

A few simple warnings online were far from enough to deter them.

The more those who had already read it wailed in despair, the more curious those who hadn’t read it became, driven by pure contrarian curiosity.

Even Lu Wei, who had been silent in the corner, unconsciously straightened up and curiously opened the main text.

Judging from various introductions, “The Vast Immortal Path” clearly should have been about immortal cultivators, drifting through the world in their flowing robes and detached from the mundane.

But to everyone’s surprise, the protagonist of the original novel, Qi Hanzhou, started off as a mere mortal boy with a tragic background.

The story opened on a stormy and perilous night. A mother covered in blood placed the baby swaddled in her arms at the entrance of a secular orphanage before passing away.

This gruesome and eerie act of abandonment caused Qi Hanzhou to be plagued by ominous rumors and speculation from the moment of his birth.

Some claimed his mother was likely a fugitive who had fled to this place, hurriedly discarding the child to protect herself. They argued that the orphanage should rid itself of this fugitive’s son to avoid trouble.

Others viewed his mother’s actions with disgust, believing she must have done something disgraceful, leaving her with nowhere to go after giving birth.

Thus, Qi Hanzhou grew up in silence, as insignificant as withered grass in such an environment.

Until the year he turned twelve, when the largest cultivation sect in this remote area came to select children with exceptional aptitude.

Qi Hanzhou, who had been relegated to sweeping the back courtyard due to being ostracized, was not even eligible to participate in the selection.

However, when he happened to pick up a lost jade pendant and returned it to its owner, he was unexpectedly noticed by an elder, causing an uproar among the crowd.

“Wait, I know this trope! This must be one of those situations where a powerful elder like Teacher Hachir is about to appear! He must be moved by our Hanzhou’s perseverance, right?”

A reader’s eyes lit up as they slapped the table in excitement.

They were all too familiar with this classic refreshing plot routine. The protagonist was definitely about to soar to new heights!

However, what shocked everyone was that this elder was not following Hachir’s script…

Because, in reality, this elder had long lost hope of breaking through and was nearing the end of his lifespan. So he was secretly selecting a youth with exceptional aptitude, planning to seize his soul and take over his body!

“Fuck! Why doesn’t this story follow common sense! Aren’t the old men protagonists meet supposed to be golden-finger mentors?!”

Most interstellar readers who had read this far were already clutching their heads in pain.

Previously, there was Grandpa Caesar in “Contract Marriage”, and Teacher Hachir in “Rebirth Of The Interstellar Soldier King”. Why was the old man in this story so evil and cruel?

His own lifespan was running out, so he was just going to ‘seize’ someone else’s body and start over?

Although the concept of ‘soul possession’ in cultivation was a shock to many readers, it felt both novel and terrifying.

Thinking about it from an interstellar perspective, where everyone had a mental sea, if an old person could possess a younger one’s mental sea and take over their body, wouldn’t society descend into chaos?

“Why does it feel like this world of cultivation isn’t as beautiful as I imagined?”

Instead, due to its ultimate pursuit of transcendence and immortality, it had become a brutal world governed by the law of the jungle, where only the strong survived.

The office was in a state of shock. Meanwhile, Lu Wei frowned as he examined the setting notes beneath the text, carefully reading the lifespan limits for each cultivation stage; Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, and Mahayana.

Even reaching Core Formation, if one failed to advance to the next level before the age of two hundred, they would inevitably fall behind and perish on the vast and perilous path to immortality.

The bitterness and frustration of such a fate were almost unimaginable.

And the true peculiarity of this short story began right here.

In this world where cultivators and mortals coexisted, the power of the immortals far surpassed that of the mortals, whom they regarded as mere ants.

Yet the two realms were also delicately balanced by their unique forces.

Some cultivators spent their entire lives in relentless pursuit of ascension, devoting themselves to the path of immortality.

But there were also those who, unable to break through, succumbed to worldly temptations, becoming honored guests of mortal nobility and indulging in secular pleasures. From then on, their desire to cultivate immortality fades and they no longer make any progress.

“Why do I feel that the latter option doesn’t sound too bad. The path of cultivation looks so difficult, enjoying this lifetime’s pleasures seems pretty tempting.”

“No, no, no! That’s not right! The purpose of flying on swords and mastering mystical arts is to seek immortality, not to flaunt their abilities in front of mortals! These people don’t have the so-called ‘heart of the Dao’ at all!”

Even such a contrasting life choice sparked an intense debate.

And Qi Hanzhou’s path to cultivation was even colder and crueler.

On the day of his coming-of-age, the elder attempted to seize his body. However, by sheer accident, the process awakened Qi Hanzhou’s spiritual roots, which instinctively retaliated and killed the elder in self-defense.

The failed possession resulted in the elder’s complete destruction and his soul shattered.

However, from that day forward, the eighteen-year-old Qi Hanzhou bore the crime of murdering his master.

No matter how the taciturn young man tried to explain, all he received in return were relentless manhunts and scornful, disdainful gazes. Everyone was convinced that he had killed his master.

Even with the major sects hunting him down and no way to prove his innocence, Qi Hanzhou still clung to a sliver of youthful hope.

But all he encountered was a cold and merciless abyss.

Even when he risked being pierced through the left arm by a sword to retrieve the treasured Huiying Pearl, just to prove he had not killed his master, the cultivators remained indifferent.

* “回影” (Huiying) means “reflecting images” or “replaying shadows.”

Instead, they sought to extract his rare spiritual root and refine it into a pill.

A young man with no background and bearing rare spiritual roots was no different from “a child carrying a fortune through a chaotic marketplace.”

The truth no longer mattered. What mattered was who could seize the rare spiritual roots in a way that seemed reasonable, making it the focus of everyone’s struggle for interests.

And this pursuit made the blood-soaked young man plummeting into the icy glacier realize for the first time that the path of cultivation was really ruthless.

“Impossible, this is absolutely impossible! The story can’t stay this cruel, right? Our protagonist is bound to become powerful, the very first line of the synopsis says so!”

Many readers were already shaken and doubtful, but they still stubbornly pressed on.

After all, Teacher Fish Soup Noodles couldn’t be tricking them with a fake synopsis, right?

It promised that the protagonist would ascend to the peak of the immortal path.

And sure enough, he did ascend, but in a twisted, cold-blooded, and completely deranged way!

Because the plot of this story was truly abusive and insane!

After enduring countless hardships to escape his pursuers, Qi Hanzhou eventually went into hiding, assumed a false identity and made his way to Yanzhou, a region filled with immortal sects. There, he met normal sect members and formed bonds with his senior and junior brothers.

“This time, he should finally have a normal development arc, right?”

But instead, what awaited him was the brutal internal strife among the local cultivation sects. His once good friends and sect brothers were all massacred in a great slaughter…

Even later in the story, when his powerful father found him, readers had just slapped their thighs, thinking, “This time, he’s finally getting a golden finger, right?”

Only for the next second to be completely stunned by a new cultivation concept—”The Dao of Ruthlessness.”

It turned out that Qi Hanzhou’s father was indeed a great figure, but he cultivated the Dao of Ruthlessness, which required severing all worldly ties to achieve immortality. Years ago, he had tried to kill his wife to prove his Dao, but she had escaped with their child… which eventually led to Qi Hanzhou’s tragic fate.

Now, this man, who had already chosen to forsake everything for immortality, remained breathtakingly handsome but completely cold and ruthless. Without hesitation, he moved to kill his own son in order to sever his final mortal tie.

“What?! The Dao of Ruthlessness? What kind of horror is this? How can you sever your ties to even your wife and child!”

Countless interstellar readers began to doubt their world views in pain.

This was not the cultivation story they had imagined at all!

And just as they began doubting their entire worldview, they turned the next page…only to see their own complaints appear in the story!

[[“This is nothing like the cultivation story I imagined!”

Lin Shuyi was on the verge of questioning what kind of horror story this author had written.

As a protagonist stan, watching Qi Hanzhou change from a quiet and kind boy into a cold, ruthless and distrustful person, eventually even killing his father and becoming just like him, Lin Shuyi desperately wanted to jump into the book and shake him awake.

You have become the very monster you once sought to slay. Is this really the person you wanted to be?

The only difference was that Qi Hanzhou had never had any family. He ascended the great Dao alone, only to find nothing but emptiness awaiting him.

“So what kind of ending is this!”

After staying up all night to finish the book, Lin Shuyi clung to a desperate belief: “No way, it can’t all be knives!”

Only to realize, to his absolute horror, that the author had truly wielded the knife from beginning to end.

Staring at the author’s name, “Two Bowls of Fish Soup Noodles,” Lin Shuyi was filled with uncontainable resentment.

What kind of author is this? Zero talent!

However, that very night after Lin Shuyi went to bed filled with grief and indignation, he transmigrated into the book.

When he woke up, he found that he had become a character with the exact same name–Lin Shuyi, the son of the sect leader from Qi Hanzhou’s first sect.

A supporting character with barely any screen time!

Meanwhile, the elder selection team had just stepped into the gates of the orphanage.

“The Vast Immortal Path: Prologue” — End]]

“Ah!?!”

“Ah…”

“Ah, this?”

As they reached the final part, everyone grimaced and had all kinds of expressions.

There were simply too many shocking and unexpected twists, leaving them unsure where to begin reacting.

How had their very own complaints been accurately written into the story by Teacher Fish Soup Noodles?

So you also know this story is too cruel and perverted?!

“And what’s with the author’s name, ‘Two Bowls of Fish Soup Noodles’ in the story? Do you really think slapping that name on it would make us believe it wasn’t you?”

It felt as if the protagonist, Lin Shuyi, had spoken their collective grievances aloud.

But more than anything…

“So if we scold the author and the plot… will we really wake up the next day inside the book?”

A small voice posed this question, and the entire room suddenly fell silent.

This damned sense of immersion.

It actually made everyone afraid to speak.

And as more people finished reading this short story, discussions exploded across the star network.

[Help! First of all, I should’ve listened! I shouldn’t have rushed to finish this short story. The world-building is very fresh, but the plot of raining knives TwT… And this ending? It completely left me hanging!]

[And the worst part is, the cliffhanger is actually well-placed. One second, I was cursing the plot alongside Xiao Lin, and the next, I watched him travel into the book… I just… (covers face)]

[Could it be that Teacher Fish Soup Noodles anticipated our reactions in advance?]

[More than that! I’m starting to suspect he’s hiding behind his light brain right now, giggling!]

Having followed Fish Soup Noodles’ works for so long, the fans who have experienced the ups and downs of life had gradually gained a deeper understanding into Fish Soup Noodles’ character.

Especially ever since Yu Mian started reading eerie horror stories to them every night with his pleasant voice, they had become certain of one thing;

Fish Soup Noodles’ true personality as a writer was definitely a bit devilish!

A stark contrast to the deceivingly angelic appearance.

[Damn it! how could someone deliberately write a plot like this?!]

[Teacher Fish Soup Noodles definitely just wants to see us panic! Fine, I admit it! You win! I’m actually starting to freak out. I just cursed this story even more harshly than Xiao Lin did, TwT…]