Chapter 1: Arrival

Snow and wind raged.

Evening.

A hunched figure appeared at the mouth of the alley, wiped the snow from his face, and pushed open the wooden gate of a dilapidated courtyard.

There were several rooms in the courtyard, and he walked familiarly toward one of them.

"Chen Lin, why did you go out in this kind of weather? Aren't you afraid of running into something sinister?"

Seemingly hearing the sound of the door opening, the window of another room was pushed open, revealing a sallow-faced woman.

"Oh, we were out of rice at home, so I went out to buy some. I plan to go into seclusion for a while," Chen Lin replied with an "oh," gesturing to the large bag in his hand.

The woman's eyes suddenly lit up. She eagerly poked her head out, shielding her forehead with her hand to keep the snowflakes from falling into her eyes, and stared at the bag in Chen Lin's hand. "You managed to buy rice? Could you spare me some?"

"No!"

Chen Lin refused decisively and pulled open his own door.

"I can trade things for it!"

The woman's voice grew more urgent; she was about to run out of food.

"Do you still have anything valuable to trade?"

Chen Lin paused and looked at her skeptically.

The woman opened her mouth, then suddenly gritted her teeth and puffed out her chest. "How about I keep you company for a night?"

*Bang!*

The answer she received was the dull sound of a door slamming shut.

Seeing this, the woman revealed a look of disappointment.

Suddenly, her temperament changed drastically. She squinted her eyes and let out a strange, cold sneer. "Damn old thing, you deserve to be a bachelor. I curse you to be constipated after you finish eating! Just wait until I break through to the middle stage of Qi Refining, I'll show you!"

"Pah!"

After spitting viciously, the woman slammed her window shut with a bang.

Snowflakes the size of goose feathers instantly covered the footprints in the courtyard, and the entire city was shrouded in the blizzard.

Chen Lin stood inside the room, silently watching the woman's face disappear through the window, then turned back around.

He took off his hat, shook the snow off his body, and put the rice into the rice jar.

He found a few pieces of firewood and relit the extinguished stove, and the temperature in the room slowly began to rise.

Staring blankly at the fire for a while, Chen Lin sighed, stood up, and began to cook.

After placing the washed rice on the stove, he turned and walked to a dilapidated wooden table.

He sat down and opened the drawer.

First, he took out a stack of palm-sized yellow paper from his pocket, then took out a silver brush.

Finally, he carefully pulled out an ink-colored bottle from his pocket and placed them all on the table.

These items were the talisman paper, talisman brush, and spiritual ink used for crafting talismans.

His risky trip out today wasn't just because of the rice; the main reason was to buy this spiritual ink.

A tiny bottle cost several spirit stones, so expensive it made his heart bleed.

Glancing at the porridge simmering on the stove, Chen Lin took a breath, picked up a piece of talisman paper, and laid it flat.

He dipped the silver talisman brush into the spiritual ink, adjusted his posture to the best state, and his expression became solemn.

As the tip of the brush touched the paper, thin lines shimmering with the fluorescent glow of the spiritual ink appeared on the paper, slowly forming one profound talismanic rune after another.

The seemingly effortless drawing caused sweat to bead on Chen Lin's nose, and the speed of his brushwork grew slower and slower.

Just as the entire talisman was half-drawn, the runes on it suddenly flickered rapidly twice, and then *bang*—it exploded.

Looking at the small scorched patch on the table in front of him, Chen Lin grimaced.

"A first-grade mid-tier talisman is indeed much harder than a Strength Talisman, and the requirements for mana are higher. My second-layer Qi Refining cultivation is too strained."

He shook his head, muttered to himself, and picked up another piece of talisman paper to lay it flat.

The repetitive process continued.

This time, he drew more of the rune lines than before, but it still couldn't escape the fate of failure, exploding halfway through.

However, Chen Lin didn't feel any defeat; he calmly picked up another piece of talisman paper and laid it flat.

Failure again.

Laid it flat.

Failure.

Laid it flat.

Failure.

Chen Lin was like a robot, constantly repeating the action of drawing runes.

Just like that.

He repeated it nine times.

Then.

The tenth time.

His movements remained unchanged, and the talisman began to flicker and explode halfway through again.

But.

Just as the runes on the talisman flickered for a moment and were about to explode, it was as if a giant hand from the void had roughly gathered the exploding energy back together and forcefully pressed it back into the talisman paper.

Immediately after.

The talisman paper flashed, the rune lines on it became clear and bright, and soon settled down.

An obscure fireball pattern appeared on the talisman.

"It seems my 'Golden Finger' ability is also effective for crafting first-grade mid-tier talismans. That's another source of income, though the ability is a bit weak—it takes ten tries to succeed once."

Chen Lin held the talisman in his hand, nodded, and then shook his head.

As a transmigrator, no matter how poor the identity he obtained was, there were still some essential perks.

It was just that this Golden Finger was a bit of a chicken rib.

It was an innate ability he called "Ten Tries, One Success."

The full name could be: "Theoretically feasible, and using the correct method to craft any item, it will definitely succeed once in ten tries."

If there wasn't the restriction of "using the correct method," this ability would be heaven-defying, but with this restriction, it was quite frustrating.

What is the correct method?

Suppose one wants to refine a pill; first, one must master the pill formula, be familiar with the refining steps, possess a matching alchemy furnace and fire source, and one's cultivation must be within a reasonable range.

Only then could one succeed once in ten tries.

"Forget it, it's better than nothing."

Chen Lin didn't continue to complain.

Transmigrating into such a dangerous world with such a poor start, having an "ability" to rely on was already quite good.

At least, he could survive.

The fragrance of rice filled the air.

The porridge was ready.

Chen Lin stopped overthinking, took the porridge pot off the stove, ladled a bowl, and began to slurp it down.

Don't think this was just rice porridge; it wasn't ordinary rice, but spiritual rice. Not only was the taste lingering and endless, but it also had certain benefits for his cultivation.

The price naturally wasn't cheap—one spirit stone per catty.

Spirit stones were ores containing spiritual energy. Because they could be used in many aspects, they became the currency for cultivators.

Their value was naturally related to the abundance of the mines.

According to his understanding, there seemed to be quite a few spirit stone mines here, so the purchasing power of spirit stones was only average. For things that were truly valuable, most people used the primitive method of barter.

Of course, no matter how low the value of spirit stones was, it was only relative; it didn't mean they were easy to earn. If you were poor, you stayed poor.

So, he usually didn't dare to be this extravagant. This time, it was because his cultivation had reached the peak of the second layer of Qi Refining, and he wanted to see if he could use the energy of the spiritual rice to break through, so he gritted his teeth and bought some.

A bowl of porridge was quickly finished.

Gentle spiritual energy began to radiate from his stomach to his whole body.

It was warm and very comfortable.

Unfortunately, there was too little spiritual energy, and it quickly dissipated.

Still wanting more, Chen Lin was about to ladle another bowl when footsteps suddenly sounded outside.

Immediately after, the door knocker was pulled, but it wouldn't open.

"Fellow Daoist Chen, open the door quickly. It's me, Zhao Zhengyuan."

Hearing the familiar voice, Chen Lin quickly covered the porridge pot and set it aside, took out an Evil-Warding Talisman to hold in his hand, and only then walked to the door to open it.

"It's so late, what's the matter?"

Glancing at the middle-aged man outside who looked honest and loyal, Chen Lin had no intention of inviting him into the room.

The other party was also a tenant in this courtyard and had a decent relationship with the original owner of this body. However, everything here was very sinister, and one had to maintain the necessary vigilance.

"Hehe, I smelled the fragrance of your spiritual rice from my room. I just happened to cook the last of the black-spotted tiger meat, and I have a bottle of wine, so I came to ask you to have a drink with me."

The middle-aged man raised the things in his hands and said with a smile.

After speaking, he suddenly raised his head, squinted his eyes, and revealed a strange, cold sneer.

This change was extremely abrupt.

It was as if the person had suddenly been replaced, his temperament changing along with it. It had that legendary feeling of being evil, charming, and arrogant, which made one feel very uncomfortable.

But Chen Lin was not surprised.

Ever since he transmigrated, he had discovered that everyone here would reveal such a cold sneer from time to time.

For no reason, at any time, they might just do it.

After revealing such a smile, the person would instantly become extremely arrogant and defiant.

And the person themselves seemed to have no feeling about it at all.

The people here all had problems.

Big problems!

Unfortunately, his cultivation was too weak to do anything, so he could only suppress his terror in his heart and slowly look for a way to break the situation.

And in order not to attract attention, he would also do this action from time to time.

Chen Lin squinted his eyes and sneered, "Alright, let's have a drink together."

It just so happened that he had some things he wanted to ask the other party for advice on, so he nodded in agreement.

Just then, the window of the other room was pushed open again, and the sallow-faced woman's head poked out.

Seeing the wine and meat, her eyes suddenly emitted a piercing light.

"Zhao Zhengyuan, what's the point of drinking with a stingy man? Come over to my place; not only can you drink wine, but you can also drink soup!"

Hearing this, Chen Lin looked at the woman, then at Zhao Zhengyuan, with a half-smile.

Zhao Zhengyuan grimaced and walked directly into the room.

*Bang!* He closed the door behind him.

Outside, the woman's furious cursing immediately rang out.

"You spineless coward, no man is any good! Just wait until I break through, I'll throw you all out into the wilderness to feed the demonic beasts!"

The two looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly.

Since the other party had brought wine and food over, Chen Lin could only bring out the spiritual rice porridge he had hidden away and ladled two bowls.

He sliced the cooked black-spotted tiger meat, filled the wine cups, and began to drink.

"It's getting more and more unstable in the city lately. Have you heard? The head of the Zhang family has disappeared for no reason. Neither hide nor hair of him can be found, and he was a Foundation Establishment cultivator!"

Zhao Zhengyuan took a sip of wine and said with an exclamation.

Chen Lin's eyes flickered.

He thought to himself that in this sinister place, let alone one Foundation Establishment cultivator dying, even if the entire city died overnight, it wouldn't be strange.

Although he complained in his heart, on the surface, he still showed an expression of deep agreement.

"Yeah, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator can just disappear like that. It's getting more and more chaotic in the city."

After speaking, he drank the wine in his cup in one gulp.

The refreshing and sweet liquid went down his throat into his stomach.

First, it was cool, then it emitted waves of heat, extending from his chest to his limbs and bones, making the mana in his body become active.

The spiritual energy in this spiritual wine was much stronger than the spiritual rice porridge!