Shen Yuan's Strange Otherworldly Journey

Cangwu Realm, Eastern Region.

As Shen Yuan regained consciousness from a slight dizziness, his feet were already on solid ground.

The air was filled with the cacophony of hawkers' cries, a strange scent of spices, and even a faint, tingling electric sensation. He looked down and saw that he was still wearing his modern casual clothes, while everyone around him was dressed in ancient attire, wearing Taoist robes and carrying swords—a stark contrast to his surroundings.

"Where did you give this to me?"

Shen Yuan only remembered taking a nap, and when he woke up, he found himself thrown into this strange world. Just as he was completely bewildered, a loli voice suddenly popped into his mind:

"Ding dong! Your newbie gift pack has arrived in your account, please check it out~ Dear!"

Shen Yuan frowned slightly: What is this? A system? He's inexplicably transmigrated and now has a system, a standard feature for transmigrators?

"System?" Shen Yuan quickly calmed down and asked tentatively, "Where are you?"

"Bingo! You guessed it! I am your personal system spirit, Bella!"

A flash of light, and a tiny, chibi-style virtual sprite, about the size of a palm, appeared in his mind, hands on hips, and twirled around, its voice lively, "Congratulations, you lucky unlucky fellow, you've been chosen by the Creator God's 'prank' and bound to this universe's invincible, super powerful [Account Theft System]!"

Before Shen Yuan could even ask a question, Bella began her incessant chatter: "The function is super simple and straightforward! It lets you 'steal' other people's identities, powers, memories, and even lives! For example, you can turn someone who just died and whose body is still relatively intact into a 'skin' to wear; or you can befriend a pretty girl and borrow 'her' appearance and powers; you can even exchange 'accounts' or forcibly turn others into your collectibles!"

A semi-transparent blue screen unfolded in Shen Yuan's field of vision, displaying several icons, but except for the first one, the rest were grayed out and locked.

[Unlocked Features This Week]: Steal Dead Accounts (Cooldown) If the target's corpse is more than 70% intact within 1 hour of ****, it can be converted into "Leather Goods" for wearing, fully inheriting everything about the deceased.

[Unlocked Features]: Affection Rental (Remaining Unlock Time: 6 days 23 hours 59 minutes)

[Unlocked Features]: Character Trading (Remaining Unlock Time: 13 days 23 hours 59 minutes)

[Unlocked Features]: **** Account Theft (Remaining Unlock Time: 20 days 23 hours 59 minutes) - Requires the special item "Ethereal Dagger" to use.

"See that? Pretty impressive, right?"

Bella said smugly, "However, the Creator God was worried you'd get too carried away, so one feature will be unlocked each week! This week's feature is 'collecting corpses'—aren't you excited? And there are absolutely no restrictions or side effects, so use it with confidence!"

Tsk, looks like a game system? And this… leather? I've read plenty of TSF-type novels. As for the later parts, are they related to possession, swapping, and **** skinning? Could there be some kind of conspiracy? He pondered, inexplicably recalling the conspiracy theories about systems in those system-themed novels. Although this system seems to be mostly the mindless wish-fulfillment type, he's not the kind of idiot protagonist who thinks he's invincible just because he has a system, or who thinks he's the chosen one just because he has a system.

After digesting this information, Shen Yuan glanced at the screen and said calmly, "There's no such thing as a free lunch. So... what's the price?"

"Hey? I already said it's a benefit! If you really want to talk about a price..."

Bella tilted her head, pretending to think. "Maybe it's because you have to look forward to new gameplay every day? Or... is the system's overpowered functionality also a problem?" She let out a chuckle.

Shen Yuan ignored her playful smile. No price? There's no such thing as a free lunch. He didn't consider himself a protagonist; who knew if this system would trick him? He'd better play it safe and take it easy for now.

Suddenly, the surrounding crowd stirred and surged in a certain direction.

[Ding! General language module is synchronizing, synchronization rate 35%... Keyword capture: "Flowing Cloud Sword Sect", "recruiting disciples", "assessment"...]

The system was quite considerate; fragmented words flooded his mind, allowing him to barely understand the current situation—a cultivation sect called the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect was recruiting disciples.

"Your chance has come, host!"

Bella immediately perked up, "Let's sign up quickly! Only with a legal identity can we start our 'account theft operation'! Besides, there are definitely lots of pretty senior and junior sisters in the sect..."

Shen Yuan didn't respond to her, lest he be tricked by her. However, having just transmigrated, he did intend to gather information first, and headed towards the square. His modern attire attracted frequent glances from passersby.

The Flowing Cloud Sword Sect's disciple recruitment assessment was held on a vast white jade plaza. A sea of ​​people, young men and women lined up anxiously, waiting to have their innate aptitude tested. On a high platform, several deep-set cultivators in blue robes watched the scene below with expressionless faces. Shen Yuan was at the end of the line. The surrounding conversations were initially indistinct, but as time passed, he understood more and more, and roughly grasped the details of this world—this was Flowing Cloud City in the Eastern Region of the Cangwu Realm, and the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect was one of the most powerful sects in the Eastern Region; it seemed that joining was now unavoidable.

[General Language Module Synchronization 65%...78%...]

When it was finally his turn, the outer disciple in charge of registration frowned at his strange attire. Although he was dressed fairly neatly, who would come to test their spiritual roots dressed like this? He assumed he was some young master from a mortal town who liked to cause trouble by dressing strangely. He then scolded, "Where did this savage come from? Don't you know this is a spiritual root test! This is a sacred place of the immortal sect, how dare you..."

Shen Yuan's face flushed instantly. "You're the real savage!" But he still suppressed his anger and said calmly, "..."

"My name is Shen Yuan. I heard that the Immortal Sect is recruiting talents, so I came to give it a try." Shen Yuan replied seriously after synchronizing the words, which surprised the disciple.

The disciple sized him up a few times, snorted coldly, and impatiently pointed to the spirit-testing stone tablet in front of him: "You want to test your spiritual roots, right? Go ahead! If you don't have the aptitude, then get out of my way and don't disturb my test!"

Amidst countless curious or disdainful gazes, Shen Yuan calmly placed his hand on the cold spirit-testing stone tablet.

One second, two seconds... the stone tablet remained unresponsive.

A faint snicker rippled through the crowd. The registering disciple wore a mocking expression that seemed to say, "Just as I expected."

However, in the very next moment—

Buzz!

The stone tablet suddenly trembled, bursting forth with an unprecedentedly dazzling light! Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple... seven colors of light flowed wildly, finally intertwining and merging into a chaotic and mysterious mystical color, soaring into the sky and illuminating the entire white jade square with unparalleled magnificence!

The entire square was deathly silent.

The Golden Core cultivators on the high platform, who had been resting with their eyes closed, suddenly opened their eyes and stood up abruptly!

"Seven...Seven Luminaries Chaotic Body?!"

The leading elder was extremely excited, "The legendary innate chaotic Dao body?! A once-in-ten-thousand-years immortal seedling!"

The disdainful, mocking, and contemptuous gazes instantly transformed into endless shock, jealousy, and disbelief.

The disciple who was registering stared wide-eyed, and the magic pen in his hand fell to the ground with a "thud".

"Holy crap!"

Shen Yuan himself was slightly taken aback and somewhat bewildered. He had just felt the stone tablet frantically stimulating some kind of hidden power within him, but he hadn't expected such a commotion.

In Shen Yuan's mind, Bella screamed excitedly, "Wow! Host, you're amazing! A Chaotic Body! Superb talent! We're rich now! We can walk sideways now! All the pretty senior sisters will definitely be vying to give us their favor! Quick! Take this opportunity to flirt with a few more... oh no, I mean, first establish a firm foothold!"

The elder appeared before Shen Yuan almost instantly, his expression excited. "Good, good! Child! What... what's your name?"

"Would you be willing to join my Flowing Cloud Sword Sect? If so, I will immediately report to the Ancestor and accept you as a personal disciple!"

Looking at the excited old man before him, and sensing the vast potential within his body that seemed to be slowly awakening due to stimulation, Shen Yuan quickly made a decision: Uh? With such heaven-defying talent at the start, am I really the protagonist? Oh well... I'll just agree for now.

He suppressed Bella's frantic ramblings in his mind and bowed respectfully to the elder.

"Disciple Shen Yuan is willing to join your sect."

"Good! Good! Good!"

The elder exclaimed "Good!" three times, in high spirits. He grabbed Shen Yuan's wrist with such **** that if Shen Yuan hadn't possessed the "Seven Luminaries Chaotic Body," his bones would likely have been crushed.

Shen Yuan gritted his teeth and cursed inwardly: Old Deng, are you fucking crazy?!

Seeing Shen Yuan's distressed expression, Elder Zhao released his grip on Shen Yuan's hand. "Haha, I'm sorry, young friend. My surname is Zhao, and I am one of the outer elders of the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect. Young friend Shen Yuan, oh no, Junior Nephew Shen! Come with me, and I will personally handle your entry into the sect!" His voice was loud and urgent, as if he was afraid that this once-in-a-millennium talent would grow wings and fly away in the next second.

Before anyone could react, he grabbed Shen Yuan, and with a flash of spiritual light, they transformed into a streak of azure light and flew towards the misty mountains behind the plaza. This left countless stunned examinees and other cultivators with complex expressions on their faces.

"Flying through the air! This old man's in a real hurry!" Bella exclaimed in Shen Yuan's mind. "Host, host, how does it feel? Isn't it exciting?"

Shen Yuan ignored Bella.

He was experiencing the strange sensation of his first flight off the ground—

The wind whistled in my ears, and the Cloud City below rapidly shrank into a chessboard pattern, with rolling mountains and swirling clouds rushing towards me. Before this grand spectacle of nature, a strange sense of freedom and insignificance welled up within me.

"Cool!"

He could clearly feel the pure spiritual energy of heaven and earth spontaneously and joyfully flowing into his body, nourishing his newly awakened chaotic body, and he was overjoyed:

"Is this what flying is? I never thought I could cultivate immortality! No matter what kind of conspiracy this system has, I'm determined to cultivate immortality!"

Before long, they landed before the mountain gate. A towering white marble archway reached into the clouds, inscribed with four large, elegant characters: "Flowing Cloud Sword Sect." Behind the archway stretched an endless series of blue stone steps, leading straight into the depths of the clouds. Disciples stood guard on either side of the gate. Upon seeing Elder Zhao, they bowed and glanced curiously at Shen Yuan's "strange attire," but asked no further questions.

With a wave of his sleeve, Elder Zhao led Shen Yuan directly over the mountain gate and flew up the blue stone steps. Pavilions, towers, waterfalls and springs flashed by along the way, and the rich spiritual energy made Shen Yuan's pores unconsciously open up.

In front of the ancient and simple main hall. The plaque above the hall gate reads "Hall of Records".

"Old Zhang! Old Zhang! Come out quickly! There's some amazing news!" Elder Zhao grabbed Shen Yuan and rushed inside.

Inside the hall, a fat elder who was writing documents at his desk looked up and said with displeasure, "Zhao the Madman, what the hell are you yelling about? The rules are all... uh?"

His gaze fell on Shen Yuan's clothes, which were out of place among modern people, and then he sensed the mysterious aura emanating from Shen Yuan, causing his pupils to shrink.

Elder Zhang's expression turned solemn. "Who is this...?"

"Shen Yuan! A newly recruited disciple! He possesses the Seven Luminaries Chaotic Physique, a once-in-ten-thousand-years talent!"

"hiss--"

"What?!" Elder Zhang gasped, his plump body leaping quickly to Shen Yuan's side, his face growing increasingly shocked.

"Spiritual energy gathers naturally, and Daoist principles are hidden within... This... this legendary physique actually exists?!"

He turned to Elder Zhao and asked, "Has the news been blocked? Has it been reported to the sect leader and the inner sect elders?"

"Not yet! I'll bring him here to register first! This is of utmost importance!" Elder Zhao said urgently.

"Yes, yes, yes! Register them! Register them immediately!"

Elder Zhang realized what was happening and quickly returned to his desk, taking out a jade slip and a brush to prepare for recording. "Shen Yuan, where are you from? How old are you this year?"

Shen Yuan had already prepared his explanation: "This disciple is a refugee from overseas, isolated from the world since childhood, and only recently ended up here due to an accident. As for my age, um... eighteen years old." He blurred his origins and attributed his fluency in language to his status as a refugee from overseas. Anyway, with his high talent, no one would really hold him back.

"Hmm... overseas Chinese? No wonder they're dressed like that..."

Elder Zhang didn't dwell on whether his words were true or false, as long as the physique was real. He quickly entered the information into the jade slip, which flashed and absorbed Shen Yuan's basic information.

"This is your identity jade token."

Elder Zhang took out a blank jade tablet, traced the characters "Shen Yuan" and a special cloud pattern on it with his fingers, and said, "Drip a drop of blood on it. From now on, this will be your identity certificate in the sect. You can also use it to receive sect missions, exchange contribution points, and open the cave's restrictions."

Shen Yuan did as instructed, pricking his fingertip and squeezing out a drop of blood onto the jade tablet. The jade tablet instantly absorbed the blood, its surface shimmering with light, and a faint mental connection was established between him and the tablet.

[Identity credential obtained: Jade token for inner disciple of the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect. Basic global identity verification successful.]

[System notification: The "Steal Dead Accounts" feature has finished its cooldown this week and is now available.]

Bella's voice rang out at the opportune moment, tinged with encouragement: "Yo ho! The function is unlocked! Host, how about we go find a pretty... uh, I mean, a suitable backup 'skin' right now?"

"Shut up."

Shen Yuan has absolutely no interest in using this function now, especially in this unfamiliar place, surrounded by high-level cultivators, where "stealing" an account is not an easy task.

"alright!"

Elder Zhang handed the jade token to Shen Yuan, his expression turning serious. "Nephew Shen, your talent is unparalleled throughout history, but you must remember this! A genius who has not yet grown up, if he falls, is nothing more than a fallen ant! So before you formally become a disciple and receive sufficient protection, you must never mention your physique to outsiders!"

Elder Zhao, you and I must immediately swear an oath against our inner demons, temporarily guard this secret, and await the sect leader's decision!

Elder Zhao's expression hardened, and he nodded solemnly: "That's exactly what I was thinking!"

Seeing that the two immediately and without hesitation swore an oath to their inner demons, Shen Yuan's impression of the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect improved slightly. It seemed that the first hurdle of the transmigration was no problem.

Then, Elder Zhang summoned a disciple in charge: "Take Junior Nephew Shen to the Jia-character area to select the best cave dwelling. All expenses must be provided to the highest standard! There must be no negligence!"

The disciple in charge initially looked down on Shen Yuan because he seemed to have no cultivation, but upon hearing "A-grade area" and "highest standard," and seeing the two elders' extremely solemn expressions, he immediately put aside all his thoughts and respectfully said to Shen Yuan, "Senior Brother Shen, please follow me."

Shen Yuan was surprised to see that this disciple, who had already embarked on cultivation, actually addressed him as senior brother. It seemed that the world of cultivation was indeed just like the one described in novels, where strength was paramount.

Shen Yuan bowed to the two elders and then left the Records Hall with the disciple in charge.

The disciple in charge summoned a leaf-like flying artifact, carrying Shen Yuan deep into the mountains. The deeper they went, the denser the spiritual energy became, and the more serene and beautiful the scenery grew.

The flying artifact landed in a region clinging to a cliff, shrouded in mist. Dozens of cave dwellings were scattered here, each with a protective barrier shimmering with spiritual light at its entrance.

"Senior Brother Shen, all the cave dwellings in the Jia section are empty. You can choose any one. This is a control jade talisman. Simply place your identity jade token close to the cave dwelling's stone door, and it will recognize you as its owner and grant you the control incantation." The disciple in charge respectfully handed over a jade talisman.

Shen Yuan chose a secluded cave dwelling and affixed his identity jade token to the smooth, mirror-like stone door.

"Buzz—"

The protective barrier on the stone door flashed and quickly disappeared. The heavy stone door slid open silently, revealing a spacious interior: a stone bed, a stone table, and a futon were all present. In the corner, there was a small spiritual spring, from which spring water gushed forth, carrying a rich spiritual energy and filling the entire cave with a refreshing fragrance.

"Junior brother takes his leave. If senior brother needs anything, he can send a message to the Hall of Affairs through this jade token." The disciple in charge glanced enviously at the spiritual spring in the cave, bowed respectfully, and left on his magical artifact.

Shen Yuan stepped into the cave, and the stone door slowly closed behind him, the restriction rising again to isolate the inside from the outside.

The cave fell silent instantly, with only the faint sound of the spring flowing.

He walked to the stone bed and sat down, finally having the opportunity to carefully examine this temporary place of refuge, and finally having time to sort out the chaotic information in his mind.

[Ding~ Successfully moved into the new home! Environmental assessment: Excellent! Spiritual energy concentration: High! Very suitable for the host's cultivation and... keeping a mistress as a treasure!]

Bella popped out with a grin, "How's it going, host? Pretty good start, right? All thanks to this excellent talent the system picked for you~"

Shen Yuan ignored her boasting and instead asked in a deep voice, "Bella, what exactly is going on with my aptitude? And what exactly does that 'account theft' function do?"

Bella revealed a sly smile: "Hehe, the system originally gave you the aptitude of an Innate Sacred Body Dao Embryo! But I felt that another guy already had this physique, so it would be a bit boring for you to have this one too~ So your current physique was randomly drawn by me during the lottery, it's a little less than an Innate Sacred Body Dao Embryo, but it's still very strong!"

Upon hearing this, Shen Yuan instantly switched to a battle-ready expression, his emotions running high. "What are you spouting? Innate Sacred Body Dao Embryo?! That's an Innate Sacred Body Dao Embryo! You just took it upon yourself to brag about it?" He knew all too well how powerful this physique was; in novels, those with it leveled up as easily as drinking water, although the Chaos Body wasn't bad either. But it was something he had from the start, and now that he'd lost it, it was hard not to be angry.

"Oh dear, it's alright~ Anyway, your current Chaos Body is quite strong. No matter what kind of physique it is, being able to cultivate to its peak is a good physique. Alright, alright, it's all in the past. Don't you want to know the system's functions?" Bella comforted him like a child who had done something wrong.

"you say."

Shen Yuan became interested. He had now fully accepted the existence of the system. After all, his physique was given to him by the system. Even if there was some conspiracy, he would enjoy himself first.

Bella explained, "This 'account theft' function, just like I said at the beginning, requires a recently deceased entity—note, a living entity!"

"Oh? That's so evil? Does it really mean I have to take someone else's identity like in those novels?" Shen Yuan didn't consider himself a good person, but to him, this was indeed a bit too immoral...

"What about the features that will be unlocked later?" he asked eagerly, wanting to know all the requirements for the system's functions right now.

But Bella pretended to be mysterious, "Hehe, well, I'll keep you in suspense for now. But I can tell you the specific requirements, anyway, you need to work hard to improve your cultivation."

Seeing that he couldn't get any more information, Shen Yuan muttered to himself, "I see, I understand."

Improving one's cultivation level aligns with Shen Yuan's own thoughts. After all, having come to this world of cultivation, if one cannot achieve immortality, wouldn't it be a waste of his time to have transmigrated? Moreover, he now possesses this... strange system.