Chapter 1: The Entry System

Great Qian, Qinghe County.

The moonlight blazed down. At the foot of the mountain, a figure crawled up from a straw bed inside a hut.

"The White Lotus Sect has shown itself. It seems it’s truly impossible to remain in Qinghe County any longer. If I don’t join them, I’ll die; but if I do…"

"Forget it. Tomorrow morning, I’ll sell off all my remaining goods and flee to Cizhou next door. No matter what, it’s bound to be more peaceful than Cangzhou."

"Besides, my golden finger is about to activate."

Bathed in moonlight, Yang Le’s expression was somewhat dazed.

Three months ago, Yang Le was scrolling through Douyin and eating hot pot when a speeding truck whisked him away to the chaotic world of Great Qian, where he became a humble herb-gatherer in Qinghe County.

The good news: Yang Le had a golden finger.

The bad news: After three days in this world, his golden finger’s progress bar had only loaded to 3.33 percent.

His original plan had been to wait in Qinghe County for three months until his golden finger was fully activated before making any moves.

During this period, Yang Le managed to eke out a meager living by relying on his herbal knowledge from his previous life, foraging in the mountains. If nothing unexpected happened, he even planned to save up five hundred coins and become an apprentice at Zhengfeng Martial Hall in town, training in the martial path.

In these troubled times, it was crucial to gain some ability to defend himself.

But things took a turn for the worse. Until yesterday, everything had been going smoothly. That morning, Wang Ermazi from the teahouse next door brought Yang Le alarming news.

The so-called merciful White Lotus Sect had already conquered Qingyuan County nearby, less than a hundred miles from Qinghe.

Just like that, Yang Le’s carefully laid plans were shattered.

In this era of Great Qian’s chaos, the White Lotus Sect was the fiercest among the eighteen rebel armies. Rumor had it that every time they captured a city, they would massacre the population for three days—unless one joined them, death was inevitable.

Even more bewildering was the imperial court’s attitude toward the White Lotus Sect. Great Qian consisted of nine provinces, and in less than a month, the White Lotus Sect had seized most of Cangzhou on the border. It seemed as though they were poised to sweep across the land.

Yet the court showed no reaction, as if they regarded the people of Cizhou as mere grass, leaving them to be slaughtered by the White Lotus Sect and only instructing local authorities to recruit militias and martial artists to resist.

In such a situation, Yang Le could only change his plans and flee ahead of schedule.

...

"But at least my golden finger should fully awaken today, right?"

He spent the night in the haystack, then opened the system’s loading panel. He buried the dry rations and copper coins he’d prepared deep within the straw, and carefully arranged three Bone-Strengthening Herbs and seven Vitality Herbs.

A prompt appeared before his eyes.

“Ding! Congratulations, host, today’s charge is complete. Current progress: ninety-nine percent…”

“Ding! Congratulations, host, your golden finger has completed activation. You have obtained the Entry Selection System—choose one of three traits…”

“Today’s traits: Accumulate for a Breakthrough, Vengeance Must Be Repaid, Sword Apprentice.”

[Accumulate for a Breakthrough (Blue): For the next ten days, your luck will plummet to a life-or-death crisis level. After ten days, you will receive a heaven-defying stroke of supreme fortune.]

[Vengeance Must Be Repaid (Gray): You may designate someone as your enemy. After killing them, you have a chance to receive a small amount of loot.]

[Sword Apprentice (White): You gain a sliver of opportunity in the way of the sword and master the sword technique: Three Forms of the Sword.]

The system’s rules were simple; each day, three random traits were presented, and he could pick one.

Unused traits that day would be stored in the trait library, and the more times he charged it, the higher the library’s level would become. The storage levels were 0/1/10/100/1000, for a total of five tiers, and trait rarity followed the order: gray, white, green, blue, cyan, purple, red, orange, rainbow.

Any tier could yield any rarity trait, but the higher the tier, the greater the chance of getting rarer ones.

“Accumulate for a Breakthrough—forget it. I’m about to go on the run; I can’t afford to gamble on luck.”

“Vengeance Must Be Repaid… hmm…”

“It seems Sword Apprentice is the only reasonable choice. At least it will be useful while escaping.”

The first draw yielded a gray, a white, and a blue trait—not bad luck.

Yang Le didn’t hesitate after reviewing the three options and chose Sword Apprentice.

If he were in a perfectly safe situation, he might have gambled on Accumulate for a Breakthrough. Ten days would be enough to store up ten traits and reach the third tier of the trait library, and with the luck boost at the end, the start would be extraordinary.

But since he was likely to be fleeing Cangzhou in these chaotic times, and with no martial arts foundation, Accumulate for a Breakthrough was courting death.

As for Vengeance Must Be Repaid… he discarded it directly.

Instead, Sword Apprentice was most suitable for Yang Le at this moment.

“Ding! Sword Apprentice selected successfully. Congratulations, host, you have gained a sliver of Sword Bone and the sword technique: Three Forms of the Sword…”

The moment he finished choosing, a stream of clarity surged into Yang Le’s mind.

Time seemed to freeze. A figure appeared in his mind, endlessly repeating three sword moves.

At the same time, a stream of pale sword energy rushed into Yang Le’s body, coming to rest in his dantian, where it formed a tiny phantom sword the size of a grain of rice.

The trait system interface faded, and a new attribute panel appeared within him.

“My strength has increased—at least several times greater than before.”

“I seem to understand swordsmanship now, gained some knowledge in appreciating swords, and mastered a technique called Three Forms of the Sword.”

“Does this mean I’ve become a martial artist?”

Realizing his transformation, Yang Le opened his attribute panel.

Host: Yang Le

Martial Cultivation: Tenth Rank (Quasi-Martial Artist) (Martial cultivation ranges from tenth to first rank)

Trait: Sword Apprentice

Trait Library: Level Zero

Today’s Traits: 0/1

The interface was straightforward. Yang Le hadn’t expected that a single trait could make him a novice martial artist.

“I must leave Qinghe County as soon as possible, then find a safe place to accumulate traits and increase my strength.”

With a clear plan, Yang Le closed the panel.

He would use the system to survive these troubled times, biding his time.

For now, the most important thing was to leave Qinghe County as quickly as possible!

A tenth-rank quasi-martial artist was far from enough to survive the onslaught of the White Lotus masses.

"From this day forth, Qinghe County is under martial law! No civilian or martial artist may leave the county. Violators will be executed on the spot!"

Yet, to Yang Le’s great surprise, just as he had sold all his herbs and prepared to flee, a middle-aged man in armor led three hundred county soldiers to block the city gate.

No one was permitted to leave.

“The county magistrate has already fled, and now they won’t let anyone else leave?”

Surveying the scene, Yang Le looked at the grim-faced, murderous soldiers before him, an inexplicable sense of crisis welling up in his heart once more.