Chapter 1
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Chapter 1: Lying Here for Twenty Years
At noon, sunlight filtered through the branches of the trees, casting its glow on a smooth, gray stone at the base of the trunk.
"Ah, the rain has finally stopped."
The warmth of the sun awakened the sleeping Chen Yang.
"This time I have slept for… five days."
Whenever it rained, Chen Yang would fall into a deep sleep because he disliked the damp scent of rainy days.
The rain and mist would turn the originally clear spiritual energy into something humid.
Chen Yang looked around at the unchanged scenery.
"Counting it up, this is the twentieth year since I came to this world."
After nearly six months of intense work without rest in his past life, Chen Yang finally found relief on that exhausted night.
When he woke up, he was already lying here.
However, the identity he gained in this new life was a bit peculiar.
He was neither human nor beast, but a stone.
Twenty years ago, this stone unexpectedly developed consciousness due to the nurturing of spiritual energy, and Chen Yang’s awareness entered at that moment.
Like all travelers to new worlds, Chen Yang was very excited at first.
Because of the existence of spiritual energy, he knew this world had the potential for cultivation.
Normally, as a traveler, one would have a special ability by their side.
So, in the initial days, Chen Yang searched for where his ability might be hidden.
A panel? None.
A system? Not appearing either.
The supreme soul of an emperor? That was even less likely.
As days passed, Chen Yang finally concluded:
There was likely no special ability after all.
He was just a fortunate stone that had developed consciousness.
Aside from absorbing spiritual energy, he could do nothing else.
He couldn’t even move; he could only quietly lie here.
After recognizing the reality, Chen Yang did not feel much despair or resentment.
On the contrary, he found this new identity quite pleasant and suitable for himself.
Thinking back to his past life, there were endless overtime shifts, the manipulation of his superiors, the burden of loans, and the expectations of relatives and friends.
Such a life made him feel suffocated, and he even once contemplated giving up on everything.
Now, as a stone, he didn’t have to worry about all those messy things.
He only needed to absorb spiritual energy each day, and when tired, he would sleep.
Simple, comfortable, and beautiful.
So, in a way, becoming a stone that lay flat suited Chen Yang’s expectations perfectly.
It didn’t take long for him to completely accept his new identity.
And so, he lay here for twenty years.
At first, he woke up for less than two hours each day, after which he would become sleepy and fall back into slumber.
However, as the years passed while he absorbed spiritual energy, his wakeful time gradually increased.
Now, he could stay awake for over ten days straight while remaining aware.
Over these twenty years, he had lost count of how many times he had witnessed monsters eating each other, spiritual birds hunting, and ghosts devouring their prey.
In the past, the Chen Yang accustomed to a harmonious society would have found the survival laws of this world too cruel.
But now, after years of experience, the sight of these battles stirred no emotions within him.
"This is how the world works."
"If you don’t eat, you will starve."
"If you don’t eat him, he will eat you."
Survival of the fittest was the law of this world.
What he saw was merely the manifestation of beings following the natural order of heaven and earth, nothing to be surprised about.
The sunlight dried the water on Chen Yang’s surface, and as the lingering moisture faded, he began to gather spiritual energy.
The scattered spiritual energy around him was drawn in, moving toward where Chen Yang lay.
As a stone with consciousness, Chen Yang now possessed two abilities.
One was to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
He had this ability since he arrived in this world, just as humans naturally breathe.
After five years of continuous absorption, Chen Yang was able to look within himself.
He saw a space at the center of his being, wrapped in a thin white membrane.
The spiritual energy he absorbed transformed there into usable spiritual power.
At that time, the stored spiritual power was only about one-third of the entire space.
After another ten years of accumulation, that small storage space was filled.
In that moment of fullness, Chen Yang fell into a deep sleep.
Ten days later, when he awoke again, he felt a notable change within himself.
First, the storage space for spiritual energy inside him had expanded more than twice its original size.
Secondly, his awareness had become more solid, allowing him to perceive further distances, and he could also communicate with the spiritual power within him!
He realized he had achieved a breakthrough in his realm.
Chen Yang immediately began to experiment and soon discovered that by urging the spiritual power within him, he could attract the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth to gather toward him.
The gathered spiritual energy would be denser, roughly three times its original level.
In such an environment, the efficiency of his transformation of spiritual power increased significantly.
With the emergence of his gathering ability, Chen Yang’s previously quiet life of lying flat began to change.
Due to the heightened concentration of spiritual energy, the vegetation in a surrounding area flourished as if stimulated by hormones.
Alongside the ordinary plants, the rich spiritual energy also gave rise to a small spiritual plant.
This was a vibrant green four-leaf sprout, growing just a hand’s distance from Chen Yang.
At first, Chen Yang couldn’t tell its uniqueness until one morning, when this spiritual plant secreted a droplet of milky-white spirit liquid between its four little leaves.
In that droplet, Chen Yang sensed an extremely pure energy.
As the droplet of spirit liquid appeared, the small spiritual plant tilted towards Chen Yang and the liquid fell onto him.
Chen Yang guided it into his body, spending five days to digest it, and the result delighted him.
The spiritual power generated from that droplet was equivalent to two months’ worth of his absorption.
"What a find! If I could get one droplet every day, my spiritual power would skyrocket like a rocket!" Chen Yang thought.
Unfortunately, the production of this spirit liquid occurred in cycles, roughly a droplet every three months.
However, Chen Yang did not feel pressured by this.
After all, with his laid-back mindset, he would use it when available, and slowly absorb more when not.
Calm days passed one after another, and by now, aided by the spirit liquid droplet, Chen Yang’s storage space for spiritual power was more than half full.
The only issue troubling Chen Yang over these twenty years was that although he had seen many strange beings, he had never encountered a human.
Given his surroundings— a forest followed by continuous mountains— Chen Yang speculated that he must have been born in a remote place rarely touched by humans.
Yet, the monsters and ghosts here didn’t seem very strong; they didn’t use magic, and their battles were merely physical confrontations, not like the legendary depths of the Great Mountains.
He even doubted whether he was born in a world without humans.
Unable to find an answer, Chen Yang eventually gave up on the thought, deciding not to add unnecessary worries to himself.
