The first thing Shen Ling saw when he opened his eyes was a scarlet table and a chair. He looked around at his surroundings in disbelief.
'What is all this? A filming site?'
He slowly got out of bed. He was feeling a little weak. When his feet reached the floor, they nearly buckled because he nearly didn't have enough strength to stand up on his own. He groaned painfully as he steadied himself.
Pain radiated from all parts of his body!
Shen Ling decided to lay back down on his bed and stop struggling.
A moment later, a memory that wasn't his suddenly flashed in his mind's eye.
His name was Shen Ling!
He was the elder son of the Shen family, a well-to-do family in Qi Hua City.
Despite his status as a wealthy second-generation young master, Shen Ling was very down-to-earth and humble. Those who knew him thought him neither arrogant nor overbearing. During his free time, he liked to study poetry and scriptures. But he pretty much kept to himself, so not many people knew about him.
A week ago, Shen Ling, who was at his prime, was plagued with illness. His illness came very suddenly and everyone was quite shocked when they heard the news.
In just a week, Shen Ling rapidly shed most of his body weight. Pretty soon, he was just skin and bones.
The young master officially passed away three quarters ago.
That was when he, or rather his soul, took over this body.
"Transmigration, huh?"
Still lying on the bed, Shen Ling stared at his palms.
The skin on his palms didn't look like that of a young man's. In fact, it looked more like that of an elderly.
The blood vessels were sticking out and his skin wrapped tightly around his bones. Obviously "he" was in a very weak condition.
Shen Ling looked outside the window and thought some more about his current situation.
Right now it looked like he was in poor physical condition. If he didn't find out why he was sick and how he became like this as soon as possible, he probably wouldn't have long to live.
"Well, well..."
While letting out a resigned sigh, Shen Ling couldn't come up with any other plan at the moment.
So what if he had just transmigrated into another body?
Was he going to have to just wait for death?
Not knowing what else to do, Shen Ling calmly closed both his eyes, and just then, he saw a timestamp etched underneath his eyelids.
5:48.
Shen Ling counted for thirty seconds in his head, and the time automatically changed to 5:47.
Was this some sort of countdown?
Shen Ling had no idea what would happen after the countdown ended but believed that he just needed to give it some more time before he found out.
For that matter, there was really nothing else he could do.
Soon after —
The door to his room was gently pushed open.
A maid, wearing a green dress, carried with her a basin and carefully made her way inside the room.
Right when she walked in, their eyes met.
The maid gave Shen Ling a caring look and said, "Elder Young Master, you're already awake? How are you feeling? Should I call Master over?"
"I'm doing fine."
Shen Ling spoke his words slowly as if he was still getting used to this body. He still sounded very weak.
The maid looked at Shen Ling, paused for a while, and then said in a soft voice. "Then I'll go ahead and heat up some food for you, Elder Young Master."
"There's no need."
Shen Ling shook his head slightly back and forth. "Just pour me a cup of water."
The maid nodded her head and poured a cup of warm water for Shen Ling. She then placed the cup to Shen Ling's lips so that he could drink it with ease.
"Ahem..."
Shen Ling choked after taking a mouthful of water.
He was already so weak that he would choke whenever he drank water too quickly. It was as sure a sign as any that he was terminally ill.
But it was clear to Shen Ling that this body was not just simply sick at all.
After drinking some more water, Shen Ling lay back down on the bed.
It was already nighttime, but knowing that he could die at any second prevented him from falling asleep right away.
So he stayed awake like that until daybreak when the countdown reached zero.
"Ding!"
'Welcome to Perseverance and Hard Work 3.0.'
'Name: Shen Ling.'
'Age: 17.'
'Cultivation Technique: None.'
'Status: Poisoned.'
Shen Ling was quite shocked as he saw this notification.
However, seeing the words 'poisoned' in his status panel, his heart suddenly sank in his chest.
He knew that he was not sick, but he had never expected to be poisoned.
Recalling the memories of Shen Ling, the head of the Shen family had obviously turned to many doctors to treat his illness, but none of them thought it could be poison. Every one of them said he had fallen ill to some strange sickness.
And here was the problem all along.
Shen Ling stared at the status panel and tried to figure things out in his head.
Even though he knew that he was currently being poisoned, the question remained: how to find an antidote and save himself was a difficult problem he had to address.
Unless he could find the person who was administering the poison to him!
Shortly after, a name came to mind.
That person just so happened to be none other than the mistress of the Shen family. As the current Madam Shen, she was also Shen Ling's stepmother.
Madam Shen had been married into the Shen family for twelve years. During those twelve years, she gave birth to a son for Old Master Shen.
Old Master Shen favored this younger son.
Under normal circumstances, Madam Shen wouldn't have bothered to poison him.
However, Old Master Shen's health had seen a downward spiral during this time and his days on this earth were said to be numbered.
If that happened, the successor of the Shen family would be him, the elder son Shen Ling.
Madam Shen probably wanted him out of the way so that she could claim the family assets for herself.
Shen Ling was feeling a little depressed about things.
Before all this happened, the former Shen Ling had never thought of pointing his finger at Madam Shen or her child. However, he never expected that Madam Shen would resort to such extreme measures to ensure that he would disappear from this world and that all the assets of the Shen family would be hers.
This was such a ruthless woman.
This was such a cruel method, too!
Even just thinking about it sent a chill to his heart. But Shen Ling knew that there was no way he could make Madam Shen admit that she was the one poisoning him.
He had no proof, and at the same time, Madam Shen could even retort and say that his words were merely a slander on her character.
What should he do now?
Shen Ling once more looked at his palm. He was so weak that his hands shook from the exertion.
Even getting out of bed proved too much for him, so what could he do about his current predicament?
Should he rely on this so-called Perseverance and Hard Work 3.0?
The name of this cheating system sounded extremely untrustworthy.
"Alas."
While sighing repeatedly, Shen Ling's gaze suddenly moved to a bookshelf not too far away.
From what he could remember, he knew that Shen Ling was a booklover from before. Whether it was poetry, scriptures, or the strange or supernatural, Shen Ling loved to read about it all. Everyone in the Shen family knew about his wide range of interests when it came to reading.
Then, could there be something useful in those books for his current condition? Say, could he cultivate the poison away?
It would at least give him an extra boost of needed strength.
"Xiao Huan."
Shen Ling called out the maid's name weakly.
Although it would only take a few steps to get to the bookshelf, those few steps would take all his last remaining strength - strength he needed to continue holding on.
"Elder Young Master, is anything the matter?"
Hearing Shen Ling call out her name, Xiao Huan, who was straightening up the house not far away, immediately came over to his side and asked him nervously.
Shen Ling pointed to his books on the shelf and said in a soft voice, "Help me get those books."
"Sure."
Seeing that Shen Ling was alright, Xiao Huan let out a huge sigh of relief.
She made her way over to the bookshelf, selected a few titles, then set them by Shen Ling's bed.
The Elder Young Master loved to read.
She had served as Shen Ling's personal maid for a long time and knew very well that Shen Ling valued books as much as his life.
However, the illness was taking a toll on the Elder Young Master. His face was so emaciated that he no longer looked like his former self at all.
As she thought about this, Xiao Huan's eyes reddened visibly.
"What are these tears for?"
Shen Ling glanced over at Xiao Huan. "You know, girls don't look good when they cry."
"You are right, Young Master. I'll stop."
Xiao Huan nodded her head and wiped her tears away.
Shen Ling then bowed his head to look at the titles of the ancient books in front of him. Quickly, the contents of these books flooded back to him.
This book wasn't the one, and neither was that…
Under Shen Ling's supervision, Xiao Huan moved more books over to the bed for Shen Ling.
"Stop right there."
Just as Xiao Huan was setting an ancient book in front of Shen Ling, Shen Ling suddenly spoke up.
There were only two words on the cover of this ancient tome, "Longevity Technique."
From what Shen Ling remembered, because this longevity technique was rather obscure and difficult to understand, he had studied it for a good length of time without much results. Because his efforts had turned up fruitless, he had almost given up on this technique.
Shen Ling flipped through the "Longevity Technique" book and studied the words.
He knew each word in this book, but he still couldn't understand them no matter how many times he tried to put them together.
After a while, frustrated, Shen Ling closed his eyes.
His last remaining hope was that the system — God knows what exactly it was — could be of some use.
At this time, Shen Ling was becoming a little nervous.
