Chapter 1: Reincarnation

Somewhere on Earth, a Hospital

The young-looking doctor read the chart and looked with sadness at his first patient, "There's nothing much we can do. Your condition has worsened to the point of no return. I'm sorry." the patient's hand moved a little, "Are you sure there's no one to contact?"

"Yes, no one." the patient answered with difficulty. 

Difficulty flashed in the doctor's eyes as he put the chart back on the bed, "All we can do now is try to prolong your life by chemotherapy, but at most you might survive for one year."

The patient's head moved to look at the doctor, "No, I don't … want treatment."

Looking at the now-dead gaze, the doctor knew that the patient had already given up. But his humanity wouldn't give up, "I understand your decision, but you can't give up. Although your condition is serious…" 

The door opening interrupted his words, and a doctor in her 40s walked in, "Dr. Niel, what seems to be the problem?"

Seeing the watery eyes of her colleague she could guess the reason. In her line of work, the most difficult thing is telling someone that their condition has no cure or treatment.

After reading the chart, she understood the situation, a patient who doesn't want treatment. Doctors can't do anything about it, even if it's curable, which in this situation isn't, but to respect their decision. When she recalled the first time this happened, she was shaken, yet managed to stay composed.

"We will respect your decision, even if I wouldn't recommend it." 

The patient's words left the young doctor even more shaken, "Thank you…"

Niel looked downward, holding back tears, "But Dr. Anne…"

Anne took by the hand and took him out of the room. When they were out, she let out a sad sigh.

"I know how you feel. Trust me, almost all of us went through this. It's terrible, and it's not going to get better, but you will learn to live with it. This is his decision, and we, as doctors under the Hippocratic Oath, should respect it." She put her hand on his shoulder, "If you need someone to talk to, I'm here"

Next morning

The morning sun was glowing. In one room of a certain hospital, a doctor and nurse were checking the patient lying on the bed. Sunrays pierced through the window and fell onto the patient, revealing his pale skin and purplish lips.

A single tear fell from the doctor's cheek, as he checked his condition again, but it was futile, "Chris Jackson, age 28, time of death 10:21, 15th July 2021. Cause of death brain tumor." 

Chris was an average man, looked average, intellect average… He was working as an herbalist in his clinic. Made enough money to live comfortably and had a pet dog. Although he was single, he wasn't a virgin.

The doctor and nurse left for a short while to get workers to move the body to the coroner's office.

Chris' POV

Opening my eyes, sunlight rays met my eyes and the sound of traffic filled my ears. I was finally able to see and hear better, it wasn't blurry anymore, and colors I hadn't seen in 12 years were back. 

Joy filled my heart as my hands and legs moved. A light feeling filled me, and it was like I hadn't been bedridden for the past half a year. When I looked at the bed, I stopped in my tracks. 

'No wonder' that thought crossed my mind. I saw my body lying motionless on the bed, drained of all color, dead. Looking at it shocked my very being, and then it hit me. I was dead, and the current 'me' was just a ghost. 

I was never as religious, but I suppose I will go to hell or heaven or wherever.

After about 10 seconds of me standing there, a black hole appeared and sucked me in, and everything went black. It was quiet, too quiet for I don't know how long, until…

"Another one… " An eternal voice echoed from every corner of my being. I heard it from every 'cell' of my 'body', "I can't deal with this" voice was heard again but with tiredness and annoyance.

*Snap* 

'What was that?' Looking around, blackness was no more, now everything was white, except a single blue dot that was getting bigger and bigger. When it was near me, I could see what it was. Blue screen, like a hologram, from fantasy or sci-fi. There was something written on it.

{Human soul, rejoice for I, The Great, shall reincarnate you.}

The only question in my mind was 'Why?' And like it could read my mind, the blue screen answered.

{Mortal, you are 3 049 732 954th soul that will be reincarnated by me, The Great, so don't ask too many questions. All I will say, you got lucky. To go to the space-time continuum and survive. And be left with so much soul power, you are 993rd place in all souls which I have seen in that regard.}

'This is too much for me…' I tried to remember what happened in the so-called 'space-time continuum', but it was like someone was preventing me.

{Mortal, do not even try to. It is useless.} Suddenly laughter was heard and the blue box disappeared and instead a green one appeared.

{Character customization}

[Looks: Customizable]

[Race: Human, Demi-human, Dog, Cat…]

[Inheritance: Mortal, Immortal, Devine]

[Root: One Element, Two Elements…]

[Physique: Random]

[Background: Random]

[Confirm]

{If the choice isn't made in 10 minutes your soul will be erased}

Looking at the choices I was in a daze for a second, but quickly regained my composure. While quickly thinking about my options, I get to work. 'As far as I know from novels Immortal inheritance doesn't sound so bad, it should be powerful enough, but Devine, what could that be?'

Deciding to look at it later I began to customize my looks 'Long dark hair, Chinese style, sharp eyebrows, azure-colored eyes.' Looking at the timer it left me with two minutes. I quickly chose Six-Element Root and Immortal-level inheritance.

{Confirming choices…}

{Generating Background…}

{Randomizing Physique…}

{Choosing Inheritance…}

{Confirmed}

A lot of screens popped and disappeared at a fast speed until one stayed.

{Long ago Xi Clan was prosperous having three Golden Core cultivators, but it all changed when a horrible Demon Cultivator, Ming Shu, killed two and heavily injured the third one. Now everything that was left of the Xi Clan was your father, Xi Li, who was at the sixth level of the Foundation Establishment, and you. As a Young Master of the Xi Clan you are observed by all kinds of people, be it Sect's disciples or other Clans, but seeing you are nothing special you are labeled as ordinary. However, your father used the last power the Xi clan had left and obtained a lot of miracle medicines with them you climbed to the Qi Gathering 5th stage, but are still labeled as ordinary. Prove them wrong as you climb higher and higher or fall into endless damnation.}

As soon as I read the last sentence the screen disappeared and the other one appeared

{As a parting gift you will be given a System(Basic), and instructions on how to use it will be in your mind. No one will be able to see it, even if they enter your conciseness}

And with that, everything went black, and like a wave, I felt pain all over my body, especially my head. Then I realized I could finally move, opening my eyes I finally saw it, colors. After half a lifetime of being color-blind, I finally saw them, tears rolled down my cheeks as I enjoyed the moment. "I can finally see them."

As soon as that sentence left my mouth I realized I'd spoken in another language. It sounded like Chinese but different, but more importantly 'How can I speak when I don't know Chinese much less this language.' With that, I tried to think about it, and lo and behold I had memories of two different people inside my mind.

"So, this is transmigration, not reincarnation?" The Great said I would be reincarnated, maybe I was but I didn't awaken my memories until now. That must be it.

Which brings one more question, 'How did I accept this fact so smoothly? I know I can be calm in most situations, heck I didn't even cry when my father died, but this is different I died and have been reborn in another world.' But no one answered my question.

'I remember the parting gift was some kind of system, let's see.' A memory surged in my brain like I have done this a million times. "Status", with that blue screen appeared in front of me, floating and following my field of vision.

{Status}

[Name: Xi Shen 喜神]

[Age: 12/70]

[Inheritance: Master of Devine Palace(Immortal Emperor)] #Collect

[Cultivation: 5th level of Qi Gathering]

[Cultivation Method: Sun/Moon Qi Gathering - Mortal Grade]

[Physique: Blocked] #Unlock

[Root: Six Element Root - Heavenly Grade]

[Spells: None]

[Arts: None]

[Looks: Above Average]

Looking at my status I find it very familiar to games of my old world, now that I remember I played them a bit too much. But what was I going to do when my death was so near?

Pray, I did that, it didn't work. Try everything that was at my disposal, still didn't work. And I gave up, I immersed myself in games, novels, comics, manhuas… Everything that took me out of my misery. I guess it worked, I became someone with another chance.

Looking at the majestic inheritance, I immediately clicked [Collect], but something popped up.

[Seeing that you are about to collect your Inheritance, the system will warn you this Inheritance contains a lot of memories. The estimated time is 130 years, and you don't have that much lifespan. So, to protect the host, the System will split memories according to the levels of cultivation.]

{Inheriting mortal part of the Inheritance…}

After half a day, my consensuses returned to reality.

It's like I've watched a long movie, which in turn gave me methods to do a lot of different things. And I realized something really important. "I'm so weak, only Qi Gathering." Was the first sentence that left my mouth after waking from a trance-like state. After collecting the inheritance, I was left speechless at how many levels of cultivation there are. Qi Gathering, Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nescent Soul, Soul Formation… and so much more, and each of them is later divided into 9 levels.

And this is just the Mortal world, I didn't inherit the Immortal world part. But this isn't just the cultivation method, it's a lot of cultivation arts such as Formations, Alchemy, Talisman Drawing, Sword manuals…

I learned a lot of things, but the most astonishing thing I learned is the cultivation method 'Dao of Longevity', which when cultivated to perfection can double your lifespan.

When the inheritance is this good, I wonder what is my physique. The most impressive constitution, Qin Qiqiang, the Devine Palace Master, saw was the Heavenly Body, it's ranked first on his list. However, that was unlikely because I used the luck of three lifetimes to get this inheritance, but it's nice to dream.

Looking in anticipation I clicked on [Unlock], and waited for a minute but nothing happened. Until spiritual energy suddenly surged toward me, and on reflex, I started to cultivate the cultivation method from my memories. 

More and more spiritual energy surged, and this alarmed a lot of people, even my father. With his cultivation of the Foundation Establishment, he quickly arrived near my house.

Xi Li's POV

'What commotion can cause so much spiritual energy to surge? It's not a breakthrough, nor is it a formation that leaves physique awakening. But to cause this much commotion, must be Earth Grade or above.' 

Looking at spiritual energy that continuously surging idea popped into my head. 'Good son, you didn't disappoint this old man. I need to reinforce our clan's protection barrier.' 

When I turned to leave, suddenly the golden beam shot toward the sky. "Crap!" I rushed in and saw Xi Shen'er sitting in a lotus position, his skin emitting a green glow. Small trees and flowers began to rise.

Casting the spell the beam disappeared, I quickly cast a few talismans in the air and set up a simple-looking flag formation. Suddenly a Spirit Sense swept past us, and a sigh of relief escaped my mouth. 

'Maybe these old monsters can ignore the surging spiritual energy, but one thing they can't ignore is the birth of Heavenly Physique, which represents at least a Nascent Soul cultivator.'

Looking at my son, who emitted a green light, a proud smile appeared on my face. Fenfeng if you were here you would be proud of our son, he has your temperament and kindness. 

After an hour the light dimmed and my son opened his eyes, they became emerald green, adding a certain charm.