"The heavens are truly looking out for me!" he declared to the glowing lily. "Senior Brother Zhang and his Flailing Willow Fist can go cultivate in a latrine pit! I, Lin Fan, am destined for greatness!"
He carefully, reverently, plucked the lily from the ground. The moment it left the rock, the golden light intensified, and the bud trembled, as if ready to bloom.
"System!" he commanded, his voice trembling with greed. "No time to waste! Consume it! Absorb everything!"
[Affirmative. Initiating energy absorption protocol.]
Lin Fan held the lily in his hands as a invisible energy from the system enveloped it. The lily began to wilt at an astonishing speed, its vibrant golden light dimming as it was funneled directly into him.
A torrent of sun-drenched energy slammed into his meridians. It was a fiery river threatening to burst its banks. For a terrifying second, he thought he might actually explode. Pain lanced through him. But just as quickly, the system began to refine and compress the energy, forcing it through his cultivation pathways with brutal efficiency.
BOOM!
His spiritual core trembled, and the bottleneck to the Fifth Layer of Qi Condensation, a wall he had expected to spend months chipping away at, shattered like glass. The torrent of energy didn't even slow down.
BOOM!
The barrier to the Sixth Layer evaporated before it could even form. His meridians widened, his bones hummed, and his Soul Seed, the very essence of his cultivation, grew brighter and more solid. The sheer volume of energy was beyond anything he could have imagined. It was like trying to fill a teacup with a waterfall.
There was still more. The lily's thousand-year reserve was an ocean of power. The system relentlessly pushed it forward.
BOOM!
With a resounding tremor that shook his very soul, he crashed through into the Seventh Layer of Qi Condensation.
The explosive energy finally settled, leaving behind a warm hum that resonated from the core of his being. He stood in the dark cave, his body faintly glowing, steam rising from his skin. He opened his hands. The Thousand-Year Sun-Swallowing Lily was gone, reduced to a pile of lifeless dust that scattered in the faint breeze.
Silence.
He slowly clenched his fists, feeling the incredible power thrumming beneath his skin. Seventh Layer. He had jumped three entire layers in less than the time it takes to burn an incense stick. This was a myth. A legend. Something that grandmasters would tell their disciples about to scare them into behaving.
He was a monster. A genius. A heaven-defying chosen one.
The sheer ecstasy of the moment was overwhelming. He threw his head back and laughed, a triumphant roar that shook the very cave.
"I AM INVINCIBLE!" he bellowed. "Senior Brother Zhang? I'll use him to wipe my boots! The Inner Sect disciples? A bunch of over-privileged children! The Sect Master? He should start preparing his abdication speech! I, Lin Fan, am the true dragon of this sect, the future sovereign of this world!"
He felt a surge of adrenaline. He had to get out of here. He had to go find someone—anyone—and show them his newfound power. He would start with Zhang. Oh, the look on his face would be more delicious than any spirit pill.
Still buzzing with god-like confidence, he turned and grabbed the rope to begin his ascent. He pulled himself up, his movements light and effortless. He felt like he could climb the entire cliff with one hand.
"The world of cultivation is my oyster!" he gloated to himself as he climbed, his feet finding easy purchase on the rock face. "And I am the man with the pearl-shucker!"
He was about halfway up, still fantasizing about the glorious future that awaited him, when he heard a ominous creak. He paused, glancing up at the ancient oak tree far above. It was probably just the wind.
He continued climbing. Snap.
It was a louder sound this time. A ugly sound. The sound of something giving way. The rope in his hands suddenly went slack for a heart-stopping inch.
His arrogance evaporated, replaced by a cold spike of fear. He looked up again, his eyes wide. The sturdy root he had tied the rope to, the one that had looked so reliable, was groaning under the strain, a thin crack appearing in the wood.
But... but I'm the protagonist! he thought wildly. The heavens gave me a system! They gave me a thousand-year-old treasure! My rope can't break!
It was then he felt a peculiar sensation, or rather, a lack of one. The warm feeling of good fortune that had clung to him since he'd acquired the system was gone. In its place was a chilling void. It felt like the universe had suddenly turned its back on him.
[Warning: Host's karmic luck value has reached zero. Retribution cycle initiating.]
"Retribution? What retribu—"
CRACK!
The sound was like a gunshot in the silent night. The root just snapped clean off the tree. For a surreal moment, Lin Fan hung in the air, a look of comical disbelief plastered on his face, before gravity reasserted its absolute and uncaring authority.
The world became a blur of wind and rock. His triumphant roar was replaced by a high-pitched shriek. The ground rushed up to meet him with astonishing speed.
His last coherent thought was a desperate plea. System! System, do something! A cushion! A feather-falling spell! A soft pile of hay! ANYTHING!
In the split second before impact, his eyes caught a glint of metal at the bottom of the cliff. It was a spear, its shaft jammed deep into the earth, its tip pointing straight up at the sky. It was a piece of junk, something a mortal would be ashamed to wield.
And impaled on it, like a grotesque scarecrow, was a human skeleton, its ribcage shattered, its skull locked in a permanent scream.
Lin Fan's eyes met the skeleton's empty sockets. In that moment, he understood.
The impact was a cold, clean, piercing finality. A white-hot agony erupted in his chest as the spear tip tore through his robes, his skin, his ribs, and his heart. The force of the fall drove his body down the shaft, pinning him just above the long-dead skeleton.
The world began to fade, the edges of his vision turning grey and fuzzy. The immense power of the Seventh Layer of Qi Condensation, a power he had possessed for less than five minutes, was draining out of him like water from a sieve.
System...? he pleaded in the dying embers of his mind. Help... me...
Everything went silent.
The familiar voice of the system did not reply. The interface was gone. The comforting presence in his soul had vanished. There was only the howling wind, the pain in his chest, and the mocking grin of the skeleton beneath him.
His grand destiny had lasted all of twenty minutes. The world of cultivation was indeed his oyster.
He was the pearl, and life was the shucker.