Chapter 1: Your Smart Cultivation System Is at Your Service!

The sun was sinking in the west when Pei Ling returned to the Pei Manor.

Most of the servants he passed saw him and pretended not to, keeping themselves busy.

It was only when he was about to leave the main courtyard that a maid stopped him. "The madam says the Sacred Sect disciples have been staying at the manor lately, and they especially like pastries made with wusezhi. Seventh Young Master, please go to Mount Yuanlao and find some more starting tomorrow. When the time comes, the madam will reward you handsomely!"

"Got it." The maid's attitude was perfunctory, but Pei Ling didn't care. He was very satisfied with his standing in this vast estate, just like the courtyard he lived in now: remote, inconspicuous, quiet, ignored by everyone, and of course unattended.

You could kill someone, wipe out the evidence, and dispose of the body in broad daylight without anyone noticing.

These days, brute force was out; the big shots all kept a low profile, one more understated than the last.

Steadiness was the only real path.

He knew that better than anyone. In his previous life, Pei Ling had been a very steady kind of man.

On top of that, the world he had been reborn into was anything but a peaceful society. There were cultivators, there were strange horrors, there were demonic beasts... His original family's power was decent enough, but as a branch family under Chongming Sect, that monstrous demonic faction that would wash blood over three thousand li over the slightest disagreement, the future looked anything but certain.

So he had developed the habit of reflecting on himself three times a day: Had I kept a low profile today?

Could I be even more low-key?

What other especially safe, cautious survival techniques were there?

Thanks to that care, Pei Ling, who had transmigrated from birth, had finally grown steadily to this day in an environment of his birth mother's early death, his father's scumbag behavior, a jealous stepmother, and the undercurrents of a large family's scheming.

And, yes, he had also quietly unlocked a benefit reserved for transmigrators.

"System!" Once he got back to his private courtyard, Pei Ling locked the door at once. After carefully checking that every door and window was shut, confirming that no one had come inside and that there were no eavesdropping or surveillance measures, he let out a quiet breath. Holding back his excitement, he called out in his mind, "I've already gathered the spirit stones needed to start you. Activate now."

"Ding dong!"

With the crisp notification, a translucent panel slowly appeared in front of him, visible only to him.

[Name: Pei Ling.

Race: Human.

Sex: Male.

Age: 18.

Identity: collateral branch disciple of the Pei family in Luquan City.

Cultivation: second level of the Qi Refining stage.

System Status: Inactive.]

A neutral voice without a trace of emotion sounded in Pei Ling's mind, methodically confirming, "Sufficient spirit stones detected to activate the system. Host, do you permit the system to absorb them immediately and activate?"

Pei Ling took a deep breath. "Yes!"

The full three hundred low-grade spirit stones he had scraped together over the years by every means possible, even by skimping on his own cultivation, were instantly swept away by an invisible force.

And fiery, vivid flames surged up around the floating panel, while the characters on it flashed wildly.

A moment later, the panel became clear again, and there seemed to be a hint of delight in the system's voice: "The Smart Cultivation System is devoted to serving you. One-click management, intelligent upgrading, fully automated cultivation, no accidents, no inner-demon worries, fulfilling your dream of ascension!"

Then the [System Activation] line at the bottom of the panel quietly shifted, quickly replaced by a new interface with five options: [Choose Cultivation Method], [Choose Arts], [Choose Divine Abilities], [Choose Duration], and finally [One-Click Cultivation].

For someone who had spent years keeping his emotions in check, Pei Ling rarely felt a surge of excitement.

He couldn't wait and immediately used his mind to press [Choose Cultivation Method].

"Please choose the cultivation method you wish to train..."

The system's voice sounded again, and then the words "Bone Tempering Art" appeared in huge characters on the interface. It was the Pei family's inherited cultivation method, and also the only method he could choose right now.

The Pei family's Bone Tempering Art was divided into three stages: Iron Bone, Refined Bone, and Jade Bone. Once Iron Bone was achieved, blades and spears would not harm you, your fists would be like heavy hammers, your palms like blades, and your body alone could tear tigers and wolves apart.

That said, this technique came from a demonic sect, and its cultivation process was steeped in the style of the demonic path.

Each time you cultivated it, you first had to shock every bone in your body apart, smash them to pieces, and then use the Bone Tempering Art's method to temper the broken bones before "reassembling" them to achieve the upgrade!

If your will wasn't firm enough, the first time you trained Bone Tempering Art you would often be unable to endure the agony of being shattered to pieces and would give up outright. Worse still, some people with poor aptitude had even been tortured to death halfway through.

It could be said that every cultivator who mastered the Bone Tempering Art possessed top-tier talent and willpower.

Of course, that was only the conventional way to cultivate it.

If you had Bone-Tempering Pills to go with it, not only would the pain drop sharply, the results would also be far greater for the same effort.

However, Bone-Tempering Pills could only be refined by Chongming Sect. Given the Pei family's position, they only received ten Bone-Tempering Pills a year.

The head of the Pei family, as the clan's pillar, naturally took five; the three senior elders each took one; the family heir took one... By the time it came to Pei Ling, a mere branch-family disciple, he had never even seen what a Bone-Tempering Pill looked like!

So the fact that Pei Ling had managed to temper half his bones into iron and reach the second level of Qi Refining over all these years, without ever using a single Bone-Tempering Pill, already showed extraordinary talent and iron will.

"Normally, a complete cultivation session of Bone Tempering Art, without Bone-Tempering Pills and even with plenty of medicinal supplements, would take at least three months. Push too hard and the body won't be able to take it; it will only have the opposite effect." Pei Ling rubbed his hands together in excitement. "But now I have the system!"

He was desperate to see how the system handled cultivation, so after choosing the method, he immediately opened [Choose Duration]. He had originally planned to pick a short duration first and feel it out, but the top option was [One Year], followed by [Ten Years], [One Hundred Years]...

Pei Ling was speechless...

Only at the very bottom was there an option for [Temporary Cultivation · Smart Duration].

That finally made Pei Ling breathe easier. He immediately chose it, then clicked [One-Click Cultivation]!

"The Smart Cultivation System is devoted to serving you!" After flashing twice, the panel gradually faded away. The system voice returned to its earlier methodical tone. "One-click management, intelligent upgrading! Cultivation management has now begun. Friendly reminder: during cultivation, the host will lose control of his body. Please do not panic..."

Then Pei Ling felt a slight dizziness, followed by an invisible force flowing into his body and quickly arranging his frame into a cultivation posture.

Next, his dantian grew faintly warm, the Bone Tempering Art began to circulate on its own, and a stabbing pain spread through every bone in his body. Then the bones began to split little by little, only to vibrate at high speed and rapidly transform under the art's circulation, while the pores all over his body opened and many impurities were expelled in the process... The whole cultivation sequence was smooth, practiced, and even carried a sense of complete ease.

Compared with every prior cultivation session, when he had to split his attention and a single lapse could mean serious injury or near-death, system-managed cultivation could almost be described as enjoyable.

This system was simply too well-suited to a survival-first slacker like him!

It was practically the most conscientious kind of cheat in existence!

Pei Ling was still feeling pleased with himself when, at that very moment, the system suddenly chimed with a "ding dong," and the vanished panel reappeared: "Missing cultivation medicine Bone-Tempering Pills detected. Please wait..."

"Please wait..."

"Please wait..."

Pei Ling: "???"

This... the system's one-click cultivation actually needed Bone-Tempering Pills? Where was he supposed to get Bone-Tempering Pills for it??

"Ding dong!" The system sounded again, and the text on the panel changed accordingly...

"Analysis complete. The system will award you ten Bone-Tempering Pills free of charge."

That good?

Pei Ling couldn't help feeling his spirits lift.

Just as he was full of anticipation, his body suddenly stood up.

Pei Ling: "?"

His body strode straight toward the door.

Pei Ling: "??"

He froze for a moment, then watched as his body dashed out of the courtyard at a speed far beyond his current cultivation, like a streak of afterimage. In just a few breaths, it rushed into the Pei family's Biwu Courtyard.

Only then did Pei Ling finally react. Biwu Courtyard!

That was where the Chongming Sect disciples lived!

Honored guests that the entire Pei Manor had to treat with extreme caution!

What the hell???