Wang Hao finally clicked the icon labeled Penguin Farm. It sat right in the center of the screen, but knowing it was "just a game," he had low expectations.
When it opened, a familiar farm scene appeared: a five-by-six grid, with only the first two plots already planted.
"Is this supposed to distract me from boredom? A casual little game? I want to cultivate immortality, not kill time! If it's a game, at least make it Candy Crush!"
He opened his virtual backpack and found two free seed packets.
"Heh—now it's 'spiritual rice,' big deal. It's still just a game!"
Grumbling but curious, Wang Hao planted the seeds, watered the soil, and checked the timer for the next growth stage:
Status: Seed — 47 hours 59 minutes until sprout.
"A plant takes that long? I thought it'd be two hours at most…"
He rummaged for another item in his pack and remembered a free fertilizer. Impatient to wait two days, he used it immediately.
Description: Common Fertilizer — reduces this stage's growth time by 1 day. Usable once per stage.
Click. Fertilize.
Status: Seed — 23 hours 59 minutes until sprout.
"Now all I can do is wait…" Wang Hao sighed, already planning his next steps. Though he'd inherited the original Wang Hao's memories, he was still a modern man with zero cultivation know-how. He needed to learn the rules of this world, master its techniques, and understand its systems.
But first—and foremost—he had to digest the memories of the previous Wang Hao.
With a single thought, memories flipped through his mind like pages in a fast-moving book.
"Now I see why Wang Yanzhao was so furious… that kid was a real troublemaker!"
As the illegitimate son of the Wang family—cursed with the dreaded Five Spiritual Roots—old Wang Hao spent his days sowing chaos: harassing men and women at Qingniu Market, earning universal contempt. Without his father's protection, he'd have been killed long ago.
Just days before, the idiot had even tried to flirt with a wandering cultivator—crude jokes and all. Though she dared not challenge the Wang clan's power, she rebuffed him and vanished.
But Wang Hao had persisted.
Despite his poor aptitude, the boy wasn't stupid. He researched her background, discovered she was alone in Qingniu Market and seeking lodging, and set a trap.
He leased a family property at a bargain, sent an agent to hide his identity, and waited. When she entered, he slammed the door behind her with a sinister grin—and jumped her.
The result? He nearly got beaten to death. And it was precisely during that beating that the modern soul transmigrated into this body.
"What a talent! A prodigy of failure!"
"The plan wasn't half bad in theory… just rushed. If she'd lived there a while, who knows? Familiarity breeds affection. You're still handsome, even as a bastard… For a wandering cultivator, that counts for something."
"Bah! Is this the time for that nonsense?" Wang Hao slapped his own cheek. "Damn body! You corrupted a four-virtue product of modern society!"
His illegitimate status read like a romance novel. Twenty years ago, Wang Yanzhao—a promising Wang family alchemist—had been sent to Qingniu Market to gain experience. The mother, Qin Xiuer, was a wandering cultivator who hunted demon beasts and sold spiritual materials to the Wang family in exchange for elixirs and talismans. Frequent contact sparked passion: him, charismatic and refined; her, fearless and beautiful.
But Wang Yanzhao was the clan's central disciple—fire-and-wood roots destined for Foundation Establishment—and had an arranged marriage with Li Dexi of the Li clan, an equal-status family in Qingniu Market. The Wang elders intervened, hoping time would extinguish youthful infatuation.
It didn't.
Confined by his clan, Wang Yanzhao couldn't see Qin Xiuer. When she discovered her pregnancy, she was furious at his cowardice, vanished without a word, and raised Wang Hao alone.
At age five, the "Five Spiritual Roots" diagnosis was a cruel blow to Qin Xiuer. Yet she couldn't abandon her son, doubling her efforts—and risks—in the mountains to support him.
Fate was merciless. With only Sixth-Level Qi Refinement, she ventured into the perilous Duan Yuan Range. When Wang Hao was ten, her hunting party was ambushed by a high-grade Level-2 demon beast. Only two survived, returning Qin Xiuer at death's door.
By coincidence, Wang Yanzhao—now married to Li Dexi and serving as the family alchemist—returned to the market. Seeing her condition reopened old wounds. Before dying, she revealed Wang Hao's parentage and begged him to acknowledge the boy.
Though shocked, Wang Yanzhao agreed. But Wang Hao refused—raised only by his mother, his heart brimming with the resentments he'd heard all his life.
Li Dexi tolerated the scandal for family interests, but a sudden bastard child was too much. The Wang clan sided with her; Wang Hao remained outside the main household.
From then on, Wang Hao blamed his father for his mother's death, defied him daily, and did everything wrong. It was a miracle he didn't end up truly worthless.
Having absorbed it all, Wang Hao sat speechless.
"If I'd transmigrated a few years earlier, maybe I could've used his guilt to gain a foothold… But it's too late. His goodwill is spent, and starting as a wandering cultivator is… brutal!"
Though he'd never actually cultivated, Wang Hao had read enough webnovels to know: a wandering cultivator's path is almost a death sentence. With no inheritance or resources, everything must be won in blood. It's a lonely road, and only a few ever ascend.
In the vast Southern Sea cultivation world, dozens have reached Nascent Soul — and none came from the wandering path.