Chapter 1: All-Smart Full-Host Cultivation System is at your service!
Chapter 0001: All-Smart Full-Host Cultivation System is at your service!
The setting sun bled crimson across Payne Manor, casting long, jagged shadows over the courtyard's cracked stone path. Lordi Payne, the Seventh Young Master, trudged homeward, his boots scuffing the stone path in a steady rhythm. Servants flitted past him—eyes down, hands clutching brooms or baskets, pretending he wasn't there. Their silence wrapped around him, thick and familiar, as if he were a nobody. Lordi Payne didn't mind. It was only when he reached the courtyard's edge that a maid's voice sliced through the hush, light yet bored, like she was reciting a chore list.
"The Madam says the Immortal Masters from the Holy Sect are staying a few days," she drawled, barely glancing his way. "They've taken a shine to those pastries—the ones with Colourless Spirit Mushrooms. She wants you to head up Mountain Grimvale tomorrow and gather more. Do it well, Seventh Young Master, and there's a hefty reward waiting."
"Understood," Lordi replied, his tone cool and even, untouched by her casual disrespect. He turned away, the words settling like dust. Truth was, he relished his place in the sprawling, decaying manor. Like his secluded cottage tucked far beyond the main halls, it was a quiet corner—unseen, untouched by the clamor of clan family politics or prying eyes. No one spared him a second thought, no one paid him any attention, and that suited him just fine.
His cottage is so forsaken, you could slit a throat in broad daylight, bury the mess, and not a soul would blink.
Nowadays, reckless bravado's gone stale—out of style. The new fashion main character, the ones who climb to the peak of the cultivation, they slink low, unseen, staying low-profile, dodging every spotlight. Steady steps outlast wild leaps—that's the real road to the Great Dao.
And in this regard, Lordi Payne considered himself an expert. He prided himself on this very thing: steadiness. In his past life, he'd been a cautious soul—some sneered coward, but he wore it like armor. Reborn into this brutal new world, that instinct had only hardened, honed by a reality where every shadow hid teeth.
This is not a peaceful world. Evil cultivators twisted the air, Horror phenomenas seeped from the earth, and Demon Beasts prowled as common as flies. The Payne Clan, while influential, was merely a subordinate force under the Abyss Pit Sect, a notorious demonic sect. Known for their ruthless nature, an Abyss Pit Sect immortal master would often unleash devastation across three thousand miles of land—all over a single word of disagreement or the slightest hint of disrespect. The mere thought of such horrors—and what the future might bring—sent a shiver down his spine.
Thus, Lordi Payne had developed a habit ritual of daily self-reflection:
Have I been steady enough today?
Can I be even more steady in the future?