“So this is it” I think to myself as I open my eyes.

Today is the last day of my life.

It seems I woke up just after the sun rose and the rays are just starting to come into my room. My room is on the smaller side, furnished with a bed, a nightstand, a table and a chair , all of which are made in a vaguely Asian style. However all the furniture seemed to be surrounded by a mystical energy which made them quite comfortable. Such things aren’t surprising for me since I’m a cultivator, and a powerful one at that.

What’s a cultivator? A cultivator is someone who practices spiritual cultivation: the act of strengthening one’s body by absorbing the spiritual energy present in the world through meditation and martial arts. Normally, cultivators could go without sleep for days, the higher their cultivation level the longer they could hold on. Me, being in the peak of the Half-Immortal cultivation realm, could apparently be without sleep for years. But alas, due to my own arrogance, I no longer have the opportunity to test this out.

There are nine cultivation realms: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, Body Integration, Unity, Half-Immortal and Immortal. Each of those realms are further divided into four stages: early, middle, late and peak. This applies to every cultivation realm except the Immortal realm, as it is the pinnacle of power in the world and it is said that the cultivators who reach that realm immediately ascend to the Heavens and therefore barely anything is known about it. There are legends about immortals who have descended from heaven to help the world or those who came to cause destruction. And I have my own theories about immortals since I used to read cultivation stories before being reborn in this world.

I was born in this world about two and a half thousand years ago to a cultivator couple. Maybe it’s because my life was started over, or maybe because I’ve lived for long that I forgot most things about my life back on Earth. I could remember major historic events, what the modern world was like and various pieces of entertainment that I’ve experienced but I barely remember about my own life. The only things I remember were that I wasn’t an orphan, I was an adult and I was a man.

In cultivation stories, in which people are suddenly transported into, the characters have various perks given to them such as special powers, weapons or a system that gives them various missions and rewards. In my case it seems that I was given a talent for cultivation. My parents had been outer-disciples of the Cloud Parting Empty Hand sect and once I started cultivating, it wasn’t long before I joined them. Thanks to my talent, I rose through the ranks until eventually ending up as the eleventh sect master.

As a cultivator in the Half-Immortal realm, I’m considered to be one of the strongest beings in the world and as much as I wish otherwise, my strength played a large role in my appointment as the sect master. While strength is indeed vital for a sect master to have, in my opinion, wisdom and experience should be even more important. Thinking about it in hindsight, it was probably this thought that made me attempt a breakthrough into the Immortal realm. Normally such an attempt is made after centuries or even a millennium of secluded meditation and even then, most Half-Immortal cultivators fail and either die or get severely weakened by the Tribulation that happens during the breakthrough. It is said that only one in a thousand succeed and become an Immortal and due to my talent, I considered myself to be the one. But unfortunately I could not withstand the Tribulation Lightning and if it weren’t for my thorough preparations, my death would have been guaranteed.

I neither died nor did I lose my strength, but my lifespan had been massively reduced. The higher the cultivation realm is, the longer one could live. Half-Immortals like myself have lifespans over ten thousand years. After failing the breakthrough, my lifespan became a mere ten years. For mortals, ten years is not a short amount of time not matter how you view it, but for cultivators who could meditate in seclusion for years, it was. While those around me were lamenting my short life expectancy, my prior experience living as a normal human on Earth suddenly came in handy. For me, the ten years became plenty of time settle various issues before my death. The first thing I did after discovering my reduced lifespan was to calculate my date of death. After that I began to work on preparing the sect for the time after my passing.

I quickly chose my successor and began solving various problems I had been putting off inside the sect. Then after finishing that I began hunt for those who could become enemies with the Cloud Parting Empty Hand sect, as the death of a Half-Immortal would considerably weaken it. What I thought would be a few month job ended up costing me years, time I could have spent with those who are dear to me. As I’ve mentioned before, I almost have no memory of my life on Earth, but I do have feeling that my social circle was not as large or as rich as the one I have in this life. While I was quite unlucky when it came to love, I was blessed when it came to friends and colleagues. And right now they’re all here, with me, to send me on my way.

Back on Earth, whenever people die of old age in two ways: either peacefully in their sleep or in a hospital surrounded by loved ones. Since I knew the date of my death, I decided to turn the day into a farewell party. There is a feast, music and entertainment. It may not be the most fitting activities for someone’s death, I did it so people wouldn’t mourn me. The party was going well until this moment.

I felt it.

My time has come.

I suddenly felt sleepy and fell down. My apprentice, who was next to me, managed to catch me before I hit the ground and It was only then that I realized my body was fading away. I looked up and saw the tearful faces of my loved ones.

Not wanting to sadden them further, I simply smiled back as I faded away.

“It was a good life”. That had been my final thought.

…

…

…

Except it wasn’t. I had been feeling weak and sleepy, and had thought the feeling would continue until I couldn’t feel anything anymore. But at some point, it stopped and I opened my eyes. I seemed to be in a misty valley, where thick mist obscured everything, even the ground. I thought to myself “Is death like this for cultivators?”.

And suddenly I heard a reply: NO

The sky, or rather something that was above me, lit up with a golden light and I felt an immense presence. It exuded so much pressure that I instantly fell to my knees. And as I was crushed under the pressure, a feeling of familiarity came to me. “Come on, remember, when did I feel this” I had hunch that remembering it would save me from my current predicament.

A crushing force…coming from above…accompanied by intense light…

Could it be…the Tribulation Lightning? No this sensation is stronger than that, it feels like it’s coming from the source. Is it the Heavens?

CORRECT

The pressure disappeared and I finally looked up. It was simply a golden light in the sky and yet I could feel the power emanating from it. The Heavens are paying direct attention to me.

“Oh, Heaven, for what reason have been called here?” I ask in the most deferential way I could.

IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO PAY BACK DEBT FOR THE HELP YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN

“Given help?” I muttered to myself “Please enlighten this ignorant one” I reply. And immediately I am assailed with memories of my cultivation breakthroughs and victories in battles. “Oh, so I really was given talents after all” I think to myself.

IN RETURN FOR THE HELP GIVEN, YOU MUST HELP ANOTHER. NOW GO!

And with that, everything went black.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a mountainous valley and I seemed to be on a tall cliff. The sky was clear and the wind whistled in my ears, yet I could not feel it on my skin. I quickly realized that my body seemed to have transformed into faint blue mist. Panicking, I looked around and found a young man sitting some distance away from me. As I got closer I began see flashes of images before me. I saw a large family before me, with the young man among them. Next I saw the family being killed by masked assailants and the young man escaping. Then lastly I saw how young man swearing to the heavens that he would avenge his family.

All of this gave me a strange sense of deja vu. Such a dramatic backstory seemed to fit a protagonist of a nov-

Wait, am I meant to help him? Is he the protagonist of a story, the chosen one by heaven?

I remembered what the Heavens told me before sending me and a brilliant idea came to me. I used to be a Half-Immortal realm cultivator with rich experience and before that, I had been a fan of cultivation stories, with knowledge of various tropes and clichés. I transformed my body into a screen like form and appeared before the young man.

CONGRATULATIONS HOST, YOU HAVE UNLOCKED THE CULTIVATION ASSISTANCE SYSTEM.