Chapter 1: Li Yuan

Dayun 1452, Dragon Dormant Prefecture, Gao Liu County.

Creak~

Glancing back at the messy communal bunk behind him, Li Yuan pushed the door open and left, not waiting for the last person to leave the room.

The mist of late autumn's early hours had not yet fully dispersed, yet within Gao Liu County town wisps of cooking smoke had already risen, and faintly, the sound of voices could be heard.

What came into view was a small courtyard, not large, where six or seven youths of about his own age, dressed in hemp clothing, fifteen or sixteen years old, were busy at their tasks.

Washing up, chopping firewood, drawing water, lighting fires, cooking meals…

"Hoo!"

Tightening his thin grey hemp clothes, Li Yuan took a deep breath and joined in at the calls of several apprentices.

A day as an apprentice of the Weapon-Forging Shop began with chopping firewood and drawing water.

"Just one month and three days—how am I supposed to endure twelve years? This is way too hard… Learning things wasn't easy in my last life, and this one's even harder!"

Working briskly with hands and feet, Li Yuan couldn't help sighing inwardly.

In his last life, learning from his own rogue-Daoist master the whole set of practices—repairing mountains and building graves, performing requiem rites, and assisting with difficult births—had only taken him two or three years.

Yet being an apprentice at this Weapon-Forging Shop required a full twelve years!

Three years running errands, two years as an assistant, seven years in service!

Li Yuan grumbled inwardly, but his hands didn't dare slow down in the slightest; he could only sigh that he had 'awakened' too late—one sleep, and he had already 'sold himself' to the Weapon-Forging Shop.

And because his body was too frail, he hadn't been assigned to the front courtyard…

"Bang!"

Suddenly, a muffled thud came from the kitchen.

The fat man holding a large ladle kicked a grey-clothed apprentice to the ground in one stroke, the jowls on his face flapping:

"You motherless little whelp, Laozi suffered untold hardships learning this skill of tossing the ladle to cook—how dare you steal a peek?!"

"Head Cook Sun, I was wrong, I won't dare again, won't dare…"

The apprentice clutched his head and wailed, yet didn't dare dodge, enduring a vicious beating head-on.

The apprentices in the small courtyard were silent as cicadas in winter; Li Yuan kept his head low, his expression wooden.

When an apprentice erred, the masters could naturally beat and scold them as they pleased—this was written into the 'indenture contract.'

"Apprentice, apprentice, three years a slave"—that saying was no idle talk.

That Sun Fatty who tossed the ladle counted as half a master; he oversaw their dozen-plus apprentices, and also oversaw the meals of the hundred-odd people in the Weapon-Forging Shop. His temper was vile, and beating and scolding apprentices was, naturally, routine.

When he had first arrived a month ago, Li Yuan had nearly had his skull cracked open by that cooking ladle…

"Keep your hands and feet quick about it—the masters in the front courtyard are about to rise. If you delay their meal, it won't be a matter of just a few kicks!"

That Sun Fatty weighed the ladle in his hand, cursing as he went.

None of the apprentices dared lift their heads, yet their hands and feet moved several degrees faster.

Only after that fatty returned to the kitchen did the beaten apprentice silently climb to his feet; even though his whole body ached terribly, he didn't dare delay his work.

Li Yuan's expression remained wooden.

The Weapon-Forging Shop was one of the largest smithies in Gao Liu County town, supporting some eighty to a hundred guards, masters, assistants, and apprentices.

Apprentices, naturally, were at the very bottom—low pay, poor food, and beatings and scoldings at every turn. To be treated better, one had to at least endure until becoming an assistant, or even a master.

"Twelve years…"

When the four great suns rose from the sea of clouds, the food was finally ready, and the busy apprentices' faces showed a few smiles.

Apart from mealtimes, the apprentices truly had no leisure throughout the day.

Chopping firewood, carrying water, preparing charcoal, hauling all manner of iron ingots, wiping weapons, cleaning up…

Yet even so, the Weapon-Forging Shop never lacked applicants whenever it recruited apprentices.

The reason was none other than that the Weapon-Forging Shop offered the best treatment among the various establishments in Gao Liu County that took on apprentices.

Not only did it pay thirty copper coins a month, the food was also far better than that of the medicinal herb shops, carpentry shops, and the like.

Smithing was extremely hard labor—without something in the belly, one couldn't do it.

Of course, apprentices didn't enjoy such treatment; only once every seven days would they see a bit of grease, and even so, the apprentices were already quite content.

The neighboring shops only saw a touch of meat on the first and fifteenth of the month, and some didn't see a drop of grease the whole year round…

When the sun was high and the 'clink-clang' of smithing could be faintly heard from the front courtyard, the apprentices finally got their breakfast and a brief moment of rest.

"Three years of enduring before becoming an assistant…"

The apprentices squatted here and there against the wall; Li Yuan squatted in one corner with his rice bowl, his aching shoulders barely holding a steamed bun, his heart inevitably a little sour.

In his previous life, although he had been an unregistered rogue Daoist not on the Daoist rolls, following his master as they roamed the countryside had yielded quite a bit of grease to skim; even at his worst, it hadn't been this miserable.

At this moment, he couldn't help missing his previous life again.

Beer, drinks, late-night barbecue, air-conditioning, TV, sofa, cell phone… even his own master, who until death still yearned to be registered on the Daoist rolls.

"How did I end up transmigrating?! Can I even go back?!"

Swallowing the steamed bun with rice soup, Li Yuan looked up at the sky—one large and three small, four red suns—and nearly shed tears.

How had he ended up transmigrating?

Over the past month-plus, Li Yuan had pondered this question more than once, recalling again and again his memories before transmigrating.

As an unregistered rogue Daoist, after his master passed on, he could barely scrape together even the weddings and funerals in the villages. Forced to change careers, he had opened a small supermarket in his old hometown county town—though he had no money, it was at least peaceful.

"That day I was curled up on the sofa playing with my phone, and then… wait, the Register-Receiving Ceremony!"

As if a lightning bolt had torn through the fog, Li Yuan shuddered all over, nearly spilling half a bowl of rice soup onto the ground!

"That's right, the Register-Receiving Ceremony!"

Suppressing the pounding of his heart, Li Yuan squatted back down, not drawing anyone's attention, but his thoughts could not be restrained from drifting.

In his previous life, his master—who until death had never managed to be registered on the rolls—had left him half a scroll of Daoist writings.

He had glanced through that Daoist text a few times, but it had never really interested him, and he had never taken his late master's obsession with "receiving a register and ascending to immortality" seriously at all.

Until the day before he transmigrated, he could not say why, but the ritual recorded in that book suddenly came to mind.

And then…

"Was it really because of that ritual?"

Stuffing half a steamed bun along with half a bowl of rice porridge into his belly, Li Yuan kept muttering it over in his heart.

He did not believe some receiving-a-register ritual could have caused his transmigration, yet apart from that, he truly could not think of any other possibility.

"Receive the register, the heavens bestow the register…"

Li Yuan murmured within his heart.

Receiving a register — naturally, he was no stranger to it.

The Daoists held that talismans were formed by Heaven and Earth of their own accord, copied down by the gods and immortals, and passed down into the mortal world.

Only after a Daoist Priest had been bestowed a register of talismans, had his name enrolled in the Heavenly Register, and gained a Dao rank and divine office, could he command talismans — and thereby wield unfathomable Daoist arts and Gu Gu Shentong such as summoning and chastising ghosts and gods, pacifying and securing the five directions, subduing demons and quelling devils, curing illness and averting disaster.

"The old man's lifelong obsession with 'receiving a register and ascending to immortality' — could it actually be true?"

Li Yuan murmured within his heart.

The old man's obsession — he had never believed it. What era was this, after all, to still put stock in that whole business of receiving a register and ascending to immortality?

In his previous life he had known several Daoists who had received registers, yet he had never seen any of them possess any Daoist arts or Gu Gu Shentong.

Especially since what was recorded in that half-volume Daoist text was not even the orthodox form of receiving a register.

One had to understand that the orthodox receiving-a-register ritual required not only the bestowal of the register, but also scriptures and precepts; to transmit the way, one needed a Register Altar Supervising Master, a Transmission Master, a Recommending Master, and so on.

Yet the so-called "Heaven-Bestowed Register" described in that Daoist text was, frankly, simple — one might even say crude…

But now…

"I've already transmigrated, so what's impossible? Still, though… but what if?"

Li Yuan's thoughts drifted.

Reason told him it was unlikely, yet in his heart he still clung to a shred of hope.

What if?

"What if I — no, this Daoist Master here truly has the fate to receive a register and ascend to immortality?"

The more he thought, the more Li Yuan's heart throbbed and could not be stilled; had he not known the timing was wrong now, he would have been itching to perform the ritual on the spot.

To hell with being an apprentice, a hired hand, a master, a Shopkeeper!

This Daoist Master is going home!

This Daoist Master is ascending to immortality!

(End of chapter)