Chapter 6: Preparation

Su Chen walked out of the Taoist temple and brushed past a girl in a black tracksuit and baseball cap; the girl saw Su Chen emerging from the temple, gave a curious glance, and then walked straight into the temple.

Two hours later, Su Chen finally reached the summit; the mountain wasn't very high, so Su Chen didn't spend much time.

After arriving at the summit, he immediately combined his earlier memories, constantly shifting his perspective on the summit, trying to overlay the current scenery with memories from his past life.

An hour later, drenched in sweat, Su Chen finally found the optimal spot—a towering boulder; Su Chen guessed this was the place where, in his previous life, that person filmed the Spiritual Qi revival.

Su Chen climbed onto the boulder, gazed into the distance, and finally found the most suitable spot—a larger boulder; Su Chen judged that this would be the best position for the Spiritual Qi revival.

After confirming the spot, he rested briefly, then descended the mountain; he needed to hurry back to rest and make ample preparations for tomorrow's Spiritual Qi revival.

……

"Thank you, Ma Laoshi, for the yacht; Ma Laoshi is generous, and the number of steps has now accumulated to over thirteen hundred steps…"

"Thank you, my non‑human flowers, let's take a break first; everyone rest assured, I'll definitely finish these over a thousand steps today."

Halfway up Luoxian Shan, a chubby man wearing glasses, a hiking pack, weighing about 180 jin, was panting while holding a selfie stick, sitting on a step and talking to someone on his phone.

The man was named Pang Jinlong, an outdoor livestreamer who had previously been a food broadcaster on the KuaiDou platform, but his response was lukewarm.

However, he was fairly clever; seeing his popularity stagnant while his weight surged, he devised a plan, switching from food broadcasting to a weight‑loss stream, deciding to climb stairs while live.

To that end, he bought a small app on a certain e‑commerce site, configuring corresponding gifts as step counts—for example, the most basic flower was set as one step, fireworks as ten, and so on.

Today was his third day of streaming, and indeed, under this model his recent popularity had risen considerably.

And today he came up with another idea: because traversing the community stairwell offered poor scenery, he chose to hike, selecting the free scenic spot Luoxian Shan, which again caused his popularity to soar.

But now he vaguely felt something was off; even though he rested while climbing, it still took him nearly three hours to reach the halfway point.

Now he was so exhausted he didn't want to move, yet the gifts kept increasing and the step count kept accumulating. If it had been earlier, he'd have been overjoyed, but now he just wanted to go home and sleep.

However, while he rested, the step count rose from over thirteen hundred to over fifteen hundred; his eyelids twitched at the sight. Just as he was about to continue, a seventeen‑ or eighteen‑year‑old youngster came down from the mountain; Pang Jinlong glanced at him, then looked away, and resumed his simultaneously painful and joyful livestream journey.

"Thanks to ****'s sports car…" Pang Jinlong forced a smile uglier than crying, thanking the livestream audience while struggling upward.

……

Su Chen descended quickly, losing little time; it took about three hours to reach the foot of the mountain.

He was already famished and exhausted; after gorging himself at a nearby restaurant, he found a cheap inn to stay in.

After showering, lying in the damp, cramped hotel room, Su Chen drafted a text on his phone, then deleted it. He opened his contacts and dialed "Mom".

"Hello, Mom."

"Hello, Chen'er, are you having fun over there? Have you gotten to school? Oh dear, Old Su, what are you doing! I'm turning on speaker, will do it right away…"

Su Chen found it amusing, didn't want to lie,

but he had no choice, so he forced himself to say, "Mom, listen to me first— I slipped and fell while descending, bruised a few times, and I'm still on Luoxian Shan, in a small hospital, but you don't need to worry; the doctor said I'd be fine in a few days…"

Before Su Chen could finish, Su Mother's anxious voice came through: "Chen'er, is it serious? I'm going to see you at that hospital…"

Su Chen felt his head spin; he dreaded that situation exposing him, so he hurriedly said, "The doctor said I'm fine; a few days of rest is enough. You don't need to come; my classmates would mock me…"

Su Mother seemed about to say more, but Su Father cut her off: "Chen'er, you're an adult now; you're still being coddled. It was just a stumble—no need to make a fuss. A boy shouldn't be spoiled that much."

Su Mother then stopped and chatted with Su Chen, mentioning that Su Qing had already returned to Tianhai University, talking about whose dog was ill, whose son got admitted to that university, and so on.

Nearly an hour later, after Su Father's urging, Su Mother finally hung up, and the Su Chen who had hung up, after washing up, got a leave from his homeroom teacher, set a four‑o'clock alarm, and fell into a deep sleep.

In the early hours of the next day, Su Chen changed into a black hoodie with a hood; after checking out, he found an unnoticed spot, tossed his backpack into System Space, and, holding compressed biscuits and water, ate while heading up the mountain.

……

Pang Jinlong was currently lying shivering in a small tent atop the mountain, layered with several jackets; his sleep was extremely restless.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps from below; Pang Jinlong was startled, sat up, opened the tent, and peered outward.

Yesterday, because the livestream audience was overly enthusiastic, he rested while climbing toward the summit. In the end he was too exhausted to descend, so he set up a tent at the top and barely slept through the night.

Pang Jinlong took out his phone, checked the time—it read 8:23. A curious expression crossed his face; given the time, reaching here meant the person must have gotten up around three or four in the morning.

A strangely dressed young man was walking step by step toward the summit. He wore black pants, black shoes, a black hoodie, and the hoodie's built‑in black cap; to him, these were nothing special.

However, his face was covered by a white cat‑face mask that hid everything except his face. Pang Jinlong judged him to be a young man based on his attire and agile gait, though a faint panting could be heard as he approached.

Su Chen reached the summit, saw a small green tent, and a head poked out, looking at him curiously.

Su Chen was slightly startled, but didn't mind, and headed straight to the spot he had found yesterday.

Su Chen climbed toward the massive stone, habitually sat cross‑legged, when a wave of hunger struck. He looked down; the tent had vanished, replaced by a chubby man of about two hundred jin, fiddling with a strange device and occasionally glancing at him with a weird look.

Su Chen didn't mind; instead, he thought of something, reached into his pocket, pulled out the biscuits he had taken from System Space, and ate them as if no one were there.