The day Lin Ce transmigrated, the sky had yet to brighten.
He woke up in a stinking ditch in a place called Qingshi Town,
clad in coarse hemp clothes,
with a corpse beside him — one whose organs had been hollowed out.
Then—he heard the voice.
[Ding. Detecting severe mental instability in host. Forced binding initiated...]
[Binding successful. Welcome to the Survival Codex™ — the system most suited for unscrupulous, life-obsessed transmigrators.]
Lin Ce stared blankly for three seconds,
wondering if he had lost his mind.
[Host aptitude assessment: Trash-tier spirit root, cultivation level zero. No backing. No plot armor. No destined heroine.]
[Estimated survival time: Less than three days.]
[Would you like to activate the Beginner's Survival Guide?]
"…If I activate it, can I live past three days?" he asked dryly.
[That depends on your performance.]
At that moment, Lin Ce realized—
this wasn't a golden finger.
This was a poison-tongued AI.
From that day forth, his system messages were always… "colorful":
— You successfully ran away for the first time. Evaluation: Like a rat, but efficient.
— You stabbed the enemy in the back. Evaluation: Delightful. Very on brand.
— You finished off your enemy with multiple follow-up strikes. Evaluation: Calculated madness. We like it.
The system called itself the "Survival Codex,"
but Lin Ce suspected it was just a beginner's manual for aspiring villains.
One day, he tried asking the system:
"Are you Shen Changsheng?"
[No. He was my previous host.]
[He died horribly. But impressively late.]
[He left you a message: 'Survival is a virtue.']
"…Right."
[As long as you continue surviving by any means necessary, I'll keep upgrading you.]
[You and I… are in a mutually beneficial survival partnership.]
That night, Lin Ce sat by a dry well, his hands still stained with blood.
Beside him lay a broken sword he picked off a corpse.
Then came another prompt:
[Host completed Beginner Task 1: Kill someone who intended to kill you.]
[Reward: Basic Body Refining Technique ×1, Introductory Poison Manual ×1, 1 Shen Changsheng Quote]
He tapped open the quote:
"Live, and you're the protagonist.
Die, and you're just another corpse in someone else's story."
He laughed.
This was the most unprofessional system he'd ever seen.
But perhaps that's why it worked.
This wasn't a system to make him immortal.
It was a system that helped him survive a world where corpses littered the road.
Shen Changsheng once said:
"Becoming a celestial is fate.
Surviving is a choice."
Lin Ce lowered his head, and carved two characters into the blade:
Survive.
From that moment on,
he walked his own path—
The Survival Rules of the Cultivation World.
[Extra Chapter — END]