Chapter 6: Old Bird

Old Bird's real name was Liu Bufan, and he was an old neighbor of Chen Guan's family, being just over a year older than Chen Guan.

The nickname "Old Bird" came from his extraordinary talent since childhood. His skill with a slingshot was nothing short of miraculous, and it was no exaggeration to say that he could hit a bird from a hundred paces without fail. He was quite famous in Chen Guan's neighborhood and often took Chen Guan into the wild woods to hunt pheasants, turtledoves, and pigeons.

Later, Old Bird chose to practice archery, hoping to use his talent to acquire some Mystic Techniques and Mystic Skills in the future, thereby making a name for himself. Indeed, he demonstrated a strong talent for archery in the academy.

Old Bird was among the graduates of the previous academy term and had chosen the blessed land of Mount Pingdu. However, since entering Mount Pingdu, there had been no news of him for over a year. Such occurrences were not uncommon, and his family had long assumed he had perished in the Mystic Realm.

Chen Guan never expected to see him here but had no immediate intention of helping. Instead, he retreated further, hiding in a more concealed spot, using the trees to mask his presence.

People often said that the "Guan" in Chen Guan's name meant "observing from the sidelines." While not entirely accurate, Chen Guan indeed disliked meddling in others' affairs, especially when it involved personal risk.

The level of the Mystic Spirit was clearly much higher, and Old Bird was no novice at just one or two levels. Chen Guan didn't believe his abilities surpassed Old Bird's.

Old Bird had been in Mount Pingdu for over a year without leaving, so his level couldn't be low. Without a clear understanding of the situation, Chen Guan didn't want to act rashly.

However, Chen Guan didn't leave either. The bizarre Mystic Spirit was something he had never seen or heard of before, nor was it mentioned in the academy's textbooks or the materials he had researched about Mount Pingdu. He speculated it was at least a rare, if not an extremely rare, Mystic Spirit, and of a high level. If he could find an opportunity to kill it, he might gain some benefits.

After all, rare and extremely rare Mystic Spirits weren't encountered casually. In areas with many human cultivators, such resources were fiercely contested.

Chen Guan watched and assessed the strength gap between himself and the Mystic Spirit, calculating various possibilities.

Old Bird scrambled to his feet, only to see the Mystic Spirit's red palm descending upon him. With no room or strength left to dodge, he felt a wave of despair.

Crack!

A black, cold shadow flew from behind the Mystic Spirit, striking its neck and severing its head.

The force of the shadow didn't stop there; it embedded itself into the tree behind Old Bird. Only then did Old Bird see that it was a black short knife resembling a butcher's knife.

Still shaken, Old Bird saw a person and a giant white rabbit, as large as a polar bear, appear behind the headless corpse of the Mystic Spirit. The person looked somewhat familiar.

"Chen Guan..." The old bird was both surprised and delighted, wanting to say something, but he noticed that many red particles were seeping out of the Mystic Spirit's corpse, converging towards Chen Guan's hand like countless fireflies. In an instant, they transformed into a blood-red Mystic Core.

Chen Guan held the Mystic Core in his hand, and with a brief moment of contemplation, he obtained the information about it.

Mystic Skill: Level 1 Blood Hand Seal (Rare).

Cultivation Requirement: None.

Primal Energy Consumption: 1.6.

Skill Level: Level 1.

Without any hesitation, Chen Guan immediately activated the Longevity Art and absorbed the Blood Hand Seal Mystic Skill, acquiring his first Mystic Skill, and a rare one at that, which was already quite remarkable.

Unfortunately, Chen Guan currently only had a maximum of 1 point of Primal Energy, so even though he had learned the Blood Hand Seal, he couldn't use it yet. He would have to wait until he advanced to Level 2 and his Primal Energy limit increased before he could utilize the Blood Hand Seal.

As the Mystic Core dissolved into particles and merged into Chen Guan's body, disappearing without a trace, the old bird couldn't help but feel a bit envious. However, having just narrowly escaped death, he didn't have the mind to dwell on other matters.

"Chen Guan, how did you end up here?" the old bird asked with joy.

"Have you forgotten? I'm only a year younger than you, already eighteen. I just chose to enter the Mount Pingdu blessed land today and was teleported here. What about you? Since you didn't die, why didn't you go back?" Chen Guan countered.

The old bird's face immediately turned bitter: "Do you think I don't want to go back? But there's no teleportation station on this island, so there's no way to return."

Chen Guan was slightly taken aback: "This is an island?"

"Yes, it's a very large island, and it's quite strange. Not only is there no teleportation station, but there's also no sign of the mainland nearby. It's probably located in the ocean far from the mainland. Everyone who was teleported here is trapped on the island..." The old bird seemed to have finally found an outlet, pouring out all his experiences and pent-up frustrations from the past year.

The old bird wasn't the only one teleported to this island; there were many others like him, all first-time cultivators entering the Mystic Realm.

Strangely, they were all teleported here a year ago, on the same day, and no one had been teleported here before or since. That's why the old bird was so surprised to see Chen Guan here.

The Mystic Spirits on this island were all quite peculiar, most of them undiscovered or not mentioned in textbooks and materials. Moreover, there were many high-quality Mystic Spirits.

Rare Mystic Spirits that one would have to fight for outside were frequently seen here, and rare-quality Mystic Spirits could also be found from time to time, even unique Mystic Spirits might exist.

There were also some very mysterious areas on the island where unique or even legendary Mystic Spirits might reside.

However, the levels of the Mystic Spirits on the island weren't too high. The highest-level Mystic Spirit the old bird had seen was Level 10, and he hadn't encountered any higher-level ones, possibly because their strength wasn't sufficient to reach those higher-level areas.

There were over a hundred cultivators teleported to the island on the same day as the old bird. Since they were all novices entering the Mystic Realm for the first time, many died early on. Out of the hundred or so people who struggled to survive on the island, only thirty-some remained alive to this day.

Currently, the highest-level human on the island has already reached level 10, while Old Bird is only at level 7, making him one of the weakest among the living.

"With your archery talent, how did you end up in such a sorry state?" Chen Guan was somewhat surprised, not expecting Old Bird to be in such a poor situation.

"Don't mention it. There's always someone better, and the sky is vast. Back in our small corner of the world, I thought my talent was exceptional. To put it bluntly, I used to believe I was the reincarnation of the Archery God, destined to become a legendary figure." Old Bird gave a bitter smile. "But after entering the Mystic Realm, I realized my so-called talent was nothing. There are too many people with better talent than me. The archery skills I thought I had mastered through years of hard practice couldn't even match the accuracy of others who barely trained."

Chen Guan listened in silence. Although he couldn't fully empathize with Old Bird's feelings, he had heard the story of a peerless prodigy who cultivated for ten thousand years and finally ascended to the immortal realm, only to become one of the nameless celestial soldiers in the hunt for a monkey. He could imagine the frustration that must have entailed.