Cultivator vs system the.., p.1
Cultivator Vs. System: The Complete Series, page 1
CULTIVATOR VS. SYSTEM
©2022-2023 VALERIOS
This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the authors.
Aethon Books supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact editor@aethonbooks.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Aethon Books
www.aethonbooks.com
Print, eBook formatting, and cover design by Steve Beaulieu. Cover art provided by Paris Ioannou.
Published by Aethon Books LLC.
Aethon Books is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead is coincidental.
All rights reserved.
CONTENTS
The First Step
1. The Lost Cultivator
2. The Bar-Dwelling Scholar
3. The Essence of Cultivation
4. Bargains and Blind People
5. Automatons
6. Natural Triumph
7. Anatolia
8. A Slave’s Life
9. Fake Arms, Real Hearts
10. Righteous Fury
11. The Mines of Lonely Mountain
12. Meet the Kobolds
13. Breaking the System Ultimatum
14. Fortune of Ten Generations
15. Freedom or Death
16. The Battle of Lonely Mountain
17. A Snack That Bites Back!
18. Gaze Into The Future
19. Meeting Resistance
20. Heavenly Execution
21. Pinhead Cores
22. A New Adventure
23. The Desert Jewel
24. Mastik Trevendale
25. Monkeys and Eagles
26. Entering the Ruined City
27. Treasure Hunting 101
28. Bug Problems
29. How To Be A Good Sect Member, by Long Fang
30. Cultivation Deviation
31. Debugging
32. Long vs. Monkedil
33. A Heart of Gold
34. The Legend of A Pharaoh
35. Phil the Explorer
36. Phil the Explorer, But With Ass-Kicking
37. The Bard and The Shadow Witch
38. Straying from the Beaten Path
39. The Yeti’s Sword
40. The Sword’s Yeti
41. All Hail The Pharaoh
42. The Mumpas
43. The Rod of Anubis
44. Fighting for the Rod
45. The Pyramid’s Darkness
46. The Strength of a God
47. Undressing the Dao
48. Paths, Daos, and the Guide
49. Emperor White Eagle
The Next Step
1. Erlene’s Daughter
2. Duality
3. Mastik’s Evolution
4. The Demonic Long Fang
5. The New Lonely Mountain
6. The Scorpion Riders
7. What is the Dao?
8. Mastik and Braum
9. Striking Fear in Others’ Hearts
10. The Cultivation Doctor
11. A Kobold’s Genius
12. The Pharaoh’s Teachings
13. An Explosive Situation
14. The Final Heavens
15. The Battle Begins
16. The Terror of Lonely Mountain
17. The Debt is Paid
18. The Kobold Tribulation
19. A Losing Battle
20. The Fallen Samurai
21. Desperate Measures
22. The Might of the Heavens
23. Master of the Skies
24. The Kobold that Refused to Yield
25. Burning the Phoenix
26. God’s Demise
27. Aftermath and Celebration
28. Phil’s Evolution
29. Red Ox
30. Qi-Powered Fighter Jets
31. Judgment of Divinity
32. Combining Forces
33. Road Trips are Fun
34. Waymon, the Impregnable City
35. Rex Emporium
36. Ancient Golems
37. The Price of A Favor
38. Headbutting a Rock
39. Koby’s Challenge
40. The Asuria War
41. Barbarian Ploys
42. Reforging the Dao
43. Featherborn’s Desire
44. High Stakes
45. Long Fang vs. Featherborn
46. The Duel Concludes
47. When Saints Fight
48. In Hot Pursuit
49. Forced to Fight
50. Exterminator
51. Pushed To Despair
52. Unprecedented!
53. For Freedom and Revenge
54. World War
The Final Step
1. The Beginning of the End
2. The Pharaoh’s Offer
3. Koby’s Rage
4. Howlen’s Dues
5. War Calls
6. The Not-So-Lonely Mountain
7. Thirty Thousand Strong
8. The Nightmare of War
9. The Puzzled Seer
10. Mastik and Kat
11. Bub the Axe Barbarian
12. The First Battle
13. Enduring One’s Burdens
14. Cultivation, Gravity, and the Dreaded Math
15. Forging One’s Fate
16. A Father’s Fury
17. Under the Enemy’s Nose
18. Nobody is Perfect
19. But Some People…
20. A Heart that could Fit the World
21. The Pharaoh’s Command
22. Growing into One’s Potential
23. Reaching Menace
24. The Two Armies
25. The Battle Dawns
26. Defending the Wall
27. Two Legends Clash
28. You Must Hold!
29. What the Hell is That?
30. The Sect Arrives
31. Endless Spiral of Madness
32. A Future of Darkness
33. Screaming in Vain
34. An Explosion of Life in Death
35. Taming the Storm
36. Peak Power
37. One Last Breath
Epilogue: Goodbye, Long Fang
Thank you for reading Cultivator Vs. System
Groups
LitRPG
THE FIRST STEP
CULTIVATOR VS. SYSTEM: BOOK 1
1
THE LOST CULTIVATOR
"Let’s try this one more time."
The city guard sitting behind the desk tapped a finger on the hard wood, betraying his irritation. "Name?" he asked.
"I really don’t see the point of this," replied the young man sitting across from the mustached soldier, slightly tilting his head to escape the sunlight reflecting off the guard’s iron helmet. "Long Fang."
"Long, then." The man scribbled a word on the parchment in front of him. "There is a point, kid, and we’re staying here all day until you begin to make sense. Occupation?"
"Young master."
"Okay, look"—the guard slammed his pen on the desk, using a thumb to massage his temple—"I will let this slide, okay? I will write down your stupid reply on my stupid registration form and not bother again. All I need you to do"—he leaned forward, pressing his hands together in agitation—"is reply to the next question, okay?"
"I really am the young master of the Blue Wind sect, but sure, suit yourself." Long shrugged. He’d been saying the same thing for five minutes now, and this stubborn guard refused to listen.
"Alright." The guard, whose name was Ben, sighed. "Level?"
"Don’t have one."
"You piece of shit!" Ben once again slammed the desk, making the wood creak. Long looked on, unimpressed.
"It was only funny the first time, you, you- You teenager!" the guard lamented, taking a moment to collect himself. "Look, kid, I’m just trying to do my job, okay? I just want to register you with our records so you can enter the town, and then I want to go home to my family and relax until the next stupid trouble-maker comes tomorrow morning. Is it so hard to simply give me your Level?"
"But I really don’t have one!" Long threw his arms up in the air, his long sleeves flying higher than his hands. "I don’t even know what this ‘level’ thing is!"
The guard sighed. He then brought his face closer to Long’s, lowering his voice so he wouldn’t be overheard. "Look, kid, I understand you want to hide your Level. Many people do. Th
"Hmm…" Long frowned. Sounds like forgery to me, but anything to get through this stupid gate.
"So, I just need to give you any random number and we’re fine?"
"No," Ben intoned his words, desperately trying to get his message across, "you need to give me a number that is your Level, and then we will trust you that it is the right one. Please tell me you get it."
"Sure. So any number." Long shrugged, eliciting a pained grunt from the guard. "How about 2000?"
"That’s- I’m trying my best to help you, kid, but if you keep this up, you’re going straight to jail. Tell me your actual Level."
"Hey, I’m trying!" complained Long. How am I supposed to know what number you want…
But Long was not one to crumble at the first difficulty, so he gave this crazy guard his best smile, the one he usually saved especially for the Head of the sect’s Alchemy Hall. Good pills don’t grow on trees, after all. "Help me out a bit. Should it be higher or lower than 2000?"
Ben threw him an empty stare, but Long’s smile didn’t budge. "Lower," he finally replied, resigned to his fate. "Much lower."
"So like…" Long looked at his fingers. "5?"
"And I take it that’s your official reply?" The guard adopted a stony face, scribbling on his parchment as quickly as he could. Looking at the guard’s registration form, Long would have sworn there were many more questions coming, but now this man full of strange questions was filling out all the boxes by himself.
Oh! 5 was that good of a number, huh? Then again, I am the young master. Perhaps this guard finally recognized Mount Tai in front of his eyes.
"All set." Ben didn’t even give Long a chance to reply before he pushed a filled-out form at the young man’s hands. As he did, Long saw there was a second copy of the form hiding below the original. Apparently, the first form was made of thin paper so that the guard’s pen was filling them both out at the same time. Smart.
"That’s your registration form. It may be requested by city guards or officials upon inspection, so don’t lose it. Now leave me alone and go become somebody else’s problem, kid."
"Sure thing, brother." Long gave the guard a toothy smile. Even if Ben was a bit ridiculous, and had possibly met the floor head-first shortly after birth, Long recognized that this guard had much better conduct than most other guards he’d met. Hell, even the sect guards would have long called the Enforcement Hall on his ass.
"Have a pleasant day!"
Outlandish.
As Long walked around the town of Anest, he couldn’t help but be impressed at the scenery.
By the gods, the mystic realm must have catapulted me several planets away… Look at all these things! This! What is this? Why would someone masquerade as a spiritual rhino?
He spent a few seconds fascinated by a man in plate armor before said man gave him a look that clearly expressed how uncomfortable he felt at being ogled—and how uncomfortable Long would be made to feel if he kept at it. The young man immediately looked away.
I’m not scared or anything, just polite.
Everything was different from what Long knew.
Gone were the elegant pagodas he was used to; here, the buildings were shaped like bricks with windows. The gravel-paved streets were another surprise as they were profoundly dirty and narrow, to the point where he felt his long robes might be sullied. Where Long came from, people liked to walk freely instead of being sandwiched between fake rhinos and horse-pulled, straw-filled wagons. Long’s sensitive nose was also suffering a bit, suffused as the streets were with the smell of sweat and dirt.
But the biggest source of shock was undoubtedly the people around him. Long had seen some of them outside the gate, but inside the town, the sight was simply unbelievable.
The locals weren’t dressed in colorful robes with long sleeves, as normal people were; instead, they wore ugly pants and shirts, with many of them donning armors without the slightest hint of spirituality. Their garments seemed to be mostly made of leather, with only the poor clad in cloth. Additionally, there were dark-skinned people too; with his own pale skin, Long stood out like a sore, lightly-colored thumb.
Imagine that! Dark skin!
When it came to their behavior, Long spotted even more differences from what he was used to. The locals seemed to be more outgoing than his people, and they abided by far laxer rules of social conduct. Not a single person had bowed to another in respect, while people regularly shouted at one another without meaning to get violent. It was as if shouting was a hobby here, especially for the wagon drivers, who also each carried a small red horn to more loudly express their annoyance at people; of course, this came at the expense of Long’s sensitive hearing.
He had already been the target of two such horns and had jumped into the air like a scared cat both times. Loud sounds were everywhere.
Besides that, people regularly pushed and laughed with each other while couples freely and shamelessly made out in the middle of the street. At the same time, there didn’t seem to be a clear division between social classes.
In general, the feeling Long got from the town was one of absolute chaos. It felt nonsensical, foreign, and utterly baffling, but... Long did not particularly dislike this. He was an open-minded person, so, to him, this weird society was a refreshing breath of new air. And in any case, the locals deserved the benefit of the doubt, didn't they?
Speaking of baffling, Long had noticed one strange pattern in the people’s behavior. Occasionally, someone would stop at the side of the road and stare into the air or even swipe their hand at nothing.
Thoughts of the insane guard he’d met before went through Long’s mind. By any chance, was everyone here a bit wrong in the head? Was it a custom to throw babies off balconies until they were either dead or retarded?
Well, their way of life would certainly make sense then.
Oh! Come to think of it… Long’s eyes suddenly narrowed as he, too, stopped at the side of the street. Show yourself!
Welcome! Would you like to initiate the System? Y/N
A vein pulsed on his forehead. This annoying blue rectangle had appeared in front of him when he first entered this planet, and try as he did, he’d failed to make it disappear.
