Chen Xia transmigrated.
With an undying body.
And in his mind there was also an attribute point system with three options in total.
Strength, magic power, and luck.
For every year lived, one attribute point would be obtained. Currently the time was 0 years 1 day.
He let out a breath, feeling that with his endless lifespan, living a few hundred or thousand years would be more than enough. This system was simply giving out points for free.
At this time he had yet to realize the severity of the problem.
He only felt the wind suddenly become loud, like the violent gusts before a storm.
Thunderous roars came from the sky, like the growls before lightning arrived.
The sky darkened, covering tens of miles of land, like the prelude to an incoming storm.
Chen Xia did not pay it much attention, thinking it was just a big rainstorm.
He was currently standing atop a mountain peak, under a big tree, feeling somewhat unsafe. He wanted to head down the mountain to find a small slope to take shelter from the rainwater.
Boom!
The sounds from the sky grew even louder, as if a hole had been punched through it, with thunder crackling recklessly.
Chen Xia felt something was off, and suddenly turned to look.
First was the oncoming gale!
He looked up.
In the highest reaches of the firmament was a gigantic hand covering the sky, with thunder and lightning coiling between its fingers, swirling and shifting!
Under the hand was a town shrouded in shadows, with panicked crowds still streaming out from the town gates, wanting to escape.
"Ants."
An emotionless, cold snort rumbled like the sound that shook heaven and earth, carrying endless callousness.
The palm slapped down without a shred of mercy.
Truly like swatting ants!
This was the last scene Chen Xia saw before being knocked out by the shockwaves.
When he awoke, there was no longer a town before him, only a handprint dozens of miles in size left deeply imprinted in the earth, having completely replaced the previous town.
And those panicked escaping crowds had vanished along with the town.
Within tens or even hundreds of miles, Chen Xia was the only living person left.
From this moment onward, Chen Xia decided he would find a place to go into secluded cultivation, and must endure until all these transcendent beings were worn down.
He set off alone on an arduous journey, looking for a suitable place to go into seclusion.
Along the way there were all kinds of dangers and difficulties, like roadside bandits and government troops, which caused him no small amount of trouble.
But Chen Xia was no ordinary person. Adopting the mentality of joining them if he could not beat them, Chen Xia successfully attained the status of a bandit chief, and later during government searches, performed commendably and reported useful information, gaining an identity as a patrol officer.
He worked steadily in the government, planning to first amass some money before going into reclusion and hiding for a few hundred million years, leveling up his attribute points before doing anything else.
He currently had no cultivation methods, and could only rely on the system to give him points.
There were also legends of cultivators circulating in the mortal realm, and some cultivators had even infiltrated into it.
Although they were the lowest level cultivators, they were still far too powerful compared to mortals. If they were cultivators from upright orthodox sects things would be easier to handle.
But if they were rogue cultivators or from heretical sects, massacring a whole town would be a trivial matter.
Cases like this were not rare in the current age.
There had even been an infamous incident where a Golden Core heretical cultivator killed the emperor and became emperor himself.
Fortunately the town Chen Xia was in was remote with scarce resources, and lacked any vestiges or cave domains of ancient masters, so no cultivators had appeared for thousands of years.
Chen Xia was also very careful in his actions, and as a patrol officer did not extort much in protection fees, only what the merchants could reasonably afford.
If the merchants complained, Chen Xia would even proactively refund some silver.
Therefore among the patrol officers Chen Xia had an outstanding reputation, with the merchants of the town singing his praises...
Commenting that there had never been such a conscientious bandit...patrol officer!
That's right, in the eyes of the merchants, there was actually no difference between the town's patrol officers and bandits. The patrol officers were just collecting a bit less under the banner of the government.
But Chen Xia was different.
He truly collected less.
It was as if he was just going through the motions, letting the merchants decide how much to give, whether it was a single copper coin or a few taels of silver. What stood out was this saying.
Never collect more, less is fine.
Collecting money was for living expenses, asking for less was for peace of mind.
The merchants of the town were quite moved, and whenever Chen Xia's name came up, they would give him a thumbs up and praise him.
"The town hasn't had such a conscientious bandit...patrol officer for a long time!"
Thanks to his good reputation, Chen Xia was even named outstanding patrol officer of the year for Xiwei Town, and gained a bit of merit.
But Chen Xia didn't care much about that. What he cared more about was that after today passed, the first attribute point from the system would arrive.
After midnight, inside a mountain cave outside town, Chen Xia sealed up the cave entrance, and after confirming it was safe, began to allocate his attribute points.
Strength, magic power, luck.
If Chen Xia was twelve, he would choose luck, believing in plot armor at the time, and fantasizing about being the protagonist.
If he was eighteen, he would choose magic power. Breathing fire, manipulating water, controlling objects - no matter which, they all sounded so cool, what young man could resist that temptation?
But now he was twenty-six, time to consider his future.
A mature man had to possess strength.
So Chen Xia chose strength.
【Point Allocation Successful, Strength: 1】
When this voice sounded in Chen Xia's mind, he felt a torrential power spread from his body. His body temperature instantly rose, becoming red-hot, and was even giving off steam.
His fists gradually became stiff, like steel, brimming with swirling, churning power that desperately sought release.
Chen Xia threw a punch at a small nearby pebble.
Based on middle school physics, smaller rocks were actually harder to shatter due to their smaller surface area.
But with Chen Xia's single punch, when he raised his fist again, the pebble had become fine gravel mixed with mud.
According to books, the level of martial power needed to shatter rock was equivalent to three bulls power, while nine bulls power marked the Body Refinement realm.
The pebble Chen Xia had punched was harder to break than an average rock, and he had directly pulverized it to dust, so it was not as simple as ordinary rock smashing. It should surpass three bulls power by some amount, though he did not know exactly how much, it wasn't like he could actually fight a bull.
He tidied himself up a bit, taking off his sweat-drenched clothes and just wearing his outer official uniform. Even in the cold winter night his body felt no chill, and instead felt rather warm.
Too lazy to dig with a shovel, Chen Xia threw a direct punch at the soil mound before him, collapsing it completely. He slowly climbed out from the sunken pile of earth.
Some drunken idlers happening to pass by saw a hand suddenly stretch out from the dirt mound and were instantly shocked sober. They cried out to their companions.
"Niu Zi, look what's that?!"
"Er Gou, what are you yelling about, easily startled!"
Niu Zi scolded him first, then looked in the direction Er Gou had indicated, his expression changing as he exclaimed and dropped his liquor bottle.
"Holy shit, a zombie!"
The drunks hurriedly fled down the mountain, not daring to delay even a moment, yelling as they ran.
"Quick, go get Master Oblique Yang, he's got the skills for this!"
Chen Xia climbed out from the dirt pile, shaking the mud off himself. Seeing the fleeing figures, he gave a disdainful eye roll.
What Master Oblique Yang, even if you summoned Bruce Lee here it'd be useless.
He wasn't a zombie.
Humming a tune, in good spirits, Chen Xia leisurely headed down the mountain.
"Little conch horn, randomly blowing, seagull hearing it, randomly flying~"
————
The second day after the new year.
Trouble struck Xiwei Town.
The young master of a wealthy household died. His corpse had empty eyes, pale complexion, and a withered body.
All the patrol officers of Xiwei Town were dispatched to investigate the matter!