Chunibyo in Cultivation World

Chapter 1: Self-Protagonist Consciousness

“Li Tianwei, False Spiritual Root.”

As that dull voice sounded, an uproar broke out across the plaza.

Everyone looked toward the person on the platform — that man could be said to be incomparably handsome, yet at that moment, it was as if he had suffered a heavy blow. His lips were slightly parted, his face full of disbelief.

Below the stage, the crowd wore looks of schadenfreude.

Mocking voices drifted into Li Tianwei’s mind.

Those who once flattered and fawned over him were now casting strange gazes his way.

Li Tianwei felt despair — utter despair toward the result of this spiritual root test.

“How could I be a False Spiritual Root, how could I possibly be a False Spiritual Root…”

【This is a glimpse I captured from the future. That’s right, you *are* a False Spiritual Root. Don’t think about it anymore — form a contract with me!】

Li Tianwei listened to the voice echoing in his mind, and recalled the vision he had just seen — his own desperate appearance because of being a False Spiritual Root.

It all looked very real.

But Li Tianwei refused to believe it.

Think about it — he, a dignified transmigrator, how could he possibly be a mere False Spiritual Root?

In Li Tianwei’s eyes, how could a small System see through his heavenly talent?

He had transmigrated — how could he ever be a False Spiritual Root?

Unfortunately, what came with his transmigration was such an unreliable System.

Think of those novels he had read — which of those Systems did not possess supreme power?

Yet his System, right from the start, wanted him to sign some kind of contract.

It claimed that once signed, he would obtain a Heavenly Spiritual Root and supreme treasures.

Faced with the tyrannical clauses of that System contract, Li Tianwei laughed.

What a useless thing.

There was no way he would acknowledge this broken thing as his System.

Was Li Tianwei some petty nobody? When he was born, his father called him “Dad” for two years before Li Tianwei reluctantly responded with a single “Dad.”

Do you know why God stays in Heaven? Because Li Tianwei is on Earth.

Two thousand years ago, Ying Zheng unified the nation, yet even he dared not meet Li Tianwei in this world — for when kings meet, one must bow, and Li Tianwei bows to none.

When he opened his eyes, it was daylight; when he closed them, night fell. If he wasn’t the protagonist, then who could be?

Li Tianwei had been waiting for a chance to prove this from the moment he was born.

The instant he transmigrated, he became utterly certain that he was the main character.

So as for that System contract, that False Spiritual Root nonsense — Li Tianwei disdained them all.

The System within Li Tianwei’s mind was utterly dumbfounded seeing his unwavering confidence.

It truly couldn’t believe what kind of person it had bound itself to — arrogant, delusional, and suffering from full-blown chūnibyō.

The System still remembered that it had carefully chosen this time — someone calm, aloof, a model student in the eyes of teachers — thinking that nothing could possibly go wrong.

Its previous two transmigrators had failed precisely because they were impulsive and overconfident.

One tried to challenge opponents a single realm higher — barely survivable. But that fool had dared to leap three realms, and ended up annihilated, body and soul.

After that, the System specifically selected a shut-in, thinking that someone who had read so many novels and watched so many anime would be more cautious.

Yet that one died in bed, believing to the end that his thirty-thousand-strong harem had never betrayed him — when, in truth, his head had turned greener than the grasslands.

This time, the System had learned from all its past mistakes.

After careful selection, it finally found someone who met all its ideals.

That person was Li Tianwei — top of the advanced class, a teacher’s favorite, a child other parents envied.

The System was certain there would be no problems this time.

To be safe, it even drafted a few “just-for-fun” contract clauses, designed to make Li Tianwei keep a low profile and grow steadily.

Yet it had never expected that upon transmigration, this fellow would be completely different from the obedient, well-behaved student he had appeared to be in the mortal world.

A thoroughbred chūnibyō case — a boy convinced that he was the protagonist of the world, blessed with powers beyond all others.

It was precisely this belief that had allowed him to surpass his peers in academics and athletics alike — a form of self-hypnosis granting him extraordinary focus.

But once he transmigrated, it was all over. His conviction that he was the protagonist became unshakable.

No matter how the System tried these days to drill into him that he was an ordinary person, that this world was dangerous, that he must act with caution — nothing worked.

Since the contract hadn’t been signed, the System had issued him no rewards at all. In truth, Li Tianwei’s current body was that of a complete wastrel.

Even before having his aptitude tested, Li Tianwei already believed himself to be the one and only Heavenly Spiritual Root beneath the heavens, destined to suppress this era.

Having witnessed the fates of its two previous hosts, the System absolutely refused to let things spiral out of control again.

It repeatedly tried to brainwash Li Tianwei — “You are a False Spiritual Root, you can’t possibly suppress the world” — even intercepting a glimpse of the future to show him, hoping to wake him up.

But it had underestimated Li Tianwei’s self-hypnosis.

He simply didn’t believe it.

“Silence, you! False Spiritual Root? Don’t try to deceive me.”

“When I stand before that Spirit-Testing Stone, my peerless talent will shine forth and suppress the world!”

After watching that so-called vision of the False Spiritual Root, Li Tianwei sneered mockingly.

Upon hearing this, the System completely deflated.

Looking at the crowd obediently queuing to test their roots, and then at Li Tianwei — chin lifted, gaze looking down from above, expression proud and aloof — matched with that handsome, jade-like face, the System had to admit he really did look somewhat like an immortal.

But appearance aside, who would have thought that this guy’s skin was so thick, his chūnibyō so deep, his mind so full of delusions of being peerless under Heaven?

The System could only sigh helplessly.

After all, it had been fooled by this very same act back in the mortal world, which was why it had chosen to bind with Li Tianwei in the first place.

Meanwhile, as the crowd saw Li Tianwei’s confident, knowing demeanor, they couldn’t help but feel inferior, slowly lowering their heads.

They all knew the reputation of the Li family’s young master — he had passed the imperial scholar exam before coming of age, recognized characters at three, composed poetry at five, and by eight had read through Western books…

In the entire White Profound City, he was the one most likely to have immortal fate.

But for some reason, the immortal masters who usually came every eight years had delayed this time.

Only when the Li family’s young master turned sixteen did they finally arrive to test spiritual roots and accept disciples.

If they had come a few years later, it would have been past the proper age for cultivation.

Perhaps because of that long absence, since the start of the testing, not a single person in White Profound City had shown a true spiritual root.

The immortal masters’ faces had changed from cheerful to grave, with faint irritation, and the temperature of the field had dropped several degrees — showing how dire the situation was.

Li Tianwei still appeared entirely unfazed, his head slightly tilted back, walking confidently toward the wooden platform under countless gazes until he stood before the Spirit-Testing Stone.

Inside his consciousness, the System couldn’t help but cover its face.

It planned to use this opportunity to crush Li Tianwei’s arrogance — then he would obediently sign the contract and grow quietly.

Moved by its own noble intentions, the System felt deeply touched by how much it had done for Li Tianwei’s “growth.”