The Exorcism Began in America.

The system, of course, paid no attention to Chu Feng's reaction.

After a long while, seeing that he received no response from the system, Chu Feng gradually steadied his state of mind.

Looking at the warm jade stone floating in his mind, he took a deep breath, and a thought brushed against it.

Along with the soft light that emanated from the jade, he once again lost consciousness.

"Uh..."

Chu Feng had no idea how much time had passed when he slowly came to, opening his somewhat vacant eyes.

Where am I...?

Looking around at his surroundings, he was momentarily stunned.

Under a dark red sky was a crimson land full of cracks. Sparse and bizarre plants were scattered across this expanse, making the land, which seemed to have undergone an apocalypse, less monotonous. In the center of the dark red sky, a dim sun hung silently, yet it gave Chu Feng no sense of warmth.

That's not right! Wasn't I supposed to read the content of the Rending Palm? How did it turn out like this?

Recalling the jade stone in his mind, Chu Feng suddenly felt that something was amiss. The upper right corner of the view before him no longer displayed a simple message like "Analyzing."

"Remaining time: one hundred years."

The countdown-like small print was clear, leaving Chu Feng even more bewildered.

Does this countdown mean... I just have to stay here for one hundred years before I can return to reality?

Before he could think it through, a thick volume suddenly appeared in his mind. The characters for 'Rending Palm' were particularly clear on it.

This time... it directly gave me the secret manual?

With some bewilderment about the system's intentions, Chu Feng opened the volume with a hint of doubt. After reading for a long time, he finally opened his eyes, full of confusion.

I might need a translator!

Unfortunately, the detailed memories of the last time he practiced the Rainbow Transformation Technique were already blurry; otherwise, he would at least have understood the gist of this volume in his mind. But the surrounding environment showed no signs of human existence.

Having walked a large circle around the area, Chu Feng returned with an incredulous expression to where he had started.

No Sect! No master! Not even any humans at all?

Damned system, come out! This world can't just have me alone, right?

Just as Chu Feng's questioning words fell, before he could receive a reply from the system, he witnessed a streak of red light shooting across the horizon. Not long after, another streak of silvery-white light appeared, chasing the previous one at high speed into the distance.

"There are actually people... And they are cultivators!" Watching the direction in which the two streaks of light had disappeared, Chu Feng murmured, rubbing his fingers.

It seems I need to find a Sect first!

Having determined his next goal, Chu Feng didn't linger and strode towards the direction of the departing lights.

On the first day, Chu Feng, who had walked intermittently for several tens of miles, looked irritably at his still-familiar surroundings. Touching his rumbling stomach, he cursed the system in his mind. This body was now completely empty, no different from that of an ordinary person. Without food and water, he reckoned he would likely die in this wilderness! Let alone finding that human Sect, the location of which he had no idea...

On the second day, Chu Feng, who hadn't eaten for a whole day and night, crawled out of a dirt hole, sneezing, his eyes vacant. His body was caked with mud, looking like a starving refugee. The sensation of hunger drove him to search everywhere for traces of food, his steps growing more unsteady.

Fortunately, his hard work paid off, and an accident finally led him to discover something resembling fruit within the branches of a strange plant. The fruits were about the size of a fist and came in two colors. The red one emitted a fragrant smell, causing Chu Feng's mouth to water profusely. The second type was black and odorless. The flesh of both fruits was the same bright yellow color and contained some juice.

Looking at the red and black fruits in his palm, Chu Feng hesitated.

I wonder if these fruits are poisonous.

He carefully smeared the juice from the fruit flesh onto the skin on the back of his hand. After a long while, he didn't feel any discomfort. Chu Feng's lips were already cracked. As he looked at the two fruits in his hand, he kept licking his lips. Seeing the wilderness in the distance still without any changes, he steeled his heart.

After all, this is an illusory world; there probably won't be any issues.

He closed his eyes and shoved the black fruit into his mouth. The taste wasn't bad, but it definitely couldn't be called delicious. But the rich juice and pulp finally made his stomach feel a trace of fullness.

Time passed again. Feeling no discomfort, Chu Feng was relieved.

So, this fruit really isn't poisonous!

A single small fruit could not fill a stomach that had been starving for two whole days. The other red fruit was also shoved into his mouth, and he chewed it vigorously.

This is so delicious!

After a few bites, his eyes suddenly lit up. Not only was the juice of the red fruit's flesh rich, but the pulp was also filled with a fragrant sweetness.

But in the next second, before he could swallow all the flesh in his mouth, Chu Feng suddenly started to vomit. Bright yellow pulp mixed with scarlet blood sprayed onto the red soil, and the intense pain in his belly made Chu Feng curl up and collapse on the ground.

He only managed to utter one sentence before losing consciousness:

"Damn it, this one's poisonous!"

...

"Ugh..."

When Chu Feng awoke again, he looked at the dark red sky and familiar surroundings, stunned.

This place... this must be where I woke up before...

Seeing the complete hundred-year countdown in the upper right corner of his vision made him even more certain of his guess.

What is this? Starting all over again?

He instantly realized that if he couldn't wait out the countdown in the top right corner, he might be trapped in this space, endlessly repeating the cycle.

There's still a hundred years to go! If I don't cultivate, surviving that long is almost impossible.

This time, with experience under his belt, Chu Feng didn't wait for the two streaks of light in the sky to appear but immediately set off in the direction he remembered. Along the way, he collected all the black fruits from the branches of every strange plant, which solved his food and water problem.

As days passed, Chu Feng saw the fleeting lights in the sky several more times, further confirming that there were humans in that direction.

Time flowed like water.

「Soon, half a month had passed.」

Chu Feng, now disheveled and covered in dust, finally saw in the distance a grand city resting upon the vast land. Even from such a distance, Chu Feng could feel its grandeur. One could only imagine the sight that would greet him when he finally reached the foot of the giant city.

A gleam of brilliance burst from his once-lifeless eyes, and even his pace quickened considerably.