Cultivation System: Rise of the First Patriarch

Zan Yunxiao looked down at the old man for a moment before finally retracting his hand. The overwhelming pressure immediately disappeared, allowing the City Lord to breathe again as he slowly pushed himself off the ground.

“Senior, please forgive me!” the old man hurriedly apologized, his face still filled with fear. “I acted recklessly and attacked you without knowing your identity.”

Zan Yunxiao glanced at him and calmly replied, “There is a saying that one should ask before attacking, not attack before asking. You certainly have terrible manners.”

The old man's expression became awkward.

He wanted to argue, but he couldn't exactly blame Zan Yunxiao either. After all, a mysterious stranger had suddenly appeared inside his castle without permission, and any reasonable City Lord would naturally treat such a person as an intruder and attack first.

Unfortunately for him...

He had chosen the wrong intruder.

If the mysterious figure before him had been an ordinary cultivator, his reaction would have been completely justified. But against Zan Yunxiao, his full-powered attack had accomplished nothing, and he had ended up being pressed into the ground like an ant.

The old man could only smile bitterly.

“Senior is right. I was too impulsive.”

Zan Yunxiao nodded slightly. “At least you understand your mistake.”

The old man secretly sighed in relief.

He had survived.

That alone was enough for him to temporarily forget his lost dignity as a Nascent Soul expert.

The old man cautiously looked at Zan Yunxiao's blurred face, his heart filled with fear and uncertainty. He had already confirmed that the mysterious man before him possessed unfathomable strength, yet he couldn't sense the slightest hint of his cultivation realm.

After carefully considering his words, the old man respectfully cupped his fists and asked in a cautious tone, “May I ask what Senior is doing in this humble residence?”

He deliberately spoke with extreme politeness. After all, one wrong word might offend this terrifying expert and cost him his life.

However, Zan Yunxiao did not answer.

He merely stood there silently, his blurred face making it impossible for the old man to determine what he was thinking.

For several moments, the room remained completely silent.

The old man stood stiffly before Zan Yunxiao, cold sweat gradually covering his forehead. The longer Zan Yunxiao remained silent, the more terrified he became, and countless thoughts began racing through his mind.

"Did I offend Senior?"

"Is Senior going to kill me?"

He couldn't help but regret his earlier attack. His life had been relatively peaceful, and he had finally reached the Nascent Soul Realm after countless years of cultivation. He had no desire to throw his life away because of one reckless mistake.

Meanwhile, Zan Yunxiao was thinking about something completely different.

"How am I supposed to convince this old man to join my side?"

He couldn't simply tell him that the Central Continent might invade the Western Continent in the future. If he revealed too much information, the old man might become frightened and choose to flee or even defect to another force.

Zan Yunxiao glanced at the City Lord who suddenly trembling out of fear and suddenly understood the reason for his fear.

"He probably thinks I'm some ancient expert who has lived for a thousand years."

Considering the enormous gap between their cultivation realms, it wasn't strange for the old man to reach such a conclusion. To a Nascent Soul cultivator, someone who could suppress him effortlessly was naturally an unfathomable existence who had probably cultivated for countless centuries.

An idea suddenly emerged in Zan Yunxiao's mind.

"Since he already thinks I'm an ancient expert... Why not make use of it?"

He could simply say something profound and incomprehensible, something that sounded as though it carried a deeper meaning.

If the old man believed that Zan Yunxiao was an ancient powerhouse who had lived for thousands of years, perhaps he would become more willing to follow him.

After all...

Who would dare betray an ancient expert capable of crushing a Nascent Soul cultivator with a single gesture?

A faint smile appeared beneath Zan Yunxiao's blurred face.

Zan Yunxiao remained silent for a moment before finally looking at the old man. He had already decided to use the story he had made up to make the old man believe that he was an ancient, unfathomable expert.

“What era is this?” Zan Yunxiao asked in a calm, profound tone.

The old man was stunned.

He carefully considered the question before answering slowly, “Senior... I do not know.”

Zan Yunxiao's blurred face remained expressionless,his thought, "He took the bait."

He made up the question as part of his act. By asking about the era instead of simply asking what year it was, he hoped to make the old man believe that he had been isolated from the outside world for an extremely long time.

The old man hurriedly continued, “This junior has always remained within this region and rarely ventured beyond it. I am merely an ordinary cultivator compared to Senior, and I have never encountered any records describing the ancient eras of the Western Continent.”

Zan Yunxiao nodded calmly, pretending that the answer was exactly what he had expected.

Meanwhile, the old man's heart was already trembling.

"Era?"

The old man was stunned by Zan Yunxiao's strange question. “Era? What is Senior talking about?” he asked cautiously, clearly confused by the unfamiliar wording.

Then, a sudden realization struck him.

"No... Someone capable of suppressing me so effortlessly couldn't possibly be an ordinary cultivator. Could he really be from the ancient era?"

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became.

Meanwhile, Zan Yunxiao maintained his mysterious appearance, his face hidden behind the distortion of space. He suddenly muttered to himself in a low voice, “I... the Unseen Emperor, will one day return and unify the heavens.”

The old man's body trembled.

"The Unseen Emperor?!"

He had heard that name before.

During his younger years, he had once come across ancient records from the Central Continent. The name Unseen Emperor had been mentioned within them, though the records were fragmented and incomplete.

"So this Senior is actually him?!"

The old man's eyes widened with excitement.

"This is my opportunity!"

Zan Yunxiao, meanwhile, suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

The Unseen Emperor...

"Why did I give myself such an embarrassing title?"

He almost regretted it.

But before he could say anything else, the old man suddenly became extremely excited.

He immediately dropped to his knees and shouted, “This old man, Qiu Wuyin, is willing to pledge his loyalty to Senior! Please accept this old man's allegiance, Unseen Emperor!”

Zan Yunxiao stared at him.

For a moment, he didn't know what to say.

He hadn't expected the ridiculous title he had made up on the spot to actually work.

Suppressing the urge to laugh, Zan Yunxiao calmly said, “You wish to become my subordinate?”

Qiu Wuyin immediately nodded.

“Yes! This old man is willing!”

“Good.” Zan Yunxiao nodded solemnly. “From now on, you are my subordinate, Qiu Wuyin.”

Qiu Wuyin's expression became even more excited.

Zan Yunxiao continued, “I have a task for you. Search through every document and record you can find concerning me. I have been asleep for far too long, and I need to understand what has happened during my absence.”

He inwardly smiled.

"With this excuse, Qiu Wuyin should be willing to work himself to death searching through those records."

"If I give him some other reason, he might become suspicious."

In truth, there was another layer to his decision. Zan Yunxiao had already noticed that Qiu Wuyin might be harboring doubts about the title he had casually given himself, the Unseen Emperor. It was too grand, too unreal, and too convenient. A man like Qiu Wuyin, cautious and observant, might very well suspect it was nothing more than a fabricated identity.

That was precisely why this task was necessary.

By having Qiu Wuyin personally search through historical archives and ancient records, Zan Yunxiao could reinforce the illusion that the Unseen Emperor was a real existence with a lost and obscured history. If Qiu Wuyin found even fragments that seemed to align with the title, his doubts would naturally be suppressed.

At the same time, Zan Yunxiao was already planning to quietly create fabricated records of his own. While Qiu Wuyin searched for truth, he would unknowingly be guided toward carefully constructed “evidence” that would later be placed into circulation. In this way, the more Qiu Wuyin investigated, the more he would unknowingly help solidify the existence of the Unseen Emperor.

It was both a test and a preparation.

After all, Zan Yunxiao had no actual records of being an ancient existence called the Unseen Emperor. The entire identity had been fabricated on the spot.

If Qiu Wuyin started asking too many questions and discovered inconsistencies, he might realize that Zan Yunxiao was nothing more than a fraud.

And if that happened...

He'll probably run away and hide and he couldn't allow that.

With that thought, Zan Yunxiao maintained his profound expression and calmly waited for Qiu Wuyin's response.

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