Chapter 2 - Modern Day Earth?

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Twit!

Twit!

In a seemingly moderately crowded park filled with people practicing Tai Chi, young people jogging and exercising and children playing and chasing each other around the playground, a pair of birds with strange assortments of colors were spotted chirping on the tree branches while hopping around like they were playing.

A group of elderly men that are apparently bird lovers were crowding below the tree as they snapped pictures and recorded videos of the birds playing around.

"Wow! What's this rare mutation?! This is the first time I've seen this color combination! Blue beak, blue head and red wings with green claws!"

An elderly guy exclaimed loudly while spamming the snap button on his camera, afraid that he couldn't capture the best shot and angle.

"Shhh! Don't scare the Spirit Sparrows off! If they fly away, we'll kick your ass!" rebuked another elderly guy as he stealthily switched his camera angle.

As the bunch of elderly men were snapping pictures of the birds on the tree, there was a bench located about 100 meters away from the tree.

Weeeenngggg!

A portal silently and discreetly opened up out of nowhere and ejected an object that looked like a human.

Upon close observation, a young man with immaculate looks of a deity, was sleeping. Hair as white as snow, with a face that was as if the gods sculpted it. No one nearby had noticed the small commotion that happened near them.

"Hey, bro look! What's that guy doing?! Hahahahaha!"

A young man in his 20's elbowed his friend and pointed at the unconscious Li Qu and mocked him.

"It's so funny! In this day and age there are still people trying to pretend as ancient cultivators while sleeping in the park? Aren't they all extinct already? I needa take a photo!"

His friend perked up from looking at his phone and observed Li Qu.

"Bro Wang, just ignore that guy. People like him are not sound in the head and may have sudden outbursts! Let's go in case you get involved with a nutcase."

His friend urged him to ignore Li Qu and quickened his pace to pass him by, but not while muttering under his breath.

'It's a pity he's a nutcase, with his looks he could've been a celebrity or actor.'

…

After an hour or two.

Li Qu slowly woke up and observed his surrounding with shock and pondered.

"Where is this? I'm alive?! What happened after I was knocked unconscious from that light? Didn't I die?!"

Li Qu had millions of questions but with no one to answer them.

"I need to recall what happened. That pebble... I got it from the corpse of that Void King Xu Sha guy from the Dark Star Group of assassins. I assumed that he attempted to assassinate me when he died from triggering my defense formation and got his soul wiped out, I barely noticed it as I was cultivating."

'Experts won't carry useless stuff. Seemingly ordinary items would occasionally later be revealed to be extraordinary treasures that countless people would wage a war for.'

The reason Li Qu kept the pebble with him until now was because despite his best efforts, he had never been able to see through it.

He had tried countless of ways to experiment on it, frustrated and fed up from many failed experiments, he struck it with his sword.

Only when he tried to split it apart with his sword out of frustration, then it appeared that it was still perfect without a single scratch.

Even with his high cultivation, he still could not leave a single mark on the stone, let alone destroying it.

That was how he knew things were not as it really seemed.

"Could the condition to a reaction be… Death…?"

Li Qu thought hard and subconsciously lifted his fingers to his chin in an attempt to stroke his beard with a futile attempt, as he no longer had a beard.

As he was too focused on thinking about what happened previously, he did not notice that his hands had become silky smooth and full of vigor. Something that he once had an immeasurable number of years ago.

"I-I'm young?! My skin!"

He touched his forearm and patted his face to reconfirm the youthful texture of a healthy adult that he wasn't hallucinating.

"What is this miracle! Even the Heavenly Emperor can't do this! I'm really curious about the origin of the pebble now."

Li Qu hurried to the lake nearby in the park to observe his countenance.

"My face… It really is as if I travelled back in time… Right, what about my cultivation?"

After the major shock, only now had he finally recalled about his cultivation as there was too much going on.

After observing himself in the lake, he found a spot with no one nearby and sat down cross-legged, then he sent his spiritual sense inside his body to look at the Spirit Sea located in his dantian.

"This is really a shock after shock. What a surprise this pebble has given me. Truly, life is truly full of mysteries. My cultivation… It only regressed by two stages? I feel like my lifespan has been refilled… Or rather, it has been reset?"

"...Since I have been given another chance at life, let me just enjoy it till the fullest."

Li Qu opened his eyes and smirked. The number of surprises he had been given during this period had already exceeded whatever excitement he had throughout the millions of years.

Just as he thought that was all the surprise he got, he stood up to prepare to take a walk and observe this foreign and intriguing world, when a robotic sound resounded in his head.

[…Calibration Success]

[[Synchronizing Complete]]

[…]

[Activating 1%... 2%... 50%... 90%... 100%]

[Congratulations! Host: Li Qu has successfully activated the Celestial Teahouse System]

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