What was this system?

What was that supposed to be?

He did not know what the system was, but it sure did look like a game interface. But surely it was not just that.

Although Shen Yuan had played games, he had not read many fantasy novels to know what Cultivation or a System was. After all, he had a life. There was no time for him to read novels when he was out most of the time. Working.

’If it is like the ones in the games, there should be a status screen as well.’ Just as the thought crossed his mind, something flickered before his eyes.

His guess had come true; a status panel describing his profile in detail had popped up right before his eyes.

[GTS SYSTEM ACTIVATED] 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

[Name: Shen Yuan]

[Age: 16]

[Level: 1/10]

[XP: 0/300]

[Techniques Comprehended: Expand>]

[Equipment: None]

[ CORE ATTRIBUTES: Expand>]

[Current Status: Damaged Meridians, Shattered Dantian, Light Heart Damage.]

[System Suggestion: Condemned to die within a week if not treated.]

Shen Yuan stared at the screen, dumbfounded.

’Wait, what? I don’t even have a month?’ Even if he had a shattered dantian, Shen Yuan had hoped he would have some time before he could find a solution.

Soon, he started to realize there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. So he turned his attention to the system.

"What are you, really? How can something so game-like appear in real life? How am I supposed to trust what you show me?" Shen Yuan was a natural-born distrustful person. He would even doubt his friends if they did him favors for no reason. Which was why there were several other questions swirling in his head.

But before he could voice them all out, his eyes widened in shock. A string of information that was not present in his mind before appeared out of nowhere.

He stared into the air with a lost look on his face. It took him a full ten minutes to recover.

"So that’s how it is... I guess I can work with that since I am rock bottom myself." After coming out of his trance, Shen Yuan whispered to himself and shook his head, getting no reply.

The information he had received was like a passive feature of the system itself. The system was not a sentient being but an embodiment of the something grand that was beyond his understanding.

"The only reason I am agreeing is because you need me just as much I need you." Shen Yuen focused on the screen once more. "Now let me see if I understand it correctly."

"I can grow stronger by leveling up, and I don’t have to kill anyone like in those games to do that." There was no relief or sadness in his voice. "To level up, I have to complete missions that are completely random or dependent on the situation. But if I don’t want to do anything, I have a choice in that as well."

"This is kind of cool. Never thought life could be so interesting." Shen Yuan let out a long breath of excitement that was bubbling in his heart. "Just when I was thinking, my death was set in stone. I think I finally have a chance."

He did not instantly look for missions but instead focused on the status screen itself.

[Techniques Comprehended: Expand>]

This line caught his attention. With a single mental command, he expanded it further. What appeared before him shocked Shen Yuan to his core.

[Techniques Comprehended:

False: The Sacred Scripture of the Bloody Moon: Beginner Stage

"False?" He repeated the word out loud. "Could it be that this book is fake? Is this why the kid died?"

Shen Yuan flipped through the book once more, this time more carefully while thinking, ’Did someone change my book? Or was it always like this?’

The thought only lasted for a second before he shook it away, thinking about other disciples who had failed to comprehend the technique.

The chances of them also getting the wrong technique were low but not zero.

So he started to look for other possibilities.

What if there was something he was not seeing in the technique? What if this too was a test?

The words of that elder who had kidnapped former Shen Yuan rang in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense to him.

First, what he did was block every light from entering the room, and then he lit up the half-used candle on the table in the corner of the room with a flintstone place near it.

"I hope it works..." Shen Yuan watched as the fire flickered to life and placed the empty pages in the book above the flame. But even after a minute, nothing happened, and even the withered page was about to catch fire.

"Well, no invisible ink that appears in fire." Shen Yuan shook his head at the failed try and moved on to try the next idea.

Dipping his hands in the clay pot, he splashed water drops on the book.

And... just like before, nothing happened!

"Ugh!" Shen Yuan tried a few more things, but nothing seemed to work.

"I know in my gut there is something hidden in this book, but I just can’t put a finger on it." Frustrated, Shen Yuan clenched his hand around the book hard, making the pages wrinkle.

Thwat!

He smacked the book on the ground and slumped beside it.

"Calm down, me; we have to stay logical. Only then we will be able to find something." Taking deep breaths, he cleared his mind and picked up the book while lying down. This time, he did not try anything and just gave the book another read.

First he flipped the cover...

But just as he did that, he noticed something. With a sudden jerk, he sat back up and flipped to the very last page.

"The cover!" It finally struck him. The cover of the book was the thing that had been bugging his consciousness. They were different in color, but that was not the only odd thing about it.

They were also different in thickness. The detail was so subtle that he missed it several times before. But now that he held both pages in his hands, he could feel it.

Shen Yuan hurried to the table and moved the cover closer to the still-burning candle. There it was, a very faint trace of pages overlapping.

"Found it!"

Unable to suppress his excitement, Shen Yuan used his finger nails to pry the gap open. With careful movements, he pealed away a thin parchment that was no thicker than a strand of hair but was white enough to hide the contents written underneath it.

After thoroughly checking the paper, Shen Yuan placed it on the side and read out the first line under on the back side of the front cover of the book with clear excitement.

"The Sacred Scripture of the Bloody Moon: Body Tempering Stage!"