Chapter 260: Is the System Broken?

【Special Mission Released: “Find the Fragments of the Stairway to Immortality”: In the Xuanji Kingdom of the Tonggu World, there is a boy named Yu Feng in Maple Forest Village. He is an ordinary youth who dreams of cultivating immortality, but his path is full of hardships. Please help him become a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator.】
【This task may not be completed using pills.】
【Task Reward: Extract the fragment of the Stairway to Immortality within Yu Feng.】
【During the mission, you may teleport once for free between the Tonggu World and the Nine Provinces World.】

“Seems like a pretty simple task.” Jiang Li rubbed his chin. On the surface, this task didn’t seem hard at all—the only problem was whether this boy named Yu Feng was still alive.
If he’d died young on his cultivation path, there’d be nothing Jiang Li could do.
As for the part about not being allowed to use pills to complete the task—what a joke. With Jiang Li here, even a pig could be coached step-by-step to the Nascent Soul Stage.
Jiang Li stretched his limbs and planned to tell Commander Liu that for the sake of all cultivators in the Nine Provinces, he was searching for the Stairway to Immortality’s fragments and not to bother him with Human Sovereign Hall affairs for now.
“Time off. I’ll treat this trip to the Tonggu World as a vacation!” Jiang Li made up his mind.
【Task Completed】
【Would you like to receive the reward?】
“Hmm?” Jiang Li was startled, then quickly realized—looks like this Yu Feng guy had already reached the Nascent Soul Stage on his own.
【Task Not Completed】
“……”
“This system’s finally broken.” Jiang Li was speechless. One moment it says the task is completed, the next it says it’s not—are you messing with me?
This lousy Counterattack System has separate modules for releasing tasks and verifying task completion. The task release module was frozen five hundred years ago, but the completion verification module updates in real time.
Now it seemed the completion verification module had broken too.
“The only working part left in the system is the shop. Pathetic.” Jiang Li felt a strange sadness—but still decided to go check out the Tonggu World.
“Teleport to Tonggu World.”
……

Sunlight streamed through the paper window and landed on the boy’s face. His eyelids twitched, and it took great effort for him to open his eyes.
“Who are you people, what do you want!”
“Get out! Outsiders aren’t welcome here!”
He heard intense arguing outside, which soon escalated into the sounds of a brawl.
He snapped awake, licked his finger, and quietly poked a hole in the window paper, clinging to the frame to peek outside.
A group of bandits had burst into the peaceful little village with knives in hand. The boy’s parents tried to scold them and drive them off, but the bandits chopped them down—heads flying.
“Father, Mother…” The boy knew now wasn’t the time to cry. If he didn’t hide quickly, he’d be next.
These bandits killed everyone on sight!
Just as he’d feared, the bandits laughed maniacally after killing his parents and stormed into the village, splitting into groups to burn, kill, and plunder—committing every imaginable atrocity.
Those hiding in haystacks, in wells, in roof beams… none escaped. All died tragically.
The boy rolled out of bed and found a place to hide.
The bandits kicked open the wooden door, slashing about wildly with their blades, hacking apart doors, windows, and even straw dolls.
“No one here?” Something told the bandit someone was hiding.
He saw a spot that looked suspicious, bent down suddenly, revealing a row of white teeth.
“Found you!”
Under the bed—empty, just a few copper coins.
“Ugh, boring.” The bandit pocketed the coins and left.
Just before that, the boy had quietly shifted the rice jar and slipped into the cellar beneath, moving the jar back to cover the opening—he had narrowly escaped death.
The sounds of slaughter faded gradually, then disappeared entirely. The boy didn’t come out.
He knew silence didn’t mean the bandits had left. It only meant they weren’t nearby anymore—they could still be elsewhere in the village.
He stayed hidden for five full days.
There was food in the cellar, but no water. He almost died of thirst in there. One more day and he might not have had the strength to crawl out.
“They’re all dead. Everyone in the village is dead.” The boy climbed out, took a few sips of water, and muttered in a daze.
Two corpses lay in the courtyard—a man and a woman, his parents.
The boy kowtowed twice before them. “Father, Mother, your son Yu Feng is unfilial. I cannot bury you. Please understand.”
Yu Feng didn’t hesitate at all, as if there was nothing left to keep him there—he turned and left immediately.
After he left, a bandit who had forgotten something rode back. As he passed Yu Feng’s home, he glanced around, noticed nothing strange, and rode on.
Yu Feng left the small village, covered in dirt and ash, and arrived at a nearby town.
This was the border of the Xuanji Kingdom—war-torn, famine-ridden. A filthy beggar like Yu Feng was nothing new.
Passersby didn’t even look at him, even actively avoiding eye contact as if one glance might bring bad luck.
The village and the town were half a day’s journey apart. By the time Yu Feng arrived, he was starving and seeing stars. He collapsed to the ground, struggling to get up.
“Child, you must be hungry. Want a bun?” A kind-hearted old woman, seeing Yu Feng’s pitiful state, kindly pulled a meat bun from her basket.
Yu Feng sniffled, smelling the meat, his eyes full of longing.
The old woman helped him sit under a tree and smiled. “Don’t be afraid, child. I run the bun shop over there—see? That one.”
She pointed at the Good Taste Bun Shop nearby.
Yu Feng gently shook his head. “Granny, thank you. But my mom told me… never eat food from strangers.”
They went back and forth, but Yu Feng was firm. Seeing his refusal, the old woman had to give up.
Meanwhile, a nearby beggar child, starving for days and drooling, said, “Granny, can I have that bun?”
The old woman smiled kindly and handed the bun over. The little beggar devoured it ravenously.
Just then, someone came running back, panting and covered in wounds—one arm half bitten off. The gatekeeper rushed over to ask what happened.
“What happened? You’re seriously injured!”
“There… there was a demon beast on the road. So many died. I barely escaped. If I’d been just a minute later, I wouldn’t have made it.”
Someone burst out cursing, slamming the Xuanji Kingdom for its inaction: “F**k! Always fighting, never dealing with the demon beast problem. One jumps out of nowhere, and who dares leave the city again?”
A black cat, drawn by the smell of the meat bun, approached gracefully. Yu Feng took advantage of its distraction to grab it by the scruff. The cat didn’t even resist.
Yu Feng staggered upright and walked toward the town.
He passed an alley and suddenly froze, as if remembering something awful—his face darkened.
“Sh*t. I forgot.”
A black shadow darted out of the alley, pressing a drug-soaked cloth over Yu Feng’s mouth and nose. His body went limp as he was dragged inside.
Yu Feng’s hand loosened, and the black cat leapt away gracefully, not even looking back.
“Heh heh, got another one. His organs will fetch a good price.”
The human trafficker pulled out a dagger and sliced Yu Feng’s throat—blood sprayed.
Yu Feng died completely.
……
Sunlight streamed through the paper window and landed on the boy’s face. His eyelids twitched, and it took great effort for him to open his eyes.
“Who are you people, what do you want!”
“Get out! Outsiders aren’t welcome here!”
The same familiar dialogue rang in Yu Feng’s ears.