Infinite Cultivator: Reborn with My Cheat System

Chapter 2: The Loyalist

"Young Master, please open your eyes."

Small hands gripped his torn collar and shook his shoulders. He groaned as a sharp ache radiated from his fractured ribs, forcing his eyelids open to a blurry and unwelcoming world. A translucent blue screen hovered inches from his face, projecting crisp text that defied the primitive stone courtyard surrounding him.

[Host Recognized: Lu Chen]

[Level: 0]

[Skills: None]

[Available Upgrades: None]

[System Directive: Procure martial manuals to initiate override sequences.]

He blinked away the blood trickling into his left eye. The software he coded moments before his fatal car crash had somehow bridged the gap between worlds. The interface mimicked the exact cheat engine he built for his favorite virtual roleplaying game. He understood the implications immediately, he had read this kind of thing in novels before. He needed to view this new reality as just another hostile game to conquer. If he played the game and accumulated enough power to win, he might find a way to rewrite the rules and return to his original life.

"We must leave before the second shift patrols the garden." The voice belonged to a young girl.

He turned his head and found a thirteen year old servant kneeling on the bloodstained flagstones. She wore a coarse brown tunic that hung loose on her malnourished frame. Tears carved clean lines through the dirt on her cheeks as she stared at the bruised ruin of his face. She clutched a small linen bundle to her chest, trembling violently as she glanced toward the arched gateway of the inner compound.

"Who are you?" He forced the words past his split lip, tasting fresh copper on his tongue.

"It is Xia." She sobbed, burying her face in her hands for a brief second before looking back up with terrified eyes. "They killed the Madam yesterday and now they want to bury you beside her. Lady Mei will send the guards back to finish the job once she realizes you still draw breath."

He searched the fragmented memories left behind by the original body owner. Recognition surfaced through the mental fog. Xia was his mother's handmaid, a quiet orphan they rescued years ago from the outer city slums.

"Help me up." He extended his uninjured arm, ignoring the searing pain in his chest.

Xia wedged her shoulder under his armpit, bearing his weight with surprising resilience. They limped through the darkened corridors of the Lu estate, sticking to the deep shadows cast by the overhanging tile roofs. Fire flared in his lungs with every step he took, reminding him of the unnatural martial arts strike.

They reached the iron hinges of the servant gate, where two bored guards leaned against a wooden cart. An elderly man sat at the front, chewing on a piece of dried grass.

"Get in the back." The old man ordered, flicking his worn leather reins. "Keep your heads down until we pass the merchant district."

He collapsed against the splintered sideboards of the cart. Xia sat beside him and pressed a damp rag against his bleeding cheek. The old man clicked his tongue, prompting a tired draft horse to pull the cart forward into the narrow alleyway. The wooden wheels rattled violently over uneven cobblestones as they escaped the towering stone walls of the estate.

He stared up at a sky full of unfamiliar constellations, processing his bizarre new identity. He was the eldest son of a wealthy family, yet he wore bloodstained rags and lacked a single copper coin to his name. The absurdity of the situation forced a hollow laugh from his throat, which quickly turned into a painful coughing fit.

"Drink this." Xia uncorked a waterskin and pressed it to his mouth. "It will wash the blood down."

He swallowed the lukewarm water, grateful for the small comfort as the cart bounced over a deep pothole. "We are heading into the lower city, but I have no money to secure a room. Lady Mei cut our pavilion stipend three months ago."

"I have silver." Xia patted a cloth pouch tied securely around her waist. "I saved the holiday coins the First Madam gave me over the last four years. I also took two of her jade hairpins before Lady Mei locked the burial pavilion."

He stared at her, genuinely surprised by the risk she took. "You stole from the main house? If they catch you with those hairpins, the estate guards will break your legs and sell you to the pleasure barges."

"They belonged to your mother." Xia met his gaze without flinching, her voice steadying. "She bought them with her own money before she fell ill. I will sell them to the pawnbroker in the merchant square tomorrow morning. Combined with my savings, we will have enough to pay for a secure room at the Golden Toad Inn for seven days."

"And if my father does not return from his expedition in seven days?" He shifted his weight to ease the pressure on his fractured ribs.

"Then I will find work." She smoothed out her rough tunic. "The market merchants always need girls to wash laundry or scrub floors. I will earn enough for our meals. I will not let you starve in the streets."

He examined the dirt smudged face of the young girl, marveling at her absolute devotion. In the modern corporate world he left behind, colleagues stepped over each other for minor promotions and holiday bonuses. Here, a peasant child risked torture and death to protect a crippled young master who offered her nothing in return.

"Why are you doing this?" He kept his tone even, watching her expression closely. "Most servants would strip the dead and flee the city. You owe me nothing."

Xia looked down at her hands, picking at a loose thread on her sleeve. "The other masters treat us like livestock. They beat the courtyard boys for speaking out of turn, and they drag the pretty maids into the inner chambers to use for their own pleasure. You and your mother were the only ones who saw us as people."

He let her speak, recognizing the profound emotional contrast between the cruelty of the Lu family and the stark humanity of this starving orphan.

"You are good people, and good people should not die like that."

He nodded slowly, processing the reality of the original body owner's life. The previous Lu Chen possessed a gentle soul in a world that rewarded only ruthless ambition. He wondered why a benevolent soul suffered such a brutal end, and why the universe chose him to inhabit this specific vessel. He searched the fractured memories echoing in his mind, looking for a hidden destiny or an ancestral secret, but he found only years of quiet suffering and absolute isolation.

"You will not have to scrub floors." He leaned forward, ignoring the sharp pain in his chest. "I promise you, I will find a way to get back on my feet before your savings run out. You will not carry this burden alone."

Xia offered a small, hesitant smile, adjusting the linen bundle in her lap. The cart turned onto a wider avenue lined with shuttered wooden stalls and dim lanterns. The smell of rotting cabbage and stale wine wafted from the alleyways, signaling their arrival in the lower city slums.

The cart slowed to a halt as two city guards stepped into the street, holding iron halberds across the pathway. Old Ma cursed under his breath and reached into his coat.

"Toll inspection." The taller guard demanded, tapping the side of the cart with his weapon. "Two coppers for the wagon, one for each passenger."

Old Ma handed over a small handful of coins, grumbling about the extortionate night rates. The guard peered into the back of the wagon, his eyes lingering on the blood staining the young master's robes. Xia instinctively moved closer to shield him from view. The guard sneered, pocketing the coins before waving them through the checkpoint.

He absorbed the brief interaction, recognizing the corruption woven into the fabric of the city. He decided to test the limits of his inherited knowledge, feigning a deep concussion to mask his ignorance of the world's basic rules. He tapped his temple, grimacing as if fighting through a mental fog.

"My head is still swimming from the impact." He slurred his words slightly to sell the performance. "My memories are failing me. Tell me about Lu Feng and his cultivation. We are a wealthy merchant family, so why does my stepbrother train like a common soldier? Why do we not simply hire grandmasters to protect the estate?"

Xia looked at him with genuine confusion, checking the front of the cart to ensure Old Ma was out of earshot before leaning in close.

"Young Master, money holds no power over a true cultivator." She spoke in a hushed, urgent tone. "A hired guard will abandon his post the moment a rogue martial artist offers him more silver. Only personal strength guarantees survival in this realm."

"But Lu Feng is just a… he's 19?." He pressed the issue, weaving his questions naturally into the conversation. "Why the sudden desperation to break through his bottlenecks today? He almost killed me for a simple apothecary deed."

"It is not a sudden desperation." Xia glanced over her shoulder, her eyes wide with lingering fear. "There has been a problem recently in the capital. The Nine Heavens Mountain Sect altered their schedule and opened their regional recruitment trials a full month early."

She paused as the cart rattled over a wooden bridge, waiting for the noise to subside before finishing her thought.

"Only one descendant from the Lu family is permitted to accept the trial token." Xia gripped her coin pouch tightly. "Lu Feng needed your mother's deed to purchase marrow cleansing pills, but more importantly, Lady Mei needs you dead. As long as you draw breath, the sect's envoys will recognize you as the legal eldest son."

He leaned his head back against the vibrating wood, staring at the translucent blue interface still hovering in his vision. The brutal politics of the cultivation world demanded absolute strength. He lacked spiritual roots and financial backing, but he held the keys to a system that bypassed reality itself.

“Not to mention the recent calamit…rumors” Xia stammered