Chapter 1: Paired With a Bonding System

"Ughhh... my head..."

A boy woke up clutching his head, which throbbed with pain for some reason.

"Fuck, I told that piece of shit to drive slow."

He muttered the words as he tried to move, only to feel an even more intense pain surge through his body—like he had been thrown from a two-story building.

He clutched his back after rubbing his head. The pain in his skull was already beginning to lessen, but the ache in his back and joints remained sharp.

"Fuck!" he cursed as his vision finally cleared.

What he saw shocked him even more. He hadn’t expected this. He was sitting in front of a dense forest.

Everywhere he looked was green. When he turned around, he saw a tall cliff rising behind him. Anyone who fell from there would definitely die.

"What the fuck... what the hell is going on?" the boy muttered.

Wasn’t he supposed to open his eyes on the roadside after the accident—or maybe in a hospital if someone had saved him? How in the world was he waking up in this fucking jungle?

Then he noticed something else. There was no blood—the kind of blood that should have been left behind after an accident like that.

Yet, there wasn’t a single drop of blood on him. He was wearing strange clothes that were torn in a few places, and only a few scratches and light wounds could be seen on his arms and legs. Even so, he could still feel intense pain in his back and other parts of his body.

Veyron panicked.

The throbbing in his head had vanished completely. The only pain left was in his body, and even that wasn’t as bad as before.

"Alright, this shit ain’t real... calm yourself, Veyron."

He closed his eyes, took two long breaths, and slowly exhaled. It calmed him a little. He had always been a calm guy throughout all twenty years of his life.

The last thing he remembered was being in the car with his two friends. Derek was driving fast because he had just been dumped by his girlfriend—who was three years younger than him.

Veyron and their other friend, Bob, had been panicking, shouting at him to slow down.

Fuck that. The motherfucker hadn’t listened. They had drunk a few bottles of beer, and the bastard hadn’t even mentioned the breakup until they were already in the car.

Then he started driving like a maniac while telling them some funny-yet-scary story.

And then—

BAM!

By all logic, Veyron remembered slamming into a pole at insane speed. They should have died.

Even if some miracle had saved him, he shouldn’t have been here, in these woods beside a cliff. His body hurt, yeah, but the pain was manageable. So what the hell was happening?

The thought had barely finished when his brain crashed again under an intense throbbing pain unlike anything he had ever felt before. His entire head buzzed.

A flood of memories suddenly surged through his mind. Every moment, every feeling—he lived them as if they were his own.

For the next five minutes, Veyron kept groaning in pain, clutching his head and thrashing his legs like a child getting an injection. He struggled the entire time.

Those five minutes felt like an eternity. When the pain in his head finally subsided and disappeared completely, he opened his eyes again.

The look in them was no longer the same.

He wasn’t the same Veyron from five minutes ago, yet he was still the same guy. The only difference was that he now carried the memories and emotions of two different people. His personality remained unchanged.

"This shit isn’t a dream!" Veyron muttered.

He stood up and walked a short distance into the woods until he found a rock. He sat down on it so he could finally process everything he had just learned—or, more accurately, lived through.

But before he could start, a sound suddenly startled him.

DING!

[CONGRATULATIONS!]

[Transmigration successful!]

[Memory installation complete!]

"What the fuck is this?!"

At the sound of the ding, a blue panel surfaced in front of him—the exact kind he had read about in countless web novels.

The moment he saw the system panel, realization dawned on him. This was really happening. The impossible thing he had fantasized about so many times after reading those web novels had actually come true.

"Is this really happening?" Veyron asked again, still struggling to believe it.

[Yes, Host. This is real. You have been successfully transmigrated. Everything you are currently feeling is completely real and normal.]

"Are you my system or what?" he asked in a daze, still trying to accept the reality he had been thrown into by some miracle.

[Yes, Host. I am your system.]

"You got a name or something? What type of system are you?"

The reply came instantly.

[System is currently in default state, so it does not have a name.]

[Perfect System has not yet been installed. Awaiting Host confirmation.]

Veyron was surprised. So the system was still in its default state.

"Please do."

[Searching for a perfect and available system for Host. This will take some time. Host is advised to fully process current thoughts and calm yourself.]

Veyron thought, of course. He was already going to do that even without the system telling him.

"Find a good one for me."

While the default system searched for a perfect system to pair with him, Veyron started properly processing all his thoughts.

So this was real. He had really been transmigrated into a different world—and not just any world, but a fucking cultivation world. One of those Xianxia shits he had read about countless times.

He was now inside this guy’s body. The original was also a twenty-year-old youth. Surprisingly, his name was also Veyron, and he even had the same face... only this version was more handsome.

It was like looking at a better version of the Veyron he had been on Earth. Though, his face had been the only thing going for him. Nothing else.

This guy’s life had been truly pitiful—or rather, it was still pitiful now. While his mother was pregnant with him, she had been attacked, and Veyron’s spirit veins had been damaged as a result.

On the night he was born, both his father and mother died. He had never been told how it happened. The only explanation given to him was that they had died on a mission.

After that, Veyron was taken in by a woman named Aveline. She had been a close friend of his mother’s—more like a real sister to her.

Aveline treated him like her own child, yet she made sure he always knew she was only his aunt. She never wanted to take the place of the friend who had left her child in her care.

She wanted Veyron to know who his real mother was and how much she had loved him. In every memory, Aveline made certain he understood that. From then on, Veyron had always called her Aunt.

Though he had a loving guardian, he was still miserable. Because of his damaged spirit veins, he couldn’t progress any further in his cultivation.

He remained stuck at the Spirit Initiate realm and stayed an outer sect disciple of the Azure Sky Sect. That position itself only existed because of his aunt’s influence.

While his peers advanced, he remained in the same place. He was mocked, ridiculed, and bullied by other disciples and even some elders.

Yet this guy was tenacious. He never once complained about it to his aunt. He worked his butt off trying to find a way to repair his spirit veins.

His aunt did the same—bringing him expensive-looking pills and treasures, but nothing worked.

He was called a stain on his aunt’s reputation. He had had enough of everything. He was desperate.

Another Inner Sect disciple selection was coming, and he wanted to pass it no matter what.

Then one day, an Inner Sect disciple told him he had heard about a miracle herb on Whispering Cloud Cliff that could help him.

Desperate as he was, Veyron snuck out of the house that night without telling his aunt. He traveled through the night and reached the cliff.

It was near the Azure Sky Sect, a dangerous place where many powerful spirit beasts roamed.

Veyron searched for the herb but found nothing. That was when he realized he had been tricked by that Inner Sect disciple—the man had lied to him.

To make his luck even worse, he encountered a Spirit Adept realm beast.

Of course, he couldn’t fight it off. The beast was a Rank 3 Spirit Adept, an entire realm above him. He was only a Rank 3 Spirit Initiate.

He still tried to defend himself with the sword he carried, but it was useless. He never noticed he had reached the edge.

He fell to his death—right at the moment the other Veyron transmigrated into his body.

When Veyron looked back at the cliff, only a breath away from dying, he remembered thinking: if only he could repair his spirit veins...

Then everything would have been great. He wouldn’t have to face those humiliations anymore. He wouldn’t be a stain on his aunt’s reputation.

But he was also sad—he was leaving behind his beautiful, loving aunt.

She had loved him so much. She had cared for him. She had never cared what others said about him. And he had loved her just as deeply.

How could he have been so stupid?

Veyron felt every one of those emotions as his own. Tears dripped from his eyes. It felt like the old Veyron had never truly died—he had simply been given another chance.

Now that he was alive again, and he had a system... he could at least do something about it, couldn’t he?

Veyron thought this as he looked back toward the panel. It still hadn’t found the perfect system for him. He had already finished processing all his thoughts.

As Veyron turned his head, he heard the sound of a river nearby. He stood up and slowly walked toward it.

When he reached the water, he saw that it was only a small stream. Fortunately, this area was safe. Only the unlucky ones ever encountered beasts on the borders near the cliff. Most of them roamed deep inside Whispering Cloud Forest.

Veyron wanted to drink. He was feeling very thirsty. He also needed to find a way back home—his aunt must have already discovered he was missing.

Just as he was about to crouch down and drink from the stream, a strong system notification suddenly rang out.

DING!!!

[CONGRATULATIONS, HOST!!]

[A perfect system has been matched for you!]

DING!!

[YOU ARE PAIRING WITH THE BONDING SYSTEM!]

Before Veyron could even react, the system spoke again.

[HOST PAIRING WITH BONDING SYSTEM STARTS NOW...]

**

Thanks for reading...