System Granted Me Immortality; I Outlived Everyone

Chapter 17: The Undertaker Reappears, The Shangqing Temple Defeated

Sixth Senior Brother’s parting words left a vague knot of unease in Chen Changsheng’s chest.

However, he let the feeling go almost immediately.

Decades of walking the mortal world had taught him a very practical truth: once a situation escalates beyond your paygrade, dreading the outcome won’t stop it from happening.

Rather than agonizing over hypotheticals, it was far more efficient to just go about his day. Time would eventually reveal the truth.

It always did.

……

Returning to the Shangqing Temple, Chen Changsheng easily slipped back into his comfortable routine.

He spent his days browsing the Book Tomb or casually running through the Hundred Defeats Immortal Venerable’s nameless fist technique to stretch his joints.

When Master Yuanshen deployed to the border, he had drafted more than half of the Shangqing Temple’s total personnel.

As a result, Yuanshan was forced into a leadership role despite his youth. With Chen Changsheng managing things from the shadows, they managed to keep the sect functioning.

The relentless pressure forced Yuanshan to mature rapidly. It wasn’t long before Chen Changsheng happily transitioned into a completely hands-off manager.

However, one major variable completely defied Chen Changsheng’s expectations.

The border war between the Daqian Dynasty and the Night Moon Country dragged on for a grueling twenty years.

By the fifth year, the situation had grown so dire that even the sect’s Soul Formation ancestor had broken his Secluded Cultivation to join the meat grinder.

……

Shangqing Temple, Book Tomb.

Chen Changsheng gently closed the final ancient text and stretched his stiff shoulders.

A young man in crisp Daoist robes, possessing sharp, sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, strode into the aisle.

“Have you considered my proposal from yesterday?”

Chen Changsheng didn’t even look up. “Denied.”

“Why?!” Yuanshan demanded.

“Ten years ago, you explicitly stated I could deploy to the border the moment you finished reading every book in the Book Tomb. You’ve read them all! Why am I still here?”

“And need I remind you, I am the acting Temple Master of the Shangqing Temple!”

Chen Changsheng finally looked at the young man roaring in his face and offered a faint smile. “Twenty years. The sniveling little brat who couldn’t even wipe his own nose without asking my permission is finally slamming tables and barking orders.”

“Not bad. You’re growing a spine.”

At that calm dismissal, the grown Yuanshan’s eyes instantly reddened. His voice cracked.

“Seventh Senior Brother is dead. Fifth Senior Brother was blinded. The Eldest Senior Brother who practically raised us lost an arm.”

“Big Brother Changsheng, I’m at the late-stage of the Golden Core realm now. I can actually fight! I refuse to sit here and watch any more of our family die.”

Staring into Yuanshan’s bloodshot, desperate eyes, Chen Changsheng genuinely didn’t know what to say.

He had been quietly monitoring the intelligence from the frontlines. The Daqian Dynasty was drowning in blood.

Over a dozen Nascent Soul grandmasters had already Perished in battle. Recent rumors suggested the meat grinder had even begun claiming Soul Formation cultivators.

Tossing Yuanshan into that meat grinder was tantamount to assisted suicide.

In a war of that scale, a late-stage Golden Core cultivator was nothing but premium cannon fodder.

Just as Chen Changsheng was drafting another excuse to keep his Junior Brother grounded, a fiercely familiar aura violently descended upon the Shangqing Temple.

Sensing the arrival, the two of them rushed out to the courtyard.

What they found was their Third Senior Brother—drenched head to toe in gore, his right eye a ruined mess, and his left arm severed at the elbow.

“Effective immediately, I am assuming the position of Temple Master! Ninth Junior Brother Song Yuanshan is promoted to Deputy Temple Master!”

“Order every single branch of the Shangqing Temple to immediately evacuate three thousand li to the west!”

The infamously lazy, heavy-drinking Third Senior Brother barked his orders with terrifying military efficiency. He didn’t even pause to greet the Junior Brothers he hadn’t seen in two decades.

Once the evacuation orders were dispatched, the tension holding the man together finally snapped.

Yuanshan walked over, his hands trembling as he looked at the maimed veteran.

“Third Senior Brother… where is Master? Where is everyone else?”

Third Senior Brother swayed slightly, his voice a hoarse rasp.

“The Night Moon Country… their roster of Nascent Soul grandmasters suddenly doubled overnight.”

“Master was ambushed by three late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators. He Perished holding the line at Phoenix Mountain.”

“A squad of us were retreating together, but they caught us. Eldest Senior Brother triggered his own Self-Destruction just to blow a hole in their blockade so I could escape.”

“The Daqian Dynasty broke. The frontlines have completely collapsed. We’ve ceded five thousand li of territory to the Night Moon Country.”

The world tilted violently on its axis.

Yuanshan lunged forward, grabbing Third Senior Brother by his blood-soaked collar.

“Where is Master’s body?!” Yuanshan screamed. “Why didn’t you bring him back?! Are you just going to let those demonic bastards refine his corpse into a puppet?!”

Third Senior Brother didn’t struggle. He just stared at the ground in hollow, exhausted silence.

“Stop shaking him. At this rate, you’re going to rattle out whatever life he has left.”

Chen Changsheng’s voice cut through the courtyard, perfectly calm and entirely devoid of panic. Yuanshan froze, subconsciously releasing his grip.

Looking back, he saw that Chen Changsheng had quietly slipped away and retrieved the massive lightning-struck wood coffin from the rear mountain.

Before Yuanshan could even process the absurdity of the coffin, Chen Changsheng had already crossed the distance.

He uncorked a small porcelain bottle, tapped a medicinal Pill into his palm, and unceremoniously shoved it down Third Senior Brother’s throat.

He moved with the detached efficiency of a man completely unaffected by the catastrophic news.

“Your Cultivation foundation is completely shattered,” Chen Changsheng diagnosed flatly. “My medical skills are adequate, but I can’t fix that.”

“The Night Moon Country wouldn’t push this aggressively for a mere five thousand li of dirt. Their strategic objective is the total annexation of the Daqian Dynasty.”

He gestured toward Yuanshan. “He has excellent talent, but he’s still too emotional. You have about fifty years left in you to beat some sense into him. The future of the Shangqing Temple is your problem now.”

With his final instructions delivered, Chen Changsheng tapped the massive coffin, storing it away into his spatial inventory. He turned on his heel and began walking toward the sect’s gates.

The casual departure finally snapped Third Senior Brother out of his daze. “Changsheng… where are you going?”

Chen Changsheng paused. He didn’t look back.

“I’m going to collect Master and the others. They need a proper burial.”

“I don’t think I ever told you, Senior Brother. Before I joined the sect, my actual profession was in the funeral business. I sold coffins.”

“I carved that lightning-struck wood specifically to Master’s measurements years ago. It seems my foresight was correct.”

“Cultivators chase immortality, convinced that endless life brings ultimate freedom. It’s a foolish assumption. True longevity is just an extended contract for suffering.”

“The mortal realm is a sea of bitterness. Living longer just means you’re forced to tread water for eternity.”

“Master and the others have finally been discharged from the bitter sea. As professionals, we should be happy for them.”

Chen Changsheng paused for a fraction of a second, then finally turned his head to flash his Third Senior Brother an impeccably polite, terrifyingly bright customer service smile.

“I remember you used to tell a ghost story to scare Yuanshan when he was little. You spoke of an urban legend in the Cultivation world—a mysterious contractor who only appeared to collect the corpses of the doomed.”

“You said that wherever he walked, absolute death followed.”

“No one knew his real name. They just called him…”

“…The Undertaker.”