Legacy of the Spirit Stone-Chapter 1 – Just lying down like this, it's been twenty years

At noon, sunlight filtered through the leaves of the trees, casting its glow on a smooth gray stone at the base of a tree trunk.
"Ah, the rain has finally stopped."
The warmth of the sun awakened the sleeping Chen Yang.
"This time, I slept for... five days."
Whenever it rained, Chen Yang would fall into a deep sleep because he disliked the dampness of rainy days.
Rain and mist would make the originally clear spiritual energy become moist.
Chen Yang looked around, the scenery remained unchanged.
"By my count, this is the twentieth year since I came to this world."
***
In his previous life, after nearly half a year of relentless, high-intensity work, Chen Yang finally found relief on that exhausting night.
When he awoke, he found himself lying here.
However, his transmigrated identity was somewhat peculiar.
Neither human nor beast, he was a stone.
Twenty years ago, this stone unexpectedly gained consciousness due to the nourishment of spiritual energy, and Chen Yang's consciousness settled into it at that moment.
Like all transmigrators, Chen Yang was initially very excited.
Because of the presence of spiritual energy, he knew that cultivation was possible in this world.
And as a transmigrator, it was normal to have some sort of cheat or advantage.
So, in the first few days, Chen Yang was constantly researching where his cheat might be hidden.
A system panel? None.
A spirit silkworm? It didn't appear either.
The soul of a great emperor? That was even more impossible.
As days passed, Chen Yang finally confirmed.
There probably wasn't any cheat.
He was just a lucky stone that gained consciousness.
Apart from being able to absorb spiritual energy, he couldn't do anything else.
He couldn't even move, just lay there quietly.
After accepting reality, Chen Yang wasn't particularly dejected or unwilling.
On the contrary, he felt this new identity was quite nice and suited him well.
Thinking back to his previous life's experiences—endless overtime, manipulative bosses, the burden of loans, and relatives and friends having expectations of him.
Such a life made him feel suffocated, even to the point of having suicidal thoughts.
Now, having become a stone, he no longer had to worry about all those messy things.
He only needed to absorb spiritual energy daily and sleep when tired.
Simple, comfortable, and beautiful.
So, in a way, becoming a stone lying flat was very much in line with Chen Yang's desired state.
It didn't take him long to fully embrace his new identity.
And so, he lay there for twenty years.
Initially, he was only awake for less than two hours a day, and then he would fall back into sleep.
Later, as he absorbed spiritual energy over the years, his waking time gradually increased.
Now, he could stay awake for more than ten days at a stretch, maintaining his consciousness.
In these twenty years, he couldn't remember how many times he had witnessed demonic beasts devouring each other, spirit birds hunting one another, and ghosts consuming each other.
In the past, the Chen Yang who was used to a harmonious society would have thought the survival rules of this world were too cruel.
But now, after years of experience, Chen Yang's heart remained unperturbed by these battles.
"That's just how the world is."
"If you don't eat, you'll starve."
"If you don't eat him, he'll eat you."
The law of the jungle is the survival rule of this world.
What he witnessed was merely the creatures adapting to the laws of this world, nothing surprising.
The sunlight dried the moisture on Chen Yang's body, and as the mist dissipated, Chen Yang began to gather spiritual energy and absorb it.
The scattered spiritual energy around him was drawn towards Chen Yang's location.
As a stone with consciousness, Chen Yang now possessed two abilities.
One was absorbing the spiritual energy of the world.
He had this ability since he came to this world, just like how humans naturally breathe.
After five years of continuous absorption, Chen Yang was able to look inside himself.
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He saw a space in the center of his body, wrapped in a white membrane.
The spiritual energy he absorbed from the world was slowly being converted into spiritual power there.
At that time, the stored spiritual power occupied only about one-third of the entire space.
After another ten years of accumulation, the storage space for spiritual power was filled.
The moment it filled up, Chen Yang fell into a deep sleep.
Ten days later, when Chen Yang woke up again, he clearly felt a change within himself.
First, the spirit storage space inside him had expanded more than twice its original size.
Secondly, his consciousness became more solid, allowing him to perceive further distances and communicate with the spiritual power within him!
He realized he had completed a breakthrough in his cultivation level.
Chen Yang immediately began experimenting and quickly discovered that as long as he activated the spiritual power within him, he could attract the surrounding spiritual energy to gather around him.
The concentration of the gathered spiritual energy would become higher, about three times the original level.
In such an environment, his efficiency in converting spiritual power would greatly increase.
The emergence of this ability to gather spiritual energy brought changes to Chen Yang's previously peaceful life.
Due to the increased concentration of spiritual energy, the vegetation around Chen Yang was nourished and grew rapidly, as if injected with hormones.
Besides these ordinary plants, the rich spiritual energy also gave rise to a small spirit herb.
It was a small, verdant four-leaf clover, growing just a palm's distance from Chen Yang.
At first, Chen Yang didn't notice anything special about it until one morning when the spirit herb secreted a drop of milky white dewdrop essence from the center of its four leaves.
Chen Yang sensed extremely pure energy within this dewdrop essence.
The dewdrop essence appeared, and the small spirit herb leaned towards Chen Yang, causing the essence to drip onto him.
Chen Yang absorbed it into his body and spent five days digesting it, and the result delighted him.
The spiritual power generated by this single drop of essence was equivalent to two months' worth of his absorption.
"Wow, if I could get a drop of this every day, my spiritual power growth would be like riding a rocket!" Chen Yang thought.
Unfortunately, the production of this essence was also cyclical, with one drop every three months.
However, Chen Yang didn't force it.
With a laid-back attitude, he would use it when available and slowly absorb spiritual energy when it wasn't.
The peaceful days passed by, and now, with the help of the dewdrop essence, Chen Yang's spiritual power space was more than half full.
The only issue that had troubled Chen Yang over the past twenty years was that he had seen all sorts of strange creatures, but never a human.
Considering his surroundings—a forest with mountains stretching beyond—Chen Yang speculated that he might have been born in a remote, uninhabited place.
Yet, the demonic beasts and ghosts here didn't seem particularly strong; they didn't use magic and fought hand-to-hand, unlike the legendary depths of the Ten Thousand Mountains.
He even wondered if he was born in a world without humans.
Unable to figure it out, Chen Yang eventually gave up thinking about it, not wanting to add unnecessary worries to himself.
Proofreader & Editor: Peter Pan