Just Stepped Through a Time Gate, Now I'm Bowing to Uncle Jiu

Zhang Si never imagined that a lowly library clerk like him would transmigrate because of a virus on his phone.

When the bizarre countdown reached zero, he was standing in a barren mountain in 1912, with a hundred-zhang-deep abyss before him and a man-eating mountain demon behind him. A translucent panel hovered above his wrist:

[Zhang Si]

Ability: None

Essence: None

"Kill demons to grow stronger. Grow stronger to live forever."

To get his hands on "essence," he had to return to the Republic of China era with modern firearms. To live long enough to spend his money, he also had to join Maoshan and study the Dao. Shi Jian said his physique was below average, and Uncle Jiu thought he was too old. Zhang Si only replied:

"I have money."

Ten gold ingots later, Shi Jian took him on as an unofficial disciple.

After selling a hundred watches, he became an honored guest of Desheng Trading Company.

While other Daoists were still drawing talismans and chanting incantations, Zhang Si had already traded penicillin for German weapons and equipment.

"Master, studying the Dao is too slow. Can I put points into my stats?"

"...You call this the Scripture of Supreme Clarity and Qi Regulation? Your meridians are about to burst from all that essence!"

Zhang Si smiled. "Master, it takes money to study, and wealth to practice martial arts. As for the Dao... that takes a speculator."

[Two-world trading + System stat allocation + Maoshan Daoist cultivation + upheaval in the Republic of China era. This is a story about "using modern capital to defeat the rat race of immortal cultivation."]