The morning sun made the Xiao Clan's tiled roofs look like they were made of gold. Mist curled between the courtyards, bringing with it the faint smell of incense from the hall of ancestors. Disciples moved quickly and in straight lines between training yards and medicine stores, their voices low and calm.
One person stood out among them all, not because they were great, but because they were funny.
Xiao Tianjue walked with a limp to the meeting point, still hurt from what happened to him yesterday. His robe hung off his thin body in a strange way, and a purple welt on his cheek made it look bad. But his mouth turned into a grin that was so pleased with itself that the disciples watching couldn't help but sneer even more.
"Did the fallen Xiao Tianjue really come?" someone whispered.
"Does he like to make a fool of himself?"
"Second Stage of Qi Refining at 17 years old... What a joke."
The quiet whispers turned into loud laughter.
An older man stood at the front with his back straight and his beard flowing down his chest like silvered fire. Elder Xiao Kuang is in charge of the outer hall. His eyes cut through the crowd like a knife. When it hit Xiao Tianjue, his eyes filled with disgust.
He yelled, "Xiao Tianjue, since you have enough strength to crawl here, you will be useful to the clan in some way. You will go into the Beast Forest today. Get Moonlight Grass and Firefly Orchids. The outer disciples need them to heal."
A wave of surprise went through the crowd, but it quickly turned into schadenfreude. Moonlight Grass grew on the edges of cliffs, where beast dens often formed. Firefly Orchids glowed softly at night, which attracted moths and other predators. Sending a weakling there was like giving him a death sentence.
Xiao Tianjue's smile grew bigger.
Oh, so they're putting me in the newbie dungeon. A classic quest for a tutorial. Mobs that are dangerous, materials that are hard to find, and maybe even a hidden boss. They think I'm the one who's going to die, but I'm the only one who has a cheat sheet.
He bent down and spoke in a way that was overly polite. "As Elder commands, this humble disciple will put his life on the line for the clan's noble cause."
They didn't get the sarcasm at all.
As he turned away, laughter followed him.
"Don't come back, Trash Xiao Tianjue!"
"Maybe a rabbit will scare him to death!"
Xiao Tianjue waved happily without looking back, humming like he was going to a festival.
The next morning, the sky was silver-gray, and mist curled over the Xiao Clan's tiled roofs. Dew sparkled on the practice yard, where disciples were already shouting, punching, and sending out bright arcs of spiritual energy that made the ground hum.
Xiao Tianjue stood at the edge of the yard and watched them with a strange calm.
He had read every glowing line that the System had put into his head all night until the runes started to look like they were all the same.
Now he had all the information he needed in his head: SP, cards, Qi pool, gacha pulls, and upgrade costs.
He felt... organized for the first time in both of his lives.
And it was broken.
He muttered, "Two hundred Qi in the tank and zero SP in the wallet. Really the free-to-play experience."
The altar in his soul-sea pulsed once, neither angry nor happy.
Xiao Tianjue let out a sigh. "Don't judge me, you golden brick. It's time to work."
He pulled the cheap leather belt tighter around his waist, put a small basket of herbs over his back, and slipped out the east gate.
No one stopped him. They had already decided that he would be lucky to come back with both legs.
At the edges of the Beast Forest, it looked almost nice. Sunlight came through the willows, birds chirped, and streams sparkled like glass veins.
But with each step deeper, the air got thicker and tasted like wet moss and iron.
In the distance, something screamed and something else laughed.
Xiao Tianjue squatted down next to a patch of silvery leaves that were glowing softly in the shade.
Moonlight Grass has been found.
"System," he said quietly, "check the value?"
[Estimated SP Gain: 150–200 per bundle.]
He smiled. "Oh. Accepted side quest."
He carefully pulled the stalks out. When he put them in his basket, a small rune shone above them for a moment before disappearing. The altar inside him lit up, showing that he had earned credit.
He went deeper. The ground in the forest went from soft dirt to roots that were wet with dew. Animal tracks crossed in a wild way: claw marks, hoof prints, and something that looked like handprints.
"Low-tier area, my butt," he said under his breath. "This is the end of the game jungle with a free corpse buffet."
A sound to his left.
A pair of red eyes blinked through the bushes, and then a boar the size of a carriage burst out, its tusks shining.
The smell of its breath was like a forge. Qi Refining-stage aura rolled off it in waves.
"Low Qi Refining Beast," Xiao Tianjue said out loud, already reaching into his soul-sea. "Perfect farming group."
He flipped over an Ember Spark card. The paper broke down into sparks that hit the boar's snout hard. It squealed, staggered, and charged anyway, even though it was half-on fire.
Xiao Tianjue moved to the left, swung his crude sword, and cut into its side. The cut wasn't very deep, but it hurt so much that the beast's eyes went wild.
It lunged once more. He threw himself aside, and the tusks only grazed his sleeve and ripped the fabric instead of his flesh.
He said, "Note to self," as he got up, "boars have aim-assist."
He used a Stone Skin card, and heat spread through his body.
It felt like being hit by a log when the next blow came, but he stayed standing.
He stabbed it once, then twice, until it fell with a loud thud.
A pulse shook his core.
[Low Qi Refining Beast Core absorbed +300 SP | Total = 300]
He wiped the sweat off his forehead and breathed out. "Three hundred! That's already half a pull! Okay, okay, this grind might not be so bad after all."
Hours went by.
The forest became his training ground and his own farm.
He would crouch, bait, throw, and hit whenever he heard a rustle.
He moved faster and his jokes got worse.
"Mob rate's great out here," he said, kicking a dead wolf off his sword.
"Developers really got the drop balance right."
The altar pulsed briefly with each kill, some weak and some strong.
By noon, he had killed boars, wolves, and six or so ape-like creatures whose roars made the leaves shake.
He finally took a break by a shallow creek, and the numbers in his head lined up perfectly.
So far, the SP Total is about 4,000.
"Four thousand..." He made a low whistle. "That's enough for two jumps from the stage or forty pulls. Discipline, Xiao Tianjue, discipline. Grow first, then bet."
He sat on a flat stone with his legs crossed. The altar throbbed with hope.
[Spend 400 SP → Advance to Third Stage of Qi Refining?]
"Yes."
Pain came right away, like thunder cracking inside his bones.
Qi flowed out, and his dantian grew to drink it.
Leaves swirled around him like a tiny tornado before coming to a stop.
[Cultivation advanced to Third Stage of Qi Refining | Max Qi 800 | SP Remaining 3,600]
He moved his fingers around. "Heh. Like getting twice as much stamina in a patch update."
He kept going.
[Spend 800 SP → Advance to Fourth Stage of Qi Refining?]
"Do it."
This time the pain turned into fire, and the meridians burned clean.
The sounds in the forest got sharper, and even bugs sounded like strings on a zither.
[Cultivation advanced to Fourth Stage of Qi Refining | Max Qi 800 | SP Remaining 2,800]
He laughed out loud, partly because he was happy and partly because he couldn't believe it.
"Two upgrades in one day? They made you wait a whole season for that back on the sect!"
He opened his eyes. The world sparkled.
Water flowed through stone somewhere up ahead, but it wasn't natural.
He stood up, his curiosity getting the better of him.