Location: The Fragmented Star Seas — Outer Rim — Black Rock Island (Penal Colony) Time: Era of Isolation, Year 4,921
The universe did not scream; it hummed.
It was a low, resonant vibration that rattled the marrow of one's bones—the sound of the Void Winds tearing against the atmospheric barrier of the floating island.
Li Yun opened his eyes.
The ceiling above him was made of damp, black basalt, dripping condensation onto his forehead. He didn't wipe it off. He didn't have the strength. His body felt like lead, heavy and unresponsive, a vessel drained of fuel. He lay on a mat of woven straw that smelled of mildew and old sweat.
System Check, he thought, the habit from his previous life surfacing before the memories of this new, hellish reality caught up to him. Status report.
There was no glowing blue screen. No robotic voice. Just the howling wind outside and the gnawing ache of an empty stomach.
"Right," Li Yun rasped, his voice sounding like sandpaper rubbing against stone. "Not a simulation. Not a dream."
He sat up slowly, his joints popping. He looked down at his hands. They were pale, calloused, and trembling. This was not the hand of a Senior Data Architect from Earth. This was the hand of a nineteen-year-old cripple named Li Yun—a discarded disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect, exiled to Black Rock Island for the crime of 'Talent Deficiencies.'
Li Yun closed his eyes and synchronized his memories. It had been three days since the "Transmigration." Three days of fever, starvation, and processing the memories of the original owner.
He analyzed his situation with the cold detachment of a man debugging a crashed server.
Location: Black Rock Island. A penal colony on the edge of the civilized star chart. Size: Roughly 50 square kilometers.
Population: Approximately 2,000 exiles. Mortals, crippled cultivators, and madness-stricken elders.
Economy: Scavenging. The island drifted through the debris fields of ancient wars. Inhabitants looked for scrap metal to trade with the wandering Supply Ships that docked once every six months.
Current Status: Critical. Caloric reserves at 15%. Hydration at 40%.
Asset: One Low-Grade Spirit Stone, hidden in the hollow heel of his left boot.
"One stone," Li Yun muttered, forcing himself to stand. The room spun. "Market value: enough for thirty days of dry rations. Or one decent meal and a warm coat. If I eat, I survive for a month. Then I die."
He walked to the window—a mere slit in the stone wall.
Outside, the view was terrifyingly majestic. The sky wasn't blue; it was a swirling abyss of violet and black nebula gas. Hundreds of miles away, another floating island drifted past, trailing long vines of vegetation that dangled into the endless void below. Between the islands, massive bolts of chaotic lightning—Void Tribulation Lightning—arced silently, potent enough to vaporize an entire city.
This was the Fragmented Star Seas. A world shattered into a million pieces.
"Isolation," Li Yun whispered. "That is the root cause."
In this world, information traveled at the speed of a sailboat. If a Sect was destroyed today, its neighbors wouldn't know for three months. Trade was inefficient. Knowledge was stagnant. The powerful hoarded secrets, and the weak died in ignorance.
"It's a network topology nightmare. Zero connectivity. High latency. Packet loss is literally death."
Li Yun reached into his boot and pulled out the Spirit Stone. It was the size of a pigeon egg, glowing with a dim, milky light. It was the severance pay the Azure Cloud Sect had given the original owner before kicking him out. A mockery.
He held the stone up to the violet light of the void.
"If I eat this energy, I might regain enough strength to chop wood for a week. Inefficient."
He took a deep breath. In his mind—or perhaps deeper, in the very structure of his soul—he felt It. The anomaly that had brought him here. The Golden Finger.
On Earth, he had been designing the architecture for a Quantum-Neural Server, a machine capable of processing reality as data. The experiment had exploded. He had died. But the Core Logic remained.
"Initialize," he commanded.
Weng.
The air around him didn't change, but his vision flickered. A translucent, hexagonal grid overlaid his eyesight. It wasn't a game interface. It was a Terminal Command Line.
[ SYSTEM BOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED... ][ HARDWARE DETECTED: BIOLOGICAL HOST (DAMAGED) ][ ENERGY SOURCE DETECTED: LOW-GRADE SPIRIT STONE (1 UNIT) ][ CONVERT TO SERVER POWER? Y/N ]
"Yes," Li Yun said.
The Spirit Stone in his hand didn't crumble; it dissolved. The milky light turned into a stream of binary code—blue and gold runes—that shot into his palm. The stone vanished.
[ ENERGY ACCEPTED. ][ SERVER STATUS: ONLINE (TIER 0) ][ CURRENT BANDWIDTH: 0/10 MBPS ][ CONNECTED DEVICES: 0 ][ AVAILABLE RAM: 512 MB (SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS) ]
Li Yun smiled, a sharp, dangerous expression on his pale face. He didn't have a sword. He didn't have a magical beast. He had 512 Megabytes of RAM and the ability to rewrite the laws of physics into code.
"Step one," Li Yun murmured, looking at the hexagonal grid. "I need a node."
The Azure Cloud Sect — Outer Court (500 miles away from Black Rock Island)
Lu Chen was desperate.
He sat in the lotus position in the center of his small, wooden hut, sweat pouring down his face. The spiritual energy in the room was thin, barely enough to ruffle a feather.
"Damn it!" Lu Chen slammed his fist against the floorboards. "Failed again!"
He was stuck at the peak of Qi Condensation Level 3. He had been stuck there for two years. In the Azure Cloud Sect, if you didn't reach Level 4 by the age of twenty, you were demoted to a servant. Lu Chen turned twenty next month.
"It's the cultivation method," Lu Chen hissed, grabbing the tattered scroll on his table. "The Cloud Breath Art is garbage! It's incomplete! The Elders hoard the full version for the Inner Disciples!"
This was the reality of the cultivation world. Knowledge was tyranny. The technique he had was missing the crucial mantra for circulation through the Liver Meridian. Without it, he was just blindly ramming energy into a wall.
Lu Chen stood up, pacing his room. He needed answers. But who could he ask? The Elders demanded bribes he couldn't afford. The Inner Disciples would just spit on him. There was no library open to the public. He was alone.
He looked at the pile of junk in the corner of his room. Scraps he had bought from scavengers, hoping to find a hidden treasure. A broken sword hilt. A cracked alchemical furnace. A strange, black slate he had bought yesterday for two copper coins because the scavenger said it came from an "Ancient Ruin."
Lu Chen picked up the black slate. It was smooth, cold, and utterly useless. It looked like a piece of polished obsidian, about the size of a hand.
"Just trash," Lu Chen sighed. "Like me."
He was about to throw it back into the pile when the slate vibrated.
Lu Chen froze. He held his breath. Had he imagined it?
Bzzzt.
The slate vibrated again. A faint, blue line appeared in the center of the black stone. It wasn't a carving; it was light. The light expanded, forming symbols Lu Chen had never seen before, yet somehow... understood.
[ SEARCHING FOR SIGNAL... ]
"A spirit artifact?" Lu Chen gasped. His heart hammered against his ribs. Had he actually found a treasure? He gripped the slate tighter. "Did a Senior leave a message inside?"
The text on the slate shifted.
[ CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. HOST ID: 001 ][ WELCOME TO THE SPIRIT WEB. ]
"Spirit Web?" Lu Chen whispered the words. They felt foreign in his mouth.
Suddenly, words began to scroll across the slate surface, glowing with a soft, inviting luminescence.
> QUESTION:Do you seek the path to power?> QUESTION:Are you stuck at a bottleneck?> QUESTION:Is your cultivation technique garbage?
Lu Chen's eyes widened. It was as if the slate was looking into his soul.
"Yes," he stammered, feeling foolish for talking to a rock. "Yes, my technique is incomplete."
The slate flashed.
> SEARCH QUERY:Cloud Breath Art (Incomplete)> ANALYSIS:Missing Liver Meridian Circulation Route.> SOLUTION FOUND.> PRICE:5 Wisps of Spiritual Energy. Do you wish to download?
Lu Chen stared. 5 Wisps? That was nothing. That was the amount of energy he recovered in an hour of meditation. It was practically free.
"Is this a demon?" Lu Chen wondered. "Is it trying to steal my soul?"
But desperation is a powerful motivator. If he failed next month, his life was over anyway. He would be sent to the mines or a farm.
"I... I wish to download," Lu Chen said, his voice trembling.
He placed his thumb on the glowing prompt. He channeled a tiny bit of his Qi—5 wisps—into the slate.
Whoosh.
The Qi vanished. In an instant, the text on the slate changed. A diagram appeared. It was a drawing of a human body with the meridians highlighted. A bright red line traced a path through the liver that Lu Chen had never seen before.
Below the diagram was a short note: Tip: Rotate your Qi counter-clockwise when passing the liver gate. The standard manual is a typo.
"Counter-clockwise?" Lu Chen frowned. "That sounds insane. That would reverse the flow..."
But he looked at the diagram. The geometry... it made sense. It was elegant.
Lu Chen sat down immediately. He placed the slate on his knees. He closed his eyes and began to circulate his Qi. He followed the standard path, and when he hit the blockage, he gritted his teeth and twisted the flow counter-clockwise, just as the slate instructed.
CRACK.
It wasn't the sound of bone breaking. It was the sound of a dam bursting.
A rush of cool, refreshing energy flooded his chest. The bottleneck that had held him back for two years evaporated in a single second. His aura flared, the dust in the room swirling away from him.
Qi Condensation Level 4.
Lu Chen opened his eyes. He was gasping for air, tears streaming down his face. He felt stronger, lighter. He had done it.
He grabbed the black slate with both hands, treating it like a holy relic.
"Who are you?" Lu Chen whispered to the stone. "Which Grandmaster is guiding me?"
The text on the slate faded, replaced by a simple, blinking cursor and a new menu.
[ TRANSACTION COMPLETE. ][ WELCOME TO THE FORUM, USER 001. ][ CURRENT TRENDING TOPICS: ]
1. "Why the Azure Cloud Sect Elders are wrong about everything." (Read: Free)
2. "Anonymous Ranking: Which Jade Peak sister is the fairest?" (Read: 1 Wisp)
3. "Start your own business: Sell your useless junk here." (Sell)
Lu Chen stared at the list. His world, previously the size of his small room, suddenly felt infinite.
POV CHANGE: Li YunLocation: Black Rock Island
Li Yun sat in the darkness of his cell, a small smile playing on his lips.
[ ALERT: USER 001 CONNECTED via NODE A-4 (Abandoned Slate). ][ DATA UPLOAD SUCCESSFUL. ][ PAYMENT RECEIVED: 5 WISPS OF QI. ][ CONVERTING TO SYSTEM EXPERIENCE... ]
"It works," Li Yun whispered.
He had spent the last of his converted energy to enchant a single piece of slate he had found in his memories—a piece the previous owner had sold to a passing merchant ship months ago. He had turned that slate into a Receiver Node.
"He actually paid," Li Yun noted, looking at his new energy balance. "The 'Cloud Breath Art' fix was easy. I just ran a simulation of the technique and optimized the logic loops. To me, it's basic code debugging. To them, it's divine revelation."
5 Wisps of Qi wasn't much. It was barely 1% of a Spirit Stone. But it was profit.
"One user is a novelty," Li Yun said, leaning back against the cold wall. "Ten users is a group. One million users... is a religion."
He looked at the hexagonal grid in his vision.
[ CURRENT PROJECT: "THE SPIRIT WEB" ][ PHASE 1: USER ACQUISITION ][ NEXT GOAL: CREATE A "VIRAL" EVENT. ]
Li Yun closed his eyes. The hunger in his stomach was still there, but now, it was matched by a different kind of hunger.
The world was vast, dangerous, and broken. And he was going to weave it all together, one packet of data at a time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The text on the black slate shifted, glowing with a faint, ghostly luminescence that seemed to defy the dim lighting of Lu Chen's hut. The prompt remained there, pulsating like a heartbeat.
[ CURRENT TRENDING TOPICS ]
Lu Chen stared at the list, his breath hitching in his throat. In the Azure Cloud Sect, information was a luxury hoarded by the elites. The idea that he, an Outer Court disciple with mud on his boots, could access a list of "secrets" felt illicit. It felt dangerous.
His finger hovered over the second option: Anonymous Ranking: Which Jade Peak sister is the fairest?
"This… surely this is a trap," Lu Chen muttered, glancing nervously at his door. "If the Disciplinary Hall catches me discussing the Jade Peak senior sisters…"
But the slate offered a word he had never truly experienced: Anonymous.
He pressed his thumb against the cold stone.
The screen wiped clean, replaced by a wall of text. It wasn't a static book; it was a conversation. Lines of text appeared, labeled not by names, but by strange, random strings of numbers.
[ User 892: Senior Sister Mei is clearly the top. Her Ice Lotus Art makes her skin like porcelain. ][ User 771: Trash taste. Sister Mei is too cold. Junior Sister Lan is the true fairy. Have you seen her smile? It cures heart demons. ][ User 892: Courage! You dare insult my Dao Heart? Fight me at the Life and Death Arena! ][ User 771: Come find me then. Oh wait, you can't. You don't know who I am. Hahaha! ]
Lu Chen's eyes widened. "They… they are mocking each other? Without fear?"
A thrill shot through his spine. In the sect, you bowed your head. You spoke only when spoken to. If a Senior Brother insulted you, you thanked him for the lesson. Here, on this glowing slate, the hierarchy was flattened. A mortal could insult a god, and the god couldn't strike back.
It was intoxicating.
Lu Chen hesitated, then typed his own thought, his fingers clumsy on the projected keyboard.
[ User 001: Actually, I think Senior Sister Han from the Alchemy Hall is the best. She gave me a pill once when I was injured. She is kind. ]
He hit [ POST ].
Almost instantly, a reply appeared.
[ System Notification: You received 1 'Like' from Admin. ]
Lu Chen stared at the notification. He didn't know what a 'Like' was, or who 'Admin' was, but a warm, fuzzy feeling bloomed in his chest. Validation. Someone heard him.
He didn't realize it yet, but the hook had sunk deep. He wasn't just a cultivator anymore. He was a User.
Five hundred miles away, on the desolate edge of Black Rock Island, Li Yun watched the connection stream stabilize.
"Engagement successful," Li Yun whispered, his voice dry.
He sat on the damp straw mat, the holographic grid floating before his eyes. The single connection to User 001 was a thin, blue thread in the darkness of his interface.
[ SYSTEM LOG ][ User 001 (Lu Chen) has posted a comment. ][ Engagement Metric: +1. ][ Reward: 0.01 Server Experience. ]
"It's a start," Li Yun murmured. He dismissed the window and looked down at his own body. The thrill of success was quickly dampened by the gnawing pain in his stomach.
His "Server Core" required spiritual energy to run, but his biological body still required food, water, and warmth. The original owner of this body had died of despair and malnutrition. If Li Yun didn't solve the biological hardware problem, the software wouldn't matter.
He stood up, using the stone wall for support. His legs were weak, trembling under his own weight. He wore a ragged grey robe, the uniform of the exiles, stained with grime.
"Objective: Caloric intake," he assessed.
Li Yun pushed open the heavy wooden door of his cell.
The "village" of Black Rock Island was less a settlement and more a cluster of hovels built into the side of a massive crater. Above, the violet sky churned with silent storms. Below, the center of the crater held the only source of heat—a geothermal vent where the exiles gathered to cook whatever scraps they found.
The wind hit him instantly, carrying the scent of sulfur and unwashed bodies.
Li Yun walked slowly towards the central vent. The path was lined with people who had lost their souls. Old men sat staring at the rocks, mumbling broken mantras. Women clutched bundles of scrap metal, their eyes darting suspiciously. This was a place where hope went to die.
"Look who woke up," a rasping voice called out.
Li Yun stopped.
Stepping out from behind a pile of rubble was a man the size of a bear. He wore a patchwork of leather armor made from beast hides, and a rusty iron saber hung at his hip.
Tu Gang. The self-proclaimed boss of the East Crater. A former Body Tempering cultivator who had been exiled for slaughtering a mortal village. His cultivation had degraded in this spiritual wasteland, but he was still strong enough to crush Li Yun's skull with one hand.
"I thought you died in your sleep, trash," Tu Gang sneered, revealing yellowed teeth. He stepped into Li Yun's path, his shadow swallowing the smaller man. "You missed the morning tribute. Two chunks of iron ore. Where is it?"
Li Yun looked up. His expression was blank, his eyes unfocused.
To the onlookers, he looked terrified. In reality, Li Yun was running a diagnostic.
[ THREAT DETECTED: Biological Entity (Tu Gang). ][ ANALYSIS: Muscle density high. Intelligence low. Aggression levels critical. ][ COMBAT SIMULATION: Physical confrontation results in 99.8% probability of severe injury or death. ]
"I have no ore," Li Yun said calmly.
Tu Gang's eyes narrowed. The lack of fear annoyed him. "No ore? Then you pay with something else."
He looked down at Li Yun's boots. They were the only thing of quality Li Yun had left—sturdy leather boots from the Azure Cloud Sect.
"Nice boots," Tu Gang grunted. "Take them off."
The few exiles nearby stopped what they were doing to watch. No one moved to help. On Black Rock Island, weakness was a sin.
Li Yun didn't move. "No."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Tu Gang laughed, a harsh, barking sound. "You have courage now? Did the fever burn your brain?"
He reached out, his massive hand closing into a fist. He didn't draw his saber; he didn't need to. He wound up for a backhand slap intended to knock Li Yun's teeth out.
Time seemed to slow down for Li Yun.
[ ALERT: Hostile Action Initiated. ][ REQUEST: Activate Combat Assist Module? ][ COST: 2 Wisps of Qi (Current Balance: 5 Wisps). ]
"Activate," Li Yun thought.
Zzzzt.
The world didn't change, but the data did. A red trajectory line appeared in Li Yun's vision, tracing the arc of Tu Gang's arm before it even moved.
[ TRAJECTORY: Right Hook. Speed: 12 m/s. ][ DODGE WINDOW: 0.4 seconds. ][ SUGGESTED ACTION: Drop center of gravity. Step left. ]
As Tu Gang's arm swung forward, a blur of violence, Li Yun simply… collapsed.
He didn't fall; he dropped his knees, letting gravity pull him down faster than the swing. Tu Gang's fist whistled through the empty air where Li Yun's head had been a fraction of a second ago.
The momentum of the miss threw the large man off balance. He stumbled forward, exposing his side.
[ TARGET VULNERABILITY: Liver. ][ SUGGESTED ACTION: Upward thrust. Use localized force. ]
Li Yun didn't have the strength to punch effectively. But he knew physics.
From his crouching position, he drove his stiffened fingers upward, not aiming for the muscle, but digging directly into the soft spot beneath Tu Gang's ribs.
He didn't use strength. He used precision.
Tu Gang gagged. His eyes bulged. The breath left his lungs in a wheezing gasp as the unexpected shock to his diaphragm paralyzed him for a second.
Li Yun rolled away, scrambling to his feet and putting three meters of distance between them.
The crowd gasped. The cripple had touched the boss?
Tu Gang wheezed, clutching his side. His face turned red, then purple. Rage replaced the shock. "You… you rat!"
He reached for the rusty saber at his hip. "I'll kill you!"
[ ALERT: WEAPON DETECTED. ][ LETHAL THREAT. ][ COMBAT ASSIST: INSUFFICIENT ENERGY FOR PROLONGED ENGAGEMENT. ]
Li Yun knew he couldn't dodge a sword. Not with his current body. He needed a different weapon.
"Wait," Li Yun said. His voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the wind. He held up a hand, palm open. "Tu Gang. Look at your saber."
Tu Gang paused, confused. The blade was halfway out of the scabbard. "What?"
"The rust on the hilt," Li Yun said quickly, his eyes flashing with a faint blue light as he analyzed the metal structure. "It's corroding the tang. If you swing that with full force, the blade will snap at the handle. The recoil will likely sever your own thumb."
Tu Gang froze. He looked down at his weapon. The hilt was indeed wrapped in old, rotting leather, and rust flaked off the metal guard.
"You're lying," Tu Gang growled, but he didn't draw it further.
"Am I?" Li Yun's face remained impassive. "You haven't oiled it in three months. The humidity here is acidic. The structural integrity is at 12%. Swing it. Go ahead. But don't blame me when you lose a finger."
It was a bluff. Mostly. The sword was damaged, but it had maybe a 30% chance of breaking, not 100%. But Li Yun spoke with the absolute certainty of a machine.
Tu Gang hesitated. Fear is the child of doubt. In the Fragmented Star Seas, losing a thumb meant you couldn't grip a weapon. It meant death.
Slowly, Tu Gang shoved the blade back into the scabbard. He glared at Li Yun, spit on the ground, and pointed a thick finger at him.
"You got lucky, cripple. Next time, I use my fists. And I won't miss."
Tu Gang turned and stomped away, barking at the onlookers to get back to work.
Li Yun let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. His back was soaked with cold sweat.
[ COMBAT ASSIST DEACTIVATED. ][ REMAINING ENERGY: 3 WISPS. ]
He had survived. But the cost was high. nearly half his profit from Lu Chen was gone just to keep his teeth.
"Inefficient," Li Yun whispered, his hands trembling as the adrenaline faded. "I need resources. I need minions. I need… to expand."
He looked up at the violet sky. He needed to accelerate the plan.
POV CHANGE: Lu ChenLocation: Azure Cloud Sect
Lu Chen didn't sleep that night.
He spent hours staring at the slate. The "Anonymous Ranking" thread had exploded. Apparently, Li Yun's "Admin" account had utilized a few "Sock Puppet" accounts (simulated users) to start arguments about various taboo topics in the sect.
User 888: "The Elder of the Hall of Discipline takes bribes. I saw him take a Gold Spirit Grass from a disciple yesterday."
User 999: "Lies! But… wait, which disciple?"
Lu Chen read it all with wide eyes. This was gossip gold. But eventually, the novelty wore off, and a new notification caught his eye.
[ NEW APPLICATION AVAILABLE: "THE MARKET" ][ DESCRIPTION: Trade items instantly without meeting in person. No taxes. No Sect fees. ]
Lu Chen blinked. "No taxes?"
The Sect Market took a 20% cut of all transactions. It was robbery.
He clicked on the icon. The interface was simple. A grid of empty boxes.
[ UPLOAD ITEM FOR SALE ]
Lu Chen looked around his room. He grabbed a handful of "Spirit Rice" he had grown—low quality, barely worth a few coins.
[ SCANNING… ][ ITEM: Low-Grade Spirit Rice (1 kg). ][ ESTIMATED VALUE: 10 Spirit Shards. ][ CONFIRM UPLOAD? (Cost: 1 Wisp of Qi) ]
"Upload?" Lu Chen frowned. "How can it upload rice?"
Curiosity overtook logic. He pressed confirm.
Flash.
A beam of light shot from the slate, scanning the bag of rice. For a split second, the rice seemed to distort, turning into a stream of blue particles, before vanishing into the slate.
[ ITEM UPLOADED TO VIRTUAL INVENTORY. ]
The bag was gone. Physically gone.
Lu Chen jumped back, checking under the table. "Where…?"
He looked at the screen. There, in the first box, was a perfect image of his bag of rice.
[ LISTING LIVE. ]
Lu Chen sat in stunned silence. He didn't understand the spatial laws involved. He didn't know that Li Yun was using the Server Core to store the matter in a sub-dimension buffer, converting matter to energy and back again.
All Lu Chen knew was that he held a miracle in his hand.
And then, a thought occurred to him. A dangerous, greedy thought.
"If I can sell things without the Sect knowing…" Lu Chen whispered, his heart pounding against his ribs. "Then I can sell… contraband."
He looked at the loose floorboard under his bed. Beneath it lay a stack of "Forbidden Talismans" he had looted from a dead rogue cultivator years ago. He had never dared to sell them, fearing the Elders would question where he got them.
But here? On the Spirit Web?
He was just User 001.
Lu Chen reached for the floorboard.
Back on Black Rock Island
Li Yun smiled as a new notification popped up on his grid.
[ ALERT: User 001 has uploaded High-Risk items. ][ ITEM: Exploding Blood Talisman (Banned). ][ QUANTITY: 5. ]
Li Yun licked his dry lips. "And so, the Black Market is open for business."
The chaotic era of the Fragmented Star Seas was about to get a lot more chaotic.