Chen Yu slowly woke up, earlier than the day before, rising before the sun had fully crested the horizon and filled his shack with light. He yawned and scratched his head, his hand automatically reaching out beside him for his phone to check the time like he'd done every morning for years.
His fingers found only rough wooden floor.
Yesterday's memories came crashing back all at once, the transmigration, the cultivation world, the mysterious space, everything that had happened. Chen Yu couldn't help but chuckle at himself despite the situation. Old habits died hard apparently, even when you'd literally died and been reborn in another world. He wasn't going to be checking his phone ever again.
Then he remembered what he'd commanded the clone to do last night before falling asleep.
His eyes snapped fully open and he immediately closed them again, his consciousness diving eagerly into that inner space without hesitation.
The familiar void greeted him, and there in the center sat his original body, still cross-legged in perfect meditation posture, completely still and calm.
Chen Yu's awareness drifted closer, studying the clone carefully for any changes. At first glance, nothing seemed different from when he'd left it. The body sat in the same position he'd commanded it to take, breathing slowly and evenly, showing no signs of movement. But as Chen Yu got closer and connected more deeply with the clone through their shared consciousness, something incredible happened.
Sensations and memories flooded into him like a dam breaking, overwhelming his mind.
He felt everything the clone had experienced through the long night while his real body slept. Hours upon hours of patient meditation, the gradual clearing of mental noise and distraction, the slow expansion of awareness beyond the body's boundaries. And then, sometime in the deep hours of the night when the world was quietest, a moment of genuine breakthrough. The clone had sensed it, spiritual energy, flowing through the world like an invisible current or river. Faint at first, barely perceptible like trying to hear a whisper in a crowded room, but definitely there and definitely real.
Following the cultivation manual's instructions precisely, the clone had begun drawing that energy into the body with careful control. Not into the dantian yet, that was for Qi Refining realm and came later. Instead, the spiritual energy had seeped gradually into muscles, bones, and organs, beginning the long process of tempering the physical form to handle more power.
The clone had entered the first layer of Body Refinement.
Chen Yu started laughing, the sound echoing strangely in the void of the space. He couldn't help himself despite how undignified it probably looked.
It had worked! The clone could cultivate independently and he received all the benefits! This was incredible, this was beyond anything he'd hoped for,
He forced himself to calm down, taking deep breaths even though he didn't technically have lungs in this consciousness form. After a few moments of gathering himself and suppressing his excitement, Chen Yu withdrew from the space and opened his eyes in his real body.
And immediately felt the difference coursing through him.
His body felt different in subtle but noticeable ways. Not dramatically stronger like in the cultivation novels where people broke through and suddenly could lift boulders, but subtly enhanced in ways that mattered. When he flexed his fingers, they moved with just a bit more coordination and precision. When he took a breath, his lungs seemed to pull in air more efficiently, extracting more from each inhalation. It was like someone had taken his body and upgraded it by just a small percentage, maybe five or ten percent, but that small percentage was definitely noticeable when you paid attention.
He was in the first layer of Body Refinement too.
The cultivation progress had transferred perfectly from clone to original, just as he'd hoped it would.
Chen Yu grinned so wide his face hurt from the expression. This golden finger of his was truly heaven-defying in the most literal sense. While other people struggled for weeks or months just to sense spiritual energy for the first time, he'd done it in a single night by cheating with his clone. And once he started feeding spirit stones into the space to accelerate time even more...
He shook his head and stopped that train of thought. One step at a time, can't get ahead of himself. First, he needed to convert some of those spirit stones into actual money so he could buy talisman materials and start earning a living.
Chen Yu got up from his sleeping mat, feeling just slightly less stiff and sore than usual after sleeping on the thin padding. He grabbed the small leather pouch from under his mat, but this time only took out one of the spirit stones, specifically choosing the one he'd already partially drained when testing the space yesterday. Better to sell the damaged one first rather than a pristine stone that would fetch full price.
He tucked it carefully into his worn robe's inner pocket where it wouldn't fall out, made sure his remaining coins were secure in another pocket, and headed out the door into the early morning.
The walk to Silver Mist Town felt noticeably shorter this morning, maybe because of his slight improvement in body refinement making each step easier, or maybe just because he was excited about what lay ahead. The sun was still rising and painting the sky orange when he reached the town gates.
Instead of heading to the outer district's market where Aunt Mei had her stall, Chen Yu walked deeper into town with purpose. His heart started beating faster as he approached the dividing line between the outer and inner districts, remembering the warnings about not belonging there.
There was no physical wall separating the two districts, just a noticeable change in the quality of the buildings and the obvious prosperity of the people walking around. The inner district's streets were paved with actual stone instead of packed dirt that turned to mud when it rained. The buildings were taller and better maintained, with proper tile roofs instead of thatch or rough wooden shingles. And the people walking these streets...
Chen Yu could tell the cultivators from the mortals instantly even without any special ability. It wasn't just their better clothing or confident bearing, though those helped. There was something else about them, an intangible quality that set them apart from normal humans. Maybe it was the way they moved, with a grace that spoke of enhanced physical abilities and perfect body control. Or maybe it was just the aura of power that seemed to flow around them like heat shimmer.
He kept his head down and tried not to stare like a country bumpkin as he walked through the inner district. The original Chen Yu's memories had never included this area, the boy had been too scared to ever venture here after hearing stories about mortals who offended cultivators. But new Chen Yu needed information and resources desperately, and fear wouldn't get him either of those things.
After asking directions from a mortal street sweeper who looked at him with sympathy for daring to be here, Chen Yu found his way to the cultivation market district.
It was larger and more chaotic than he'd expected from the descriptions in novels. Dozens upon dozens of stalls lined the streets in somewhat organized rows, with cultivators calling out about their wares just like merchants in any normal marketplace. Except instead of advertising vegetables and cloth and household goods, they were selling spirit herbs, beast cores, cultivation manuals, and various exotic materials he couldn't identify.
"Fresh Tier 1 Spirit Grass! Perfect for body tempering! Only two silver per bundle!"
"Quality beast leather from a Tier 2 Iron-Back Boar! Excellent for armor crafting!"
"Medicinal pills! Healing pills! Qi recovery pills! All Tier 1, all guaranteed authentic or your money back!"
Chen Yu wandered through the market in a daze, his eyes wide as he took everything in around him. At one stall, an old cultivator with a long white beard was demonstrating a flying sword no bigger than a dagger, making it zip around his head in complex patterns while potential buyers watched with interested expressions. At another stall, a young woman was selling what looked like small jade slips that supposedly contained martial techniques for various weapons.
There were stalls with entire arrays of colorful pills displayed in jade bottles, each one labeled with effects he barely understood. Stalls with weapons ranging from simple swords to exotic-looking chain whips and three-section staffs. Stalls with live spirit beasts in sturdy cages, including a rabbit with small antlers that crackled with tiny sparks of electricity whenever someone got too close.
Chen Yu's inner nerd was going absolutely crazy with excitement. This was like walking through a fantasy convention, except everything was real and functional. He wanted desperately to stop at every stall, examine every item closely, ask a million questions about how everything worked and what it did.
But he forced himself to focus on his goal. He needed to find someone who would buy his spirit stone and give him actual currency he could use for materials.
After wandering for a bit longer and carefully observing the flow of traffic, Chen Yu noticed that many cultivators were heading in and out of a larger building near the center of the market. It had a sign hanging above the door that read "Treasure Pavilion" in elegant calligraphy that probably cost more than his shack.
That seemed promising as a place that dealt in valuable items.
Chen Yu took a deep breath, steeled his nerves against the intimidation he felt, and walked toward the Pavilion with as much confidence as he could fake. It was time to convert his spiritual resources into cold, hard silver coins.