[System Initialization Log - Entry 00]
[Host Designation: Li Yan (Former), Xiao Ran (Current)]
[Vital Signs: Critical - 13% Constitution, 8% Qi Integrity]
[Soul Integration: 47% and Stalling]
[Warning: Current Vessel Failure Imminent: 48 Hours]
[Recommendation: Immediate System Activation...]
The last thing Li Yan remembered was the scream of overloading capacitors and the smell of ozone. His prototype quantum efficiency matrix—designed to harvest ambient electromagnetic energy during low-activity periods—had achieved 400% projected output before the containment field failed. The brilliant blue light wasn't the success he'd envisioned; it was the last thing his twenty-eight-year-old eyes would ever see.
Then came the falling.
Not downward, but through—layers of reality peeling away like burning pages. Sensations without context: the taste of copper and rain, the scent of medicinal herbs and decay, distant voices speaking in cadences both musical and alien.
He didn't open his eyes so much as become aware he had them again.
[Soul Integration: 52%... 53%...]
Pain arrived first—a deep, bone-aching weakness that made breathing feel like lifting stones. His body was wrong: smaller, frailer, wracked with the kind of systemic fatigue that spoke of chronic illness rather than acute injury.
Not my body, his engineer's mind cataloged immediately. Younger. Male. Approximately sixteen by bone density estimation. Severely malnourished. Respiratory infection likely. Multiple old fractures poorly set.
Memory fragments, not his own, bubbled up through the pain:
A mountain sect named Cang Yao Zong. Grey robes. Constant hunger. The sneering face of an older boy named Shi Hu—"Stone Tiger"—stealing spirit rice. Coughing blood onto frozen ground during midnight meditation. The pitying then dismissive looks from elders. The final memory: collapsing during dawn breathing exercises, the world going dark with the certainty this was the end.
[Soul Integration: 78%]
[Accessing Vessel Memory... Complete]
[Identity Confirmed: Xiao Ran, Outer Disciple, Cang Yao Zong]
[Age: 16]
[Cultivation: Failed Initiate (Qi Refining Level 0)]
[Status: Designated for Expulsion - "Waste of Sect Resources"]
Li Yan—now Xiao Ran in flesh, but still Li Yan in consciousness—tried to move. Fire shot through his meridians, the energy pathways that this world used for cultivation. They were cracked, brittle things, like dried riverbeds in a drought.
He was in a small, austere room that smelled of bitter medicine and damp stone. An infirmary. Through a narrow window, he could see impossible peaks piercing clouds, pavilions clinging to cliffsides with architectural defiance of physics. Xianxia world confirmed, his mind supplied, even as panic tried to claw its way up his throat. Transmigration trope. Typically high mortality rate for protagonists.
The door slid open with a wooden rasp.
An elderly sect attendant with a wispy beard entered, carrying a wooden tray with a single bowl of thin porridge. His eyes held no warmth, only bureaucratic detachment.
"You're awake. Good. Saves us carrying you out." The man set the tray on a small table. "Sect Physician says your meridians are irreparably damaged. The 'Azure Cloud Breathing' technique backfired during your last attempt. You've been unconscious three days."
Xiao Ran tried to speak. His throat produced a dry rasp.
"No need for explanations," the attendant waved a dismissive hand. "The Outer Disciple Evaluation is in seven days. You won't pass. You haven't even reached Qi Refining Level One in sixteen months. The rules are clear: those who show no progress are expelled to make room for those with actual potential."
The man's gaze softened momentarily, but it was the softness one shows a dying animal. "Eat. Regain enough strength to walk out of the sect gates with some dignity. Perhaps your family will take you back. Or find work in a mortal town. Better than dying on the mountain."
He left without another word, the door closing with finality.
Silence descended, broken only by Xiao Ran's ragged breathing and the distant sound of other disciples training—shouts, the clash of wooden swords, the hum of focused energy.
Seven days.
Engineer's mind engaged, panic compartmentalized into a problem-solving workflow.
Problem: Vessel will not survive expulsion. Current physical state incompatible with survival in what appears to be pre-industrial society with added martial supernatural elements.
Data: This body attempted standard cultivation methodology ("Azure Cloud Breathing") and failed catastrophically. Likely due to incompatible physiology or technique error. Vessel memories indicate cultivation requires constant active effort, resource competition, and "enlightenment through struggle."
Hypothesis: My consciousness survived due to quantum entanglement with my prototype's energy matrix at moment of death. The "falling" sensation suggests dimensional transference. If my invention's principles transferred with me...
He focused inward, not on the broken meridians, but on the space between them. The interstitial awareness that had let him sense his prototype's energy flows.
Something flickered.
Not in his body. In his perception.
A faint, translucent blue rectangle hung at the edge of his vision. It looked like a system diagnostic interface from one of his lab computers. Text scrolled, too fast to read initially, then stabilized.
[SYSTEM REACTIVATION COMPLETE]
[Designation: Xian San Xitong (Idle Leisure System)]
[Core Directive: Optimize Existence Through Efficient Resource Utilization]
[Host Integration: 89%... 92%... 97%...]
[COMPLETE]
[Welcome, Host Li Yan/Xiao Ran]
[Current Status Assessment Running...]
The blue screen expanded, displaying data in clean, minimalist formatting:
HOST STATUS
Name: Xiao Ran (Vessel), Li Yan (Core Consciousness)Age: 16 (Vessel), 28 (Core)Cultivation: Qi Refining Level 0Constitution: Frail (13%)Qi Pool: 3/100Meridian Integrity: 18%Soul Stability: 99% (Integration Complete)
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
Location: Cang Yao Zong, Outer Disciple InfirmaryAmbient Qi Density: Low (1.2 units/m³)Cultivation Culture: "Striving Heaven" Paradigm DetectedSystem Compatibility: 41% (Suboptimal - Host Location Low Efficiency)
IMMEDIATE THREATS
Expulsion in 7 Days (Probability: 94%)Physical Collapse (Timeframe: 48-72 hours without intervention)Hostile Elements Within Sect (Identified: Disciple Shi Hu, Elder Zhang Lao)
[Proposal: Activate Foundational Protocol]
[Idle Cultivation Mode: Passive Qi Absorption]
[Description: System will harvest ambient environmental energy during host low-activity states. No conscious effort required.]
[Initial Rate: 0.8 Qi/hour (Current Location)]
[Activate? Y/N]
Xiao Ran stared. A system. An actual LitRPG-style system. And its foundational principle was... passivity. Efficiency. It was his quantum matrix concept translated into cultivation terms.
He mentally selected Y.
[Protocol Activated]
[Passive Qi Absorption: ONLINE]
[Current Rate: 0.8 Qi/hour]
[Projected Time to Qi Refining Level 1: 121 Hours]
[Note: Location severely suboptimal. Recommend relocation to area with higher Qi density or improved host state.]
Five days. Just under the seven-day deadline. But that assumed he survived the next 48 hours in this infirmary, and that he could avoid being expelled before the evaluation.
A new prompt appeared:
[Emergency Measure Available]
[Deep Rest Cycle]
[Description: Force host into coma-like restorative state for 6 hours. System will prioritize physical repair over Qi accumulation. Constitution may improve 3-8%. Requires uninterrupted safety.]
[Risk: Host completely vulnerable during cycle.]
[Proceed? Y/N]
Safety. He had none. The attendant could return. Shi Hu might visit to gloat. Anyone could walk in.
But his body was trembling just sitting up. The porridge sat uneasily in his stomach. He needed the repair cycle more than he needed to be conscious.
He had to gamble.
Xiao Ran slowly, painfully, pushed himself off the bed. Every movement sent lightning through his meridians. He shuffled to the door, tested it. Unlocked from inside—probably so expelled disciples could leave without bothering anyone.
He looked outside. A deserted corridor. Late afternoon light slanted through windows at the far end. The sounds of training were fainter here—dinner preparations perhaps.
He returned to the bed, but didn't lie on it. Instead, he positioned himself in the corner farthest from the door, behind a privacy screen that held washing supplies. It wouldn't hide him from a determined search, but might make a casual glance miss him.
He mentally selected Y on the Deep Rest Cycle prompt.
[Initiating Deep Rest Cycle]
[Duration: 6 Hours]
[Host Consciousness Suspension in 3... 2... 1...]
The world didn't go black so much as recede. His awareness pulled inward, down to a single point of observation detached from the body's pain. He watched as the system's energy—a gentle, cool blue flow—began circulating through him, not through the broken meridians, but through the spaces between cells, along neural pathways, through bone marrow.
It was repairing from the quantum level upward.
Outside, a bell rang for evening meditation. Footsteps passed his door. Someone—he recognized Shi Hu's voice—asked the attendant about "the deadweight." The attendant's dismissive reply. Footsteps fading.
The system worked silently, efficiently. Xiao Ran's engineering mind, even in this detached state, marveled at the elegance. No wasted energy. No flashy displays. Just precise, targeted reconstruction.
[Constitution: 13% → 16%]
[Meridian Integrity: 18% → 21%]
[Toxin Purification: 7% Complete]
Hours passed. Night fell. The sect grew quiet.
In the deepest hour of night, something changed. The system pinged—a soft, internal notification.
[Anomaly Detected]
[Host Core Consciousness exhibits unique waveform resonance]
[Analyzing...]
[Match Found: Precursor Dao Fragment - "Heavenly Dao of Rest"]
[Compatibility: 99.7%]
[Adjusting Protocols...]
[Passive Qi Absorption Rate Revised: 0.8 → 1.6 Qi/hour]
[Time to Qi Refining Level 1 Revised: 60.5 Hours]
The Heavenly Dao of Rest. A lost principle. His soul—or his invention's imprint—resonated with it.
As dawn's first light touched the window, the cycle completed.
[Deep Rest Cycle Complete]
[Constitution: 16% → 22% (Frail → Delicate)]
[Meridian Integrity: 21% → 25%]
[Qi Pool: 3 → 5/100]
[Notable Improvement: Respiratory function increased 40%, pain levels decreased 60%]
Xiao Ran opened his eyes.
The world was sharper. Colors more vivid. The crushing weakness had receded to a manageable fatigue. He could breathe without stabbing pain.
He stood—steadier now—and looked out the window at the rising sun painting the impossible peaks in gold and rose.
Seven days. An impossible deadline. A broken body in a world that valued only struggle.
But he had a system that turned rest into power. A mind trained to find efficiency in chaos. And now, the first glimmer of something this world had forgotten: that stillness could be strength.
He picked up the cold porridge and ate it slowly, mechanically. Fuel for the machine.
The attendant would return today expecting to find him dying or gone.
He would find neither.
Xiao Ran looked at the blue system interface, now a permanent part of his perception. Data streams flowed at the edges: Qi accumulation, physiological metrics, time to breakthrough.
[Days to Evaluation: 6]
[Current Qi: 5/100]
[Passive Gain: 1.6/hour]
[Projected Breakthrough: 2.5 Days]
He had a path. An unorthodox, heretical path that this world would despise.
But it was a path.
He smiled for the first time in two lives—a thin, determined expression.
"Alright," he whispered, his voice still rough but functional. "Let's engineer an immortality."
Outside, the bell rang for morning training, calling disciples to another day of striving, struggle, and visible effort.
Xiao Ran lay back down, closed his eyes, and began his first true cultivation session as Li Yan.
He slept.
[Passive Qi Absorption Active: 1.6 Qi/hour... 1.6... 1.6...]