"Hehehe…"
"Hehehehehehehe!!!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
The laughter echoed madly inside the cramped, dimly lit room, sharp and unrestrained, as if something inside Lei Fang had finally snapped.
"Finally… fucking finally!" he roared, clutching his head as his shoulders shook. "Twenty years! Twenty whole damn years! It took twenty years for the cheat to appear, but it finally did!"
His eyes were bloodshot, his expression teetering between madness and ecstasy as he stared at the translucent panel floating silently in front of him.
[Autocorrection System Activated]
[The host can autocorrect anything to its divine form]
For a moment, Lei Fang froze.
Then tears streamed down his face.
He had been reborn into this martial arts world nearly twenty years ago, awakening in the body of a newborn within the Lei Family, the most prestigious clan of Yellow Swan City. To outsiders, it seemed like a blessing. To him, it was a curse wrapped in silk.
He was the patriarch's bastard son.
His mother had died the moment he was born, leaving him with nothing, not even a grave to mourn her by. From the very beginning, he had been treated like filth. Servants sneered at him, elders ignored him, and even children younger than him spoke his name with contempt.
Of course, being a bastard was reason enough.
But the crueler truth was this, he truly was trash.
His cultivation potential was abysmal. His comprehension was laughable. While other children grasped techniques after a few demonstrations, he struggled even after months of effort. Once, he had fractured his own leg simply from walking too much, his fragile body unable to withstand even mundane exertion.
That was how pathetic his existence had been.
And yet… he survived.
He endured every humiliation, every sneer, every night spent staring at the ceiling in silence, clinging to a single hope—the hope that one day, like every transmigrator before him, his cheat would awaken.
But hope began to rot on his eighteenth birthday.
Almost every cheat activated at eighteen.
His didn't.
That day, something inside him quietly died.
And yet, two years later, on his twentieth birthday, it finally awakened.
The cheat every transmigrator was destined to receive.
A sharp glint flashed through Lei Fang's eyes as he wiped his tears away, his lips curling into a grin that trembled with excitement.
"Let's try it out," he murmured.
He stood up abruptly and began rummaging through his room. After some searching, he pulled out an old, worn scroll from the corner. Its edges were frayed, the paper yellowed with age.
Seven Stone Steps.
It was a movement cultivation technique passed down within the Lei Family. Not only did it enhance one's cultivation, but it also increased speed—making it a prized technique among the younger generation.
It had been given to him on his tenth birthday.
Back then, he had memorized it eagerly, practicing day and night… only to fail again and again. Eventually, reality crushed his enthusiasm. Over the years, most of its contents had faded from his memory.
He read through it several times, slowly re-memorizing the text.
Then, he opened his status panel.
[Seven Stone Steps is ready to be autocorrected]
[Yes] [No]
Without even a heartbeat of hesitation, Lei Fang chose Yes.
[Ding!]
[Seven Stone Steps has been autocorrected to: Comet Hellfire Steps]
The moment the notification appeared, an overwhelming flood of memories surged into his mind.
He saw himself training.
No, living.
Thousands upon thousands of years passed in an instant. He saw his body moving endlessly, refining each step, each posture, each breath. Mistakes were made, corrected, perfected, refined again and again until even flaw itself ceased to exist.
And that person… was him.
When the torrent finally subsided, Lei Fang slowly opened his eyes.
A new light gleamed within his pupils.
"…Amazing," he whispered. "I've already mastered it."
Taking a deep breath, he began practicing the postures of the Comet Hellfire Steps. His movements flowed naturally, effortlessly, as though his body remembered them from a lifetime long forgotten.
...or rather, thousands of lifetimes.
Swoosh!
The air inside the room twisted violently with each step. Wind surged beneath his feet, Qi roaring through his legs like molten fire. Streams of energy poured directly into his dantian, strengthening his meridians and flesh as they passed.
Power, pure, unstoppable power, flooded his body.
After nearly ten minutes, Lei Fang abruptly stopped.
Cold sweat drenched his back.
His eyes flew open, wide with disbelief, as if he had just seen a monster.
"This… this is impossible," he whispered hoarsely. "I've broken through!"
For the first time in his life.
In just ten minutes.
All his life, he had been nothing more than a mortal, forever barred from stepping into the Body Condensation Realm.
Yet now...
Body Condensation Realm, Stage One.
Lei Fang stood there trembling, his heart pounding violently in his chest.
"Even the eldest brother…" he muttered, swallowing hard, "…doesn't cultivate this fast."
"Hehehe… I have to give it my all at this point."
A crooked grin slowly spread across Lei Fang's face, sharp and feral, while a blazing determination flashed deep within his eyes. There was no hesitation left in him—no doubt, no fear. Whatever restraint he once possessed had long since been burned away.
From that moment on, he cultivated even harder.
Time slipped past him without notice.
Day blurred into night, and night into day. Ten days passed in the blink of an eye, yet Lei Fang never left his small, cramped room. He went out only once a day, just long enough to grab food, before locking himself inside again and sinking back into cultivation.
The world outside ceased to exist.
He cultivated like a madman.
After all, gaining such overwhelming power after a lifetime of weakness was intoxicating. Twenty years of humiliation, of being trampled underfoot, of crawling through despair, how could he possibly remain calm now?
On the night of the tenth day, his laughter erupted once more.
This time, it was even crazier than before.
"Qi Condensation Realm, Stage Nine!" Lei Fang threw his head back and laughed wildly. "Hahaha! Just ten days! Ten damn days! If my eldest brother heard this, he'd probably puke blood and die from jealousy!"
His chest heaved as excitement coursed through him like wildfire.
In this world, cultivation was divided into many realms:
Body Condensation, Qi Condensation, Core Formation, Spirit Entry, Spirit Formation, Spirit Completion, Nascent Soul, and finally, the King Realm.
Each realm was further divided into nine stages, each stage representing a massive leap in strength.
And yet, Lei Fang had done the impossible.
In just ten days, he had gone from a powerless mortal to Qi Condensation Realm, Stage Nine, standing right at the threshold of the Core Formation Realm.
Even his eldest brother, the most talented son of the patriarch, was only at Core Formation Realm, Stage Three. And it had taken him thirty years to reach that height.
Lei Fang, on the other hand, was almost there in ten days.
The comparison alone made his blood boil with excitement.
"Tonight," he muttered, clenching his fists, "I'll break through to the Core Formation Realm."
He paused, his expression turning thoughtful.
"But before that… I need a combat technique."
Breaking through to Core Formation was not merely about accumulating Qi. One needed combat experience, pressure, real-world application, and battle instinct, to smash through the bottleneck.
Nodding to himself, Lei Fang stood up.
He pushed open the door of his small room and stepped outside, heading straight toward the clan treasury. According to clan rules, every member was entitled to receive a combat technique upon turning eleven.
But Lei Fang had never redeemed his.
After all, what use was a fighting technique to someone who couldn't even enter the Body Condensation Realm?
Now, however, everything was different.
The sky had already begun to darken, the sun sinking slowly toward the horizon.
"I need to hurry," Lei Fang thought. "Before the clan treasury closes."
He leaned forward and took a step...
And his heart suddenly skipped a beat.
The ground vanished beneath his feet.
His legs left the earth entirely, and before he could react, his body shot forward like a cannonball. In the next instant, he flew nearly a hundred meters before slamming violently into a thick wooden pole.
Bang!
His body rebounded and crashed to the ground.
The entire area fell silent.
Clan members nearby stopped in their tracks, staring at him in confusion before breaking into laughter.
"Look, isn't that Lei Fang? The bastard trash?"
"Yeah, that's him. What's he doing?"
"Hahaha! He smashed into a wooden pole just by walking! Truly trash!"
"I heard he once broke his leg just from walking too much. Looks like this time he's smashed his head instead!"
Mockery and laughter rang out from every direction as people pointed at his miserable appearance.
Lei Fang, however, didn't care.
He calmly pushed himself up from the ground and dusted off his clothes. His gaze slowly shifted downward, focusing on his legs.
A chill ran down his spine.
"…My speed," he murmured internally.
His pupils shrank.
It's even faster than a Core Formation Realm Stage Nine expert.
Lei Fang swallowed hard.
For the first time, he truly realized just how terrifying his growth had become.
And this… was only the beginning.