In the vast, desolate estate, darkness lulled every life into long slumber. Artificial light flashing from one room indicated that this wasn't an abandoned house but that someone was living here. Manuals from the old library had been moved into the study. The pungent smell of old paper filled the room. They were spread out for inspection by a young man who spent his sleeping hours on research.
What was called planar were special particles that transformed thoughts into reality. The prototype came from the word [Planar]—or internal force with a long history from the eastern continent obtained through martial arts training—and [planar] from the western world with its spell incantations and magic. In the early 1900s, grandmasters of combat gave birth to what was called planar. Making planar and planar become obsolete ancient knowledge that disappeared into history.
Planar had the advantage of using external power like planar, not limited to only using power within the body. And it didn't require chanting spells to waste time like planar, which greatly reduced the complexity of learning and memorization. It eliminated the weaknesses of both origins, leaving only the strengths.
But planar cultivation methods referenced martial arts manuals from ancient times, adapted with modern scientific knowledge and magic. Ancient manuals hundreds of years old could still be somewhat referenced. Ancient swordsman clans had cultivation techniques stored away.
Jinyo downloaded other cultivation technique files that were freely published for public use from the internet. He brought more than twenty cultivation manuals to read and help decode and interpret the content in [Nature Synthesis Technique].
When young, Jinyo could cultivate planar like normal people. And he lost everything at age 15. Knowledge about cultivation techniques and other martial arts had faded greatly in his memory. There were many levels of secret techniques. The word [Immortal] was equivalent to god in the western perspective. This was divine wisdom and knowledge. A treasure of all humanity.
Jinyo had checked the Human Records Archive. There had never been a record of an immortal technique named [Nature Synthesis Technique] before. So even if he scanned and revealed the manual's contents on the internet, no one would believe it was an immortal-level cultivation technique. He had to interpret and decode this mysterious manual himself.
The scroll was 150,000 characters long. The content could be divided into 6 major chapters. Jinyo focused on understanding the first, most important major chapter. It was completely different from all cultivation techniques that existed on this world.
Normal planar cultivation techniques involved adjusting the body to match the martial arts used. By consuming necessary nutrients. Resources had to be used to develop important organs such as the power core, bones, muscles, heart, brain. Those resources might be miraculous medicine, monster meat, wondrous plants. People with strong planar, besides relying on talent, also needed wealth. If they had no money, they had to diligently train their skills to surpass the quantity of power they lacked.
Nature Synthesis Technique could be called heretical. It described capturing energy from the air, absorbing light from the sun and moon to convert into nutrients. Not receiving nutrients only through digestion from intestines and stomach, but absorbing light and water through the skin. Not needing to breathe through lungs but filtering oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide directly through the body.
Using the same principle as plant photosynthesis. Using light to synthesize glucose into planar. Which seemed completely contrary to human biological physiology. Animals like humans didn't have organs to photosynthesize like plants. But what was interesting was the content in the next major chapter that described the complex vital energy meridian system of living things. It was amazing new knowledge. If Jinyo revealed it, he would surely receive a Nobel Prize in some field. Because it would elevate the knowledge of cultivation techniques and human anatomy to another level.
The problem was it was too incredible. In the scientific community, anything not proven was all fantasy fiction.
"How could this possibly work!" Jinyo grabbed the desk and flipped it over. He wanted to prove whether the content written in the manual was true. The problem was the human body had no structure with light-receiving pores like plants. The closest thing was receiving vitamin D in the morning, but it still wasn't enough. Because what Nature Synthesis Technique required was body structure with light-receiving pores equivalent to plants or better. No different from asking someone to wag their tail when humans never even had tails.
Only a walking tree-person could use a technique like this.
This thing currently rolling on the floor had the value of toilet paper if it truly couldn't be used for cultivation.
"No. It's too early to give up now." That suspicious system probably wouldn't give him something useless. Jinyo read the first chapter's content thoroughly. Memorizing and searching every detail. The method for controlling breathing in and out. The method for transmitting power. The sequence of circulation through internal organs.
He didn't want to become useless trash anymore.
He wanted to have the power to fight back again. If he still had power and was strong enough, by now he would go investigate Zone 86 to help Rina search for Norn harder. Not leaving Rina to fight alone. So he wouldn't be pointed at by Gretel and told his father was weak.
Most importantly... he had a debt to settle.
Jinyo recited the first chapter content of Nature Synthesis Technique continuously for 2 hours. Time passed until 1 AM and his face still showed no trace of fatigue.
[You have completely understood the content of the manual, Nature Synthesis Technique Chapter 1. You have received Heaven's Secret Glimpse Ticket - Heir x1]
[Heaven's Secret Glimpse Ticket - Heir (Single Use) Conditions: Select 1 heir you are connected to. Perform a glimpse of the heir's heavenly secret. Hostility toward Heaven will increase. But you will receive a satisfactory reward.]
"Hostility toward Heaven. What is that? Really doesn't sound like a good thing." Jinyo tried opening the system window. The God of Garden and Sword System displayed his current character information. Power stats, skills, including bloodline.
[Bloodline: Ancient Flora (Not yet awakened)]
In the Nature Synthesis Technique description, it was written that only those with Ancient Flora bloodline could benefit from this technique. Now Jinyo had that bloodline, but he still couldn't cultivate it. Was it because the bloodline hadn't been awakened yet?
In textbooks during his studies, it was written that those with special bloodlines would help them develop faster than those without bloodlines, if they knew how to use them correctly. Jinyo didn't know before that the Southerncross clan had a special bloodline inherited with the name [Ancient Flora].
"Must be from my father's side." Jinyo couldn't think of anything else except that it wasn't a bloodline appearing on his mother's side, but appearing from his father's side—someone he didn't know who was. Just like Ryse and Gretel who had never met their father until today. Jinyo had never known his father's identity either. Rina still counted as an old friend merciful enough to let the child know who their father was. But Jinyo's mother never told him who or where his father was. It was a fate children in the program faced together. They had to grow up fatherless.
"First, I need to find a way to awaken the bloodline."
[Concubines: 1]
[Heirs: 1]
Jinyo clicked into the heir menu. Right now it only displayed Ryse's name.
[Ryse Palmer]
Father: Jinyo Southerncross
Mother: Norn Palmer
Bloodline: Ancient Flora (Not yet awakened)
planar: None
Element: None
Divine Punishment: None
Spirit: None
Body: None
Strength: G [22 / 1200]
Stamina: G [60 / 1200]
Speed: G [36 / 1200]
Mental: G [19 / 1200]
Intelligence: G [39 / 1200]
Charm: G [62 / 1200]
[Can use Heaven's Secret Glimpse Ticket on this heir]
[When you use Heaven's Secret Glimpse Ticket on Ryse Palmer, you will receive the following results:]
[Hostility toward Heaven + 100]
[Anonymous God's Garden 10 acres]
[Anonymous God's Cottage 1 building]
[God of Agriculture Manual 1 volume]
[Seed Pack, Immortal Rice 1 bag]
[Bloodline Improvement x1]
"Bloodline Improvement x1. This is it." Jinyo saw the golden button under Ryse's name. He could see the rewards in advance. Though he didn't understand the term Hostility toward Heaven, the other rewards were quite interesting. Especially the seed pack called Immortal Rice. His finger slid to press the golden button. A message appeared to confirm once more whether to use the ticket or not.
The moment he confirmed, Jinyo's consciousness was thrown into a sink. He became a spaghetti noodle stretched down into a drain pipe. It was a feeling more nauseating than riding a roller coaster. He felt no sensations whatsoever. Neither heat nor weight pulling him down.
When he opened his eyes again, the image he saw was a horizon divided into four parts. A strange, chaotic aura churned brain waves until his head nearly exploded. Jinyo collapsed to his knees within a split second of being here. He didn't understand where this place was. When he tried to look up, the entire landscape was so blurred.
He saw twenty to thirty-story buildings in decay. Ruins and debris and giant monsters a hundred meters tall running rampant. Mysterious winged creatures flying throughout the sky. Mysterious-shaped objects moving through the airspace at high speed. Tearing through fleets of the latest model aircraft that Jinyo had seen at the New Year's display. They were shot down, crashing to the ground without resistance.
Both ground and air.
What stood out most was a pitch-black spherical object slowly expanding. It was swallowing the horizon. Blocking light from both sun and moon. When looking inside, there was nothing but hollow emptiness. Completely hollow like a giant hole that appeared in mid-air and devoured everything.
A child's cry rang out before falling silent. Jinyo watched scenes that shouldn't happen. Someone's hand pierced in to squeeze his frantically beating heart.
"Commander, stay strong, Commander!" Someone's voice rang clearly in Jinyo's head. He ran chasing the source of the voice into a building. A young woman in pitch-black military uniform. Long black hair flowing with emerald eyes in the typical Southerncross clan style. A beautiful face adorned with wounds still couldn't diminish her value of beauty. The long pink sword as clear as glass—the Southerncross clan's signature sword—was in her arms. She cherished it like life even though her face was haggard with purple circles under those jade eyes.
"Mother." The shadow image of this young woman overlapped with his birth mother. She resembled Jinyo's mother in almost every detail. Jinyo ran in to observe clearly. He was disappointed when the name written on her chest didn't read [Nari Southerncross] but was the name [Ryse Southerncross]. His scalp went cold. Jinyo's consciousness was frozen still.
Not mother... but Ryse.
"Cough, cough cough."
"Commander, stay strong. Hang in there a little longer. The medical unit will arrive soon."
"It's too late. My body, I know it best. I... fought until now and I'm very satisfied. There's nothing to regret." The young woman showed a smile on her paper-white face. Blood seeped through her skin and wounds began turning black. Her once regular breathing churned erratically, ready to stop at any moment.
Her body trembled. Not a trembling from fear, but because of pain difficult to resist.
"Who was it! Who did this? Tell me. I'll definitely go avenge you."
"No... it was no one. It's my own chronic illness. Don't misunderstand. All this blood isn't mine. Someone as skilled as me, how could I lose to anyone?" Ryse sighed long. She began to drift and see hallucinations. Her consciousness crumbled piece by piece, difficult to reassemble as before. The smell of blood splattered on walls and concrete that she so detested. She could barely sense them anymore.
"The greatest female swordsman of the era, not dying by enemy hands... how laughable."
"Commander..."
"Please record my final words. I didn't die from injuries. But died from a rare, incurable genetic disease. Something my parents gave me. But I never... resented them... not even once." The young woman squeezed out her last bit of strength to tell her heartfelt words. The spark in her eyes extinguished. No fragment of life remained anymore. She died in the middle of a battlefield full of corpses and enemy blood. A heroine who died while on duty.
In the final moment of life before consciousness faded, her gaze fixed on an empty corner.
There was no one there except an empty wall.
And Jinyo's spirit form that no one should see.
The memory from over ten years ago overlapped Jinyo again. Amid the ruins of collapsed buildings and cities. Space monsters. Screams and chaos. Flames engulfing the concrete jungle and shrill whistles piercing ears from the sky. His birth mother's body drenched in blood from enemy wounds. Only young soldiers in training uniforms coming to pay respects in her final moment.
That child clasped blood-stained hands with a shattered heart and a cry with no words escaping from a throat already broken.
[Your daughter Ryse Palmer died at age 29. Single. No heirs. Cause: Unknown]
Clear tears dropped from both eyes.
"Again... both mother... and daughter." Jinyo shuffled back until his back pressed against the wall. Whether many years ago or in the future ahead, he would always lose important people to war and unreasonable fighting. Both memories of the past and images seen from the future overlapped. Even the face dying happily in a hopeless situation. It stuck in Jinyo's head. There was no way to shake it off.
[Heaven's Secret Glimpse complete. Delivering rewards.]
Jinyo's consciousness returned to his body. His heart in his left chest beat harder than ever before. Blood vessels and muscles boiled. Like being doused with acid making flesh melt.
Jinyo hurt so much he couldn't scream. Everything inside was crying out for help. Sadness and heartbreak until he nearly vomited blood. Transformed into resentment that drove him. Jinyo controlled his breathing, circulating energy according to what he memorized in Nature Synthesis Technique.
He kept doing it. The pain he received only multiplied. But Jinyo knew he couldn't stop. Clear tears began changing to red. They intensified to black without him knowing when. Every pore was expanded. Large amounts of sweat were released in the metabolic process. When body temperature rose too high, it was so hot that even the clothes he wore had a burning smell.
The emerald eyes barely retained consciousness within. The only thing he clung to and continued was the heartbreak from seeing a dark future and his daughter's death.
No matter what happens in the future, I will use the power I gain to change it.
I must not repeat the past...
I must fulfill the oath I made to Mother.
"I must know... the secrets of the universe."
[Bloodline improvement complete. Bloodline improvement progress 25%. Ancient Flora has not fully awakened.]
[You have used Nature Synthesis Technique. Proficiency Level 1 (Beginner)]
[You have received Anonymous God's Garden 10 acres]
[You have received Anonymous God's Cottage 1 building]
[You have received Seed Pack, Immortal Rice 1 bag]
[You have received God of Agriculture Manual 1 volume]
[Hostility toward Heaven increased by 100 points. From now on, Heaven will seek to eliminate you. Please hide and increase your strength until that day arrives.]