Lin Yu was perched on the cusp of his bed, as if the sheer weight of his new reality within the Xu Dynasty was bearing down on him like an asphyxiating cloak that would not relent. A long while passed, and in that interval, every ticking minute was a torturous conflict, one that pushed him to his limits as he struggled to come to terms with the bitter reality that he was no longer the high school teacher he had formerly been, tediously correcting essays in the solace of a warm apartment, but had instead become a minor scholar living in a world where powerful cultivators had the astounding capacity to destroy mountains with just a flick of their wrist.
The experiences of his predecessor flooded his mind, threatening to overwhelm him with their force, clarity, and a deep-seated bitterness. These memories were fraught with years of enormous frustration—of being trapped in a low-level position that held no spiritual foundations to develop or cultivate, and a lack of a definable path leading towards achieving power.
That weighty burden now rested on the shoulders of Lin Yu. His only goal was to survive in this difficult world, and he was determined to do whatever it took to make it through this ruthless and merciless world, no matter how desperate or radical the means might be.
Fixing his eyes on the ground beneath his feet and lost in thought, a sharp and crystal-clear chime sounded through the depths of his mind, much like the clear ring of a bell rung with meaningful intent deep within his very center of being.
For a brief moment, Lin Yu stood rooted to the spot, his breath catching hard in his throat as though the very air had been forcibly driven from his lungs in a jarring shock. What was this unusual sound? Scarcely had he set himself to considering this unusual and unforeseen occurrence when a mechanical voice echoed through his mind, cold in its quality yet impossibly imbued with a sense of promise and limitless possibility that enthralled him.
Ding!
[Binding System Activating]
[Bind individuals and share cultivation progress and talent]
[0/1 Binded]
Lin Yu's eyes went wide with utter incredulity and shock, and he could feel his heart racing so hard in his chest that he was sure it could potentially burst from the sheer magnitude of the experience.
A system! He actually had his own personal system at his command! In his last life, he had voraciously read countless webnovels with protagonists who were unbelievably lucky to have cheat-like systems, amazing golden fingers that could turn the weak and ordinary into extraordinary mythical legends.
He had dismissed their importance before, relegating them to the status of escapist fantasies that held no concrete value. Yet here, now, in this moment, it was there in front of him—a real, honest-to-goodness system coursing and throbbing in the depths of his mind.
A broad smile started spreading across his face, and he had to fight an overwhelming compulsion to jump from his seat, as the dense gloom of his previous despair evaporated entirely, like so much mist under the warm rays of the morning sun. This was no mere notion; it was his lifeline, his golden ticket to existence in a cruel world that relentlessly ground people like him beneath its heel, never to give them a second glance.
The system's interface shook with a radiating glow of bright lights, lighting up the depths of his eye of insight, and presenting his information with clarity and crisp concise wording and beyond doubt.
Lin Yu pored over the data with the meticulous attention and razor sharp clarity of a master instructor meticulously copying a flawless examination answer so as not to miss even a single point.
The Binding System, a new invention unlike anything he had ever seen previously, granted him the unprecedented power to bind himself to another individual. In so doing it granted him not only access to their cultivation advancements but also to their special talents and exceptional capabilities.
It was a passive method of cultivating that was practically a cheat for him to enjoy where he had previously had no spiritual roots nor foundation to stand on. He was free of having to worry about sitting and ceasing to think, to borrow spiritual energy or putting his life in danger by going through perilous trials and ordeals.
Provided only that he could achieve a binding connection with a cultivator, their progress would flow effortlessly on to him; their innate talent would flow to him like water meandering around a natural source.
His face brightened with a broad and growing smile spreading ever wider to his eyes beyond and beyond again as his heart swelled to overflowing with innumerable possibilities. Such an opportunity granted him so much more than mere survival; it was a golden ticket to truly prospering and to rising far and far beyond his status of helpless scholar to which he had fallen prey.
But as the initial burst of all-encompassing happiness that had originally enveloped him gradually lost strength and dissolved into nothingness, a small but unmistakable flame of irritation flared deep at the very heart of his soul.
"Hey, system," he growled low under his breath, making a conscious effort to scan the vacant room around him with care, going out of his way to make certain there was absolutely nobody within earshot that could possibly hear the words he was saying.
Where the hell was the system hiding when he was making all sorts of analysis and going through breakdown.
He couldn't help but complain.
The system, for its part, responded in absolutely no conceivable manner. Lin Yu shook his head in amazement, chuckling softly to himself in spite of the residual vestiges of anger that still clung in the air around him.
Aside from his front of pretended outrage, Lin Yu focused his attention on the broad and expansive potentialities of what the system had to set before him. The key to it all was in the complex process of binding himself to a cultivator, and he was well-aware that the stronger the cultivator proved to be, the greater and richer rewards he would stand to gain in the end.
His thoughts were a maelstrom of excitement, whirling with an intoxicating buzz of promise and potential which seemed limitless in possibility. Though he was not part of the influential and powerful inner circles of the world of cultivation—in fact, he was far removed from such prestigious circles—where he was currently situated as a lesser scholar was a unique benefit that other people in his circumstances would not be able to enjoy.
His work, which was rather demanding and involved a great deal of social interaction, required him to interact with the Zhenxun state administrative elite. This was a group made up of individuals who possessed a great deal of power and influence, and some of these individuals, he noted, were cultivators.