Death, Xiang Yu had concluded, was surprisingly anticlimactic. One moment he was sprinting to a 24-hour convenience store for a late-night snack, the next his feet were tangling with a stray cat that had darted out of an alley.
The world became a dizzying flip of pavement and sky, ending with a dull thud and then… nothing.
So, waking up was a bit of a shock.
His eyes fluttered open to the sight of a simple wooden ceiling. The air smelled of aged timber and something faintly floral. He sat up, his head feeling strangely clear, not at all like he'd just introduced it to solid concrete. He was in a small, sparse room, lying on a straw-stuffed mattress.
"Where am I?" he mumbled, his voice raspy and unfamiliar.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed. His body felt light, almost too light, and a bit shorter than he remembered.
A bronze mirror stood in the corner of the room, its surface polished to a decent shine. Driven by a nagging curiosity, he shuffled over to it.
The person staring back was not him.
It was a boy, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old, with pale skin and delicate features. But it was the hair that made Xiang Yu's jaw drop. It was a perfect, shocking split of black and white, as if a line had been drawn down the center of his scalp.
The left side was as dark as a starless night, while the right was as white as freshly fallen snow.
"What in the world…?"
He reached up and tugged at a strand of white hair. It was real. He was in someone else's body. A body with ridiculously cool, two-toned hair.
Just as the absurdity of the situation began to sink in, a transparent blue panel flickered into existence before his eyes, startling him so much he stumbled backward and landed on the floor.
[Name: Xiang Yu]
[Realm: Mortal]
[Species: Human]
[Spiritual Root: Null]
[Techniques: Null]
[Scriptures: Null]
He blinked. The panel remained, hovering silently in the air. "Xiang Yu? So that's this body's name. Same as my old one, what a coincidence."
He scanned the lines again. Realm: Mortal. Spiritual Root: Null. Techniques: Null. Scriptures: Null.
A cold dread washed over him. In the web novels he used to binge-read, a "Null" spiritual root was a death sentence for anyone wanting to become a powerful cultivator. It meant you were trash, utterly incapable of absorbing the world's spiritual energy.
You were destined to be a background character, lucky to live out your life as a farmer.
"Useless… I've been reincarnated as a completely useless pretty boy," he groaned, burying his face in his hands.
His shoulders slumped. All the hope of a cool, new life as a powerful cultivator evaporated, replaced by the cold, hard reality of his stats. He was a blank slate, and not in a good way.
Just as he was about to collapse into a pit of despair, his eyes caught one final line of text at the very bottom of the screen, glowing with a faint golden light that seemed to pulse with a life of its own.
[Unique Ability: Power Doubles Every Minute I Survive in a Battle!]
Xiang Yu froze. His mind, which had just shut down, rebooted with a jolt.
Power doubles… every minute… in a battle?
He read the line over and over, his heart beginning to hammer against his ribs.
What did it mean? What "power"? His physical strength? His speed? His… well, he didn't have anything else. His stats were all Null. Did doubling zero still result in zero?
"Is this a cosmic prank?" he wondered aloud. "Give the most useless guy the most ridiculously overpowered-sounding ability?"
The questions swirled in his head, a chaotic storm of confusion and a tiny, flickering flame of excitement. If this was real… if it worked… then maybe, just maybe, being "Null" didn't matter.
All he had to do was survive. In a fight, his power would grow. And grow. And keep growing. The potential was… limitless.
Knock, knock, knock!
A sharp rap on the door snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Xiang Yu! Are you going to sleep all day?" a gruff voice called from outside. "The morning sparring session is about to begin. Elder Jin won't be pleased if you're late again!"
Xiang Yu's blood ran cold. Sparring? A battle? Already? He wasn't ready! He didn't know any techniques, had zero spiritual energy, and was still trying to figure out how to walk properly in this new body.
He quickly tried to compose himself, forcing down his panic. He had to play the part. The original Xiang Yu was a quiet, withdrawn boy, often bullied for his lack of talent. It was a simple enough personality to mimic.
"Coming, Lin!" he called out, hoping he got the name right from the jumbled memories.
He took a deep breath, straightened the simple grey robes he was wearing, and slid the door open. A boy with a cheerful, round face and a wide grin stood there.
This was Lin, one of the original Xiang Yu's only friends.
"There you are! I was worried you were sick," Lin said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Come on, Mei is already at the training grounds. She said she wants to spar with you today to see if you've made any progress."
Xiang Yu's smile felt stiff. Mei. He remembered her too. A talented, serious girl who always seemed to be pushing herself, and by extension, pushing him.
She probably didn't mean it maliciously, but her "encouragement" always felt like a reminder of how far behind he was.
As they walked along the stone path towards the training grounds, Lin chattered on about his own progress, about how he'd finally managed to channel a wisp of Qi to his fingertips. Xiang Yu just nodded along, his mind racing.
He felt like a complete imposter. These people, this world, it was all foreign to him. He was walking into a fight with a body that had a "Null" rating in everything. His only hope was a single, cryptic line of text on a magic screen that might just be a hallucination.
They arrived at a large, open plaza where a dozen or so disciples were practicing. In the center stood a stern-faced old man with a long, white beard. Elder Jin.
His gaze swept over the disciples like a hawk, and it landed on Xiang Yu with a flicker of disappointment before moving on.
The sting of that look was sharp, a feeling inherited from the body's original owner.
"Alright, pair up!" Elder Jin's voice boomed across the plaza. "Today, we test your fundamentals. Remember, a battle is not just about power, but about endurance and will! The longer you stand, the more you learn!"
Xiang Yu's ears perked up. The longer you stand…
A girl with a high ponytail and a determined look in her eyes walked over to him. Mei.
"Xiang Yu," she said, her tone even. "Let's spar."
He looked at her, then at the cheerful Lin, and finally at the stern Elder Jin. His palms were sweating. He was terrified. He was a fraud with a stat sheet full of zeros.
But as he looked at Mei, who was already taking her stance, a different feeling began to bubble up from beneath the fear. It was a thrill. A dangerous, exhilarating excitement.
This was it. His first battle. His chance to see if he was truly useless, or if he was about to become the most terrifying monster this world had ever seen, one minute at a time.
"Okay," Xiang Yu said, his voice surprisingly steady as he tried to copy a basic stance from memory. "Let's do it."