The moment the command left his lips, a crisp mechanical tone rang in his mind.
[System Activated]
[Host: Li An]
[Age: 23]
[Cultivation: Meridian Opening Realm]
[Spirit Roots: Trash Roots]
Options Available:
• Multiply
• Fuse
[Currently in Multiply: Trash Root ×11, Aurora Technique ×10]
Li An's gaze sharpened. "System, remove the trash roots from the multiply slot and fuse."
[Affirmative.]
The panel in his mind shifted, symbols rearranging with fluid precision. The faint hum of energy filled his body, like a thousand threads being drawn out of the void.
At once, his dantian stirred.
The eleven dim, withered roots within him—his so-called "trash roots"—shuddered and peeled away from his core, tugged out as though obeying some unseen hand. For a breath, they floated in the formless space of his dantian, trembling like fragile reeds in a storm.
Then—
They began to merge.
First, they paired, twining around one another until two became one. The air inside his dantian pulsed with each fusion, a low vibration that shook through his bones. Dim trash roots hardened, brightening faintly, transforming into six weak but stable low-grade spirit roots.
Li An's breath caught. He could feel every shift, every pulse, as if molten metal was being hammered into shape inside his body.
But the process didn't stop there.
The six roots shuddered again. Then, in pairs, they collapsed inward, streams of light devouring each other. His entire dantian roared like thunder as the roots fused once more, condensing into two solid beams of power—two lower-middle grade spirit roots that radiated a faint, steady glow.
The moment they stabilized, the world seemed to crack open.
A torrent of qi surged into Li An's body from every direction, drawn as if a dam had broken. The thin, starved meridians he had been left with flooded like rivers in monsoon. His chest tightened under the rush, his limbs trembling as if lightning coursed through them.
"—ghh!"
Li An's knees buckled. He crashed to the floor, his back arching against the flood. But instead of pain, what coursed through him was ecstasy. His every pore opened, drinking in the rushing qi. His blood sang. His bones resonated. His body remembered—remembered what it meant to be a cultivator.
This wasn't like clawing for a first breakthrough. His soul, tempered by a past at Core Condensation, needed no bottleneck to cross. The qi simply filled the vessel that had been emptied.
By the time the torrent calmed, Li An's breathing was steady, his eyes glowing faintly in the dim light of his room.
He had stepped back into the First Stage of Qi Refining.
Slowly, he sat upright. His hands trembled faintly, but his expression carried only calm. In the depths of his eyes, however, sparks flickered—relief, hunger, and the shadow of something dangerous.
The path opens again.
Li An sat cross-legged on the wooden floor, his breathing finally steady. The faint glow in his eyes dimmed as the torrent of qi settled into his meridians. Sweat clung to his back, his robes damp, yet the exhilaration in his chest refused to fade.
"That…" he whispered, his lips curving faintly, "was addictive."
Already, his body hungered for more.
"System, open panel."
[Affirmative.]
The cold, mechanical chime rang in his mind. A translucent panel unfolded before his inner sight, clear and precise.
[System Activated]
[Host: Li An]
[Age: 23]
[Cultivation: 1st Stage Qi Refining Realm]
[Spirit Roots: Lower-Middle Grade Roots ×2]
Options Available:
• Multiply (2 slots available)
• Fuse
[Currently in Multiply: Aurora Technique ×10]
Li An's eyes narrowed. "System, if I fuse all the Aurora Techniques, what level will it upgrade to?"
[Aurora Technique: Profound Middle Grade → Profound High Grade ×2]
His lips pressed together. "Profound High Grade, hm? Not worth it."
Aurora was only a cultivation technique, designed to refine and purify qi. Essential, yes, but useless when faced with blades and claws. A profound high-grade cultivation art was nice—but it wasn't what he needed now.
"What I lack is a killing edge," he muttered, rising to his feet. His gaze roamed across his small house. The old shelves, the drawers, the wooden chest tucked into the corner—remnants of the old Li An's years of training.
He began rifling through them. Thin bamboo slips clattered softly as he shifted them aside, scrolls unrolled and rolled again, their faint spiritual ink glowing under his touch.
Technique after technique passed through his hands.
"This one's too rigid." Tossed aside.
"This one—no, the qi consumption is absurd."
A pause. He frowned at one. "This one… if the System evolved it, it might become obscene." He snorted, tossing it away with a flick of his wrist.
Minutes turned into an hour. Dust clung to his fingers, and a faint headache pulsed in his temple from reading so many martial scripts at once. Yet he kept at it, eyes narrowing sharper each time.
Finally—he froze.
On the bottom of the stack, half-forgotten, was a thin jade slip. Faded carvings ran across its surface, barely holding together, but the moment Li An touched it, his mind stirred with memory.
"Space Jumping Slash…" he murmured.
The technique wasn't powerful in its raw form. It was little more than a novelty when he had practiced it as a youth—an intermediate sword art that used bursts of qi to create the illusion that one's blade vanished and reappeared. A parlor trick in the eyes of true experts.
Yet to Li An, it had been fascinating. He had once practiced it endlessly in secret, charmed by the way it made his sword feel weightless, unpredictable, untouchable.
And now… with the System?
His lips curved into a rare smile. "This… this has potential."
He pressed the jade slip against his forehead. The old mnemonic chants of the art unfurled in his mind, lines of sword intent flashing faintly.
His eyes gleamed, cold and sharp. "Let's see what you become… when evolution is forced.
Li An held the jade slip in his hand, the faint pulse of its carved inscriptions still shimmering weakly. His mind was already made up.
"System," he said slowly, his voice cutting through the stillness of the room, "put Space Jumping Slash into a multiply slot. For the remaining slot… use one of my spirit roots."
[Affirmative.]
The mechanical tone reverberated in his skull.
A moment later—he felt it.
A subtle tearing sensation deep within his dantian, like threads being unraveled. One of his lower-middle grade spirit roots shuddered violently, then… disappeared. Gone, as though it had never existed.
Li An drew in a sharp breath, his hand unconsciously tightening around the jade slip. The absence left behind was strange—an emptiness that gnawed faintly, whispering at his core. Yet it wasn't painful, more like losing a piece of himself in exchange for something unknown.
"…Tch," he exhaled, unclenching his jaw. His gaze flicked to the jade slip in his hand. To his surprise, the faint glow of the technique still lingered, and when he pressed it lightly, the mnemonic chants still unfolded in his mind.
His brows knit together. "System. Why is the Space Jumping Slash still here?"
[System can utilize both physical scripts and host's memory of techniques simultaneously.]
For a moment, silence stretched. Then—Li An chuckled, the sound low and sharp. "Heh. So that's how it works… The System isn't limited to just consuming. It's duplicating. Extracting."
He stared at the jade slip again, this time with an almost predatory gleam. "That's… very handy."
The thought of it spiraled in his mind—an endless arsenal of techniques, endlessly refined, endlessly multiplied. If he could feed even a mediocre art into this process, what would the final evolution look like? What about a legendary one?
A flicker of excitement ran through him, but he forced it down. His body was still buzzing faintly from earlier breakthroughs, and exhaustion pressed at the edges of his mind. He knew if he continued pushing tonight, he'd only make mistakes.
Li An set the jade slip carefully onto the wooden shelf beside his bed.
"Time to go to bed," he muttered, lying down onto the rough mattress. His eyes drifted shut, but the faint curve of a smile lingered on his lips.
The last thought in his mind before sleep took him was simple, yet sharp as a blade.
This is only the beginning.