Chapter 1 – I Just Wanted a Nap
Bao Zhenkun was tired.
This was not new.
He had been tired since the day he was born.
When he was a baby, the midwife slapped him to make him cry. He yawned, rolled over, and went back to sleep. His parents swore he was destined to become a pig spirit.
When he was five, the village schoolteacher gave him bamboo slips to learn characters. He fell asleep holding them and woke up with "Dao" printed backwards on his forehead.
By the time he was seventeen, his greatest achievement was not cultivation, not swordsmanship, not alchemy.
No. His greatest achievement was managing to sleep through three full days of a sect entrance examination and still somehow being accepted into the Cloud-Sky Sect.
To this day, Bao Zhenkun suspected it was either a clerical error or divine mercy.
The sect elders, on the other hand, called it a shameful mistake.
But Bao Zhenkun did not care. Because Bao Zhenkun was tired. And when one was tired, nothing else mattered.
The lecture hall was buzzing with chatter. Today's class was on qi circulation, the bread and butter of every cultivator's training.
Every disciple sat straight, eyes forward, backs stiff. They hung on to Instructor Yan's every word as if their lives depended on it. Because in the Cloud-Sky Sect… it actually did.
"Disciples!" Instructor Yan's voice boomed like a thunderclap. "Today you will learn the fundamentals of guiding qi through your meridians! This is the foundation of all future cultivation!"
The class responded in unison. "Yes, Instructor!"
Everyone… except for Bao Zhenkun.
He was sitting in the third row, head bobbing slightly, eyelids at half-mast. His expression was that of a man locked in a deadly duel—with sleep.
Unfortunately for him, sleep was winning.
"Bao Zhenkun!" Instructor Yan's glare could have incinerated weaker men. "If you dare close your eyes one more time, I'll have you cleaning the beast pens until your spirit roots rot!"
The disciples around him snickered immediately.
"Bao Bao's at it again."
"His spirit root must be a pillow."
"He's only here because the admission scrolls got smudged with ink, I swear."
One brave disciple whispered, "If naps gave cultivation, Bao Bao would already be a sect elder."
The whole row tried to muffle their laughter.
Bao Zhenkun raised his head just enough to blink blearily at Instructor Yan. His voice was slow, like molasses dripping down a jar.
"Mmm… beast pens sound… cozy. Do they… have hay?"
The class erupted in laughter.
Instructor Yan's veins bulged on his forehead. "Silence! One more word and I'll—"
But Bao Zhenkun wasn't listening anymore. The lecture had begun, and Instructor Yan's voice was steady, monotonous, almost rhythmic.
Like a lullaby.
The words 'meridians, qi channels, foundation of life' floated in one ear and out the other, blending into a warm, gentle hum.
Bao Zhenkun's eyelids sank. His chin dipped. His breathing slowed.
Before the first diagram had even been drawn on the board, Bao Zhenkun had slipped into the heavenly embrace of sleep.
The disciples around him gawked.
"He actually did it."
"Instructor Yan literally just threatened him, and he still fell asleep!"
"Truly fearless."
"Not fearless," another whispered, "just brainless."
"Or… maybe this is his cultivation method?"
The group laughed at the absurdity of it, but one or two disciples hesitated. Because when Bao Zhenkun snored softly, the air around him seemed to ripple faintly, like a pond disturbed by falling leaves.
No one noticed at first. Except for Instructor Yan.
The old man paused mid-sentence, chalk frozen against the board. His spiritual sense brushed over Bao Zhenkun on instinct.
What he felt nearly made him choke.
Bao Zhenkun, blissfully unaware of the chaos brewing, was having a very pleasant dream.
In his dream, he was lying on a massive pillow that floated among the clouds. The pillow smelled faintly of lotus and roasted pork buns. Every time he shifted, the pillow adjusted perfectly, hugging his body in the most comfortable way possible.
"Ohhh… this is cultivation," he murmured happily in his sleep. "Dao of… pillows…"
He snuggled deeper into his imaginary pillow. His body, in reality, stirred faintly. Qi surged inside him like a lazy tide, flowing into places it had never dared enter before.
The other disciples stiffened.
"D-did you see that?" one hissed.
"His dantian just… buzzed!"
"No way. No way! He's actually cultivating while asleep?!"
Instructor Yan staggered. His eyes bulged. He probed Bao Zhenkun's aura again, certain his senses were lying.
But no.
That brat had just… broken through a minor bottleneck.
The old instructor's lips twitched violently. He had spent thirty years hammering the fundamentals of qi circulation into stubborn disciples, and most of them still struggled to advance one stage.
This… this piglet was snoring his way into Foundation Establishment!
The urge to vomit blood nearly overcame him.
Bao Zhenkun, meanwhile, was still asleep.
His snores grew slightly louder, and with each one, a faint pulse of qi radiated from his body. The disciples sitting closest were shoved back in their seats as if pushed by an invisible hand.
"Impossible…"
"He's not even awake!"
"What kind of demonic cultivation method is this?!"
One disciple clutched his head in despair. "I spent five months meditating in freezing waterfalls just to break through one stage. This guy naps for five minutes and—boom!"
Another whispered in horror, "What if… the Dao of Sleep is real?"
Instructor Yan's face twitched violently. He wanted to smack Bao Zhenkun awake, but what if interrupting him caused qi deviation? What if this absurd method was actually legitimate?
Would the sect blame him if he crippled their newest hidden genius?
He hesitated. His hand trembled mid-air.
Bao Zhenkun mumbled in his sleep. "Mmm… more… dumplings…"
A ripple of qi burst outward. Several desks rattled.
The class collectively gasped.
"Holy—he advanced again!"
"No… no way!"
"This is unfair! I demand to speak to the heavens!"
At last, Bao Zhenkun stirred. He smacked his lips, yawned, and opened one bleary eye.
"Eh? Class over already?"
The disciples stared at him as if he had just descended from the heavens.
Instructor Yan pointed a trembling finger. "Y-you… you…!"
Bao Zhenkun rubbed his belly. "Ah, I dreamed of pork buns. Do we get lunch soon?"
The silence that followed was deafening.
Finally, one disciple muttered in awe, "Even his hunger is profound."
Another whispered, "He's transcended mortal concerns… truly a genius…"
Bao Zhenkun blinked at them all, utterly confused. His eyelids drooped again. "Wake me when it's lunchtime, yeah?"
And just like that, before anyone could stop him, Bao Zhenkun fell asleep again.
The entire hall trembled in stunned silence.
Bao Zun Journey of chasing dreams just began and there was no waking back.