Li Fan's eyelids were pried open by a blinding, savage headache.
It wasn't so much a headache as if a construction crew was holding an academic conference on quantum mechanics inside his brain, with the meeting notes being directly carved into his temporal lobe with a power drill.
"Hss…"
He sucked in a sharp breath. The blurry world before his eyes gradually came into focus.
Gone were the familiar white walls of his dorm, the desk piled high with scratch paper and instant noodle cups, and the computer screen showing the half-written"Survey Report on Improving Urban Public Transport Efficiency"—a document that had worried him nearly bald before his time.
In their place were several drafty walls built of earth and rough timber, an overhead thatch roof that smelled of mold, and a hard, uncomfortable wooden pallet covered by a thin layer of equally unfriendly-smelling dry straw.
The air was thick with a scent that mingled earth, decaying plant matter, and… a certain delicate fragrance. This clean scent managed to clear his groggy mind slightly.
"Where… am I?"
His memory was like a fragmented film, the last frame being the moment he collapsed onto his keyboard after three straight nights of grinding out the report. The faint imprint of"Ctrl+S" on the keys was likely his final attachment to that world.
He struggled to sit up, but felt utterly weak, as if all his energy had been drained. Simultaneously, a wave of foreign, chaotic memory fragments rushed into his mind like a breaking dam.
Qingyun Sect… Servant Disciple… Li Ergou (Li Two-Dog)?
Fine. He was Li Ergou now—an orphan of poor aptitude who had, through a distant family connection, managed to get tucked into the bottom layer of the Qingyun Sect just to scrape a living. His daily job was to clean an area in the back mountains called the"Green Bamboo Courtyard," and… to be bossed around by the more senior servants.
And that subtle fragrance that had cleared his head, his memory informed him, was"Spiritual Energy"(Lingqi)—the fundamental energy that cultivators in this world, the"Qingyun Realm," relied upon for survival.
"Spiritual Energy?" Li Fan (or rather, Li Ergou) whispered, chewing on the unfamiliar term. As an engineering master who firmly believed in the conservation of energy and molecular motion, he instinctively tried to rationalize it."An unknown energy field? Or an overflow of higher-dimensional particles?"
He tried to sense and capture the so-called Lingqi in the air, using the pitifully shallow"Qi-Drawing Incantation" he now remembered.
After a long while, he gave up in frustration.
All he got was air that felt a bit fresher, a slightly clearer head, and absolutely nothing else!
It felt like his professor had asked him to analyze a dataset, handed him a pile of gibberish, and then demanded he build a predictive model.
"Are you kidding me?!" he complained aloud in his mother tongue.
Just then, a cold, emotionless voice with a peculiar"cadence" sounded directly in the depths of his mind.
[Environment scan complete… Host mental fluctuations stable… Binding conditions met…]
[Activating the"Universal Survey System"… 10%… 50%… 100%!]
[Activation successful! Hello, Host. I am your Survey Assistant.]
Li Fan bolted upright, looking around. He was alone.
An hallucination? Tinnitus from low blood sugar?
[Negative, Host. This System resides within your deep consciousness, designed to assist you with in-depth surveying and analysis of this world.]
As the voice finished, the air before him shimmered, and a screen he was all too familiar with materialized out of thin air—a glowing, minimalist PPT presentation interface!
The title bar boldly read:"Universal Survey System V1.0 User Manual (Initial Draft)."
Below were several key points:
Core Function: Issue survey tasks, collect and analyze data.
Reward Mechanism: Completing tasks earns"Survey Points," which can be exchanged for [Analysis Reports] or [Optimization Plans].
Current Objective: Assist the Host in adapting to the environment and complete the first round of data acquisition.
Li Fan's mouth hung open. After a long pause, he muttered,"I… I transmigrated, and I brought a… PPT genie?"
The System's voice carried a programmed"displeasure":[Host may refer to this System as the"Survey Assistant." Furthermore, given the Host's current frail survival status and negative social rating, it is recommended to complete the novice task promptly to acquire initial resources.]
"Negative social rating?" Li Fan's eyelid twitched. The merged memories told him that Li Ergou, the servant, was indeed universally disliked.
[Affirmative. Based on preliminary behavioral analysis, the Host's predecessor, due to low aptitude and weak character, was rated by peers as"waste of rations" and by the Steward as"clumsy fool who can't even chop firewood properly."]
Li Fan:"…" Thank you for the insult.
Before Li Fan could recover from the dual shock of this massive information influx and the System's blunt critique, the worn wooden door of the woodshed creaked open violently.
A burly youth in a gray short coat, also dressed as a servant but with an arrogant expression, strode in. He tossed a wooden bucket down in front of Li Fan with a clang. Murky water splashed all over him.
"Li Ergou, if you're not dead, get up now! Do you think the Sect is feeding a good-for-nothing for free?" The youth pinched his nose, disgust plastered on his face."Today's tasks: clear the weeds from the ten-mu spiritual field north of the courtyard, and fetch the water for it. Fail to finish, and forget about your'Qi-Sustaining Pellet' tonight!"
The Qi-Sustaining Pellet was the servant disciples' sole daily"stipend." It contained trace amounts of spiritual energy, enough to barely sustain cultivation and physical strength. Memories showed that the predecessor was often docked this ration for incomplete work, leading to a vicious cycle of increasing weakness.
Li Fan—no, he decided to immediately revert to his birth name—looked up at the servant named Zhao Hu. His eyes were calm, devoid of the habitual fear his predecessor had carried.
"Senior Brother Zhao," he began, his voice still hoarse but his tone carrying a composure that was utterly foreign to Zhao Hu."Weeding and fetching water are two independent tasks. According to'Qingyun Sect Servant Management Regulations,' Chapter Three, Article Five, independent tasks must have their performance calculated separately. Are you mixing task boundaries with the intent of deducting compensation and embezzling resources?"
He spoke in the local dialect, but the core was standard modern workplace logic.
Zhao Hu was clearly stunned, the rolls of fat on his face trembling. He didn't seem to understand terms like"performance," or"calculated," but"deducting compensation" and"embezzling resources" he understood. He instantly became furious:"What the hell are you talking about! Li Ergou, are you possessed? How dare you speak to me like that! Are you tired of living?!"
He rolled up his sleeve, ready to strike. Though only a servant, he had practiced some crude boxing and was physically far superior to the severely weakened Li Fan.
Just then, the System interface in Li Fan's mind lit up again, displaying a brand new task window.
[Novice Task Issued: Quantitative Analysis of"Spiritual Energy"]
Task Description: Sense and quantify the Spiritual Energy intensity in your surrounding environment. Requirement: Establish at least three quantifiable metrics (e.g., Concentration, Activity, Affinity), and complete preliminary data collection.
Time Limit: 12 shichen (24 hours).
Task Reward: 10 Survey Points.
Failure Penalty: 70% increase in the probability of Host's current living environment deteriorating.
Li Fan's eye twitched.
Quantify Spiritual Energy? In three dimensions? Did this System really think he was a human sensor? And that failure penalty… 70% environmental deterioration? With Zhao Hu standing right there ready to strike, the penalty seemed poised for immediate enforcement!
"Wait!" Li Fan sharply raised his hand, halting Zhao Hu's movement. His face instantly shifted to an expression Zhao Hu had never seen before—a scholarly, serious look born of academic inquiry.
"Senior Brother Zhao, before we discuss work assignment, I have an academic question I'd like to consult you on."
Zhao Hu was baffled by the sudden change, his fist hanging in the air, unsure whether to punch or hold back.
Li Fan ignored Zhao Hu's look of utter bewilderment and swiftly entered his work mode. He took a deep breath. Mmm, that fragrance… Memory suggested the Spiritual Energy concentration in this Green Bamboo Courtyard was supposedly decent for the outer sect area.
"Brother, feel it," he said earnestly, pointing at the air."Compared to your usual residence, what is the concentration difference of the Lingqi here? Please describe it using a percentage or a multiple relation."
Zhao Hu:"???"
"Alternatively, let's consider the'Activity' dimension," Li Fan pressed on, gesturing in the air."When Lingqi flows into your meridians, is it like a gentle trickle or a surging river? What is its flow rate? Could we establish a'Spiritual Energy Flow Coefficient'?"
The anger on Zhao Hu's face was gradually replaced by the blank confusion of someone watching a lunatic. He instinctively took half a step back.
Li Fan, however, became more and more absorbed, completely entering the state he was in when writing a report and cornering strangers for a questionnaire."The last dimension,'Affinity.' Do you feel the Lingqi here is gentle and easy to refine, or wild and difficult to tame? If you were to grade it on a ten-point scale, what score would you give?"
"You… you've gone completely mad!" Zhao Hu pointed at Li Fan, his voice tinged with alarm. He would rather Li Ergou groveled and begged as before than face this guy spouting utter nonsense. It was more frightening than being possessed by a ghost!
Li Fan sighed inwardly at Zhao Hu's reaction. Sample data invalid, interview subject cooperation extremely low. As expected, field research wasn't easy.
But he didn't give up. His eyes scanned the wooden bucket on the ground, then the bluestone path outside the door. His brain spun rapidly.
Concentration… could it be indirectly reflected by the growth rate of spiritual plants (like the weeds)? Activity… could I observe whether the settling rate of fine dust in the air is affected by the Lingqi? Affinity… perhaps I could test the adsorption capacity of different materials for Spiritual Energy?
Crude experimental designs took shape in his mind. Though the conditions were primitive, the basic principles of control and variable isolation could still be applied.
Zhao Hu, watching Li Fan sink into contemplation, his eyes growing brighter, felt a shiver run down his spine. He spat out a threat that rang hollow:"Pah! Lunatic! If you don't finish today's work, just wait for Steward Wang to deal with you!"
With that, he quickly left the woodshed, as if afraid of catching a strange disease, even forgetting the wooden bucket.
Silence returned to the woodshed.
Li Fan slowly exhaled. He had temporarily dealt with the immediate trouble, but a much larger challenge lay ahead.
He stared at the [Quantitative Analysis of"Spiritual Energy"] task on the System interface, his brows furrowed.
"System, a hint? How am I supposed to quantify this? Is there an inter-… inter-realm standard?"
The System's cold electronic voice was utterly flat:[Host is advised to exercise subjective initiative. The first step of scientific research is often to define the measurement standard.]
Li Fan:"…"
Alright, if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.
He struggled to his feet and walked to the woodshed entrance. The morning sun filtered through the bamboo leaves, casting dappled shadows on the bluestone. The clean scent, the"Spiritual Energy," seemed a little richer.
He closed his eyes, trying to empty his mind, no longer attempting to"understand" what Lingqi was, but simply to"feel" it.
It was faint, ethereal, like a spider's silk in the wind—seemingly present, yet hard to grasp.
He abruptly opened his eyes, looking at his hands, which trembled slightly from weakness, and then at the vast, alien world outside the door.
An engineering master, equipped with a system that loves KPIs and PPTs, was about to research a metaphysical form of energy in a cultivation world using the scientific method.
Could this opening act get any more ridiculous?
He took a deep breath, as if steeling his resolve.
"No measuring tools? I'll use my body to sense it. No standards? I'll create my own!"
He muttered to himself, his eyes becoming sharp again, filled with the desire for exploration.
"First step: I'll design a'Spiritual Energy Perceived Intensity Survey Questionnaire for the Green Bamboo Courtyard Area.' Sample size… I'll start with all living things in this courtyard!"
He looked at a spiritual sparrow nearby, leisurely pecking at the ground, and a"kind" smile—the signature expression of a determined researcher—spread across his face. It sent an inexplicable chill down the sparrow's tiny back.