In Kaelan's vision, the blue-hued interface that materialized was familiar in layout, yet fundamentally alien. Its core was the standard System display, but beneath it now lay a row of featureless buttons. They were voids of perfect black, from which thin tendrils of dark mist curled like dying smoke.
A line of stark, neon-blue text materialized above them:
**[War God UI activated.]**
**[One initial feature unlock available.]**
**[Proceed?]**
"**Yes.**"
The moment his mental confirmation was given, the first button on the left ceased its endless black swirl. It resolved into sharp clarity, revealing its name in gilded, archaic script.
**"War God Skills."**
Kaelan focused on the name, and a stream of descriptive text followed. He read it once. Then again, more slowly, the implications settling into his mind with the weight of a tectonic shift.
*A little later.*
He moved to the weapon rack in the corner of the room, his eyes scanning the meager arsenal left behind.
A spear, its head crusted with rust. A **military curved sword**, its blade nicked and dulled. A **longbow**, its string loose and wood layered with dust.
*No straight swords.*
A faint pang of professional regret hit him. In the game, sword cultivators numbered in the millions, but Kaelan Rook had been among the elite of the elite—a **Great Sword Saint**, ranked in the global top ten. His skill had been a scalpel, a force of nature. But that power, like everything else from his past life, was gone.
He shook his head, dismissing the nostalgia. Sentiment was a luxury for the safe. His hand closed around the hilt of the curved sword.
The moment his skin made contact, the **War God UI** flickered to life in his peripheral vision.
**[Item Scanned: Military Scimitar (Damaged).]**
**[Historical Skill Imprints Detected.]**
**[1: 'One Sweep, A Thousand Foes' — User: Wang Jin.]**
**[2: 'Gate-Cutter, Mountain-Splitter' — User: Zhang Kuo.]**
**[Soul Point cost for mastery of both forms: 1.]**
For a long moment, Kaelan simply stared, his breath catching in his throat.
*Immediate mastery. This is the 'War God's' power?*
This was only the UI's **first function**. The other buttons remained shrouded in their black-hole obscurity, locked away. Yet, this single feature was a revolution. If he could assimilate any skill ever used with a weapon he touched… then no technique in this world could truly be called a secret.
He took a slow, deliberate breath, forcing the surge of exhilaration down into a cool, analytical channel. "**System. Define 'Soul Points.'**"
The response was instantaneous.
**[Soul Points are acquired through the defeat of sentient creatures.]**
**[Skin-shedding Blood Demon defeated. Soul Points acquired: 4.]**
**[Current Soul Points: 4/5.]**
*Four points from one demon. Not bad.* The Skin-shedder was a high-tier predator for this era, a master of ambush far beyond any common fiend or novice cultivator. His victory had been a gamble of precise timing and ruthless exploitation of its disguise. A straight fight in his previous, spiritless state would have ended him.
He noted the limit: **4/5**. A capacity of only five points. *Pathetically small.*
As if reading his thought, more text scrolled past.
**[Maximum Soul Point capacity is intrinsically linked to cultivation base.]**
*Of course.* His gaze drifted upward on the UI, past the new functions, to the four large, unavoidable characters he'd been avoiding:
**[Cultivation: Qi Refining Stage – First Layer.]**
The universal starting point. The absolute foundation. All his world-shaking power, reduced to this faint, flickering spark. A sigh, heavy with the weight of fallen empires, escaped him. He silently returned the scimitar to its rack and picked up the rust-speckled spear.
A single imprint glowed on the UI: **'Basic Thrust'**. Useless.
Finally, his hands closed around the **longbow**. The wood was solid, the curve true beneath the grime. The UI illuminated.
**[Item Scanned: Military Longbow.]**
**[Historical Skill Imprints Detected.]**
**[1: 'Steady Aim' — User: Zhang Wu.]**
**[2: 'Rapid Nock' — User: Zhang Wu.]**
**[3: 'True Shot' — User: Zhang Wu.]**
**[4: 'Twin Swallows' Flight' — User: Zhang Wu.]**
**[Soul Point cost for 'Steady Aim' + 'Rapid Nock': 2.]**
**[Soul Point cost for 'True Shot': 4.]**
**[Soul Point cost for 'Twin Swallows' Flight': 6.]**
*Zhang Wu.* The outpost's former captain. A master of blade and bow, according to the residual memories in the gear. He'd fallen to a Blood Drinker Demon in the last stand.
Kaelan's focus lingered on the final skill. **'Twin Swallows' Flight'.** A cost of **6 Soul Points**—more than his current maximum capacity.
"Ha." The soft exhale was part frustration, part grim acceptance. "**Qi Refining, First Layer.** It seems I truly am starting from the very bottom. The priority is to raise my cultivation, to increase my Soul Point capacity."
*Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation…* The long, arduous path stretched before him once more. But there was a crucial, blazing difference now. A player's cultivated power could be brought into Reality. And if he had truly regressed in time…
*If this is real… If I can do it all over…*
The thought was a supernova of possibility, so bright it was almost painful. It threatened to drown him in a tide of old regrets—friends lost, battles failed, a world he couldn't save. He clamped down on the emotion with the discipline of a veteran commander. *Later. Grieve later. Plan now.*
Survival was the immediate calculus. At **Qi Refining Stage 1**, close combat was a death sentence. This body was a collection of half-healed wounds and atrophied muscle. He was no longer the peerless Sword Saint. He was a wounded animal in a den surrounded by wolves.
The sword, the scimitar, the spear—all demanded he step into the monster's reach. A single mistake meant evisceration.
But the bow… The bow was distance. The bow was control. The outpost's **Obfuscation Array** still had a few days of power. It was a fragile bubble of safety, a hunting blind.
The strategic path crystallized in his mind. *Abandon close quarters. Utilize the array's cover. Farm experience and Soul Points from a distance. Elevate my cultivation. Expand my capacity. Then, and only then, reclaim the sword.*
His decision was instantaneous, absolute.
"**System. Unlock 'Steady Aim' and 'Rapid Nock.'**"
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a sensation like warm, flowing silk traveled from the aged wood of the bow into his palms. It spiraled up his arms, circulated once through his core, and finally settled, dissipating like morning mist into the vast quiet of his **Thought Sea**.
Knowledge, not learned, but *inherited*, took root. Stance. Grip. Breath control. The muscle memory for a rapid, stable firing cycle.
Kaelan's eyes snapped open. He nocked a practice arrow from a nearby quiver, drew the string to his cheek in one smooth motion, and released.
***Thwock!***
The arrow buried itself deep into a heavy roof support beam, its shaft vibrating.
His hands didn't pause. They moved with a newfound, effortless rhythm. Nock, draw, loose. Nock, draw, loose.
***Thwock! Thwock! Thwock! Thwock!***
Twelve arrows flew in a staccato rhythm, a lethal volley delivered in the span of twenty seconds. His bow arm, employing **'Steady Aim,'** hadn't wavered a millimeter. His firing hand, guided by **'Rapid Nock,'** was a blur of efficient motion.
He lowered the bow. A fierce, predatory excitement, long buried under the ashes of defeat, sparked to life in his chest.
*This… this is power.*
**The War God UI** was not just potent. It was a paradigm shift. With enough **Soul Points**, the combined mastery of every fallen warrior, every forgotten master, every legendary technique embedded in the weapons of this world would be his to command.
What skill, in all the heavens and the abyss, could possibly be beyond his reach now?