As promised, this chapter is longer than the previous three. This will be the average length of future chapters. While it might vary slightly depending on the situation, the overall length shouldn't fluctuate too much.
Also, I've decided on a release schedule: new chapters will be released from Monday to Friday, with weekends off to rest and plan ahead. That means five chapters per week moving forward.
Thank you all for your continued support. Don't forget to add the novel to your favorites, give it a rating, and comment to stay tuned as more chapters are on the way!
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After leaving the main villa, Li Tianlei made his way back through the courtyard paths, heading home.
The soft sound of his shoes on stone echoed lightly between the pavilions as his mind still lingered on the conversation he had with his grandfather. It felt like something important was about to begin.
After walking for about 10 minutes, Tianlei could see the outlines of his house. His villa sat in a quiet corner of the compound, a little separated from the others by a low stone wall and a few ornamental trees. The place wasn't large, but it was his. It was given to him by the family when he began his cultivation journey.
Inside, the layout was simple. One bedroom with a King-size bed and a tall, narrow window. A living room, sparsely decorated with a few scrolls and a small tea table. Two side rooms, one reserved for cultivation, with floor cushions and incense holders, and another set up as a study, with a small bookshelf, a desk, and a chair. In the back was a bathroom, plain but clean.
The front yard was wide and flat, with carefully trimmed grass and stepping stones. It was mostly used for training, though today, it is quiet.
Arriving home, Tianlei walked straight into the study room. He placed the jade slip gently on the desk, its pale green color catching a bit of the afternoon light. Then he stepped over to the small bookshelf, only four shelves high, made of dark wood and neatly arranged. The entire bookshelf was filled with books of all sorts, and Tianlei had read all of them at least once since coming to this world.
As he scanned the spines of the books, his expression grew a little more thoughtful. He hadn't always been here. He wasn't from the Guixu World.
In another life, he had been born on Earth, a completely different world with no Qi and no cultivation. His parents had passed when he was still a toddler, lost in an accident he didn't even remember. However, they had left behind a fortune for him.
Too young to claim it himself, the government assigned him a guardian. Legally, the man was his father, but emotionally, he was little more than a babysitter. In fact, the guardian hadn't seen him as a person but as an investment, a tool he could raise, polish, and one day use to gain a lot of money.
That kind of upbringing taught Tianlei early on how to take care of himself, rely on his own instincts, think before speaking, and read the room before taking any kind of action. He was forced to mature early to avoid being taken advantage of by older individuals who wanted his parents' money.
After arriving in this world and being reborn in the body of a baby, he became even more careful of his surroundings. He watched, listened, and gathered as much information about the world as he could. Then, when he learned to read and walk, he began absorbing everything he could about this world. He went into the family's library and read as many books about the common sense of this world as possible, gathering the ones he was allowed to and keeping them in his room.
Knowledge was something no one could take from you, and Li Tianlei never liked being ignorant of things that could affect his livelihood.
Thinking about that, his fingers paused on a plain book with a faded cover. He pulled it out and opened to a bookmarked page. It was a beginner's guide to combat theory, nothing advanced, just the basics.
"There are three main types of fighting knowledge," Tianlei muttered aloud as he read. "Disciplines, techniques, and spells…"
Spells were straightforward. They involved manipulating Qi to produce effects like fireballs, water whips, healing others, and illusions. In simpler terms, they were used for long to medium-range combat.
Techniques were different. They were like fighting sequences, a collection of coordinated moves meant for close-quarters or short bursts of movement. You could think of them like combos in video games. Unlike spells, they were often physical and required precise body control.
And then there were martial disciplines, which were specialized forms of fighting styles that defined how a cultivator moved, attacked, and defended based on their weapon or body. They served as the foundation or vehicle for executing techniques and moves. Taekwondo, for example, was a martial discipline. Swordsmanship, spearmanship, karate, and boxing were all examples of martial disciplines.
Reading up to that point, Tianlei nodded slowly.
"So that's why Grandfather gave me a jade slip about swordsmanship... It's not a technique yet, it's the discipline, the basics," he thought, as if realizing the intentions behind his grandfather's actions.
In the realm he was currently in, the Body Refining Realm, he couldn't perform any techniques, moves, or spells. However, learning the discipline and becoming familiar with it would help when he eventually began studying techniques and spells. It would also help him identify what style suited him best early on, as all disciplines had different styles within them.
Satisfied, Tianlei closed the book and returned it to the shelf. Then he walked back to his desk and sat down. The jade slip still sat where he had left it, so he picked it up and held it in his right hand before taking a deep breath. Closing his eyes, he focused on the small pool of Qi resting in his dantian. With some effort, he moved the Qi upward through his arm and into the hand holding the jade slip.
The moment the Qi connected, the slip glowed faintly, and a rush of information about swordsmanship surged into his mind.
He winced slightly, blinking as his head tilted forward.
"...Okay, that's... a lot," he said, feeling a slight headache. However, the discomfort quickly faded, and his eyes slowly opened.
He stared at the ceiling, his expression distant and a little dazed. It felt as if someone had dumped an entire manual into his brain at once, and now he had to sort through it all.
Leaning back in the chair, he let the jade slip rest on the desk again. Its original green color had faded, turning a dull gray, a sign that the information had been fully extracted.
His fingers tapped lightly on the wooden surface as he tried to organize the flood of information in his head, breaking it down into pieces he could understand and use.
...
After about twenty minutes of careful thinking and quiet breathing, Li Tianlei finally managed to sort through the mess of information that had rushed into his mind. The sword basics from the jade slip weren't overwhelming anymore. They now sat neatly in his memory, labeled, arranged, and ready to be put into practice. He leaned back in the chair, exhaling slowly, satisfied with what he had done.
But just as his thoughts began to settle, a soft glow lit up deep inside his sea of consciousness, the mental space where his thoughts, spiritual energy, and intent gathered.
His eyes widened slightly.
"…What is that?"
At the center of that quiet inner space, something had started to shine. A stone tablet, dull and motionless since the day he was reborn into this world, was now gently glowing, light flickering across its rough, ancient surface. Tianlei stared at it in his mind. It was still the same as always—gray, solid, with faint carvings he had never been able to read. But this was the first time it had shown any sign of activity. Ever.
"It's never done this before," he said, tilting his head slightly, trying to think about what could have caused the stone tablet to react.
"I've had it for ten years, since I was a baby. It's always just been there like a rock in the corner of my mind," he thought, remembering all the attempts he had made to learn more about it. However, as he tried to figure out what was different today, his eyes suddenly landed on the jade slip that had turned gray and still rested on his desk.
"The only new thing today… is the sword knowledge," he said slowly, his eyes narrowing. "So maybe… the knowledge made it react?" he continued, curiosity beginning to stir, mixed with a spark of excitement.
He focused on the newly organized information still sitting in his mind—all the sword forms, footwork tips, and breathing techniques he had just learned. He imagined gathering it all into a single bundle, just to see what would happen.
To his surprise, the knowledge responded.
It gently condensed, like mist rolling into a sphere, until it became a glowing orb of light floating inside his sea of consciousness. Then, his instincts told him what to do next.
He guided the glowing orb forward, pushing it toward the stone tablet. The moment it touched the surface, the orb sank inside without resistance, like water vanishing into dry soil.
Then something unexpected happened. The original carvings on the stone tablet disappeared, and a timer appeared in their place. The timer read: [10:00:00]
Tianlei blinked, confused.
"…A timer?" he asked, watching as it ticked down, second by second.
He leaned back in his chair, lips pressed together in thought.
"So it's doing something with the knowledge," he said quietly. That was the only conclusion that made sense. He furrowed his brow as he searched for other explanations, but none came to mind, so he simply relaxed again.
"Well… it doesn't feel dangerous. And honestly, even if it was, I don't think I could do much about it," he said, laughing softly to himself. The sound was dry, but not bitter.
"No point in panicking over things you can't control," he finished, a carefree smile forming on his face. It was one of the few habits from his old life that had stuck.
He sat like that for a few more minutes, just watching the timer count down. Gradually, boredom began to creep in, prompting him to shift his gaze to the floating light particles surrounding the tablet. They were oddly hypnotic, spinning slowly and evenly spaced, as if dancing to a rhythm he didn't understand.
On a whim, he focused on one of them, and to his surprise, it stopped moving.
He blinked, startled.
Then, with greater concentration, he tried to move it.
It took effort, but after a few seconds, the small particle drifted in the direction he willed it to go. He smiled, a small spark of pride lighting up his eyes.
"So… I can control them?" he said, the spark of excitement growing brighter.
He had turned ten about half a month ago and remembered noticing one new particle appearing each day since then. At first, he had panicked, not knowing why strange glowing lights would appear inside his mind. But when nothing happened after a few days, he had stopped worrying and simply ignored them.
Now, standing in his sea of consciousness, looking at nothing else but the stone tablet and those floating lights, a new thought occurred to him.
"What happens if I feed the particles into the tablet?"
Without hesitation, he took one of them and gently pushed it toward the tablet. The moment it touched the surface, the timer ticked down by one hour.
[08:43:51]
Tianlei's eyes widened in surprise. Now that he understood the function of the light particles, he gathered eight more in a single mental sweep and pushed them into the tablet. Instantly, the timer dropped to:
[00:43:40]
He stared at it for a second, both amazed and nervous. If he used one more particle from the remaining six, he would end the timer early. But he didn't know what would happen afterward, and that uncertainty made him hesitate.
His heart thumped.
"Do I finish it…?" he asked, slightly apprehensive. Tianlei wasn't a coward, but he didn't like handling things he knew nothing about. For all he knew, it could explode, erase his memories, or do nothing at all. However, after a moment of thought, he gritted his teeth.
The timer would eventually reach zero anyway. Why wait and worry when he could find out the result now?
"I ain't ever been a coward," he muttered under his breath. Then he controlled one more light particle and thrust it into the tablet.
The moment it sank in, the entire tablet flared with light, a pale gold radiance that lit up his entire sea of consciousness. Then, without warning, a massive ball of light burst out of the tablet and exploded, flooding his inner world with white. His mind went blank, and for a moment, he genuinely thought he was dead.
"Please let reincarnation be real again," he thought reflexively. However, the light didn't hurt, but something incredible happened.
The information from the jade slip returned. Only this time, it was more perfect, organized, and condensed than before.
It wasn't just notes scattered in his memory anymore. It had become a structured manual, like someone had cleaned up the mess and left behind a polished final draft. Every stance, every movement, every principle was laid out like a training map. Even better, some of the movements had been subtly improved beyond what the jade slip originally described. The movements were sharper, cleaner, and more efficient than described before.
Tianlei stared for a long while, trying to make sense of it. After a couple of seconds, he opened his eyes, and the glow vanished, the tablet returning to silence. He then looked around his quiet study room, his eyes still wide with disbelief.
Then he whispered: "…Is this my golden finger?"