The Lin siblings shared the meal at the small table in the room. Lin Wanrou chatted about her life at the Soaring Clouds Pavilion, about her strict but fair master, and about the latest gossip from the Lin Clan compound.
Lin Yun listened, interjecting occasionally, carefully mimicking the behavior of the original owner. It was a warm, familial scene that felt both foreign and comforting to his soul, which had been alone for so long on Earth.
After the meal, Lin Wanrou checked his pulse one last time, ensuring her healing had taken full effect. "Your energy reserves are still low, but the foundation is stable. Rest today. No more crazy purification practices, understand?"
"I promise," Lin Yun said, raising his hands in surrender.
With a final, fond ruffle of his hair, Lin Wanrou took her leave, a white whirlwind departing as suddenly as she had arrived. The courtyard felt instantly quieter, emptier.
Lin Yun let out a long, deep sigh of relief, his shoulders slumping. That was close. He had successfully navigated his first major familial interaction. The lie had held.
Alone again, his mind immediately returned to business. He had lost a day. He needed to check his system.
Closing his eyes, he willed the golden interface into view. He went straight to the [Daily Missions] tab.
A flicker of disappointment went through him. The quests from yesterday were gone, replaced by a fresh set of five. He wondered if he'd missed anything rare, anything as valuable as the Enhanced Ingredient Purifier skill. There was no way to know now.
He scanned today's list.
[F-Rank: Meditate for two hours. Reward: 10 EXP.]
[E-Rank: Successfully refine any pill 3 times. Reward: 15 EXP.]
[D-Rank: Gather 5 Moonlit Dewdrops from the academy's spirit grass fields before dawn. Reward: 20 EXP.]
[C-Rank: Achieve "Middle-Grade" quality on a Qi Gathering Pill. Reward: 40 EXP, 10 Low-Grade Spirit Stones.]
[B-Rank: Your cultivation base has reached a bottleneck. Break through to the 3rd Level of the Qi Condensation Realm. Reward: 100 EXP, Random Low-Grade Cultivation Technique.]
The missions were… underwhelming. The rewards were standard, and the tasks were either simple grinds or currently out of his reach. The B-Rank mission, in particular, highlighted his most pressing issue.
Break through to the 3rd Level of the Qi Condensation Realm.
This brought a crucial question to the forefront of his mind, one he had been avoiding.
How do I actually improve my cultivation?
In the game, it was simple. You refined pills. You completed missions. You gained EXP. When you had enough EXP, you clicked a button and your "Cultivation Base" level went up. It was abstracted, automated.
But this was real life. He was in a real body, with a real dantian and real meridians. The system panel showed his cultivation base was at the 2nd Level of the Qi Condensation Realm, but it felt like a label on an empty bottle.
Did he need to do what every other cultivator did? Sit cross-legged, circulate energy, and painstakingly absorb World Spirit Qi to fill his dantian? Was the system's EXP just a representation of that process, or was it something else entirely?
He focused on the system, trying to find an answer. He navigated through the tabs. There was no "Cultivate" button. There was no "Absorb Energy" command.
His gaze fell on the [Inventory] and the two pill recipes. The Qi Gathering Pill. Its purpose was in its name—to gather Qi, to aid cultivation.
A theory began to form. Perhaps the system's mechanics were still in effect, but they were now integrated with the reality of this world. Maybe he couldn't just click a button to level up. Maybe he needed to use the pills he refined.
The EXP from missions and successful refinements might represent a permission slip from the system, allowing his body to safely and efficiently absorb the pill's energy and break through bottlenecks without the usual risks.
It made sense. It merged the game's logic with the world's physics.
So, his path forward was clear. He needed to refine pills. Lots of them. And he needed to consume them to turn the system's abstract "EXP" into tangible power.
First, he needed to complete the simple daily missions to build up a buffer of EXP and resources. Then, he would tackle the actual pill refinement.
With a mental command, Lin Yun accepted all five daily missions. There was no harm in it. If he couldn't complete them before the reset, they would simply vanish and be replaced by new ones tomorrow.
Lin Yun found a simple wooden recliner tucked away in a corner of the main room. It was sturdy, worn smooth with use. Dragging it out into the small backyard of his courtyard, he placed it facing the vast, shimmering lake.
The sun was beginning its descent, painting the sky in breathtaking hues of orange, purple, and gold. The surface of the spirit lake glittered like a sheet of scattered jewels, reflecting the dying light.
He sank into the recliner with a long, weary sigh. The evening breeze was cool and carried the fresh, clean scent of water and spiritual plants. It was peaceful. Profoundly, unnervingly peaceful.
He let his mind drift, no longer fighting the current of memory and thought. Three days. It had only been three days since he'd gone to sleep in his cramped, rented apartment in Shanghai.
The memory was jarringly vivid—the blue glow of his dual monitors, the hum of the computer fan, the lingering smell of instant noodles, the ache in his lower back from sitting too long. He could almost feel the weight of the debt he carried, the pressure of his dead-end job, the quiet anxiety about his future.
It felt like a dream. No. This felt like a dream. The pristine academy, the beautiful lake, the cultivation, the system... it was all too fantastical. Part of him, the part that had debugged code for a living, kept waiting to wake up. To find himself slumped over his keyboard, having dozed off after another sixteen-hour shift.
And then the questions came, crashing over him like a cold wave. Questions he had been too busy, too shocked, too focused on immediate survival to ask.
What happened to my body on Earth?