The streets of Grey Mist City were a suffocating tapestry of noise, grime, and despair.
To the wealthy merchants riding in carriages pulled by Spirit Horses, the city was a bustling trade hub. But to Kai and Lian, walking through the lower districts, it was a labyrinth of survival. The ground was slick with mud, and the air smelled of unwashed bodies and burning coal.
Kai walked slowly, his steps measured. Every movement sent a jolt of ache through his recovering muscles, but he refused to show weakness. Lian walked close to him, her head bowed low, using her matted black hair to hide the scarred side of her face from the passing crowds.
Whenever someone walked too close, she flinched.
"Head up, Lian," Kai whispered, his voice low but firm. "Do not bow to them. The ground has nothing to offer you but dirt."
Lian looked up at him, her dark eyes wide with confusion. She didn't understand why her brother, usually so timid, now spoke like a weary general commanding a beaten army. But she obeyed, straightening her thin back just a fraction.
Kai wasn't just looking at the crowd; he was analyzing it.
[Active Skill: Eye of Insight (Level 1)]
As he scanned the street, translucent boxes floated above the heads of the people.
[Target: Human Male] [Cultivation: None (Mortal)] [Status: Healthy]
[Target: Shop Guard] [Cultivation: Body Tempering - Stage 2] [Threat: High]
It was just as he remembered from the game's data. This was the "Common District." Most people here were mortals. The few cultivators were merely bulky thugs at the Body Tempering stage—the physical stage before one could even sense Qi.
'I am currently weaker than a chicken,' Kai noted grimly as he looked at his own trembling hands. 'If a Body Tempering thug punches me, I'll die instantly. I have less than 23 hours to reach Qi Refining Stage 1 or the System kills me. I need spiritual energy. Now.'
In the game, a player would usually start by doing a fetch quest for a generic NPC to get a "Low-Grade Spirit Stone." But Kai didn't have time for errands.
He needed a shortcut.
He stopped at a crossroads. To the left was the market. To the right, the path led toward the richer district where the Alchemy Pavilions were located.
"Brother?" Lian tugged his sleeve. "The food stalls are that way... the bakers throw out crusts at noon."
"We aren't begging today," Kai said, turning right. "We are going shopping."
Lian blinked. "Shopping? But... we have no coins."
"We don't need coins," Kai smirked, though it looked grim on his gaunt face. "We need trash."
The Golden Cauldron Pavilion was a third-rate alchemy shop on the edge of the merchant district. It wasn't prestigious enough to serve the great Sects, but it sold basic healing powders and strength pills to local guards and hunters.
The front entrance was guarded by two burly men with crossed spears. The air around the shop smelled faintly of medicinal herbs, a stark contrast to the sewage smell of the slums.
Kai didn't approach the front. He led Lian around the block, navigating through a narrow, rat-infested alley that ran behind the shop.
There, they found it. A large wooden chute protruded from the back of the building, dumping a pile of steaming, black sludge and withered plant stems into a massive stone bin.
"Wait here," Kai commanded softly.
"Brother, that's... that's alchemy waste," Lian whispered, wrinkling her nose at the acrid, chemical smell. "It's poisonous. If you touch it, your skin will burn."
"For normal people, yes," Kai muttered, stepping toward the bin. "But for me, it's a buffet."
He knew the mechanics of Empire Among the Sects perfectly. Low-level Alchemists were incompetent. When they refined herbs, they often failed to extract more than 30% of the medicinal essence. The rest was discarded as "slag." To a Master Alchemist, this slag was garbage. But to a starving boy with a Peerless Emperor System, it was raw material.
Kai reached into the bin. The black sludge was hot.
[Item Detected: Scorched Spirit Grass Residue.] [Quality: Trash.] [Contains trace amounts of Fire Qi and impurities.]
[Item Detected: Shattered Blood Ginseng Root.] [Quality: Trash.] [Contains trace amounts of Vitality Qi.]
'Perfect,' Kai thought.
"System, open Inner World."
Whoosh.
A ripple of invisible energy distorted the air around his hand. To Lian's eyes, it looked like Kai was just digging in the trash. But in reality, every handful of "useless" stems and sludge he grabbed vanished into thin air, sucked directly into his inventory.
[Stored: 2 lbs of Spirit Waste.] [Stored: 4 lbs of Spirit Waste.]
Suddenly, the back door of the shop creaked open.
"Hey! You rats!"
A fat man wearing a grey apprentice robe stepped out, holding a bucket of slop. He saw Kai near the bin and sneered. "I told you beggars to stay away! This waste attracts spirit rats, and I don't want to clean up your corpses!"
He grabbed a broom standing by the door and swung it at Kai.
"Get lost!"
Kai saw the broom coming. In his mind, he knew exactly how to dodge—a simple side-step and a counter-strike to the man's exposed gut. But his body betrayed him. His legs were too slow.
Thwack!
The broom handle slammed into Kai's shoulder, sending him sprawling into the mud. Pain flared up, hot and blinding.
"Brother!" Lian shrieked.
Unlike before, she didn't cower. The moment she saw Kai fall, something feral snapped in her eyes. She lunged forward, not at the man, but at his leg, sinking her teeth into his calf like a rabid wolf.
"Aaaargh! You little bitch!" The apprentice howled, dropping the broom and shaking his leg violently. He raised his hand, gathering a faint, white glow—Qi. Even a failed apprentice had enough strength to kill a child with a slap.
Kai's eyes widened. Eye of Insight flashed red. [Threat Critical.]
"Lian, let go!" Kai roared.
He grabbed a handful of the black alchemy sludge from the ground and flung it with all his might at the man's face.
The hot, semi-toxic sludge splattered into the apprentice's eyes and open mouth.
"Gah! My eyes! It burns!"
The apprentice stumbled back, clawing at his face. The "poisonous" nature of the waste was mild, but applied directly to the eyes, it was agonizing.
"Run!"
Kai scrambled up, grabbed Lian's hand, and dragged her away. They sprinted out of the alley, lungs burning, adrenaline masking their hunger, until they disappeared into the labyrinth of the slums.
Twenty minutes later, they collapsed inside a ruined stone structure on the outskirts of the city.
It used to be a shrine to some local river deity, but the roof had collapsed long ago, leaving only three walls and a dry stone floor. It was hidden by overgrown weeds, making it a decent temporary hideout.
Kai leaned against the cold stone wall, clutching his bruised shoulder. He was panting heavily, his face pale.
Lian was trembling, but she wasn't crying. She was checking his shoulder with frantic hands. "Did he break it? Does it hurt?"
Kai looked at her. Her mouth was stained with the blood of the apprentice she had bitten. She looked terrifying. She looked... perfect.
"I'm fine," Kai wheezed, managing a grin. "You... you have good teeth, Lian."
Lian wiped her mouth, looking down at her hands. "He hit you."
"He did. And I will remember that," Kai said, his voice dropping an octave. "The apprentice of the Golden Cauldron... I'll remember his face."
He closed his eyes. He couldn't waste time on revenge yet. The clock was ticking.
[Time Remaining: 18 Hours.]
"Lian, I need to sleep... or something like it," Kai said. "Do not let anyone enter. Can you do that?"
Lian nodded fiercely. She picked up a heavy, jagged rock from the rubble and sat by the entrance. "No one enters."
Kai closed his eyes and focused his mind.
'System. Enter Inner World.'
The sensation was like falling backward into water.
When Kai opened his eyes, he wasn't in the ruined shrine. He was standing in a circular stone hall. The floor was polished black marble. In the center stood a magnificent bronze cauldron, large enough to cook a cow whole. It was engraved with dragons and phoenixes.
This was his Inner World. Currently, it was small—only this room and a misty void beyond the edges—but it was his domain.
A pile of the disgusting black sludge and withered stems he had stolen lay on the floor.
[Alchemy Hall Level 1 Active.] [Material Detected: Mixed Spirit Waste.] [Recipe Suggestion: "Purified Spirit Liquid" (Grade: Low).] [Success Rate: 100% (System Assisted).]
"Refine," Kai commanded.
An invisible force lifted the pile of trash and dumped it into the bronze cauldron. Whoosh! A silver flame ignited beneath the cauldron—the System Flame. It wasn't real fire; it was pure data and energy.
Kai watched as the black sludge boiled, hissed, and evaporated. The impurities—the toxins and the dirt—turned into gray smoke and vanished into the void. What remained at the bottom of the cauldron was a small amount of liquid.
It wasn't black anymore. It was a glowing, pale green liquid. About half a cup.
[Refinement Complete.] [Obtained: Low-Grade Spirit Extract x1 vial.] [Effect: Contains raw, unrefined Qi. Dangerous for Mortals, but usable by possessors of the Dragon Sutra.]
Kai didn't hesitate. In this mental space, he willed the liquid to float toward him and swallowed it.
Boom.
In reality, inside the ruined shrine, Kai's physical body convulsed.
It felt like he had swallowed a mouthful of burning coals. The energy exploded in his stomach and rampaged through his fragile body.
'Focus!'
Kai mentally activated the technique the System had given him. [Primordial Celestial Dragon Sutra.]
Most cultivation techniques were like gentle streams, guiding Qi slowly through the body. The Dragon Sutra was different. It was violent. It didn't guide the Qi; it conquered it.
Imagine your blood is a river, Kai recited the mnemonic from the game. Imagine your bones are mountains.
He forced the chaotic energy from the Spirit Extract to obey. He pushed it into his meridians—the energy pathways of the body. They were blocked with the filth of a life of poverty. The Qi slammed into the blockages like a battering ram.
Crack.
Pain shot through his spine. He gritted his teeth so hard he thought they would shatter. Black sweat, smelling of tar, began to ooze from his pores. This was the "Marrow Cleansing"—the expulsion of impurities.
"Break!" Kai screamed in his mind.
The barrier to the cultivation world was tough, but the Dragon Sutra was a cheat code from the heavens. With one final push, the blockage shattered.
The burning sensation vanished, replaced by a cool, refreshing wave that washed over every cell in his body. He could feel it. The air around him wasn't empty anymore; it was filled with faint motes of light.
[Ding!] [Congratulation Host.] [Breakthrough Successful.] [Current Realm: Qi Refining - Stage 1.]
[Quest Completed: Survival.] [Reward: +10 System Points, "Basic Weapon Lottery Ticket" x1.]
Kai opened his eyes.
The world looked sharper. He could hear the heartbeat of a mouse scurrying in the grass outside. He could feel the strength in his arms—not much, perhaps only equal to an adult man now, but compared to the starving child he was an hour ago, he felt like Hercules.
He looked at his hand. It was covered in a layer of disgusting black grime—the impurities expelled from his body.
"Brother?"
Lian's voice came from the entrance. She was staring at him, her nose twitching. "You... you smell terrible. Worse than the trash."
Kai laughed. It was a genuine, loud laugh. He stood up, wiping the grime from his face.
"I know, Lian. I know."
He walked over to her. He was still thin, but he didn't slouch anymore. He stood straight, radiating a faint, invisible pressure.
"The smell is the scent of weakness leaving my body," Kai said, looking at the setting sun. "We survived the first day."
He clenched his fist, feeling the Qi humming beneath his skin. Stage 1. It was the lowest of the low. Even a shop guard was Stage 2 or 3. But he had done it in an hour using trash.
"Now," Kai said, his eyes gleaming with a predatory light. "We have 10 System Points and a Lottery Ticket. Let's see what weapons the Heavens have gifted us to conquer this hellhole."