《Main Character in Author's World》 Prologue A I was out of station at the time. And thank god I was out that day. Otherwise I would have been caught up in it too. If you don''t know what I am talking about then read the Newspaper Article I have attached. Ambala Daily Nuclear Attack on Ambala. Declaration of War or Something Else? 5th July, 2017, Ambala: On 5th July, Ambala was struck by an apocalypse. Experts are saying that it was nuclear attack but they are not sure of it. "Many things are wrong here. First of all the radiation levels are off the charts. The destruction levels are either too much or too little to justify them. Then the destruction seems to focused in just one region, as if it was only meant for that area and the rest is just collateral damage. We truly don''t know of any weapon like this." The military forces are saying that the attack did not come from outside the city.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. "Ambala is... was a cantonement area. The Kharga Corps would have definitely notified headquarters if such was the case. We are also confused as to how could a weapon of such capabilities be transported inside the city without anyone knowing." Some of the more prominent personalities have given their statements as follows: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is blaming Prime Minister Modi for the attack. Anti-Pakistan activists are blaming Pakistan for the attack, while Pro-Pakistan activists are saying it was a ploy by the Indian government to instigate a war and destroy Pakistan. USA President Donald Trump is saying that it was because India allowed muslims to live in the country. Many people also seem to agree with him. Incidently, many of those people are certified mental retards. The (dis)advantaged groups (SC, ST, OBC) are demanding more reservation for them, saying that many general category people are blaming them for the incident and this shows that caste discrimination is still prevalent in the country. Right now, no one knows what happened and how it happened. But the moment new information comes in, we will be the first to let you know. Prologue B It was summer vacations. I had gone to kullu manali with my family to enjoy the cold and the snow. We were on our way back and had stopped at a highway dhaba to stretch our muscles and eat something for dinner. I was walking around the area, seeing the happenings around me. I had noticed it some years back, but my dreams weren¡¯t like the dreams of the normal people. For one, I could stay conscious inside my dreams and perfectly remember everything that I did there. Then, once there, I could set up any kind of system I want, configure the forces and whatever else I want to work, and let the system go off, then note down the results. It was a really big help in understanding all the theoretical physics and chemistry. Then I got bored of that, so I decided to follow my dream (not the one that comes when sleeping but the ¡®aim¡¯ type). I wanted to become an author. But it was difficult to create a world in my imagination and fit every minor and major character perfectly. But I didn¡¯t need to do this. I had my own cheat. Ever since then, I had been, slowly but surely, making up a world in my dreamscape (that is what I have decided to call my ability). It was a massive world with a very detailed history. The only thing left now, was to actually start it. I just needed that inspiration, that spark, that something which will start the story and get it rolling. Then I saw it. I was walking around absent-mindedly when I saw a child playing on the road and no one watching after him. On the horizon I saw a truck coming this way and thought -¡¯Isn¡¯t this child a bit too young to become truck-kun¡¯s victim? Should I make him the MC? No, he is too young. Then would jump to save him and die in the process? Maybe that person will do?¡¯ While I was thinking about such things, I saw a person jump onto the road to push the child away. But it seems that his calculations were wrong (or maybe right?) as the child was pushed before the wheels on the other side and the person himself got a flattened head by the tyres on his side. Both of them died on the spot. I am no doctor but I don¡¯t think they have any chance of living without a head with our current level of medical technology. A lot of brain matter mixed with blood and bone was littered around the scene, and it painted a rather beautiful scenery, in my honest opinion. I also want to vomit, maybe scream a bit too, like the others but that isn¡¯t me. The picture is just so¡­ so philosophical. It perfectly demonstrates the mortality of living beings (I am really confused as to what it is that make the living beings, living beings and cannot be achieved by technology of sufficient level). So, I took some photos for the future. After almost half an hour, we finally left the dhaba and started making our way home. Right now, everyone, save the driver and I, is asleep. The driver is, well, driving and I am thinking. I can''t help but remember that scene from the accident again and again. Ughhh! I feel so gross now. It seemed so beautiful at that time. But now... ughhh. This is the 5th time that I have vomited by now. Even my parents got tired of worrying for me and are now fast asleep. It was so difficult for me to delete those photos that I took. I think I eye-raped myself with those. Is that even a thing? Moreover, does it count if I am the victim as well as the criminal? By the way, I have decided on my MC. No, not the kid. The other person, who jumped on the kid and got himself killed.
My name is Akshay. I am 26 this year. In school, I always came first in class. Well, not always, but I did come first from class 1 to class 5. After that, well, I found some people whom I could call friends. They weren¡¯t good in studies and I somehow got pulled down to their level. After that, I could never come back up again. Not that I tried hard enough anyways. Even though they were the ones who pulled me down, it wasn¡¯t them who kept me down. I got addicted¡­ to drugs. Na! Just kidding, I don¡¯t have money for that. I would rather save it to buy some gems in COC and then forget about buying them and leave it in my bank account where it would accumulate interest and help me when I am looking for a job.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. No, I got addicted to something much worse. NOVELS!! The thing that makes it worse, is that everyone actually encourages you to read more. And there aren¡¯t any direct relations between bad health (physical/mental/academic/whatever) and them, so there aren¡¯t any warnings about over-reading. At first, it was just a small novel that my sister got for me from one of her friends. Who knew I would get so addicted to novels that I started reading them everyday. I would download a pdf file on my phone or computer and read whenever I could get a chance. I lost my sleep just so that I could read a chapter more. I started cutting on my study time to read more novels. And I always justified myself by saying that I am not wasting time by playing games or chatting with friends and that reading will improve my vocabulary and grammar. Whenever someone asked me what I was doing, I would say I am reading/studying (both have the same word in hindi) and then no one would disturb me. I always somehow maintained my above average marks. So no one bothered me. I never really had any friends. The ones I did, I lost them to novels. But, it wasn¡¯t as bad. I could still live. But then one day, I couldn¡¯t find anything more to read and started thinking. That day was the day that ruined my life. I started thinking of the flaws in our education system. And there were just too many of them. Whenever I told someone my thoughts, they would say, that it has always been like that and that I should accept it. My mother always said that I should just shut up and study and get a good job. My father would ask what purpose would thinking of a better education system serve to me? My friends would just ignore me. I got isolated. Then I started thinking of suicide. But then I was a coward. I couldn¡¯t even write a letter to a newspaper editor which my school had taught me my whole life how to do as if paper-letters were the new fab. Then I started thinking of those isekai novels and thus began my lookout for potential truck-kuns. But whenever I was just about to jump in front of them, I wouldn¡¯t be able to. I was such a coward. After college, I somehow got a job in a company as a software developer. My team had planned a trip to Kullu Manali for this summer. Everything was like always. Everyone was chatting with each other, while I was sitting in a corner and thinking of what to do with my life. We were currently in a dhaba on the way. I suddenly saw a child from the corner of my eyes. A truck was coming this way and the child was totally oblivious to it. I immediately jumped from my seat and ran to save him. Of course, my real motivation was that I would finally be able to force myself in Truck-kun¡¯s path. ¡®Maybe I can finally die and be reborn in a fantasy world where I will be able to live a fulfilling life filled with adventures and a harem?¡¯ After I pushed the child out of the harm¡¯s way, I thought, maybe I will remembered as a hero by the boy? It would certainly feel good. It might also the god/goddess, who governs reincarnation, more sympathetic towards me. But I couldn¡¯t think a lot before I was pushed into the a black blacker than Vantablack. How do I know? No idea, I am just guessing about its blackness here. After spending an infinite number of eternities, I finally came to myself and saw a light at the edges of my perception. I forced myself to wake up and see what was around me. At first, it was only a faint light at just the edges, then it started to engulf me. When I was fully enveloped, the light all came towards me. I don¡¯t know how I know that, but i felt like a black hole, eating, absorbing all the energy around me, never stopping till there wasn¡¯t anything left. But I could feel that the light wasn¡¯t actually being absorbed but concentrated. Then, it exploded. My consciousness expanded till I felt like I reached the walls of this infinite plane. It wasn¡¯t like a metaphorical expansion or a likable one. It was the explosion expansion. It was only with sheer determination, that I could keep myself together. I could feel myself tearing apart. I knew I couldn¡¯t hold on for much longer. But I didn¡¯t need to. As suddenly as I had exploded, I, kind of, imploded and came back back to be a small point. Then I saw it. A door of light in front of me. I willed myself to reach it, and finally, after another infinite number of eternities, I motherf***ing reached it! Chapter 1 The branch head of the eighth branch of the Kartlyn clan, Ren Kartlyn, was pacing outside his bedroom. He was a big man of almost 5¡¯8¡¯¡¯ with just a bit of grey in his jet black hair. His wife, Leena Trianne, was currently inside, fighting a battle of her own. She was pregnant and today was the day. After a few pained shouts from his wife, came the cries of an infant. On hearing them, Ren immediately charged inside the room and found his wife exhausted on the bed and a young girl of fifteen, Riya Kartlyn, his student, holding a baby in her arms. ¡°Give me my child!¡± He immediately rushed to her and snatched the child away, scaring her in the process. She had nearly fallen over with the baby still in her arms. ¡°Oh my sweet little girl! Say papa? Come on now, say papa.¡± ¡°Master, it¡¯s a boy,¡± Riya said after getting over her initial scare. Anyone would get used to his occasional antics after being with him for so long. ¡°Huh?¡± Ren checked the baby all over, and finally, after a full two seconds, saw it. ¡°Ohhh! Oh my sweet little boy! Say papa? Come on now, say papa.¡± Even though Leena was exhausted, she still laughed very hard at that along with the other two.
There are four major realms in this world along with some minor realms. Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. This realm is Alpha. Then there are five Empires and a number of smaller countries in the realm. This one is Green Dragon Empire. The Green Dragon Empire is divided into ten provinces and the capital, Centralle. The tenth province further has a number of small and big cities. This city is the Sunfire City, located on the outskirts of the province. The Kartlyn clan is one of the top ten clans in Green Dragon Empire. Their eight branch is the latest addition who offshooted from the fifth branch. The eighth branch is the current ruler of the Sunfire city. In addition to the Kartlyn clan, there are two more clan branches and a sect with above average influence in the city. The fifth branch of the Trianne clan famous for their money and ¡®Spendor¡¯s Haven¡¯, the biggest auction house in the Empire and the Sayana clan, a local hegemon. The Artificer Hall is the biggest sect in the area and makes high quality artifacts. This was what Lye Kartlyn, heir of the eight branch and a soon to be 5 years old child understood about the place where he lived. There are also cultivators here. They absorb the qi of the world and understand the dao to gain immortality. After a month, when Lye will be 5 years old, he will start his cultivation. Recently, he had started seeing some strange dreams, of places he had never seen before, of events he couldn¡¯t even think about. But, since they were dreams and he was also very small, he always forgot about them quite quickly after waking up. But tonight was different. When he got embraced by the calmness of sleepiness, he started feeling as if he was leaving his body. Strangely, this experience seemed rather familiar to him. The moment he felt himself severing the last connection to his body, all he perceived around himself was a bright, pure white light. Then he felt as if he was expanding outwards in every direction at the speed of light. After an eternity of expanding, he started contracting into a tiny point, a singularity. When he came to himself after that, all he saw was a world of white around him. It was a room, pure white, furnitured with two white sofas and a white table. On the table were some biscuits and 2 glasses filled a white liquid. On one of the sofas was¡­ me (the author). While Lye was watching around, I called out to him,¡±Lye, come sit here. I need to tell you something.¡±Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Like an obedient child, he complied and sat down in front of me. He seemed rather reserved. ¡°Afraid of me? You don¡¯t have to worry about anything here. Wanna eat something. It''s just some warm milk and biscuits. Try them.¡± I said while dipping a biscuit into my glass and eating it. He clearly wanted to but the warnings that his parents gave him were completing their objective rather well. ¡°Well, I called you here to give you your memories. With the normal way, you wouldn¡¯t have retained any of your memories. It might be a bit painful but bear with it. Also, when you wake up, think ¡®Status¡¯, okay? Well then, I will be going now. Let¡¯s hope we meet again one day. Bye. Good night. Sweet Dreams. Sleep tight. Take care.¡± I said. Lye was still too dumbstruck to say anything and so he just watched me, maybe waiting for me to walk away. But it wasn¡¯t me who was going anywhere. The previous scene repeated itself and he was back in his body, awake. It was daytime now. And unlike other dreams, he could remember this one perfectly. Then came the ¡®memories¡¯ as I had called them. The assimilation was quite violent, considering his weak constitution and willpower. He couldn¡¯t help but scream out and faint right then and there. Lye woke up in the afternoon. His unconsciousness was actually a way to assimilate the memories that he had gotten. It was like he had gone to that world, lived a whole, albeit short, life and died. He finally knew what all those previous dreams were. Unlike some light novel protagonists, he didn¡¯t suffer from any identity crisis. The person in those memories, ¡®Akshay¡¯ had spent a hell of a lot of time on these topics. A person borns and died every second. A lye from a moment ago isn¡¯t the same Lye as the one now. The new memories are like a movie that he saw, just a lot more high-end than the best possible on Earth with a bit more personal attribute mixed in. Then he remembered what I had said, think ¡®Status¡¯. He couldn¡¯t even start forming thoughts on having such a system and shaking the world from its foundations. Just that thought was enough, as his mind was immediately overloaded with a lot of information.
Name Lye Kartlyn
Age 4 y Sex Male
Titles Potential Heir Of Kartyln Clan 8th Branch Main Character Affiliations Kartlyn Clan Green Dragon Empire
Mental Conditions Attention Deficiency Face-Name Dissonance Strong Memory Physical Conditions Kartlyn Bloodline
Occupations None
Constitution 5 Vitality 5
Endurance 4 Strength 4
Dexterity 6 Intelligence 7
Lifespan 10 (100y) Plot Armour Durability 10/10
Mind''s eye Max Essence Conealment Max
Absolute Mind Shield Max Plot Armour Max
The titles are just that. They don¡¯t really do anything by themselves and are gained by recognition. That is, a person could get a dragon slayer title (if it exists) if people believe that. A person can get just about any title if someone with authority (either over him, general or both) bestows it. The only benefits are just the intimacy they might provide from a group. Usually, that is.
Main Character
Get reborn in another world. Get recognition from an author.
Provides access to main character cheats
Plot Armour Passive skill. Helps the user stay alive in adverse situations.
Mind''s Eye Passive skill. Makes it easier to visualise.
Essence Concealment Passive skill. Hides Main Character related information.
Absolute Mind Wall Passive skill. Absolute defense against any kind of deep mind attacks or probes, unless given permission by the user to do so.
Kartlyn Bloodline Passively increases Qi affinity and strengthens any other bloodline in the body. Also helps in stabilising and unifying different bloodlines.
Lye was very much shocked at this. But then he started laughing very loudly. ¡°Yes!!! Finally!! I will be able to live a fulfilling life filled with adventures and a harem in a fantasy world!!¡± Chapter 2 Lye had started laughing his ass off after that. The shouts attracted all the people nearby. Some were horrified. ¡°What happened to the young master?¡±¡±Did he eat something bad?¡±¡±Could it be---¡± ¡±No, it isn¡¯t a curse or anything like that! Go and call master and madam! Now!¡± a voice yelled and entered the room. It was Riya. ¡°Young master, are you alright?¡± ¡°I am fine. I just saw a funny dream. You were in there too,¡± replied Lye. He was somehow able to make something up. Now that he thinks about it¡­ ¡°Oh, what was I doing in there?¡± ¡®Shit, I struck my own foot with my axe.¡¯ ¡°Oh yeah¡­ you were¡­ uh¡­ sorry, I don''t remember it now. I forget a lot.¡± Now time for some puppy eyes. I hope it works. I don''t think I can tell them about this right now. Maybe later. ¡°Oh. Don''t worry. It''s good that you are alright. By the way, young master, aren''t you growing up a bit too fast? Already talking about adventures and harems¡­¡± ¡°Huh? Did I? *Yawn* I am still a bit dizzy. Can I sleep some more?¡± He tried but, he is still a young boy and all that red on his cheeks really gave him away rather quickly. ¡°Hehe. Alright, I will tell the others that you are alright and want to sleep some more. And don¡¯t grow up too soon Lye. I still want to experience the joy of being an elder sister.¡± Lye didn¡¯t continue talking and acted like he was already asleep. Meanwhile, his brain couldn¡¯t help but go over the incest hentai that Akshay sometimes watched. ---------------------------- Today was the day when Lye turned 5. Starting tomorrow, his father would start teaching him how to cultivate. The clan held a celebration party, as were the customs here. Ren had said that Lye would get a surprise after the banquet so he should look forward to it. So Lye was quite excited today and couldn¡¯t stop a grin from on his face every time he wasn¡¯t busy with something else, which was almost all the time. The banquet wasn¡¯t as big as he had expected and only a few people were invited. After all, it was less of a celebration and more of a way for him to know the people who move the big things here. A person can only become a good ruler if the person knows the people to whom he is outsourcing his tasks. The first person he met was an old man who, according to his father, was his maternal uncle, his mother¡¯s brother. He was actually younger than his father, who looked like a middle aged man. ¡®It seemed the cultivation here is just like the cultivation in those novels that Akshay read.¡¯ He also met his maternal grandfather, the branch head of Trianne clan, who actually looked like an elder brother to Ren. It was really a comical sight when some young ones mistook his uncle as his father¡¯s father. Just then a young-old duo of men entered the hall. They were the current clan head, Dik Sayana, and the previous clan head, Kok Sayana, of Sayana clan. Dik Sayana seemed almost as old as his father, if not more, while Kok Sayana was a wizened old man. There was a barely hidden animosity in Dik¡¯s eyes when he saw them. Lye was never good in social conditions, so if he could feel that small hint, it was a given that his father and others would have noticed it too. Most probably. Lye hadn¡¯t really spent a lot of time with his parents and when he did, he wasn¡¯t really someone to notice the stress the small things. This was a problem with both Akshay and him. They always believed those around them fully and taking notice of others around them wasn¡¯t a primary response they had. But fortunately, since Lye knew what turned out of Akshay, he made sure to notice the things happening around him. Anyways, this could only mean that either Lye is somewhat special as the main character or that this isn¡¯t something very important. Maybe just an old rivalry or something? ¡®Yeah, let¡¯s go with that, for now.¡¯Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. He also met Zara Lamark and Corona Zen, leaders of The Artificer Hall. Zara is the highest level artificer there while Corana is the publicly acclaimed strongest and most beautiful in the city and his wife. After some chatting around, Ren told Lye to go and play with the kids. Lye understood that they wanted to talk about other matters so he just nodded his head and went to the corner where the kids were gathered. There were 6 kids- 3 boys and 3 girls. 2 of them, Em and Lia, were his uncle¡¯s kids, twins too. They were both almost 5 years old, just a few months younger than Lye. Then there were Dorian, Seira and Light, children of Zara and Corana. ¡®She really didn¡¯t seem like a mother of 3. Cultivation really is an amazing thing.¡¯ Dorian is the eldest of them at 9, then is Seira, who is almost 7 while Light was the youngest here at 3. And the last was Delia Trianne, the eldest here at 13 years of age and also somehow his aunt. She was his grandfather¡¯s daughter. Lye really had a shocked face after her revelation as everyone started laughing on seeing him. ¡®That old man¡¯s son already seems like a father to his father. He should control himself at this age, or at least use protection.¡¯ They all talked and played with each other for almost 2 hours after which the party ended. But the party wasn¡¯t actually scheduled to end this early. It was still evening right now. It had ended because Saya had done something, it seemed. How did Lye know? It was because Dik had tried to be a dick to Corana who handed his ass to him on a silver platter. Everyone knew that Dik had a crush on her since his childhood but she was always attracted to Zara. Dik had totally brought his chances to zero when he had tried to get Zara assassinated and got found out. But he still tried. And no one cared. But today, he had been a lot more direct and upfront. Moreover, his father who usually didn¡¯t take any of the sides or leaned against his son was today helping him here. But they had overestimated themselves. Or maybe we should say, they didn¡¯t have the latest information. Corana and Zara recently had a breakthrough in their cultivation, it seemed. ¡®Dual Cultivation. I am sure of it.¡¯ Lye had a bit of a blush on his face when he imagined them dual cultivating. But he quickly threw that out of his head and focused on the situation. Just before he was thrown out of the hall, he had said some ominous words which went along the lines of ¡®doing a big mistake¡¯ and ¡®will regret your decision¡¯ and ¡®I will take you for myself, no matter what.¡¯ He didn¡¯t understand why didn¡¯t they just kill him. After all, all the factions in the city against one faction should be enough. But what Lye didn¡¯t know was that none of the factions here were really on any good terms. It was a fragile peace, per se. Moreover, the other influential clans here are only branches of the true thing but the Sayana clan is the true overlord of the region. Even though being a part of the empire, they can¡¯t wage war among themselves but if we were to attack first, they have full rights to defend themselves and the main branches wouldn¡¯t be able to give a lot of help either. Anyways since the party was cut short, his father decided to accelerate his plans. He took Lye to a small but decent looking building in the city. There was just one word on the signpost. ¡°Stream¡±. When they entered, he saw that it was only a small, single room. Lye was surprised because of what he saw in there. It was a rectangular piece of glass which didn¡¯t seem any kind of special. But what made it special was what was on it and what it signified. There was a kind of unfilled form on the glass. The main thing was, it seemed exactly like the status screen that Lye had. ¡®Does everyone here have status screens? Wasn¡¯t I special because I had the ¡®system¡¯? Am I not a real main character?¡¯ Before Lye could think of anything else, a sound came from behind him. ¡°Welcome.¡± He was shocked and almost jumped into the air but calmed himself down at the last moment. There was an old man behind him. He then asked them,¡±How may I help you?¡± His voice was very calm and almost mechanical¡­ synthesised. ¡°My son has just come of age. We would like a new stream.¡± The old man nodded and pulled out a box from under the table. He then opened it and pulled out a syringe. Then he pulled out a box with some kind of grey liquid and pulled it into the syringe. Then he injected it into Lye¡¯s bloodstream. It caused a burning sensation in him which kept on increasing till, he couldn¡¯t stop himself from screaming. The very next moment, the screen with the unfilled form started filling up with words.
Name Lye Kartlyn
Age 5 y Sex Male
Titles Potential Heir Of Kartyln Clan 8th Branch Affiliations Kartlyn Clan Green Dragon Empire
Mental Conditions Attention Deficiency Face-Name Dissonance Strong Memory Physical Conditions Kartlyn Bloodline
Occupations None
Constitution 5 Vitality 5
Endurance 4 Strength 4
Dexterity 6 Intelligence 4
Lifespan 10 (100y)
Chapter 3 Lye really didn¡¯t think that status screens were an ordinary thing here. But he should have maybe expected it? This is a fantasy world afterall. But one thing he noticed was that his MC title, MC skills, value of intelligence stat were not given or were wrong. This proved that his own status screen is at least more correct. His father was a bit surprised as it usually didn¡¯t take this much time to generate the screen. Neither did it ever cause anyone any pain. Then he looked over his status screen. Ren saw that he had many mental conditions, only one of which was good. He was a bit disappointed. ¡®At least he has the normal variant¡¯ There are 3 variants of the Kartlyn Bloodline. The bloodline that Ren had was the minor variant. Suddenly, the screen flashed and the information changed. The intelligence had jumped to 5. ¡®So it scans me in real time. Was it because of my skills that it couldn¡¯t scan my whole brain. Yeah, it must be. It cannot scan my deep brain, but just now, when I thought of all those things, I took those thoughts out from my subconscious. It must have scanned my brain then and updated the status.¡¯ ¡°Child, think of everything you know.¡± The old man said. His voice was very even but at the same, the pitch wasn¡¯t constant. ¡®It¡¯s synthesised. I am sure. This man isn¡¯t living. An AI? What makes someone living anyways? Wait, this stream can read my mind. I shouldn¡¯t let it know that I know or at least think of these things.¡¯ Just after that his status updated again. The intelligence had again increased, now to 6. Ren got hopeful, but as his status kept on updating, his mental conditions didn¡¯t show a chance of going away. Lye final status was this.
Name Lye Kartlyn
Age 5 y Sex Male
Titles Potential Heir Of Kartyln Clan 8th Branch Affiliations Kartlyn Clan Green Dragon Empire
Mental Conditions Attention Deficiency Face-Name Dissonance Strong Memory Mind Shield Physical Conditions Kartlyn Bloodline
Occupations None
Constitution 5 Vitality 5
Endurance 4 Strength 4
Dexterity 6 Intelligence 7
Lifespan 10 (100y)
¡°Stream only checks your deep mind once when it is starting. It wouldn¡¯t try to see your deep mind again.¡± The old man said just before they turned to go home. ¡®As if. I don¡¯t think anyone would be so kind hearted. If only my mind shield also gave me feedback¡­ Wait, maybe that old man said that so I would think of it and let stream see my thoughts? Shit! I was had!¡¯
When they got home, they immediately went to Ren¡¯s study where his mother was. She saw Lye¡¯s status on a screen which was given to them by the old man when they were coming home. When she saw his mental conditions, she was also disappointed somewhat. Lye was focused on stream back then, so he only noticed the disappointment right now. ¡°What happened, Mom?¡± ¡°Oh it''s nothing. Tomorrow, your education will start in earnest, okay? Do well. You have to make sure our whole family can be proud of you.¡± ¡°Yes, mumma. *yawn* I am tired. Can I sleep now?¡± ¡°Oh yeah. Go and sleep. Good night.¡± His father said. ¡°Good night Lye.¡± His mother added. Lye replied back and went to his room. When he was out of earshot, Ren suddenly asked Leena,¡±Do you think he will be able to do something?¡± ¡°I have full trust in our son. I am his mother. I know. He¡¯s¡­ different. I believe he can pass the tribulation when it''s his time.¡± ¡°Will his time ever come? He has attention deficiency. He cannot meditate.¡± ¡°*Sigh* Does it even matter? Everyone knows that I cannot give birth to another child.¡± ¡°*Sigh* Yeah. It doesn''t really matter. If he has the capabilities, he will be able to succeed me, otherwise someone else will be chosen. I just hope he can make something of himself.¡± In his room, Lye was sleeping on his bed with a calm mind. Personally Lye wasn''t that much worried about his conditions. Akshay also had attention deficiency and face-name dissonance. It never proved much of a problem once he realised his condition.
The next day, he was woken up by his father early in the morning. He took Lye to the the garden and sat down on the grass and told Lye to do the same. After they were seated, he asked,¡±What do you know about cultivation, son?¡± ¡°Uhm, it can make the practitioner strong enough to seal the heavens and become an immortal?¡± Lye didn¡¯t know much about the cultivation of this world, so he hoped the research done by Akshay on Earth will help here.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°It isn¡¯t exactly like that, but you got the thinking right.¡± Phew, it seems like I am saved. ¡°Cultivation doesn¡¯t allow you to become immortal or ¡®seal the heavens¡¯ as you said, but it does increases your lifespan and makes you a one man army with sufficient power difference. You saw your grandfather and uncle yesterday right? Your grandfather is a 2 star cultivator while your uncle is a 1 star cultivator. By the way, I am also a 2 star.¡± ¡°Dad, what are these stars that you are talking about?¡± ¡°Oh right, you see, cultivation has different realms. The first realm is the body refining realm. Here, you purify your body and attune it to the heavenly Qi around you. You also set your foundations here. That is, this realm is the most important part of your cultivation. It sets the highest limit your cultivation can go to. Then comes the stars. These are the number of cores in your dantian. You make them by passing a tribulation and compressing the Qi in your body. You will learn more about all this as you grow up. Well, it¡¯s high time that we actually start now. Now, Lye say loudly that you want to be a cultivator.¡± ¡°I want to be a cultivator.¡± Lye shouted with a lot of energy on his face but inside he was feeling bored that he had to do these things to show his determination. Maybe Ren also understood that as he made a kind of apologetic face. Suddenly, a lot of information came into his head. Because Lye had some experience with this, he could barely keep himself from fainting. After Lye sorted it out, he understood that they were some kind of movements. Then he opened his status. In the skills tab was something new. ¡°Lye, you should have felt the movements inside your head, right? Its stream. The one who made that screen yesterday. It has a repository of all kinds of basic information. When you vocalise what you want, stream uploads the basic techniques directly into your head. Now you should practise a bit with these movements then I will teach you are own moves.¡± Feeling a bit dizzy from the download, Lye could only nod and lie on the ground. After some ten to fifteen minutes, the dizziness was gone and he had also gone over the movements in his head. Then he woke and after some simple stretching exercises that he remembered from Akshay¡¯s memories, he started the movements that were given to him. After some 20 continuous sets, his movements were finally good enough. How did he know? Because he got a notification from his MC system.
Basic Body Refining Movements Learned
Current Level:??1/25
That evening when Ren was taking care of the general matters of the clan, his guards notified him of a guest that had come to see him. The man had identified himself as Lindsay Chai. On hearing his name, Ren went into his thoughts, seemingly trying to remember the name. Then Leena who was besides him elbowed him. ¡°Hey, don¡¯t try to act like you don¡¯t know him.¡± Then she said to the guards,¡±Welcome him inside, immediately.¡± ¡°Wait.¡± Just as the guard was going, Ren continued,¡±What was his reason for coming to see me?¡± The guard said,¡±He said he was passing through the city and wanted to see his friend.¡± ¡°Take him to the dungeons immediately! Go Go Go! Capture him.¡± Ren went to the dungeons and found a man, almost his age, in one of the cells. This was the man who had identified himself as Lindsay Chai. The cell was very dark and gloomy but with just a thought, Ren was able to create a fire appear out of nowhere to his side. He sent the fire near the man to lighten up his face. The face was exactly like he remembered. ¡°Hey bro, these idiots captured me and are saying that this was on your orders. Now release me. I need to find the person who punched me in the balls there.¡± Ren immediately got angry and punched the man in his face. ¡°Hey, is that any way to treat your brother?¡± The man said. ¡°Bullshit. You aren¡¯t my brother. Tell me who are you and why are you here?¡± ¡°I already told you. I am your bro and I just came to meet an old friend whose house was on the way.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t lie. Lindsay would never visit his friends without having something to do with them.¡± Ren said coldly. At that the man sighed and said,¡±Alright. I was in 7th province, completing my list. The ruler there, The Finch Clan¡¯s head has a very, very hot daughter. Obviously, I wouldn¡¯t leave her out. So I chased after her and finally succeeded. But maybe she knew about me or maybe she just had some doubts, she put a mark on me. Now I have weakened it, so they cannot pinpoint my location, but to remove it completely would require time which only you can provide me with.¡± ¡°Humph. You actually did a fair amount of research on Lindsay. But It still isn¡¯t enough to trick me. My information network is top-notch. I would have known about it if Layla had become a part of my bro¡¯s list.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t want to use it but you leave me no choice. Sanjana¡­¡± ¡°Alright I believe you. You are my best bro. A bro shouldn¡¯t try to blackmail another bro you know. It doesn¡¯t look nice.¡± ¡°...Why did I even bother? I should have just started with it.¡± ¡°Haha, don¡¯t worry. Let¡¯s get you out of here. Would you like water, tea, coffee, beer, wine-¡± ¡°Bring the 100 year old divine frog¡¯s blood. And also bring some fire scorcher skew for me eat.¡± The divine frog was a rare beast. It usually had a small lifespan, so being 100 years old was even rarer. But there blood was the priciest drink available in these parts. The fire scorcher is a lizard like beast whose whole body is nothing less than treasure. Its meat is said to be the most perfect food for a fire cultivator and still decent food for any other type. ¡°Hey, do you even-¡± ¡°Sanjana¡­¡± ¡°Anything else, milord?¡± Ren said through gritted teeth. ¡°Also¡­ nothing else. Let¡¯s go and prepare it fast.¡± Lindsay was about to continue but the look in Ren¡¯s eyes told him that he was going a bit too overboard now. The two friends finally had their misunderstandings cleared up. The two then then talked about some things and caught up to the old times. ¡°Hey, so were you telling the truth? About Finch clan and Layla?¡± Ren asked. ¡°Why do you know her name, anyways? Are cheating on Leena!? I need to go and warn her!¡± Lindsay asked back while making a running pose. Ren felt his blood going into his head and screamed,¡±The 7th province is the closest province to us. Of course, I would have detailed information on them.¡± ¡°Relax, I was only joking. Of course, both me and Leena know why have so much info on her.¡± ¡°But it would have still made the coming days hell for me. Why do I consider you my friend even now. You only bring more trouble to me. Well, since you are here and will most likely be staying for some time, why don¡¯t you do some of my work?¡± ¡°Like teaching your son cultivation? At last you agree that I am stronger than you.¡± ¡°How did you know I have a son?¡± ¡°Huh? You do have a son?¡± ¡°Huh? You didn¡¯t know about him?¡± ¡°¡±Huh!?¡±¡± And they both started rolling on the floor laughing. Chapter 4 ¡°Both of you, this here is my friend, Lindsay. He will guide you in your cultivation and basic education. You both know that I stay busy a lot. That¡¯s why I cannot teach you myself. But I will check on you everyday, so don¡¯t you dare slack off. I assure you that you can trust him on his guidance. But don¡¯t you dare try to trust his character---¡± Ren was suddenly cut of by a ¡°Hey!¡± from Lindsay but he ignored it and continued. ¡±---And now it¡¯s for you Lindsay. Don¡¯t you dare do anything to Riya¡­ or Lye.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you have any trust in me!? And Lye!? How can you even think of something like that!? Uwah!!!¡± Lindsay cried out. Lye had a strange expression on his face, watching these two grown up men acting like this. Really, having friends is truly a privilege. It can be understood why he thought, having no experience with friends from his memories of Akshay, or his life here as no one who was his age was someone he could meet daily. If he had any experience, he would have definitely said them to be worth at least a galaxy or two. Obviously if they were true friends. When Ren had gone back, Lindsay took a deep breath and looked at both of them. At this moment, the playfulness they saw back then was replaced by a stoic strictness that demanded their respect as students. Riya went first. She showed him the clan¡¯s body refining technique that Ren had taught her. Lye watched expectantly. This was the technique that Ren was supposed to teach him today. He watched her doing the movements with utmost attention and thought that there was something strangely familiar to her movements. Then it clicked. ¡®It is just like the Basic Body Refining Movements with slight changes.¡¯ Lye felt a bit strange. His clan (main branch) was one of the top most clans in the Empire and their technique was a rip-off of the movements provided by Stream. ¡®Where is the originality!? Where is the blood and the sweat the ancestor spent on making the technique that made our whole clan stand up!? This is plain robbery! Plagiarism!¡¯ Lye was disappointed in his heart but as he watched Riya, his disappointment lessened a little. The slight changes, he noticed, they made the movements more natural, more fluid. As he calmed down more, he started thinking. ¡®Stream has access to everyone¡¯s mind. Moreover, it gives everyone basic information for every field. People also seem to rely on it as well. So that means the given info must be reliable. In that case, it must also be usable by everyone. But the people are clearly different. They have different bloodlines. So some things might actually be harmful to a person while being useful to someone else. Since everyone uses stream, it has to be a general technique. In that case, these slight modifications might just be slight tweaking of aspects to make it fit better with the user.¡¯ Just when his thoughts were about to spiral further, he finally heard both Riya and Lindsay calling him.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Yeah?¡± Lye asked with an innocent face. He finally noticed that he was looking down at the ground. ¡°We called you so many times. Why didn¡¯t you listen? Were you thinking about your harem again, Lye?¡± Riya asked with a playful voice. Before Lye could reply, Lindsay suddenly said,¡± Kid, you are way to young to follow in my footsteps. Grow up before that. Now show me what you know.¡± Lye just nodded and started doing the Basic Body Refining Movements that he had learned just the day before. After watching both of them, Lindsay took a breath and then said,¡±What do you both think about your techniques?¡± Lye raised his hand and said,¡±May I?¡± Both Lindsay and Riya pushed one eyebrow up and looked at him. After all this gesture wasn¡¯t of this world. Lye took the cue and immediately started talking without giving the situation time to mature. ¡°I think that both of our techniques are very similar, even though she used the clan art while I used the basic technique which stream gave me yesterday. So, I think that we don¡¯t have an actual clan art, instead it is a variation of the basic technique which suits us better due to our bloodline.¡± Lye had to think up of all this again, as due to the combination of [strong memory] and [attention deficiency], he could remember only tidbits of his original thoughts. Both Riya and Lindsay were a bit shocked. This wasn¡¯t a big secret but it wasn¡¯t something a child could have figured out on his own, more so just by watching. But they both were sure that no one had told him that either. So, they both had big smiles on their faces as they faced Lye again. Riya immediately jumped on Lye and gave him a tight hug while saying,¡±Oh my Lye, I knew that you didn¡¯t use your brain to only think of having a harem.¡± ¡°Hmm... Good. Keep it up Lye. ¡­ Now Riya, I think you should let him breathe again. We wouldn¡¯t like it if he suddenly went unconscious. Thanks. Now, where were we? Ah yes, Lye Do you have anything else you would like to say?¡± Lindsay said in a full on teacher mode. ¡°*Deep breath* Huuuh, I want to ask, what are these movements supposed to do?¡± ¡°We will get back to it later. For now, let¡¯s switch to Riya. What do you think?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have anything to say. Master had already fixed all the problems that I encountered.¡± ¡°Good, so Lye, you wanted to know the purpose of these movements? These are supposed to help you easily gather the natural Qi and absorb it.¡± ¡°Then what about training the muscles and coordination etc.¡± ¡°Yeah, they are also a part of it. But they aren¡¯t the main focus as the Qi you absorb will strengthen your body nonetheless.¡± ¡®So, the people here don¡¯t train their bodies by themselves. It is like a side effect that their bodies stronger. In that case, their dexterity would be poor I guess. Then, they would most likely be using Qi to brute force their way across the things that require exquisite muscle control¡­ What was I thinking? Shit!! I need to do something about my short attention span. I don¡¯t even understand what I was thinking just now. I really need to do something.¡¯ ¡°Lye? What happened? You spaced out again.¡± Riya asked with some concern in her voice. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I am fine. I was just digesting what teacher taught me.¡± Lye replied. And from then on, Lye started his path of cultivation. Chapter 5 11 years have passed. Lye is now 16 years old. In these 11 years, he did a lot of things. First, he cultivated. Right now, Lye had reached the 10th level of body-refining stage. He was at the absolute peak of this level. He had also learned some martial skills. The Leaping Stag¡¯s step, The Flying Cheetah¡¯s Feet, The Divine Turtle¡¯s Punch, The Body of the Titans, The Kartlyn Fighter¡¯s Manual. Then he learned some basic job skills. Like blacksmithing, alchemy, formations, etc. Someone else of his age would have only half the number of skills as him. But it wasn¡¯t that it was easy for Lye to learn them. It was because he was getting bored. The things that people here did for timepass was cultivate or spar or gamble or some other thing like that. A person who had spent nearly 20 years in the modern civilization would instinctively go away from sparring. It might seem fun at first, but the pain wasn''t something a ''civilised modern man¡¯ can take. Then cultivation might seem fun at first. But it was almost like studying. You have to turn off your brain and then just follow your technique (cram all your books, questions and answers). And then gambling. It was actually a good time pass. But it couldn''t be done whenever Lye was bored, which was a hella common occurrence. Even though Lye¡¯s clan is one of the top clans of the empire, his branch is still just the latest and the smallest. So to learn all of these skills, he had joined The Artificer Hall. The main customer base here was in body-refining stage or 1 star cultivation. So, the main material they used was common iron. Lye used his advance chemistry knowledge to make better, more precise alloys than the people here at low cost. Even if his materials couldn''t be used to build a skyscraper, cutting off a person¡¯s head with a sword made by him wasn''t a difficult task. As to how Lye knew all the different chemical reactions, it was because Akshay had always wanted to go to a fantasy world. And he wanted to be prepared. Everyday, he would give half an hour to a full hour to study all these things. And I was benevolent enough to specially reinforce those memories. His stats (with his MC system) were-
Name Lye Kartlyn
Age 16 y Sex Male
Titles Potential Heir Of Kartyln Clan 8th Branch Main Character Affiliations Kartlyn Clan Green Dragon Empire
Mental Conditions Attention Deficiency Face-Name Dissonance Strong Memory Physical Conditions Kartlyn Bloodline
MC Traits Other World Knowledge
Occupations Scholar 4
Fighter 2
Constitution 25 Strength 24
Endurance 30 Dexterity 28
Wisdom 35 Intelligence 31
Lifespan 15 (150y) Plot Armor 10/10
Mind''s Eye Max Essence Concealment Max
Plot Armor Max Absolute Mind Wall Max
Leaping Stag''s Step 8/20 Flying Cheetah''s Feet 6/20
Divine Turtle''s Punch 8/10 Body of Titans 4/15
Kartlyn Fighter''s Manual 9/50 Alchemy 5/100
Artificing 2/100 Formation Setting 10/100
A normal teenage cultivator¡¯s fighter class would have been at least at level 5 but, being a ''civilised person¡¯ Lye usually refrained from fighting and instead used his artifacts to win his battles. His artifacts weren''t the best, but they were innovative, in this world. His use of alloys changed the whole metal market in the province. The personal favourite of Lye¡¯s was his music box. It isn''t a deceptive name. The artifact truly was just a music box. It was made of normal wood, with normal iron components. It didn''t have any major formations, just some circuits. Lye made it because he had a lot of free time, and because it left a big impression on him. Akshay¡¯s mother had died when he was kid. It was the last thing, a memento, he had of her. After a lot of thinking, discussing, conjecturing, engineering (how to make a music box is not a required how to in a fantasy world), Lye finally made it after a whole month. In the process, he was able to find practical applications of his other world Knowledge. It also increased his intelligence, wisdom, Dexterity by a lot (3-5 points, it''s awfully difficult to increase them, without advancing in cultivation, Lye found). Lye¡¯s achievements were so good for his age that Zara had taken him as his personal disciple, which made him a viable candidate for the post of sect head after him.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. In a place where a beggar might turn out to strong enough to massacre a whole small city, people don''t care much about traditions, or familial relations. They all want someone with ability to be the one to lead them. This was all for Lye. As for the others of his generation, most of those with decent backgrounds had entered 1 star cultivation realm, or were just on the cusp of entering it. Their battle skills are also at a higher level, while anything related to mental ability (intelligence/wisdom stat or classes like scholar) were at a comparatively lower level. They also don¡¯t have as many secondary skills as Lye. A general person at a similar age with similar background would have a status as followed
Occupation Scholar 1
Fighter 4
Constitution 28 Strength 27
Endurance 32 Dexterity 28
Wisdom 32 Intelligence 28
Leaping Stag''s Step 9/20 Flying Cheetah''s Feet 7/20
Divine Turtle''s Punch 9/10 Body of Titans 5/15
Kartlyn Fighter''s Manual 10/50
The difference wasn¡¯t much but it was there. Lye was weaker at fighting with others. He wasn¡¯t ruthless like others. The only thing that Lye had over others was his other world knowledge and plot armor. By using both of them, he had almost never lost a fight at the same cultivation level. Now, why couldn¡¯t he advance to the next stage? It was because, to advance, you have to undergo a tribulation. And to call the tribulation, you have to understand a dao to a certain level. To understand a dao, you have to meditate on it. And mediation was to Lye as using his original limbs was to an amputee. He knew what it was, but it was just impossible for Lye. Everytime, he would try to meditate, his mind would go on and on in tangents and what he would have in the end was nothing new, only what he started his mediation on, just more jumbled. Right now, Lye was 16. It is common knowledge that if you don¡¯t breakthrough before becoming 17, you would never be able to breakthrough without some world-shattering-coincidences. There were just a few months left before it would be his 17th birthday, and Lye spent all his time listening to his music box, while crafting some weapons, armors, pills or testing new formations. It wasn¡¯t because he had given up. It was because he knew, he had that world-shattering-coincidence-making-power. After all he is the Main Character. And fortunately for him, this was indeed true. Today was a special day. Centralle had sent people to every province to find some talented young people and also to give public lectures on various topics to the general populace. This was an event that took place every 10 years. The last time it happened, Lye was just too small and didn¡¯t know enough about the world to be able to understand most of what was said. This time, he was determined to use the lecture to its fullest. That evening, 3 old men came to the province. They were the ones sent by Centralle. All of them were experts at various topics and would be staying for almost a week to lecture on different topics and scout the youngsters. The lectures were on many topics but Lye was interested in only one, the one on dao. This didn¡¯t mean that he ignored the other lectures. That would have just been wasting a free chance. And Lye never wasted something free. He attended all of them, and it turned out they were rather informatic. It wasn¡¯t the techniques that he found good, they didn¡¯t teach any technique anyway. It was the principles behind the art that they lectured on, and that was what he needed. It allowed him to increase the effectiveness of his creations. Effectiveness as in being more useful for the situation than being better overall. The lecture on Dao was the last one. After waiting for 7 days, it was finally time to see whether his plot armor would give him a dao now or would he have to go on the path of being a trash young master who suddenly got lucky. He truly didn¡¯t want the second option. The lecture was boring but one line of the lecture was what answered his question. ¡°...your Dao is just the path you take to understand the world. It is like trying to understand a city. You can use the official sources, the common people, the criminal houses or whatever else way you want. In the end, you will understand the city, no matter what path you take, even if each path offers different views¡­¡± Then he had said that we should, therefore, use many ways to fill in the gaps left by our original way of choice, but Lye already understood that and had gone to a world of his own. ¡®Dao is a way of understanding the world. I already know of a way to understand the world. Idiot!!! Idiot Idiot Idiot Idiot Idiot Idiot!!!¡¯ After cursing himself to hell and back, Lye finally came to himself and saw that everyone was looking at him with various expressions. He finally realised that he had said all that out loud. The old man who was giving the lecture was fuming with anger. He thought that the young person listening to his lecture was calling him an idiot. ¡°You! You small, little bastard! Why were you calling me an idiot!?¡± ¡°I¡­¡° Cold sweat was pouring down his neck and his throat was dry. After taking a few, difficult deep breaths and drinking some of saliva to wet his throat, he tried to speak. ¡°Senior, I cannot dare to curse you. You are my teacher, my saviour. I was calling myself an idiot, to have to listen to your esteemed self¡¯s lecture to realise that I already have a dao of my own, just that I didn¡¯t think of it as a dao. I cannot dare to curse you, senior¡­¡± Lye couldn¡¯t think of anything else to say, but he also didn¡¯t need to. ¡°Enough! Go away and don¡¯t you dare show me your face ever again or I will slaughter your whole family! Scram!¡± ¡°At once, senior!¡± And he ran away with the fastest speed he had ever mustered in both his memories. Even the system mocked him on that.
Flying Cheetah''s Feet Level Increased
Current Level:??8/20
Once the 3 seniors went back, he could finally heave a sigh of relief. For the rest of the day, Lye had hidden himself in his room and somehow, managed to think about the new understanding he had gained. After a few hours of repeatedly going on tangents and coming back, he finally got the notification he wanted.
Dao Attained
Unique Dao: Science
Requirements Completed
Time to Tribulation: 5 days, 2 hours, 50 minutes, 20 seconds...
Chapter 6 The tribulation is called down when someone completes the requirements. The requirements are a certain level in cultivation and a certain level in the understanding of the dao of choosing. The dao a person has chosen in his first tribulation is the most important. You can have as many daos as you want at whatever level, but if your first dao is left weak, the tribulation will not be called down or will kill the cultivator if called forcibly. A cultivator has a small amount of control on when s/he wants the tribulation to come. The more you wait after the first indication that you are ready, the more difficult would the tribulation become. That is why Lye didn''t wait for long and scheduled his to come in five days. Those days, he spent accumulating as much conducting materials as he could and making faraday cages out of them. The rest of the time he had spent observing any other tribulations and scouting a low-lying area that could help him out. In his scouting, he came to know that the terrain outside of the city was indeed rather varied. He found both huge mountains and deep valleys that weren''t side by side. (i.e. The valley isn''t the gap between 2 mountains but is a valley in itself.) In his observations of other people (just 1, tribulations aren''t a staple commodity here, or anywhere as far as he knows), Lye found out that the lightning strikes were just like any other normal strike but more targeted. It was a something about qi he found out that was interesting. For his test, he had put some metallic things around the person. The first strike showed high amounts of deviation (in comparison to the ones after it) from its path. But every succeeding strike had less deviation. He also noticed that the cultivator¡¯s body was accumulating qi on him as the tribulation went on. Lye''s hypothesis was that qi is a potential changing ''something''. He didn''t have much of an idea on whether it was some energy, some partcle or something else entirely. It can change the potential of a system and make it reach a state of higher energy more efficiently. This can explain many of the phenomenons that he had noticed. Then his next hypothesis was that more qi is accumulated if the path is more obstructive. This can explain the higher difficulty of tribulations that rich cultivators face. They have a lot of artifacts that block the path so more qi is accumulated that calls down stronger lightning. His next one was that the qi accumulation takes place only based on the obstruction faced by the previous strike. He had found this out by throwing some insulating things around the person in between two strikes. The power increase in the first one was normal but the second one was a lot stronger than before. And after taking the insulators away, the power hadn''t reduced and still increased at the previous speed. After the tribulation was completed, the cultivator had chased after Lye with clear killing intent. After all, if it wasn¡¯t for his experiments, the difficulty wouldn¡¯t have suddenly increased and he would have passed it with only slight injuries instead of the mortal danger he had just come out of. Lye, being the civilised¡¯ man he was, readily apologised and compensated the man with some artifacts and money that he had. Anyways, if these hypotheses were true, they could help him out a lot. Unfortunately, he didn''t have any free time for more experiments. This was the last day.
Time to Tribulation
22 hours, 40 minutes, 30 seconds...
In the Kunla Hills, Lye was standing in one of deeper valleys. He was standing with his eyes closed and chin raised, with a broadsword in his hands, tip on the ground. The weather was gloomy, with storm clouds covering the sky. He looked just like a hero about to go on a crusade against the demon king. Only if his attire suited the situation¡­ He was wearing a black skin tight suit of very electrically resistant rubber which was then covered with both thick chain-mail and plate-mail artelite armor. Then his ''sword'' was actually a thick chunk of artelite too. Artelite is an alloy of silver, copper, gold and some more materials that Lye made. It is highly conductive (electrical and thermal), has a high melting point (~25000 kelvin) and is very less reactive. The reason why he had rested the sword on ground in that pose was because it was way too heavy to hold up and that pose was the best one he could make in the situation. After that, the next layer of preparations were 3 faraday cages made of artelite. There were also 4 thick, metallic pillars around him that shot into the sky for almost 10 metres. Then all of them, the 3 cages, the 4 pillars and his armor, were embedded in the earth upto a depth of 1 metre. The location was also specially prepared. Metallic ore had been buried in a circle around him at a radius of almost 5 metres.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. All of this was so that the lightning would come down early. It wasn¡¯t that Lye was suicidal, even though that¡¯s what everyone thought when he explained his actions. Providing an easier path for the lightning to travel through would make it strike at less voltage, which would make it easier for him to handle, more so when a large part would travel through the pillars, cages and armor. He had also arranged for some audience. There were 2 people who had come. One was a beautiful woman, while the other was a young man who was just a few years older than Lye. The woman was obviously Riya while the young man was Truen, son of the grand elder of the branch. They had actually come to help him in emergencies, like if someone attacked him or if it gets too dangerous. By the way, there are 5 leader-figures in the clan, the branch head, the grand elder, the finance elder, the military elder and the allocation elder. The branch head and grand elder have the most influence in the whole branch while the other 3 elders have total control over their own departments with minute amounts of influence over other matters. The military elder deals with all the martial related events, the finance elder has control over the finances while the allocation elder decides if someone should go to the military elder to get punished or the finance elder to get rewarded. Enough side thoughts, now was the time that the lightning was going to strike him. The clouds had already aggregated over him. Lye could feel qi accumulating over him, qi that he couldn''t control,, qi that wasn''t his. It was just a few moments more before the potential difference would become enough to split apart the air molecules and strike him. ROAR!!!!! The lightning struck. The first bolt was usually a small one. And this one wasn''t any different. His preparations worked like a charm and more than 95% of the current went into earth through pathways other than his body. The 5% that did go through him was easily routed to earth along his body¡¯s bioelectric field. After shaking off the remaining charges on him, Lye used his qi to quickly take out the heat from all his metal equipment. Metals become less conducting at higher temperatures, so even though rapid heating and cooling could compromise with structural integrity, it was imperative to cool it down quickly. For that, he used his qi to simply reduce the thermal potential energy of the surroundings and then let simple thermodynamics do its thing. While he was doing that, his audience were shocked. Even though the first bolt was usually very weak, this one was beyond what tribulation lightning should be. It had, at most, half the strength of what usual cultivators face. Now both of them were actually thinking if what Lye was talking about, ''dealing with the lightning before it got stronger'' was actually true. ROAR!!!! The next one came. It was much stronger than the previous one. This one was also similarly warded off. ROAR!!!! ROAR!!!! ROAR!!!! ROAR!!!! ROAR!!!! Just like that, seven strikes were done, now was the eighth one. All his pillars, cages and armour were cooled down. The remaining charges on him were grounded. His mind was steeled for the next strike. And¡­ it didn''t come. No, it would be wrong to say that it didn''t come. It would be more apt to say that it was still charging. Just the static in the air was giving him goosebumps now. ''What is happening? All of my calculations were right till now. It should have struck a few moments ago already. Why is it still charging?¡¯ He got his answer from the audience he had arranged. ¡°Lye! Brace yourself! The eighth and ninth strikes will come together. It will last for much longer and will be way more stronger than your previous strikes. Be careful!¡± Truen screamed to him from where he was standing. Even though he couldn''t move his head due to the armor, he could certainly recognise the worry in his tone and imagine the look both of them must have right now. Truthfully, both of them really wanted to help him, but doing so would only increase the difficulty he would face later. ¡°Got it! Thanks for the in-¡± Lye was screaming back but was suddenly cut short as the lightning finally came. The bolt was much more bigger and powerful than the previous ones he faced. Five seconds in, all his equipment began melting at a rapid pace, and more of the lightning came towards him. But the clouds were gathering more charge and the power hadn''t decreased one bit. 10 seconds in, he had reached his limit. All the time, his mind was working on finding some way. 15 seconds in, his rubber suit and skin began melting and mixing. His surface nerves were already roasted, and his brain was barely conscious. ''I need a to create an easier path for the lightning to go. Path¡­ pat¡­ pa¡­ pi¡­ pizza¡­ What the hell!? Path¡­ pa¡­ pla¡­ plasma¡­ Yes! Plasma!¡¯ 17 seconds in, he got the answer he was looking was. He immediately used all his qi, save for the bare minimum required for survival, and used all of it to tear apart the the gas molecules around him, strip them of their electrons, make plasma and save himself. 20 seconds in, he was done. And¡­ it worked. More than 99% of the lightning went through the path he just created. He was saved! With relief flooding his brain, he couldn''t bother to stay awake and watch the result any more. He had trust in his plot armour. And with that, he fainted. Chapter 7 In a room, there was one bed and a chair and a table beside it. On the table was a vase with some flowers, which were being illuminated by the light coming from a nearby window. The flowers were violet but seemed gold in the sunlight. On the chair was a woman. She was sleeping with her head on the bed, by the side of the young man already there. The man was covered with so many bandages, he could easily be mistaken to be a mummy. Of course, if the people here knew what a mummy was. The man was Lye while the woman by his side was his mother. Slowly, Lye opened his eyes. His eyes were blank, just like his mind. But then his neurons started firing up, his thoughts started catching up with his awakening and he finally came to understand what was happening... somewhat. This was his own room. His whole body seemed to be broken, like chewed by a rabid dog and spit out. And there was a slight pressure on his arm. Instead of feeling more pain in his arm, it felt like that was the only place that was unhurt. He wanted to see what had happened to his arm but he couldn¡¯t move a single bit right now. ¡®Maybe a beautiful magician girl stabilised my condition then slept on my arm after healing it to full?... Ptui, this is a cultivation world, not a magic world. And why would a magician heal only my arm?... I should just sleep. It¡¯s painful to think.¡¯ Lye had a habit to mumble whatever he thought. At least he would move his tongue just as if he was speaking everything out loud. So, thinking so much in his condition was indeed painful. Therefore, he followed what he said and slept again. After some time, Lye woke up again. This time, he was feeling much better. His thoughts were also much more in order. Now, he was confident that he could keep the childish, perverted Lye in check. Because, he still couldn¡¯t move himself, he decided to just open his status screen and see what all changed.
Name Lye Kartlyn
Age 16 y Sex Male
Titles Potential Heir Of Kartyln Clan 8th Branch Main Character Affiliations Kartlyn Clan Green Dragon Empire
Mental Conditions Attention Deficiency Face-Name Dissonance Strong Memory Physical Conditions Kartlyn Bloodline
MC Traits Other World Knowledge Unconventional Dao: Science
Occupations Scholar 4
Fighter 2
Cultivator 1
Constitution 28 Strength 25
Endurance 33 Dexterity 29
Wisdom 36 Intelligence 33
Lifespan 20 (200y) Plot Armor 8/10
Mind''s Eye Max Essence Concealment Max
Plot Armor Max Absolute Mind Wall Max
Life Saver Max
Leaping Stag''s Step 8/20 Flying Cheetah''s Feet 6/20
Divine Turtle''s Punch 8/10 Body of Titans 5/15
Kartlyn Fighter''s Manual 9/50 Alchemy 5/100
Artificing 2/100 Formation Setting 10/100
There were some pretty big changes, and some pretty small changes. All of his stats had increased and there was also a new skill. But the most important, in his opinion, was his plot armor. It¡¯s durability had reduced and he couldn¡¯t see any kind of regen rate there. He could see two small versions of himself on his shoulders talking to him while fighting (with words) with each other. ¡®It seems like the author is a cunt. He didn¡¯t make the plot armor a replenishable stat.¡¯- Devil Lye. ¡®Come on, don¡¯t say such bad things. The regen rate must just be hidden.¡¯- Angel Lye. ¡®Then why hasn¡¯t the stat changed one bit for as long as we were watching it?¡¯- Devil Lye. ¡®... It is something quantum mechanical that cannot change as long as someone is observing it?¡¯- Angel Lye said without much confidence. Just as a test, Real Lye turned his status off and on. And, the value was still the same. ¡®What do you want to say now?¡¯- Devil Lye. ¡®... Maybe the regen rate is just very slow?¡¯- Angel Lye. And the Angel Lye was actually correct in this thought as Lye would find out later that the regen rate isn¡¯t just slow. It¡¯s awfully slow. It took a whole 2 fucking months for the durability to increase by just 1 point. Anyways, with all the depressing debating his brain was doing with itself by making 2 personas stand on his shoulders and show their middle fingers to each other, he couldn¡¯t help himself from giving out a small groan. That small sound was enough to wake up the beautiful magician girl his mother who was sleeping on his arm. She drearily opened her eyes and looked around the room for what woke her up. After some moments, she finally saw that her son''s eyes were open. It immediately sent a jolt through her mind. Her tears were just threatening to flo- not anymore, they were already out. With a loud shout, she immediately jumped and hugged her son. Moments later, some crunching was sensed, some groaning was heard, her eyes opened wide and she immediately jumped back whence she came. At that moment, the door was kicked opened and his father came diving in. Behind her were Riya and Truen. Worry had made a comfortable home on their face. They had all heard Leena¡¯s shout and came here while praying, nothing bad happened or at least they aren''t too late.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. When they heard Lye¡¯s groaning and Leena on the floor with tears in her eyes, all of them rushed to help the both of them. Ren and Truen rushed to Lye''s side while Riya went to help Leena up. When Leena got up, she saw the absolutely furious look on her husband''s face. ¡°Who dared break my son''s bones!?¡± Ren roared. She couldn''t help but avoid his eyes by looking down. But Ren caught onto that. Furthermore, she was the only one here other than Lye himself. So it was obvious that she would be the person everyone would turn to for the answer. ¡°I- I- I-¡± Leena stammered. ¡°Speak clearly, Leena. I promise that person will regret the day he was born.¡± That only helped in furthering her fear. She was sure that he wouldn''t hurt her but anyone would be afraid in this situation. ¡°I hugged him a bit too hard.¡± Her sound was barely understandable, mixed with her crying and low volume as it was, but everyone here had a decent cultivation base and understood what she said. Everyone was stupefied. It wasn''t that they didn''t believe her. In fact they fully believed her. Considering her impulsive attitude, it was very much like her to do something like that. At hearing that, Riya and Truen turned towards Lye and started to see if his injuries were very serious or very, very serious, while Ren mumbled something like, ''...one more promise isn''t much¡­¡¯ before turning to Lye and checking his injuries with more detail. In all this, Leena was left alone. After stabilising his condition, all 3 people got to side as they welcomed Lye back to consciousness. ¡°... a mountain was crushing me¡­¡± were the first words he mumbled upon awakening. The three newcomers couldn''t help but laugh out loud, while Leena also just gave a small self-mocking laugh. Just then a guard came and said,¡±Master, it is starting.¡± At that everyone''s face became hard. Save for Lye, that is. He knew that something was happening, but his mind wasn''t in its right place to think what. After saying that line, the guard starting getting ready for battle, while more guards entered the room. ¡°Riya, Truen, take Lye and run.¡± His mother said some ominous lines and stood next to his father, getting ready for battle. Both Riya and Truen nodded and picked Lye up. Then they ran away through the window. ¡°What''s happening?¡± Lye asked. ¡°Treason.¡± Replied Riya with a calm voice, as if it has nothing to do with her. At that Lye understood what was happening. Once upon a time, there was a person who had massacred a whole province just because it''s ruler¡¯s son had appeared before his childhood friend and she fell in love with him. So reduce the chances of something like that happening again, the emperor had made new laws regarding treason. For taking over someone, you have to first get permission from the change department that the emperor created. The permission can be kept confidential but it will be more beneficial for the public image if it is made public. During the act, killing unrelated people is not allowed. That is, if someone isn¡¯t directly related with any of the two parties (blood relation or direct participation) shouldn''t be killed. This was what was happening here. The Sayana clan was the one to initiate the treason. It turned out that Dik had already turned half of his Kartlyn branch to his side. The other members who take part in the change don¡¯t need to be told about so this was a surprise to them. As the trio were running away, they could hear loud explosions behind them. Just then, a person appeared ahead of them. He was Dik¡¯ son, Pnis Sayana. He had become a two star cultivator just a month ago. ¡°I will hold him back. You are faster. Take Lye and run.¡± Truen screamed as he went ahead and engaged with him. The other two knew that now wasn''t the time for arguing, so they complied and ran away. As they ran, they could hear sounds of fighting and pain filled screams behind them. They just hoped to get out of this alive. But alas, even though the lady was with Lye, luck was nowhere to be found. Soon, they saw that Kok Sayana was blocking their way. He had something in his head. On closer look, it was a head. On even closer look, he actually had 2 heads. Further closing in, they were the heads of his parents. Even further, they struck right into him. Riya was carrying Lye as he was too injured to keep up with her on his own. On seeing the 2 heads, her mind had went blank and she just kept running without watching, in the end smashing straight into him. Kok was a lot stronger than her, or the smash might have knocked him aside and allowed them to run ahead. ¡°Run Lye! I will hold him back!¡± Shouted Riya as she threw him further ahead and got into her fight mode. Lye¡¯s mind wasn¡¯t really working right now. He just subconsciously followed whatever was being said to him and limped away at his fastest speed. His foot struck a rock and he suddenly rolled in a diagonal direction while an energy slash went right through the place where he was. Then he tried to stand up but a gust of wind threw him forward on his face while a sharp blade ran through right above his head, cutting off a few of his hair strands. Everyone who was there was getting dumbfounded at his luck. Some of them were free enough to bet on how many more attacks he could dodge like this. But the result wouldn¡¯t be found out as suddenly, someone came to cover his back. It was Delia Trianne. ¡°Let him go. He clearly doesn¡¯t want to participate.¡± She said while blocking the attacks coming his way. ¡°Thanks Aunt.¡± Lye said while running away. His eyes were blank, like his mind. It was almost like he sleeping. Which could be said to be what was happening. Finally he was out of the city gates, but he didn¡¯t stop. He kept on running till he found a merchant caravan that took him to the the next province in their journey, the 5th province.
In a room with white walls, white ceilings, no door or windows, was a white sofa and white table. On the sofa was a man in white clothes, with white milk in a white cup and white biscuits on a white plate¡­ All this white is getting a bit too much. Let¡¯s change that. In a room with multi-colored walls, multi-colored ceilings, no door or windows, was a multi-colored sofa and multi-colored table. On the sofa was a man in multi-colored clothes, with multi-colored milk in a multi-colored cup and multi-colored biscuits on a multi-colored plate¡­ Multi-colored Milk!!?? F*** it!! Okay, so I was sitting on the sofa with a page in my hand. On the page was the current chapter. ¡°Ha, you really killed his whole family, you sadist.¡± I said. ¡°Yup, that¡¯s what your subconscious wanted. You can deny it all you want, hate it all you want, but that¡¯s who you are.¡± A female voice was heard replying back. She is only one who can exist here without my conscious want to keep her here. Or more like, this is the only place where she even exists. Meet Emi, a very beautiful and smart girl who is actually a personification of my automated processes. She handles the world that I have made. She is also the one who actually writes the book. Even though I made this world, it only exists in my subconscious. I am not a cultivator whose brain is upgraded at every level. I am just a normal mortal. My brain cannot deal with all the information that comes crashing into it whenever I try to see what is happening. That is why, I just set the initial conditions then let the process do its thing while waiting for the results. In this case, I had also given her another duty. That is to write all that is happening for me. Then, I can come at my leisure and edit the chapters to remove the unnecessary info like how many steps he took, what was the composition of the air that he breath--- ¡°Why did you take over his body? Hadn¡¯t I told you to never interfere directly?¡± ¡°It was his plot armor. To save him, it pulled me into him and got him out of there.¡± ¡°And you just went with it?¡± ¡°That was what I felt like doing. And by extension, that was what you wanted as I am your subconscious.¡± ¡°Well whatever. It isn¡¯t like I have the free time to reverse it. Let¡¯s just go with this. And you aren¡¯t allowed to ever interfere with the world directly. If he dies, then so be it. I don¡¯t have any use for idiots who die even with the plot armor.¡± Chapter 8 In one of the rooms of the Heavenly Inn, which is actually one of the cheapest inns of the 5th prefecture, was a man sitting on the floor with his hands by his side, without any strength. His face was adorned with tears both fresh and dried. Most of his body was covered by bloodied bandages. This man was Lye. Yesterday, the merchant caravan he had hooked a ride with, dropped him in this inn. They also paid for his accommodations for 3 days. When he just reached his room, he had fallen asleep on the bed. A few hours later, he awoke because of a nightmare. After waking up, he finally actually realised what had happened. That realisation broke him. Not because, his family died. He was actually prepared for it ever since he had come to know of the treason. He was broken because he didn''t even try to help his family during the calamity. Neither did he feel anything when he saw his parents¡¯ head with Kok. Nor when everyone died to save him. He didn''t even understand why they sacrificed themselves for him, dammit! That broke him! He spent the rest of the day crying. He wanted to break something but he still wasn''t strong enough to do anything. After a few hours, the angel and devil Lye appeared on his shoulders. ¡°Come on. You are the Main Character. Every Main Character needs to be ignited. They should be honored that they could be the fuse that pushed the Main Character on his path.¡±- Devil Lye. ¡°Just forget that, Lye. You are the Main Character. No one is so bad as to kill his MC¡¯s whole family. You just need to get stronger and revive them.¡±- Angel Lye. ¡°This is a cultivation world so there must be some cycle of reincarnation or whatever too. Even you were reincarnated.¡±- Devil Lye. ¡°Yeah Lye. There is still hope. You can bring them back! Now, get back up and start working. This author definitely isn¡¯t like those ¡®slice of life¡¯ ones. You need to do work here.¡±- Angel Lye. ¡°Lye.¡± He absentmindedly turned his head to the right and looked at his shoulder. ¡°This author is a cunt. He wants you to experience utter despair. Do you want to give in to his cuntyness?¡± He shook his head. ¡°Then come on, get back on the track and start working.¡±- Devil Lye. All this talk gave some hope to him. There was finally a small hint of light back in his eyes. To start off, he decided to finally, actually see his status. He still didn¡¯t know how much his stats had increased, or what that new skill did.
Name Lye Kartlyn
Age 16 y Sex Male
Titles Former Heir Of Kartyln Clan 8th Branch Main Character Affiliations Kartlyn Clan Green Dragon Empire
Mental Conditions Attention Deficiency Face-Name Dissonance Strong Memory Physical Conditions Kartlyn Bloodline
MC Traits Other World Knowledge Unconventional Dao: Science
Occupations Scholar 4
Fighter 2
Cultivator 1
Constitution 29 Strength 25
Endurance 34 Dexterity 29
Wisdom 36 Intelligence 33
Lifespan 20 (200y) Plot Armor 1/10
Mind''s Eye Max Essence Concealment Max
Plot Armor Max Absolute Mind Wall Max
Life Saver Max
Leaping Stag''s Step 8/20 Flying Cheetah''s Feet 6/20
Divine Turtle''s Punch 8/10 Body of Titans 5/15
Kartlyn Fighter''s Manual 9/50 Alchemy 5/100
Artificing 2/100 Formation Setting 10/100
Lye felt the most scared than he had ever felt now. His plot armor was almost empty. There was just 1 point left. Also the changed title just drove home the fact that his branch was most likely dissolved now. ¡®I need to be more careful in the future. I should check the skill too.¡¯ So, Lye checked his skill. But after seeing his skill, he was broken again. This time, everything in him broke. He cried till the owner of the inn came to get more money the next day and threw him out because he didn¡¯t have anything other than the bandages covering him.
Skill Information: Life Saver
Requirements Main Character Cultivator Lvl 1
Effect User can transfer part of his plot armor to those he wants to protect. Use requires physical contact and full trust from the other party. Can tranfer at most 3 points of durability to a single person. Tranferred durability will be deducted from user''s own armor.
If only he wasn¡¯t so lazy, he could have saved everyone. At least it wouldn¡¯t have ended so easily. Now, Lye was absent-mindedly walking on the streets. After two full days of just sitting on the floor, just his passive cultivation was enough to treat some of the injuries. Even though he wasn¡¯t at his peak form right now, just walking around wasn¡¯t difficult. As he walked around, he also formulated the plan that he should follow. The plan was actually very simple. As the heir of the 10th province, he knew about the ruling clan here, but it was only till their name. He didn''t really know much. So he needed to know about this place, get some backing, grow powerful, get revenge, then try to revive his parents. As simple as that.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. GROWL!!! ¡®Change of plans¡¯ thought Lye. ''First order is to get money and eat something.¡¯ And with his newfound motivation (hunger), he started going from shop to shop, looking for any kind of work. Most of them rejected, of course. No one would employ a person who only has bandages for clothes, is clearly very injured and is a newcomer to the city.In the end, he was back to where he started, The Heavenly Inn. Lye thought to try his luck here and asked for work. It turned out because they knew where he came from, the work didn''t require much native knowledge and one of the employees just resigned, he got the job. The job was actually an all purpose servant job. It filled both his stomach and ears (from gossips) so he immediately accepted. Now he could at least get some food to replenish his energy. The higher level a cultivator has, the more energy he/she would need to stay awake. That is why, most of the cultivators at the higher levels would stay in closed door mediation. Qi isn''t a good source of energy. It only gives energy enough for survival. To stay awake and use the intelligence higher levels provide requires more energy. That is also why, most of the senior cultivators who tried to deal with the Main Character in those novels acted like retards. They were hungry. Now that he had eaten some food and used it to heal himself back somewhat, it was time to gather some info. And what better way would there be than to ask his employer. The owner was a short, old man. He seemed to be in his late 40s. No other family, he had never married and parents had died. The name was Leo. ¡°There are 4 types of people here- those who shouldn¡¯t be offended, those who really, really shouldn¡¯t be offended and those who can¡¯t be offended-¡± ¡°Can¡¯t be offended?¡± Lye cut in. ¡°There has never been any news of them getting offended because all those who did are dead. Okay as I was saying, the first category includes all those who are like us. They are our main source of customers. Don¡¯t offend them. The second one has those above us. They are those who are in one of the lower or mid level clans, sects and academies or have an otherwise decent status. The third one has those who are above them. The members of the Lu and Chu clan and the Sunshine Devourer Sect fall in this category. Usually they have good temperaments so they wouldn¡¯t get offended because of small things. But be careful of the more idiotic ones in them. They are the real headaches.¡± Here a sect and an academy are different. A sect is like a university. It is focused on one thing, while trying its hand in other areas. An academy is like a school. It teaches everything. Usually new cultivators who don¡¯t know what they are good at would join an academy. They would try many things and then join a sect that suits them. That is why academies have never been a top force of any region, save for those where there is no competition for them. After asking him some more questions, Lye managed to fill in the spaces that were left in his plan. The annual entrance month was approaching. In this month, all the clans, sects and academies would open their doors to all those who want to join them and can pass their examination. There was a week left so Lye decided to nurse himself back to his best condition in this time and also get some money. The exams ain¡¯t free. The week passed uneventfully, there weren''t any young masters coming, getting offended and then chasing after him nor were there any heaven defying beauties coming and falling for him. In fact there wasn''t anyone that came. Only the few customers that had made this inn their home had come here. It was all very uneventful. And Lye''s progess had gone smoothly. Only some of the bigger injuries were left, otherwise he was wholly well now. Now was the day that the admission month was starting. For today, Lye had borrowed some clothes from one of the customers and some money from Leo. He was actually a good person who cared about his employees. Lye was now thinking of first going to the Sunshine Devourer Sect and then going downwards till he is accepted. He had some traces of thoughts that his MC status would let him join the sect but based on what he had experienced, it was truly difficult for him to believe it. All his childhood, he never got a cheat. His cultivation was behind his peers. He wasn¡¯t a fighting genius who could stand his own against those above him. In fact, he could barely stand his ground against those with the same cultivation level as him. Even though plot armor is a pretty big cheat in itself, but it is a passive ability, out of his control. It can¡¯t be termed as a true cheat. Now that he had reached his destination, he stopped his thoughts. He really didn¡¯t want to offend a young master right now, just because he thinking about the lack of cheats and heroines. In front of the gates was a short queue of people, just a few tens of people long. From what Leo had told him, the queue could get longer than a few thousands at times. Since the month had just started and the sect didn¡¯t allow people to queue up before today, moreover because this is an annual event and only has significance in the 5th prefecture, the people who would come weren¡¯t a lot. The Sunshine Devourer Sect was the the most powerful sect here, not because of some secret fighting skill but because of their endurance skill. If a normal cultivator would faint from lack of energy after a day, the students of the Sunshine Devourer Sect could keep themselves up for at least a couple of days. And this difference only increased as the cultivation level and technique level increased. Based on their name and special skill, Lye had thoughts over what their technique could be. And this really excited him. He had tried absorbing the ambient energy from his surroundings, but it only made him hotter. He couldn¡¯t get his cells to use that energy. He really wanted to see what their technique did to make it happen. The testing was divided in a number of levels. And 10 people were tested at a time. Whenever a person advanced or was eliminated, the next person came to take up the test. After an hour of so, Lye¡¯s turn came. The first test was to punch a strength measuring pillar that was on the stage. The harder the punch was, the higher the colour on it would climb. To pass, one had to make the light climb to his height. It was because a child would naturally have lower strength than adults, but they wanted future potential in their students. Those without potential but with strength are instead employed as guards. Lye called fired up his qi and concentrated it in his palm and arm. He made his qi cover up his palm and give it an aerodynamic shape with a pointy edge. The qi in his arm was used to give a lot of impulse to his fist. Some qi, he sent out to reduce the air from the front. He didn¡¯t want air resistance to reduce his force. After making his preparations, which took almost half a minute and had almost called the examiner to send him away to save time, he finally punched the pillar. BOOM!!! The sound was a lot more subdued than those before him. It was because he had removed a lot of the air that would have transmitted the sound. The light slowly started climbing up. Lye could hear the people talking. ¡°That strike was trash.¡± ¡°How dare he waste our time with such a trash strike!¡± ¡°I had almost thought that we would see an upcoming legend in his making here.¡± ¡°I bet the light wouldn¡¯t climb higher than his heart.¡± Lye was calm on the surface, but his heart was partaking in olympics in his ribcage. He fully believed that he could pass at least this round. But in his strike, at the last moment, a cut in his underarm opened and reduced his power. Slowly the light climbed up. Up and and up it went. From his feet, it reached his kneed, from there to his balls, his kidneys, liver, diaphragm, heart, throat. At the light climbed till his face, the rate of ascent kept on decreasing. Many of the people were already shocked as the sound was a lot less than what the pillar was now showing. Slowly the light reached his eyes and¡­ stopped. The elder overwatching his punch came to send him away. He was a 3 star cultivator and could see what had happened. It was already a lot that the punch was that powerful. But he also knew that it wasn¡¯t a practical punch as the preparations took a lot of time. Moreover, they had to be impartial, or it wouldn¡¯t be good for their image. Lye sighed and went down the stage. He wasn¡¯t expecting to join this sect but a person can hope, right? The next in line was the Star Seeker Sect. Going on haitus -- Sorry Sorry my readers. This is my last year at school so I need to study for a lot of exams. The minimum time for the haitus will be till June. I am very sorry about this but I can''t, and neither do I want to, support my life on novels. I want to write so I can give something to this wonderful, selfless community that, sometimes, gives up their source of livelihood just so they can provide their readers with more chapters.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. P.S.- If only I had this skill of being able to push my answers past the word limit in such a good way before, I might have actually topped in language.