Chapter 001: The Omnipotent Upgrade Device

Emerald peaks hovered at the edge of the sky, half-shrouded and floating amidst the drifting clouds and mist. A youth of sixteen or seventeen stood at the edge of a precipice, gazing at the abyss before him, his heart stirring with memories from a life before his rebirth.

Xin Lang recalled the hardships of his previous life—how, because of a congenital flaw in his meridians, he could not pursue the martial path and instead turned to the arduous study of pharmaceuticals. He remembered, too, the scenes of meeting, understanding, and falling in love with Hong Xiu, the saintess of the Heavenly Fragrance Sect.

“It was here! Twelve years from now, it was here that Hong Xiu would perish amid the drifting incense, her life snuffed out! I was powerless, forced to watch as she fought to her last breath for my sake, and I could do nothing for her!”

Xin Lang’s eyes blazed with boundless hatred as he swore an oath to the heavens: “Gate of Immortality! In this life, I will reach the pinnacle of martial cultivation and grind your so-called great sect beneath my heel! I will never allow you to harm Hong Xiu again—not a single strand of her hair!”

Standing at the edge of the cliff, Xin Lang gazed at the precipice where he and Hong Xiu once pledged their lives together. He murmured, “Hong Xiu, the heavens have granted me another chance at life. This time, it will be my turn to protect you.”

He lingered in his memories for a long while before finally turning and descending from the peak.

Rather than retracing the path he’d come by, Xin Lang plunged into the dense forest, searching earnestly for something among the trees.

“Blue Silver Grass… I remember that in my past life, when Hong Xiu and I passed through here, we saw a whole stretch of Blue Silver Grass!” he said to himself.

Because his meridians were blocked from birth, Xin Lang was unsuited for martial cultivation. Yet through relentless effort, by the age of twenty-nine he had become the youngest ninth-rank alchemist in the Great Xia Dynasty, the person with the greatest hope of attaining the title of Alchemy Sage.

Today, he had not come here merely to reminisce—his true purpose was to seek out the Blue Silver Grass.

If he wanted to reach the pinnacle of martial cultivation and have the strength to protect the woman he loved, he had to first resolve the blockage in his meridians. In his previous life, Xin Lang had studied this problem for many years, and Blue Silver Grass was the key ingredient in the meridian-clearing elixir he had created.

Beneath the scorching noontime sun, Xin Lang searched for over two hours until, at last, he found the blue-leafed, silver-edged Blue Silver Grass beside a mountain stream.

He carefully harvested the plant and placed it in his medicine basket.

The noonday sun was merciless, and Xin Lang’s body was already far weaker than most. Now he was drenched in sweat, and when he caught sight of the cool, inviting pool, an idea sparked in his mind—he decided to strip and leap into the water to bathe and cool off.

But just as he was half undressed, a thunderous roar split the sky.

Xin Lang looked up in alarm. “What the—? That’s a massive fireball… Ah—!”

Boom! Before he could finish exclaiming, the fireball smashed directly into the center of the pool. The scalding heat wave, only barely dampened by the erupting spray, would have roasted Xin Lang alive had he not been shielded by the water.

Even so, the powerful shockwave hurled him naked and sprawling into the grass.

“What was that just now? Could it have been a meteorite?”

Xin Lang’s eyes sparkled with the glint of silver coins. If it really was a meteorite, it would likely contain meteoric iron—a precious material worth a fortune, highly coveted for forging weapons.

For someone like Xin Lang, who attended the Rising Sun Martial Academy in Nine Suns City as a “negotiated student,” money was of vital importance.

Because he was unsuited for the martial path, and for reasons he could not comprehend, he had been reborn ten years earlier. Originally enrolled at the Alchemy Academy, he had chosen to abandon alchemy in favor of martial cultivation, transferring to the Rising Sun Martial Academy as a negotiated student.

A “negotiated student” was someone whose qualifications were lacking, but who, after paying a high fee, was allowed to attend classes.

Rubbing his bruised backside, Xin Lang returned to the pool. The pool, originally small, had now doubled or tripled in size from the impact.

“That fireball landed right in the center—there must be meteoric iron in the water!”

Still naked, Xin Lang plunged into the water and dived to the bottom to search for the treasure.

Moments later, he surfaced, clutching a black metal box.

“What is this? Why isn’t it meteoric iron?” Xin Lang was a little disappointed as he studied the rectangular box, about half a foot long.

“Maybe it’s some other rare treasure,” he consoled himself.

Carefully, he opened the metal box, but its contents left him utterly dismayed. “Damn it! Who says things that fall from the sky are always good? This isn’t even as useful as a pie—I could at least eat a pie!”

Inside was something completely black—a frame with two dark lenses. Xin Lang turned the strange object over in his hands and found that two curved hooks extended from the frame. When he put it on, the hooks fit snugly behind his ears.

“How curious!” With the strange device on, the glaring sunlight softened considerably.

He looked up at the sun and, through the dark lenses, found that he could gaze at it directly.

Suddenly, a sharp pain stabbed at his ears, and the world spun. In his dazed consciousness, he heard a cold, mechanical voice:

“Carbon-based lifeform detected…”

“Analyzing data…”

“Lifeform meets system requirements. Initiating DNA binding…”

“Searching for user world level information… Initializing upgrade device… System startup in progress…”

After a long while, Xin Lang’s senses returned. The metal box was nowhere to be seen, and the odd frame he’d worn on his face had vanished as well. In their place, a translucent screen appeared before his eyes—visible, but untouchable.

“All-Purpose Upgrade Device?”

At the top of the screen were several words he recognized. In the upper left corner was a small figure—a naked little Xin Lang.

Beneath the avatar was an introduction:

Upgrade Device User: Xin Lang
Level: Level 1 Martial Novice
Experience: 0
…
…

Staring at the deluge of information, Xin Lang was left completely bewildered. “What on earth is this?”

Beyond the information he could read, the display was divided into several sections: Task Panel, Inventory, Martial Techniques, Pet Beasts, Unknown Zone, and more. Each section featured a prominent Upgrade button.

Xin Lang tried tapping an Upgrade button, but they were all gray. Whenever he pressed one, a dialog box would pop up: “Insufficient experience. Cannot upgrade!”

“Upgrade? So with enough experience, I can upgrade?”

He tapped the Upgrade button beneath his own avatar, and the device replied, “Upgrading to Level 2 Martial Novice requires 10 experience. User experience insufficient. Cannot upgrade!”

“So with enough experience, I really can level up?”

A surge of excitement shot through Xin Lang. “An upgrade device! This is incredible! With this, as long as I can gain this ‘experience,’ I might advance to Level 2 Martial Novice! And not just that—breaking through to Warrior, Master, even Martial Saint needn’t be hindered by my meridian problem anymore!”

Suppressing his wild elation, Xin Lang continued his research.

He found that, aside from the first slots in the Task and Inventory panels, everything else was grayed out. Any attempt to activate them resulted in the prompt: “Feature not unlocked. Cannot use.”

He began his investigation with the Inventory.

The Inventory occupied most of the screen, organized into six rows and eight columns for a total of forty-eight slots, with more locked spaces below. Xin Lang guessed that as he upgraded, more slots could be unlocked.

Only the first slot was active. “Inventory? Is this like my medicine basket?”

Comparing the image of the Inventory with his own basket, Xin Lang picked up his medicine basket.

Suddenly, the basket vanished from his hand and appeared in the first slot of the Inventory, labeled “Medicine Basket.”

“Unbelievable!” Xin Lang was overjoyed. He knew that such a magical storage function was the dream of every martial artist. Even though the space of a single slot was only two or three cubic meters, he would unlock more as he leveled up.

He spent half the day making his basket appear and disappear, before finally calming down to study the Task feature.

Opening the Task panel, he found a daily quest for a Level 1 Martial Novice: “Practice the ten basic body movements one hundred times each per day to gain one point of experience.”

Beneath the instructions were ten illustrated, somewhat odd-looking exercises, clearly meant for him to imitate.

Ten movements, one hundred times each—that was a thousand repetitions in total. Though the workload was heavy, if he followed the device’s instructions, he could earn one experience point.

Xin Lang thought, “If I can finish this daily quest, then in just ten days, I could reach Level 2 Martial Novice! For Hong Xiu’s sake, damn it, I’ll do it!”

Planting his hands on the ground, Xin Lang began the first exercise: push-ups.

He noticed that with each repetition, the device recorded his progress. If his form was off, the device wouldn’t count it—there was no cheating or cutting corners.

One hundred push-ups would be hard for an ordinary person to complete in one go, let alone someone as frail as Xin Lang. Thankfully, the device didn’t require him to do them all at once.

After completing forty-nine push-ups, the device displayed: “Daily Task: Forty-nine push-ups completed!”