1: Power

Ye Xing.

16 years old.

High school student.

Reincarnate.

Bleeding out on the street one moment, a period of nothingness, and becoming a baby the next, Ye Xing had been very confused by life.

When he had first reincarnated, he had found that he could not move his body. At first, he thought it was because of infantile strength. As the days passed, it became more obvious that something was wrong. It was as if he was watching a movie, except this movie was extremely long and boring. He could not do anything, but think and watch.

The connection between body and mind were not one-way, however. As the years flew by, his self would go through life, acting and reacting to various situations and circumstances how he would normally act if he were in control. Not only that, but it seemed that his own knowledge was transferred, as well, considering how his body only needed to be taught once to learn something. All was as if nothing was wrong and Ye Xing was peacefully living out his life.

Just...

Do you know what the experience of watching a boring movie for 16 years is like?

Hmm? What's that?

No?

You don't know?

. . .

You don't want to know.

Now, on the morning of his 16th birthday, a great surprise had come to Ye Xing.

He could control his body.

"I'm free...?" In shock, Ye Xing mumbled out loud to himself. Lifting his hand up and twisting it this way and that, he marveled at the long-lost sensation of moving his fingers. Gradually recovering, he swung his legs off his bed and tentatively took a few steps away.

"I can move...!" A tiny trickle of joy made its way into his voice this time, as he began to wake up properly and comprehend his new circumstances. However, before he could continue taking any further action, a new sensation made itself known from deep within Ye Xing mind.

A few years after he was reborn, Ye Xing had noticed an odd feeling originating from somewhere he couldn't describe. Although the odd tingle of something there had continued to grow over the years, because nothing else seemed to happen, he had long learned to ignore it.

At this moment, that tingle wasn't so easily ignorable, anymore. No, like an explosion in his face, Ye Xing's consciousness was knocked out of place, and was dragged into the depths of his soul. There, Ye Xing perceived some extremely bright "stars" orbiting his self. Five stars, to be exact.

Slowly, he recovered from the sudden transition, and read the message he received upon entering this..."soul space."

[Inspired Inventor: Spend a charge to gain or increase knowledge in a chosen subject. Regenerate charges every 24 hours.]

Surprised by the contents of the message, he murmured to himself, "Holy shit, I have a superpower."

'Not just any superpower, but a superpower that could take me to the stars and beyond, depending on its limits...' Thinking of all the possibilities that [Inspired Inventor] opened up to him, a desire began to well up in him. 'If I could really gain knowledge in any subject, can't I become a God with this power?'

Spend!

Must spend a charge!

Ye Xing wanted to figure out the limits of his surprise superpower! To do so, however, he would have to use a charge on something that could provide an answer to whether there were limits to [Inspired Inventor] or not. In other words...

'I want to learn how to cultivate! Qi cultivation methods!'

[Qi Cultivation + 1]

And with that, a deluge of complex-yet-easily-understood information on all the basics of qi cultivation flowed into his mind!

Dantian! Meridians! Various stages and realms of strength! Qi gathering and refining techniques! Everything one needed to know to begin cultivating qi instantly appeared and were instantly comprehended by his mind!

What a rush! Do it again!

[Qi Cultivation + 1]

If the first package of information was on all the basics and foundational knowledge of qi cultivation, then the second wave of knowledge was on how to use qi to produce magical effects, the inner workings of higher level qi cultivation methods, the cause and effect between the qi cultivator and the world, and the effect of the so-called "Dao" of the world on qi!

Damn! This ability was absolutely broken! Use all charges!

[Qi Cultivation + 1, Qi Cultivation + 1, Qi Cultivation + 1]

Ye Xing didn't suddenly explode, he didn't scream in pain, he didn't even blank out. No, he had fallen into a state of enlightenment!

Thousands of years worth of consistent study of Qi, on all of its abilities and more, had merged with his own memories and knowledge, giving birth to even more branches of expanding information on qi cultivation! The sudden information inflow and enlightenment had caused Ye Xing's mind to automatically run through all of its information on qi and various cultivation methods created by [Inspired Inventor] to create a new, supreme qi cultivation method!

There was a small problem with there being no qi in the atmosphere of the Earth, but that was but a flimsy obstacle in the face of [Inspired Inventor]'s methods! Earth may not have any qi, but qi was just another form of matter and energy, anyway! What Earth has a lot of in its atmosphere is not just air, but the various gasses that humans say cause 'air pollution'!

Qi is just matter and energy! Atoms are just matter and energy! Molecules are just a bunch of atoms!

With Ye Xing's mind running on overdrive in its enlightened state, he had unconsciously created a cultivation method that could absorb any and all matter and refine it into qi!

Absolutely absurd! Such a method could be said to be so horrifically efficient, it was impossible for such a heaven-defying method to exist!

How much energy does an atom contain, the majority of 21st century students should all know this answer. To be able to gather, refine, control, and absorb so much energy and not explode?

If such a thing was not heaven-defying, how could physics be so easily played with!?

Outside the soul space, Ye Xing's body was running the new cultivation method dragging in countless molecules polluting the air, using the atomic energy to form a qi core, and then driving all that atomic energy and qi to deeply wash the entire body clean!

The duration of the enlightenment state had lasted for an entire ten minutes, and the changes to Ye Xing's body could no longer be described as human!

No, he's superhuman now!

Although, outwardly, he did not change much, but a closer look would reveal that his skin had taken on a healthy color and was completely smooth with no imperfections, his hair seemingly glistened in the light, his still thin body now had a slight muscle definition, and the unbalanced proportions of his body and face were corrected to an uncanny level of symmetry.

Deeper within, his muscles, bones, veins, and internal organs had been transformed by the initial energy cleansing, becoming much stronger than normal. His muscles were stronger, his bones denser, his veins more durable, his organs all more efficient, his senses clearer, even his thinking speed had increased!

As Ye Xing gradually receded from his enlightenment and soul space, he opened his and stood up from where he laid on the floor. Taking a breath and registering all the new smells he could now receive, he stretched out his arms above his head and breathed out, "Cool..."

His body was light. His senses clear. And there was black gunk on his body like all those stupid Chinese novels liked to write about.

Oh.

So that was where the smell was coming from.