Fenghe City, the Rogue Cultivator's Market.

  As the sun set in the west, many of the rogue cultivators who had come to set up stalls were packing up and heading home.

  Xia Li was one of these rogue cultivators. He sold talismans, and at this moment, only five remained unsold on his small stall. He had prepared nearly a hundred talismans just last night.

  But just as he was counting his spirit stones and preparing to close up shop, three fellow rogue cultivators approached him.

  "Brother Xia, looks like business was good today! We brothers are a bit short on funds lately—how about lending us some?"

  The three cultivators had clearly come with ill intentions. Their words were a thinly veiled demand to rob Xia Li of his spirit stones.

  Xia Li looked up at the three men. Although the Rogue Cultivator's Market had rules against robbery, he had unfortunately attracted the attention of those who enforced them. His talismans were of exceptionally high quality, leading people to suspect he possessed some kind of talisman-crafting legacy.

  As the saying goes, wealth stirs the heart. At only the first level of Qi Refining, he lacked the strength to protect his treasures. In others' eyes, he was nothing more than a walking opportunity.

  "Sorry, gentlemen. I'm out of spirit stones too—gave them all to Second Brother Liu."

  Xia Li wasn't stupid. He wouldn't naively try to reason with them or pit his meager strength against the rules. So he had found himself a backer.

  Not that his backer was any saint...

  But at least Second Brother Liu was more human than Steward Yang of the marketplace. Liu took less and had promised not to seize his talisman legacy.

  Of course, that was only temporary.

  The moment Xia Li showed any intention of leaving Fenghe City, his so-called backer would be the first to devour him whole.

  "Fine. Didn't expect you'd gotten in with the Liu family's second young master. But that one's a man-eater who doesn't spit out bones either. Watch yourself."

  "Oh, and if things get too rough, you can always go to Steward Yang. He says he only wants money, not lives. That Second Young Master Liu, though? He's got plenty of blood on his hands."

  Seeing that Xia Li had invoked his backer, the three threatening cultivators didn't waste any more time. They left with a warning and departed.

  By now, night had fallen. Xia Li packed up his small stall and sighed.

  "Nowhere is easy to survive..."

  He was now trapped in Fenghe City. Even if he wanted to hand over his legacy to save his life, he couldn't.

  Because he had no legacy to give.

  More precisely, his legacy could only be used by himself. No one else could use it at all.

  After all, he wasn't even from this world. He was a transmigrator, from Earth after the Spiritual Revival Era.

  Earth's cultivation traditions and this world's were almost entirely different branches.

  Earth had truly achieved technological cultivation. How could the people of this world possibly understand the power of Spirit-Tech?

  Implanted in his lower abdomen was a "Spirit Core"—also known as an artificial dantian, a mechanized foundation, a miniature Qi reactor.

  And in his head was implanted a "Heaven Chip"—also known as a second brain, a spirit-brain.

  The reason his talismans were so well-crafted was because the Heaven Chip worked in conjunction with the Spirit Core. It was a preset program written into the chip—essentially automated talisman-drawing.

  What legacy could he possibly hand over? Crack open his skull and dig out the chip? But without a modification chamber, even if they extracted it, these people couldn't implant it anyway!

  Later, Xia Li returned to the small courtyard he rented on the city outskirts, his mood heavy.

  Walking into his bedroom, he picked up the martial arts manual from the table. He had been practicing for over half a month now, but felt nothing at all.

  "In this world, mortals enter the Dao by first practicing martial arts, using internal force to break open the dantian. But I'm already a cultivator... the order is all wrong."

  Xia Li couldn't cultivate on his own. He had absolutely no talent for cultivation—not even the talent to practice mortal martial arts. He was thoroughly ordinary in body and soul.

  And his ceiling had already been fixed.

  Though Earth's Spirit-Tech was excellent, every item had varying quality.

  His Spirit Core and Heaven Chip were the worst available. After all, he was just a miner—the lowest of the low. What quality equipment would the Company give him?

  His Spirit Core was probably some secondhand junk from hundreds of years ago, capped at the first level of Qi Refining.

  His Heaven Chip was an antique worthy of a museum display. The latest Heaven Chips were already fifth generation.

  "I thought coming to a new world would be a fresh start. Never expected I'd be unable to take a single step forward."

  Xia Li let out a long sigh. He couldn't see any path ahead, and the excitement of arriving in a new world had long faded.

  His gaze fell casually on the bronze mirror at the edge of the table. His face was haggard, and on his right cheek was branded the Company's "Slave Mark."

  A barcode, signifying that he wasn't a person. He had no human rights—he was merely property belonging to the Company.

  Just seeing the barcode on his face reminded Xia Li of that humiliation.

  Strictly speaking, he wasn't even a modern person from Earth.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  He was an ancient person from Earth.

  In the year 2030 AD, he had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Coming from an ordinary family, his only option was to become a test subject for the human cryogenic preservation program.

  The cryogenic technology of that era was still immature. Whether he could be awakened in the future was unknown, and he hadn't really expected to be saved.

  Joining that program as a guinea pig was really just to give his family something to hold onto.

  Rather than being completely cremated, at least he could leave behind an intact body. For his family, that was definitely a comfort—they could fantasize that he might return someday.

  But what happened next completely exceeded Xia Li's expectations from before his slumber.

  In 2100 AD, Earth's spiritual energy revived. Countless plants and animals became demons overnight.

  Yet the number of human cultivators was extremely scarce. Humanity could only barely hold on by carpet-bombing with nuclear weapons.

  However, after Spirit-Tech emerged, humanity surged ahead. With vast numbers of cultivators, they reclaimed their former position in a short time and regained their footing in the new era.

  But what followed was humanity's internal war over cultivation resources.

  World War III.

  Unlike the nuclear war people had imagined back in 2030, World War III turned out to be a war of Dao and magic.

  More than five hundred years after he was frozen...

  The year 2532 AD.

  The research facility where he was stored was excavated from the wasteland by the Company. He was awakened and forced to sign an indenture contract, becoming a living mining slave.

  Until death, he would mine for the Company!

  The cost of awakening him and installing basic Spirit Core and Heaven Chip was much cheaper than purchasing a robot. The capitalists' calculations were ruthlessly precise.

  Ironically, the work robots invented to liberate human labor had lost out on cost-effectiveness.

  Whether oil or electricity, both were more expensive than the rat-and-insect jerky that human laborers ate.

  So manual labor still fell to human cattle, while robots became the overseers instead.

  "I wonder how things are at the mine now..."

  "Too bad I've just escaped the tiger's den only to enter the wolf's lair."

  For freedom, he had participated in an organization's sabotage operation against the Company's mine, helping them plant explosives. They had promised him freedom after the job was done.

  And then...

  The bomb had barely been planted when it exploded—well before the promised detonation time—and he was buried in the mine.

  He had probably been used...

  But it didn't matter anymore. He couldn't go back anyway. When he woke up, he found himself already in this world.

  However...

  His transmigration probably wasn't without reason.

  "Ring, oh ring, what kind of treasure are you? Is there an old grandpa inside? Save me!"

  Xia Li opened his left hand and looked at the black iron ring on his ring finger. He clearly remembered that before he passed out, the ring had emitted a dazzling white light.

  He had found the ring deep in the mine and had casually put it on his finger.

  "Sigh. No talent, no strength, no background—what good is transmigrating?"

  What good was waking up in a new era?

  If given another chance to choose, he would never have joined the cryogenic program. He would rather have died in 2030, surrounded by his family.

  Thinking of his loving parents, thinking of his mischievous and adorable little sister, his eyes couldn't help but grow moist.

  "I miss you all..."

  "I really want... to go back..."

  He wanted to return to 2030. The Spiritual Revival had nothing to do with him—he had died long ago, died the day he was frozen.

  But suddenly...

  The ring began to glow with white light.

  "Huh? This..."

  Before Xia Li could figure out what was happening, a flash of white light engulfed everything around him.

  When the light faded and Xia Li opened his eyes, he looked around in confusion.

  He was in a pit filled with rubble. The air still carried traces of gunpowder, and stone debris littered the ground.

  He recognized this place...

  This was deep in Mine Shaft Three—the place where he had planted the bomb.

  "I... returned to Earth?"

  Xia Li stood frozen. After a long moment, he looked at the ring on his left hand.

  He now had a theory. The ring was an ancient immortal relic from Earth's primordial past. After the Spiritual Revival, archaeologists had proven that Earth once had an era of cultivation.

  After all, it was called a "revival"—there had to have been something before!

  And the ring's current function seemed to be cross-dimensional travel.

  Countless thoughts immediately flooded Xia Li's mind. Earning spirit stones on Earth was extremely difficult, but on the other side, he could casually set up a stall and earn amounts he wouldn't dare dream of on Earth.

  Cultivation was now possible!

  Spirit-Tech was renowned for its promise: with enough spiritual energy, even a pig could ascend to immortality.

  Refine molecular Qi, establish an energy foundation, form an electromagnetic Golden Core, condense an ionic Nascent Soul, transform into fusion divinity!