Chapter 3 : Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Awakening and the Cheat
August 20th was a bright and pleasant day. It was also the day Lin Bai had been born into this world.
At his side, Lin Su kept going over the key points of awakening. Even though she had already repeated them dozens of times before, Lin Bai did not find her nagging in the least. He simply listened quietly.
To be honest, Lin Bai was extremely nervous. Once he had learned that the transcendent truly existed, there was no way he could be content with living as an ordinary person. But awakening was never something one could predict with certainty.
You might make every possible preparation, only to end up with spirituality and a talent far below expectations.
After bidding farewell to his family, Lin Bai entered the meditation chamber.
The time required for awakening varied from person to person. A short one might end in less than an hour, while a long one lasting an entire day and night was nothing unusual.
In this world, when a member of the human race reached the age of fifteen, the spirituality within the body would shift from dormancy into a waking state. If one failed to awaken it at that time, then even if heavenly treasures were used later to force a second awakening, that person would never amount to much.
That was not only because of the lost cultivation time, but also because their spirituality would suffer damage.
After calming his mind, Lin Bai loosely clasped the Spirit-Awakening Stone in one hand and held the two pills in his mouth. Each pill was coated in a thick layer of honey.
The first step of awakening was to sense the spirituality within the body as it rose from dormancy. And now, for the first time in his life, Lin Bai truly felt something inside himself that he had never sensed before.
That was spirituality.
Dormant spirituality resembled ordinary gray meteorites. Spirituality in the process of awakening looked as though it were about to split open, with light shining through the cracks. Fully awakened spirituality turned like stars, rotating slowly and radiating a bright but gentle glow.
It was as though Lin Bai had become a higher-dimensional observer, gazing upon the spirituality within his flesh, within his soul, and within his true spirit. He did not understand the principle behind it, nor how it allowed him to perceive the spirituality of all three levels at once as though he were dissecting himself.
As Lin Bai looked at that spirituality map, vast as a galaxy, he nearly lost himself in it. But he quickly came back to his senses, because he noticed that most of the stars in his star chart were still either dormant or only half-awakened.
The moment he saw that, Lin Bai bit down on the Spirit-Nurturing Pill in his mouth and swallowed it.
Several minutes after it entered his stomach, the medicinal effect began to take hold.
Heat first rose from his abdomen, then spread outward until it reached every part of his body.
And yet, strangely enough, his sea of consciousness felt cool instead. Those two completely different sensations were both transmitted into his soul.
Lin Bai focused all of his attention on the star chart, because it too had begun to change. Within it, something started gathering, and one gray meteorite after another began to take shape.
Those were all additions to his foundation brought about by the Spirit-Nurturing Pill. Lin Bai’s star chart was enormous, so they could only be regarded as small embellishments, yet he was more than satisfied.
That meant his own innate spirituality had not been low to begin with. And the Spirit-Nurturing Pill was never something a person at his level should have had access to in the first place. He had only obtained it through his sister’s fortunate opportunity. The most important thing for a person was to know contentment.
After waiting ten minutes, Lin Bai saw that a small new region had already appeared at the outer edge of his star chart. The medicinal power of the Spirit-Nurturing Pill had faded, but the entire chart now carried a feeling of perfect, rounded completeness.
If things continued like this, it was possible that spirituality which had awakened earlier might sink back into dormancy before the rest had fully awakened. That would lead to an awakening failure. At that point, one could only gamble on whether the spirituality woke quickly enough.
In other words, luck still mattered.
Lin Bai smiled faintly.
This was exactly what money was for.
He tightened his grip around the Spirit-Awakening Stone. Cracks spread across its surface, and wisps of dim green vapor drifted out, gathering around Lin Bai before being absorbed through his pores.
The shells of the still-dormant spirituality in the star chart dissolved as quickly as cold oil meeting a heated blade.
Once all of the spirituality had fully awakened, his pores stopped absorbing the vapor. What remained could only be drawn in through his nose, serving merely to refresh his mind.
Lin Bai watched as countless awakened stars drifted and revolved through the star chart. The entire chart had been lit.
The first step was complete.
Keeping his gaze on the star chart while using the remaining vapor to stay clear-headed, Lin Bai decisively began the final step: condensing his talent.
Though all of his spirituality had awakened, if he failed to awaken a talent to anchor it, then it would soon sink back into dormancy or scatter away.
With a flick of his tongue, Lin Bai swallowed the last pill, the Stabilizing Origin Pill.
This time, he did not feel anything in particular. But the spirituality within the star chart suddenly blazed brightly. Every single star separated out threads of light and sent them toward the center.
When he saw that, Lin Bai finally let out a breath of relief. He had already done everything he could. What remained was for heaven’s will to nurture his talent. His mind could not help going blank.
It had already been incredibly difficult for him to reach this point.
How, then, were ordinary people supposed to awaken without any of these aids?
At fifteen, he had awakened right on time, which was clearly not the norm. Most ordinary people only awakened after turning fifteen, when their spirituality had already begun to wear away and dissipate.
That was right. After the age of fifteen, whether you awakened or not, your spirituality would begin to fade. If the awakening failed, then not only would your spirituality dissipate, it would suffer severe damage as well.
For ordinary people, the best option was usually to let time erode the outer shell of their spirituality. But if they did that, some of that spirituality would also be lost along the way.
The result was that a genius would be reduced to an ordinary person.
Take the clerks in Lin Bai’s family shop, for example. They had only awakened at fifteen and ended up with low-grade spirituality. If they had awakened earlier, they might well have had mid-grade spirituality instead.
Lin Bai shook his head, throwing off those stray thoughts, and carefully observed the clump of spirituality gathering at the center of his star chart.
Then his expression changed.
He realized that his clump of spirituality seemed to have two cores.
In this world, endless verification had already proved that an awakened person could only have a single talent.
So why did he look like a double-yolk egg?
Was this a dual talent, or had the awakening failed?
Lin Bai drew in a deep breath and began to pray.
“Lord Lao, God, Buddha, all you mighty beings out there, please don’t mess with me. I don’t want to end up on the useless-trash route.”
And while he was praying, the cluster of spiritual light changed again.
The two “yolks,” as though they had noticed each other, began drawing together and entwining. In the end, they fused into a round sphere of red and blue.
When Lin Bai saw that, he let out a long breath.
This concerned his future. Better safe than sorry.
The sphere began absorbing the surrounding radiance and gradually grew larger, until at last it became a red-and-blue star blazing at the center of the star chart. Countless stars of spirituality, as though they had finally found their core, began circling the star in orderly motion.
A stream of information flooded into him.
Lin Bai froze for a moment, then was instantly overjoyed.
“It really is a dual talent. I was right. Is it because I came here through transmigration?”
At the same time, traces of spiritual energy from the surrounding air were drawn in by those stars, and began transforming Lin Bai’s flesh, soul, and true spirit.
“This kind of visible improvement feels incredible. No wonder so many people love cultivation and become battle-crazed fanatics.”
Now that Lin Bai had completed his awakening, he could finally think through the ways in which his case differed from everyone else’s.
The first difference was his star chart.
During the awakening itself, Lin Bai had not paid close attention to it. But now that he examined it carefully, he discovered that his spirituality seemed... somewhat too abundant.
According to what he had learned before, anything below one hundred spiritual stars counted as low-grade, one hundred to five hundred as mid-grade, five hundred to three thousand as high-grade, and anything above three thousand as super-grade.
Lin Bai had once heard that the youngest daughter of the Prince of Qi in Yunzhou had awakened last year with super-grade talent. Rumor had it she possessed nine thousand spiritual stars, and that alone had been enough for her to be hailed as a genius. Otherwise, news of it never would have reached a small place like his.
Lin Bai carefully sensed his own star chart.
The total number of spiritual stars was one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred.
Looking at this dazzlingly splendid star chart of his, Lin Bai stroked his chin and muttered in bewilderment,
“Does this count as cheating?”
Then there was his talent.
That was even more outrageous, something unheard of in the outside world: a dual talent.
After going through the information, Lin Bai concluded that his two talents had already fused together and complemented one another.
Metamorphosis: He could see the evolution path most suited to a spirit beast.
Shared Journey: He could add the strongest single attribute of a spirit beast onto himself.
First was Metamorphosis. Its meaning was straightforward enough, but it also came with a passive ability: it could inspect the talent values of spirit beasts. It was, in every sense, the ultimate talent for a Beast Tamer.
Then there was Shared Journey. That one was also just what it sounded like, but it had two restrictions. First, the spirit beast had to be a life-bound spirit beast entwined with his soul and life. Second, he could only take the beast’s highest single value.
Shared Journey paired with Metamorphosis, plus his own star chart...
Was this not the very definition of a pure stat monster?
This time, Lin Bai said it with certainty.
“Yes. This really is cheating.”
To be honest, after seeing his spirituality and his talents, Lin Bai nearly wanted to run outside and shout, “I don’t eat beef anymore!”
He shook his head and forced those distracting thoughts out of his mind, then began considering how he should present all this to the outside world.
After all, one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred spiritual stars plus a dual talent, combined with his family background...
Was that not the same as a child carrying gold through a crowded marketplace?
Anyone who could resist robbing him would have to be a saint.
And Lin Bai was not being paranoid for nothing. Just think about how people had established the grading system for spirituality. The grade was not carved onto an awakener’s forehead. The only way to determine it was through massive amounts of data.
And where did that data come from?
What a difficult mystery that was.
To begin with, Lin Bai felt he could not hide the fact that he possessed super-grade talent. Only super-grade talent would cause the spiritual energy of the outside world, aloof as some icy goddess, to enter your body on its own and help transform and evolve you.
If you only had low-grade talent, you would have trouble even sensing spiritual energy.
Besides, even if there were arts capable of concealing it, where would Lin Bai get resources from afterward? And where would he find high-level spirit beasts?
But even within super-grade talent, there were levels.
Three thousand and one spiritual stars was super-grade talent.
Nine thousand spiritual stars was also super-grade talent.
And one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred spiritual stars was still... super-grade talent.
Lin Bai decided that when speaking to others, he would simply claim to have a little over four thousand. After all, the Prince of Qi’s daughter had already set a precedent. If his own claimed number was not even half of hers, no one was going to dissect him just to verify it.
As for his talent, he would display only part of Shared Journey.
Metamorphosis, on the other hand, absolutely could not be mentioned.
Lin Bai felt that if he revealed that talent in the morning, he might very well disappear by nightfall.
Before he had enough power to protect himself, Lin Bai would only use that ability on his own life-bound spirit beasts. If he openly helped spirit beasts evolve on a large scale, then even if others could not guess he possessed a dual talent, they would at least suspect he had some extraordinary treasure.
But if he only used it on his own life-bound spirit beasts, then he could always pass it off as a fortuitous inheritance.
A life-bound spirit beast could not simply be taken away, and the number of such beasts would never be large. That was a risk still within what he could bear.
If a spirit beast evolved several times at low levels, it would not be too conspicuous.
And if it evolved to a high level and became conspicuous, then what?
If my spirit beasts have already evolved to the high levels, and you still dare ask me that question, then I must have been far too gentle.
Lin Bai planned out what he would do next, and only after a long while did he finally let out a long breath. Rubbing his brow, he gave a bitter smile.
“If your talent is poor, the road of cultivation is full of hardships. But if your talent is too good, you still have to tread with caution. Hard. Hard! Hard!”
As Lin Bai steadied his thoughts, a sudden idea flashed through his mind.
Did humans count as spirit beasts?
Probably, right?
With that thought in mind, Lin Bai turned the passive detection ability of Metamorphosis on himself.
To his surprise, a stream of information really did appear.
Name: Lin Bai
Strength: 0.8 (rising)
Agility: 0.7 (rising)
Constitution: 0.7 (rising)
Spirit: 1.2 (rising)
Level: Not yet in Transcendent-Mortal
Skills: Basic Blade Arts, Basic Medicine, Galloping Horse Stance, Low-Level Archery
Talents: Metamorphosis, Shared Journey
Evaluation: Great potential for the future; easy to bully for now.
P.S. These figures are based on Lin Bai’s own self-defined settings. For an awakener with high-grade spirituality who has just entered the Transcendent-Mortal Realm, the average of the four attributes is 1.0.
The typical signs of someone with high-grade spirituality who has just stepped into the Transcendent-Mortal Realm are: strength exceeding a thousand jin, a body like a galloping horse, flesh as tough as cowhide, and vigor overflowing like a dragon or tiger.
(Early-stage realms: Transcendent-Mortal, Transcendent, Ascendant, Rebirth, King)
Looking at the status panel he had cobbled together, Lin Bai finally felt that things were right.
He had always been deeply hung up on the fact that, despite having transmigrated here, he had never received a system.
Every other transmigrator seemed to have one, so why was he the only exception?
Was he being discriminated against?
Now it was all right.
He had made one for himself.
Granted, it looked more like the interface of some cheap online game, and it had none of the functions for adding points or drawing prizes. But at the very least, Lin Bai could now view his condition in an intuitive way.
As for the state of his attributes, he was quite satisfied.
Before awakening, he had only possessed three hundred jin of strength. After all, he was only fifteen this year. He had never expected that after awakening, it would surge to nearly triple that amount.
As for his Spirit attribute, that was even more impressive. It had already surpassed that of someone who had just entered the Transcendent-Mortal Realm. Of course, that might also have had something to do with his previous foundation. Before awakening, Lin Bai had not quite possessed perfect recall, but he had certainly been exceptionally well-read and highly retentive.
What satisfied him most was the word in parentheses after each attribute.
There was no denying it: super-grade spirituality was king.
He could absorb spiritual energy just by standing there.
What difference was there between that and living off sunlight?
As for his skills, those were the main abilities Lin Bai had learned over the past fifteen years.
Lin Bai sorted through all of that chaotic information in his mind. Only after his emotions had fully settled did he finally step out of the meditation chamber.