"You're worthless trash."
"DIE!!"
A blurry faced man with a white beard slapped Neel across the face.
Neel woke up suddenly, his forehead covered in sweat.
"Not this dream again."
He wiped the sweat from his face and he felt like dying in this new world.
Back on Earth, he had lived a peaceful life.
His only regret was dying without ever having a girlfriend.
However, in this world, he had married.
But he had no memory of how he married or why he had a son.
That's right.
He had a son.
And the only thing Neel remembered was that his wife was from very powerful clan.
Other than that, Neel found that…
He was exiled and his memory related to his wife were wiped out.
Although Neel felt confused about why that happened.
He accepted it easily, he thought, it would have been hard to believe he suddenly had a wife.
From memory, Neel knew he was exiled to the most backward place.
To be precise, this world's name was the Green Bamboo Continent.
Neel after learning about Green Bamboo Continent.
At first, he felt like he was living in heaven.
After all, here, he could live longer than in his previous world.
But all his excitement shattered like fragile glass.
When he learned he was dying.
Yes, he was dying.
And he had only three days left to live.
How did he know he was dying?
Let's go back to when Neel first learned about the Green Bamboo Continent.
In this world, people could live longer and become stronger, like superhumans, by choosing one of two paths.
Either by establishing a clan or refining star energy to become a Star Refiner.
These were the two paths to gain strength in this world.
But these paths were not as easy as people thought.
As, refining star energy wasn't simple.
Star energy existed in a violent state within the atmosphere.
Ordinary people couldn't refine it without significant backing.
That's why most people chose to establish clans to refine star energy.
But to establish a clan, one needed the recognition of the world's will.
Which is an extremely dangerous process for anyone without enough strength.
Even if someone managed to establish a clan, how could they support it without resources?
In this world, most resources were already occupied by strong Star Refiners.
So, left with no other options, ordinary people chose to refine star energy directly.
But refining star energy without clan support?
That was courting death.
As only one in a million succeeded.
If someone failed to refine star energy, they would die within three days.
And as you might have guessed, that's what happened to Neel.
His idiotic past self tried to refine star energy and died.
Now, the current Neel had taken over this body, only to die in three days.
Recalling his condition, Neel couldn't help but touch his eyebrows.
After massaging them, he absentmindedly played with the white and blue crystal cube in his hand that was the size of a baby's fist.
It had been in his hand when he arrived in this world, but he couldn't recall anything about it from the body's memory.
He guessed, it was his golden finger, as most transmigrators have, but even after a whole night of trying, he got nothing.
Sigh...
Was I born only to die?
Well, I don't have any attachment to anyone here anyway.
Neel shook his head quietly, he was not too disappointed.
He had already lived his lived once's and he had no regrets about dying again.
Even so, he felted little bitter. He wondered how his newfound son would survive in this dangerous world alone.
Puff.
Neel suddenly coughed blood and that blood coincidentally fell on the cube.
Without any surprise, Neel wiped the blood from his lips. He already knew he had two days left.
Coughing blood was a regular symptom now.
But this time, something unexpected happened.
His hand felt hot.
Neel looked down.
The cube in his hand was glowing with white blue light.
Before he could react, it flew up and entered between his eyebrows.
"Ahh..."
Neel felt sharp pain in his brain.
Then, a surge of new information flooded his mind.
After the pain subsided, Neel realized the cube he had played with all night wasn't just an ordinary cube.
The cube was called the Origin Cube.
What did it do?
It could restore any treasure, herb, weapon or anything to its original state, as long as Neel had a piece of it.
For example, if Neel had a broken blade, he could restore it to its original state by using the Origin Cube.
To do that, all Neel had to pay was a Star Stone.
In this world, everything revolved around star energy.
So, in dense star energy environments, Star Stone veins could form and Star Refiners would mine them to collect Star Stones.
Star Refiners preferred to use Star Stones because they contained purer star energy than the surrounding environment.
However, that didn't mean ordinary people could become Star Refiners just by using Star Stones.
Although star energy was beneficial, they couldn't handle it without becoming a Star Refiner.
Star Stones were divided into four grades Low, Middle, Top and Supreme.
What excited Neel the most was learning that, according to the Origin Cube, he could become a Star Refiner by simply paying ten Star Stones.
However, the Origin Cube could only turn its host into a Star Refiner.
Which didn't affect Neel.
Neel wiped the drool from his mouth and calmed himself.
Now wasn't the time to get excited.
As his injuries were still serious.
He could die from a sudden burst of emotion.
Quickly, he took out ten Star Stones from his storage ring and he summoned the Origin Cube from his sea of consciousness.
The Origin Cube floated in the air.
Looking at the Origin Cube, Neel noticed that only two of its six sides were glowing.
He tossed the Star Stones toward the Origin Cube.
They sank inside the origin cube.
Slowly, the Origin Cube began to glow.
Then the Star Stones slowly melted and disappeared.
In their place, a milky white liquid suddenly appeared.
Neel blink and he felt his heart aching.
He only had twenty Star Stones in his pocket.
Neel guessed that his mysterious wife might have been the one who left him the twenty Star Stones.
Just as Neel was consoling himself.
The milky liquid flowed out of the Origin Cube and rushed into his stomach.
Neel raise his brow.
He checked his stomach, but didn't feel anything different.
However suddenly he felt warm current flowing in his stomach.
Neel sat cross legged.
Then he began channeling a basic breathing technique.
he found that milky white light liquid rushing into his dantian.
Boom!
The moment the liquid touched Neel's dantian.
He felt warm current spreading his whole body.
Boom!
Inside Neel dantian huge vortex form and that vortex begin to devour milky white liquid.
as if it want to form something.
Finally, after hours.
A glass like round ball formed inside Neel's dantian.
"star core"
Neel's eyes glowed, and he knew exactly what it was.
It was the Star Core one gained after breaking through to the First Star Core Realm.
Neel recalled that Star Refiners were divided into nine realms.
From the First Core Realm to the Ninth Core Realm.
With each breakthrough, a new Star Core would form inside a Star Refiner's body.
"Phew..."
Neel exhaled black air from his mouth.
"Umm… this is how first star core realm felt, huh?"
Neel felt like he could easily defeat a hundred of his past self.
He was also surprised to find all his injuries completely healed.
Just then.
knock knock.
"Sir, may I come in?" a young boy sound was heard.
Neel snapped out of his thoughts and quickly recalled the Origin Cube back into his sea of consciousness.
"Come in."
The door creaked open and a handsome boy entered with his head lowered.
Neel sighed. His past self had been self centered.
Even after ending up in the wastelands with his son, his past self believed he had been exiled to the Westland because of him.
That's why, he hated his son and beat him whenever he was upset.
Neel shook his head and he felt guilty that Aarvan was so scared to even call him father.
Even though he hadn't done those horrible things to Aarvan, he had taken over this body.
So, he felt responsible for all the actions of his past self.
Strangely, every time Neel looked at the boy, he felt that Aarvan truly was his son and he genuinely wanted to be closer to him.
"What happened?"
Aarvan trembled in fear. He had never heard Neel speak softly.
All he remembered were curses and shouting.
"Cough."
Neel cleared his throat as he saw Aarvan remain silent.
"Speak. Why are you looking for me?"
"Ahh..."
Aarvan snapped out of his thoughts.
"Sir… Star Beasts are coming."
"What?" Neel jumped to his feet.
Neel's eyes widened in fear when he heard Aarvan's words.
In this world, the only beings more dangerous than Star Refiners were the Star Beasts.
Star Beasts were animals that had refined star energy and mutated into mindless monsters that attacked anything in their path.
Star Beasts were also divided into nine grades:
Soldier Grade
Elite Grade
Leader Grade
General Grade
Commander Grade
Lord Grade
Royal Grade
King Grade
Emperor Grade
The most terrifying thing was that Star Beast tides came in massive swarms.
Neel's expression darkened and he fell silent.
He had just breakthrough to first star core realm.
Even Soldier Grade Star Beasts are far stronger than first star core realm star refiner.
At his current strength, he would be risking his life just to face a group of Soldier Grade Star Beasts.
Neel thought about it many times before calming down.
He was no longer his past self who would be scared to death.
He had already died once.
So what was there to be afraid of?
If he couldn't win, he'd simply run.
Slowly, he sat cross legged again.
Then, he looked at Aarvan, whose head was still down.
"Tell me the number of Star Beasts."
"Sir, the village guards said there are about one hundred of them."
"Hundred ?! How can there be such a large number? Could it be…" Neel frowned and rubbed his forehead.
The more Neel thought about it, the darker his face became.
His current location condition was that, where resources were so scarce that even finding third core realm star refiner was very difficult.
Even worse, Neel was currently in Gorkha Village.
He had heard that Gorkha Village only had a Second Core Realm Star Refiner.
A Star Beast tide of 100 size could only mean that an Elite Grade Star Beast was leading the beast tide.
Without at least peak of second core realm star refiner, how could the Gurkha village possibly defend itself?
Neel couldn't stop frowning.
He felt hopeless.
However, he suddenly remembered something.
"Son, did the village lord succeed in breaking through to the peak of Second Star Core Realm?"
"Huh?" Aarvan was taken aback and he unconsciously raised his head.
Aarvan did not remember Neel ever calling him "son" before.
Neel felt awkward as he noticed the disbelief in the boy's eyes.
As someone who had lived half his life alone, after finding a son in this world brought him new felling.
He had unconsciously called Aarvan 'son'.
he forgotten what his past self had done to him.
Neel shook his head, signaling Aarvan to reply.
"Ahem… Sir, there's no news about the village lord."
After saying that, Aarvan lowered his head again.
"No news" Neel whispered calmly.
In this backward place, becoming a second core realm star refiner was impossible without resources.
In this backward place, becoming a Second Core Realm Star Refiner was nearly impossible without resources."
He wasn't very surprised.
That there was no news about the village lord.