Uchiha Yuan returned home, lay directly on his bed, slowly closed his eyes, and spun the wheel in his mind.
His vision shifted, the wheel disappeared, and countless points of light scattered around and then merged into new text.
"You have logged into the Cuiwei Realm."
"Cuiwei Realm? A whole new world?" Uchiha Yuan's interest was immediately piqued.
"The Cuiwei Realm contains eight continents. You were born on the southeastern Huangfeng Continent."
"The Huangfeng Continent is vast, made up of hundreds of small countries. You are the princess of one of them."
"Wait! Why a princess? Shouldn't I be a prince?" Uchiha Yuan complained.
But clearly the text-based game wouldn't respond to his protests and simply continued silently with the plot.
"Your royal father and mother loved you dearly, and you grew up safely and happily."
"Today is your sixteenth birthday. The palace is holding a grand banquet."
"At the banquet, your father was assassinated. Your brothers fought fiercely for the throne."
"Neighboring countries seized the opportunity to invade. Your country was destroyed, and you were captured."
"You were treated as spoils of war and given to a meritorious general."
"The general sent you to the Department of Courtesans, where you learned the arts of serving men."
"Three months later, the general brought you back, dressed you up splendidly, and handed you over to a young noble."
"You became the young noble's handmaid."
"One day, you discovered that the young noble was actually a legendary cultivator."
"You began secretly observing the young noble's cultivation."
"One day, in the middle of cultivation, something unknown happened. The noble suddenly bled from all orifices, convulsed, and died."
"You suppressed your fear and took the ring he always wore. From your daily observations, you knew all his treasures were stored in it."
"You escaped to a remote mountain and, imitating the young noble, dripped your blood on the ring."
"The ring opened. Inside were a dozen crystal-clear stones, two small jade bottles, three jade slips, and some clothes and gold-silver items."
"Through trial and error, you determined the jade slips recorded the cultivation techniques used by the young noble."
"You began cultivating."
"You found yourself to be a cultivation prodigy. You learned things quickly and entered the basics within just three days."
"Two months later, you broke through to the first layer of Qi training and officially became a cultivator."
"Ten years later, you reached the Foundation Establishment stage."
"You flew back to your homeland."
"You thought the Foundation Establishment stage would allow you to sweep away the mortal armies and reclaim your country. But you overestimated yourself. Although mortals cannot cultivate, some of their martial artists are incredibly strong."
"You were defeated by a martial arts grandmaster."
"Your cultivation was crippled."
"You were sent back to the Department of Courtesans."
"Unable to bear the humiliation, you chose to commit suicide."
"Game over!"
"You received: +5 Attribute Points, Storage Ring x1."
After the game ended, Uchiha Yuan was incredibly relieved that this was just a text game.
Otherwise, he would have had to actually endure all the tragic events experienced by that unlucky princess.
But putting aside the miserable storyline, the game rewards this time actually seemed pretty good.
Thinking of this, Uchiha Yuan claimed his rewards, and a dull-gray ring appeared in his hand.
The ring looked extremely simple—at first glance, it resembled nothing more than an ordinary small iron loop, the kind that had been left lying around for years.
Uchiha Yuan was very satisfied with how inconspicuous the storage ring looked—probably no one would care about such a plain item, right?
Following the example of the unlucky princess in the game, Uchiha Yuan performed a blood recognition ritual.
Just like that, the ring opened.
The internal space was visually estimated to be 2 meters in length, width, and height—8 cubic meters in total.
It was completely empty.
Uchiha Yuan then transferred everything from his sealing scroll into the storage ring.
After some tests, he discovered that retrieving items from the storage ring was significantly more convenient than from a sealing scroll.
With just a thought, an item from the ring would appear in his hand.
After playing with the storage ring for a while, he allocated the 5 new attribute points he had just gained to Chakra.
Now Uchiha Yuan's status panel looked like this:
Chakra: 49
Constitution: 30
Ocular Power: 70
Vitality: 7
Natural Affinity: 3
Level: LV12 (19/20)
Attribute Points: 0
The next day, as usual, Uchiha Yuan went to the Ninja Academy.
Today's class was a theory session. The teacher was lecturing on setting and disarming traps.
This course was quite important—on the battlefield, traps were everywhere, and understanding them at least improved your survival rate a little.
But what Uchiha Yuan didn't expect was that halfway through the class, an ANBU suddenly arrived, informing the teacher that a sparring session would be held between Class One and Class Two, and the Hokage himself would personally observe it.
Before the teacher could say anything, the students below already burst into excitement.
These kids, brainwashed by the Will of Fire, acted like they were on a sugar rush at the chance to meet the Third Hokage.
Not wanting to stand out, Uchiha Yuan faked an excited expression too.
"Quiet down! Everyone head to the training field and prepare!"
With that command, the students eagerly rushed out toward the training field. On the way, they ran into students from Class One who were also on their way.
This was Uchiha Yuan's first time seeing the early-stage key Konoha ninjas from the original work.
There was Asuma Sarutobi, son of the Third Hokage; Kurenai Yuhi, daughter of Konoha's genjutsu master; Ebisu, future tutor of the Third Hokage's grandson; Genma Shiranui, future guard of the Fourth and Fifth Hokage; Ibiki Morino, head of the Konoha Torture Corps; Might Guy, "Blue Beast of Konoha" recognized by Uchiha Madara as the strongest taijutsu user; and Uchiha Obito with Rin Nohara, future students of the Fourth Hokage.
Shizune, Tsunade's disciple, was not seen—at this point in time, Tsunade had already left Konoha, and Shizune should have gone with her.
While Uchiha Yuan was observing everyone, a cheer erupted from the crowd. Looking up, he saw it was the Third Hokage arriving.
This was Uchiha Yuan's first time seeing the Third Hokage in person—only a dozen meters separated them.
He looked at the man before him, dressed in a white Hokage cloak over a red ninja outfit, wearing the signature Hokage hat—and put on the same look of admiration as his peers.
Unlike the original series, where the Third Hokage appeared in old age, this version of him was just over 50, still in his prime.
(To Be Continued...)