The rain hammered against the city like an endless drumbeat, each drop glittering under the neon glow of Eastern Horizon City. It was close to midnight, but the 88th floor of Horizon Tower was still lit — floor-to-ceiling glass revealing a lone figure seated in a leather chair.
Lin Xuan leaned back, his gaze fixed on the skyline as lightning danced between skyscrapers. He had always admired storms. They were raw power — untamed, unstoppable exactly what he had built his life to be.
And now, it was about to end.
The faint hiss of the sliding glass door behind him made him turn. Wang Rui stepped in, carrying two crystal wine glasses and a dark green bottle. His tailored suit was flawless, his smile warm, the kind that once inspired trust.
"Cheers… to our future," Wang Rui said, pouring the red liquid.
Lin Xuan's lips quirked in a faint smile. "To the company we built from nothing."
The glasses clinked sharply, the sound echoing faintly in the vast office. The wine was smooth, rich — but under the vintage aroma, Lin Xuan caught a whisper of bitterness. A trained martial artist and chemist, his senses rarely failed him.
His smile didn't falter. "Poison?"
Wang Rui's smirk deepened, and in that expression Lin Xuan saw years of buried envy surface. "You were always too clever, Xuan. Too perfect. But perfect men leave no room for others to grow."
Lin Xuan's grip tightened on the glass. "You could have come to me."
"I did," Wang Rui said softly. "And every time, you overshadowed me. You got the investors. You closed the deals. You won every sparring match. In the boardroom and the ring, you never let me win. So now… I'll win everything at once."
The poison hit him fully — his breath turned ragged, muscles locking. He dropped the glass, crimson liquid spilling across the white marble floor. His vision narrowed to a tunnel, Wang Rui's silhouette standing at the end.
"Why?" Lin Xuan rasped.
"Because I refuse to be a footnote in your story," Wang Rui said coldly. "Goodbye, brother."
Lightning split the sky, illuminating Wang Rui's face one last time before darkness swallowed everything.
He expected nothingness. Instead, there was pain — sharp, cold, and real.
Lin Xuan gasped awake to the sound of clucking chickens and a hammer pounding in the distance. The air smelled of wet earth and smoke, not city rain and steel. He sat up, his hands brushing against scratchy straw.
"This… isn't my penthouse."
The wooden door creaked open, revealing a woman in patched clothes. She looked middle-aged, her face lined with years of labor. Her eyes widened in relief.
"Xuan'er! You're awake! The village healer said your spiritual roots are crippled — how will you ever cultivate now?"
Spiritual roots? Cultivate? The words were strange, yet familiar. And then the flood came — a torrent of memories, not his own, slamming into his mind.
This body was also Lin Xuan, but not the same man. This Lin Xuan was the second son of the Lin family in Stone Creek Village, a poor farming settlement in the Eastern Spirit Continent. Born with no spiritual roots, he was mocked by clan juniors, pitied by elders, and dismissed by every sect recruiter.
Lin Xuan clenched his fists, looking at the calloused hands of his new body. In this world, strength was everything. Without it, you were less than nothing.
The irony was bitter. In his old life, he was a genius. Here, he was trash.
But this time… he would not stay that way.
That night, the village gathered for the Spirit Moon Festival. Laughter and firelight filled the air as drums and flutes played. Lin Xuan, however, slipped away, drawn by a strange tug in his chest.
The pull led him to the overgrown ancestral shrine at the village's edge — a crumbling structure of rotting beams and moss-covered stone. Inside, moonlight spilled through a hole in the roof, illuminating a single object on a cracked altar: an ancient jade slip.
His fingers brushed it — cold at first, then searing hot. A chime rang in his mind.
[Omni-Talent System Activated]Welcome, Host. Initializing core functions…Scanning talents… None detected. Generating starter package… Complete.
Lin Xuan's breath caught. "A… system?"
[System Overview]
Talent Replication – Instantly master any skill or art by witnessing it, touching a manual, or handling a related object.
Material Insight – Identify and analyze any object, herb, ore, or artifact upon touch.
Skill Perfection – Elevate any learned ability to its peak potential.
Hidden Quests – Completing them grants unique rewards.
Lin Xuan's lips curved into a slow smile. "Crippled, they said? From today on, I'll have more talent than all of them combined."
A new prompt appeared.
[Hidden Quest Triggered]Objective: Learn your first cultivation technique.Reward: Automatic breakthrough to Qi Gathering Stage.
Lin Xuan's pulse quickened. In this world, cultivation was the key to survival — and supremacy. If this system could make him a cultivator instantly… his rise would be unstoppable.
Lightning cracked outside, the same sound that had ended his old life. This time, he swore, it would mark the beginning of something far greater.
"Alright, System," he said, stepping out into the night. "Let's begin."