Lin Wei knew he was fucked the moment Elder Yun called his name.
"Lin Wei, step forward."
The training ground went quiet, two hundred outer sect disciples turned to stare and Lin Wei felt every single pair of eyes like needles in his back.
And of course, he was the last one.
The Annual Meditation Trial happened every year and every year Lin Wei failed it. This was year four, at this point failing was practically a tradition.
He stood from his spot at the back of the crowd and walked forward. His sect robes—faded blue, patchy at the elbows, hung loose on his frame, he'd lost weight this year, stress did that.
The whispers started immediately.
"That's Trash Wei."
"His dad was executed, right? For lust Qi or something?"
"He's gonna fail again. Bet you five spirit stones."
"Only five? I'll bet ten he doesn't even make it thirty seconds."
Lin Wei kept his face blank and his eyes forward, reacting only made it worse, he'd learned that the hard way.
The trial circle was carved into the ground at the center of the training field—a simple formation that measured Qi circulation. Sit inside, meditate, circulate your Qi properly and the formation glowed blue. Easy. Every outer disciple could do it.
Well, except Lin Wei.
He stepped into the circle and sat leg crossed, the ground was warm from the morning sun. Around him, the other disciples had formed a loose crowd, some looked bored, some looked amused, a few looked almost sympathetic but sympathy didn't help him pass.
Elder Yun stood on a raised platform, arms crossed. He was old, stern and deeply uninterested in Lin Wei's excuses.
"Begin when ready."
Lin Wei closed his eyes and took a breath.
He could do this, he'd practiced every night for the past month, he'd sat in his shack and practiced the circulation pattern until his head hurt. He knew the steps, he knew the breathing, he knew exactly what to do.
His meridians just didn't cooperate.
He reached inward, searching for his Qi core. There—a weak flicker, like a candle in a storm, most disciples had cores that burned bright and steady. His didn't.
Carefully, he tried to guide the Qi through his meridians, the energy moved but it felt wrong like trying to pour water through a cracked cup. His meridians were damaged—had been for years, and no amount of practice fixed that.
The Qi slugged forward. Slow and painful.
Sweat dripped from Lin Wei's forehead.
Come on, just circulate, just once. Prove you're not completely useless.
The Qi hit a blockage in his chest meridian and was stuck.
Lin Wei tightened his teeth and pushed harder. The energy resisted.
He pushed again and that's when everything went wrong.
The blockage gave way all at once, not smoothly but like a dam bursting. Qi flooded through his meridians in a chaotic rush, completely out of control, Lin Wei's eyes snapped open as pain shot through his chest.
No... Not now. Not again—
His body convulsed.
The Qi backlash hit like a hammer, energy erupted outward in violent wave and the formation circle beneath him flared red. Failure, the color every disciple dreaded.
But it didn't stop there.
The Qi discharge was so strong, so uncontrolled that it didn't just fail, it exploded. Lin Wei felt his robes heat up, the fabric smoking as raw energy poured out of him in waves he couldn't stop.
A seam split down his back with an audible rip sound.
Fuck...
Another burst, his sleeve tore.
Oh no no no...
The front of his robe gave way.
And then Lin Wei was on his hands and knees, gasping for air with his robes in tatters and his chest half exposed to two hundred disciples.
Silence.
Complete, absolute silence.
For one beautiful, terrible moment, Lin Wei thought maybe it was over. Maybe they'd just let him leave quietly and he could go die of shame in private.
Then someone laughed.
"Holy shit, he blew up his clothes!"
The laughter spread like wildfire. Disciples howled. People were doubling over, even some of the older students on the platform were grinning.
"Trash Wei can't even meditate without stripping!"
"Is that his technique? The Exhibitionist's Path?"
"Someone get him a dancer's outfit, he's clearly in the wrong sect!"
Lin Wei's face burned, he tried to stand, tried to cover himself but his legs wouldn't work. The Qi backlash had drained him completely, he was stuck there half naked, shaking, with two hundred plus people laughing at him.
"Pathetic."
The voice cut through the noise like a blade.
Lin Wei looked up.
Huo Liang stood at the edge of the platform, arms crossed, looking down at him with disgust. He was everything Lin Wei wasn't—tall, handsome, talented, Twenty years old and already at Foundation Establishment. The golden boy of the outer sect, destined for greatness.
And he "hated" Lin Wei.
"Four years," Huo Liang said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Four years of wasting the sect's resources, your father was a pervert who corrupted his alchemy with lust Qi, and now look at you. Can't even circulate basic energy without exploding out of your pants."
More laughter.
"Maybe that's the family technique!" someone shouted. "Seduce your enemies by flashing them!""Maybe that's the family technique!" someone shouted. "Seduce your enemies by flashing them!"
"The Lin family's secret art—public indecency!""The Lin family's secret art—public indecency!"
Lin Wei's hands curled into fists, his vision blurred, he wanted to say something. Wanted to scream that his father wasn't a pervert, wasn't a criminal, was just trying to help people who couldn't cultivate normally
But his throat was too tight.
He couldn't get the words out.
Elder Yun finally raised a hand, and the laughter died down.
"Lin Wei." His voice was cold. "This is your fourth consecutive failure. By sect law, you are hereby placed on probation. You have one month to demonstrate measurable improvement or you will be demoted to servant class."
One month.
Lin Wei's stomach dropped.
One month to fix meridians that had been broken for six years.
Impossible.
"Dismissed," Elder Yun said.
The crowd began to disperse, still chuckling, already moving on to the next bit of gossip.
Lin Wei stayed where he was, kneeling in the circle, too exhausted and humiliated to move.
Someone draped a robe over his shoulders. He looked up and saw Instructor Feng—a chill woman in her thirties, ice Qi master, known for her rigid professionalism. She didn't smile, didn't offer comfort, Just looked at him with something that might have been pity.
"Medical hall," she said curtly. "Get your meridians examined."
Then she walked away.
And Lin Wei was alone again.
Slowly, painfully, he forced himself to stand. His legs shook, his chest ached, his pride was somewhere in the dirt, grounded into dust by two hundred pairs of feet.
He pulled the borrowed robe tight around himself and walked.
One step, then another.
Off the training grounds, through the outer sect pathways. Past the laughters and the whispers and the disciples who stepped aside like failure might be contagious.
He didn't go to the medical hall.
He went straight to his shack...
The shack wasn't much—barely bigger than a storage closet, tucked in a forgotten corner of the outer sect. It had been his father's workshop once, back when they'd had a real home. Now it was all Lin Wei had left.
He stumbled inside, shut the door and locked it.
Then he collapsed.
His back hit the wall and he slid down to the floor, pulling his knees to his chest. The borrowed robe smelled like someone else. His hands were shaking.
Four years.
Four years of failure.
Four years of trying and trying and trying, and it never got better, It only got worse.
The memory hit him without warning—sharp and vivid, like it always did when he was at his lowest.
Three years ago. The execution platform. His father kneeling, hands bound, while the Sect Master read the charges.
"Lin Hao, you stand accused of corrupting orthodox alchemy with forbidden Qi methods. You have created pills infused with lust Qi, distributed them to outer disciples, and caused 'unusual side effects' that violate the sect's moral standards."
His father's voice was calm even facing death: "I was trying to help those who couldn't cultivate normally. Lust Qi is just another path—"
"Silence! Your perversions have no place in this sect."
*The blade fell.*
*Lin Wei was fifteen and they made him watch.*
He pressed his palms against his eyes, hard enough to see spots.
His father had believed in alternative cultivation, believed that people like Lin Wei—people without talent, without perfect meridians, could still find power if they were willing to explore unconventional methods.
He'd died for that belief.
And Lin Wei couldn't even honor his memory by succeeding.
"Maybe I should just quit," he said to the empty room. His voice was down. "Go be a farmer, grow cabbages. At least plants don't judge you."
The silence didn't answer.
He sat there as the sun moved across the sky, shadows lengthened. The sounds of the sect's evening activities drifted through the thin walls—disciples training, laughing, living their normal lives.
Lin Wei just sat there Empty, Defeated.
Hours passed and then something changed.
At first, he thought it was exhaustion playing tricks on him. A glow in the corner of his vision, like heat waves on a summer day.
He blinked.
The glow solidified.
A jade slip materialized in the air in front of him—glowing soft pink, covered in script he didn't recognize. It pulsed once, twice, hovering at eye level.
Lin Wei stared.
Then words appeared in his mind, clear as someone speaking directly into his skull:
[SYSTEM ONLINE]
Lin Wei's breath slowed.
[The Forbidden Dao BETA]
"What...."
[Congratulations, Host! You have been selected for our Degenerate Cultivation Trial Program!]
He reached out slowly, hand trembling and touched the jade slip.
It was solid. Warm. Real.
[Scanning host... complete!]
[Status: Pathetic]
[Meridians: Damaged beyond normal repair]
[Cultivation talent: Trash tier]
[Prospects: Bleak]
[Perfect candidate! ♪(´▽｀)]
Lin Wei's brain struggled to process what he was seeing.
A system. A cultivation system.
Like the ones from legends—the heaven-defying opportunities that turned trash into immortals.
This was...
This couldn't be real.
[INITIALIZING BOND...]
[WARNING: This process is irreversible. Once bonded, the system cannot be removed except by death (yours or mine, and I don't plan on dying).]
[Do you accept? Y/N]
[Just kidding, you don't get a choice! ☆〜(ゝ.∂)]
"Wait, what—"
[BOND ESTABLISHED]
The jade slip dissolved into motes of light and shot directly into his forehead.
Lin Wei gasped as foreign energy flooded his consciousness. It wasn't painful, but it was intrusive—like someone rearranging furniture in his brain without asking permission.
Then it settled.
And a voice spoke in his mind. Casual. Amused. Distinctly "female", though not quite human.
[Hello, Host! I'm Lú Tǐ, your new cultivation system. We're going to have SO much fun together!]
Lin Wei pressed his hands to his temples. "This is a hallucination, I hit my head during the backlash and now I'm hallucinating."
[Nope! I'm real. Want me to prove it?]
Before he could answer, his meridians moved.
For the first time in six years, Lin Wei felt his Qi pathways respond properly. Not healed—not yet but active, the broken channels hummed with potential like a musical instrument that had been silent suddenly remembering how to hold a note.
"Holy shit," he breathed.
[See? Real. Now, let's talk about your future.]
[You're trash. We've established that. Your meridians are fucked, your reputation is ruined and you have approximately one month before this sect kicks you out.]
[Lucky for you, I specialize in trash-to-treasure transformations!]
"How?" Lin Wei's voice cracked. "How can you fix this?"
[Oh, I'm not fixing anything. YOU are, I'm just providing the tools.]
[Welcome To The Forbidden Dao, Host. Your new cultivation method is simple:]
[Get people to pay attention to you. The more attention, the more power. Attention becomes Lust Qi, Lust Qi becomes cultivation advancement. Easy!]
Lin Wei's mind raced. "Attention? You mean like... fame?"
[Exactly! Specifically: sexual/romantic attention works best, but we'll take what we can get at first. You're starting from zero, after all.]
"Sexual attention." Lin Wei's face heated. "You want me to...to seduce people?"
[Eventually! Right now, I just need you to exist in an interesting way. We'll build up to the seduction part.]
[First things first: MANDATORY MISSION]
A translucent screen appeared in his vision:
[MISSION: Introduction Content]
[Create content introducing yourself to potential... let's call them 'subscribers.' Must be posted publicly within 24 hours.]
[Reward: Lust Core Activation, Basic Qi Circulation Unlocked, +1 Cultivation Rank]
[Failure: Permanent Humiliation Aura (Lvl 1) - Everyone within 10 meters will instinctively mock you]
Lin Wei stared at the screen.
Then he started laughing.
It was a broken sound, half-sob but it was real.
"You're insane," he said to the voice in his head. "This whole thing is insane."
[Maybe! But you're out of options, Host. You have one month to prove yourself to the sect, and traditional cultivation clearly isn't working.]
[So: Do you want to keep failing the same way you've always failed?]
[Or do you want to try something new?]
Lin Wei looked down at his hands. Trembling. Weak.
He thought about his father's execution, the blade falling, the sect's judgment.
He thought about today's humiliation, the laughter, the mockery.
He thought about the next month. The inevitable failure, the demotion to servant class.
And he thought: Fuck it.
"Fine," Lin Wei said, his voice rough but steady. "I'll do your insane mission, but if this gets me killed—"
[Then you'll die interesting instead of boring! Progress! Now get some sleep, Host. You look like death, and we can't have that. Tomorrow, we start your viral cultivation journey! ♪(´▽｀)]
The system's presence faded slightly, giving him space.
Lin Wei sat in his shack, half naked and exhausted, with a mysterious cultivation system embedded in his soul and twenty-four hours to figure out what the hell "introduction content" meant.
He should have been terrified.
Instead, for the first time in years, he felt something that might have been hope.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's see what you've got, you insane system."
He lay down on his sleeping mat and closed his eyes.
And for the moment, he slept without nightmares.