Deep Spirit Sect
In the mountains of the northwest.
The sky was covered by a vast stretch of darkness, dotted with stars, and at its center rested a lone moon.
Below, upon the land, lay a wide expanse of trees, and among them, a campfire beside a wooden cabin with a thatched roof and small gaps that filtered the moonlight.
Through the roof, one could see a young boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old, with black hair and green clothing. Blood trickled down the edge of his pants, between his thighs. His head was lowered toward his legs as he sat hunched over, legs stretched forward on a mattress.
"Cough! Cough!"
A dry coughing sound echoed through the cabin.
The young man, whose name was Yu Han, could barely keep himself upright as he spat blood.
"What's happening?"
Feeling his bones contract, his chest tighten, and his throat clog as if something were stuck inside, while the blood in his body boiled as though trying to burst out of every opening, Yu Han broke out in a cold sweat. His legs trembled from both pain and fear.
"Calm down… cough!" Yu Han whispered in a low voice, interrupted by dry coughing as he spat even more blood.
He couldn't control himself. The sensation of something lodged in his throat, as if it were suffocating him, was unbearable. The only solution he found was to cough.
Soon, the sounds of coughing echoed repeatedly.
"Am I going to die?" This grim thought crossed Yu Han's mind as he coughed nonstop. "Why? Did I develop some kind of blockage in my veins while sleeping?"
Doubts filled his mind, and Yu Han clenched his fists tightly, trying to hold himself together. However, it didn't last long. Suddenly, along with the earlier palpitations, his head began to throb with a sharp pain, like hammers striking his skull.
"Ah! Cough! Aghhh!"
Yu Han groaned.
Since the day he was born, he had never felt such agony.
Unable to endure any longer, he fainted.
In his dreams, he experienced something incredibly vivid, where he became a boy from a remote village, raised by his grandfather—also named Yu Han—who, two years ago, had entered a cultivation sect after it was discovered that he possessed a Yellow-grade spiritual vein.
This was great news for everyone in the village. Among a thousand mortals, only about ten had the chance to possess spiritual veins—a low probability. Even rarer were the grades.
Among cultivators, ninety-nine percent possessed Yellow-grade spiritual veins; about twenty-five percent had Spiritual-grade; ten percent, Profound-grade; five percent, Royal-grade; one percent, Imperial-grade; and in numbers even rarer—one in billions—there existed the perfect Heavenly-grade vein.
Yu Han, with his Yellow-grade Spiritual Veins, became a named disciple. These disciples could learn the basic arts of cultivation, but they were not yet considered true disciples—they were disciples in name only. To become true disciples and enter the outer sect, one had to reach the Spirit Opening Realm.
The young Yu Han, who failed to reach this realm over the past two years, finally could not endure anymore and risked everything, suffering a Qi deviation in the process and dying from blocked blood channels.
After witnessing the end of this dream, Yu Han awoke with his eyes wide open.
'Transmigration…'
It was hard to believe this had happened to him. If not for the tightness in his chest and his still-clogged throat, he would have thought it was all just a dream.
'Why? I don't remember dying. All I did was sleep. Why is my soul in this body?' Yu Han questioned.
However, that line of thought didn't last long. His palpitations intensified once more.
"Cough! Cough!"
Spitting more blood, Yu Han stopped thinking about transmigration. His priority now was survival.
"The Qi is in disorder, causing blockages within my body."
Reaching this conclusion, Yu Han clenched his teeth and pulled his legs in, crossing them with difficulty.
Entering a lotus position, he began to execute the Profound Qi Refinement Art, which every disciple—named or true—practiced to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Starting the practice, Yu Han first regulated his breathing. Having inherited the predecessor's memories, even with the pain, it wasn't difficult to find the correct rhythm.
Once he found it, he felt something inside him, about an inch below his abdomen, begin to spin.
The initial sensation was strange.
As someone from Earth, even though he had read many cultivation novels, it still felt bizarre to experience something inside his own body spinning—like a faint churning in his stomach.
Gradually getting used to the sensation, Yu Han used his spiritual vein to draw in the residual Qi—the spiritual energy within the human body, known as Spiritual Qi—scattered throughout his body.
The process was slow. Yu Han's spiritual vein did not possess strong suction power, but it was enough to clear the blockages. The Qi that had thrown his body into chaos slowly descended like droplets of rain through his blood channels, flowing directly into the spiritual vein.
There, Yu Han felt a strange sensation—a fusion that was both uncomfortable and natural.
Each portion of Qi that merged with him brought a primordial sense of belonging, as if that power had always been his.
'Qi within the human body is like poison, but inside the spiritual vein, it becomes nourishment. Cultivation is truly beyond human. No wonder only those with spiritual veins can cultivate. Without one, it's impossible for the human body to withstand Qi without exploding.'
With that thought, he continued clearing the blockages, which only saved him temporarily.
Yu Han still had internal injuries. But for now, it was enough—he had preserved his life.
"A healing pill is still within the predecessor's budget…"
A sigh of relief escaped Yu Han's lips, as he was finally able to think clearly.
He had much to reflect on. Especially what he should do from now on in this unfamiliar world—which, at the same time, felt familiar due to the inherited memories.
"What a mess—"
[Ding!]
Before Yu Han could finish his sentence, an electronic sound, completely devoid of emotion, echoed in his ears.
"…?"
At first, he was confused. But in the next moments, a sense of familiarity arose, mixed with disbelief.
[Techniques can also be living beings, with emotions—joy when used, sadness when abandoned. Once someone understands them deeply, they can unlock their full potential, and even improve them, extracting even greater power!]
[Soul Technique System activated]