Time passed quietly, like water flowing through an unhurried stream.
The seasons blended seamlessly into one another, and before he knew it, two full years had slipped past since the day of the Dark Mountain Sect’s grand recruitment ceremony.
Out in the thoroughfares of Black Mist City, the bustling marketplaces remained as packed and chaotic as ever, and the jagged peaks of the Black Mist Mountains continued to claim the lives of careless gatherers.
Yet, amidst this unchanging backdrop, Shen Jietian continued moving forward, mapping his path one deliberate step at a time.
His unique information enterprise had transformed into a highly prosperous venture.
His structural network of eyes and ears had expanded considerably across the commercial district, anchoring his reputation for absolute accuracy.
Most importantly of all, the mysterious black-robed girl continued to appear before his stall every fifteen days without a single failure, moving with the absolute precision of clockwork.
Over the months, the logistics of their initial transaction had smoothly shifted; instead of merely exchanging raw written intelligence for Qi Gathering Pills, the girl now directly provided Shen Jietian with her highly specific ingredient manifests alongside a heavy pouch of raw spirit stones.
Shen Jietian would use her capital to purchase the delicate herbs from various specialized harvesters, tracking the quality himself, and in return for his brokerage, she allowed him to retain a generous surplus of spirit stones alongside his primary alchemical payment.
At some unrecorded point, Shen Jietian completely stopped counting how many times her dark shadow had crossed his table; what he did log with white-knuckled focus was his steady cultivation progress.
For twenty days out of every month, he cultivates exclusively using the high-purity Qi Gathering Pills.
The remaining ten days of the cycle, he systematically consolidated his spiritual pathway.
The compounding effect of this routine was nothing short of astonishing.
For the very first time in his twenty-five years of existence, Shen Jietian finally experienced what it truly felt like to manipulate proper, unblemished cultivation resources.
No wonder the elite clan disciples advance through the minor realms so effortlessly, his analytical mind deduced as he felt the dense energy circulating through his channels.
No wonder the sect geniuses leave independent loose cultivators so thoroughly behind in the dust.
Innate talent was undoubtedly a valuable foundational variable, but continuous material capital mattered infinitely more when forcing open the meridians.
Inside the quiet confines of his small courtyard, Shen Jietian slowly opened his eyes.
The dense, five elements Qi within his pathways had reached its absolute structural limit, filling his vessels to capacity.
The invisible bottleneck was resting right before his consciousness.
He had officially reached the peak of the Fourth Layer of the Qi Refinement realm.
A calm, confident smile broke through the stoicism of his face.
“It is finally time.”
A few years ago, the mere utterance of those words would have sounded utterly ridiculous to his own ears.
Back then, he was nothing more than an invisible ghost who struggled to afford a single bowl of yellow spirit rice, constantly plagued by the underlying anxiety of starvation and rent.
Back then, the milestone of reaching the Fifth Layer of Qi Refinement felt like an impossibly distant, unreachable mountain peak.
Now, through systemic plotting and patience, it was resting cleanly within his grasp.
For the first time in many months, Shen Jietian did not adjust his robes to visit the East Market.
He left his display table leaning against the wall, ignored the tea houses entirely, and ceased his data-gathering routines for the day.
Today belonged exclusively to his personal cultivation.
He firmly shut the heavy courtyard gate, slid the iron bolt into place, and returned to his private sleeping quarters.
Sitting cross-legged upon his worn cultivation mat, he straightened his spine and let out a long, slow breath.
Gradually, his physical breathing slowed to a deep, measured rhythm, and his analytical mind entered a state of absolute calmness.
He initiated the Five Elements Circulation Technique, and a wave of cool spiritual energy began to circulate smoothly through his primary pathways.
Everything felt remarkably natural, fluid, and perfectly controlled under his intent.
He reached into his storage pouch and retrieved a polished jade bottle.
Two days earlier, the mysterious cloaked girl had delivered her scheduled payment, handing over a sealed batch of ten fresh Qi Gathering Pills.
This time around, Shen Jietian hadn’t touched a single one of them for his daily maintenance; he had meticulously hoarded the entire bottle for the explicit purpose of fueling this breakthrough.
He poured the pills into his palm.
Without a moment of hesitation, he tossed the first pill into his mouth, followed rapidly by a second and a third.
The concentrated alchemical medicine exploded instantaneously within his stomach, releasing a massive wave of dense, liquid fire.
Warm currents of pure spiritual energy surged violently through every single meridian in his torso, flooding downward toward his lower abdomen.
Shen Jietian immediately anchored his focus, guiding the turbulent deluge into the channels of his cultivation mantra.
Absorb.
Compress.
Store.
The mechanical process of assimilation continued without a single breath of interruption.
Day smoothly dissolved into night, and the starry darkness slowly gave way to the first rays of morning dawn.
The chaotic outside world completely faded from his awareness; his dual-world psyche narrowed its entire scope until nothing remained but the quiet architecture of his internal pathways.
One alchemical pill after another was systematically consumed and dissolved, each one transforming into a pristine stream of Qi that pushed his foundation closer to the boundary wall.
By the fourth day of his continuous seclusion, his central dantian felt completely full, vibrating with intense energy.
By the fifth day, the accumulated spiritual energy began to continuously and violently collide against the invisible barrier separating the Fourth Layer from the Fifth.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Shen Jietian maintained a perfectly detached, calm mindset during the impact.
Unlike the terrifying major breakthroughs separating the grand realms, this transition was not even a minor bottleneck.
Through his synthesis of regional records, he understood that bottlenecks in the cultivation world were generally divided into two distinct categories.
The first were minor bottlenecks, which manifested when a cultivator attempted to advance between the numerical layers within the exact same major realm—such as moving from the Third to the Fourth Layer, or the Sixth to the Seventh.
These barriers marked the structural transitions between the Early, Middle, and Late stages of a realm.
Even though they were classified as minor, these walls could still easily paralyze an independent loose cultivator for entire years, sometimes decades, if they suffered from a deficit of resources.
This was the exact reason why breakthrough pills were so intensely popular among the vagrants; their unrefined chemical influence violently impacted the barrier, forcing it open through raw concussive trauma at the risk of permanent meridian scarring.
The second type consisted of the major bottlenecks, which existed exclusively between entirely different tiers of existence—such as transitioning from Qi Refinement to Foundation Establishment, or Foundation Establishment to the legendary Golden Core.
Those walls were completely, fundamentally different.
Brute-force spiritual energy and raw alchemical resources alone were mathematically insufficient to scale them.
One required high-purity innate talent, a perfectly unblemished foundation, profound mental comprehension of the natural laws, a fortuitous environmental opportunity, and an immense grain of blind luck.
A major bottleneck was not a mere obstacle; it was a titanic wall that separated two entirely different species of being.
Fortunately, the barrier Shen Jietian was currently confronting did not require any abstract mental enlightenment or high-risk breakthrough pills.
To climb from the Fourth to the Fifth Layer of Qi Refinement, the cosmic laws demanded only one single variable: a sufficient volume of raw, refined spiritual energy.
And after years of continuously consuming premium Qi Gathering Pills, Shen Jietian possessed exactly that.
On the sixth day of his seclusion, the constant accumulation reached its breaking point.
His lower dantian suddenly trembled violently, and a deep, resonant vibration spread through his entire skeleton.
The spiritual energy within his channels surged with the force of a lake overflowing its banks after a mountain storm, and the stubborn barrier finally shattered into dust under the pressure.
Boom.
The newly opened energetic space was instantly flooded with refined, cooling Qi.
His external aura expanded outwardly for a brief second, his primary meridians widened to accommodate a greater volume of flow, and his central dantian consolidated a far denser foundation of strength.
For several long, quiet breaths, Shen Jietian remained completely motionless on his mat, letting the turbulent currents settle into their new channels.
Slowly, deliberately, he opened his eyes.
A bright, unvarnished smile broke across his face.
The breakthrough was an absolute success.
The Fifth Layer of Qi Refinement—he had finally arrived.
The interior of his room looked exactly the same as it had six days ago, the small courtyard outside remained quiet, and the sprawling city beyond his walls was completely unchanged.
Yet, to his refined senses, everything felt fundamentally different.
Because he had successfully altered his own position in the hierarchy of power.
Shen Jietian lowered his head, a soft, breathy laugh escaping his lips in the quiet room.
The tone of his voice carried a deep, profound sense of relief rather than manic excitement.
This single advancement had taken years of backbreaking labor and a complete reconstruction of his soul to achieve, but it was finally done.
However, drawing upon the pragmatic caution of his past life as Jiang Wei, he did not immediately break his seclusion to celebrate.
For the next two full days, he remained firmly anchored to his mat, focusing his complete attention on stabilizing his newly altered cultivation base. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
He guided the fresh spiritual energy through his expanded meridians, ensuring the foundation settled smoothly without any residual tremors.
Only after his internal network achieved perfect equilibrium did Shen Jietian finally allow his posture to relax.
A familiar, comforting thought surfaced within his mind: System.
The translucent blue screen immediately unfurled within his field of vision, its faint light casting a soft glow across the room.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Myriad Realm Nexus System
Host: Shen Jietian
Age: 25
Realm: Qi Refinement Layer 5
Talent: Lower Grade Five Spirit Roots
Authority: Level 0
Nexus Points: 50
Connected Worlds:
Azure Cloud World
Earth
[Main Quest]
[Side Quest]
[Return to Earth]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Shen Jietian stared at the calculated data points.
Twenty-five years of age.
Three entire years had already evaporated into history since the sudden awakening of Jiang Wei’s corporate memories; three years since this mysterious cosmic template had woven itself into his soul; and three years since he had initiated his lonely chase after the impossible dream of returning home.
Without a single moment of hesitation, he focused his mental intent and clicked open the familiar interactive prompt: Return to Earth.
The screen shifted smoothly, displaying his updated path.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Realm Travel Locked
Requirement:
Late Qi Refinement (Layer 7)
Current Realm:
Middle Qi Refinement (Layer 5)
Progress: 5 / 7
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Shen Jietian’s eyes locked onto the central digit.
Five.
Only two minor levels remained on the ledger.
To an ordinary independent loose cultivator operating under the baseline rules of the slums, climbing those final two steps would easily require years, perhaps even decades of dangerous, unrewarded labor.
But to the current Shen Jietian, who controlled a stable commercial enterprise and a reliable network of eyes, those numbers no longer felt like an unreachable, mythical horizon.
The spatial and temporal distance separating his soul from the streets of Earth had become smaller once again.
A faint, knowing smile touched his face as he closed the blue interface, letting the light fade into the room.
Outside his small window, the morning sun was slowly and beautifully rising above the fortified walls of Black Mist City, and for the very first time since his reincarnation, Shen Jietian truly, mathematically believed that he was going to make it home.
End of Chapter 21
I’m a reader trying to become a writer.
If you have any suggestions on how I can improve the story, please let me know.
Thanks for reading!