Qin Yuan's sword stopped halfway through the air.
His heartbeat did not.
For one long breath, he stared at the screen.
Then another line appeared.
Talent Unlocked: Cultivation Talent — Level 1
Talent Unlocked: Focused Practice — Level 1
Experience Recording Activated.
Qin Yuan's fingers tightened around the sword.
Not enough for anyone to notice.
Inside, something in him went very still.
There it is.
He did not laugh.
He did not shout.
He did not ask the heavens whether this was real.
He simply lowered the sword and swung again.
Focused Practice Experience +0.03
Again.
Sword Familiarity Experience +0.02
Again.
Cultivation Talent Experience +0.01
Qin Yuan's eyes sharpened.
The numbers were small.
Very small.
But they moved.
He adjusted his stance, letting the old body's memories combine with his own concentration.
He relaxed his shoulders.
The sword became a little less heavy.
He shifted his feet.
The cut became a little straighter.
After another dozen swings, a new notification appeared.
Talent Unlocked: Sword Mastery — Level 1
Qin Yuan finally paused for a moment, his eyes widening slightly.
This time, he felt it.
Not as knowledge forced into his mind.
Not as instant mastery.
It was more like a door opening.
He suddenly understood why his grip had been wrong. Why his elbow should not flare outward. Why the blade wobbled at the end of each swing. These were simple things, beginner things, but they were his.
He corrected them.
The sword cut down.
Cleaner.
Sword Mastery Experience +0.08
Qin Yuan's expression stayed calm.
Inside, however, his thoughts were moving quickly.
Experience increases more when the movement improves. Repetition gives points, but correction gives more. Understanding gives more than empty practice.
He swung again.
Then again.
Then again.
Minute by minute, the sword began to feel less like a foreign object and more like a tool he could actually use.
Not well.
Not beautifully.
But enough.
When the practice timer ended, Qin Yuan's breathing was slightly heavier. Sweat touched his back. His arms ached.
Yet his body felt different.
Sharper.
Lighter.
More awake.
The sword was still in his hand, but now it no longer felt like a mistake.
The screen showed his progress.
Sword Mastery — Level 1: 37.4%
Focused Practice — Level 1: 22.1%
Cultivation Talent — Level 1: 5.6%
Qin Yuan looked at the numbers once, then dismissed the screen with a thought.
As he was right now, he felt confident he could crush his previous self even without the sword.
Of course, that only meant he had become stronger than an average person. It was nothing worth boasting about in this world.
But progress was still progress.
And progress meant a greater chance of survival.
The other workers began leaving the practice platforms. A few had improved. Most had not.
Nobody looked at him.
Good.
Qin Yuan returned to the mission group and boarded the transport vehicle.
It was not a carriage.
It was a long armored spirit-bus with hovering plates beneath its body and formation cannons folded along its sides. Transparent windows shimmered with protective runes. The seats adjusted automatically when people sat down, soft layers of formation light molding themselves to each passenger's shape.
Qin Yuan took a seat near the back.
The vehicle lifted with a soft hum and merged into an elevated lane.
Jadefall City slid past the window.
Mana hospitals.
Pill markets.
Formation repair shops.
Academy towers.
Duel arenas.
Spirit-net cafes.
Flying sword stations.
Body-tempering gyms advertising bone-density packages.
A billboard flashed across the side of a silver-glass tower, showing a smiling wizard woman holding a crescent-shaped silver staff.
PALE MOON ARCANE COLLEGE OPEN TRIALS — AWAKEN YOUR INNER MANA
Qin Yuan watched everything with vague interest.
Things to note down for later.
Not now.
Then he closed his eyes.
Spirit Qi.
He followed the old Qin Yuan's cultivation method. A basic Qin Family breathing art.
Nothing profound.
Nothing secret.
Just a stable low-level technique given to family members who were not worth real investment.
Spirit Qi entered slowly.
Painfully slowly.
It gathered at his skin, passed into his flesh, and crawled through his meridians like thin smoke.
The system recorded it.
Cultivation Talent Experience +0.01
Several breaths later, another prompt appeared.
Spirit Qi Control Experience +0.01
Qin Yuan frowned slightly.
Too slow.
At this speed, reaching the 2nd layer of Spirit Opening would take months. Maybe longer.
And that assumed he had pills, training rooms, and stable resources.
Without them, it might take a year.
No wonder the old Qin Yuan had been desperate enough to take missions.
In the middle of his thoughts, a voice interrupted him.
"Yuan?"
Qin Yuan opened his eyes.
A young man leaned over from the seat across the aisle. He had messy brown hair, a nervous smile, and a reinforced baton lying across his knees.
Luo Sheng.
One of the old Qin Yuan's few friends.
Commoner background.
1st layer Body Opening.
No strong family.
Too poor for proper warrior training, too stubborn to quit.
Beside him sat a young woman in a pale green jacket, her black hair tied neatly behind her neck. A cheap healing charm hung from her wrist, its jade surface already scratched from use.
Lian Xiaoru.
A distant branch member of the Lian Family.
Low Common Spiritual Root.
Slight healing talent.
Kind, but not naive.
Both of them were looking at Qin Yuan strangely.
Luo Sheng squinted. "You've been quiet since we got on. More quiet than usual, I mean. You good?"
Qin Yuan considered his answer.
He did not have much of an impression of these two from this body's memories. At the same time, they were both more knowledgeable than him at this moment.
Then he nodded.
"Just thinking."
"About dying?" Luo Sheng asked.
"About the mission."
"Oh." Luo Sheng leaned back. "So yes. Dying."
Lian Xiaoru gave him a look. "Don't joke like that."
"What? It's a low-level exotic beast mission. That means rich people want pretty monster parts, and wizards want weird organs. We're the cheap hands they send to carry cages and bleed on the grass."
Qin Yuan turned slightly. "What exactly are we hunting?"
The question was simple enough.
The old Qin Yuan should know the basics, but not enough for the question to seem suspicious.
Lian Xiaoru answered first.
"Emerald-tail foxes, glass-horn rabbits, maybe mistback lizards if the scouts find any. The official request came from a noble pet company and two wizard labs."
Luo Sheng lowered his voice. "Unofficially, I heard there might be thornhide hounds in the area."
Lian Xiaoru's expression tightened. "That was not in the mission file."
"Exactly why I'm worried."
Qin Yuan absorbed that.
"Who leads the group?"
Luo Sheng pointed toward the front. "Senior Brother Zhou Kang from Iron Reed Spear Sect. 3rd layer Spirit Opening. There's also a wizard apprentice from Pale Moon, two body cultivators from Stoneheart, and some mission guards. We stay behind them, carry things, don't act brave, and hopefully go home with all our limbs."
Qin Yuan nodded.
That was reasonable.
Cowardly, maybe.
But reasonable.
The vehicle left the city through an eastern gate. For a brief moment, Qin Yuan felt pressure crawl over his skin as they passed beneath the suppression tower barrier.
A huge white obelisk stood near the gate, covered in formation rings and floating monitoring eyes. The rings spun slowly, layered one inside another, while pale lines of light swept across every vehicle leaving the city.
The air outside the barrier felt wilder, colder, and less obedient.
Jadefall City receded behind them.
The roads became narrower.
The buildings vanished.
Mist-covered forest rose ahead.
The transport landed beside a mission outpost built from black alloy walls and formation stakes. Armed guards checked the group in. Screens flashed. Bracelets were scanned. Mission contracts were confirmed.
Then the workers were separated into teams.
As expected, Qin Yuan, Luo Sheng, and Lian Xiaoru were placed near the rear.
Senior Brother Zhou Kang barely looked at them.
"You three, carry cages and stay behind the third line. If something charges, shout. Do not swing randomly. Do not run into the formation path. Do not make me rescue you unless you want the rescue fee deducted."
Luo Sheng muttered, "Comforting."
Qin Yuan said nothing.
The group entered the forest.
At first, the mission was almost boring.
Mist drifted between jade-colored trees. Small beasts scattered away from the group. The wizard apprentice used a floating compass to track mana traces. The Iron Reed disciples walked ahead with spears ready. The Stoneheart body cultivators carried cage frames on their backs like they weighed nothing.
Qin Yuan walked at the rear, sword at his side.
He kept practicing in tiny ways.
Grip.
Breath.
Step.
Awareness.
The system rewarded him faintly.
Combat Readiness Experience +0.02
Sword Mastery Experience +0.01
Perception Experience +0.01
Small gains.
But gains.
Then the forest went quiet.
Qin Yuan noticed it one breath before the others.
No insects.
No bird calls.
Mist gathering low to the ground.
His hand tightened around the sword.
A gray shape burst from the bushes.
Luo Sheng shouted.
The beast was low, fast, and ugly.
A thornhide hound.
Its spine bristled with black bone spikes, and its mouth opened wide enough to show two rows of yellow teeth.
It did not attack the front line.
It came from the side.
Straight toward Lian Xiaoru.
Her face went white. She lifted her charm, but her fingers shook.
Luo Sheng stepped forward with his baton, but his movement was too wide, too panicked.
The seniors were ahead.
The guards were turning.
Too slow.
Qin Yuan moved.
For half a second, his body did not know what to do.
Then Sword Mastery connected with fear, memory, and focus.
His first step was not heroic.
It was ugly.
His shoulder almost twisted wrong. His pulse slammed in his ears. The beast smelled like wet fur and rotten blood.
But he saw the line.
Not a mystical sword path.
Not destiny.
Just the angle between the hound's open jaw and exposed neck.
Qin Yuan stepped left.
The hound lunged past where his chest had been.
His sword cut down.
Steel entered flesh.
The blade dragged against bone, stuck for a fraction of a second, then tore free as the hound crashed into the dirt.
Blood sprayed across Qin Yuan's sleeve.
The beast twitched once.
Then stopped.
A screen opened.
First Blood Achieved.
Combat Talent Unlocked — Level 1
Killing Talent Unlocked — Level 1
Beast Anatomy Talent Unlocked — Level 1
Experience Conversion Function Unlocked.
Clean Defensive Kill: Sword Mastery Experience +4.2
Combat Talent Experience +3.8
Killing Talent Experience +2.6
Spirit Qi Circulation Experience +0.7
Qin Yuan stared at the corpse.
His breathing was steady.
Not because he felt nothing.
He felt everything.
The fear.
The blood.
The weight of the sword.
The warmth spreading across his sleeve.
The strange clarity after the kill.
But none of it broke him.
Instead, he understood something.
Practice was useful.
Combat was better.
Real danger was better than both.