The courtyard was quiet.
The cracked stone tiles still shimmered faintly from the energy left behind. Bits of ash drifted in the air like dead flower petals. But in the middle of it all, Wang Jie stood still.
His shirt had burned off during the last pill explosion. His skin was red, pulsing faintly, steam rising from every pore. His body showed an eight pack.
He held the manual now.
[The Chaos Dragon Body Strengthening Manual.]
Jin Hao zoomed in on the screen.
The scroll unrolled slowly. It didn't use ink. Each page was etched with golden scale patterns, like a dragon had pressed its claws into the paper.
Strange letters writhed across the surface, shifting every time you blinked.
Even through the screen, Jin Hao felt pressure.
Like a beast was watching.
Wang Jie's fingers trembled as he touched the first page. His face twisted. He looked like he was trying to read underwater while someone screamed in his ears.
But he read it.
One line. Two. Then three.
Jin Hao winced as Wang Jie dropped to one knee, groaning.
The manual's first page burned with red light and vanished into his skin.
He panted. Then moved to the next.
Second page. Third.
The process was brutal. His muscles twitched every time a page vanished. Veins bulged in his neck. Blood dripped from his nose by page six.
He made it to page ten.
And then—
Wang Jie screamed and threw the scroll away.
The manual hit the ground and rolled once before stopping. Its edges still glowed faintly. The rest of the pages shimmered but stayed sealed.
Jin Hao leaned closer.
Wang Jie was on the ground, gasping for air.
His body was shaking.
"No more," he croaked. "I… I can't…"
Ten pages.
That was his limit.
Jin Hao stared at him.
Then he felt it.
A sudden thump behind his eyes.
A flash.
His vision went white.
He gasped and grabbed his head.
Then something poured into his brain.
Not words. Not pictures. But knowledge. Heavy. Crushing. Vast.
He dropped his comm-tab. It clattered to the floor.
"Ah—! Wait—stop!"
Lines burned through his mind. Golden scales. Roaring stars. Blood flowing backward through veins, reshaping organs. Names of ancient techniques he couldn't pronounce but suddenly understood.
He could see it.
The full manual. All of it. Page one through one hundred and eight.
It just appeared in his head like someone slammed a library into his skull.
He fell back against the wall, groaning.
"…Okay. What the hell was that?!"
His hands trembled.
He could still see the technique. Floating in his mind like a map burned into his bones.
But when he tried to activate it—when he tried to push even a single line of qi through his body—
Nothing.
Dead silence.
It was like trying to breathe with no lungs. Like trying to open a door that didn't exist.
"…Of course."
He groaned again.
"No meridians."
He flopped back onto the floor, arms spread out.
"I've got a chaos-tier body refining technique in my head… and I'm basically a rock with a heartbeat."
He stared at the ceiling.
"Wang Jie can barely read ten pages without exploding, and I've got the whole thing just sitting in here like a cursed PDF."
He shut his eyes.
"This is the part where I'm supposed to feel grateful, right?"
His stomach growled.
"I feel mostly hungry."
Jin Hao lay on the floor for another minute.
The full Chaos Dragon Body Strengthening Manual was still in his head, glowing behind his eyes like a sun that refused to turn off.
And he couldn't use it.
No meridians. No spirit root. No way to run qi.
Just knowledge and a body that might as well be a decorative gourd.
He sat up with a groan.
"Alright. Fine. Let's see what else this busted divine cheat-sheet has for me."
He grabbed his comm-tab and opened the [Sect Shop].
The glow hit him again. The same wall of items. Manuals. Pills. Artifacts. Training gear. A literal volcano in a bottle, apparently used for body refinement.
"Still too many," he muttered, scrolling fast. "Let's narrow it down."
He filtered by Body Refining Realm. Then by Chaos Quality.
Only four items popped up.
The exact same four he bought earlier.
[Chaos Dragon Body Strengthening Manual] — GRAYED OUT
[Chaos Bone Strengthening Pill] — GRAYED OUT
[Chaos Body Strengthening Pill] — GRAYED OUT
[Chaos Meridian Strengthening Pill] — GRAYED OUT
Each one now had a tag next to it.
[0/1]
Jin Hao blinked.
"Wait. What?"
He tapped on the manual.
A popup window appeared.
[This Chaos-Quality Technique has already been purchased for the Body Refining Realm.]
[Only one Chaos-Quality technique may be acquired per cultivation realm.]
[Further purchases unavailable.]
He clicked on the pills.
Same result.
[Only one Chaos-Quality pill of each type may be acquired per cultivation realm.]
[Chaos-quality purchases do not reset. Use wisely.]
Jin Hao sat there, quiet for a second.
Then tilted his head.
"...Wait. Hold up. You're telling me I just used my one-time god-tier lottery ticket in the tutorial zone?"
He stared at the grayed-out pills.
"All that infinite contribution," he muttered. "And it comes with rules?"
He clicked around more. Dropped the filter down from Chaos to the next highest level — Divine.
A longer list popped up.
Still incredible stuff.
Not as overpowered. But definitely terrifying in the right hands.
He tapped on one of the glowing red pills.
[Inferno Pulse Pill – Divine Quality]
[Buy? (Limit: 1)]
He tried a few others.
[Limit: 1 per day]
[Limit: 3 per day]
[Limit: 2 manuals per day]
Based on his experiment, there were some high level things that can only be bought once like those in the Chaos-tier, but some of them could also be reset daily.
In addition, higher-level manuals can't be duplicated because they can only be used once, that's why the higher-level manuals can be reset.
The good news? These did reset daily.
Jin Hao sat back again.
"Okay. So I'm not completely screwed."
He looked at the grayed-out chaos items again.
Still, it stung a little.
The idea that even with infinite points, the shop didn't want him spamming world-breaking pills like a mobile gacha addict.
"Guess they knew someone like me would try to abuse it," he muttered.
He scrolled slowly.
Checked the timer on the shop
[Next Reset In: 13 hours, 52 minutes]
He rubbed his chin.
"Time limits. Daily caps. One chaos per realm."
He stared at the shop screen.
Then grinned slowly.
"…Alright. So it's not just about being broken. It's about playing smart."
...
Sometime later
...
Jin Hao rubbed his eyes.
His comm-tab screen was burning white lines into his retinas.
"Okay," he muttered. "One more scroll. Just one more."
He tapped the screen.
[Purchased: Blazing River Movement Technique – Epic Quality]
[Daily Limit Reached]
"That's number eighty-three," he said, leaning back. "Or ninety-something. I lost count."
He'd been at it for almost a full day.
Every single item he could legally buy?
He bought.
Low-grade pills for storage. Mid-tier weapons in case Wang Jie needed backups. Dozens of movement, sword, fist, spear, and even whip techniques. Tools. Robes. Formation flags. Manual cleaning brushes.
If the system said it was available, Jin Hao clicked it.
He even bought extra of the weird stuff.
A bottle labeled "Qi-Infused Soup Base (Mild Spice)" was currently sitting in the sect pantry tab.
"Honestly," he muttered, "this is kind of therapeutic."
He cracked his knuckles.
The shop finally stopped flashing.
Everything that could be bought had been bought.
Everything else had a timer or a cooldown.
His [Sect Inventory] was overflowing.
"Man, I would kill for an auto-sort button," he mumbled.
He leaned back, stretching his sore arms. His back popped twice. His brain was fried, but his mood?
Unreasonably good.
He opened the courtyard cam again.
Wang Jie was kneeling. Straight-backed. Silent.
Steam still curled around his shoulders from residual qi. But now, his head was raised slightly. He wasn't broken anymore.
He was waiting.
"What are your orders, Ancestor?" Wang Jie asked softly.
His voice carried across the cracked stones, steady and clear.
Jin Hao sat up.
That line hit different.
It wasn't just a game line. Wasn't an NPC prompt.
The guy really meant it.
He believed it.
Ancestor. Authority. Leader.
Jin Hao scratched his head.
"Uh. Right. Orders."
He scrolled through the inventory again, then dragged a few things into the courtyard.
First, a manual wrapped in white fire patterns.
[Frost Sun Fist – Divine Quality]
Then a dark green scroll covered in leaf-like seals.
[Verdant Ghost Step – Divine Quality]
Wang Jie flinched slightly when the scrolls landed in front of him.
"Fighting technique," Jin Hao said aloud, even though he knew Wang Jie couldn't hear him. "Footwork too. But no sword arts yet. Gotta make you earn that one."
He placed a few more resources into the vault.
Enough to keep Wang Jie busy for weeks.
He smiled to himself.
"If I give him everything now, he'll hit a wall."
Jin Hao leaned back.
He stared at the screen again.
Then looked at his room.
Empty noodle cups.
Unwashed laundry.
The faint buzz of the city outside.
He sighed.
"I can't be here twenty-four-seven."
He looked back at the screen.
Wang Jie was still kneeling, still waiting.
And Jin Hao realized something.
He needed someone to hold this place together. Not a follower. A leader. Someone to act while he was gone.
"Guess that means it's time to level you up again," Jin Hao said.
He opened the [Sect Management] tab.
New options had appeared since he'd Wang Jie officially stepped into the Body Refining Realm. One of them was now glowing faintly.
[Assign Sect Roles]
He clicked it.
Wang Jie's name was the only one listed.
A dropdown menu appeared.
[Handyman]
[Outer Disciple]
[Inner Disciple]
[Core Disciple]
[Outer Elder]
[Inner Elder]
[Core Elder]
[Vice Sect Master]
[Sect Master]
Jin Hao hesitated for a second.
Then tapped [Sect Master].
The screen pulsed.
A ripple spread through the courtyard.
Wang Jie inhaled sharply.
His eyes widened.
Then he dropped lower. Forehead to the ground. Knees pressed deeper into the stone. His lips moved, but he didn't speak aloud. It wasn't just a title.
He felt it. Something whispered to him. Not in words. But in instinct. In duty. In weight.
Jin Hao stared at the screen, blinking.
Wang Jie bowed again, slower this time. Not out of fear.
But out of devotion.
"…You understood," Jin Hao said quietly.
As if hearing his words, Wang Jie said through the screen,
"I will not disappoint your decision, Ancestor! I will revive this Sect as the Sect Master."
Wang Jie said as he clenched his fists tightly.