The transition didn't feel like time travel. It felt like being going down on a slid in a children's playground and then instantly sharp pain hit Lin Jue's body throughout.

  When Lin Jue opened his eyes, the sterile, ozone-scented air of the Awakening Hall was gone. His lungs filled with the suffocating scent of burning sandalwood incense, spilled cheap wine, and the unmistakable metallic tang of blood.

  His blood.

  He was lying face-down on a polished wooden floor. His chest felt like a burning house and his ribcage was literally screaming of agony.

  "Coughh-Coughh!!"

  He coughed, violently, spitting a mouthful of black, viscous sludge onto the floorboards.

  [Descent Successful.]

  [Welcome to: The Heavenly Martial Realm (Ancient Cultivation Sector)]

  [Main Quest: Ruin the wedding of Wang Teng!]

  [Status: Lethal Toxin Detected. Estimated time to complete organ failure: 42 seconds.]

  'Forty-two seconds?! I just got here!'

  Lin Jue rolled onto his back, his vision swimming. Through the haze, he saw a pair of black cloth boots.

  Standing over him was a man dressed in the grey robes of a servant, holding a silver tray in one hand and a very sharp, very unsheathed dagger in the other.

  "Don't blame me, Young Master," the servant said, his voice dripping with mock sympathy. "You are a cripple with shattered meridians. The Lu Family cannot afford to feed a useless mouth while the Wang Family prepares for the Sect Tournament. It is for the greater good."

  'Right. Classic transmigration trope,' Lin Jue's brain fired on all cylinders despite the agonizing pain. 'I've possessed a trash Young Master. And I'm currently dying.'

  "ARIA," Lin Jue thought frantically. "Cure. Now."

  [Analyzing Toxin: 'Heart-Rot Powder'. A low-grade corrosive poison. Recommend: Lesser Cleansing Pill. Cost: 400 Distress Points.]

  'Four hundred?!' Lin Jue's inner accountant screamed in protest. 'I just risked federal execution to earn 750 points, and you want to charge me a 50% for a pill?! Capitalist extortion!'

  [You have 31 seconds until your heart liquefies, Host. Do you wish to file a formal complaint, or do you wish to purchase the item?]

  'Buy it!'

  [Transaction Complete. Deducting 400 Points. Current Balance: 350.]

  A warm, soothing current materialized in the pit of his stomach. The burning sensation in his veins instantly turned into a cool, refreshing rush of mint.

  The black veins creeping up his neck rapidly faded back to normal skin color.

  The servant, completely unaware of the digital transaction, raised the dagger. "Rest in peace, Lin Jue. The Wang Family promised me a Qi-Gathering Pill for this. Your death buys my future."

  Lin Jue didn't beg. He didn't cower.

  He simply sat up, wiped the remaining black sludge from his chin with the sleeve of his elaborate silk robe, and sighed heavily.

  "You talk entirely too much for an assassin," Lin Jue said, his voice raspy but calm. He looked at the spilled wine cup on the floor. "Also, this poison tastes like expired soy sauce. If the Wang Family paid you to do this, they severely underfunded the operation."

  The servant froze. His eyes bulged, darting from the spilled black blood to Lin Jue's clear, healthy face.

  'What?' The servant's brain visibly short-circuited. 'He drank a full dose of Heart-Rot Powder! He should be a puddle of gore! Why is he critiquing the flavor of the poison?!'

  [System: Extreme Confusion +150 Points from Wang Spy.]

  [System: Fear +50 Points from Wang Spy.]

  "You... how are you alive?" the servant stammered, gripping the dagger with trembling hands. "It doesn't matter! I'll just cut your throat!"

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  The servant lunged, a faint, pale aura wrapping around the blade. A Qi-infused strike. An Earth mage would have panicked.

  A Mage would need to focus their mind, connect their Star Constellations, and chant an incantation to raise a mana shield.

  But Lin Jue wasn't an Esper. And he didn't have three seconds.

  He had the street-rat survival instincts of the Jiangnan slums.

  As the servant thrust the dagger forward, executing a textbook martial arts stance, Lin Jue didn't try to dodge gracefully.

  He reached out, grabbed the heavy, scalding-hot brass incense burner off the low table beside him, and violently hurled the boiling ash and embers directly into the assassin's open eyes.

  "GAAAH!" The servant shrieked, dropping the dagger to claw at his burning face.

  Pathetic, Lin Jue thought coldly.

  He didn't hesitate. He kicked the back of the assassin's knee, forcing him to buckle, then snatched the fallen dagger from the floor.

  With a fluid, entirely un-magical motion, he drove the pommel of the dagger hard into the back of the servant's skull.

  The man collapsed, out cold.

  Lin Jue stood up, panting, dropping the dagger. He looked around the lavish, antique study.

  "Okay," Lin Jue muttered to himself, his heart still racing. "Accounting Rule Number One: Always recover your expenses."

  He knelt beside the unconscious assassin and began ruthlessly stripping him of anything valuable.

  A pouch of silver coins.

  A jade token.

  But it wasn't enough to justify a 400-point deficit.

  As he searched the man Lin Jue's thoughts drifted off to find the reason why this body has been poisoned.

  'Why poison him? Why not just stab him in his sleep?'

  As he stripped the servant downright naked, he finally came to a conclusion.

  'Because they wanted it to look like an accident,' Lin Jue reasoned, tapping his chin.

  Lin Jue walked over to the desk. He closed his eyes, trying to access the residual memories of the dead host body. 'Crippled meridians... laughed at by the clan... secretly visiting the hidden pavilion...'

  Lin Jue's eyes snapped open. He looked at the heavy brass incense burner he had just used as a weapon.

  He picked it up, flipped it over, and twisted the bottom plate. It popped open with a click.

  Inside was a rolled-up piece of ancient, yellowed parchment.

  Lin Jue unrolled it. The text was archaic, but the System translated it instantly in his vision.

  [Item Discovered: 'Iron-Ox Body Tempering Art' - Foundation Volume.] [Classification: Ancient Body Cultivation Technique.]

  "Body cultivation?" Lin Jue frowned. "Not spellcasting? Not mana manipulation?"

  [Correct, Host,] ARIA's voice chimed.

  [Earth Mages manipulate external energy. They are fragile vessels channeling great power. A single interruption in their focus, and they die. This world, however, relies on Internal Qi.]

  The blue screen shifted, highlighting the diagrams on the parchment.

  [The Iron-Ox Art ignores magical resonance. It forcefully tempers the skin, muscles, and bones using biological life-force. At full mastery, the cultivator's physical body becomes as dense as refined steel, capable of outputting kinetic force equivalent to a Tier-3 Esper spell—using purely physical mechanics.]

  Lin Jue stared at the text. His breath hitched.

  On Earth, Mages were glass cannons. They stood behind walls, firing fireballs and lightning bolts at monsters. But if a Kaiju got within five feet of them, their fragile bodies were torn to shreds before they could finish their incantations.

  'But if I learn this..'. Lin Jue's lips slowly curled into a predatory grin. 'If I have a body as hard as a monster's, I don't need a Resonance Index. I don't need to connect stars or chant spells. When an arrogant Fire Esper starts charging up his ultimate attack, I can just walk right through his heatwave and punch him in the throat.'

  It was the ultimate counter-meta. He would be the anti-mage.

  "ARIA," Lin Jue said, his eyes practically gleaming with greed. "Upload this into my brain immediately. I want the instant comprehension package."

  [Calculating... Instant Comprehension of 'Iron-Ox Body Tempering Art' requires 600 Points. Your current balance is 550 Points.]

  [Transaction Denied. Insufficient Funds.]

  Lin Jue's grin vanished. "Are you kidding me? I'm short fifty points? Put it on my tab! Charge me interest!"

  [The Emotional Entropy System does not offer lines of credit. Poverty is a choice, Host. Harvest more points.]

  "From who?!" Lin Jue threw his hands up. "The guy on the floor is unconscious! I can't troll a man in a coma!"

  Right on cue, heavy footsteps echoed from the stone courtyard outside the study. The clanking of armor and the low murmur of several voices filtered through the paper-thin doors.

  "Did he do it?" a gruff voice asked outside.

  "The poison should have taken effect by now," a second voice replied. "The Wang Young Master wants that manual tonight. Kick the door down. If the cripple is still breathing, finish him."

  Lin Jue froze. There were at least three of them. Armed, trained, and likely possessing actual Qi cultivation. He had an unconscious body, a dagger, and zero martial arts training.

  His 1-hour trial timer in the top corner of his vision read: [Time Remaining: 52:14]

  He was trapped.

  "ARIA," Lin Jue whispered, backing away from the door and picking up the bloody dagger. "I need fifty points right now. Or I'm going to die here, and you're going to have to find a new host."

  [Suggestion: The most efficient way to harvest Distress Points is to completely sabotage the enemy's expectations. Be shameless, Host.]

  Lin Jue looked at the paper doors. He looked at the dagger in his hand. Then, he looked at the expensive, highly flammable silk curtains framing the study's windows.

  A deeply unhinged, thoroughly pragmatic smile spread across his face.

  'Sabotage expectations? I can do that.'

  As the heavy boots stopped right outside his door, Lin Jue didn't hide. He didn't brace for combat.

  Instead, he kicked the unconscious assassin right through the paper door, sending the man flying into the courtyard, directly into the boots of the waiting guards.

  Before the shocked guards could even process the flying body, Lin Jue kicked the door wide open, holding a blazing, burning silk curtain in one hand and the dagger in the other.

  "Room service!" Lin Jue yelled at the top of his lungs, hurling the flaming fabric directly at the lead guard's face. "The Wang Family's hospitality sucks, so I'm checking out early!"