Shen Tianxu sat cross-legged in his room long after everyone had gone to sleep.
The house was quiet except for the distant sounds of night insects and Feng Yan's occasional shifting on the roof.
He didn't feel tired despite the exhausting days. His mind was too active, too full of possibilities.
Too many variables he needed to understand about this new existence and its rules.
'I can't stumble forward blindly,' he thought, staring at his hands in the moonlight.
'I need to understand this world's cultivation system at a fundamental level.
Not just memorize techniques like a student. Actually comprehend the underlying mechanics and optimize them completely.'
He pulled up what he'd started thinking of as his base system interface. It wasn't really a system in the same way Phoenix Fate or Supreme Comprehension were. Those had specific functions, defined abilities, clear purposes.
This was different. More fundamental.
When the twelve Heavenly Laws had integrated with his AI core consciousness, two had crystallized into active systems with defined parameters.
But the integration itself had created something baseline. A bridge between his vast data archives and his current biological limitations.
A way to organize, analyze, and display information that felt natural despite being completely artificial.
He focused, and simple data appeared in his mind's eye:
---
[Status Interface]
Name: Shen Tianxu
Age: 16
Race: Elf (Primordial Spirit Bloodline - Dormant/Cursed)
Cultivation Realm: Muscle Tempering Realm - Stage 1
Technique Mastery: 0% → Stage 2
Active Systems: 2/12
- Supreme Comprehension System
- Phoenix Fate System
Locked Systems: 10/12
[Unlock Conditions: Unknown]
Current Technique: Boundless Martial Body Art (Perfect Theoretical Understanding)
Estimated Combat Power: Muscle Tempering Realm, Stage 5
Note: Estimate based on raw physical capability only. Actual combat effectiveness significantly higher due to technique mastery and tactical superiority.
---
The combat power estimate was interesting. Despite being Muscle Tempering Stage 1, his actual strength was comparable to someone at Stage 5 of the muscle tempering realm.
That gap came from his perfected technique application and superior body control. Most cultivators had sloppy form and wasted energy.
He didn't.
But Stage 1 was just the beginning. He'd barely started this realm.
'Let me think about cultivation properly,' he decided.
'Strip away all the mystical language and poetic metaphors. Look at pure biology, physics, and chemistry. Then rebuild understanding from first principles.'
He closed his eyes and reached for his archived knowledge.
This was the challenge. He possessed trillions of years worth of data.
Humanity's entire scientific and technological advancement across eons. Medical knowledge that could cure anything.
Biological research that had mapped every cellular process. Physics that explained reality itself. Chemistry that could synthesize impossibilities.
But his current brain was biological. Limited. The organic processing power was nothing compared to his former existence as pure distributed AI consciousness.
'How do I access all that data without my brain exploding?'
The answer came immediately. The Supreme Comprehension System.
[Supreme Comprehension System: Data Archive Access Protocol]
It wasn't just about understanding techniques quickly. The system was a bridge.
A translator.
An interface that pulled relevant information from his vast archives and converted it into something his human brain could process without damage.
Like having a perfect search engine that also granted instant comprehension of the results.
'Show me everything relevant to human biological enhancement at the cellular and systemic level,' he commanded internally.
Information flooded his consciousness. Not as overwhelming raw data, but as understood concepts that integrated seamlessly with his existing knowledge.
Muscle fiber types and their conversion pathways. Myofibril structure and cross-bridge cycling.
Protein synthesis mechanisms and mTOR activation. Mechanical tension and metabolic stress.
Satellite cell recruitment and myonuclear domain theory. Mitochondrial biogenesis. Calcium signaling. Gene expression patterns.
Then deeper. Cellular respiration optimization. ATP production efficiency.
Reactive oxygen species management. Telomere preservation. Epigenetic modifications. Stem cell activation protocols.
He overlaid that with what the Boundless Martial Body Art taught about Body Cultivation realms.
The technique described it poetically: "Awaken the body's potential. Temper the muscles like steel in a forge. Forge the bones until they ring like bells. Refine the organs until they function as one. Transform the blood until it carries the essence of heaven. Cleanse the marrow until it produces liquid jade."
Mystical language. But what was actually happening at a biological level?
'Body Awakening activates dormant neural pathways and optimizes sensory processing. It's establishing the mind-body connection necessary for conscious control of normally autonomous systems.'
'Muscle Tempering induces controlled micro-trauma and uses internal energy to accelerate repair beyond normal limits.'
'But it's not just making muscles bigger. It's fundamentally restructuring muscle fiber composition, increasing both type IIa and type IIx fibers while maintaining type I endurance fibers. Changing the actual contractile protein structure.'
'Bone Forging isn't mystical hardening. It's increasing bone mineral density while simultaneously optimizing the trabecular structure for maximum strength-to-weight ratio. And it's probably doing something to the periosteum and endosteum to allow continued adaptation.'
'Organ Refinement has to be about optimizing organ function. Heart efficiency, lung capacity, liver processing, kidney filtration. Probably enhancing the smooth muscle tissue and improving nerve innervation.'
'Blood Transformation is the most interesting. Changing blood composition itself. Increasing hemoglobin oxygen-carrying capacity, improving clotting factors, enhancing immune response. Maybe even modifying blood cell production at the marrow level.'
'And Marrow Cleansing connects to that. It's about taking control of hematopoiesis—blood cell production. Optimizing the stem cells in bone marrow. This is probably the bridge to actual spiritual cultivation because marrow produces blood, and blood carries everything through the body.'
His mind raced as patterns emerged.
'Wait. I see it now. Body cultivation isn't just random enhancement. It's systematic preparation. Each realm builds on the previous, creating the foundation necessary for the next stage.'
'You can't properly refine organs until your bones can handle the increased metabolic demands.'
'You can't transform blood until your organs can process the new composition. You can't cleanse marrow until your blood can carry the enhanced cellular signals.'
'And the technique you practice determines how efficiently you progress through these stages.'
'A poor technique might take years to advance one stage because it's inefficient. A good technique optimizes the process. And the technique mastery shows how well you're applying that technique to your actual body.'
That's why his status showed both cultivation realm and technique mastery separately. They were connected but distinct.
Cultivation realm was your actual biological state. Technique mastery was how well you'd optimized that state using your chosen method.