Chen Yu sat back down on the sleeping mat with a thump, his mind still buzzing with possibilities that wouldn't stop multiplying. He needed to plan this out properly, not just rush in blindly and waste his precious resources on foolish experiments. Old habits from his previous life kicked in automatically, and he found himself raising his hand to trace patterns in the air without thinking about it.
It was something he used to do all the time back when he worked as a computer engineer in his old life. Drawing diagrams in the air with his finger, mapping out code structures and system architectures, planning projects step by step before writing a single line of code. His coworkers had always found it weird and made jokes about it, but it helped him think clearly when problems got complex.
Now his finger traced invisible lines as he organized his thoughts into something coherent. First priority, he needed to learn how to make talismans as quickly as possible. He had the manual right there sitting next to him, the one he hadn't read yet. If he could create talismans that actually worked, even basic ones, he could sell them in town for spirit stones. It was the most direct path to getting the resources he desperately needed to survive and advance.
Second priority, and maybe just as important, he needed to fix his body's terrible condition. The memories from the original Chen Yu made it painfully clear just how malnourished and weak this teenage body was after a year of hardship. A year of barely scraping by on rice and whatever cheap food he could afford had taken its toll in ways that weren't immediately obvious but would matter later. If he wanted to cultivate properly and build a strong foundation, he needed to eat better, build up some actual strength and muscle. A weak foundation would only hold him back later when it mattered most, maybe even cripple his future advancement.
Chen Yu's finger kept moving through the air, drawing invisible connections between ideas and priorities. But as he planned, a bigger thought kept pushing its way to the front of his mind, demanding attention. What was his actual goal here in this new life? Just to survive another day? To become strong for the sake of being strong? That seemed too simple, too empty and pointless.
He paused mid-gesture, his hand frozen in the air, as memories from his past life flooded back unbidden.
He'd been a computer engineer, sure, with a decent salary and stable job, but that wasn't why he'd loved his work. It was the creation part that excited him and made him stay up late solving problems. Building systems from nothing, solving complex puzzles, making things work together in elegant ways that felt almost artistic. And when work got boring or frustrating with office politics and pointless meetings, he'd escape into cultivation novels during his lunch breaks. Not for the face-slapping or the romance or the power fantasy stuff that a lot of readers seemed to love and comment about.
No, Chen Yu had always skipped ahead to the parts about arrays and formations, the technical details buried in the middle of chapters. The parts that most readers probably found boring and complained about in the comments. He'd loved reading about how cultivators would set up intricate defensive arrays around their sects, or how talisman masters would inscribe complex formations onto specially prepared paper. It reminded him of programming, of engineering, of creating systems that did incredible things through careful design.
And he'd always wondered, while reading those novels on his lunch breaks and commutes, what it would be like to bring modern technology concepts to a cultivation world. Not to replace cultivation or dismiss it as inferior, but to combine them in ways no one had thought of. To take the backwards medieval society that most of these worlds seemed stuck in and drag them kicking and screaming into an industrial age. Or better yet, an information age where knowledge could spread freely.
Chen Yu's eyes started to gleam with growing excitement as the thoughts cascaded through his mind faster and faster. Arrays were basically magical circuits when you thought about it, right? And talismans were like pre-programmed spells stored on paper, like software on a disk. If he understood the underlying principles behind them deeply enough, couldn't he do incredible things that no one in this world had ever thought of? Things that seemed impossible because no one had the right perspective?
His finger started moving through the air again, faster now, more excited and less controlled. He could already imagine it taking shape in his mind. Communication arrays that worked like phones or the internet, letting people talk across vast distances. Transportation formations that functioned like trains or planes, moving goods and people efficiently. Recording talismans that captured images and sound like cameras and voice recorders. The possibilities were literally endless if someone actually tried to innovate and think outside the box instead of just following the old methods passed down for generations.
Chen Yu caught himself starting to drool again and quickly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, embarrassed even though no one was watching. He was getting carried away with fantasies, but he couldn't help it. This was what got him excited and made his heart race. Not just becoming strong for the sake of being strong or collecting a harem or slapping young masters, but creating things, building things, bringing actual meaningful progress to this world that seemed stuck in the past.
Of course, he knew it wouldn't be easy at all. In fact, it would probably be incredibly dangerous if the novels he'd read had any accuracy. The novels always had powerful cultivators hoarding knowledge and resources jealously, killing anyone who threatened their position or monopolies. If he started creating things that could empower regular mortals or spread cultivation knowledge, there would definitely be pushback from the cultivation world's established elite. They'd probably try to kill him and steal everything he'd made, then suppress the knowledge.
But that's why he needed to get strong first, strong enough that threats couldn't just crush him. Strong enough to protect himself and his inventions from greedy hands. Strong enough that even if the powerful tried to take from him by force, he could negotiate from a position of strength rather than just getting crushed like an ant under someone's boot.
Chen Yu leaned back against the rough wooden wall of his shack, a grin spreading across his face despite the daunting challenges ahead that would probably take years to overcome. Two birds with one stone really when he thought about it. He could pursue immortality and cultivation power while also working toward his dream of bringing technological progress to this backwards world. The two goals would naturally support each other instead of conflicting.
And wasn't that the whole point of transmigration? What good was immortality if you spent eternity doing things you didn't enjoy or care about? If he was going to live for hundreds or maybe thousands of years, he wanted to spend that time creating, inventing, pushing boundaries and exploring new ideas. Not just sitting on a mountain somewhere meditating in silence for centuries until he turned into a rock.
His mind drifted back to arrays and talismans again, imagination running wild with the elegant formations he could design, the complex systems he could build from scratch. Magic and technology combined into something new. It made his inner nerd practically vibrate with barely contained excitement.
"Okay, okay, focus," he muttered to himself, forcing his wandering thoughts back to more immediate concerns. "Can't build the internet if I starve to death first."
He needed a concrete plan for the short term that would actually keep him alive. Step one was reading that talisman manual cover to cover and figuring out how to actually make them without blowing himself up. Step two was creating some basic talismans to sell in town so he could get money for proper food and more spirit stones. Step three was improving his body's terrible condition while starting cultivation properly with what he learned.
After that, well, after that he could start working toward the bigger dream he'd imagined. But first he needed to survive, to get strong enough to matter, to establish himself as someone who couldn't be casually killed. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither would his cultivation-tech empire be.
Chen Yu looked down at the second manual, the one about talisman making and array creation, sitting next to him on the mat where he'd placed it earlier. His fingers itched to open it immediately and start reading, to absorb all that technical knowledge. All those formation patterns, all that information about how arrays worked, just waiting for him to devour it.
But his stomach chose that exact moment to growl loudly, reminding him painfully that he hadn't eaten anything since waking up in this world. The original Chen Yu's body was running on empty, weak from a year of poor nutrition and hard labor.
"Food first," he decided reluctantly, even though every part of him wanted to ignore hunger and just read. "Then reading. Can't learn anything if I pass out from hunger."
He had a couple of copper coins left from the original Chen Yu's last job in town, tucked away in a corner. Not much at all, barely anything, but enough to buy some rice and maybe a vegetable or two if he bargained well. It would have to do for now until he could earn more.
Chen Yu stood up carefully, his legs still a bit weak, and placed both manuals and the remaining spirit stones in a safe spot under his sleeping mat where no one would find them if they happened to look inside. He took one last look around his shabby little shack, at the cracked wooden walls and the dirt floor, at the crushing poverty he'd inherited along with this body and its memories.
"Not for long," he promised himself quietly but with conviction. "I won't stay this low again. This is just the beginning of something bigger."