Completing the ten-kilometer run, Rui finished all the other exercises, heaving a sigh in the process.

Honestly, he couldn’t understand why the system gave him such a daily quest, since he was already pretty fit to begin with. Though he wasn’t really complaining. It was free stat points after all. An increase in power was always appreciated.

Claiming the quest rewards, he felt invigorated by the weak recovery, finally feeling as though he was done for the day.

Interested in seeing the progress he had made; he opened the status window.

[status]

Age 14

Level: 5

Cultivation rank: First light stage

Character personality path: Society born Demon

STRENGTH 7

DEXTERITY 7

CONSTITUTION 11

INTELLIGENCE 52

WISDOM 16

CHARISMA 26

Free attribute stats: 8 (+1)

Luck 1

ABILITIES

Ansuz Lv.1: Passive, rune of truth. +25 Intelligence.

Give high resistance to illusions, charms and brain washing.

Scales with intelligence

Heightened intelligence Lv.1: Passive +15 Intelligence, +5 Wisdom.

Gives the ability to process things much faster.

He still didn’t know as to how to distribute his free stat points, since they couldn’t be added to luck, he was stuck. Thankfully he wasn’t in a hurry. Being inside the academy grounds, he shouldn’t be in any sort of danger, the perfect place to increase his power.

“Master, what are you staring at?”

His thoughts were disrupted by a voice. Remembering that he now had a sentient artifact that was observing him, he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.

‘I can’t believe I forgot about Yue. I probably look like an idiot.”

“Nothing, I was just contemplating as to what I should do.”

“I see! Master should focus on cultivation, since you are in the prime period for cultivation! Every second matters!”

“You are right, I should, but first let's get some things straight.” Said Rui, sitting cross-legged.

After a moment of silence, he asked.

“What did you think of the class you heard today?”

“It was interesting! I haven’t heard human speech in so long, what’s more a teaching!”

“That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking how were its contents?”

“Ah! If I’m being honest, its decently accurate. The background of history that is. Although accounts may vary from place to place, from sect to sect, or even religion to religion. As master has probably realized, I was created by the heavenly demon, the creator of the heavenly demon mantra, so my view on the world is from a demonic path, which is fundamentally different from the righteous path master is on.”

Rui’s eyes sparkled. This was the information he was looking for.

Yue was pretty much useless to him as an artifact. Although it had some abilities, most of the functions were only accessible with the heavenly demon mantra, which he wasn’t going to cultivate.

So, the only function Yue had for him was information. As an ancient artifact with sentience, it probably possessed some deep knowledge and hidden secrets of old.

Rui nodded and prompted it to continue.

“As I come from the Demonic cult, our teachings praise Kushim’s brother, Tchort. The reason behind our praise isn’t because of his evil nature, but the fact that he was able to control that nature of his, making it his power.”

“Though people of the demonic cult are said to be demonic practitioners, that isn’t always the case. The demonic path is a path that allows both “righteous” and “evil” individuals to get the power they desire. It could be said to be the middle man of the cultivation world, even though demonic practitioners are considered evil by the rest of the world, the demonic practitioners don’t think so and only follow their hearts as to what is righteous or evil.”

“Like I said the Demonic cult praises Tchort due to his achievements and control of his power, but the evil powers such as the Primordial Evil Sect praise and swear allegiance to his evil and cold-hearted nature. They only wish for destruction, not caring as to how evil their methods are. There have been multiple cases of mass sacrifices by them, especially mortals, which is frowned by the cultivation world, even the demonic practitioners.”

“We base our fundamental beliefs on power, no matter what sort of power it is, be it righteous or demonic, despite that, mass sacrifice is completely unacceptable. Although my creator, the Heavenly Demon, was part of the Demon Cult, he had his own beliefs. There are many individuals who also decide to leave the righteous path and join the demonic. From what I know, he was born in a noble clan of an uprising empire, but had his entire family killed by a rival righteous clan. Finding out about it, he swore to take revenge by getting strength in any way possible.”

‘What the hell? Those things actually happen in this world? It sounds like a generic main character story, for god’s sake!’

Rui almost swore at loud at the so familiar story.

He was vexed over the large amount of information, he still listened attentively, trying not to miss any detail. Although he didn’t know what the ‘Demonic Cult’ and the ‘Primordial Evil sect’ were, he guessed that they were some of the big powers of the world.

Not noticing its master’s ugly expression due to its position, Yue continued.

“After growing in strength through the methods of the cult, he became the leader after killing every single person that opposed him. He took the nickname Heavenly Demon and was a renowned master that many praised, wanting to become his disciple and inheriting his unique technique.”

“However, as the Heavenly demon grew older, he became more and more senile, not trusting even his own people and students he had taught for years. The cause of his downfall was his own demonic method, since he felt that everyone was only there to get it from him. In the end, he decided to split the demonic method into countless pieces based on cultivation level, placing me in the first level of cultivation, to guide the future successors to the other pieces.”

Rui looked at the air with a frowning expression and asked.

“So, what you are saying is, that you were only created to showcase the way to the other parts of the cultivation method?”

“Yes! Though I was given extra functions to entice the new wielder to try to find them!”

Rui face palmed. This new artifact of his was actually a complete pushover. It didn’t even realize that it revealed such important information. Not only was it stupid, but also innocent. He couldn’t believe that this was a “demonic artifact” with intelligence.

‘What the hell was this so called “Heavenly Demon” thinking when making this artifact? He truly must’ve been senile, otherwise he wouldn’t have created such an ignorant thing.’

“Okay, I understand. I’ll ask a few more questions, then I will get back to cultivating, okay?”

“Yes master!”

“How many years ago were you created?”

“What is the current time period master?”

“Han Imperial calendar Time, fifth day of the first month, year 6232” answered Rui.

As the awakening was held just a few days ago, the year was still at its beginning. The Han Imperial calendar was the calendar adopted from the previous Han empire thousands of years ago, before the ruling of the current emperor, the illusion emperor.

It is said that he was a prince born from a concubine, but had incredible talents, reaching an unfathomable level in the first ten years of his cultivation. By age 24 he had already become a rank 6 rune master.

However, due to the oppression of the court at the time, he was treated horribly by the old and senile politicians. Taking matters to his hands, managing to inherit the throne from his old emperor father, he killed all his opposition and took the throne. In just five hundred years of his ruling, he expanded the empire into its now current size, bringing wealth and prosperity.

“Ah! The Han Empire! My creator was long gone when the empire was established. Since its the 6232nd year of the Han empire, it should be over ten thousand years ago that I was created.”

Rui nodded once more. This answer lined up with his initial understanding. Since the spirit jade slip was created approximately ten millenniums ago, corresponding to Yue’s information, of it being created at the same time frame.

Wanting to have a better understanding of Yue’s knowledge, he asked.

“Tell me more of what you’ve experienced so far. I would like to understand the history of my predecessors, after all there should have been multiple, right?”

This was an extremely valid and important question. As mentioned by Yue, most of its time was spent inside the jade slip, sealed until someone actually inherited it. In these thousands of years of its existence, it surely had multiple masters, but how long had it experienced the world for?

“I’m going to be honest with you master. The total time probably doesn’t exceed five hundred years.”

Rui stayed silent for a moment, before a questioning sound came from his mouth. His face was filled with disbelief and confusion.

‘What the fuck do you mean only five hundred years!?’

He almost swore but suppressed it.

“Master don’t be so disappointed! Although I’ve only experienced five hundred years, its still four centuries more than the average cultivator! I promise I have some useful information.”

“Alright, alright, just tell me which time periods did you experience and how you only ended up with so little experience.”

“Um, I will start with my first experience, it was around a hundred years after the Heavenly Demon scattered the method around the eastern continent-”

“Wait, before you continue, does eastern continent mean the continent we are currently on? I don’t really have a great understanding of geography so I’d like to know the surrounding regions first.”

This was the truth. Rui was born in the capital city of the Illusive empire, but he hadn’t explored the world, nor did he have the standing to acquire such information. Most commoners didn’t know of such matters. Knowing the names of counties, cities and villages was more than enough. The farthest distance he had traveled was his father's small ‘clan’ years ago. What commoner would know the world if he hadn’t experienced it himself? Even the homeless and travelers only traveled inside the country. The number of those who had traveled outside of the country could be counted in one hand, what’s more those that wanted to disclose such information. Even getting a map was practically impossible, unless you wanted to be hunted down by the law, for possessing an item of war.

“Ah yes, of course master. As the human race has discovered thousands of years ago, the world is round, even though many have tried to claim that it is not, many incredible masters have confirmed it by flying outside of the world boundary.”

Rui’s face gleamed at this information. This meant that the same rules as his previous planet applied, at least to a certain degree. He was amazed as to how cultivators were able to fly outside of the so-called boundary and truly witness the earth, without any protection like spacesuits.

“The Previous Han empire occupied a large part of the eastern continent and I currently have no idea how the world’s geology is. Many empires are probably divided and there are a lot of provinces and places in this world. I will just explain the continents and nothing more, as the powers of the world are fluid, but the continents aren’t, unless they are destroyed that is.”

“The continent that we are currently in, like I said before, is the eastern continent. To its right is the western continent and to its left is the central continent, which is the biggest in size. There is also a fourth continent, this is also a self-governing place and has been like that since long before I was created. The people call it the Arctic palace, but my creator called it the coldest death.”

Rui was delighted.

‘Now this is what I’ve been seeking!’

This was the information that he needed to understand the current situation of the world and its true progress. He needed this information to come to a basic conclusion about this new world of his. Coming from earth, where information was extremely abundant thanks to the Internet, he was starving for answers.

“Okay, I’ve understood a gist of it, you may now continue.” He urged Yue with an expectant gaze.

Yue nodded and continued.

“The first person that found me was a young man around the age of 15. He was a commoner of barely enough talent to awaken me from my slumber and become a successor. He was born in a remote village at the outskirts of the Qin State, a relatively small country at the edge of the eastern continent. However, thanks to his inexperience, he was killed just two years after, due to powerful rogue cultivators witnessing his method, wanting to steal it from him.”

Rui’s excitement died down. He wasn’t expecting to hear such cruel stories, but he didn’t stop the artifact.

“After the death of each successor, my body will automatically return into the jade slip, so that it can be activated once again. The next time I was awoken was by a demonic practitioner that thirsted for revenge. I have no knowledge as to what place I had awoken to at the time. He spent most of his time running from his pursuers, making great travels, finally managing to escape in the end. There I learned the information that it had already been a thousand years since the first successor had died. He found the method inside an antique store and by accident became the successor. He spent most his years traveling the world and collecting all the pieces for the heavenly demon mantra.”

‘Now this sounds more like a story from a heaven grade artifact!’ thought Rui.

“He spent the next forty years traveling the world, managing to collect a large number of the pieces and reaching fourth grade rune master. After finally having enough power to enact his revenge, he took his chances, succeeding. He spent the following years of his life in seclusion, not really focusing on cultivation, finally meeting his death after 85 years of life-”

Rui frowned. Wasn’t this information too bare-bones and to the point? He wanted information about the past, but this information was nowhere near enough to be of any significance. After all, what Yue was listing was the life of previous successor, but not even his name nor true background were mentioned, just his bare basic feats.

Finally noticing its master’s gaze Yue stopped and seemed pensive.

“What’s the matter master?”

“Can you go a bit more in depth with the information? I haven’t really received any useful info so far.”

Yue shook its head, feeling greatly ashamed.

“Master, to tell you the truth… Each time I’m sealed, most of the information gets wiped, only the rudimentary information is retained, such as ‘what were the most important moments of that incarnation’. You can think of it like this. Each version of me that appears is different than the previous one and each new one gains an “inherited memory”, that only retains the information the Heavenly Demon had ordered it to retain.”

Rui became silent once again. He just couldn’t process the sudden information. Not wanting to lose all hope, he asked.

“What information do you retain?”

“Years lived, time of succession, reason of death, time period, background, goals, place of death and method of inheritance.”

Rui face palmed so hard that his forehead became stark red.

‘It didn’t even record their names! What kind of bullshit rule is this, that senile Heavenly Demon!’

He felt incredulous, how could that information be useful to him? Mustering any sort of willpower he had to not swear out loud, he ordered.

“Tell me all their information in that order.”

“Yes master!”

“17 years of life, 2 years, killed by rogue cultivators, date unknown, Commoner, to become powerful, Qin State, found it randomly inside a tree.”

“85 years of life, 64 years, death by old age, around millennium before the Han calendar, Revenge, the eastern mountains, found inside an antique store.”

“29 years of life, 5 years, death by assassination, 50th year of the Han calendar, Revenge, A small village of the Han empire, inherited from his family.”

“95 years of life, 25 years, death by assassination, 200th year of the Han calendar, curiosity, inside the Primordial Evil Sect, found it inside the spoils of war.”

“19 years of life, 1 year…”

…

“20 years of life, 5 years, killed by a demon, 5200th year of the Han calendar, revenge, Han imperial capital, found inside an old-worn down house.”

Yue’s information continued until the final person was announced. Yue’s voice was always robotic sounding, but now especially, it sounded almost like an automated Text-to-Speech message.

Rui was shocked by the sheer amount of people. It was easily over a few hundred and he didn’t dare to list all of them that simply. Even if the information was useless to him, it was still information at the end of the day. This gave him great insight as to how the users of the ‘Heavenly Demon Mantra’ ended like. It truly was a demonic method.

Right now, Rui didn’t believe a single word Yue had spoken about fate. It was clearly false. It was clear that his luck was horrid, this ‘Heavenly Demon Mantra’ was clearly a disaster bringing item. Most of its users had died by assassination, self-explosion, cultivation deviation and robbery. Rui now understood why Yue had experienced only five hundred years.

With its users dying in just a few years each time, a large amount of them not even surpassing the two-year mark. This wasn’t a heavenly cultivation method, but a trap set-up by the devil.

Not wanting to think of it anymore Rui decided to stop asking Yue questions. Even if he wanted more information that was useful, he could acquire it at a later date, possibly even only when he needed by just asking.

Finally, being in absolute silence, he erased Yue’s presence from his mind and began cultivation following the method shown by the system. After getting his body in the most optimal state.

Pulling out the golden dan pill, he put it in his mouth and let it rest there.

Earlier in the class, the teacher had instructed them how to use pills and how to absorb them correctly. Feeling the weird and bitter taste in his tongue, Rui let out a mournful smile. He didn’t expect it to taste so horrible, but he still didn’t spit it out, trying his best to refine the dissolved pill.

After an hour of doing so, the pill finally dissolved completely and all he had to do was absorb and refine the energy completely.

After another four hours he had finally completely absorbed the entire pill, even the small residual energy that usually was impossible to refine, unless a special method was used.

Purely cultivating was extremely boring, but Rui endured it. After all, he was a rune master now and not a normal person. He wished he could just procrastinate and do nothing, while increasing his strength, but life never was that easy.

He so hoped he had some sort of entertainment, be it TV or even a radio at the very least. The thing he missed the most was audio-books, since they were his most used method to entertain himself.

Not being in contact with earth’s technology for 14 years truly was hell. Especially in the early years of his second life.

Since Rui didn’t know how to act like a child when he was young, his parents had brought a doctor over multiple times, making sure that their child was alright. Having a horrible childhood made him extremely traumatic over his parents, especially his father, but as time went on, he got used to their company and truly felt the familial love.

However even familial love couldn’t mask away the child that he was.

Being able to speak fluently from the age of one and being able to read and write by the age of three wasn’t a great idea. Rui didn’t think he was the brightest as a child on earth, especially having an abusive father that restricted his every action. So, you can imagine his shock when his father and mother called him a prodigy kid.

So, in reality, he didn’t bother masking his true intentions as he was truly ignorant of how children acted. All of his actions were in real time. In truth it truly took him a year to learn how to speak fluently and three years to read and write. The brain of a developing child was incredible, being able to absorb knowledge like a sponge.

Only after his little brother was born did he realize how unlike a child he acted. Thankfully, his parents just took him as a so-called child genius, his little brother following their footsteps.

Even though they called him a child genius, his parents didn’t flaunt their child’s achievements in the least, even hiding them to some degree. Having an extremely bright child wasn’t always a positive, as it could bring many catastrophes, especially in a world where superstition was incredibly popular and civilization among the common folk wasn’t advanced.

Since he was well versed in reading and writing since a young age, he would help his family to run their business, making sure everything ran perfectly. After all, he was a successful adult in his previous life, working on a pretty good office job as an economic adviser, having worked on multiple other jobs before that. Even as a child, the number of jobs he had worked could amount to over fifty. Managing a medieval tavern was nothing.

Despite that, he never truly acted like a child his age should. While other kids were playing around, he would bitterly try to obtain any information he could, while at the same time enjoy a family he never truly had. However, no matter how hard he tried, talking to strangers that came in, wondering cultivators and many others, he never truly managed to get good information. He only found out about rune masters after he saw a brawl between two, fascinated by their inhuman feats of strength.

Even though everyone knew of rune masters and they were embedded into their culture, no one truly talked about them, as if they were taboo to do so. Only those that had awakened as rune masters were privy to such information, as such the academy was a mandatory environment for a newly awakened individual. That is if they didn’t come from a clan or sect.

Since he was young, he was a pretty child, many times he was mistaken for a little girl. Having long hair didn’t help with it, but his father had informed him that it was family tradition. Even his little brother had to keep his hair long for that reason.

He felt quite weird about his father’s background, since his genes were clearly far more superior than his mothers. After all he didn’t look like his mother at all and from what he knew, even the girls born in their family had a stunning appearance.

He had met his father’s family and honestly, they all had a similar appearance, it was kind of creepy.

Although they were a “family”, they were on the bigger side and approached the level of a clan. They were known as unofficial clans, not having an appropriate amount of rune masters. Despite being called that, they still were far better than commoners and that was one of the main reasons his family business ran freely without much hassle.

Although he had met his father’s family multiple times, he had only gone once to their “Ancestral home”. It was a weird place, with much different architecture. His father had informed him that it was like that since his ancestors created it. Truly a sturdy building.

Unlike his father’s family, his mother was a completely normal commoner, having an extremely ordinary background. They all lived inside the capital and Rui would see them pretty often.

Suddenly Rui stopped cultivating, as a thought streaked through his mind.

He pulled out a knife and slowly unfastened it from rows of bandages. The small knife’s edge was revealed, as well as its intricate design.

This was the knife that he had used to test out his bloodline, the knife his father gifted to him at his twelfth birthday, claiming it was a family heirloom.

Grabbing the hilt of the dagger with a strong grip, his hand slightly trembled as he said one word, completely ignoring the fact that Yue was there.

“Identify”

[Sun cutter

Tier: High-heavenly grade

Fighting grade: Mid-Heavenly grade

Master: -//invalid//-

Armament compatibility: 10%

Abilities: dimensional slash, void breaker, void storage

Description: A High-Heavenly grade combat armament created by a renowned armament crafter of old. Unlike spiritual artifacts, Runic armaments possess no spirit, but are incredible weapons of war. It is an inherited item of the Guang family. It can be used as a spacial storage item.]

At the same time at Rui’s family tavern, a man wearing a bamboo hat came in. He looked around until he spotted Guang Jian serving the customers.

Raising his hand, he signaled over to him. Guang Jian quickly came over and asked.

“How can I help you sir?” with a polite expression.

“Little Jian, where is brother Ryuji?” asked the man with a tender voice.

“Ah!” Exclaimed Jian as he quickly looked up to see the man's face. He recognized the voice.

The man looked like a more mature version of Guang Ryuji, having blue eyes and a sharp nose. He sported a stubble, with a purple bandanna covering his forehead. His long black hair cascaded down his back.

“Uncle Daito!” exclaimed Jian happily, clearly being excited to see this man.