11 years have passed.

Lye is now 16 years old. In these 11 years, he did a lot of things.

First, he cultivated. Right now, Lye had reached the 10th level of body-refining stage. He was at the absolute peak of this level.

He had also learned some martial skills.

The Leaping Stag’s step, The Flying Cheetah’s Feet, The Divine Turtle’s Punch, The Body of the Titans, The Kartlyn Fighter’s Manual.

Then he learned some basic job skills. Like blacksmithing, alchemy, formations, etc.

Someone else of his age would have only half the number of skills as him. But it wasn’t that it was easy for Lye to learn them. It was because he was getting bored.

The things that people here did for timepass was cultivate or spar or gamble or some other thing like that. A person who had spent nearly 20 years in the modern civilization would instinctively go away from sparring. It might seem fun at first, but the pain wasn't something a 'civilised modern man’ can take. Then cultivation might seem fun at first. But it was almost like studying. You have to turn off your brain and then just follow your technique (cram all your books, questions and answers). And then gambling. It was actually a good time pass. But it couldn't be done whenever Lye was bored, which was a hella common occurrence.

Even though Lye’s clan is one of the top clans of the empire, his branch is still just the latest and the smallest. So to learn all of these skills, he had joined The Artificer Hall. The main customer base here was in body-refining stage or 1 star cultivation. So, the main material they used was common iron. Lye used his advance chemistry knowledge to make better, more precise alloys than the people here at low cost. Even if his materials couldn't be used to build a skyscraper, cutting off a person’s head with a sword made by him wasn't a difficult task.

As to how Lye knew all the different chemical reactions, it was because Akshay had always wanted to go to a fantasy world. And he wanted to be prepared. Everyday, he would give half an hour to a full hour to study all these things. And I was benevolent enough to specially reinforce those memories.

His stats (with his MC system) were-

Name Lye Kartlyn Age 16 y Sex Male Titles

Potential Heir Of Kartyln Clan 8th Branch

Main Character

Affiliations

Kartlyn Clan

Green Dragon Empire

Mental Conditions

Attention Deficiency

Face-Name Dissonance

Strong Memory

Physical Conditions Kartlyn Bloodline MC Traits Other World Knowledge Occupations Scholar 4 Fighter 2 Constitution 25 Strength 24 Endurance 30 Dexterity 28 Wisdom 35 Intelligence 31 Lifespan 15 (150y) Plot Armor 10/10 Mind's Eye Max Essence Concealment Max Plot Armor Max Absolute Mind Wall Max Leaping Stag's Step 8/20 Flying Cheetah's Feet 6/20 Divine Turtle's Punch 8/10 Body of Titans 4/15 Kartlyn Fighter's Manual 9/50 Alchemy 5/100 Artificing 2/100 Formation Setting 10/100

A normal teenage cultivator’s fighter class would have been at least at level 5 but, being a 'civilised person’ Lye usually refrained from fighting and instead used his artifacts to win his battles.

His artifacts weren't the best, but they were innovative, in this world. His use of alloys changed the whole metal market in the province. The personal favourite of Lye’s was his music box. It isn't a deceptive name. The artifact truly was just a music box. It was made of normal wood, with normal iron components. It didn't have any major formations, just some circuits.

Lye made it because he had a lot of free time, and because it left a big impression on him. Akshay’s mother had died when he was kid. It was the last thing, a memento, he had of her. After a lot of thinking, discussing, conjecturing, engineering (how to make a music box is not a required how to in a fantasy world), Lye finally made it after a whole month. In the process, he was able to find practical applications of his other world Knowledge. It also increased his intelligence, wisdom, Dexterity by a lot (3-5 points, it's awfully difficult to increase them, without advancing in cultivation, Lye found).

Lye’s achievements were so good for his age that Zara had taken him as his personal disciple, which made him a viable candidate for the post of sect head after him.

In a place where a beggar might turn out to strong enough to massacre a whole small city, people don't care much about traditions, or familial relations. They all want someone with ability to be the one to lead them.

This was all for Lye. As for the others of his generation, most of those with decent backgrounds had entered 1 star cultivation realm, or were just on the cusp of entering it. Their battle skills are also at a higher level, while anything related to mental ability (intelligence/wisdom stat or classes like scholar) were at a comparatively lower level. They also don’t have as many secondary skills as Lye.

A general person at a similar age with similar background would have a status as followed

Occupation Scholar 1 Fighter 4 Constitution 28 Strength 27 Endurance 32 Dexterity 28 Wisdom 32 Intelligence 28 Leaping Stag's Step 9/20 Flying Cheetah's Feet 7/20 Divine Turtle's Punch 9/10 Body of Titans 5/15 Kartlyn Fighter's Manual 10/50

The difference wasn’t much but it was there. Lye was weaker at fighting with others. He wasn’t ruthless like others. The only thing that Lye had over others was his other world knowledge and plot armor. By using both of them, he had almost never lost a fight at the same cultivation level.

Now, why couldn’t he advance to the next stage? It was because, to advance, you have to undergo a tribulation. And to call the tribulation, you have to understand a dao to a certain level. To understand a dao, you have to meditate on it. And mediation was to Lye as using his original limbs was to an amputee. He knew what it was, but it was just impossible for Lye. Everytime, he would try to meditate, his mind would go on and on in tangents and what he would have in the end was nothing new, only what he started his mediation on, just more jumbled.

Right now, Lye was 16. It is common knowledge that if you don’t breakthrough before becoming 17, you would never be able to breakthrough without some world-shattering-coincidences. There were just a few months left before it would be his 17th birthday, and Lye spent all his time listening to his music box, while crafting some weapons, armors, pills or testing new formations. It wasn’t because he had given up. It was because he knew, he had that world-shattering-coincidence-making-power. After all he is the Main Character.

And fortunately for him, this was indeed true. Today was a special day. Centralle had sent people to every province to find some talented young people and also to give public lectures on various topics to the general populace. This was an event that took place every 10 years. The last time it happened, Lye was just too small and didn’t know enough about the world to be able to understand most of what was said.

This time, he was determined to use the lecture to its fullest.

That evening, 3 old men came to the province. They were the ones sent by Centralle. All of them were experts at various topics and would be staying for almost a week to lecture on different topics and scout the youngsters.

The lectures were on many topics but Lye was interested in only one, the one on dao. This didn’t mean that he ignored the other lectures. That would have just been wasting a free chance. And Lye never wasted something free. He attended all of them, and it turned out they were rather informatic. It wasn’t the techniques that he found good, they didn’t teach any technique anyway. It was the principles behind the art that they lectured on, and that was what he needed. It allowed him to increase the effectiveness of his creations. Effectiveness as in being more useful for the situation than being better overall.

The lecture on Dao was the last one. After waiting for 7 days, it was finally time to see whether his plot armor would give him a dao now or would he have to go on the path of being a trash young master who suddenly got lucky. He truly didn’t want the second option.

The lecture was boring but one line of the lecture was what answered his question.

“...your Dao is just the path you take to understand the world. It is like trying to understand a city. You can use the official sources, the common people, the criminal houses or whatever else way you want. In the end, you will understand the city, no matter what path you take, even if each path offers different views…”

Then he had said that we should, therefore, use many ways to fill in the gaps left by our original way of choice, but Lye already understood that and had gone to a world of his own.

‘Dao is a way of understanding the world. I already know of a way to understand the world. Idiot!!! Idiot Idiot Idiot Idiot Idiot Idiot!!!’

After cursing himself to hell and back, Lye finally came to himself and saw that everyone was looking at him with various expressions. He finally realised that he had said all that out loud.

The old man who was giving the lecture was fuming with anger. He thought that the young person listening to his lecture was calling him an idiot.

“You! You small, little bastard! Why were you calling me an idiot!?”

“I…“ Cold sweat was pouring down his neck and his throat was dry. After taking a few, difficult deep breaths and drinking some of saliva to wet his throat, he tried to speak.

“Senior, I cannot dare to curse you. You are my teacher, my saviour. I was calling myself an idiot, to have to listen to your esteemed self’s lecture to realise that I already have a dao of my own, just that I didn’t think of it as a dao. I cannot dare to curse you, senior…”

Lye couldn’t think of anything else to say, but he also didn’t need to.

“Enough! Go away and don’t you dare show me your face ever again or I will slaughter your whole family! Scram!”

“At once, senior!” And he ran away with the fastest speed he had ever mustered in both his memories.

Even the system mocked him on that.

Flying Cheetah's Feet Level Increased Current Level: 8/20

Once the 3 seniors went back, he could finally heave a sigh of relief. For the rest of the day, Lye had hidden himself in his room and somehow, managed to think about the new understanding he had gained.

After a few hours of repeatedly going on tangents and coming back, he finally got the notification he wanted.

Dao Attained Unique Dao: Science Requirements Completed Time to Tribulation: 5 days, 2 hours, 50 minutes, 20 seconds...