Battle Through the Heavens, Launch!

Battle Through the Heavens, Launch! April 14, 2064.

Yang Shan was writing furiously in his solitary home.

"Couldn't I have been reborn a little earlier? Did it have to be half an hour before the servers opened?"

By 2064, no information stored on electronic devices was truly private.

The information Yang Shan recorded with pen and paper concerned the future.

To be safe, it was better to record it using relatively primitive pen and paper.

Memories would gradually fade with time.

But paper and ink could last for centuries.

"Wu Meng Mountain connects to mountains beyond mountains, moonlight spills over Xiangshui Shoal."

A familiar tune began playing from the phone on the table.

The reminder displayed on the phone read: In two minutes, "Battle Through the Heavens" servers open! "Battle Through the Heavens."

China's top gaming conglomerate, Tian Yao Company, had spent five years creating it.

Based on the classic web novel Battle Through the Heavens,

it had fully recreated the Dou Qi Continent that had once existed only in words!

Yang Shan remembered it clearly.

With its absolutely top-tier production quality and operations, as well as the Guan Zhong and Bao Shuya's Friendship System introduced in later versions,

Battle Through the Heavens had swallowed up over 85% of the global online gaming market in just half a year! Any Player who made a name for themselves in Battle Through the Heavens could earn vast wealth through the game.

In his previous life, Yang Shan had been a first-rate Player. Though he had not dominated the world like the Three Sects and Twelve Emperors,

he had still reached Four Star Dou Huang.

Relying on the items produced in the game, his monthly income had remained steadily around twenty thousand.

Who would have thought that after closing and opening his eyes,

he would somehow return to three years ago!

"Although rebirth has always been the most reliable cheat, I still need to be cautious. Aiming too high won't do. First, I'll set a small, achievable goal."

First, earn a hundred million!

"Time is tight. I can only write this much for now."

Three years' worth of gaming memories.

Heavenly Flames, cultivation methods, Dou Techniques, pill formulas, even information on special secret realms and top-tier bosses.

There was no way he could write it all down in half an hour.

Especially information about the launch version—it had been too long ago, and many of his memories had grown hazy.

Yang Shan entered the gaming room, locked the notebook in the safe, and climbed straight into the Game Pod.

Compared to the most basic gaming helmets, a Game Pod had a more stable brainwave connection, lower latency, and greater sensory realism.

The top-of-the-line Game Pod could even raise sensory realism to 99%!

Unfortunately, although Yang Shan's family was fairly well-off, the top-tier Game Pod's price tag of 1.88 million was still far too expensive.

After all, there was a huge difference between having wealthy parents and being wealthy himself.

He could only make do with an ordinary version.

The Game Pod's door slowly closed.

A pleasant female voice soon sounded by his ear: Power connection confirmed.

Backup power at full capacity.

Brainwave connection stable.

Please proceed to the next step.

Yang Shan even took several deep breaths before speaking the words he had said countless times in his previous life, yet never tired of saying:

"Battle Through the Heavens! Launch!"

Battle Through the Heavens launched successfully. Login interface loaded.

Player information bound. Please confirm your character information. If you have any questions, please read "Initial Character Selection Guidelines."

The focus of character creation was allocating attribute points.

Spiritual Roots! This was a supplementary setting Tian Yao Company had created based on the original novel.

To a great extent, they determined the cultivation paths of Players and NPCs alike.

Every Player began with ten Free Spiritual Root points when creating a character.

They could be freely allocated among the seven major Spiritual Roots: Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, and Lightning.

The higher a single Spiritual Root's value, the easier it was to cultivate its corresponding attribute.

Of course, in the original story, Alchemists held an extremely special status.

To allow more Players to experience alchemy, Tian Yao Company had relaxed the requirements.

As long as a Player possessed both a Fire Spirit Root and a Wood Spirit Root, even if each had only one point, they could still become an Alchemist.

Naturally, Players who primarily invested in Fire Spirit Roots and cultivated Fire Attribute techniques would have a higher alchemy success rate.

Yang Shan was definitely going to become an Alchemist.

Among his three years of gaming memories from his previous life were many methods for obtaining precious pill formulas.

So, Yang Shan directly put all 10 points into his Thunder Spirit Root! In his previous life, Yang Shan had been stubbornly determined. In pursuit of the legendary Heavenly Flames capable of destroying heaven and earth, he had chosen the Fire Spirit Root without hesitation.

Yet the rarity, acquisition requirements, and refinement difficulty of Heavenly Flames were truly no different from the original novel!

Even after the game had operated for three years in his previous life, very few Heavenly Flames had fallen into Players' hands.

As for the Heavenly Flames described in detail in the original novel, every single one was harder to obtain than the last.

Ask Medusa Queen for the Green Lotus Core Flame?

Go to Jia Nan Academy for the Fallen Heart Flame?

Or discuss things with Medicine Emperor Han Feng and buy the Sea Heart Flame from him? Or find a way to trick Yao Lao out of his Bone Spirit Cold Flame? As for the Central State Pill Tower, forget about it! There had only been three Dou Zongs among all Players in his previous life.

Even if the three Pill Tower giants knelt and begged Players to refine the Three Thousand Burning Flame, they would only end up burned to ashes by that stellar fire dragon. By sheer coincidence, Yang Shan had reset his Spiritual Roots through a fortunate opportunity in his previous life.

He had switched to cultivating the Lightning Attribute.

Instead, he had triggered an opportunity involving an "Otherworldly Thunder," a Heaven and Earth Oddity on par with Heavenly Flames! In his memories, the Northern Falling Seven Star Thunder shining atop that mountain peak had practically blinded him!

Yang Shan did not even dare imagine how satisfying it would be to use that thing to strike people!

Unfortunately, until his rebirth, Yang Shan had never truly refined the Northern Falling Seven Star Thunder.

But that only strengthened his resolve to focus on the Lightning Attribute.

Besides, just because he primarily cultivated Lightning did not mean he could not become an Alchemist.

He only needed to obtain one point each of Fire Spirit Root and Wood Spirit Root later on.

Yang Shan knew many ways to improve Spiritual Roots.

For example, the first Player on the entire server to break through to the Dou Zhe level would receive a Spiritual Root reward! System notification:

Spiritual Root selection complete. Please allocate your character's initial attribute points. Available options: Constitution, Bone Root, Agility. Total initial attribute points: 10.

Yang Shan moved with astonishing speed and completed the allocation in two seconds.

Constitution: 4. Bone Root: 2. Agility: 4.

System notification:

Game character attributes selected. Finally, please name your character.

"Yang Shan!"

Virtual online games had developed to the point where their visuals and sensory experience were virtually indistinguishable from reality.

To better immerse themselves, quite a few Players were accustomed to using their real names as their in-game names.

Yang Shan could not be bothered to deliberate over a name.

System notification:

Character name confirmed. Initial character generated.

A game character panel immediately appeared before Yang Shan.

Player: Yang Shan

Level: Dou Qi Stage 1.

Attributes—

Constitution: 4 (Each point of Constitution increases Qi and Blood by 100, Attack by 1, and Defense by 2.)
Bone Root: 2 (Each point of Bone Root increases Qi and Blood by 20, Attack by 3, and Defense by 1.)
Agility: 4 (Each point of Agility increases Qi and Blood by 10, Attack by 1, and Speed by 3.)
Meridians: 1 (Each point of Meridians increases Dou Qi Intensity by 1 and Total Dou Qi by 5. Primary acquisition method: increasing cultivation.)

Comprehension: 10 (Acquired through special methods.)
Good Fortune: 1 (Acquired through special methods.)

Combat Attributes—

Qi and Blood: 480
Attack: 14
Defense: 10
Speed: 12
Dou Qi Intensity: 1
Total Dou Qi: 5

The allocation Yang Shan had chosen was completely different from what mainstream Players currently considered standard.

In the early stages of the game, the first problem every Player faced was "opening up new territory."

Without sufficiently high health and attack power, they could neither withstand powerful magical beasts' attacks nor break through their defenses.

But in the early stages of Battle Through the Heavens, there was actually no need to grind monsters at all! Yang Shan's allocation was aimed at the reward for becoming the server's first Dou Zhe!

"Log into the game!"

The moment he spoke, Yang Shan saw a faint white light ahead that obscured his entire field of vision, even hiding the character panel.

When the white light faded, a pitch-black stone tablet appeared before Yang Shan.

Nine vertical marks and nine five-pointed stars were carved into the horizontal face at the very top of the tablet.

At that moment, Yang Shan's hand was pressed against the stone tablet, and one of the nine vertical marks lit up.

"Yang Shan, Dou Qi Stage 1."

The next instant, mocking laughter sounded beside his ears. "That trash has spent two years without even breaking through to Dou Qi Stage 2!"

"It was a mistake for the family to take him in back then!"

"If it weren't for the family rule that anyone in the clan with cultivation talent must be given three years, he would have been thrown out long ago."

"Exactly. He has truly disgraced our family!"

How similar was this scene to the original novel? Faced with the ridicule, Yang Shan was not angry in the slightest. Instead, he smiled.

After reliving these three years, everything was still so familiar.

This was it—the place where the dream began!