So... I Became a Transcendent?

"The Ritual has begun, Bai Zhou."

At that moment, Ya appeared before the mirror and spoke to Bai Zhou through its surface.

His calm voice settled Bai Zhou's heart as well.

"This is the Crevice World between the Present World and the Reflection Ruins Realm. A Transcendent can only enter it once in their lifetime, during their first awakening of Destiny."

"This is the only opportunity you will ever have, because every wisp of mist you see is a deposit of 'knowledge'!"

As he studied the rolling mist in the mirror, Ya's expression carried a faint trace of nostalgia.

"Now, you must go as deeply into the mist as possible and seize more knowledge to cleanse your Destiny."

"Because the quantity and quality of that knowledge will determine the level of your Destiny's awakening, and thus determine your talent as a Transcendent."

Ya reminded Bai Zhou in an even tone,

"If possible, I hope you can seize as much knowledge as you can and raise the level of your Destiny."

"Because this world has always been a stage for geniuses, and so-called geniuses are merely the threshold for glimpsing the few who ride the tides of the age."

"Even most of the secret inheritances I possess usually require a certain level of talent just to begin."

"Genius..." Bai Zhou muttered inwardly.

He had never possessed such lofty ambitions, but he could vaguely sense Ya's seriousness and expectations. His expression gradually became solemn as well.

"If your Destiny successfully breaks free from the Sea of Ignorance, the awakening is considered a success. Three inches from the sea means your aptitude is barely passable."

"Three feet from the sea means one in a hundred. Your Destiny will shine brightly, and both your learning ability and spirituality will surpass ordinary people. That counts as stepping over the threshold of genius."

Ya's expression gradually turned grave.

"There have even been legendary figures in history whose Destinies were said to have risen three zhang from the sea. That could be called a perfect awakening, granting all kinds of unimaginable talents..."

"But those are only legends."

After a brief pause, Ya casually added,

"—Perhaps you should keep an eye out for Golden Firefly Light that seems out of place within the mist."

"That is extraordinary knowledge left behind by the Previous Civilization, and the greatest opportunity within the Gray Fog."

"Though they are exceedingly difficult to catch and can only be encountered by chance... if you are lucky enough to capture even one, This Journey will not have been in vain."

"Because it will very likely help you break through the three-foot talent threshold!"

As he spoke, even Ya shook his head, clearly not holding out much hope.

"Anyway... go search."

"Go seek knowledge. Anything will do."

Finally, Ya said,

"In this modern age, where all mystical knowledge is strictly monopolized, there will never be a second chance like this!"

Bai Zhou committed every word Ya said to heart.

The mist roiled. The gray fog condensed from "knowledge" flowed like water as Bai Zhou ventured deeper into it, waves of gray haze rushing toward him one after another.

A wisp of gray fog dissipated against his body. Bai Zhou felt something flow into him, followed by a cool sensation in his mind as a piece of "knowledge" was branded into his brain—

Postpartum Anti-inflammatory for Sows

And it was only an incomplete section, with merely the first few hundred words.

"...?"

Bai Zhou was dumbfounded.

For a pig farmer, this was indeed useful professional knowledge.

But what was he supposed to do with it?

Bai Zhou looked around at the surrounding gray fog and realized that the Crevice World held an ocean of professional skills and knowledge from Blue Star, covering every aspect of daily life.

At the shallowest level of the mist, there was probably only knowledge of this caliber...

Bai Zhou quickened his pace and decisively headed for the denser fog farther within.

As he passed through layers of mist, wisps of gray fog surged toward Bai Zhou, lighting up his body with a gray glow.

—Sure enough, the value of the "knowledge" was gradually increasing.

First came a dozen or so incomplete pages of the Tractor Repair Manual.

Then half of Inorganic Chemistry, Mechanical Mechanics without its beginning, Python: From Beginner to Practice without its ending...

There was even a complete set of Calculus!

Bai Zhou absorbed every scrap of knowledge with near-greed, like a dried sponge soaking up water. It felt as though both his horizons and his mind were expanding.

He began to love this feeling of improving every moment.

...But just as a baboon could never have enough bananas, human greed knew no end.

Bai Zhou had never experienced the feeling of gaining knowledge without studying. Since this was an opportunity he would only have once in his life, there was no reason not to maximize his gains.

If he happened to encounter secret knowledge left behind by the Previous Civilization, it could directly change his fate and make him a genius among Transcendents in a single leap!

—So, he needed more!

He needed more and better knowledge!

"Stomp stomp stomp..."

His footsteps hurried as Bai Zhou's figure rapidly passed through layer upon layer of gray fog.

Ma Zhenguo's Interpretation of Baguazhang lacked its final section, Military Boxing 16 Forms was missing two forms, and Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics lacked Chapter Three...

No wonder Ya had said this opportunity was rare. Only in the Crevice World could knowledge manifest in the form of gray fog.

As long as he seized the mist, he could master the corresponding knowledge. Every few steps equaled years of another person's bitter study... this experience was simply wonderful!

There would never be a second chance.

Bai Zhou had fallen in love with learning from the bottom of his heart.

And that was not all.

Clusters of gray fog flowed into Bai Zhou's body, while gray light circulated across his skin.

The contents of the knowledge were branded into his mind, while the gray fog carrying that knowledge was absorbed by his Destiny with near-greed.

Bai Zhou could clearly feel something within him expanding, as though the very level of his life was slowly leaping forward and evolving.

This indescribable sensation was probably his "Destiny" growing stronger.

"Knowledge is power" had never been more clearly demonstrated.

The flood of knowledge entering his mind had already made Bai Zhou's head swell and his forehead gradually heat up, but his clear eyes held only the light of curiosity.

—No one who had grown up living off the kindness of countless households understood better than Bai Zhou how precious the word "opportunity" was.

Tired? Rest?

Get lost! I want to study!

Bai Zhou only hated that he did not have several more heads on his shoulders. He wished he could scoop up the entire Knowledge Mist in one go.

...Time slowly passed. Bai Zhou, who had scraped everything clean along the way, soon reached the depths of the dense fog.

Visibility around him dropped even further, to the point where he could not see his own toes when he looked down.

The rewards here were even greater. The darker the thick mist, the more complete and profound the knowledge it contained.

All kinds of professional knowledge and skills flowed endlessly into his mind. The prolonged overload on his brain caused Bai Zhou's heated cheeks to flush red.

Yet there was not the slightest trace of exhaustion or hesitation to give up halfway in Bai Zhou's wide eyes. There was only a heartfelt thirst for knowledge.

—Keep going. I can still learn!

His bright eyes were bloodshot as Bai Zhou struggled to peer through the gaps in the layers of mist toward the impossibly blurry distance, trying to determine which direction would lead him to denser gray fog.

"...Huh?"

Suddenly, Bai Zhou saw a flicker of golden light through a gap in the gray fog far away.

The flash was distant and fleeting, vanishing into the rolling dense mist in an instant. Anyone else would have missed it entirely.

Thanks to Evening City, Bai Zhou had slept well and read little since childhood, and his sharp eyesight caught that glimmer at once!

He immediately headed over, eyes wide as he searched through the low-visibility fog.

After searching for a long time, Bai Zhou did not see another trace of golden light. There was nothing before him but gray fog, and he even began to wonder whether he had learned so much that he was suffering from Auditory Hallucinations.

But he was certain he had not seen wrong, so he continued circling around the area.

It was like searching for a needle in the ocean. Compared to that, continuing deeper into the mist in search of higher-quality knowledge seemed like the right choice.

But no one had ever taught Bai Zhou when to cut his losses. He only knew that once he seized an opportunity, he would never let go. Until he achieved his goal, he could not stop.

A person like him, who had grown up alone, inevitably had a stubborn streak.

But sometimes, Bai Zhou did not think stubbornness was such a bad trait.

Like right now...

At last!

When Bai Zhou once again patiently brushed aside a wisp of mist before him, the thing hidden behind it revealed its true form.

A faint golden glow hovered in Mid-air, drifting uncertainly. Its golden radiance stood out from the rolling gray fog like a star adorning the night sky.

"Found you!"

The instant he saw it, an intense desire erupted within Bai Zhou, a yearning that was almost instinctive.

—But at a moment like this, Bai Zhou became even more vigilant.

Suppressing his body's instinctive craving, Bai Zhou cautiously circled the golden glow and examined it for a long while before carefully reaching out.

"Buzz!"

The moment his fingertips touched that faint golden glow, it immediately turned into a stream of golden light and entered Bai Zhou's body.

A pale golden radiance lit up Bai Zhou's body, and a new piece of "knowledge" appeared in his mind—

More accurately, it was a mass of incomprehensible text. The strokes carried an indescribably ancient and sacred aura, and at the very beginning of the writing was a symbol of crossed blade and sword.

The instant Bai Zhou saw those words, a sharp pain stabbed through his forehead. Countless afterimages blurred his vision, while solemn, distant whispers reached his ears, like some mysterious ancient sacrifice.

Though he could not understand the tone at all, inspiration struck him, and he understood the meaning of the whisper by his ear:

—Sacred Oath Slash!

Bai Zhou immediately perked up.

This was... the Golden Firefly Light Ya had called impossible to seek and only found by chance?

The greatest opportunity within the Gray Fog!

Was it incomprehensible like ghostly scribbles because it was extraordinary knowledge left behind by the Previous Civilization?

The next instant,

As the Golden Knowledge's firefly glow was absorbed into his body, Bai Zhou heard a strange Auditory Hallucination of Shackles breaking beside his ear.

"Clatter—"

He heard the echo of a boiling sea.

Bai Zhou's gaze drifted downward in a daze, reaching the point below his navel that perfectly divided the upper and lower halves of the human body.

According to Ya, this was the Human Golden Ratio Line discovered by the famous ancient Greek Transcendent, "Pythagoras."

It was also where Destiny lay dormant.

Bai Zhou found himself in a hazy, chaotic space. There were no boundaries in any direction, and before him lay only a... Pitch Black sea the size of a date pit?

It looked no larger than a date pit, as though it were a single drop of water. Yet when he looked carefully, his vision seemed to stretch infinitely, revealing an inky black, viscous sea before him.

Though it was a miniature sea, it felt incomparably real.

If he experienced it closely, it even felt boundless.

The human body held far too many unknowns and mysteries.

The endless sea boiled and roared as dense Bubbles rose one after another and burst with gurgles.

A magnificent White Light surged up from the depths of the sea. The pure white radiance was blindingly brilliant, forming a stark contrast with the Pitch Black sea surface as it struggled to emerge.

The instant Bai Zhou saw that pure White Light, he understood—

This was his [Destiny].

And that inky black sea was the Sea of Ignorance that submerged Destiny.

"Unbelievable..."

His Destiny and the Sea of Ignorance, hidden deep within the human body and no larger than a date pit, were actually as turbulent as a real ocean. The echo of the boiling sea was nearly spilling out from Bai Zhou's body.

The next moment,

Destiny broke free from its restraints and rose upward.

Under Bai Zhou's stunned gaze,

At the far end of the boundless Pitch Black sea, where the horizon met the sky,

A pure white sun leaped out from the depths of the sea!

Bai Yang rose from the sea—

The black ocean evaporated layer by layer beneath the sunlight. Dazzling White Light connected Heaven and Earth, stretching infinitely in every direction.

Ten thousand streaks soared through the air, and the sea of mist swirled.

In an instant, Heaven and Earth within the hazy chaotic space turned white!

"My Destiny..." The White Light was so blinding that Bai Zhou could not open his eyes, yet waves of warmth flowed through his body.

"—It's a sun?"

At that moment, inspiration struck him, and he suddenly knew the name of his Destiny—

[Chen].

The White Day broke free from the Sea of Ignorance's Entwined grasp and leaped above the sea, but it failed to rise very far. It even seemed on the verge of falling back.

The Pitch Black, filthy seawater churned in waves, as though reaching for the pure white sun.

That would not do.

Fortunately, the Golden Firefly Light Bai Zhou had "eaten" took effect at that moment.

A stream of magnificent, mysterious golden light rose from the sea and steadily held up Bai Yang Fate.

Then, the firefly light carried Bai Yang high into the air, finally stopping firmly at a certain height.

Having completed its mission, the firefly light slowly faded away.

All that remained was a White Day hanging steadily above the miniature sea the size of a date pit.

Bai Zhou studied the distance, and a number inexplicably appeared in his mind.

Just right,

Three feet and three inches!

Exactly three inches above the threshold for "Genius"!

Pure, blazing sunlight shone far into the hazy space, its warm glow falling over every corner of Bai Zhou's body.

...In a daze, Bai Zhou felt as though some switch deep within his body had suddenly been flipped, awakening every part of him.

Something dormant within him was released, flowing and converging through his Limbs and Torso.

"What is this?"

Almost instinctively, Bai Zhou knew what the light of Destiny had awakened within him—

It was "spirituality."

All things between Heaven and Earth possessed spirituality, and the human body was no exception. It lay dormant in the deepest, most mysterious parts of the body, often possessing unimaginable power.

But only awakened Destiny could illuminate the dormant "spirituality" within a person's body.

The sound of the boiling sea gradually faded from his ears, and Bai Zhou opened his eyes.

His mind was exceptionally clear, and many questions he had never been able to understand before were suddenly resolved.

"An extraordinary being..."

Raising his hand and clenching it into a fist, Bai Zhou felt an endless surge of power welling up within him as he murmured.

So this was... becoming an extraordinary being?

—A new beginning.

It was difficult to describe how he felt at that moment.

His heart pounded wildly.

It was excitement.

These past days had been far too surreal. At the Special Management Department, he had never felt truly safe for even a moment, always lost over what lay ahead.

—Until now.

He had successfully awakened his Destiny and stepped onto the mysterious Extraordinary Path.

It was as though, all of a sudden, there was no longer any difference between him and that imposing veteran Commissioner, Section Chief Liu.

If he could find a way to get a Briefcase like Section Chief Liu's later, he should be able to spew scorching flames from his palm as well.

He would become Blue Star's Human Torch.

In other words, no matter what happened at the Special Management Department from now on, he finally had the ability to protect himself.

And aside from Ya, no one else knew about this power for the time being!

That made Bai Zhou feel that he could finally breathe easy.

"It's time to go back..."

Bai Zhou felt a little expectant.

If Ya learned that his Destiny height was three feet three inches,

Would that ever-expressionless face show even a hint of surprise?

With that thought, Bai Zhou prepared to recite the spell Ya had taught him and head back.

—But the moment he raised his head, he discovered that the world before him was vastly different after his Destiny awakened.

The rolling Gray Fog around him had turned into torrents of text spiraling through Mid-air.

Even on his own body, he could see extremely faint, translucent white points of light coiling within him. That was probably where his "spirituality" resided.

However,

What surprised Bai Zhou was that two places on his body were continuously flashing with golden light.

"What is this...?"

Bai Zhou immediately searched himself and quickly pulled out two items from where the golden light was flashing—

Two previously used-up [Alpaca Lollipops].

And the Golden Pass that Bai Zhou had never managed to figure out.

At that moment, the Golden Pass in Bai Zhou's hand kept glimmering. The surrounding Gray Fog actually retreated on its own when it encountered the golden light it emitted.

"...Wait."

Bai Zhou suddenly felt, for no apparent reason, that the "spirituality" within him was being drawn toward it, vaguely tending to flow into the pass.

Deep in thought, he simply followed that pull and directed the spirituality in his body over.

"..."

Under Bai Zhou's nervous gaze, a point of white, translucent "spirituality" was slowly injected into the Golden Pass.

The next instant—

"Buzz!"

The Golden Pass shook violently, flying from Bai Zhou's palm and hovering in Mid-air as it blossomed with countless rays of golden light, shooting straight into the depths of the Gray Fog.

Bai Zhou vaguely heard the sound of flowing water, as though Moses parting the sea was unfolding before his eyes.

"Rumble—"

The Gray Fog churned, letting out a low roar, yet it slowly retreated to both sides before the golden light.

Golden light flowed through the surging, dense Gray Fog, continuously extending forward from beneath Bai Zhou's feet and forcibly paving a magnificent, dazzling Golden Avenue.

"This is..."

Amid the rolling Gray Fog, Bai Zhou stared blankly at the Golden Avenue, his mind nearly empty.

The end of the road led to an inverted Ruins Realm. Considering that this was the gap between the Present World and the Reflection Ruins Realm, Bai Zhou had reason to suspect that this road led directly to some place within the Reflection Ruins Realm.

But that was not the important part.

The key was that in the middle of this road, Bai Zhou saw something similar to the Golden Firefly Light from before, formed from gathered knowledge... a Seven-Colored Fire Seed?!

The Fire Seed was tiny, yet it burned fiercely. A string of obscure, profound knowledge wandered endlessly within it, while clear seven-colored radiance overlapped and misty rainbow vapor swirled around it, as though it possessed life—or contained lost truths.

If the previous Golden Firefly Light had been a firefly hidden in the Gray Fog, quick and nimble, difficult to catch...

Then this Fire Seed was like a brilliant star in the boundless Gray Fog, impossible to look away from.

"...What is that?"

Bai Zhou stood frozen in place, his head spinning, yet his heart could not stop pounding wildly.

Just one rare Golden Firefly Light had allowed Bai Zhou to awaken his Destiny in one go, raising it to the three-foot threshold of Genius.

Then...

What about this Seven-Colored Fire Seed?