"Travel to the world of Battle Through the Heavens. Choose three of these five cheat powers."
"One: Emperor Realm Soul. You will gain an Emperor Realm Soul after crossing over, but it cannot grow any stronger.
Two: Powerful Soul Talent. Nothing will hinder your breakthroughs. Your Soul Talent will be so strong that advancing through soul realms will come as naturally as water flowing into a channel.
Three: Dou Di Inheritance. You will randomly receive the complete inheritance of a Dou Emperor from any era.
Four: Every Heavenly Flame on the Heavenly Flame Ranking. You will receive them all.
Five: An innate Fire Spirit Body. Like the Woe Poison Body, it has a natural affinity for fire. Absorbing flames will rapidly raise your cultivation."
On the sofa, Xiao Yan held his phone and watched the AI-made video. Hearing the polar-bear accent coming from it, he could not help saying, "Weren't these videos about which exclusive shelter your zodiac sign gets? And the accent's wrong. Shouldn't it be a man saying, 'You get fifteen points to spend when you travel to Battle Through the Heavens. What would you buy?'"
Jokes aside, Xiao Yan gave it serious thought, then typed a comment.
"You can only pick two, three, and five. One and four look good, but they're massive traps."
"An Emperor Realm Soul looks like the best choice, but a fixed ceiling is brutal. Beyond the Dou Qi Continent are the Outer Realm Evil Demons and even stronger powers. Being stuck at the Emperor Realm Soul would feel glorious early on and suffocating later."
"And all the Heavenly Flames? Don't forget the top three are sentient. Even if they weren't, with flames that precious and powerful, either someone stronger would steal them or they'd roast you dry. It says you receive them, not that you've mastered them. That's a huge trap."
"The wording's too vague. Without enough conditions spelled out, choosing it is a death sentence."
"Two, three, and five aren't exactly clear either, but at least I can't see any enormous traps. They'll do."
After posting his comment, Xiao Yan tapped Send and read it over. Then he laughed.
He was being a little too childish. He was already in his twenties, yet he had seriously considered what to pick in a video like this. It wasn't as if any of it could be real.
At that thought, Xiao Yan's vision suddenly went black.
What felt like a long time passed before he managed to open his eyes. Everything was blurry; he could not see clearly.
Just as he wondered whether too many late nights had finally harmed his health, a jumble of voices reached his ears.
"Clan Leader Xiao, your wife has given birth! It's a boy!" came an old nursemaid's voice.
"Really? Let me see, let me see!" a man said excitedly.
"Xiao Zhan! Don't touch him!" a somewhat weak woman's voice followed.
"Yes, yes, I won't touch him. This little fellow's adorable already. He takes after you, my dear. He'll definitely have a gift for cultivating Dou Qi."
"You and your honeyed tongue~"
Listening to the couple flirt, Xiao Yan was utterly dumbfounded.
Xiao Zhan? Dou Qi?
He had traveled to the world of Battle Through the Heavens?!
Fifteen years passed in the blink of an eye.
In the hills behind the Xiao Clan estate.
Xiao Yan sat on a large rock, regulating his breathing as he meditated.
Same as ever. The moment I cultivate Dou Qi, it drains away. Yao Lao really can absorb it, Xiao Yan thought.
In the fifteen years since he had crossed over, he had followed the same path as the Xiao Yan in the original story.
At most, he had never grown arrogant when his talent was at its peak, so people had less reason to mock him after his cultivation began to regress.
But the course of his life had not changed.
He had still begun cultivating at four, broken through to Dou Zhe, and then immediately started losing cultivation.
By now, after all that regression, he had achieved the excellent result of Dou Qi Eight Stage in yesterday's test.
It was not because he was lazy. He could cultivate Dou Qi for only an hour a day; any longer, and his meridians could not bear it.
He was five stages ahead of the Xiao Yan in the original story only because his soul was stronger and he cultivated more efficiently. Otherwise, he would still be at Dou Qi Three Stage.
Thinking about it now, Xiao Yan still found the whole thing absurd.
Just because he had picked three cheat powers out of five on the internet, he had actually crossed into the world of Battle Through the Heavens—and become its original protagonist, Xiao Yan?
Well, he had left no ties behind in his previous life. Crossing over was not so bad.
The original Xiao Yan's clan had been slaughtered, his teacher abducted, and he had faced countless life-and-death crises before finally becoming a Dou Emperor.
But Xiao Yan did not have to go through all that.
The three cheat powers he had chosen had truly come with him.
Soul Talent, Dou Di Inheritance, and the Fire Spirit Body.
His Soul Talent made his soul grow rapidly stronger. Though he had never deliberately trained it, his soul power had already reached the level of a Tier 3 Alchemist.
The Dou Di Inheritance contained that Dou Emperor's principal methods, Cultivation Methods and Combat Skills, and specialties.
By a stroke of extraordinary luck, the Dou Emperor he had drawn had cultivated his physical body.
So within Xiao Yan's mind was a Higher Heaven Rank Body Refining Technique, along with a great many Heaven Rank and Earth Rank Dou Skills.
Leaving the Dou Skills aside for now, he lacked the cultivation to use them. He could not even learn them.
One thing was worth noting: Xiao Yan could sense that if his soul kept growing while his body failed to keep up, he would not be destroyed outright. Instead, he would end up like Yao Lao, existing as a soul without a body, half dead.
That reminded him of the damned trap that was the Emperor Realm Soul option.
Had he chosen it, he might have been finished the moment he was born.
Of course, the Soul Talent option was not much better. If his soul kept growing at this rate, it was only a matter of time before he was finished anyway.
Fortunately, although his Dou Di Inheritance could not let him cultivate its method while he was still at the Dou Qi stage, it did offer plenty of ways to strengthen his body.
His body was now comparable to that of a Rank Two Magical Beast. In a real fight, an ordinary Dou Master might not be his match.
And he had achieved that with nothing more than a few minor methods.
Once he became a Dou Zhe, he could formally begin cultivating the Higher Heaven Rank Body Refining Technique.
Then his body would be able to keep pace with his growing soul power, and he would no longer have to fear his soul far outstripping his flesh.
But back to the point.
Both his Soul Talent and Dou Di Inheritance had shown clear results. As for the Fire Spirit Body, Xiao Yan still had no idea what it did.
Would cultivating fire-attribute methods yield twice the results with half the effort?
He was only at the Dou Qi stage. He could not cultivate a method yet.
Could absorbing flames rapidly raise his cultivation?
He was only at the Dou Qi stage. Even if he could find a special flame, he could not absorb it.
As for controlling flames, that was even more out of the question.
It came back to the same thing: he was only at the Dou Qi stage!
Xiao Yan felt more than a little helpless.
Fortunately, by his reckoning, his fiancée in name would soon arrive to break off their engagement, and Yao Lao, the teacher lurking in his ring, should reveal himself as well.
Once that happened, he would quickly advance from Dou Qi to Dou Zhe, and every aspect of his strength would soar.
As Xiao Yan imagined what lay ahead, a Xiao Clan servant came up into the hills and called to him:
"Third Young Master, the clan leader wants you in the main hall."
Xiao Yan snapped out of his reverie, his expression turning serious at once.
Reading about it in the original story was one thing. Living through it himself was another.
Having an engagement broken off was humiliating indeed.
Before you continue