Return to Reality, Abundant Harvest

Listening to the notifications ringing incessantly in his mind, Lin Hanzhou awoke in reality.

He opened his heavy eyelids, and what came into view was neither the carved beams and painted rafters of the imperial palace, nor the crude thatched cottage deep in the mountains.

It was the ceiling of his own room, a sight he knew all too well.

He sat up slowly from the soft bed and surveyed his surroundings.

The tidy desk, the bookshelf against the wall, and that poster for the Martial Arts Academy he had long grown tired of looking at...

Everything was so familiar, yet felt so strange.

"I'm back..."

He murmured, his voice carrying a hoarseness and world-weariness that did not belong to an eighteen-year-old boy.

It felt like a lifetime ago.

No, not just felt like it.

He had truly, in another world, lived a life of one hundred and fifty-one years.

He did not immediately check the system rewards, choosing instead to sit quietly.

He let the memories of those hundred-plus years replay in his mind, frame by frame, like an old film reel.

He remembered their first meeting, his father, the Emperor Lin Batian, whose gaze was as sharp as an eagle's and who viewed the entire world as a chessboard.

He was a cold monarch, a heartless father.

But he was also a great pioneer who had exhausted his final ounce of strength for the future of the empire.

He then thought of his gentle and refined seventh brother, Lin Yuan.

From the pure, unadulterated care he showed when they first met, to that gratified and proud smile on his deathbed eighty years later.

At the end of his life, he did not lament his own mediocrity, but instead took pride in having such a younger brother...

There was also the Crown Prince Lin Qi, whom he had personally promoted, that respectful and capable son.

The imperial grandson Lin Mu, whose eyes were filled with awe when he saw him on his deathbed.

And the millions of ordinary people who lived in peace and contentment under his rule, worshipping him like a god...

All of this was too real.

"System."

"The Great Sui dynasty I experienced... did it truly exist? Or was it merely an illusion you constructed for me?"

Lin Hanzhou asked in his mind, his tone more solemn than it had ever been.

[Answering the host: the worlds experienced through dream travel are all real.]

The system's voice was as cold as ever, yet it resolved the greatest doubt in his heart.

[The heavens and myriad worlds are infinite, as countless as the sands of the Ganges.]

[Based on factors such as energy level, the perfection of laws, and spatial stability, they can be roughly divided into: low-level worlds, mid-level worlds, high-level worlds, and the supreme Great Thousand Worlds.]

[The "Great Sui" dynasty the host first traveled to was a low-level world.]

[Furthermore, it was among the lowest of the low-level worlds, with the weakest energy levels and the most incomplete laws.]

[Its world origin was frail and spiritual energy was extremely scarce, which is why its cultivation system was primitive and fragmented.]

Listening to the system's reply, Lin Hanzhou exhaled a long, heavy breath.

So it was real... that was good.

He could not help but feel deeply empathetic, or perhaps, profoundly moved.

As for the scarcity of spiritual energy the system mentioned, he felt that even more keenly.

He knew better than anyone just how scarce the spiritual energy in that world truly was.

There, as an emperor, he had exhausted the power of the entire dynasty just to scrape together a few pathetic first-tier spiritual herbs.

To break through to the second tier, he had searched deep in the mountains and forests for thirteen years before luckily finding a single second-tier spiritual herb.

That feeling was like a man dying of thirst, using every ounce of his strength, only to squeeze a few drops of murky water from a dried-up riverbed.

And now...

Lin Hanzhou closed his eyes, and with a thought, began to sense the environment of Blue Star.

In an instant, he felt as if he had fallen from a barren desert into a vast ocean.

The spiritual energy around him was so dense it was almost tangible.

In just a few breaths, he felt refreshed, his spirit fuller than it had ever been.

"Is this... the spiritual energy density of Blue Star?"

Lin Hanzhou was shocked.

In the past, living within it, he had never felt it was anything special.

After experiencing over a hundred years of "austere simplicity" in the Great Sui world, returning here made him realize just how privileged this Blue Star world truly was.

Cultivating here was practically like stepping into a fairyland.

It was hard to imagine just how miserable those one hundred and fifty-one years in that low-level world had been.

Calming his excitement, Lin Hanzhou finally shifted his attention to his greatest harvest this time.

"System, check the rewards."

[Rewards Issued:]

[1: Dream World cultivation feedback (can be claimed at any time).]

[2: 1,000 points (already deposited into the system account).]

[3: System Mall (unlocked).]

[4: Dream Talent function (unlocked).]

"Claim cultivation feedback!" Lin Hanzhou did not hesitate.

[Command received, processing cultivation feedback...]

The moment the words left his lips, a torrent of incredibly pure energy manifested out of thin air within his body.

This energy was the perfect feedback of his Tier 2 Qi Gathering Realm cultivation from the Dream World.

"Crack!"

The bottleneck of his Tier 1 Pulse Opening Realm peak shattered instantly under the onslaught of this energy torrent.

Massive amounts of spiritual energy began to gather, compress, and liquefy within his body, forming a small vortex.

A surging sense of power returned to his limbs and bones.

Tier 2, Qi Gathering Realm.

The familiar power had finally returned!

It was even stronger and more refined than it had been in the dream.

Lin Hanzhou clenched his fists, feeling the power coursing through his body, a long-lost smile appearing on his face.

He cast his gaze toward the next reward.

"Open System Mall."

A translucent, azure light screen, visible only to him, appeared before his eyes.

On the screen, a dazzling array of goods was displayed like stars in the sky.

Lin Hanzhou's gaze swept over them rapidly.

[Item Name: Tier 1 Low-Grade Pulse Opening Pill]

[Effect: Assists Tier 1 martial artists in cultivation, slightly increases spiritual power.]

[Price: 100 points/pill]

[Item Name: Tier 3 Mid-Grade Azure Wood Longevity Technique]

[Effect: Wood-attribute cultivation method; reaching mastery opens the Qi Sea and extends life by three hundred years.]

[Price: 5,000 points]

[Item Name: Tier 7 High-Grade True Dragon Blood]

[Effect: Contains the power of a True Dragon; can shed one's mortal body and exchange bones, significantly increasing physical strength and talent.]

[Price: 10,000,000 points]

[Item Name: Immortal Grade ?? · ???]

[Effect: ???]

[Price: ?????]

From Tier 1 pills and techniques to mysterious treasures labeled "Immortal Grade" above Tier 9, everything was available.

It dazzled Lin Hanzhou, making his heart burn with fervor.

He glanced at the "1,000" point balance in his account and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

These points might seem like a lot, but in this all-encompassing mall, they really didn't amount to much.

He could only afford some Tier 1 or Tier 2 items; anything slightly better was out of his reach.

However, he was not discouraged.

Since there was a first time, there would be a second.

As long as he kept traveling, he would eventually accumulate points.

He didn't rush to make a purchase, instead turning his attention to the final item—the reward he had been looking forward to the most.

"Open Dream Talent function."

The light screen shifted, and a massive blue roulette wheel appeared before him.

The wheel was divided into countless segments, each shimmering with a different colored light.

[Dream Talent function has been activated.]

[Function Description: Before each Dream World traversal, the host may consume a small amount of points to perform a talent draw.]

[Talent Ranks (from lowest to highest): Green, Blue, Purple, Gold, Red.]

[Talent Effect: The drawn talent is only effective during that specific Dream World session.]

[After the dream ends, the host may choose to discard it permanently or consume points to solidify it as one of their own permanent talents.]

[Note: The number of slots for solidified talents is limited, but the host may spend points to expand them; this function unlocks after the host has solidified three talents.]

[The host's current cultivation is Tier 2, allowing for a maximum draw of "Blue" rank talents.]

[Increasing cultivation will unlock access to higher-rank talent draws.]