"Brother Xiao Yan, the clan's Dou Qi test is about to start. What are you still doing in your room?"
"If you don't come out soon, the elders will get angry, and you'll get scolded again."
At that moment, in a courtyard of the Xiao Clan in Wutan City, a girl in a pale-green dress stood outside a room, gently knocking on the door. Her voice was clear and sweet.
The girl was Xiao Xun'er, the most gifted member of the Xiao Clan's younger generation and the younger sister Xiao Yan had grown up with.
"Brother Xiao Yan, did you hear me? Hurry up and come out."
Despite Xiao Xun'er's urging, there was no movement inside for a long while. The silence was almost unnatural.
Inside the room, however, the person lying on the bed suddenly opened his eyes and sat bolt upright, his head drenched in sweat.
"Where am I? This isn't my rented apartment, is it?"
Just a moment earlier, a flood of information had poured into his mind, sending wave after wave of shock through him.
Wutan City, the Xiao Clan, the Dou Qi Continent, Xiao Yan.
These pieces of information surfaced one after another, leaving him utterly stunned and unable to collect himself for a long time.
"I transmigrated? And I even transmigrated into the world of Battle Through the Heavens and became Xiao Yan?"
"This is ridiculous. All I did was go to sleep. How did I end up here?"
Only after he slowly recovered did he finally piece together his situation. He really had transmigrated, taken over Xiao Yan's body, and become the protagonist of Battle Through the Heavens.
The good news, however, was that he had arrived fairly early in the timeline. His strength was still at the level of a One-Star Dou Zhe.
In other words, Yao Lao had not yet begun absorbing his Dou Qi, and he had not yet been reduced to the useless loser everyone mocked.
At that thought, he let out a long sigh of relief. As long as Yao Lao had not started absorbing his Dou Qi, there was still time to turn everything around.
After all, in the original story, the reason Xiao Yan had fallen from a genius to a useless loser was that Yao Lao had secretly absorbed his Dou Qi from inside the Storage Ring.
For three whole years, Xiao Yan's Dou Qi had stagnated. Not only had he failed to make any progress, but his cultivation had kept regressing.
The envy and admiration of his clansmen had gradually turned into ridicule and disdain. Even his father, Xiao Zhan, had come under considerable pressure because of it.
The mere thought of falling from the clouds into the depths of a valley was enough to send a chill down his spine.
But things were different now. He had arrived just before Yao Lao began absorbing his Dou Qi, which meant he could completely avoid the most humiliating stretch of the original story.
"Brother Xiao Yan, are you actually in there? If you don't come out, I'm going to open the door."
Xiao Xun'er's voice came through the door again, sounding somewhat anxious now.
Hearing that, he immediately snapped out of his thoughts and hurriedly called back that he would be right out.
He got out of bed, quickly tidied himself up, then opened the door and stepped outside, following Xiao Xun'er toward the clan's training grounds.
Along the way, Xiao Xun'er chattered nonstop, telling him about the day's test.
"Brother Xiao Yan, do you think I'll be able to break through to Dou Zhe during today's test?"
"Lately, when I cultivate, I feel like I can barely contain the Dou Qi in my body anymore. I should only be one final step away."
At Xiao Xun'er's question, he smiled and casually replied that, with her talent, breaking through to Dou Zhe was only a matter of time.
By then, quite a crowd had gathered at the Xiao Clan's training grounds. Almost everyone from the clan's younger generation had arrived.
For the Xiao Clan's younger generation, the day's Dou Qi test was a major event. Its results directly determined how the clan's resources would be allocated.
Just as he followed Xiao Xun'er to the edge of the training grounds, a line of system text suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[Host detected transmigrating into the world of Battle Through the Heavens and successfully taking over Xiao Yan's body. Binding Daily Choice System.] [Binding successful. The host may make one choice each day and receive the corresponding reward.]
The text before his eyes made him freeze. A Daily Choice System?
Before he could figure out exactly what this system was, more notifications appeared in quick succession.
[As the host has just transmigrated into the world of Battle Through the Heavens and become Xiao Yan, please choose your old mentor in the ring.] [Option one: Yao Chen.] [Option two: Yao Ling.] [Option three: Pill King Gu He.]
He froze at the sight of the three options. He had never expected the system to open with such an enormous gift.
Naturally, he was more than familiar with the name Yao Chen. After all, Yao Chen had been Xiao Yan's cheat in the original story, an exceptionally skilled Alchemy practitioner and the renowned Venerable Yao of the Dou Qi Continent.
Unfortunately, despite Yao Chen's outstanding alchemy, his soul power recovered very slowly. The help he could offer the protagonist early on was actually quite limited.
As for Pill King Gu He, one glance at the name made him inwardly scoff.
What kind of roadside nobody is this?
Although Pill King Gu He had been an Alchemy Master in the original story, he was nowhere near Yao Chen's level. Besides, Pill King Gu He lacked vision and generosity of spirit. He had even come into serious conflict with Xiao Yan over a Heavenly Flame.
He therefore eliminated that option without a second thought.
That left only Yao Ling. To anyone familiar with the original story, her name carried considerable weight.
She was someone capable of striving for an Emperor Realm Soul. Her soul power ranked among the strongest on the entire Dou Qi Continent. Moreover, Yao Ling was beautiful, a remarkably gifted genius of the younger generation, and possessed the strength of an Initial Half-Saint.
In the early stages, that kind of strength would be like an attack from a higher dimension, enough to let Xiao Yan swagger around unchallenged. On top of that, Yao Ling was an Alchemy Master herself, capable of refining eighth-tier pills and even Ninth-grade Pills.
After all, Alchemy Masters already enjoyed an extraordinarily exalted status on the Dou Qi Continent. Those capable of refining eighth-tier and ninth-grade pills were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.
With Yao Ling as his old mentor in the ring, his early cultivation journey would become far easier.
With that thought, he no longer hesitated and immediately made his choice in his mind.
I choose the second option, Yao Ling.
The very next second after he made his choice, a new system notification appeared before his eyes.
[Choice successful. Yao Ling has been selected as the soul within the Storage Ring. The selection is now in effect.]
At the sight of the notification, the corners of his lips curled slightly upward.
Before you continue