So That's How It Is

The Ren Family's Library Pavilion was enormous—larger even than the national library Ren Jie had visited in his previous life. It was the kind of construction built as if land cost nothing. But Ren Jie had no mind to admire any of that now.

He plunged headfirst into the Library Pavilion. To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools. Even if he had no ambition to accomplish earth-shaking feats, he absolutely could not live in the same muddleheaded way the original Ren Jie had.

Otherwise, one day his head might be smashed open by someone's schemes again, or he might be bullied like some puppet emperor. That was something Ren Jie could never accept.

Upon entering the Library Pavilion, Ren Jie was stunned by the sheer abundance of books inside. Very quickly, he discovered something else that felt incredibly good. Being no longer an ordinary person really was different. He did not need to trouble himself searching for anything—upon entering, a steward immediately led over a hundred Library Pavilion attendants to line up and welcome him.

Ren Jie entered a huge, bright, luxurious room. A faint fragrance within refreshed his mind, while the furnishings around him were exquisite beyond compare. All kinds of food, drinks, and delicate pastries had been prepared in full.

Whatever category of books he wanted to read, he only had to say the word, and countless people outside would swiftly deliver books in an endless stream.

He first had over a hundred books of various kinds brought in and piled beside him, then sent everyone out. If only there were a beautiful woman beside me too...

At the thought of a beauty, the image of that exquisite naked body from before involuntarily surfaced in Ren Jie's mind. But he abruptly shook his head, because right afterward he thought of that fair, pudgy fatty, Gao Ren.

No. He had to find a way to figure out what exactly was going on.

After calming himself slightly, Ren Jie picked up a book on the history of the Bright Jade Dynasty. At the very least, he needed to find out who the emperor was. The original Ren Jie really was something else—he had been the head of one of the Five Great Families, yet he was utterly hazy even on the emperor's situation. In his memories, the emperor had personally come to attend when he inherited the position of family head, yet he did not even know the emperor's name, reign title, or basic history. There was only the word "emperor" in his memories. Damn, that was impressive.

Yet Ren Jie's eyes lingered on the page for less than a few seconds—under normal circumstances, only enough time to read one line—when he astonishingly discovered that he remembered every bit of the page's contents with perfect clarity.

Reading ten lines at a glance? No, that was not right. Even reading ten lines at a glance was not this fast. It was practically like scanning it. This was far too exaggerated. But the issue was that everything remained crystal clear in his mind. Even Ren Jie himself was startled. Could it be that the original Ren Jie had been a genius? Impossible. His memories showed that the moment he read, he became sleepy; he could fall asleep before finishing two lines. He had never read books at all.

And in his previous life, he had merely been an ordinary person, not some super genius. So why was this happening now?

The whole thing had frightened Ren Jie himself. He flipped through several more pages, each one passing swiftly before his eyes. Then he closed the book and recalled its contents—he could remember even the punctuation marks, even the traces on each page left by others turning them.

For an instant, Ren Jie had the illusion that his brain had turned into a computer. Computer—his divine sense immediately stirred, entering his Sea of Consciousness. He promptly checked the laptop inside. Nothing there had changed, and his brain was not connected to that laptop either.

Ren Jie was thoroughly baffled, but a faint excitement and thrill rose within him. This feeling was simply too wonderful. He sped up, flipping through the book, and finished the thick volume in just over ten minutes. Moreover, as he read further, he could actually predict many things on his own.

His mind had never been so lucid, so clear. From scattered records alone, he could infer many of the events that would follow from the struggles woven through history. Even where there were differences, he could think of countless possible variations.

At this point, Ren Jie gradually realized that while his divine sense was stronger than average, even the perspective from which he viewed books and things seemed different.

He immediately looked up books on cultivation, as well as books on understanding, memory, and realms. From what he learned in every respect, this was a sign of possessing a high realm. He was already beyond the ordinary—at the level where one could be called a genius in legend. There were even ancient tales of those with truly high realms being able to comprehend the heavens and earth without a teacher.

Realm. A clear mind. At this moment, Ren Jie suddenly understood something: his real transformation had occurred after he was reborn into this body, influenced by the experience of that quarter of an hour inside the computer. Before that, when he had tried to receive the original Ren Jie's memories, it had been agonizingly slow and painful, leaving him with a splitting headache. But after that quarter of an hour, he had instantly received everything completely, and his mind had become clearer than ever before.

Even in the main hall, when he had erupted and rendered the elders speechless with so little, leaving them unable to argue further, it had been because his mind had clearly organized and summarized the information.

The Bright Jade Dynasty had been founded for over a thousand years, but it was not truly an ancient nation. History was boundless; recorded history alone stretched back over ten thousand years. Before those ten thousand years was what was known as the Pre-Jade era. That period of history was scattered and incomplete, for it had endured more than a thousand years of chaos, during which many things had been lost. They only knew that there had once been a legendary imperial dynasty in that era—the most powerful imperial dynasty—and that countless ruins even now were connected to it.

Over the Bright Jade Dynasty's seventeen hundred years of existence, its history might not have been long, but the ancestors of the Five Great Families had been formidable back then. The Li Family had once produced a powerful emperor, and in the past twenty years Ren Tianxing had expanded the nation's territory threefold. The Bright Jade Dynasty was now extremely powerful. Among the dozen or so large and small surrounding nations, only the Snowfield Tribe Alliance and the Skysea Empire could contend with it head-on. The other small nations drifted among these three great powers, serving as buffers or third-party stepping stones.

Cultivating immortality... did immortals truly exist? According to these records, it seemed they really did.

The path of cultivation began with the Body Refining Realm, training the physique and tempering the body. It was divided into nine layers, with Great Perfection beyond the Ninth Layer. Once one reached Great Perfection, one could generate true qi and enter the True Qi Realm.

The True Qi Realm was the true beginning of cultivation. One's combat power would rise greatly. Upon reaching the True Qi Realm Sixth Layer, one would already count as an ordinary expert. If one could reach the True Qi Realm Ninth Layer or even Great Perfection, then in a small region one could run rampant through an entire area.

Above the True Qi Realm was the Divine Power Realm. In the Divine Power Realm, true qi and the physical body fused perfectly, giving one divine powers. Those who possessed divine powers were the strong! These were true powerhouses, because upon entering the Divine Power Realm, one could cast spells.

Above the Divine Power Realm were the Yin Yang Realm and the Taiji Realm. Ordinary books did not describe the Yin Yang Realm and Taiji Realm in much detail, because those were already powerful existences among true cultivators.

The books only stated that once one entered the Yin Yang Realm and condensed a yin soul, one's lifespan would begin to increase, extending by a hundred years.

If one could condense a yang soul, one's lifespan could increase by another hundred years. If one could reach the Taiji Realm, one could live for five hundred years.

Ordinary people in the Bright Jade Dynasty generally lived seventy or eighty years, but if one maintained oneself well enough to reach the Divine Power Realm, living to a hundred was perfectly normal. Taking a hundred years as the baseline, condensing a yin soul in the Yin Yang Realm meant living two hundred years; condensing a yang soul would mean reaching three hundred years, would it not? The Taiji Realm was even more terrifying—five hundred years!

Ren Jie suddenly recalled a saying from Earth: once one had wealth and rank, one wanted longevity; once one became emperor, one wanted to ascend to immortality. Ordinary people worried over food and drink, but lifespan was something people could never have enough of. They would do anything to live on. Yet here, one could truly prolong one's life through cultivation. Though he had not yet seen any legends of immortals living forever, his father, Ren Tianxing, seemed to have reached the Yin Yang Realm long ago.

In other words, this was a genuine method of longevity right beside him. Anyone who claimed they would not be tempted after seeing this would be lying.

But precisely because he had read this and clearly understood the situation, Ren Jie felt utterly miserable. With such an excellent environment, and as the family head besides, the original Ren Jie had only been at the Body Refining Realm Fifth Layer. What the hell had this guy been thinking?

Putting longevity aside for now, from what Ren Jie understood, this world clearly revered strength above all. No wonder the elders had been so brazen after he inherited the position of head of the Ren Family. Others showed him no respect either, and even at school he had been bullied by those people. What a tragedy.

Being a Hedonistic Young Master was certainly enjoyable, but one needed the backing for it. After all, the only reason things could still be maintained was Ren Tianxing's lingering prestige. Ren Jie could not help recalling what Ren Tianxing had said before leaving. Looking at the ring on his hand, Ren Tianxing had once told him that after reaching the True Qi Realm, he would be able to open it. Inside were things Ren Tianxing had left for him.

Thinking of all the information surrounding Ren Tianxing's hurried return to the family and transfer of the position of family head to him, Ren Jie, who was buried in a pile of books, also remembered something. He took a flat Jade Box from his robes. This Jade Box was extremely special. Ren Tianxing had left this behind as well, saying it was something he had accidentally discovered in some ruins. It was a cultivation technique found in the ruins of that nation recorded in history—the nation that had completely unified the world and was said to have rivaled immortals. Unfortunately, this technique could only be cultivated by those below the Divine Power Realm.

"Crack... crack..." The instant he took out the Jade Box, Ren Jie discovered that it had directly shattered. He hurriedly placed it on the table.

Inside the Jade Box, he found ten standard square Spirit Jades, each the size of a thumb, neatly arranged. Spirit Jade was a truly indispensable treasure in cultivation. The Jade Coins used throughout the world were made from scraps and fragments left over during the search for Spirit Jade. For instance, within an enormous jade mine, there might only be a single piece of Spirit Jade; all the rest would be made into Jade Coins or expensive, luxurious decorations. Spirit Jade was the most precious thing of all.

A single piece of Low-Grade Spirit Jade the size of an adult's thumb cost one hundred Jade Coins. Ten pieces of Low-Grade Spirit Jade could be exchanged for one Mid-Grade Spirit Jade, while a hundred Mid-Grade Spirit Jades could be exchanged for one High-Grade Spirit Jade. As for Top-Grade Spirit Jade, that was the stuff of legends, impossible to exchange for with ordinary Jade Coins.

And inside his box were ten Mid-Grade Spirit Jades. Ren Jie excitedly reached for them, only for all of them to shatter the moment he touched them.

This... Ren Jie suddenly remembered something. When his divine sense had tried to open the video window for the second time within his Sea of Consciousness, those streams of warm energy had seemed to come from here. Could it be...

Damn it, ten Mid-Grade Spirit Jades had only barely supported it for a few seconds. And during those few seconds, it seemed the energy had come not only from the ten Mid-Grade Spirit Jades, but also from the box itself. The first time, he had comprehended things inside for a full quarter of an hour. Could that have been the power he had brought with him while crossing over? Otherwise, how much Spirit Jade would that have taken?

Ren Jie hardly dared imagine it, but at the same time, he was somewhat excited. At least he finally knew how to open that video now, although it still felt somewhat too terrifying at present.

Besides the ten Mid-Grade Spirit Jades, Ren Jie discovered a jade tablet in the box. This jade tablet was not Spirit Jade for cultivation, but a Memory Jade Tablet used to store information. This should be the mysterious cultivation technique Ren Tianxing had spoken of, obtained from the ruins of that powerful imperial dynasty that had suddenly been destroyed ten thousand years ago—a technique he himself could not cultivate. Unfortunately, when the original Ren Jie heard it was a cultivation technique, he had kept it on him all this time without ever opening it. Otherwise, if he had learned there were ten Mid-Grade Spirit Jades inside, given his nature, he probably would have squandered them long ago.