1. The Golden Sun Intra-Sect Competition! …[So] What?

The Golden Sun Sect was one of the largest righteous cultivation sects, with its lands spanning from the ocean up to the dazzling mountains. Majestic buildings and exquisite gardens shine with righteous spiritual energy, matching the temperament of the richly robed cultivators.

Right now, loud cheers and chatter were coming from the Outer Battlegrounds, where the outer disciples were competing to advance into the inner sect. Each year, the top ten will be able to exchange their dull yellow robes for bright golden robes.

“AHH!!!”

“He’s down!”

Noise roared up as one disciple knocked down another. A plain sword fell to the ground with clatter a distance away, forgotten. The disciple still standing gave a cocky grin, his eyes narrowed, daring for the fallen one to get up.

The referee, a peak Golden Core¹ senior cultivator began the countdown. “Three! Two! One!”

_{1.Qi Refining < Foundation Building < Golden Core < Nascent Soul < … “Peak” means that the cultivator is close to advancing to the next stage.}

The fallen disciple’s dull yellow robes almost matched the dusty tan ground, his black hair in disarray. He did not get up.

“Victory goes to Wang Li Wei!”

The crowd cheered, especially Wang Li Wei’s friends. “Congratulations! Congratulations!”

Wang Li Wei’s cocky grin grew as he looked at the fallen disciple. He adjusted his expression to modesty and bowed to the referee, thanking her for her care.

The Golden Core cultivator nodded and handed him an inner sect token and gave him instructions.

Little did anyone know that the moment the disciple fell, a new soul had transmigrated over.

Wen Zhihao had his breath knocked out of him. For a moment, he was in disbelief. He had somehow survived that accident? Was the pain going to hit any moment now?

In the next second, he was in more disbelief as the memories of the original owner, and the memory of his own death, crashed back into him.

He had died just after submitting the tenth revision of a project for his asshole boss. He was glad as hell to not have to do an eleventh revision.

He was still alive.

Damn it! Where was the void of nothingness he was promised after death?

Instead, he was in the body of an outer sect cultivator also named Wen Zhihao, a late-stage² Qi Refining cultivator. Qi Refining was the very first stage of cultivation: the original ‘Wen Zhihao’ had the misfortune to be one of those people who worked hard yet got barely anything out of it.

_{2. Early-stage < Middle-stage < Late-stage < Peak are the sublevels}

As Wen Zhihao received all the memories of the original ‘Wen Zhihao’ working so hard to even get to the late-stage of Qi Refining...Wen Zhihao had a headache.

He just ended one stressful life. He had no fucking intention to have a second stressful life! And why were people being so noisy?!

“Disciple, do you need a healing pill?”

Wen Zhihao stirred, blinking weakly at the cultivator referee. His body felt sore, but it was bearable.

But did he need to bear it?

“If shifu³ is willing…” Wen Zhihao mumbled.

_{3. master}

“Here.”

Wen Zhihao accepted the small pill and found it remarkably easy to swallow dry. Immediately, warmth flowed through his body. That warmth was qi. It cleared his meridians and healed his aches.

Wen Zhihao felt better than ever! He smiled thankfully at the Golden Core cultivator and was able to stand up. “This junior is extremely thankful.”

The Golden Core cultivator just gave him an unimpressed look. She had given him the lowest of her healing pills, was this junior trying to ingratiate to her?

“Allow this junior to depart and not take up any more of your precious time,” Wen Zhihao followed with a short bow. Then he wandered away.

The Golden Core cultivator snorted and forgot about the disciple very quickly, heading off to convene with the other referee cultivators.

Wang Li Wei scowled when he noticed that Wen Zhihao was leaving. “Wen Zhihao! Where are you going!”

“How does it feel to come so close yet lose to Wang-shixiong⁴?” one of Wang Li Wei’s friends crowed.

_{4. senior martial brother}

Wen Zhihao blinked at them. “Eh? Congratulations,” he said, his tone dismissive.

From the memories of the original owner, Wang Li Wei liked to bully and suppress the other outer sect disciples, and especially the original ‘Wen Zhihao’. The original ‘Wen Zhihao’ often fought back, and focused so much time and effort into (failing) cultivation that he had a low EQ⁵. But the current Wen Zhihao was a mature adult. He had no interest in squabbling with some teenagers. (16, 17, 18, 19 years old? Still teenagers!)

_{5. emotional intelligence}

With that he entered the crowd with intent to get away from the noisy crowd as soon as possible, leaving Wang Li Wei and his martial brothers pissed off. But they had to bite down their feelings for now, lest the senior disciples revoked Wang Li Wei’s promotion.