Volume One: First Signs of Brilliance Chapter One: Wang Jue

Azure Star.

Azure Safe Zone, Jiangnan City, Peaceful Town, District Three.

“Hiss… my head hurts.”

Under the blazing sun, in a slightly dim room, a teenager lay half-awake on his bed, stretching lazily. He rubbed his eyes before sitting up, massaging his temples with both hands.

“Damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have tried to outdrink that bunch of animals. How could I, alone, take on a whole group? I feel like death.” He muttered softly as he continued to massage his head. “Looks like I’ll have to keep a low profile with drinking from now on. I can’t keep bragging that I never get drunk. Who knew I’d end up humiliated like this… How embarrassing…”

Wait a minute, something’s off!

This isn’t my house!

Now fully opening his eyes, the boy instinctively scanned the room, only to realize the bed he was lying in wasn’t his, nor was the room. Panic and confusion flooded his face as he sat dazed on the bed, his gaze piercing through the gap in the curtains at the purple sun suspended in the sky outside. He froze.

Staring at a sun so different from Earth’s, the teenager realized he had transmigrated.

In his previous life, he’d been just another worker, with no house, no car, and no savings—a single man. His parents were farmers living in the countryside, while he, after graduating from university, had stayed on in the big city to work. After four or five years of hard work, he’d finally become a department supervisor.

Overjoyed, he could hardly wait to tell his childhood friends the good news that night, inviting them out for drinks. But one thing led to another, and the next thing he knew, after the drunken revelry, he’d woken up to find himself in another world.

It took him a long while to come to his senses. Wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, he got out of bed.

He immediately made his way to the two-meter-long, one-meter-wide bathroom and stared into the palm-sized mirror on the wall.

A stranger’s face gazed back at him: black, medium-length, slightly tousled hair, and black eyes with a hint of violet at their center. His features were chiseled yet still carried a trace of youthful innocence. By Earth’s standards, he would outshine any rising pop idol without question.

The reflection mimicked his every move.

Could this handsome guy really be me?

As he wondered, the classic trio of philosophical questions surfaced in his mind:

Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I doing?

Boom!

Suddenly, his mind seemed to explode. Countless images flashed before his eyes, crackling and switching with dizzying speed, as if someone had cranked life’s playback to ten times normal, giving no thought to whether he could bear it.

The next moment, darkness swallowed his vision. He collapsed to his knees, clutching his head, and soon after, the pain overwhelmed him entirely. His body spasmed violently, his complexion turning deathly pale as he finally slumped to the floor.

After what felt like an hour of torment, the teenager finally pieced together the fragments of memory in his mind.

“Whew…”

Taking in his surroundings—both familiar and foreign—he let out a deep breath of one who had survived disaster. “So, my name is Wang Jue?”

His trembling stopped. Leaning against the wall, he rested a moment before slowly standing up, supporting himself against the tiles, and gazed directly at his reflection. The images that had just crashed through his mind belonged to this body’s previous owner.

He had transmigrated!

Once he fully accepted these memories, Wang Jue instantly understood his situation.

He hadn’t traveled to the distant past, nor was he reborn, nor had he leaped into the future. He’d arrived in a world much like Earth, yet only superficially so; in most ways, it was vastly different.

Azure Star.

Unlike Earth, the humans of Azure Star could already perform curvature jumps, exploring the entire planetary system. Sometimes, they even encountered expedition teams from other star systems.

As contact with other races increased, humanity discovered countless alien species, forging diplomatic alliances with those that were friendly and waging interstellar wars with those that were hostile.

In short, it was now the Era of Galactic Civilization.

After all, their rivals were no longer just other humans.

Wang Jue marveled at it all, for such scenes once existed only in the pages of his favorite novels; never did he imagine he would one day find himself in such a fantastical world.

Fortunately, daily life here was much the same as on Earth—the way people lived, their language, and so on.

The sole difference? This world was far more brutal.

Here, only the strongest races survived atop the cosmic hierarchy.

Beyond technology, there existed a mysterious energy known as starlight, which could strengthen the body and mind—Starforce.

Starforce was first discovered by humanity’s earliest spacefarers, learned from other races. It was through Starforce that humanity’s vaunted technology was utterly trampled, even mocked.

That era became known as the Dark Age, when humanity nearly faced extinction.

Only through the sacrifice and struggle of their ancestors did humans barely manage to survive, preserving their sovereignty.

After overcoming the threat of genocide and stabilizing their world, people finally realized that falling behind meant suffering.

From then on, mankind embraced the existence of Starforce, making it the foundation for their quest for strength.

Absorbing Starforce, unlocking the body’s hidden reserves, developing and evolving one’s life potential—this became the primary educational law decreed by the Human Ancestral Hall.

Everyone had the right—and duty—to absorb Starforce and unlock their body’s potential. It was sacred and inviolable.

In essence, martial cultivation became universal.

With such unconditional support, the path of cultivation flourished. Both gifted and ordinary youths alike dreamed of becoming martial artists, gaining greater strength, freedom, and perhaps even eternal life.

Wang Jue’s predecessor was no exception. At age seven, he underwent the standard aptitude test.

In essence, it involved placing one’s hand on a transparent crystal ball; if it lit up, you had talent.

Aptitude was graded in seven levels, marked by color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet—the further along the spectrum, the greater the talent.

If it didn’t light up, well… welcome to the bottom rung of society.

The color the crystal emitted indicated not only your talent but also your potential ceiling.

By sheer luck, when Wang Jue placed his hand on the crystal, it barely glowed with the faintest red—almost extinguished. Still, weak as it was, he could at least cultivate.

But with such poor talent, he began cultivating from first grade all the way to his third year of middle school, yet never even entered the Body Tempering Realm.

Truly a tragic case.

His peers, by contrast, were at least at the fourth level of Body Tempering, the best among them already at the seventh level. Whether anyone had broken through to the eighth, he didn’t know.

The Body Tempering Realm is the second major threshold on the path of these young, naïve cultivators.

If the crystal ball is the first checkpoint on the road to cultivation, the Body Tempering Realm is the very foundation thereafter.

It determines how far one’s path will ultimately go.

Body Tempering consists of nine levels, from one to nine; one is the lowest, nine the highest.

This standard is universal throughout the cosmos, even among the supreme races at the galaxy’s peak.

It’s said there’s rumored to be a tenth, “Perfected” level, but most dismiss it as legend since no one has ever proven its existence. Over time, the idea faded into obscurity.

In the Body Tempering Realm, Starforce isn’t yet channeled into the body; it is used only to refine and strengthen the flesh.

The first six levels focus on the skin, flesh, blood, tendons, bones, and marrow, all to enhance the physique. Reaching the seventh level marks a dramatic transformation, signifying the body has been fully tempered by Starforce.

At that point, one must begin absorbing Starforce, slowly merging it with the body. Only when the body reaches saturation with Starforce can further breakthroughs be made.

Wang Jue’s predecessor, upon reaching the first level of Body Tempering, became so excited that he lost control of his emotions—and died from a sudden imbalance.

What a wretched fate!

Thinking back, it’s understandable. All his classmates had reached at least the fourth level, while he alone hadn’t even stepped into the first. It’s only natural he felt inferior.

Perhaps, after so long in the shadow of self-doubt, the sudden breakthrough proved too much for his heart to bear.

From his memories, Wang Jue also learned he had no special status.

A hidden child of some great figure? Out of the question.

A family feud or a vendetta against the nation? Impossible.

An orphan raised in an institution? Not even that.

He was simply born into an ordinary family of four. His parents were both alive and ran a small noodle shop to support the family. Their income was modest, their life unremarkable, but even so, Wang Jue had never once gone hungry—not even once.

Most importantly, he had a sister who had just turned six.

Azure Star’s surface area was at least a hundred times larger than Earth’s, yet at first glance, everything seemed much the same.

On paper, the territory belonged to humanity, but in reality, they occupied less than one-fifth of the available land.

The remaining four-fifths were ruled by Starbeasts.

These Starbeasts were an invasive species, not only present on human soil but also found throughout the territories of every race in the universe.

Before the arrival of the Starbeasts, the universe was a battleground, with wars and genocides commonplace.

One day, countless cracks appeared in the fabric of the cosmos, as if the starry sky had shattered like glass. From these dark, terrifying rifts, swarms of Starbeasts poured forth, attacking anything in their path with mindless ferocity.

Along with them came innumerable Secret Realms—some teeming with Starbeasts and danger, others surprisingly safe.

Regardless of their peril, anyone who discovered a Secret Realm and made it out alive would rise to prominence with astonishing speed.

Rumor had it that those who returned from these Realms and achieved greatness revealed there were two types: one filled with cultivation resources, the other containing inheritances of techniques and martial skills.

This revelation shook every race across the cosmos.

The Starbeasts themselves were initially dismissed by the major races, who saw them as little more than fodder for their younger generations to train against.

No one expected the Starbeasts emerging from the rifts to grow increasingly powerful; soon, even the universe’s greatest experts dared not underestimate them.

When the first Starbeast capable of threatening those at the cosmic pinnacle appeared, the top experts of all races abandoned their exploration of Secret Realms and turned their attention to fighting the beasts.

One after another, powerful Starbeasts descended, sparking cataclysmic wars with the universe’s races.

The battles were brutal. The elite of every race suffered grievous losses, and the Starbeasts fared little better.

Compared to the top races with legions of experts, weaker groups like humanity—lacking in powerful individuals—were devastated by the Starbeasts. Some were annihilated, others forced to abandon their homeworlds and band together for mutual survival, and many barely survived after exhausting all their resources to resist the onslaught.

Humanity was among the latter, which led to a regression in both technology and martial prowess.

To this day, human technology has only partially recovered, still far from the era when they could freely explore the stars.

As the war dragged on, countless weaker races perished at the claws of Starbeasts. Only then did the great powers realize things could not continue as they were. The Starbeasts, for their part, seemed unwilling to fight to the bitter end. Eventually, a ceasefire was signed between the opposing leaders.

After a period of recuperation, the Starbeasts began stirring once more.

It was then the races realized they had fallen into a trap, having underestimated the Starbeasts’ terrifying reproductive speed.

Nevertheless, the races didn’t stand idle; instead, they sought out Secret Realms with even greater fervor. Whenever a clue emerged, countless experts would flock to investigate.

While the top experts still held the advantage, in all other tiers, the Starbeasts utterly dominated.

Especially with the ceasefire’s key clause: those of higher realms could not attack those of lower realms.

This rule left the leading experts both anxious and helpless.

For they discovered something truly alarming: the Starbeasts’ cultivation progressed at a horrifying pace.

The reason? One word—devour.

Whether consuming members of other species or their own kind, the more they ate, the more powerful they became.

Thus, fighting Starbeasts always ended one of two ways: either you killed the beast, or it consumed you.

However, the races also discovered the benefits of slaying Starbeasts.

Every part of a Starbeast was valuable—their flesh could be eaten to accelerate cultivation, albeit less effectively than their star cores, while materials like hides, fur, claws, fangs, and bones were used to craft gear and weaponry.

If one was lucky enough to find a Starbeast with a core in its skull, the rewards were immense.

Not every Starbeast possessed a core; among those at the Body Tempering level, perhaps one in ten thousand had one. The higher the beast’s rank, the greater the chance.

Starbeasts without a core were like ordinary humans, while those with one were akin to the talented.

Typically, coreless Starbeasts were the lowest rung of their kind, mere food for those with cores.

For humans, however, even coreless Starbeasts were deadly threats.

After discovering the existence of star cores, the greatest experts among the races found that cultivating with them greatly accelerated progress—the higher the core’s rank, the faster the improvement.

Because of this, the races were reluctant to exterminate the Starbeasts outright, preferring to use them to strengthen their own people.

This reprieve allowed the Starbeasts to recover, and their numbers soon dwarfed those of all the races combined.

Though the races retained a slight edge in top experts, they were far less united than the Starbeasts, especially at the lower and middle tiers, where the beasts held overwhelming superiority.

Only then did the great powers realize they had “raised a tiger to their own peril.”

Fortunately, the Starbeasts’ numbers at the highest echelons did not increase.

Yet as their population grew, so did their territory.

This is why, aside from the races at the cosmic summit, most of the weaker groups lost the majority of their lands to the Starbeasts.

It wasn’t for lack of desire to drive them out, but rather a matter of power.

Humans were no exception.

Even on Azure Star—hundreds of times larger than Earth—they could occupy only one-fifth of the land.

And every inch of that was bought with human lives.

As the Starbeasts multiplied and grew stronger, human territory continued to shrink, and incursions into the safe zones’ cities and towns became commonplace.

After sorting through all this, Wang Jue dragged his fair, delicate body to the window, gazing out at the purple sun shining down on Peaceful Town, Jiangnan City. Skyscrapers stretched as far as the eye could see. The streets bustled with people, floating vehicles hovered low, and ships soared through the sky.

Instinctively reaching into his pocket for a cigarette, Wang Jue found nothing. Awkwardly, he mimed the gesture, then propped his elbow on the window sill, resting his chin on his hand.

“So, I really have come to an extraordinary place. The entire Azure Star has no countries, only a single Federation. Even more interesting, what were once nations have become safe zones. Fascinating. I can’t wait to experience the splendors of this world.”

“They say every transmigrator is gifted with a golden finger. So, is this where my cheat system is supposed to show up…?”

Excitement and anticipation filled Wang Jue as he braced himself for the arrival of his “system.” Yet, after waiting for some time, not a sound emerged.

Silence settled over the room, the atmosphere thick with embarrassment.

A gentle breeze drifted in. Wang Jue, awkward, rubbed his nose, trying to cover his discomfort, then sighed and turned back toward the bed.

He needed time to adjust, to come to terms with everything.

And so, he chose the most natural method—sleep.

Lying on his side once more, in this perilous world, the only comfort he could find was in the warmth of this bed…