Okay, so a whole year just absolutely flew by, and I'm honestly kind of shook at how well everything's been going. Like, when I first started this whole "entrepreneurial spirit master" arc, I was lowkey expecting to crash and burn spectacularly. But plot twist—I'm actually crushing it.
My little side hustle? Absolutely thriving beyond my wildest expectations.
The yoyo business—SpiritSpin, because branding is everything—has genuinely become a thing. Not just "oh that's cute" levels of success, but actual "I need to hire help and expand my operation" territory. What started as me carving basic wooden toys in my dorm room has evolved into this whole custom merchandise empire.
I'm taking personalized orders now: polished hardwood finishes that shine like mirrors, intricate soul-beast carvings that look like actual art pieces, personalized initials in fancy script, custom color schemes, different weight distributions for advanced tricks. If someone wants something special—and I mean really special, like commissioning a yoyo that matches their martial spirit's aesthetic—that's gonna run them a whole silver coin. And people are actually paying it, which is honestly wild.
The profit margins are actually insane. Materials cost maybe a few copper coins, but I'm selling finished products for anywhere from 20 copper to a full silver, depending on complexity. Basic capitalism, but in a world where most people don't really understand supply and demand economics yet.
Apparently, becoming known as "the toymaker" has given me a certain level of campus celebrity status. It's not like I'm famous-famous, but enough that younger students will literally point and whisper when I walk by, or randomly approach me to ask if I've got any new trick tutorials or if there's a new drop coming soon. Some of the older students have started calling me "Spin Master Chen," which is honestly kind of fire as nicknames go.
The whole thing has created this weird social dynamic where I'm simultaneously still just a first-year student but also this established campus entrepreneur. Even some teachers know about me.
But real talk—the business stuff is just one part of my overall grind strategy. My cultivation progress? That's been the real main character energy.
After a year of consistent study, practice, and very careful experimentation, I managed to hit level 9 soul power. I'm literally one breakthrough away from my first spirit ring, which is honestly crazy to think about. Most students take like two or three years to reach this point, but I've been absolutely grinding harder than basically anyone else in my year.
Part of it is definitely the perfect memory advantage. Every cultivation session, every piece of advice from instructors, every technique demonstration—it's all permanently stored in perfect detail. I can review any lesson with complete accuracy, spot patterns other students miss, and build on previous insights without losing any information to normal human forgetfulness.
But it's more than just remembering stuff. I've been actively optimizing my approach.
The academy gave us this standard cultivation method that's perfectly fine for most students. It's safe, reliable, well-tested across generations. But to my modern analytical brain, it felt... inefficient. Like, unnecessarily slow and kind of clunky in some areas.
So I did what any reasonable person would do—I spent weeks in the library, cross-referencing obscure cultivation texts, comparing different methodological approaches, and looking for ways to squeeze out better performance. I found these ancient footnotes that described subtle variations in breathing patterns, minor adjustments to posture alignment, alternative energy circulation routes that could reduce resistance in the meridian pathways.
Nothing revolutionary or dangerous. I wasn't about to risk frying my meridians because I got overconfident. Just small, evidence-based optimizations that should theoretically improve efficiency and comfort while maintaining safety margins.
And here's where my previous life knowledge became clutch: cultivation is basically all about running energy through meridians, which are these specific pathways throughout the body. The moment I understood that concept, my brain immediately connected it to traditional Chinese medicine from Earth—acupuncture points, qi circulation, energy flow optimization.
Suddenly, all these cultivation techniques started making way more sense. I could visualize the energy pathways, understand why certain postures worked better than others, predict which breathing patterns would create better flow dynamics. It was like having a cheat sheet for the entire system.
The optimizations totally paid off. My soul power started circulating cleaner, faster, with less resistance and more stability. What used to take me an hour of cultivation could now be accomplished in about 45 minutes with better results. Not a massive improvement, but when you're doing this every single day, those efficiency gains compound quickly.
I made it a rule to cultivate every night before bed, no matter how busy or tired I was. Consistency is everything in this game, and I wasn't about to let laziness sabotage my progress. Some nights I'd be exhausted from business stuff or academy work, but I'd still sit down for at least 30 minutes of focused energy circulation.
That discipline mindset started bleeding into other areas too. I got this idea that physical conditioning might enhance cultivation effectiveness—which actually makes perfect sense when you think about it. In every martial arts story ever, the protagonists are always physically buff in addition to having supernatural powers.
Plus, with my business generating steady income, I could finally afford better nutrition. I started buying spirit beast meat from the market, which is expensive as hell but supposedly has these cultivation-enhancing properties. The effects aren't immediate or dramatic, but over months of consistent consumption, I could feel subtle improvements in energy recovery and meridian flexibility.
That's when I stumbled across this absolutely fascinating concept in some of the advanced library texts: self-created soul skills. These weren't part of any standard curriculum—most instructors would just give you weird looks if you asked about them. At first I thought it might be ancient mythology or theoretical nonsense, but after some careful research and discrete inquiries, I realized they're completely real. Just incredibly rare and usually kept secret.
It makes total sense when you think about it. Most noble families probably have their own proprietary techniques that they've developed and refined over generations. Secret family moves, custom applications of martial spirits, specialized combat strategies that give them advantages over people using only standard academy techniques.
If I ever managed to create my own soul skill, it would be a complete ace in the hole. Something no one could predict or counter because they'd never seen it before.
The physical training side of things was honestly trial and error since I had no idea what martial arts were supposed to look like in practice. So I defaulted to what I remembered from Earth: basic weight training, flexibility work, and cardio conditioning.
I commissioned a set of small weights from a local blacksmith, being super careful not to mess up my still-developing body with anything too intense. We're talking bodyweight exercises, light resistance training, stretching routines that looked vaguely like yoga, and morning jogs around the academy grounds.
The improvement was honestly shocking. More energy throughout the day, better sleep quality, smoother soul power circulation during cultivation sessions. It wasn't some dramatic transformation, but it was steady, measurable progress that compounded over time.
I remember laughing at myself one night, thinking back to when I made fun of other students for being total training maniacs. Like, I used to think they were just showing off or trying too hard. But now I get it—growing stronger is legitimately addictive. Every small improvement motivates you to push for the next one.
The business success meant my savings account was actually getting somewhere. I started putting money aside for a proper storefront instead of just selling stuff in random plazas on weekends. Having a real location would let me build the SpiritSpin brand properly, maybe expand into other products, establish myself as a legitimate merchant instead of just "that kid with the yoyos."
I was even thinking about branching out into other handcrafted items—custom cultivation accessories, decorative spirit beast figurines, maybe even simple tools for other students. The demand was definitely there, and I had the skills to deliver quality products.
Time management became this whole strategic game. Academy classes in the morning, cultivation practice in the early afternoon, business operations in the evening, physical training before bed, and study time whenever I could squeeze it in. It sounds exhausting written out like that, but having a clear routine actually made everything feel more manageable.
The perfect memory ability was absolutely helpful for juggling everything. I could remember every customer's preferences, track inventory without writing anything down, and mentally review lessons while doing other activities.
I kept my optimization strategies mostly to myself, but I did share some of the safer general principles with classmates who seemed genuinely interested in improving. Building good relationships with other students felt like a smart long-term investment, especially since we'd probably all be working in the same professional circles eventually.
The social dynamics at the academy were honestly fascinating to observe. You had the nobles who expected everything to be handed to them, the talented commoners who were grinding incredibly hard to prove themselves, the average students who were just trying to graduate without embarrassing themselves, and then weird cases like me who were doing their own thing entirely.
I tried to stay friendly with everyone while avoiding getting pulled into any political drama or rivalry situations. My business success had made me some casual enemies among students who were jealous of my income, but I kept things professional and didn't give anyone legitimate reasons to cause problems.
And just like that, another season passed, then another, until suddenly it was almost my one-year anniversary at the academy.
SpiritSpin had grown from a weekend hobby into a proper business operation. My body had transformed from "scrawny orphan kid" to "actually kind of athletic." My cultivation techniques had evolved from basic academy standard to personally optimized efficiency systems.
And my soul power? After months of consistent effort, careful optimization, and strategic resource investment, it finally—finally—hit level 10.
Time for my first spirit ring. Time to take this whole soul master thing to the next level.
Let's absolutely go.