[Brain Storage Center]
Blue Star Federation, 2077.
Midsummer.
Heat waves shimmered across the training ground of Jiang City First Martial Arts High School, the air itself seeming to twist and warp. Students from Class 7, Grade 12 stood at attention under the blazing sun, waiting for their homeroom teacher Li Gang to announce the afternoon's arrangements.
Weakness.
Suffocation.
Lin Mo's head buzzed, his entire body drained of strength.
The sensation instantly transported him back to his previous life—that moment when his dantian was destroyed and all his cultivation vanished.
"Lin Mo, you're spacing out again! Did you sneak off to practice martial techniques last night and go berserk?"
A sharp, cutting voice rang out beside him, dripping with undisguised mockery.
The voice belonged to Wang Hao, the class's martial arts prodigy—and Lin Mo's nemesis from his past life.
What's going on?
Why would Wang Hao's voice be here? Shouldn't I be dying in that abandoned factory?
Lin Mo thought groggily, struggling to open his eyes.
The moment he did, he froze.
Before him lay the familiar training ground, classmates in matching uniforms, and their homeroom teacher Li Gang spitting as he lectured from the podium.
And... Wang Hao's face, ten years younger but still twisted with malice.
"Did I... get reborn?"
Lin Mo could hardly believe it.
He was a reborn soul.
In his previous life, he'd been a Lin family descendant with mediocre talent. At seventeen, his first martial arts aptitude test failed—he couldn't draw qi into his body. The family branded him worthless, subjecting him to endless ridicule.
His mother sold their grandmother's only remaining property to buy expensive awakening pills for him, but even that failed. His father, in a rage, expelled both mother and son from the Lin family.
To survive and treat his mother's illness, he ventured into the perilous "Wasteland Forbidden Zone," facing death countless times. At thirty, he accidentally discovered an incomplete ancient text—the "Eight-Nine Profound Arts," a body cultivation technique that sent his power skyrocketing. He became a somewhat renowned fighter in Jiang City.
But just when he thought his fate was turning around, he was betrayed during an ancient ruins expedition. Wang Hao and other clan heirs ambushed him, stole the treasures he'd risked his life to obtain, crippled his cultivation, and left him to die in the wilderness.
Only as he lay dying did he learn that Wang Hao had sabotaged his third aptitude test years ago.
At sixty, he died with eyes wide open.
Now, somehow, he'd opened his eyes to find himself eighteen again—the day before the aptitude test!
Even with a second chance at life, these memories weighed heavily on Lin Mo's heart.
"Wang Hao, I'll make you pay back every debt from my past life—ten times, a hundred times over!"
Lin Mo clenched his fists.
The good news: he was reborn, and there was still time to change everything.
The bad news: he was reborn before the aptitude test. Without some miracle, tomorrow would bring the same humiliation all over again.
"Do I really have to go through that despair again?"
Thinking of how his mother had worked herself to death for his sake in his previous life, Lin Mo felt his heart being carved up by knives.
Lost in thought, his vision suddenly blurred.
A translucent status panel materialized in the air before him.
What's this?
Lin Mo stared intently at the panel as lines of text slowly appeared.
Host Lin Mo, age 60, lived an unremarkable life but still possesses a heart that refuses to bow to poverty in old age. Activating the Late-Life Martial Arts Comeback System.
Current Late-Life Comeback Mission:
Please demonstrate talent in the martial arts aptitude test and earn at least 10,000 Federation Credits to purchase "Vitality Fluid" for your mother's condition.
Mission Reward: Marrow Cleansing Pill (Perfect Grade)
"???"
Lin Mo stared blankly.
Late-Life Martial Arts Comeback System?
Lin Mo glanced at his handsome reflection in the window, suddenly realizing the problem.
"Yo, system bro, did you burn out your circuits?"
Lin Mo's expression turned odd.
His system seemed to have arrived forty-two years early.
Lin Mo gazed out the classroom window, imagining his mother's haggard face at home.
In his previous life, at twenty-five, he'd had a chance at a high-paying job but lost it due to insufficient strength, causing his mother's condition to worsen.
Now his mother, though worried about him, was still in good health—far from the withered state she'd reached in his past life.
Right now, the joy of rebirth and gaining a system paled beside the chance to change his mother's fate.
"Lin Mo, come to my office!"
Homeroom teacher Li Gang's stern voice interrupted his thoughts.
Lin Mo's heart tightened. He knew Li Gang calling him over meant trouble. Before the aptitude test in his previous life, Li Gang had repeatedly hinted that he should give up martial arts to avoid wasting school resources.
But this time, things were different.
A sharp glint flashed in his lowered eyes—a look that didn't belong to someone his age.
He was already considering the system's mission.
"The mission wants me to show potential in the aptitude test and earn 10,000 Federation Credits to buy Vitality Fluid for mother."
"Showing potential won't be hard. The challenge is earning 10,000 credits."
For a high schooler who hadn't even awakened, earning 10,000 credits in a day was nearly impossible.
Unless...
A barely perceptible smile tugged at Lin Mo's lips.
He remembered that Jiang City's underground black market had exclusive "potential betting pools"—wagers on the aptitude ratings of top martial arts students from various schools.
In his past life, he'd never qualified to participate, but this time... maybe he could try his luck.
"Lin Mo, stop daydreaming and move it!" Li Gang snapped impatiently.
Lin Mo looked up, meeting Li Gang's gaze with calm, distant eyes. "Got it, Teacher Li."
Li Gang was slightly surprised by Lin Mo's composed response, but didn't think much of it—probably just a student who'd given up completely.
Ripples spread through the void.
New text appeared on the translucent system panel.
At Jiang City First Martial Arts High School's aptitude test, given the host's current reputation as "worthless," demonstrating extraordinary potential is completely unrealistic.
System grants one Newbie Gift Pack.
Perfect Grade Marrow Cleansing Pill has been distributed. Use now?
"No."
Lin Mo thought silently.
A Perfect Grade Marrow Cleansing Pill would perfectly cleanse a martial artist's meridians and bone marrow, remove impurities, and dramatically increase the body's affinity for heaven and earth qi—laying the most solid foundation for martial cultivation.
Taking such a pill would definitely cause a commotion. He couldn't risk using it in a crowded place like school.
Light flickered in Lin Mo's clear eyes.
But right now, he was only eighteen.
His mother's condition was still in its early stages, requiring only the most basic grade of Vitality Fluid.
And "potential"—for a reborn soul about to take an aptitude test—was practically child's play.
Earlier in homeroom teacher Li Gang's office, when Li Gang tried to convince him to quit, he'd simply said: "Teacher Li, tomorrow's aptitude test will shock everyone."
Li Gang had dismissed it as delusional rambling with a contemptuous laugh.
Lost in thought, Lin Mo felt drowsiness creeping in.
He was still just a teenager who hadn't formally entered the martial path, with limited spiritual energy. Combined with the shock of rebirth, he was exhausted.
Before he knew it, he'd fallen asleep during afternoon study hall.
When Lin Mo woke again, it was dusk and school had long since ended.
He looked around quickly—the classroom was empty.
He rushed to the bathroom.
"Perfect Grade Marrow Cleansing Pill, use."
Lin Mo made his decision.
A pill the size of a longan fruit appeared in his hand, emanating a faint, pleasant fragrance. He swallowed it without hesitation.
The pill dissolved instantly.
A spring-like coolness flowed down Lin Mo's throat.
Then, a vast yet gentle medicinal power exploded throughout his body like spring rain, seeping into his limbs, bones, and meridians.
Lin Mo sat cross-legged on the empty floor between desks. His thin frame trembled slightly as oily black impurities seeped from his skin's surface, giving off a faint fishy stench.
This Perfect Grade Marrow Cleansing Pill was incredibly potent.
In just moments, he felt his body fill with explosive power.
His back, previously hunched from chronic malnutrition, straightened unconsciously.
Lin Mo stood silently, moving as swift and graceful as a hunting leopard.
Now he felt light as air, as if he could ride the wind.
Suddenly he realized that under the Perfect Grade Marrow Cleansing Pill's continued refinement, his mortal body seemed to be undergoing some unknown transformation. An ancient, more powerful aura was slowly awakening within him.
"It seems like... I'm evolving toward the legendary 'Innate Dao Body'?"
Lin Mo's heart raced.
The Innate Dao Body—a supreme constitution that existed only in ancient legends, said to be impervious to all techniques and one with the Dao itself!
"No, there's more."
Looking inward, Lin Mo discovered his spiritual sea of consciousness had expanded dramatically, and his perception had sharpened several times over.
This Marrow Cleansing Pill had somehow refined his spirit as well!