Hexi Walled City, First Middle School.It was the annual Awakening again. The students were lined up across the sports field, waiting their turn in the ceremony.The Awakening still mattered. But the old pecking order—Class rank this, talent grade that—had loosened. A bad Class no longer meant a dead end. You could change your fate by tempering your body.It had started when Ethan released the Star Body-Tempering Method, along with mountains of Marrow-Washing Spirit Liquid. The whole cultivation climate on the planet had shifted. Martial halls opened in every Walled City—Awakened with strength talent running them, beating low-talent recruits into shape. It was brutal work. It worked. With the spirit liquid on top of it, it worked even better. The liquid sold at every pharmacy for three thousand credits a bottle. Anyone could afford it."What Class do you hope for?" A cluster of seniors huddled together, keeping their voices down. "I want something cool. Swordsman. Drawing a blade is j

"Ethan. All confirmed. No surprises. They've all reincarnated, and their new Classes are strong. Not Unique, but every last one is SSS talent. I've logged them. We can send the admission letters out whenever you want."Duan Zhao was the first back.He found Ethan in a courtyard, slouched in a rocking chair with a lotus leaf laid over his face. A small table sat beside him with a plate of dried meat, some fresh fruit, and a pot of fruit tea.Duan, half-dead from the rush, looked at the tea and said the first thing that came into his head. "What is this new thing you've got now?""A Tea-Mastery prodigy showed up and refuses to leave. She brewed this. The snacks are a pastry master. There's a Kitchen God now, too. What do these people think this place is?" Ethan's voice came out flat and vexed from under the leaf.The war ten years ago had half-killed him. He'd spent over a year just to stand up straight. Since then, repairing Tang's soul and reviving the masters the battlefield had chea

With Loy Bai and the rest finally dealt with, Ethan got his quiet back.His Landlord Space had grown to a hundred thousand hectares. The military credits and the national currency he'd poured into it were down to dust. The system shop had climbed from level two to level five, rolling out new stock constantly, even a line of genuine high-grade weapons. It was a shame he couldn't afford any of it anymore.Everything he grew now went straight to the Chinese Federation. Two point eight billion people lived off his farms. Beyond those trapped inside the Walled Cities, life had gone back to what it had been before the Cataclysm. People ate rice. People trained hard and knew their effort bought them all the food they could want. The rare fruits and vegetables of the old world were no longer a dream—with enough strength and enough credits, you could buy whatever you wanted.Under Gordon Tang and Lianji Zhuge, the country had rolled out a new currency and a new merit system. Every month, the a

"Good?" Ethan rubbed the panda beside him. Several more had noticed the apples and were drifting over.The cub gave him a lazy look and stuffed another apple into its mouth. Its expression said: if you have something to say, say it, don't interrupt.Ethan grinned. "Fruit like this? I've got more. And there's delicious bamboo shoots too. You want in?"The cub tilted its head around an apple. Something about this two-legged thing's smile looked like it deserved a punch. But it had heard the words clearly: he had more of these.Honestly, they'd been here years. Bamboo every day, and not even enough of that—the clan was large, and you fought for your food. Win and you ate. Lose and you chewed old, hard stalks. This one's parents had been strong, so it had never gone hungry. But apples? First time.Its eye fell on the big green watermelon with the dark stripes. It batted it. The whole melon exploded. Flesh flew. Juice went everywhere. It licked the drip off its chops, brightened, and licke

Ethan laughed at that, then remembered Tang and the others waiting on him. He told the old panda he'd be back and stepped out of the realm.Outside, three days had passed.They'd been frantic. Once you entered a Secret Realm, every comm died; they had no way to know if he was alive. Realm Nine had nearly killed even Gordon Tang, and a tenth realm popping out of nowhere had them braced for bad news. They were just about to send someone in after him when he reappeared.His breath was even. Not a scratch on him. Every shoulder in the room dropped."The realm's a little dangerous, but not badly so. It's full of mutated beasts, different from the ones outside the walls. Good place to train teams and run drills." He kept the pandas out of it. "Move it into the realm-space. We'll talk details back at the command center."Tang nodded. Zhuge sent for the Space Walkers—Lunguo still had a handful. Ten years on, the original class of the Ten Great Academies were in their sixties and seventies, ve