Alchemist or Cultivator?

Chapter 1

Skyrim Academy.

The academy hung high above the clouds, an enormous structure that looked as if some careless giant had taken blocks of stone and tossed them into the sky. Ancient walls surrounded the vast complex, and a strange, powerful energy flowed through the old stone like an unseen current.

The bronze gate rose far above the crowd, its surface covered in old runes that seemed to carry their own authority. Every so often, a faint pulse passed through the carvings, reminding Rayn that this place was not merely a school. It was an institution built for people far beyond his current level. And beyond anything he knew.

Thousands of young men and women crowded the area before the academy's enormous bronze gate. Rayn Tanner stood among them, doing his best to copy the nervous expressions around him. Everyone looked tense, excited, or completely lost, and he made sure his face showed the same uncertainty.

But Rayn's anxiety had very little to do with the entrance examination.

"...One hundred eighty, one hundred eighty-one... Damn it, there are over one hundred eighty Golden Core Stage individuals just among the academy's greeters at the gate... uh, no wait, according to this world, they're Second Level Official Wizards."

He tried to keep the innocent expression of a country boy seeing a great city for the first time. Unfortunately, his eyes nearly betrayed him.

Thankfully, the other candidates looked just as confused. Compared with them, Rayn looked perfectly ordinary.

Inside his body, however, the thin strand of True Essence he had painstakingly refined to the Qi Refining First Layer felt almost laughable.

"What kind of interstellar joke is this? How in a 'Spiritless World' with no Spiritual Qi whatsoever, are there so many Golden Core Stage... no, Second Level Official Wizard-level powerhouses? Dammit, could it be that the knowledge given to me by the cheat is a pirated version? If something goes wrong, can I even escape?!"

Rayn stole another glance at the group near the entrance. More than a hundred Second Level Official Wizards stood there. Each one was practically a humanoid nuclear missile launcher compared with him. There were even more First Level Official Wizards scattered nearby, and he could not be bothered to count them.

If even one of those people released the slightest bit of pressure, his current strength would probably leave him unable to move.

For more than a decade, he had spent almost every day refining Essence and Qi, following an ancient cultivation method that had nearly become a relic in the Cultivation Immortality Realm. After all that work, he had only managed to reach the Qi Refining First Layer.

Rayn sometimes wanted to slap himself just to prove this was not a dream.

After so long here, memories of neon lights and high-speed internet had begun to feel distant. He had been born again as the son of an ordinary merchant in a remote territory. His family was comfortable, and his life seemed simple and predictable.

There was only one thing that made his situation different.

Deep inside his consciousness, he possessed the strange privilege of a "library manager."

Rayn took a slow breath and pushed his chaotic thoughts aside. He then guided part of his consciousness inward, sending it toward the magnificent Red Jade Palace hidden within his soul.

The Great Dao Book Pavilion.

Even its name sounded absurdly grand.

Its origins were unknown, and the knowledge inside seemed almost endless. It contained everything from the most basic methods of introducing Qi into the body to supreme techniques capable of defying fate. Alchemy, artifact refining, array formations, talismans, secret arts, strange cultivation methods, and countless other subjects were all recorded within it.

"If in a Spiritual Qi-abundant Cultivation Immortality World, with this thing in hand, I damn well ought to be at the Golden Core by now, right? Perhaps even have hopes of Nascent Soul Divinity Transformation!"

Facing the quiet Red Jade Palace inside his consciousness, Jeming could not help but give a bitter, self-mocking smile.

The cheat was undeniably powerful.

Rayn thought of it as the finest library and research database imaginable. It provided knowledge, but knowledge still had to be understood and practiced, and many methods required resources he could not obtain.

And this world had no Spiritual Qi.

Without Spiritual Qi, most of the cultivation techniques stored inside the Great Dao Book Pavilion were useless. The methods that required Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi could not be practiced. Alchemy needed Spirit Grass and other materials. Artifact refining required Spirit Stones and rare ores. Advanced formations often depended on Spirit Veins.

The library could explain everything, but it could not create the resources. Even the best cook could not prepare a meal without ingredients.

That left Rayn with only the nearly forgotten Refining Essence and Qi methods of the Cultivation Immortality Realm.

He had practically eaten his way through cultivation.

Training drained his strength and required enormous amounts of food. The process was slow and exhausting. What would have been considered a trivial achievement in the Cultivation Immortality Realm had taken him more than ten years of hard work, endless meals, and sacrifices that most people would never understand.

Rayn had accepted that he might spend his life only slightly stronger than an ordinary person, protecting his comfortable existence with his tiny amount of True Essence.

Then this world showed him how wrong he was.

It was a High Magic World filled with wizards who controlled elements, studied souls, explored other planes, and pursued immortality.

These wizards investigated almost anything they did not understand. Rayn practiced a completely different power system, one that did not belong to their world. If anyone discovered the truth, he would not be treated as an ordinary student.

He would become a living research subject.

Rayn knew what that meant. He could be examined, dissected, drained of every secret, and displayed as a specimen.

Human rights? Ethics?

Could he expect those things from wizards who fought wars across other planes and experimented with souls?

That was why Rayn had wanted to refuse when his lord told him he was old enough to attend the academy's qualification assessment, just like the other children in his territory.

The pressure released by that lord had felt like an entire mountain pressing down on him. Rayn had swallowed every word of refusal before it could leave his mouth.

Although most of the Great Dao Book Pavilion's knowledge could not be used directly, its enormous collection contained far more than the standard cultivation techniques. There were strange methods that had little connection to mainstream cultivation, and some of them might be useful in a world without Spiritual Qi.

A stream of light left the Red Jade Palace and formed a book within his consciousness.

Inner Cycle Basic Volume.

Within the cultivation system he knew, Inner Cycle was considered unusual and was rarely practiced except by cultivators who specialized in Body Refinement. Some used it alongside their training while attempting to turn their bodies into something resembling Pocket World Magical Treasures.

Unlike ordinary cultivation techniques, which relied on drawing energy from the outside world, Inner Cycle focused on the body itself. It used Essence, Qi, and Spirit as nourishment and gradually built a tiny energy circulation system within the cultivator.

Once the Inner Cycle reached a sufficiently high level, the cultivator could reduce the body's dependence on outside energy and enter an extremely closed state. Unless the cultivator intentionally revealed what was inside, even Divine Sense would have difficulty detecting the True Essence hidden within the body.

Rayn reviewed the method while guiding his True Essence through the proper paths, making small corrections to keep the circulation stable.

"Stay calm... Previously at the lord's mansion, I have undergone a simple preliminary qualification test, roughly understanding that the wizard's qualification test mainly focuses on Spiritual Power and souls. As long as I hide the True Essence fluctuations in my body using the Inner Cycle and appropriately restrain the intensity of Spiritual Power, I should be able to pass... right?"

Whether it worked or not, he had to make it work. Under his circumstances, this was his best protection.

He raised his head and looked toward the bronze gate again.

To everyone else, he had only been distracted for a few nervous moments.

The line continued moving.

Groups entered the academy and emerged with relief, disappointment, or confusion. Rayn's turn came.

He straightened and took one final breath, pushing away the last trace of doubt.

Come on! This round of life and death!