As Jun Xiao quietly closed the door to his room behind him, his mind was still reeling from what he had just heard.
A system?
A cold, mechanical whisper had echoed through his head, promising unimaginable power.
[Congratulations, Host, on activating the Supreme Sleep System! As long as you sleep, your cultivation will progress. Every two hours of sleep will double your cultivation speed!]
Those words still echoed in his mind.
Jun Xiao leaned against the door, trying to calm his pounding heart. It was simply unbelievable… and yet, the screen hovering before his eyes refused to disappear, its bluish glow casting light in the dim room.
"So, if I understand correctly… all I need to do is sleep to increase my cultivation speed," he thought.
The system responded immediately.
[Correct, Host. Additionally, each time you break through to a higher realm, you will receive a supreme grade item as a reward at least, as long as you remain in the Lower Realm.]
Jun Xiao was stunned. A flood of questions rushed through his mind. But before he could voice them, the voice returned once more, emotionless and firm.
[It appears the Host has many questions. However, some of them cannot be answered at this time due to your current condition.]
[Let me be as clear as possible. For now, I cannot speak to you about the Upper Heavens, because you are too weak. But that will soon change thanks to the system. Regarding the rewards, know this: in your world, everything is ranked whether it be weapons, cultivation techniques, martial skills, pills, or formations.]
[These ranks are determined by the following levels: Yellow, Black, Xuan, Mystic, Earth, Heaven, Divine.]
Jun Xiao slowly nodded. He recognized that classification at least, the earlier stages. In the dusty clan library, he had read of them as the benchmarks guiding cultivators on their path to power.
But there was one detail…
His eyes darkened slightly.
"Huh… System, you forgot the Supreme level," he said, frowning.
He remembered very clearly an old anecdote, stumbled upon in a forgotten scroll, that spoke of an ancient king cultivating a so-called "Supreme" technique one that transcended even divine artifacts.
A brief silence passed.
Then the voice returned, neutral as ever, but with an undertone of authority:
[No, Host. That is not a mistake.]
[The Supreme level simply does not exist in the Lower Realm. It is exclusive to the Upper Realm.]
A smirk slowly curled on Jun Xiao's lips as his eyes opened wide, glowing with a raw, unsettling light.
"So… now that I have a system, I can finally drop this pitiful facade I've been forced to wear."
His tone was sharp, far from the humility he had shown until now. His mask was beginning to crack—no longer the quiet, reserved, respectful young man… that had only ever been an act, a shield, a survival tactic.
He sat up on his bed, his chest rising with slow, deliberate motion, as if savoring the moment. He lifted his gaze to the glowing screen hovering in the air, his eyes now brimming with ravenous ambition.
"I'm going to use this system to its fullest… I'll walk over the Lower Heavens like a king unchained. Anyone who tries to look down on me or stand in my way—I'll crush them. And those beautiful women guarded by young masters? I'll take them, one by one. They'll all be mine. Ahahaha!"
His laugh slipped out—first low and muffled, then rising, open, and cruel. A hint of madness? No. It was relief. For years, Jun Xiao had worn a mask.
He had never been the weak, submissive boy everyone believed him to be. That persona had been a role—a carefully maintained illusion. A camouflage, necessary to survive in a world that devoured the weak.
In truth, Jun Xiao was proud. Arrogant. Self-centered. Born with a will to dominate, to control everything, to bend the world beneath his feet. But he had nothing—no talent, no support, no future.
So he had bent his back.
He had bowed his head.
He had endured the scorn and sneers, clenched fists hidden behind his back, teeth grinding beneath fake smiles.
"I had nothing… so I laid low. I held back. I endured… but that ends now."
He leapt to his feet, his bare soles landing on the cold floor with a feline grace. His gaze swept across the small, empty room with disdain, as if it no longer deserved him.
"Starting tomorrow, no one will step on my head again. No one will dare look down on me. Jun Wei? Grandfather? All those clan hypocrites? I'll watch them crawl."
His fist clenched, the veins bulging beneath his skin. He could already feel the power flowing through him, like a nascent fire rising from the sea of his dantian.
The system was real. And as long as he slept, it would grow. It would evolve.
And this time… he wouldn't hold back.
Jun Xiao had never been a hero.
He wasn't a savior either.
He was a dangerous man, with limitless ambition, who had been forced by weakness to act humble.
But now that he had the system—now that he was no longer an insect in a world of giants…
"System, activate sleep mode."
The moment he spoke those words, his body collapsed onto the bed without resistance, as if all the tension accumulated over the past year had instantly vanished. A strange numbness spread through his limbs, gentle and enveloping, before his consciousness completely faded.
But this was no ordinary sleep.
When he opened his eyes again, Jun Xiao was no longer in his modest room. In front of him, there were no walls, no sky, no horizon—only a vast expanse of pure, limitless white. Everything seemed motionless, frozen outside of time and space. There was no heat, no cold, no sound—just a strange, absolute peace.
Yet instead of panicking or reacting, Jun Xiao remained perfectly calm.
His gaze swept across the white immensity without a trace of worry. He knew this had something to do with the system—a sort of spiritual space, or maybe an illusion shaped by his own consciousness.
He had come into this world weak, but that didn't mean he was stupid. Quite the opposite.
"The weak panic. The strong observe and understand."
That had always been his way of surviving.
And as if in response to his stoic calm, the synthetic voice of the system echoed once more in his head:
[Welcome, host, to the system space. Here begins your true journey toward greatness.]
Jun Xiao raised a brow slightly at those words, then gave a faint smirk, tinged with arrogance.
"Hmph. Very theatrical… But fine."
He crossed his arms, tilting his head slightly, and spoke with a casual tone:
"Now that I think about it, System, don't you have something like a 'starter pack' or some kind of bonus to make up for the miserable year I had to endure in this dog-eat-dog world?"
His tone was full of disdain, but also expectation. He knew how these systems worked in ancient legends and stories. He wasn't naïve enough to think everything came free… but he also wasn't stupid enough to ignore a possible initial reward.
The system's response came immediately:
[As this is the first official activation, the system shall grant the host an exclusive cultivation technique. However, the host must start again from the very beginning. All prior progress will be erased.]
There was a brief silence. No surprise in Jun Xiao's eyes. On the contrary, he wore a satisfied sneer.
"Tch. Starting over from zero? That's nothing. What I had built up until now was nothing more than a pile of mud gathered with bare hands—no pills, no guide, no light. If I must erase that pitiful foundation for something truly worthy of my ambition… then so be it. Give me what you've got. Let's not waste any more time."
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining the supreme-ranked cultivation technique: Eclipse of the Nine Heavens.]
As the system's voice faded, a powerful wave of informational energy surged into Jun Xiao's mind.
He immediately closed his eyes.
Images, diagrams, mental instructions, sensations, inner structures, energy pathways, secrets of the world's laws—everything was engraved directly into his consciousness as if a sacred scroll were being etched into the soul of an immortal.
He saw celestial vortexes devour planets. Figures in meditation hovering above blood-soaked battlefields. Golden-skinned cultivators exploding into dust at the mere pulse of energy. A man with a cold gaze ascending into the sky, shouting:
"The entire world is nothing but a stepping stone to the upper heavens!"
And that name: Eclipse of the Nine Heavens—it wasn't just a technique.
It was a declaration of war against fate.
When Jun Xiao opened his eyes again in that empty space, an unquenchable flame burned in his pupils.
He slowly clenched his fists, then murmured:
"Eclipse of the Nine Heavens… ahahah… This technique… is beyond what I imagined. It has no limits. It ends at no stage. It is bound by no constraints. No matter where I stand within a realm, as long as I have this technique, I'll be invincible."
His gaze sharpened, blade-like.
"And even better… with this, I'll be unmatched within my realm, and I can crush cultivators a whole realm above me. Hahaha! What's a 'genius' compared to that? What's Jun Wei to me now? Just a well-fed dog!"
He closed his eyes again for a moment, savoring the new knowledge vibrating in his soul like an ancient truth. The technique had already begun to reshape his meridians, remodeling his body in this mental space—a silent rebirth.
"Very well… Now that I have true power…"
A cruel smile spread across his lips.
"The world will see who the real monster is. No more mercy. No more humility. Those who humiliated me? I'll rip their teeth out one by one. Those who ignored me? They'll beg for a glance. And those so-called 'beauties' who scorned my name? They'll be lining up outside my bedchamber."
He began to laugh slowly, deeply. A dark, illusory aura began to rise around him.
"This world spat on me… now I'll trample it."