In a remote village so far out that travelers didn’t even reach there by accident, a bunch of village kids were currently surrounding a fairly good-looking youth lying unconscious by the river.

“Look at his expensive clothes and fair skin, I am sure he is someone from a rich family. He probably has a lot of money right?” One of the kids spoke as he inched toward the unconscious youth,

“Is he dead? Should we call our parents?” Another kid cautiously looked around the group.

The largest kid of the group smacked the second kid, “Xiao Ran, you wimp! If we call our parents, won’t they take everything we find on this dead guy?”

Xiao Ran rubbed the back of his head while frowning but still managed to speak, “But we don’t even know if he is dead!”

“He washed up here from who knows where. Of course, he is dead!” The large kid kicked the unconscious youth while he reasoned.

*Gasp* With a long and labored gasp, the unconscious youth suddenly sat up and started to cough violently, startling the kids who started running away.

After a minute or so of painful coughs, the youth who seemed to be in his late teens suddenly held his head in pain and shrieked.

The kids were completely spooked and some even went back to the village to get their elders.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Why? I was so close! I could’ve made history!” the youth abruptly started screaming at the top of his lungs while punching the sandy ground.

‘Not only did I die before completing my research, I even ended up transmigrating into some shitty martial arts world. My name is even Jiang Fan, how much more cliché can this get?’ he thought.

He was Selvic Friedman, a famous researcher from the 22nd century Earth. Due to his great intellect and his obsession with metaphysics, he researched supernatural powers.

And while people laughed at him, after decades of research he had finally uncovered that the ‘dark matter’ that other scientists were still unable to explain was actually just the original form of spiritual energy, divine energy, or heaven and earth qi as depicted in many metaphysical myths.

In order to conclusively prove his hypothesis, he experimented with dark matter trying to transform it into spiritual energy that humans could interact with.

But unfortunately, one of the experiments went south. The collision of dark matter against itself somehow caused an explosion. At this point, he thought he had died.

But by some phenomena that even with his intellect he couldn’t begin to imagine to explain, he ended up transmigrating.

I’m not going to find some fiancé who rejected me or take revenge on the family that beat me up for being trash. It wasn’t me, to begin with, so why would I bother fighting my way up to get petty revenge for a guy who is dead?

He had read countless novels similar to his current situation, so he knew that the road to revenge was filled with fighting, suffering, and pain. And the payoff? What good does being the strongest martial artist do for him?

He wasn’t interested in ruling over anyone. And if he just needed money he could earn it by himself. So reaching the top of martial strength was pointless to him.

If it was immortal cultivation though, he would jump at the opportunity. But from his memories, he knew that immortals were as much a legend in this place as they were in his previous world.

But still, the qigong of martial artists and its applications were of interest to him. He decided to study them later.

As he was organizing his thoughts, a few kids led some elders toward him. There were a bunch of men and women who evoked the word ‘poor’ the moment you laid eyes on them.

An old man in the lead approached him and spoke gently, “Are you okay, young master? How can we help?”

Because of his fair appearance and good clothes, the villagers seem to be wary and respectful of him. The few knowledgeable ones among them had heard of young masters who beat and killed people for the smallest grievances.

Selvic stood up to face the old man and the other villagers. “Yes, I’m fine. But could you let me stay in your village for a while? I want to rest and recuperate. And I don’t have anywhere to go.”

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The old man looked surprised and then conflicted about his request. So Selvic quickly added, “I will help you out in any way I can and compensate you for the stay. And I don’t need anything luxurious, anything is fine.”

This seemed to ease the worry of the old man but he still didn’t seem completely relaxed. “Sigh. Okay, you can rest for a few days. I am the village chief of this Xiao village, you can call me village chief Xiao.”

Selvic nodded and bowed slightly, “Thank you. My name is Niu Tan.” He decided to completely abandon the identity of the previous host of his body. So he appropriated the name of his idol from his previous world.

The village chief looked at Niu Tan in surprise and chuckled at the strange name as he led him into the village.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Selvic, now Niu Tan, was currently lying on the straw bed provided by the village chief. He had a lot to think about, especially after the conversation he had with the village chief during the day.

Xiao village was quite far from any of the large cities. It was in the remotest countryside of the Qian Kingdom where barely anything grew and there were very few resources.

Even the nearest town which was a day’s walk away was a poor town of roughly 10,000 inhabitants. Barely any martial artists came by around these parts so it was relatively safe in that sense.

Apart from the occasional predatory beasts like tigers getting into the village, it was just a normal poor village. And being so far from the capital and the Jiang Clan, he could live a stable life.

He understood that since martial artists love power and required a lot of resources, they would be concentrated around larger cities. Only someone like him, who had almost no talent in martial arts would come to these far-out places.

But did he really have no talent for martial arts? It was Jiang Fan, the previous host of the body who lacked the talent right?

The previous host couldn’t improve his martial arts even after being taught the best techniques of one of the most prominent martial clans of the Qian Kingdom, the Jiang Clan.

He will have to test if he was the same early tomorrow morning. Even if he didn’t want to fight too much, he wouldn’t give up on learning something that could save his life. He didn’t mind killing if it meant he could live.

Putting everything aside, his main concern now was what should he do? What exactly would he do now that he got a new life?

He didn’t want revenge since he was never the one who was wronged in the first place. Being the strongest was meaningless to him and fighting for the sake of fighting was too boorish for his taste.

I’d rather continue my past research. The existence of qigong already is a huge step in the right direction. Now if only I could figure out a way to find spiritual energy and prove its existence, I could complete my past life’s work.

I might even be able to create immortal cultivation and become the Dao Ancestor of this world.

As excited as he was, the itchy straw bed was a reminder of the fact that he was alone in this backward place. He had none of his assistants and the technology from the 22nd century. This quickly poured cold water over his excitement.

Even if he managed to somehow use qigong and martial arts to extend his lifespan to about 150 to 200 years, he wouldn’t be able to advance the knowledge and technology of this world to the same level as his previous world in that time.

And I specialized in theoretical physics and chemistry, where would I even begin to get the knowledge on other disciplines?

The moment that thought appeared in his mind, his consciousness was sucked inwards by a force and he arrived in a large black space with rows upon rows of bookshelves filled with books.

“Is this my cheat? The golden finger I got?” He asked loudly as he looked around. “Is this some Library of the heavens shit?”

He walked excitedly towards a bookshelf and found that every book on there was related to biology. He walked forward and checked another shelf to find particle physics books.

He suddenly had a premonition, he ran around multiple shelves and confirmed what he had thought. All the books in this place were books from his past life.

This place seems to have a collection of every book that he had ever read or come across in his previous life. That meant he had multiple large libraries worth of books.

“Fuck! Even my cheat isn’t really a cheat. Couldn’t there be some cultivation books or some elixir of immortality at least?” He couldn’t help but complain aloud.

He browsed through some cultivation novels he had read in the past but his hopes were dashed when nothing happened. They were just regular novels.

Niu Tan focused hard and his consciousness came back. There was no difference. He then focused on the cultivation novel that he had read before and out of nowhere it appeared in his hands.

He could take the books out! He placed the book by his side and once again focused to get back into that library space. And when he checked for the book he had taken out, it wasn’t there.

It meant that there was only one copy of the books in the library. He couldn’t abuse this space to produce multiple copies so that it can work as his personal printing press.

But at least with these books, he had some confidence in teaching a group of students or even establishing a university for almost all disciplines.

These books also gave him a direction to pursue. One that he already had in his mind. He will create a school, teach students and continue his work in this world.

His obsession in his previous life was to discover spiritual energy and embark on the path of reaching the truth of the universe using science.

Maybe this obsession somehow carried over the entire knowledge required to do so. He didn’t understand why or how it worked for now, but he would continue looking for the answers.

He might be limited by his lifespan but he will leave a robust legacy and students who will carry on his work until someone reaches the truth he seeks. The world will remember that he was the guy who opened up a new path.

Who knows? Maybe one of the students in his school will eventually become an immortal cultivator and come back in time to give him elixirs of immortality? He chuckled.

No matter what happens, I shall become the Dao Ancestor of this world. If I can’t then my students, or their students, and so on will continue my legacy and fulfill my dreams. I won’t let my previous life and efforts be in vain.

I will create the Dao of Science!