“I’ve always been fascinated by the Human Emperor. Ever since I was young, I wanted to be just like him. I grew out my hair and put leaves on my dirty robes to pretend they were phoenixes, and I would wave my stick around like it was the Sun-Cleaving Sword.

“This obsession faded away, just like most things in life. For several hundred years, I forgot about my idol and relentlessly cultivated until I reached my limit—the grand circle of Core Formation. Old and withered, I began to look for any way to break through. You see, I had grown too cowardly to go into various secret realms or fight in different planes. There had to be a better way. Thus, my obsession with the Emperor was reignited…

“When I told others my ambitions, they mocked me, but I would be the one to prove them wrong when I awakened an ancient bloodline that made the Emperors what they were…

“But first, we need to talk about the various ingredients. There are many rare treasures in the wild that might stimulate a bloodline. Let me describe them to you…

“Thus, having categorised every ingredient, I spent thousands of hours toiling away until I created the medicine I now call the ‘Pill of Awakening.’ In case you, the reader, plan to follow my steps, I’ve included four recipes, from Qi Refining to Nascent Soul, based on how easy or hard it is to obtain the required resources. I shall list them here…

“Obviously, I used only the rarest of materials, spending years of savings in the process. From the very first pill, I felt something awaken in me. I saw hints of ancestral memories, running freely through overgrown jungles and fighting with other beasts. You cannot imagine my excitement when that happened. For some reason, I started growing more hair all over my body, and my posture started to slouch, but I attributed it all to the side effects of the pill.

“Many of my fellow elders started to avoid me once I began to grow more and more hair, but I would be the one laughing when I finally reached Nascent Soul! They were all fools who knew nothing of the truth, thinking me mad…

“For some strange reason, I began to have the urge to groom someone whenever their appearance was off. I had frequent thoughts of childish pranks, play fights, and even stealing! Yet, none of that could stop me in my quest for knowledge…

“Finally, after years and years of toiling, my journey had come to an end. As I took the final pill, something in my body snapped. From within me, a sensation of deep ecstasy and liberation emerged as I awakened my primal bloodline, and along with it, a cultivation technique that should be spread to every man and woman!”

“And so, while I thought I had finally received the Human Emperor’s legacy, I took one more glance at the mirror in my room. There I was, slouched, standing on all fours, and hairy beyond belief. Yes, that’s right! I had become a monkey!”

“We’ve been lied to this whole time! The Emperor is nothing more than a fraud. All of us are the descendants of the Heavenly Monkey King! Wake up! You might not want to believe this, but it’s true…”

“All of them slandered me when I told them the truth. They called me crazy, saying I had eaten one too many bad pills. They simply weren’t ready for the truth yet. Whatever. I’ve long since left the sect, heading to the central continent in search of the Primordial Jungle. Then, I will knock on the Tower of Nine Heavens and ask why they’ve been lying this entire time.”

“If you believe me, then come join me in my grand quest! And if you don’t, then you’re more than welcome to try the pills yourself. My name is Qin Zhao, and I won’t stop until everyone knows the truth!”

“What an adventure that was,” Jun said to himself, rubbing his eyes.

He had spent an entire day just reading through the book, which turned into a propaganda speech halfway through. Qin Zhao’s words were probably true, but Jun also believed that the Human Emperor was a genius beyond belief—he must have improved the Monkey King’s technique to such heights that it ushered in the Age of Humanity.

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Regardless, the man who wrote this was a mad genius, who had catalogued numerous spiritual and natural treasures. Listed in the plants section, Jun quickly recognized the gang leader of evil plants to be a rare flower—The Scarlet Sapling—which originated from the Realm of Devils. It was known to indiscriminately attack everything in sight and absorb their life essence, feeding it to a fruit known as the Tears of Sinners. It was rumoured to grant innate abilities to devils, and Qin Zhao speculated it had something to do with bloodlines, though he never found one himself.

The most terrifying fact about the flower was that it evolved every time the fruit was plucked. Each cycle made it deadlier, and at some point, it even awakened intelligence. Called also as the Devil of Slaughter, it could reach the Nascent Soul stage with enough bodies, creating its own paradise filled with blood slaves.

“Where did the butcher get this? This thing is a mass weapon of destruction if left unchecked.”

Suddenly, he started shivering, feeling a chill pass through him despite it still being summer. To say he was scared was an understatement. This was not something a regular Qi Refining disciple should possess. Would someone come looking for this eventually? Did he stumble onto some secret plot against the sect?

Taking a few deep breaths, he calmed his nerves, thinking of what was to be done. The fact that Chen Hao had killed her was not as secret as he hoped, but they had the protection of the Lu family. It had been a month, yet no one had come for it thus far. Besides, what could they even do at this point? It was frustrating how every single problem he had faced so far led back to the simple answer of ‘get stronger.’

‘If no one has contacted the boy, does it mean that it’s not important who carries this as long as their evil plot isn’t interrupted? Maybe I should get rid of it…’

The thought crossed his mind, and he argued with himself until his head started to hurt. Despite his arrogance and confidence at times, Jun was deeply sceptical about his ability to cultivate. The Bone Essence Art had served him well so far, but he didn’t think of himself as a main character of any story, who would always happily stumble onto mythical events that would let him disregard any bottlenecks in cultivation.

‘I say that, yet, here it is. A chance. An opportunity. I would be stupid not to take it.’

In a way, it was the same as his Life from Death divine art, except instead of one or ten, he would require hundreds of thousands of rabbits. Jun was still unsure of where he would find the life essence needed for this thing, but it represented hope. He only hoped the danger wouldn’t catch up to him before he could claim it.

Clearing his mind, he went back to Wang Lei and ordered all the ingredients necessary for the Qi Refining version of the Pill of Awakening. The ingredients cost him more than a hundred spirit stones, but he resolutely bit the bullet on that. Then, he made his way back to his house, and upon making sure Chen Hao was meditating, he slipped inside the stone room that housed the pill furnace.

Without wasting any time, he got to work. His movements were amateurish, made much worse by the fact that he was a dog, but a month’s worth of lessons for him and Xu Peng showed their worth here. He crushed the Spiritual Ginseng, ground Velvet Night Peony’s roots, and added them to the mix of ten ingredients. Finally, he dissolved it all with Jade Spring Water, quickly thrusting the liquid inside the scorching pill furnace.

Then came the hard part. Normally, cultivators would learn how to intricately control the flame and the heat, changing them in the blink of an eye when the recipe required it. He didn’t know how to do that. Instead, Jun pulled out a feather fan made of gorgeous striped red and blue feathers, and holding it between his teeth, he nodded down to increase the flames, and up to lessen them.

The instructions were complicated, for minutes on end he was bobbing his head like a toy, but, at the end of the session, Jun felt that he had finally gotten it right. Any minute now, a round, purple pill would pop out. Excitedly, he opened the pill furnace.

What greeted him was a weird, goopy sludge, menacingly wiggling in the heat. It shook like jelly and stank like burning trash.

“What the fuck?”

He poked it from all angles, wondering what to do with this mess. A hundred spirit stones would be wasted if he just threw it away. Seconds later, a brilliant idea struck his mind. After awkwardly collecting everything inside a box, he dashed to the garden. There, eating a carrot and frolicking about, was Guan Yu, the mighty and all-powerful , and today, he would serve a purpose.

Jun quickly snatched the carrot and coated it with the goop, leaving it to sit in the box. When the stupid rabbit refused to eat it, the dog pulled out his Rabbit-Killing Knife, soaked in the blood of hundreds. It had developed a certain aura to it that would make any rabbits shiver in mortal terror. Unfortunately, Guan Yu was still too stupid to realise what he needed to do, but after running for his life for a solid hour, he eventually got too hungry to care about the goop coating his nutritious carrot.

“Good. Eat up. They were all out of guinea pigs and mice, so you’re the next best option.”

If anyone could see Jun right now, they would quickly notice that he was ominously grinning at the terrified test rabbit. Slowly, Guan Yu devoured the carrot, looking more queasy by the second.

Then, he let out a piercing shriek like the wail of a banshee!