"Li Yun, let's break up!"

On the bed, Li Yun, who had just awakened, looked at the woman before him with a dazed expression.

"I know you're unwilling to accept this."

"However, this is reality."

"In the past, I couldn't resist the marriage contract our parents arranged for us, but now that I've arrived at the Heavenly Martial Sect, I want to take control of my own life."

"Senior Brother Liu has already promised me that as long as I follow him, he will provide me with resources to help me reverse from Acquired to Innate in the future. I don't want to miss this chance."

"I also hope you won't harbor resentment over this, let alone do anything rash. People simply cannot be compared. If you offend Senior Brother Liu in the Heavenly Martial Sect, you won't have any foothold at all—you'll only bring humiliation upon yourself."

"Think it over carefully, and don't ever appear before me again."

After finishing her words, the woman turned and left, bearing a trace of relief and a smile ready to embrace a bright future.

"What does this mean?"

"Getting dumped the moment I arrive? What a clichéd beginning."

"Still, this world... the Heavenly Ancient Continent. Tsk tsk, it really is vast and boundless. It must be at least a hundred times larger than Earth in my previous life, right?"

While the woman was blabbering to herself just now, Li Yun, who had just undergone Transmigration, had already digested the memories of his predecessor.

This world was called the Heavenly Ancient Continent—vast in territory, flourishing in the martial dao, with Experts emerging in great numbers!

The place he was in was called the Heavenly Martial Sect. Subordinate to the Mystic Moon Kingdom in the east of the Heavenly Ancient Continent, it was one of the four top martial dao Sects in the Eastern Cloud Continent of the Mystic Moon Kingdom.

Situated on Heavenly East Mountain in the Eastern Cloud Continent, the Heavenly Martial Sect had been founded eight hundred years ago. Its Sect Master lineage alone had been passed down through dozens of generations, and over ten million disciples had emerged from it. It could truly be said that Experts were as numerous as clouds and prodigies arose one after another.

As of today.

In this past September, after the Heavenly Martial Sect held yet another recruitment drive, the entire Heavenly Martial Sect—from the Sect Master to the disciples, down to the Menial Disciples—actually exceeded two hundred thousand people in total.

The entire Heavenly Martial Sect was practically no different from a small city.

This small city could be described as eternally flourishing, its glory never-ending.

Anyone who could pass the trials and become a disciple of the Heavenly Martial Sect took immense pride in it.

Yet precisely because of this,

the pressure fell entirely upon the Heavenly Martial Sect disciples.

Why?

It was way too cutthroat!

Having been founded eight hundred years ago, the Heavenly Martial Sect had long established a fixed grading System for its disciples—or rather, this was also the standard System across various Sects throughout the Mystic Moon Kingdom today.

From bottom to top, this hierarchy consisted of four ranks: Outer Sect Disciple, Inner Sect Disciple, True Disciple, and the highest rank, Sect Walker.

Across the four ranks of disciples, the rights and status enjoyed by each level were vastly different; one could even say worlds apart.

From the ordinary Outer Sect Disciples with zero privileges to the Sect Walkers who could represent the Sect abroad and even participate in Sect decision-making... it was an unmistakable pyramid.

A Sect Walker standing at the pinnacle looking down upon an Outer Sect Disciple at the base was akin to a god looking down upon mortals.

Who wouldn't feel provoked by that?

Who didn't want to achieve fame and success?

Who didn't want to return home in glory?

Who didn't want to become a world-renowned martial dao titan?

Who didn't want to be the golden carp among thousands of carp leaping through the Dragon Gate to successfully cross it?

But wishing alone was useless; the martial dao demanded Talent.

This thing called Talent encompassed Physique, Root Bone, Comprehension, and even Spiritual Root; virtually every single one was Innate.

If you were born with it, you had it; if not, you didn't, and it was nearly impossible to change in the Acquired realm.

These inborn differences essentially determined one's subsequent journey into the martial dao.

Among many Talents, a Spiritual Root was the rarest. Those born with a Spiritual Root became Inner Sect Disciples immediately upon entering the Heavenly Martial Sect; from Entry, they practiced Innate Martial Arts, and after a few years of cultivation, they would become official Innate Martial Artists.

Those without a Spiritual Root were categorized into nine grades of Aptitude according to their natural Talent, with Grade Nine being the lowest and Grade One the highest.

No matter how high their Aptitude was, such people could only start as Outer Sect Disciples. At Entry, they could only cultivation Acquired Martial Arts, needing countless efforts and finally a stroke of luck to reverse Acquired to Innate.

Among a thousand people, barely a few succeeded.

They were almost exclusively those who possessed Grade Two or even Grade One Aptitude.

Li Yun possessed only Grade Five Aptitude. Entering the Heavenly Martial Sect with Grade Five Aptitude barely reached the Sect's recruitment threshold; for someone with such Aptitude to successfully reverse Acquired to Innate years later, the probability was infinitely close to zero.

If one could not reverse to Innate, one could not become an Inner Sect Disciple.

If one could not become an Inner Sect Disciple, the Heavenly Martial Sect would never support them indefinitely. With a three-year limit, any Outer Sect Disciple who spent three years in the Heavenly Martial Sect without successfully reversing to Innate had to participate in the Grand Tournament held every June.

Those ranked outside the top one thousand had to leave the Sect.

Only those within the top one thousand could take on duties like deacon within the Sect, helping manage miscellaneous chores and staying temporarily.

But even that wasn't forever—only for two years.

If after two years you still couldn't reverse to Innate, sorry, but you'd have to leave too.

Only then would a fresh influx of new Outer Sect Disciples be recruited every September, just like graduation season in Li Yun's previous life.

Every June, dense crowds left with hearts full of disappointment, while other dense crowds entered full of hope.

And from Entry onwards, unless someone was a fool, almost everyone understood one truth: if they wanted to achieve anything in the martial dao, they had to fight tooth and nail during these three years!

"It's way too cutthroat..."

"In an environment like this, who the hell has the mind to date?"

"That woman just now seemed to be named Huang Yiyi... Tsk tsk, it's good that she left. It saves me from burning brain cells trying to figure out how to get rid of her..."

Having finally gotten the chance to experience such a vast martial dao world, he had no intention of coming all this way for nothing.

Even if he only had Grade Five Aptitude and the chances of reversing to Innate were slim, he would still fight for it. Come what may, he didn't want to live at the bottom rung of society for the rest of his life like he did in his previous life.

Taking a deep breath,

Li Yun's gaze quickly grew clear and resolute as he stood up and walked toward the room's door.

As an Outer Sect Disciple, he wasn't qualified to have a room to himself; he stayed in an eight-man communal bunkroom.

Together, rows of such communal bunkrooms formed a massive courtyard.

Stepping out the door, what came into view was a flat courtyard roughly the size of a basketball court, lined along the edges with rows of green pines.

At this moment, it happened to be dusk as the sun dipped toward the horizon.

The pale crimson sunlight slanted across the courtyard. A gentle breeze blew, rustling the leaves, imparting a picturesque beauty of the setting sun.

Several Outer Sect Disciples living in the same courtyard each occupied a corner of the spacious yard; they were either sweating profusely while diligently practicing Martial Arts, or frowning deeply in contemplation while holding a book.

Even after he walked more than a dozen meters away from his room, nobody greeted him.

It was as though no one even knew he existed; everyone was practicing Martial Arts so intensely that nobody bothered to acknowledge anyone else.

Seeing this scene,

Li Yun couldn't help but inwardly curse again at how ridiculously cutthroat it was. Then, just like on the eve of the College Entrance Examination in his previous life, seeing everyone else working hard while he was idling, an inexplicable sense of intense crisis welled up inside him.

"Everyone is working hard. If I don't work hard, damn it... I'll end up being a salted fish again in this lifetime!"

"Damn it, no way. I have to get moving too..."

The more Li Yun thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. Suddenly spinning around, he headed back to his room to fetch his copy of Basic Stance Training—the book uniformly distributed by the Outer Sect at Entry, given to every new Outer Sect Disciple.

【Ding—】

【Host's martial heart is resolute. Martial Dao Cognition System activated.】

【Summarizing Host's current martial dao cognition. Martial Dao Cognition Points +30.】

【Host witnessed others practicing Martial Arts. Cognition Points +1.】