Chapter 5: Turns Out I Can Just Copy Cultivation Like It's a God Technique Manual
"System."
[YES.]
Guo Mei paused mid-bite, staring at the thin stream of river water she had been pretending was tea. The system prompt hovered in her vision like an invisible script only she could read, quietly documenting her life as if she were both the player and the NPC at the same time.
"…Do you have cultivation techniques?"
[QUERY UNCLEAR. DO YOU MEAN: AVAILABLE SKILL ROUTINES?]
"…Yeah. Techniques. Manuals. Methods. Whatever cultivators use to get stronger."
[YES.]
She blinked.
"…You're serious?"
[SYSTEM DOES NOT JOKE.]
A long silence followed.
Guo Mei slowly lowered her sandwich.
"Okay… show me something."
[GENERATING BASIC CULTIVATION ROUTINE…]
Her vision flickered.
Lines of text appeared in front of her, not like a book, but like a living instruction stream.
[Qi Absorption Pattern: Standard Body Routing]
Step 1: Align breathing with ambient qi fluctuation
Step 2: Open minor meridians sequentially
Step 3: Draw ambient qi into circulation loop
Step 4: Compress qi into dantian equivalent storage
Step 5: Repeat until saturation threshold increases
Guo Mei frowned.
"…This looks… normal?"
[CONFIRMED. STANDARD HUMAN CULTIVATION ROUTINES ARE SIMPLIFIED MODELS.]
"…Then why couldn't this body cultivate before?"
[ANSWER: BLOCKAGE DETECTED. ENERGY ABSORPTION INTERFERENCE SOURCE IDENTIFIED.]
Her gaze sharpened.
"…That jewelry."
[CONFIRMED.]
The hidden truth snapped into place like a lock clicking open.
The "fallen noble daughter" template wasn't just bad luck. It was sabotage disguised as destiny. The jewelry she had inherited wasn't just decorative. It had been quietly siphoning any energy that entered her body, preventing her from forming a stable cultivation cycle.
In other words, every attempt she had ever made to cultivate had been drained before it could take root.
"…So if I remove or override that interference…"
[CORRECT.]
"…Then I can cultivate normally?"
[CORRECT.]
Guo Mei leaned back slightly, chewing slower now.
"…That's actually kind of broken."
[SYSTEM AGREES.]
She stared at the air for a moment.
Then her expression shifted.
Not shocked.
Not overwhelmed.
Just… interested.
"Alright. Let's test something."
She stood up, brushing crumbs off her hands, then closed her eyes.
"System, run the routine."
[ACKNOWLEDGED.]
The moment the system responded, something subtle changed.
It wasn't just guidance anymore.
It felt like execution.
Her breathing adjusted automatically.
Her posture corrected itself.
Her awareness sharpened, spreading outward like a net catching invisible particles drifting in the air.
Qi.
She could sense it now.
Not vaguely.
Not abstractly.
But clearly enough that it felt like dust floating in sunlight.
The system's prompts continued to appear in her vision, updating in real time.
[Step 1 Complete: Respiratory Synchronization Achieved]
[Ambient Qi Detected: Low Density Zone]
[Step 2 Initiated: Meridian Activation]
Her body followed.
Without resistance.
Without hesitation.
As if her muscles, nerves, and circulation had all agreed to cooperate with the instructions being fed into them.
Qi began to move.
Not violently.
Not explosively.
But smoothly, like water finding cracks in stone.
For the first time in her life, something entered her body and stayed.
Her eyes opened slightly.
"…Oh."
The word came out quieter than expected.
[STEP 3 IN PROGRESS]
She could feel it.
The energy circulating.
Stabilizing.
Being guided instead of being lost.
Before, her attempts at cultivation had always failed at the earliest stage. Now, the process didn't just work.
It adapted.
[Interference Source Detected]
[External Energy Drain Attempt: Neutralized via System Routing Layer]
[Qi Retention Stability: Increasing]
Guo Mei glanced down at her body.
"…So you're basically acting as a firewall and a compiler at the same time."
[ANALOGY PARTIALLY ACCURATE]
She exhaled slowly.
Then smirked.
"Good. Because I was starting to think this world was just badly balanced."
She sat back down, picking up her sandwich again like nothing had changed.
Except something had.
Her perception of the world had shifted from "survive" to "optimize."
She took another bite, then tilted her head slightly.
"…System, can you do this with other techniques too?"
[CLARIFICATION REQUIRED]
"Like… advanced stuff. Sword techniques, movement techniques, body refinement methods."
[YES. SYSTEM CAN ASSIST IN STRUCTURING AND SIMULATING KNOWN PATTERNS.]
"…Known patterns?"
[BASED ON DATA INTERPRETED FROM ENVIRONMENTAL INPUT, MEMORY FRAGMENTS, AND USER-ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE.]
Guo Mei paused.
"…So if I've read cultivation novels before…"
[THOSE ARE CONSIDERED REFERENCE DATA.]
She blinked again.
"…You're telling me I can basically reconstruct techniques from stuff I remember reading?"
[WITH SUFFICIENT DETAIL AND CONSISTENCY, YES.]
A slow grin formed.
Not manic.
Not exaggerated.
Just the quiet expression of someone who had just realized the rules of the game were far more flexible than expected.
"…So cultivation manuals are just… patterns."
[CONFIRMED.]
"…And you can simulate them."
[CONFIRMED.]
She leaned forward slightly, resting her chin on her hand.
"…Then I don't need a sect to teach me."
[NOT REQUIRED.]
"…I don't need inheritance either."
[NOT REQUIRED.]
"…I just need enough data."
[AND EXECUTION.]
Guo Mei looked out toward the distance, where the world of noble families, sect hierarchies, and political chains still existed as a backdrop she had already stepped away from.
"…Huh."
She took another sip of river water, then stood up again.
"Alright then."
Her eyes lit with something new.
Not desperation.
Not survival.
But direction.
"Let's start building something ridiculous."
[SYSTEM STANDBY: READY TO ASSIST.]
And somewhere in the unseen layers of prompts that followed her every move, the system quietly continued its work
not limiting her path,
not choosing it either,
but recording each step as she began to write her own cultivation method in real time.