REMEMBERING EVERYTHING
A long time ago, one of the hundred greater gods of the Omniverse, Khommjir, the god of the scholars died, his end brought with it a wave of changes into all of existence, no one knew why or how he died.
Until that moment happened the Universe laws were set in stone, everything would happen according to the universal laws that enclosed that tiny fraction of reality himself created. But his death brought chaos to order. Making the impossible now a possibility, and caught in these waves of changes was a young boy from one of the most boring and sad version of a world called Earth. (Our Earth to be precise.)
The moment he was about to reincarnate his soul was heavily bombarded with the remaining spiritual outburst generated by the death of Khommjir. Being caught in this situation the heavenly laws for some reason didn't manage to recognize his soul and sent him drifting into the outer layers of the Omniverse.
A few thousands of years then passed with his soul being nurtured by the remaining energy of Khommjir, and thanks to that his soul was capable of evolving to a new level that no human from Earth could ever have hoped to achieve.
And at the moment his soul made a breakthrough a multiverse heavenly laws detected him and felt a little sense of familiarity on him, so it caught the boy soul and sent him into its circle of reincarnation. However, how could it have predicted that that particular soul developed a minor divinity?
Because of this unexpected situation, a series of laws worked on his favor based on his greatest wishes and gave him a powerful ability that would soon accompany him through the rest of his journey and gave him the opportunity to truly reach the level of the greater gods!
...
Glory City, Holy Orchid Institute, Fighter Apprentice Class.
A group of students was looking at a woman as she taught the fundamentals of a fighter and a demon spiritualist.
Her name was Shen Xiu a member of one of the noble families of Glory City, the Sacred Family. She had a tall figure, perky chests, slender white legs, and was wearing a quite revealing lavender dress, but her most beautiful feature was her princess-like face and her bright and long red hair.
Her eyes were full of pride and arrogance as she looked at the students seating in front of her.
"Demon Spiritualists and Fighters have five different ranks, which are: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Black Gold, and Legend rank. Each rank is then divided into five levels, from 1-star to 5-star.
A Demon Spiritualists is above a Fighter. We are a truly noble existence. A Demon Spiritualists can form a soul realm within their dantian. They have the ability to integrate a captured demon into their soul realm and then merge with the demon in combat. This allows them to possess matchless strength, which is far above the strength Fighters could compete with. Just like me, my demon is a Scarlet Flame Fox."
Suddenly, Shen Xiu's face and hands underwent drastic changes. Her facial shape became sharper, her teeth and nails also became sharper. Finally, a scarlet tail emerged from her back.
After that, she proceeded to explain a few more things about Demon Spiritualists, the students hearing her words were all amazed by such a demonstration of power. After all her level of power was something that was basically beyond the reach of most of them.
As she continued her lecture, at the back of the class, something weird was happening with two boys, Nie Li, someone who was lucky enough to find a relic of the past that allowed him to reincarnate, couldn't possibly know, but the moment he reincarnated, the remaining energy of his artifact spread through the class and when it was about to dissipate it touched one of the boys inside the class and made his soul flare-up like a torch, Fang Yun the son of a merchant, suddenly recalled memories of a life he couldn't understand.
Countless memories went through his mind in a matter of seconds, he blacked out for a second and then opened his eyes as if he had awakened from a nightmare. Looking around he couldn't help but gulp. 'This is truly happening, isn't it? I actually reincarnated... Could my praises to the jade emperor have worked? After so many years of reading xianxia, xuanhuan, and wuxia novels, I finally received the chance to live in a cultivation world... But how did this happened? All I can remember is being hit by a truck after slipping and falling on the street... I shouldn't have gone outside when it was raining so much, I'm so stupid...'
Seeing the students around him, he couldn't help but remember a comic web novel he read in his past life, something called TDG. There was even a beautiful redhead teacher as well...
However, the moment he looked behind him he couldn't help but shudder, 'No way... this isn't possible...' His eyes were almost popping out of his head, but thankfully the enraged words of his teacher awakened him.
"For the next two years, all of you are my students. Although the principal mentioned that Holy Orchid Institute's students are equal, I have to let you know the ugly truth. In this world, equality doesn't exist!" Her words were like daggers that heavily stabbed into the hearts of the students.
"Fighters and Demon Spiritualists are divided into Bronze, Silver, Gold, Black Gold and Legend ranks. The higher the rank, the more powerful one is. If a family produces a Gold rank Demon Spiritualist, they can become an aristocratic family. If a family produced a Black Gold rank Demon Spiritualist, they can become a Noble family. If a family produces three Black Gold rank Demon Spiritualists or a Legend rank Demon Spiritualist, that family can become a Major family. We have thirty-six people here. Some come from commoner families, some come from noble families. Although your starting point is the same, your identities are not. I hope each and every one of you has self-awareness and a degree of manners. Commoners will always remain commoners. It's impossible for you to become an Aristocratic family, so do not dream of rising up to become a phoenix. Even within the nobility, they have a strict difference in levels that can never be exceeded."
Under Shen Xiu's gaze, the students that were simply dressed in the class showed discomfort on their faces. They were embarrassed and lowered their heads. Shen Xiu, and a few nobles, proudly pushed out their chests and showed arrogant pride. Only Nie Li, Ye Ziyun, Lu Piao, and a few other nobles kept calm.
Fang Yun looked at his hands and after hearing her words, he couldn't help but agree with her, it didn't matter how much BS Nie Li would speak later, in worlds such as this one, talent and starting point would almost 99% of the time decided how far one would go in his life, without fortuitous encounters it would be impossible for the vast majority of the main characters to advance and become strong. Right now he didn't know if he was like those characters or someone who would have to go through hell in order to get stronger... Either way, his knowledge of the future made him worry about his own future, there was so much danger awaiting him in the future.
If he didn't give his all to get stronger, even this new life of his could be lost! Even if this isn't his first life, he still had a father and mother who he dearly loved and would do his best to protect and honor. Life was difficult no matter where you are, right now his main priority is to find ways to strengthen himself. And he could only think of one way to achieve this right now... Turning back, from the corner of his eyes he looked at Nie Li who had just finished talking with Lu Piao and was frowning as he looked to teacher Shen Xiu.
"Teacher Shen Xiu, I have a question,"
Seeing that someone interrupted her speech she looked at the back of the class with anger in her eyes as she looked for the culprit. She instantly recognized him for some reason that Fang Yun couldn't remember, after all, although he read the comic and the novel, TDG wasn't exactly his favorite novel, he couldn't even remember the names of most secondary characters...
Shen Xiu coldly snorted, "What is it?"
"Teacher Shen Xiu says that Glory City is the only one that survived the Age of Darkness, that we are the only surviving humans. What proof do you have on this statement? May I ask if the teacher ever went out of the St. Ancestral Mountains and visited the Endless Desert, the Toxic Forest, the Blood Moon Marsh, the Spirit Gulf, the Heavenly Luster Mountains, and the Northern Snow before?" Nie Li asked.
As someone who was reborn, and retained his past experiences, Nie Li can completely look down on Shen Xiu.
"What Heavenly Luster Mountain? What Northern Snow?" Shen Xiu frowned. She has heard of the Endless Desert, Toxic Forest, and Blood Moon Marsh before, but those places were very far away from the St. Ancestral Mountains. She has only heard of them in legends.
Shen Xiu snorted, "I've been in Glory City since birth, and have never been to those places."
Nie Li smiled faintly and said, "Since Teacher Shen Xiu never went to those places, how can you be so sure that we are the only human beings alive?"
Shen Xiu was at a loss for words.
Seeing Nie Li playing around with the teacher made Fang Yun feel sick, he couldn't understand how someone who lived for so many years like him could have this childish personality. Or maybe he just couldn't judge people of such worlds in the same way he would judge people in his own world.
Their discussion kept going until the students couldn't hold themselves and started laughing at the 'frog-teacher'.
Nie Li looked at Shen Xiu, and continued "Teacher Shen Xiu, I still have another question."
Shen Xiu was about to die from the anger, but she couldn't flare up here. She could only reply in a bad mood, "What question do you still have?!"
"Teacher Shen Xiu said, 'a commoner will always remain a commoner, they can never become a noble.' I have a little question. wasn't the Legend rank Demon Spiritualist, Ye Mo, a commoner when he was still young?" Nie Li asked, blinking his eyes a few times, and looking at Shen Xiu. "Is Teacher Shen Xiu not aware of this?"
After listening to what Nie Li said, the eyes of the commoners in the class lit up. They are all aware of Lord Ye Mo's story. He was an example to follow when one wants to become a powerful existence. Except, the words that Shen Xiu spoke of earlier were simply too harsh. This caused them to be depressed.
"You… In the hundreds of years of Glory City, Lord Ye Mo's the only one able to climb to the peak by relying on his own ability," said Shen Xiu, showing a moment of lag. She quickly retaliated with her far-fetched reply.
"But didn't Teacher Shen Xiu say that it's impossible? Why are you being so self-contradicting?" Nie Li coldly sneered, "Lord Ye Mo is a clear cut example. No matter if it's a noble, or commoner, the future's potential is infinite. Nothing is difficult, as long as one is willing to climb."
At that moment Teacher Shen Xiu was no different than those banshees from legends. If looks could kill Nie Li would already be on his grave.
Shen Xiu sneered, "Smart mouth, you think that putting things this way could change the harsh reality? You only looked at Lord Ye Mo's glorious moment but didn't look at how many people have failed. Not to mention being a Demon Spiritualist, even becoming a Fighter in itself is a difficult thing to achieve. Nie Li, right? You can be considered a bloodline of an Aristocratic family. Since you don't know when to come and go, I'll see what kind of talent you have."
Shen Xiu lowered her head and took a look at the parchment paper in her hands. After taking a glimpse of the contents, she mockingly laughed, "Nie Li: red soul realm, current soul force 5, strength 21. With your talent, you can only reach Bronze rank Fighter in your entire life. Wanting to become a Demon Spiritualist is simply impossible. You're even inferior to some of the commoners. No wonder you dare to speak in this way. You are just trying to hide your own low self-esteem!"
A soul realm's grade is differentiated by the colors: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, azure, and indigo. Of the seven different grades, red is considered the worst. It's the weakest to the lowest level. An average person would have an orange or yellow soul realm. Having a green or cyan soul realm could already be considered a genius. As for azure and indigo soul realms, they have only existed in legends.
Nie Li and the teacher kept trading insults at each other through vicious and concealed words, this only stopped after he talked about making the infamous bet. While the others were surprised at his words, Fang Yun didn't even bother to conceal the serious way in which he looked at him, he wasn't in the mood to play dumb.
"That being the case, why would I not dare? I do not believe an egotistical brat like you can achieve anything. Who do you think you are boasting to?" Shen Xiu angrily snorted, "Such rudeness to your teacher. For the next two months, you will stand at the back of the classroom and listen to the class!"
Shen Xiu's famous for being unreasonable. Nie Li looked contemptuously at Shen Xiu. So what if he's standing at the back of the class, for Nie Li this little punishment is superficial.
"Since Teacher Shen Xiu agreed to the bet, don't regret it later," said Nie Li as he strolled to the back of the class.
"I'll regret it? What a joke. Don't come crying to me later!" Shen Xiu laughed.
Seeing Nie Li standing at the back of the classroom, the students started to speak about his situation and how things developed, most of them basically didn't have any faith in him, only pity.
But at that moment, Fang Yun stood up before the others could process what just happened and walked to him. Nie Li looked curiously at the boy standing in front of him, as far as he could remember, in his previous life he was someone who studied with them for a while then suddenly disappeared, this all happened way before the events that took place in Glory City, so he didn't have the opportunity to interact with the boy too much. In the six months that he studied with him all he could remember was that this boy spent most of his time in the library.
"Nie Li, I believe in your words, however, I'm pretty sure that such a thing won't happen without a hellish effort." Fang Yun stood beside Nie Li as he looked to the teacher.
The students couldn't help but take another look at this guy that they never heard about before. He was a tall and thin boy with white skin, short brown hairs, and blue eyes, his face was sharp and gave him a feeling of a dangerous blade waiting to cut something.
Then Lu Piao and Du Ze followed them and stood at the back of the class looking at the teacher.
Seeing this, Shen Xiu's eyes darkened and hummed, "Since you also like standing, you can stand together with him."
Successively, three other commoner kids stood up and stood by Nie Li's side. Nie Li belonged to a noble family, but he took the risk of withdrawing from the institute to speak up for them. They were grateful for that, so they felt that they have to support Nie Li.
Fang Yun, who still kept a serious look on his face, looked at their interaction, and sighed. He didn't know how he should react to all of this. No matter how much carefree Nie Li and his friend's attitudes were, for him this was a truly important matter, he was more than determined to use all of his capabilities and get as much help as he can from Nie Li. He didn't entertain any thoughts such as wasting his time with romantic affairs like him or Lu Piao, after all, he wasn't a reincarnated cultivator, he was only a reincarnated brat who dreamed to live in a world similar to the ones like this... The pressure on his back was enough to even make him shudder...
When she saw this, Shen Xiu's facial expression turned ugly. She put on a cold face and continued her lecture.
"After being tested, among the students in this class, Ye Ziyun, with a cyan soul realm, has a soul force of 86. Shen Yue and Xiao Ning'er both have a green soul realm, with a soul force of 78. They will soon reach [1-star Bronze rank]. Congratulations to them!" Shen Xiu lightly said. Her gaze fell on Nie Li for a moment. This is a real talent, what's Nie Li compared to them?
After hearing the teacher's words, Fang Yun suddenly remembered something that only Nie Li would probably be capable of helping him understand. On the day of the test, something went wrong and they only managed to assess his strength which was 52, quite good for someone who basically didn't cultivate yet, so he had yet to know what level of talent he had.