Chapter 1: Twenty-Three Silver Dragons

Bubbling sounds filled the air as rice boiled in a pot.

A storage spirit card was quietly inserted into the control box beside the pot. Similar to the electricity on Earth, these spirit cards provided valuable and consistent spiritual energy to the spirit rice cooker.

"Spiritual energy..."

"Spirituality..."

Duke withdrew his distant gaze and scattered thoughts. At the same time, the rice cooker flipped the switch up, indicating that a pot of fragrant rice had finished cooking, with sausages in the steamer alongside.

With a plate of pickled cabbage, it was Duke's breakfast.

Although the meal was meager, Duke still devoured it, consuming three full bowls of rice. This was because when his attempt to open the Sea of Blood failed, the Blood Boiling Potion had drained all his energy.

Born into poverty, he had to rely on food to regain his strength.

"Phew."

After finishing the rice, Duke finally felt a bit revitalized. He paid no mind to cleaning the dishes; instead, he locked the door and quickly walked out onto the street. Both sides of the street were lined with low, simple houses.

The early risers were already bustling about.

Passing through a narrow alley, a screech echoed from a rooftop.

Shortly after, a window was pushed open with a creak. A gray-brown owl flapped its wings, landing on the windowsill with a small parcel clutched in its talons.

The homeowner took out a silver coin and placed it into a small pouch hanging around the owl's neck.

Only then did the owl release its grip on the parcel, flapped its wings, and flew away.

"Mail Carrier Owl, 0-ring Spiritual Beast."

Duke glanced and his memory provided the answer.

0-ring Spiritual Beasts were somewhere between wild and spiritual creatures, much more mystical and intelligent than ordinary beasts. They could perform various tasks, such as being trained as mail carriers, like this owl.

Not dwelling on the owl, he walked through several alleys to a shop with a sign that read "Little Sam's Card Repair Shop."

The shop was already open, and someone was busy cleaning.

"Morning, Bob."

"Morning to you too, little Duke," Bob looked up. At forty years old, he was a formal worker at Little Sam's card repair shop. "You look a bit pale, what's wrong?"

"Uh, nothing," Duke managed a fittingly awkward smile.

"Oh, I remember now. Did you buy the Blood Boiling Potion like Bobby said? Is it caused by the awakening of the Sea of Blood?" Bob asked with concern, "Did the awakening succeed?"

"No."

Duke lowered his head.

Who could know that he was no longer the familiar Duke to those around him? Instead, he was a new Duke, a transmigrator from Earth who had failed to awaken the Sea of Blood, exhausted his own self, and performed a resurrection by borrowing another body—a completely different Duke.

To avoid drawing attention, "Duke" had to play the part of Duke properly.

Clearly unaware of Duke's change, Bob shook his head in mock disappointment, patted Duke's shoulder, and said, "Don't get discouraged. It just means we're all ordinary folks. Let's get to work."

"Yeah."

Duke headed to workstation number three in the shop.

He was an apprentice at Little Sam's card repair shop, learning the art of card repair under the card repair master, Bast.

"Hey, Duke Duke!" from the neighboring workstation number two, Bob's son, Bobby, held a cloth, wiping a table as he leaned over, and asked, "Did you buy the Blood Boiling Potion yesterday?"

Before Duke could answer, Bobby grinned mischievously, "You definitely didn't open the Sea of Blood. Just look at how pale you are! If you had, you wouldn't be back at work!"

Further down at workstation number one, the apprentice Thomas leaned his head to join in, "I told you, spending money on the Blood Boiling Potion is a waste. It'd be much better to save it for marrying a wife in the future."

Facing the apprentices' jests, Duke absentmindedly responded, "You have to try things out."

His mind was burdened with too many thoughts.

The human body had three seas: the Sea of Qi, the Sea of Blood, and the Sea of Spirit. Opening any one of them could lead to the path of transcendence. The former self had spent all his savings the previous night to buy the Blood Boiling Potion, hoping to awaken the Sea of Blood before his fifteenth birthday.

After fifteen, it would become much harder to awaken it.

But alas, the Blood Boiling Potion had failed to open it. Adding to that, he had also purchased a Qi Boosting Potion three months ago in an attempt to open the Sea of Qi, which also failed. That meant two out of three paths were blocked.

"For now, I must open the Sea of Spirit!"

Opening the Sea of Spirit required the assistance of a Spirit Awakening Potion, worth twenty-three silver dragons. Now penniless, Duke had no idea how to get that money.

The official currency of the Seven Pagoda Federation was the dragon coin, which came in three types: gold dragons, silver dragons, and copper dragons.

One gold dragon exchanged for one hundred silver dragons, and one silver dragon exchanged for one hundred copper dragons.

The buying power of one copper dragon was roughly equivalent to one dollar.

"Two thousand three hundred coins... 'I,' as an apprentice, earn five and a half silver dragons per month. That's five hundred and fifty, which means it'll take me over four months of not eating or drinking to save up enough." Duke deftly disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the instruments on his workstation, muscle memory at play. "I need to find other ways to gather this money."

Among the three seas, he had yet to attempt opening the Sea of Spirit.

But Duke was confident he could open it.

This was his "cheat code" as a transmigrator. Now all he lacked was a medicinal catalyst to open the Sea of Spirit, a Spirit Awakening Potion worth twenty-three silver dragons.

9:15 a.m.

A middle-aged man in long-sleeved overalls entered the card repair shop, his face adorned with a stylish little mustache. Upon entering, he called out loudly, "Little Duke, is my coffee ready?"

"It's ready, Master Bast," Duke lifted the coffee cup.

Bast took the coffee, sipped it, and wiped the long table at workstation number three with his hand. He frowned and scolded, "You can't even clean a table properly? Hurry up and do it properly!"

In truth, the table was already quite clean.

But Duke didn't protest. He picked up a cloth and started wiping it again.

The man before him, Master Bast, was one of the three external card repair masters at Little Sam's. Duke was an apprentice under him, learning the art of card repair.

Apprentices held a low status and enduring humiliation was common.

At just fifteen years old, the former self lacked any means to make a living. Getting an apprenticeship was already no small feat.

Once the table was cleaned, Duke arranged the tools neatly. Bast had finished his coffee by then.

Passing the empty cup to Duke, he scolded without restraint, "Why are you standing there like an idiot? Insert the card and start up the machine. I need to start repairing cards. There are always too many cards to repair!"

"Of course."

Duke didn't mind the tone, nor did he show any difference from usual as he adeptly took a thick storage spirit card and inserted it into the machine's interface slot.

The lines on the storage card lit up, signifying the supply of spiritual energy had begun.

Pressing the switch, the machine instantly started.

It was a semi-new card detection device that could identify damaged energy circuits within damaged cards. It was used to assist card repair masters in fixing these circuits.

Rolling up his sleeves, Bast took a card from a stack of discarded ones and placed it on the machine's detection platform.

Duke stood by, quietly observing.

The former self had wanted to learn the art of card repair, too. It was one of the few benefits of being an apprentice - the chance to learn card repair from the card repair masters.

Of course, he could only learn a little.

Repairing energy circuits required card repair masters to call upon their Sea of Spirit to mobilize spiritual energy. Without the Sea of Spirit, apprentices could only be responsible for menial tasks like gluing, polishing, and mounting cards, things that an ordinary person could do.

Card repair master Bast had opened his Sea of Spirit.

However, his talent and understanding were limited. He had never managed to build a complete energy circuit within the Sea of Spirit in his entire life, lingering in the 0-ring level of spiritual apprenticeship. One complete circuit represented one ring, and a circuit that couldn't close was not a ring, although it could be colloquially called a 0-ring.

Accompanied by a series of clicks, a set of interwoven lines appeared on the damaged card.

This was an energy circuit, holding the abundant spiritual energy within it.

Bast quickly identified the damaged points and carefully pried open the card's cover using specialized spirit pens, instruments that could draw energy circuits. He began repairing the first damaged point.

It was a delicate task.

The energy circuit was like a highway in the microcosmic world. If the road was uneven or broken, it could impede the flow of energy, thus compromising the card's effectiveness.

The card repair master had to use their Sea of Spirit to mend the highway, ensuring that it remained smoothly functional.

Upon reaching this step, Duke quietly withdrew.

Once he gathered the twenty-three silver dragons, he could personally explore the Sea of Spirit, diving into the endless network of energy lines and constructing closed loops one after another.