First Step

"Shu Meng, why are you gazing at your empty hands again?"

"I know how to deduce things by counting with my fingers."

"Fart! Go to the second floor and arrange everything for the nobleman, he will arrive soon!"

Shu Meng shrugged and closed the book only he could see, the book disappeared mysteriously and he went to the second floor as his master ordered.

He was originally a slave bought by the head librarian of the royal library, he was sold by his parents because of their hunger.

Unfortunately or not, on the same day he was bought the head librarian died of a heart attack. The one who took his place as the new head accepted him as a pupil just after, and he was taught to be literate from an early age.

"What a mess, master sure doesn't know how to keep things organized," Shu Meng sighed after seeing the many books out of place.

After doing his job, he used his free time to continue what he was originally doing.

A mysterious book appeared in his hands again and he began to seemingly read it, although he couldn't understand anything that was written.

In truth, he wasn't trying to read the book by normal means but to read it through a mysterious way he didn't completely understand yet.

When he glanced at any page, his mind entered into a mysterious trance and he could browse the book's contents without reading it.

He didn't know the book's origin, but it once appeared in a dream and returned to reality with him.

"Return to the novel I was reading..." he muttered and imaginary pages with words he could understand appeared in his mind, it was a story he began to read a while ago, it was called [Desolate Worlds: I alone cultivate.]

The mysterious book gave him the ability to read books from unknown origins, and many of those books carried otherworldly concepts and ideas.

When he wanted to read a fiction book, a seemingly list of titles would appear for him to choose, and all of them in the language he understood. And the same was true for other types of books.

He was sixteen years old that year, and he got the book when he was nine. So it had been about seven years since he began to come in contact with knowledge far out of his civilization's scope.

When he finished reading the chapters of the book he had planned to read that day, he sighed and closed the book in his hands.

"I wonder if other worlds really exist," he muttered with dazed eyes, "How interesting would it be if things like magic and cultivation truly existed, instead of being just fiction."

Because he also read many books about technology, he believed the mysterious book was just a product of an advanced civilization.

"Shu Meng! What are you doing!?" his master suddenly appeared beside him and knocked his head, "The nobleman is about to arrive, let's go down!"

His name was Xu Yuan, and he was an old man with a sturdy body and fierce look, but he was one of the most renowned scholars in the capital of the Zhou Kingdom.

They spent the rest of the day taking care of the nobleman's needs since he was the son of an important minister and also someone with great scholarly background.

When the nobleman finally left, Shu Meng went to his room and began to read again, making his master scold him for being unfilial.

The nobleman left a fair share of mess to be taken care of, despite being a scholar.

"I can't take it anymore, I don't want to spend the rest of my life like this..." Shu Meng muttered with a complex look, "How good would it be if cultivation was a real thing?

"Those damn scammers out there claiming to be immortals and alchemists only can scam the illiterate.

"What bullshit golden core, it is simply poison made with gold and mercury, and kills people when taken continuously.

"What bullshit Qi! They just trick people into thinking they can sense qi, but it is just a fruit of their imagination and deep trickery! And if you can't sense it, it's because you have no talent, ha!

"What bullshit magic!"

After complaining about reality for a long time, Shu Meng finally regained his cool and took a deep breath.

"In any case, this is MY reality, I can't change it," he muttered to himself and was about to continue reading a fiction book when an idea hit him.

"Since I can read any book in existence through this mysterious book, can't I seek real books of supernatural?" he was a little excited but his knowledge quickly calmed him and subdued his excitement.

"Nah, it's impossible. How can I, someone with real knowledge, be tricked by my own emotions and imagination?"

Despite saying that, he already began to browse in seek of such material through the mysterious book, like a child earnestly seeking supernatural powers.

Unfortunately, there weren't any real books on magic and/or cultivation, only fiction books.

"Damn it!" Shu Meng felt bitter and almost cried, like a child having his hopes smashed by cruel reality.

As a stubborn adolescent he was, he tried to find another way.

"A scientific approach to turn the supernatural into reality!" Shu Meng felt a little excited but tried to keep his hopes low to not be impacted by cruel reality again.

This time, he found an unfathomable amount of books. The pages of the mysterious book in his hand turned crazily as if doing great work.

Shu Meng was used to scientific documentation and knew most of those books were simply unproven and unreliable.

He urged the mysterious book to filter the results to a few conditions.

The book had to be peer-reviewed, have solid theoretical evidence, and accompany real-life experimental results.

The pages of the mysterious book turned crazily for a while and the unfathomable amount of books began to shrink rapidly until only a few dozen books remained.

But soon, Shu Meng frowned. All of those books were incomplete, without exception. They were complete until the theoretical part, but their experimental data were incomplete as if they were unable to finish the experiments for some reason, but the data they had was very solid.

But even though they were incomplete, they were peer-reviewed.

Even though they were incomplete, Shu Meng was still very excited. He began to read the introduction of every book with great enthusiasm and was marveled by the new concepts and hard-to-understand ideas.

He knew he would need to do great research to be able to understand those books, so he had the idea to transcribe them to real life.

After all, it was inconvenient to do research through the mysterious book without practicing and writing in real life.

He spent the next months transcribing all the books and studying them one by one.

But even after transcribing all of them, he was still able to understand them well enough, he knew it would take years for him to be able to understand everything.

When he encountered something he couldn't understand, he had to use the mysterious book to find the answer, and it consumed his time.

It took him five years to have a solid understanding of all the books he transcribed, and he felt like he was a truly knowledgeable person when he was done.

He learned more about the laws that govern the superficial world and about the hidden world of strange phenomena. About concepts such as the true nature of dark energy, the most basic known form of material energy, and so on...

And not only that, but he also had to learn a lot about biology to be able to understand the scientific papers.

He was twenty-one by then, a grown man with an extraordinary scholarly bearing.

His master, despite being over seventy years old, seemed far from the limit of his lifespan and was very lively when working.

He always kept his research a secret, even though he knew no one could understand anything from it. But he didn't want to be seen as a lunatic.

"Not that I turned all those scientific papers into my own background, I need to find a way to complete their research and turn the so-called 'supernatural' into reality..." he muttered while cleaning the library's floor with a broom.

Although there were other servants in the royal library, his master was adamant about making his pupil do this kind of job.

It was something about discipline.

When he finished, Shu Meng returned to his room quietly and began to prepare to take the first step.

"I read too many fiction books, I have lots of ideas, but not all of them were adequate," he muttered and closed his eyes.

"If anything, the first step would be to transform the human body to make it able to control a certain type of energy present in reality.

"I need to choose adequate energy and a method to transform the body. This energy has to be able to be influenced by the power of thoughts and need to be calm and gentle enough...

"The method of transformation needs to be gradual and precise enough, otherwise the body will crumble...

"And the body needs to have a minimal degree of compatibility with this energy..."

What Shu Meng was doing was simply what all the scientists and authors of the papers he studied didn't complete, for some odd reason.

Those scientists clearly had enough background to use, but they never took the most important step to reach the supernatural, as if afraid of something.

After a long train of thought, Shu Meng was decisive and said, "The nature of muddled energy is very appropriate. It is very sensible to the weak power of thoughts and also gentle enough. Moreover, muddled energy is present in every real existence. It causes phenomena like the uncertainty of particles and other seemingly random things.

"Even, it was proven to be drawn to living bodies from time to time, even though no one can naturally sense it.

"Maybe the first transformation should be to make a person able to sense this energy and control it better."

Suddenly, the sound of thunder awakened Shu Meng from his train of thought.

"...I remember the sky was clear a while ago, why is it suddenly thundering?" he muttered and went to close his windows.

He then began to write a sketch of a plan on how to complete the first transformation. He used his knowledge of biology and hidden phenomena to create it.

After the sketch was done, he spent the next few months perfecting it. Doing very extensive research along the way to fill the gaps.

Because of environmental limitations, he had to use the experimental data already available rather than doing his own experiments.

When he felt he had already done his best and couldn't perfect it further, an accident broke out.

Out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning descended from the sky and hit his room, destroying everything in it, and killing Shu Meng.

The mysterious book suddenly appeared and absorbed the remaining energy dispersed by the lightning, using it to restore Shu Meng.

Another lightning hit Shu Meng and killed him again, but the mysterious book again restored him.

It continued to happen for a long time, but strangely no one was attracted by the loud sounds of thunder and destruction.

Shu Meng's consciousness found itself in the strange space of the mysterious book, but he could see everything that was happening in reality.

"Is this the reason no one completed their research?" he muttered with bewilderment, "But why would lightning fall on those who do this kind of research?"

He racked his brains but couldn't find a reasonable reason in his memory.

"Is it a side-effect of manipulating muddled energy so extensively?" he muttered but shook his head, "No way, it was never documented. And other teams used other kinds of energy instead of muddled energy.

"There should be a common point between them, though," Shu Meng thought hard and found a possibility, "All of the energies mentioned in their different research were hidden energies, and belonged to the class of hidden phenomena.

"And hidden phenomena is not entirely understood, maybe manipulating this kind of energy with the power of thoughts bring about this kind of superficial violent manifestation..."

He began to browse the mysterious book in search of an answer to his doubts while his body was continuously destroyed and restored to its original state again and again.

Time passed, and no one was attracted by the noises as if that place had become a forbidden and forgotten territory.

Shu Meng didn't find the answer he wished in the scientific material but found a lot of ideas in the fiction area.

"Maybe... there really is something like thunder tribulation falling on those who defy natural laws?" Shu Meng muttered in deep thought but soon shook his head, "I already surpassed those superficial beliefs long ago, the so-called supernatural is just part of the natural, otherwise it would be impossible.

"Then... why?"

Shu Meng couldn't find an answer no matter how much he tried.

But while he observed his body being destroyed by lightning, an idea flashed in his mind, a fleeting light to a desperate man.

"I didn't even begin to apply my research to real life, and didn't begin to practice the method of transformation yet, but even so the lightning began to descend...

"As if it was attracted by just the idea of what I wanted to do.

"An idea emanates the power of thoughts, even if subconsciously.

"But not any idea attracts lightning.

"I once studied the many types of power of thoughts, so...

"A certain kind of unknown power of thought is being created when having the idea to manipulate energies of the same kind as muddled energy to do 'supernatural' things.

"And this specific kind of power of thought attracts lightning."

Shu Meng thought his idea was very reasonable, but he couldn't prove it in his state and with the level of the civilization he was in.

But since he only had this explanation, he began to work on it.

"Power of thoughts is an elusive force and can change as one wishes even if one doesn't sense and understand it.

"And as I know, there's a way to forcibly change a certain type of power of thought into another type.

"And that is through deep meditation and a similar state to hypnosis.

"Since this unknown kind of power of thought is causing this disaster, I only need to change it to another kind forcibly, without the need to change my real intention."

He began to act based on his shallow hope of being right. He had no evidence for his hypothesis, but he couldn't do much anyway.

Although his consciousness had no eyes, he feigned to close them and entered a state of meditation, trying his best to empty his thoughts first.

He forgot about the lighting, about his wishes and dreams, about everything else. It wasn't easy, but perhaps because he was in a state of pure consciousness and without his body's impulses, he managed to do it.

When his mind was empty, the lightning stopped falling from the sky and everything seemed to calm down.

Finally, some people noticed the huge amount of destruction and began to panic.

But Shu Meng couldn't care about that, he had yet to exit the state of deep meditation.

Because he entered it in a state of pure consciousness, it became rather dangerous. Without his body's impulses, he could bever awaken from that, like a deep coma.

When the mind was empty, nothing happened. And if nothing happened, emptiness remained still.

The mysterious book acted again as if feeling Shu Meng was in danger. Somehow, a streak of memory entered his mind, interrupting his deep state of meditation.

This memory was about himself, and who he was.

That streak of memory began to awaken Shu Meng and many other memories began to resurface.

...

"Ugh..." Shu Meng moaned and opened his eyes, he was in a strange room.

"Finally awake, boy," his master was beside him, observing with concern.

"Master..." Shu Meng muttered and began to remember what happened, but he felt a huge danger and forcibly suppressed certain thoughts and memories with all his might.

"Go out, master, I don't know how long I can hold on remembering," he moaned and tried to get up.

"What are you talking about," Xu Yuan panicked, "Is your mind alright? Are you hallucinating?"

Shu Meng began to hear thunderous sounds and panicked, he got up from the bed and jumped the window close to him without hesitation.

Almost at the same moment, lightning fell and struck him.