For the next several days, I practiced the Earth Heart Mantra alone in my tiny house. In reality, I wasn’t much more than sitting around silently. Servants delivered meals, but they never stuck around to chat. It was a somewhat miserable existence. During this time, I tried my best to cultivate, but it seemed like, with zero affinity, making any progress was going to be more difficult than I had hoped.

Fortunately, on the fifth day, things changed. Everyone was brought to the large dirt square behind the houses, the imperiously named ‘Martial Arts Training Yard.’

An older man with military bearing stood in the middle of this yard and began shouting orders at us.

“Quiet! Space out and circle around.”

He waited in a stiff pose as we did as ordered. Once we were all in position, he gestured toward us with a wide sweep of his arm.

“You may have noticed that several of your number are no longer present. They have been taken away for specialized training.” He held up a finger. “The first group that was separated out contains those who were blessed to become crafters. Cultivators with a profession-related blessing are rare, and they are treated with great respect. You will never be their equal.”

Saying this brought a slight sneer to his face, but he quickly moved on and held up a second finger.

“The second group contains those who are destined to become the clan’s elites. They possess high affinities and powerful blessings. It is unlikely that you will ever be their match, but it is not impossible. With enough effort, enough training, some of you may possess the potential to rival them.”

Looking around, I saw that the red-robed prick who had beaten me to death just a few days ago was among those who were missing. Putting this information together with the look of superiority that he had given me the last time we had met, I could guess that he was considered to be one of the ‘elites.’

“For the next three months, you will all be undergoing extensive martial training. Every hour of every day, you will either be exercising, cultivating, or recovering. You will push yourself to do your best at every moment.”

His eyes roamed across everyone as he gave us all a disgusted look.

“This training won’t just be hard. It will be deadly. If you relax for even a moment, you might find out that it was your last.” He smirked and looked around the circle. “Why don’t we have a little demonstration so that I can show you what I mean? Do we have any volunteers?”

Everyone froze. No one wanted to be the first to offer themselves up for a beating.

After waiting a few heartbeats, I decided to make a move. Was it stupid? Sure. Did I care? Not really. What was the worst that could happen? The instructor’s words sounded rather ominous, but I didn’t have anything to lose, and there were credits to gain. I might as well go ahead and see where this path took me.

I stepped forward.

“I volunteer.”

“Excellent.” The instructor seemed truly satisfied. “Attack me!”

Again, I froze briefly, but after only a moment.

Then, I moved.

I was no professional, but I had learned a bit of fighting in my first life. I wouldn’t be able to take down a trained fighter, but I was confident enough in my ability to take on a simple street tough. I probably wouldn’t be able to win this fight, but if I could put on a good show, then maybe I could earn a little respect.

I rushed forward and punched out with my left fist at the man’s chest. It wasn’t a feint, but it also wasn’t a full-power hit. I had to force him to raise his arms for a block.

As he did, I pivoted and swung my right fist at his midsection. This was again blocked.

I worked as hard as I could, throwing out a punch or kick whenever I saw a potential opening.

The man easily blocked everything. He didn’t even bother to dodge or redirect the force of my attacks. He just stuck out a palm and batted me away.

“Good, it seems like at least someone knows a little about fighting.” The instructor smiled happily. Then, this smile flashed into a sudden scowl. “Too bad you didn’t listen to what I said. Relaxing for even a moment means death!”

Suddenly, he threw a punch that was almost too fast for me to even see.

The blow struck my head, stunning me.

If this man was even close to as strong as the guard I had met earlier, he should have been able to kill me with a single strike, but he didn’t. He spent several slow, agonizing minutes tenderizing my flesh. One bone after another snapped as he pummeled me endlessly. I wanted him to stop, but I couldn’t speak.

Finally, after an eternity of suffering, the instructor allowed my body to collapse to the ground.

“This is your lesson for today. In this training, slacking for even a moment means death.”

Every breath I took was painful, and no one so much as looked at my broken body as my blood seeped out and stained the sandy soil around me.

You have died. Calculating…

You died as a Martial Disciple 1 — 10 credits awarded.

Total Credits: 10

Upon waking up in the same courtyard as always, my body was healed, but my mind was in a state of disarray. Thankfully, I didn’t need to think. I only needed to do as I had always done and follow the crowd.

When I sat back down in my tiny house, nothing made a sound, which was nice. Waking from death was starting to become routine, but it still wasn’t easy. Memories of bleeding out on the dirt ground lingered in my mind. Coming to during the awakening ceremony had been more difficult than ever before, but walking back to this tiny house had almost felt like a relaxing ritual.

I laughed mirthlessly. My purchase of that healing pill had been a complete waste of credits. I was back in the same spot I had started in, in the same terrible body, ten credits poorer. I considered buying another one, but there was no point. It would be better to see if I could get through this new encounter without it first.

Sitting alone in my house, I thought through everything that had happened and tried to think of what I could do differently. I could try lying about having some unique or powerful blessing, but I doubted that would work. The elders would almost certainly require proof of such a thing, after all.

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Without any credits to help me, there were only two things I could change. I could try to improve my cultivation base, and I could avoid volunteering to be a punching bag. The first might be difficult, but the second shouldn’t be any problem at all.

However, before I could worry about doing either, I first had to survive having my affinities tested again.

After waiting for about four hours, I was taken to the house with the strange orb, and the elder asked me the same question. ‘What is your blessing?’

This time, I didn’t have a healed body, but I repeated my same answer, regardless. Whether the examiner noticed this lie or not, he didn’t seem to care. I was still given the Earth Heart Mantra and then sent away, just like last time.

If nothing else came of this life, then I had at least found a way to save 10 credits.

Once back in my house, I continued my cultivation practice, but it didn’t do me much good. While I had begun to feel the qi around me, I made absolutely zero progress in controlling it.

At the end of the week, when we all gathered around the Martial Arts Training Yard again, everything was pretty much exactly the same as it had been the last time we were here. The instructor gave the same speech, and he ended it with the same question.

“Why don’t we have a little demonstration so that I can show you what I mean?” An evil glint appeared in his eye. “Do we have any volunteers?”

Learning that volunteering meant certain death, I wisely chose to keep silent.

I did my best impression of a stone and let time pass me by as the murderer in front of me waited for someone to kill.

“Hmpf, not a single person brave enough to demonstrate what they know.” The man spoke with a disgusted tone. “Fine. You! Step forward and show me something.”

The bastard was pointing right at me. Apparently, I was the designated whipping boy.

Sparring with him would only lead to a gruesome death, and I really wanted to avoid going through that again. So, I stepped forward and started shadowboxing in the hope that I might be able to ‘show him something’ without being killed.

This only seemed to enrage the man.

“What the hell are you doing? Get over here and fight! NOW!”

I didn’t want to go, but something shoved me forward.

I managed to regain my balance and get into an attacking stance, but it didn’t matter.

You have died. Calculating…

You died as a Martial Disciple 1 — 10 credits awarded.

Total Credits: 20

Walking up in the courtyard, I wanted to cry. The pain of my body might have been gone, and even my memories of it had been dulled in some way, but the trauma lingered within my soul.

With each life, and each death, this trauma only seemed to build. Experiencing death multiple times wasn’t making things easier, and knowing the future that awaited me only made things worse.

I needed to calm down. I needed to talk things out.

Upon returning to my tiny house, I sat down, stared at the floor, and began tracing cracks in the wood with my eyes as I let my mind mull over the situation.

“Why did I die?”

“Because a huge prick forced me to fight him. He could have picked anyone. He picked me. He wanted to kill me. Why?” I looked up and stared straight ahead at the barren wall and rickety wooden door. “Why is too difficult. Not enough information. What can I change so that it doesn’t happen again?”

After thinking through everything from several different angles, I came to a depressing answer.

“Not much.”

I didn’t have enough credits to buy my way out of the situation, and I couldn’t earn more because I couldn’t cultivate. If I spent what few credits I did have on a healing pill or a low nine-star affinity, then I would only end up in a worse position if I still died without advancing.

After thinking through several possibilities, I was only able to come up with one idea that might let me survive and that wouldn’t cost anything to try.

I didn’t have any way to avoid being sent back to my house after having my affinities tested, and I couldn’t hide away in my house during the training session, since servants went around and ensured that everyone was in attendance.

All I could think to try was to stand in a spot where the instructor couldn’t see me. Doing this would almost certainly be meaningless, but what else could I do? Anything else would require spending credits I didn’t have.

I shuddered.

“Yes… death hurts, but I have to experiment to understand what variables are important.”

With this plan in place, I calmed my mind and did my best to focus on figuring out how to cultivate. I had several days before my eventual death, and I needed to put them to good use.

At the end of the week, while circling up for training, I hid in the far corner of the yard and did my best to become invisible.

It didn’t make any difference. When no one volunteered, the instructor pointed directly at me and forced me to fight him.

This time, however, I didn’t try to survive. I didn’t try to fight back.

I didn’t want to give this maniac another opportunity to torture me.

As the instructor swung his fist, I stepped into it and turned a debilitating blow into a deadly one.

You have died. Calculating…

You died as a Martial Disciple 1 — 10 credits awarded.

Total Credits: 30

When I arrived back at my tiny house, I took a deep, steadying breath.

“Okay, nothing to do with where I was standing. At least now I know. So, what next?”

I had been trying to get through this situation without spending credits, but it was looking like that wasn’t going to happen. The instructor was clearly targeting me, likely because of my zero affinity and non-existent blessing. If I wanted to survive, then I would need the Su Clan to view me as someone worth keeping around.

I either needed an affinity or a demonstrable blessing. That way, I would have some amount of perceived value to the clan.

I could only purchase a permanent affinity increase at a discounted price once. Was this the right time to do so?

After considering this for only a moment, I shook my head. No, it would be better to learn more about cultivation first. Purchasing one-time upgrades would burn a few credits, but with any luck, I could gain valuable knowledge and experience in return.

As a needle of pain lanced through my arm, I remembered that I also needed that healing pill to fix my frail, malnourished body. I wouldn’t be able to survive long without it, but unfortunately, the cost of buying such a pill after every reset would quickly add up.

A possibility suddenly popped into my head.

“System, can I buy a healing pill that will reappear in the storage space after every death.”

Recurring Rank 1 Healing Pill. Cost 200 cre… Processing… An external entity has discounted the price. Cost 20 credits.

An external entity was changing prices again… The more I saw that, the more worried I got. However, there wasn’t anything I could do about it, and whatever this entity was, at least it seemed to be helping me.

20 credits wasn’t a terrible price. I had 30 credits, so I could go ahead and buy the pill and still have enough left over for a one-time boost to my earth affinity. Was that the right thing to do? With 10 credits, I would only be able to buy a low nine-star affinity. Would that be enough to not be targeted?

Getting a mid nine-star affinity would only be an extra 25… That was only three more deaths…

The guard at the entrance of the residential area we were in had been able to kill me rather swiftly and relatively painlessly. With his help, I could rack up the credits I needed in less than an hour.

I could endure that. I just had to hope that the System didn’t punish me for it.

You have died. Calculating… For original chapters go to NoveI★Fire.net

You have died. Calculating…

You have died. Calculating…

You died as a Martial Disciple 1 — 10 credits awarded.

Total Credits: 60

System Warning: Quick, repeated, intentional deaths detected. Further actions may result in an administrative response.

After my third and final death, I returned to my house and collapsed in a heap.

I was mentally exhausted. Three rapid deaths. How bad could it be?

It felt like my soul had begun to fracture.

Yes, I was reborn. I was in perfect health. But I still felt myself die. It still lingered in my thoughts. It still tore away at some intangible part of me.

“Never again. I don’t want to do that ever again.”

Centering myself, I focused on what I needed to do. So many deaths had pushed me to the brink, but I had earned the credits I needed to move forward.

“System, I want to buy a minor healing pill that will reappear after every death.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 20 credits. 40 credits remaining.

“System, I want to buy a temporary mid nine-star earth affinity.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 35 credits. 5 credits remaining.

The moment I made this purchase, the world around me seemed to shift slightly. It was hard to describe. It just felt like my body was more real than it had been before. It was like… I felt almost as if the me of the past had been a ghost and that purchasing this affinity had given my body true substance.

I drew in a deep breath, held it for a long moment, and then breathed out.

“Hopefully, this works.”