I am Zhang Wuji

Pain…

The moment Zhang Wuji gained consciousness, the first thing he noticed was the pain coursing through his body, the lack of strength in his limbs, and a sense of heaviness in his eyelids.

When he forced his eyes open, an unfamiliar room of whiteness entered his vision. He found himself lying on a white bed of unknown softness, which provided mild comfort.

Seeing the metal rails on each side, Zhang Wuji immediately assumed he was in a restraining bed for prisoners. However, upon further consideration, he figured it might just be a medical bed designed to prevent the patient from rolling off.

To the right, Zhang Wuji noticed a glass window with thin, see-through curtains lying to his right. Beyond it was a breathtaking view of a city beyond his imagination.

Zhang Wuji never expected people to build so many structures of such incredible height.

Although such towering skyscrapers weren't practical and lacked defensive value against demonic beast attacks, they did have aesthetic value. Still, Zhang Wuji failed to comprehend the purpose of such vulnerable tall structures when demonic beast tides had always threatened the world of men.

Do the people of this city have no concept of danger?

The word "extravagance" was practically written all over it. It shouldn't have been possible for such a city to exist. The demonic beasts would have given it a chance to develop to such a stage.

'Where the hell am I?'

Just as this thought ran through his mind, Zhang Wuji immediately experienced a painful headache. Memories of his present life returned to him, clearing his confusion.

He was no longer a cultivator who fought against endless waves of demonic beasts to defend his homeland alongside other cultivators.

In his present life, he was just an ordinary 25-year-old who worked as a road manager for Star Entertainment.

It seemed his current predicament was the result of playing hero, saving one of the idol members under his care from a fallen stage light.

The blow to his head must have awakened his past life memories. That said, it was a miracle that he could survive such an accident. In fact, it wouldn't be weird for the fallen stage light to crack his skull open.

After all, those damn stage lights weren't actually "light."

However, the majority of the pain seemed to be in his back, and his head injury seemed negligible.

Perhaps he had remembered wrong.

"Doctor Zhen, how is the patient's condition? Will he be alright?"

"Honestly, the patient's physical condition is much better than I expected, considering what I heard happened. It's a miracle that he only suffered bruising and no broken spine. This kind of injury will take two weeks at most to heal, President Wu."

"Isn't that a relief, Lin Xinya? It seems your road manager will be fine after some time. I need to reward him later. If anything had happened to you, your career would have been ruined."

"President Wu, is it okay if I go see Mr. Zhang? I haven't thanked him for saving my life yet."

"Leave that for another time. Zhang Wuji isn't awake yet. We also need to deal with the media and sue DPG. How dare they set up such a lousy stage?"

"What should we do about the concert, President Wu?"

"Are you still thinking about finishing the concert? Forget it. Who knows what else could happen at that stage? What if the whole thing suddenly collapses?"

…

As Zhang Wuji listened to the conversation outside of the ward, he gradually understood the situation. Lin Xinya was safe, but the music concert was canceled. The backlash would be huge, but fortunately, it wasn't his problem to deal with.

Zhang Wuji couldn't help but sigh.

Although Lin Xinya was an extremely beautiful and talented singer, he realized his heroic act wasn't influenced by any special feelings. The original him simply thought his job would be at risk if he failed to protect his singer.

Did he really risk his life for a mere job?

Although other people seemed to respect his feat, Zhang Wuji thought he had been quite stupid. Still, since he only suffered bruising, he could only leave it at that.

"All is well that ends well, I guess," Zhang Wuji muttered.

After sorting out his feelings and memories, Zhang Wuji realized the next important step was to recover his health and cultivation.

"No… How can this be? This world doesn't have an ounce of spirit energy?"

Zhang Wuji felt defeated after practicing his breathing technique for half an hour without a single progress.

Spirit energy was the most mainstream source of energy cultivation. Without it, he could not make any progress. Fortunately, spirit energy cultivation wasn't the only path to immortality. Moreover, he knew more than just spirit energy cultivation techniques.

Due to the constant threat of demonic beasts, most of the cultivation techniques created in human history were made available in libraries and academies.

It was a desperate act to preserve the last spark of humanity.

Demonic beasts have destroyed countless divine kingdoms and empires throughout history. Only Heavenly City was the last to stand. Its collection of cultivation scriptures and manuals could fill entire libraries.

However, even such a wealth of knowledge could not help Heavenly City's cultivators overcome the endless hordes of demonic beasts.

After all, cultivating the best technique didn't necessarily guarantee the best result. The human body was simply too complex for a supreme technique to suit all.

As such, compatibility was even more important than quality.

Unfortunately, Zhang Wuji didn't have the privilege of choice if none of his cultivation techniques worked.

'Which cultivation technique can I use? If there's no spirit energy, energy gathering won't work. Maybe… body refining?' Zhang Wuji pondered.

Body refining was extremely demanding. It required a lot of precious resources and was excruciatingly painful.

As a cultivator who constantly fought between life and death on the battlefield, Zhang Wuji was no stranger to pain. Naturally, he wasn't afraid of it. The main problem was the precious resources it demanded.

If the world had no spirit energy to nourish plants, would precious spirit herbs even exist? Would ordinary medicinal plants even have any effect?

Furthermore, this was an entirely different world. He couldn't be sure if it would also have the same medicinal plants to use.

'Body refining is too costly and demanding. I will have to put it on the back burner until my conditions improve… Does this mean my only choice is soul forging?'

If there were one other important thing that Zhang Wuji brought with him from his previous life other than his memories, it would be his divine sense.

Although his current divine sense was only a far cry from its peak potential, it was still an extrasensory ability mortals wouldn't normally possess.

With his divine sense, Zhang Wuji could detect nearly everything within a five-meter radius. More importantly, he could perform self-retrospection to inspect the state of his body and soul.

Although divine sense wasn't absolutely needed for soul forging, it would make the process countless times easier.

'Now then, what soul-forging technique can I use? No… Do I even know any soul-forging technique?' Zhang Wuji wondered.