Chapter 1: Transmigration

The periphery of Small Stone town held agricultural fields as far as the eye could see. Plains of wheat fields bent at the will of the summer winds, causing a rustling that never stopped.

The cool breeze accompanied by the smoldering sun fell on the farmers neck and back as they rhythmically sliced the mature wheat onto the moist soil. Another group of farmers worked behind them, filling their hemp satchels with the fallen grain.

A youth with a thin frame worked arduously, his hands shuffled about picking up the grain as sweat trickled down the side of his brow.

"One more week. Then, I'll be able to condense a droplet of spiritual energy, from then on I won't have to toil these fields any longer."

The young man looked to be in his teens, the faint whiskers growing on his upper lip showed he was no older than sixteen.

The youth worked, his physical body encapsulated in the task while his mind wandered, recalling that day six months ago.

____

In a small mud and straw hut, in the periphery of the town just before the stretching fields, a youth awoke in a cold sweat. His head buzzed as the memories stored in the brain's synapses were uploaded into his soul, the earthling's soul worked for a few minutes integrating the memories of an unfamiliar youth into itself.

"Shen Xian? Is that the name of this youth, hah, what a poor fellow.."

Luo Zhen looked at his rough hands. His right hand held a small wooden tube, its craft looked precise and in odd contrast to his current living conditions.

"Misty Eye Liquid, this drug, this situation.."

Luo Zhen felt unfamiliar emotions filled with despair, helplessness, and morbidity. On Earth he remembered seeing this scene so commonly, people ran from reality to an even crueler world of delusion, fulfilled by the comforts of euphoria brought by addicting drugs like the one he currently held in his palm.

Misty Eye Liquid, following its direct naming sense, was a hallucinogenic drug focused on euphoric effects and momentary partial paralysis.

"Although your name was Shen Xian, I won't keep it. I will be Luo Zhen from now on, unless the time calls for me to act in your stead."

Luo Zhen swiftly tightened his grip on the wooden vial and dug a small pit on the ground floor. There was no flooring built into this home as it was temporary residences for the farmers built by the Zhang family who owned these fields. Luo Zhen was only a temporary farmhand and had a small home in another town some 35 km to the west of Small Stone Town.

Luo Zhen inspected his small home, faintly recalling where he hid his salary. He walked 10 steps to the edge where the dried mud wall met the moist soil. After digging out a small pit the size of his fist, he removed a small sack with a few copper coins that made a distinct sound as they bumped into one another.

Luo Zhen held them tightly in his fist as this was all the wealth Shen Xian had left him, this was what defined his current status in this world. Opening the sack, 34 coins kept in pristine condition moved about.

"I really am poor, with this I can't even afford to pay off the debt with that Leng fella. I have no choice but to stay here and complete the Zhang family's task. Haah, Shen Xian, you just had to leave me with drug debt."

Luo Zhen now had to pay the 243 coppers he owed to Leng Shin, the dealer that peddled the drugs to the majority of the druggies in Small Stone Town. Although it was drugs purchased on debt, Luo Zhen definitely had the means to pay it over a certain amount of time, the issue was whether or not he would be left with anything afterwards. He was a seasonal employee with low qualifications, in this feudal world stuck in ancient times money was incredibly important as there was no such thing as welfare he could take advantage of.

At least, for the remainder of the eight months, he would have free food and lodging to survive on. Luo Zhen sat on his bed reminiscing his time on Earth and feeling apprehensive of the times to come, when all of a sudden a yellowish tab with black lining appeared in vision.

[ Myriad Dimensions Library

 Master: Luo Zhen

 Innate Data +

{ Physique Realm: Mortal (Aptitude: Poor)

 Soul Realm: Mortal (Aptitude: Mediocre)

 Qi Refining Realm: Innate Mortal (Aptitude: Poor) }

Techniques +

 { Cultivation Arts: None

 Martial Arts: None

 Spells: None } ]

'Myriad Dimensions Library? Is this my cheat?'

Following his internal questioning a flux of information once again flooded his mind. 

According to the information, he was the fourth inheritor of the Myriad Dimensions Library, a great inheritance from a once powerful Immortal that had a love for esoteric knowledge. In his travels he gathered a near infinite amount of information, choosing to leave it as an inheritance in an artifact. Other information on the past masters' or the creator of the artifact was not included in the info dump, though that was not important for Luo Zhen at this moment. His eyes widened in excitement as he realized the potential of what he had been handed. His last memory on Earth was dying after inhaling large amounts of carbon monoxide due to poor maintenance in his old, cheap apartments. Now here, he suddenly had so much going on he felt overwhelmed.

__________

Luo Zhen finished his task for the day when the sun began to set and piles of wheat had been covered in large tarps for the night.

Luo Zhen returned to his living quarters and quickly sat himself in a lotus position, his lips uttering a mantra guiding his soul to hum in resonance. 

In these six months, Luo Zhen had done ample research inside the library. At his will he could enter a library of enormous proportions with bookshelves as high as the skies. Although the knowledge was contained in jade scrolls, it was just too much and was an impossibility to go through without several lifetimes to peruse.

It took a couple days for Luo Zhen to figure out some simple shortcuts, for example he only had to strongly desire a certain type of knowledge and the bookshelves would automatically transform and fill with new scrolls, with small plaques on the shelves giving a short summary.

Through his memories he realized the world he was in was a low level martial art world, the cultivation of martial arts similar to those manhwas he read in his past life.

Although he wanted to find a body focused cultivation technique for his thin frame, he stumbled upon a certain scroll that detailed the correct path for cultivation. According to Xin Ling, a soul refining cultivator in the Iridescent Star Dimension, soul refining was the best foundation building cultivation path as it required less resources initially, and it was especially a better choice for those already talented in that department. 

Luo Zhen came to the conclusion that soul refining was probably going to be his best bet, as it opened the opportunity for so many other things. After all, it was where he was most talented according to the translucent window.

So then for the week after, he searched and searched looking for the best soul refining art he could, but with no conclusive choice in sight, there were too many after all, nearly in the millions. 

One day he simply got fed up and asked the library to produce the best soul refining art he should cultivate in his current state. Making the impossible possible, one scroll floated out among the rest, the scroll was covered in maddened eyes that were distinctly engraved into the complete body of the scroll.

'Why?'

Luo Zhen only had this question as the cool touch of the scroll dug into his flesh. 

" I tell you this Man Ning, if you want to build a defense strong enough for your upcoming battle with Ling Shen, you have to cultivate the Thousand Eyes Damning Heaven Art, I as your uncle tell you this, if you are able to successfully cultivate this to a high level, his Piercing Fiend Art will be but a small toothpick in those eyes…

Silver Eyed Immortal Shou Ren "

"I see, I understand. My desire for defense and stability drove this decision, this is a good thing then. I'll just cultivate this, after all any one of these techniques is more than good enough."

Back to the present…

The Thousand Eyes Damning Heaven Art was an inversely represented art. Its main attribute was defense against soul attacks and defense against probing. You would think of a wall being more representative of those characteristics, but this art instead focused on producing spiritual energy, refining it into droplets and then controlling them into structures that looked like human eyes.

One droplet was equivalent to one embryonic Spiritual Eye, and he was on the cusp of forming it. 

The sound of rhythmic bellows and hums grew in vocality, the sounds intermingling in the small mud home. The wisps of spiritual energy left the small hazy blue core that floated in Luo Zhen's mindscape, and gathered just under it forming a miniscule amount of spiritual liquid. The liquid quickly gathered and integrated itself with the rest of the droplet, and at that instant of completion the droplet began to morph. A three dimensional blueprint appeared in Luo Zhen's mind, vividly recalling that structure he had been meditating and understanding for the past six months. Like a lively assortment of webs, the droplet expanded and transformed many times under Luo Zhen's mistakes.

It was only an hour later, and deep into the starry night that the droplet gained form and became a distinct blue pupil with red and black sclera, giving the originally lively eye an ominous aura. 

A sense of peace encapsulates Luo Zhen, the fear of being helpless in this world slowly fleeting away, a new sense of comfort brought by the first eye appeased him.

It seemed like everything happened so quickly, yet the hours he spent after work doing nothing but meditation were nothing but his grueling efforts to not be left behind in this world.

Luo Zhen recalled the other parts of the cultivation art, according to it, the first eye was the hardest to form due to the initial sterility of the mindscape. Now that the embryonic form of the first eye was formed, the remaining nine hundred ninety nine would come in due time.

The cultivation art itself was divided into three clear divisions, Damning Heaven Spiritual Energy Production Mantra, The Thousand Eye Molding and Refining Scripture, and the multiple accessory techniques a practitioner could perform to make use of the Thousand Eyes.

The technique's adeptness was split into Embryonic Form, Thousand Eye Array Forming, and Eye Refinement. The categories were very large and focused on creating an offensive and defensive spiritual array, in theory the Eye Refinement level of the Technique held no limit and could be refined endlessly. 

"Let's begin with Maddening Eye, this technique is the best to make use of these martial artists' inherent weakness, with it I can guarantee some physical defensive measure."

Over the past six months, Luo Zhen not only finished paying off his debt, but he also interacted with other farmers getting as much information regarding this world's martial arts. According to a neighboring farmer who was an unaccomplished martial practitioner, the main goal of martial arts was to make use of the innate energy in the body's meridians, molding the body into a supernatural weapon. There was no mention of anything regarding the soul, so Luo Zhen had a bit of confidence they could not resist his Maddening Eye.