Chapter 1: Middle-Aged Otaku

Nanbuka University.

Inside the dormitory building.

“I’m telling Itachi, Huazi, how can Itachi still be so otaku? Superpowers, mystics—those are all scams. What? Itachi still wanna become an immortal? Are we gonna start calling Itachi Luo Fu True Person or Master Zhang the Immortal?”

A college student with a face covered in acne and eyes that gleamed with innocent stupidity spoke to Zhang Luofu in a teasing tone.

Zhang Luofu, nicknamed Huazi, is a third-year student at Nanbuka University.

To others, he was a middle-school otaku stuck in fantasy, unable to graduate. Every day he tinkered with incomprehensible Buddhist-Daoist cultivation methods, or obsessed over awakening some superpower.

Throughout Nanbuka University, Zhang Luofu was a well-known figure.

Zhang Luofu, seated in a cross-legged posture, let out a long breath, ending his Yang Rising Breathing Method cultivation.

What he called cultivation was merely collecting vague, half-baked Buddhist-Daoist methods through limited means, blindly hoping to cultivate the Primordial Qi.

Ever since he was a child, after getting into a fight with his neighbor boy Zhang Chulan and being brutally beaten, he awakened memories from his past life—and knew he had been reincarnated into the famed One Below the Heaven world.

From the moment he awakened, he began preparing to cultivate the Primordial Qi.

But he didn’t know whether he truly lacked talent. Effort meant nothing before innate ability. For over a decade, his persistent efforts yielded no desired results.

Even today, he had not entered the realm of mystics. Yet after so many years of effort, he wasn’t entirely empty-handed.

Due to his obsession with mystics, Zhang Luofu had successfully obtained an account on the mystic-exclusive internet, constantly scouring forums for methods that could allow ordinary people to begin cultivating Qi.

The Yang Rising Breathing Method he now cultivated was picked up from the mystic internet.

According to the person who provided this method, the Yang Rising Breathing Method could stabilize the Primordial Qi—even ordinary people who practiced it could strengthen yang, restore vitality, enrich essence, and fortify life.

Since acquiring the Yang Rising Breathing Method from the mystic internet five years ago, Zhang Luofu had practiced it consistently since high school until now—but he had yet to see even a trace of the Primordial Qi.

After that fight with Zhang Chulan—more accurately, after enduring that beating—Zhang Yude paid his family a large sum of money and then vanished.

After that, Zhang Luofu completely lost any chance to contact the mystic world.

As a reincarnator who had awakened memories of his past life, how could Zhang Luofu endure an ordinary existence?

Unfortunately, as a rural boy, he had no access to mystics in any way. At such a young age, traveling to sacred mountains to seek a master was unrealistic.

Fortunately, his past-life memories told him that Zhang Chulan would attend Nanbuka University—and so, after years of hard study, he became Zhang Chulan’s classmate once again.

He didn’t know whether it was because Zhang Chulan kept moving; Zhang Luofu clearly remembered they had been in the same grade back then—but when he arrived at Nanbuka University, he found no one named Zhang Chulan on campus.

He waited until his sophomore year, when he finally saw Zhang Chulan’s name on the freshman list.

The moment he approached Zhang Chulan, Zhang Luofu sadly realized that a decade of setbacks had made Zhang Chulan accustomed to hiding himself.

Even though Zhang Chulan recognized Zhang Luofu—the boy he had once beaten with mystic techniques—he denied outright that he was a mystic, even mocking Zhang Luofu as a middle-aged otaku.

The existence of mystics was quietly concealed by societal consensus. Zhang Chulan’s denial cemented Zhang Luofu’s reputation as a middle-aged otaku across the entire Nanbuka University.

Zhang Luofu’s years-long plan to enter the mystic world through Zhang Chulan naturally crumbled.

But fortunately, it was only the beginning of his junior year’s second semester.

Zhang Chulan would reveal his mystic identity at the end of his sophomore year. Zhang Luofu still had time to plan—to head straight to Longhu Mountain and witness the Luotian Grand Rite, to see if there was any chance to enter the mystic world.

He had considered going directly to major sects to seek a master, but as a poor boy from the mountains, he simply couldn’t afford it.

His family had only his mother, who earned barely enough from a few acres of land to cover his tuition. Even his living expenses had to be earned through part-time jobs during winter and summer breaks and holidays.

As the old saying goes: Without wealth, Itachi cannot sustain the Dao!

Wealth and talent became two unbreakable barriers, firmly blocking Zhang Luofu from the gates of the mystic world.

After so many years of effort, Zhang Luofu himself was nearly hopeless.

Ignoring his roommate’s teasing,

Zhang Luofu stretched his body and said: “The Daoist master has finished today’s cultivation. Turn off the lights. Sleep!!”

Click.

As the dorm room’s light vanished, the environment grew dim.

Soon, Zhang Luofu fell into deep sleep.

Years of cultivation hadn’t made him a mystic, but it had given him an exceptionally healthy body—at least, he could fall asleep within minutes.

Lying on the bed, half-drowsy, just as he was about to slip into sleep—

Zhang Luofu suddenly felt his body jolt violently. The next instant, he found himself in a gray, hazy space.

It was a boundless realm. Beneath his feet lay a peculiar fluid that rippled with waves under pressure, yet never swallowed him.

In the sky, faint stars glimmered here and there. Three of them emitted light far brighter than the others.

As Zhang Luofu surveyed his surroundings, a shadow suddenly pressed against his back.

The next moment, his neck turned cold—he felt a sharp weapon pressed against his throat, ready to deliver a fatal strike.

A surge of terror made him cry out: “Wait! I—”

The instant the words left his lips, both Zhang Luofu and the attacker behind him were plunged into a strange state.

Before Zhang Luofu’s eyes, vague, dreamlike scenes flickered into view—as if the entire life journey of a person was flashing before him like a lantern show. Zhang Luofu watched as an outsider.

In the scene was a young boy born in the Ninja World, of the Uchiha clan.

His name: Uchiha Luofu.

Born into the famed Uchiha clan of the Ninja World, he came of age at the tail end of the Second Ninja War and became a key figure in the Third Ninja War.

(End of Chapter)