After the Skyfall

“Wake up!”

A voice suddenly rang in Li Yi’s ears, pulling him out of his deep state of cultivation.

He snapped awake, immediately halting his practice.

Lin Yue stood beside him, looking at him with an amused yet exasperated expression. “You sure don’t hold back, huh? The moment you entered cultivation, you went on for a full four hours. I had to guide your energy flow this whole time.”

“Four hours already?” Li Yi was shocked. He glanced out the window—night had fallen, and the clock read 7 PM.

He hadn’t expected time to pass so quickly while cultivating.

“I analyzed your talent just now,” Lin Yue continued. “Over these four hours, I guided a total of 100 units of cosmic energy into your body. Out of that, you successfully absorbed 45 units, while the rest dissipated. That means your absorption efficiency is 45%.”

Li Yi had already suspected as much.

So those streams of cosmic energy flowing into his body really were Lin Yue’s doing.

“Lin Jie, is 45% considered low?” he asked.

Lin Yue replied, “It’s on the lower side, but considering this was your first time cultivating, it’s understandable. When I first started, my absorption rate was only 70%. Overall, you have some talent—just not a lot. If you work hard, you can still achieve something in this field.”

“A little talent, but not much, huh?” Li Yi chuckled self-deprecatingly. “That’s kind of depressing.”

“No, this is actually a good result,” Lin Yue reassured him. “As you gain more experience, your energy conversion rate will improve. I’d estimate you can reach around 65%.”

“That’s… barely passing.”

Lin Yue rolled her eyes. “Passing is already pretty good. Remember the students you saw earlier today? Even after some training, their absorption rates are only around 40 to 50%. Compared to them, you’re already an excellent student.”

“What about the real cultivation geniuses? Are they at 100%?” Li Yi asked curiously.

Lin Yue shook her head. “No, 100% isn’t considered genius. The true prodigies have absorption rates over 200%.”

“…What?”

Li Yi had assumed the max score was 100, and getting 65 would at least be decent. But now he realized—there was no upper limit at all.

“Oh, right, Lin Jie,” Li Yi suddenly spoke up. “While you were guiding the cosmic energy into me earlier, did you sense a special energy field?”

Lin Yue frowned. “A special energy field? No, I didn’t. From what I sensed, there was only the usual gray-white world—nothing unusual. Why? Did you feel something?”

“If you did, you need to be extra careful,” she warned. “It could be an unexpected wormhole opening. Never let your consciousness get sucked into one. If that happens, you could be in a coma for months—or at best, suffer severe headaches for days.”

“I understand.” Li Yi nodded seriously.

Li Yi was puzzled. The energy field he sensed should have been emitted by the broken knife coin, so why couldn’t Lin Yue detect it?

Was it because the energy field of the damaged coin was too weak and had a limited range?

Just as he was deep in thought, a cheerful voice interrupted him.

“Haha! Stop cultivating for now! Come, come, come—I just ordered some great food from the hotel next door. Let’s have a proper feast tonight! Niece, I even got your favorite, braised prawns.”

It was Uncle Biao, his mood clearly high as he walked in, carrying a large pile of takeout boxes.

“Uncle, you’re spending money recklessly again,” Lin Yue sighed.

“If you make money, you should eat well and drink well—otherwise, what’s the point of life?” Uncle Biao grinned as he unpacked the food. “Look, I even got beer! Li Yi, let’s drink a little—no going home sober!”

“Uh… I don’t drink,” Li Yi hesitated.

Uncle Biao threw an arm around his shoulder and laughed. “Come on, you’re twenty already! A grown man should know how to drink. I’ll teach you.”

—

By the time Li Yi left Uncle Biao’s meditation room, it was already 10 PM.

The cool night breeze hit him as he stepped outside, instantly clearing his slightly drunken mind. His head, which had been a bit heavy from the alcohol, became sharp again.

Without wasting time, he hurried home.

—

On the way back, Li Yi mulled over everything.

“Now I’m sure of it. The broken knife coin in my hand is definitely a mystical item. I don’t know its full abilities yet, but at the very least, it helps me cultivate. And according to Lin Yue, my cultivation talent isn’t bad—it’s actually above average compared to most people.”

“But my biggest concern right now is how to keep this thing. After all, I don’t have a firm grip on it yet. Once those people are done dealing with Investigator Wang Jian, they’ll definitely come looking for me. When that happens, I’ll have only two choices.”

“Either I turn it in, exchange it for enough benefits and the Investigation Bureau’s protection… or I take the risk and keep it.”

“As for the Crows? Sorry, but I don’t really know them.”

Deep down, Li Yi preferred the second option.

After all, the Crows didn’t necessarily know that he had taken the mystical item. That day, besides him, both Wang Hu and Wei Li had also grabbed something. If he exposed what he had now, they might decide to kill him just to tie up loose ends.

For cultivators, taking a life was as easy as flipping a hand. Li Yi wasn’t about to bet on their goodwill.

—

With unease in his heart, Li Yi finally made it home.

He greeted his parents briefly, then went to check the medical pod. After confirming that it was functioning properly, he checked the remaining supply of nutrient fluid.

Nutrient Fluid: Less than 10%

The flashing warning made his stomach sink.

He pulled out his phone and checked his balance: 1,876 credits.

This was barely enough to buy one vial of nutrient fluid—not even two.

“I knew this day was coming, didn’t I?”

Li Yi sat alone in the living room, lost in thought.

Ever since his parents became Sleepers, the family had been financially struggling. As long as they remained unconscious, their money would eventually run out. No matter how much he worked, he was only delaying the inevitable.

But even he hadn’t expected that six years would pass in the blink of an eye.

He had once naïvely believed that his parents would wake up in just two or three years. But now, even if he waited another three years, there was no guarantee anything would change.

“Maybe turning in the broken mystical item is the right choice. With the money I’d get, my family could at least live securely, and I might even have a chance to continue cultivating.”

Li Yi rubbed the half-broken knife coin between his fingers, his gaze shifting toward the medical pod where his parents lay. A thought crept into his mind.

“But I risked my life for this. If I give it up now, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. And as long as I have a little more time, my cultivation will start showing results. Once I become a real cultivator, making money will be easy—then something as small as buying nutrient fluid won’t even be a problem.”

After a brief moment of hesitation, his resolve hardened. He looked at his parents one last time and murmured, “Dad, Mom… let me take this gamble. If you wake up one day, I believe you’ll understand my choice.”

With that, he gripped the broken knife coin tightly, sat down, and shut his eyes, pushing away all distractions as he entered meditation.

If he was going to fight for this, then he couldn’t waste a single second. He didn’t know what the future held, but he could control the present. As long as he had the mystical item in his possession, he would cultivate desperately. Only by becoming strong enough could he face the trouble that was sure to come.

—

Once again, he entered the same state he had during the day.

In his perception, the broken knife coin emitted a small energy field. Under his mental guidance, pure energy flowed into his body.

His talent might not be exceptional—his energy conversion rate was only 45%—but with the mystical item in his hands, he didn’t need to waste time capturing energy from wormhole leaks or worry about energy going to waste.

Talent was no longer a limitation for him.

Even for geniuses, most of their cultivation time was spent trying to gather energy. The rarity of pure cosmic energy was the greatest obstacle to their progress.

But with this mystical item, Li Yi had broken that shackle. In one night, his progress was several times—perhaps even dozens of times—faster than a genius.

—

Meanwhile, deep in the night, in the old district…

A tall woman with a long ponytail, Ning Wu, stepped out of the Investigation Bureau alongside her companion, Crow, and a group of men in black suits.

“Ning Wu, someone may have pulled strings for you, but take my advice—your group better keep a low profile. If you stir up trouble again, I’ll make sure none of you see the outside of a prison cell for the next ten years.”

Behind them, Investigator Wang Jian’s warning rang out.

“Hmph.”

Ning Wu scoffed, clearly displeased, and didn’t bother looking back as she walked away.

Once they were out of the Bureau’s range, she stopped abruptly and said, “Crow, you must get in touch with Wang Hu, Wei Li, and Li Yi as soon as possible. I don’t care what it takes—get them to return what they took. The longer we wait, the riskier this gets.”

“Of course. I don’t want any more unexpected problems either,” Crow nodded.

Ning Wu’s eyes flashed coldly, her teeth clenched in frustration. “If it weren’t for Wang Jian sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, this would’ve been over already. We had everything in our hands back in the abandoned district.”

“Relax, Ning Wu. They’re just regular people. It won’t be hard to find them. And even if they got their hands on something valuable, they wouldn’t even recognize it. Worst case, we just offer more money—they’ll hand it over the moment they see the cash,” Crow said.

“You’d better be right. My patience is running thin… This is about a mystical item.”

Ning Wu took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.