Volume One: First Signs of Brilliance Chapter Three: First Talent Upgrade

"Xiao Jue? Did you fall into the bathroom? How long does it take you to wash up? Breakfast is getting cold!"
The very moment Wang Jue gave up on exploring his new, mysteriously appeared finger, his mother's angry lion's roar echoed from outside the door.
Wang Jue shivered in alarm, and the panel before his eyes vanished instantly. He hurriedly called out, "I just took a shower, I'll be out soon! You don't have to wait for me, go ahead and eat."
Seeing the attribute panel disappear, Wang Jue showed no sign of panic. Instead, he walked straight into the shower.
To his surprise, when he silently recited 'panel' in his mind, just like the protagonists in the novels, the vanished interface appeared before his eyes once more. No matter where he looked, the panel remained centered in his vision, as though it orbited him alone.
Suddenly, Wang Jue slapped himself. "How stupid am I? If I can call up the panel by thinking, maybe I can assign attribute points the same way?"
With this thought, he focused intently on the panel before him.
To his immense excitement, the panel changed:
[Name: Wang Jue]
[Cultivation: Body Refining, First Layer]
[Talent: Crimson Grade (Mid) 0/100]
[Starglow: 0]
His lowest-grade talent had actually upgraded from inferior to mid-grade. The greatest obstacle that had hampered his cultivation was so easily resolved!
But before Wang Jue could fully enjoy his happiness, he noticed his Starglow had dropped from 1 to 0, and his mood plummeted.
Hey, can someone tell me how this thing works?
Wang Jue fell into deep thought. Did this require money to top up?
As for defeating monsters, he dared not even consider such a thing. With his current cultivation, he wouldn't just fail—he'd be a warm meal for the starlit beasts, his chance of survival as close to zero as could be.
Finally, he'd obtained a cheat that could carry him to the peak. But without even the strength to protect himself, he would not venture out carelessly. If he died by accident, it would all be for nothing!
On second thought, Wang Jue reasoned that monster drops were unlikely. As for paying to top up, he would need to find a chance to try it.
Even though he now possessed a golden finger, if he couldn't figure out how to obtain Starglow, this golden finger was nothing but a useless trinket.
Wang Jue knew he couldn't let himself swell with arrogance like the protagonists in those stories, who, once they acquired a cheat, challenged heaven, earth, and everything in their path.
Novels were just that—novels. So long as the author didn't get impulsive and kill off the protagonist, no matter how reckless the character, he would never truly die.
But this was not a novel. This was a real world.
And in this world, as on Earth, everyone had only one life. Death was true death.
Resurrection?
Impossible.
As Wang Jue reached out to twist the shower handle, he suddenly felt a burning heat rise within him. His skin flushed red all over, like a shrimp just pulled from boiling water.
Panic overtook him. He forgot to circulate his breathing technique, thinking only to turn on the water and cool himself.
A torrent of water poured down, splashing on his feverish body and making a hissing sound, like cold water meeting red-hot iron.
Steam quickly filled the shower, and though the water brought a faint coolness to his skin, inside he felt as though a blazing fireball was incinerating him from within, growing ever more intense.
This sensation brought him once again to the brink of death. He had experienced it once before with his headache, but this time the feeling was even stronger.
Mouth wide open, Wang Jue tried to scream for his parents in the living room, hoping they would notice and come to his rescue.
Despair washed over him as he realized that no sound escaped his lips. The only noise in the shower was the water.
In just moments, fine cracks appeared along his reddened skin, blood seeping from each fissure and mingling with the water, turning the entire floor red.
Wang Jue realized that relying on heaven, earth, or his parents was useless—only he could save himself now.
As the shadow of death descended again, darkness edged his vision and his awareness grew faint.
Perhaps it was his will to live, but before losing consciousness, Wang Jue instinctively bit his tongue. The pain from his tongue cut through the agony of his body, bringing his mind back from the brink.
Seizing this chance, he forced himself into a cross-legged position and began the breathing and circulation technique—the only self-rescue method he could think of.
It worked.
Wang Jue began guiding the powerful energy within, refining his body anew.
The Body Refining Sixth Layer was meant to temper skin, flesh, blood, sinew, bone, and marrow. As a first-layer cultivator, his skin had already been refined; now he needed to direct the technique to temper his flesh and break through to the second layer.
However, the energy did not follow his guidance to temper bone. Instead, it concentrated once more on his skin, beginning the refinement process anew.
Momentarily stunned, Wang Jue soon realized that the energy was instinctively repairing flaws, reforging the skin he had not fully tempered before.
Since the energy wasn't harming him, Wang Jue simply followed its flow, refining his skin anew.
Dead skin shed away, tissues grew tighter, cells renewed with greater vigor, emitting a faint glow—the process of absolute bodily refinement.
Half an hour later, Wang Jue opened his eyes, unable to hide his excitement. After this half hour of cultivation, nearly half the energy had been consumed, yet much of his skin remained to be refined.
He felt that if he could fully absorb this energy, he might reach the peak of the Body Refining First Layer, perhaps even break into the second.
With that thought, Wang Jue quickly returned to his cultivation state...
...
By now, the sun hung high in the sky outside, casting a violet glow. Unlike Earth's sun, Azure Star's sun was far larger.
On Earth, looking straight at the sun would hurt your eyes, and you’d barely see its outline.
On Azure Star, though, the sun was never blinding; anyone could make out its shape with ease. Perhaps it was because it was hundreds of times larger than Earth's, so it appeared equally immense.
Sounds of traffic drifted through the bathroom window.
Wang Jue opened his eyes once more, a flicker of violet light passing through them so fast even he didn’t notice. Once the violet faded, only excitement remained. The energy had reforged his skin; though a third still remained, he felt few could match him at the first layer now. As for being invincible, he’d probably need to completely refine his skin first.
A silly grin spread across his face—until he caught a strange odor. Looking down, he saw a thick layer of black-red gunk clinging to his skin, giving off a nauseating stench.
He couldn’t help but twitch at the sight. So the legendary cleansing of the body’s impurities from cultivation novels was real, and it had happened to him.
The smell was so bad he nearly retched.
Instinctively, he stood up to head to the bathroom—only to realize he was already in the shower, with water still pouring over his head.
The water ran down his body, turning black-red as it mixed with the filth.
But the grime was so thick that the water did nothing to clean him; in fact, it only made him look dirtier.
Unable to bear the stench, Wang Jue began scrubbing himself furiously.
Wherever his hands passed, the sticky black-red muck vanished, revealing skin that was fair and tinged with red.
If a woman saw the state of Wang Jue’s skin now, she’d surely be consumed by envy, jealousy, and regret…
In no time, Wang Jue was clean again. Warm water ran down from the showerhead, and he exhaled contentedly. He hadn’t yet fully processed yesterday’s sudden transmigration, and after experiencing two brushes with death this morning, his mind was stretched to the breaking point. Now, with the grime washed away, he finally felt relaxed.
Realizing he’d been in the bathroom too long, Wang Jue didn’t linger to enjoy the hot water. He shut off the shower, grabbed a towel, and quickly dried himself before admiring the increasingly handsome young man in the mirror.
After expelling the toxins from his body, his skin was fairer and smoother than ever—perhaps even more so than his little sister’s. If she saw him, she’d surely cause a fuss.
“Heh heh…”
Wang Jue chuckled to himself, lost in idle thoughts.
But those musings were quickly cast aside as he walked to the cabinet where clean clothes were kept, grabbed a fresh set, and hurriedly dressed before leaving the bathroom.
He owed his ready supply of clean clothes to his mother. In the past, Wang Jue always forgot to bring fresh clothes when he showered, and had to call for his parents to fetch them.
His parents often chided him for it, but whether from habit or genuine forgetfulness, he never really changed.
At first, he heeded their advice, but soon he fell back into old patterns, nearly driving his parents to distraction.
Eventually, they gave up on correcting him. His mother simply bought a cabinet and had his father install it in the bathroom. Every day, she put clean clothes inside.
For her, it was a bit more work each day—but also far less trouble overall.