Talent? Nah, It's Gacha!

The Holy Orchid Institute's library was absolutely massive. From the outside, it might not appear particularly impressive, but once inside, anyone would quickly realize just how enormous it truly was.

Rows upon rows of towering bookshelves stretched out before me as I entered the library, the thick scent of aged paper and faint perfume filling the air around me.

I looked around and barely found any students inside the vast space.

While the library contained an enormous repository of books spanning subjects from inscription patterns and alchemy to actual cultivation techniques, most of them were written in ancient languages that had fallen out of common use. Because of this fundamental barrier, most students didn't bother visiting the library at all.

In a world where people's primary focus was on their personal cultivation growth and advancement, spending time on scholarly activities felt like a complete waste of precious training hours. It was another major reason why so many valuable books were left completely unattended, with no one willing to spend years of their lives painstakingly translating them.

I glanced at the compass before continuing to follow the direction it was pointing toward. Soon, I found myself standing in front of a particular bookshelf. Staring at the long list of book titles before looking at the compass that was pointing directly at this section, I whispered to myself: "One of them?"

With a thought, the compass vanished back into my inventory and I randomly selected a book and flipped open its pages. Suddenly, my movement stopped completely.

"This..."

Wanting to make absolutely sure it wasn't some kind of mistake, I picked up another book and rapidly flipped through its pages until I reached the end. My eyes widened in genuine amazement and a satisfied smile spread across my face.

"So it's like that! I guess the combination of Sage, Six Eyes, and Parallel Calculations has basically turned my mind into a supercomputer at this point. I didn't even have to look at each page with focused concentration—just a passing glance, and my mind automatically memorized everything on it with perfect precision."

Sage increased my thought processing speed by one thousand times and drastically enhanced my comprehension abilities. Six Eyes provided me with atomic-level perception of the reality around me. Even the smallest light particles weren't missed by my enhanced vision. Each reflection was captured and immediately sent to my brain for detailed breakdown and understanding. Meanwhile, Parallel Calculations allowed me to perform all these complex breakdowns in a completely separate thought process.

Working together, even if I had my eyes closed, as long as light was being reflected off any surface, I could obtain detailed information about it within my mind, remembering absolutely everything instantly and permanently.

As I fully realized the implications of this discovery, I looked out at the massive library surrounding me and couldn't help but mutter: "What if this entire library existed within my mind... just like an online archive that I could visit whenever I needed to if I ever hit a problem?"

The more I thought about this possibility, the more concrete the idea became within my mind.

That's right.

Unlike normal people, I don't need to read and understand everything one book at a time. I have an advantage that ordinary people simply don't possess. Not using that advantage to its fullest potential, wouldn't that be an incredible waste?

As long as I could save all these books within my mind, I could then delegate my second thought process to break them down and comprehend them continuously. And since Sage speeds up my thought process by a thousand times, that meant I would effectively have 1000 days or almost 3 years worth of processing time to learn, comprehend, and understand all the books each single day!

That's just one day! What about a week? Or an entire month? A week would be almost 20 years of effective study time! A month would be almost 84 years! Just the thought of such possibilities was hard for me to fully grasp right now, let alone truly understand.

I smirked with growing excitement.

"I was initially here to research Xiao Ning'er's illness, but now... I guess I'll have to change my plans again."

There was no other reasonable choice. Now that I knew I could abuse my abilities like this, why would I stop myself? No, I had to do it. If this approach allowed me to derive a superior cultivation technique for myself, then that would be even better!

Adding to that benefit was the fact that the more I understood about this world's power system, the better my chances would be at neutralizing Nie Li's future advantages.

With my mind firmly set on this new course of action, I picked up a random book and flipped through its pages. In a single second, I was completely done before placing the book back and picking up another one, repeating the exact same process. I didn't need to understand them during this phase—my second thought process was left to handle that complex work. My job was simple: memorize as many books as possible and leave everything else to my parallel processing!

3rd Person POV

Time passed steadily, and in what felt like the blink of an eye, it had been half a week since Shen Yujin had regained his memories of his previous life. In these past few days, most of his time was spent within the library, methodically memorizing one book after another. And since he didn't have to actually read them in the traditional sense, the speed of his memorization process was absolutely astonishing. In mere days, the total number of books memorized within his enhanced mind had reached several thousand! Based purely on accumulated knowledge, except for Nie Li with his regressor advantages, there might be no one alive within Glory City who possessed the same breadth of information as Shen Yujin.

At the same time, no one knew exactly when or how, but a rumor began spreading within the apprentice fighter class—Shen Yujin, the widely known trash son of the Sacred Family patriarch, would spend entire nights within the library desperately searching for something specific. And it was apparently related to some kind of mysterious illness. No one knew who originally spread the rumor or how it had started, but all they knew for certain was that Shen Yujin was frantically searching for a specific book related to a particular illness within the library, spending each day immersed in research and even nights were not spared for rest. To the point where he had completely stopped attending the apprentice class after the first day, choosing instead to spend all his time within the library.

Due to this strange behavior, some people speculated that he had contracted some unknown and unique disease himself. While others theorized that he was desperately trying to find a way to breakthrough his pathetic talent in cultivation and somehow compensate for it with accumulated knowledge and research.

Either way, a general consensus was established that Shen Yujin was desperately looking for a solution to some serious illness.

Of course, Xiao Ning'er also heard that persistent rumor. But like many others, she didn't pay it much attention. While she was somewhat curious about Shen Yujin after learning that he was apparently at odds with his own family, that curiosity didn't extend to any real familiarity or concern. To her, Shen Yujin was just one of many people who had trash-tier talent in cultivation and would never be able to break through the chains of fate that had been placed upon them by the world.

While she admitted that she respected his dedicated efforts, that was all the thought she spared for him. She had her own serious problems to solve and didn't have any time to focus on other people's situations. Following her established daily routine, she would spend her nights training intensively within the Holy Orchid Institute training fields until well past midnight. And after her training sessions ended, she would return to her family estate to spend what remained of the night.

If she could manage it, she would love to spend the rest of the night cultivating as well, but sadly her mysterious illness didn't permit her to do so. Her condition would reach its absolute peak after midnight, and her body would be wracked with such intense pain that continuing any form of cultivation would become completely impossible. Due to this debilitating limitation, the rest of her nights would be spent alone in her room, filled with overwhelming loneliness, desolation, and intense suffering that she couldn't share with anyone else.

Today was supposed to follow the same pattern. After completing her midnight training session, she returned to the estate of the Winged Dragon Family and made her way toward her private room. After taking a medicinal herbal bath filled with various pain-reducing medicines, she entered her room and moved toward her bed, sitting down on it. Her face was already scrunched in anticipation of pain, and despite the therapeutic bath, sweat had started to gather on her furrowed brow.

Her generous chest, full and well-developed, heaved up and down with each intake of increasingly painful breath. Her smooth hands clenched tightly into fists, as she tried her absolute best to bear the mounting discomfort.

At that moment, her eyes landed on something unexpected—a scroll placed on the desk near her opened window, through which moonlight streamed into the room casting everything in silver light. Confusion and immediate cautiousness flickered within her weary eyes.

She definitely didn't remember ever placing any scroll on that desk. In fact, in this world where spatial rings were common, most of her personal items were stored inside her ring. And when she needed something, she would simply retrieve it from there, use it, and then place it back inside for safekeeping.

So the unexpected presence of this scroll made her realize that it definitely wasn't placed there by her own hand.

Her first thought was that someone had broken into her room, but then considering there wasn't anything particularly valuable within the room to begin with, she quickly discarded that theory.

Soon, curiosity began to overtake her initial cautiousness. With careful, pain-filled steps, she moved near the table and gingerly picked up the mysterious scroll. With precise, deliberate movements, she slowly opened it.

The very first line that came into her view made Xiao Ning'er's eyes widen to their absolute limits.

"At night, your legs would feel as though they are literally on fire while the rest of your body would feel extremely cold, as if trapped in an endless cycle of extreme yin and yang. At midnight, your body would be wracked with such intense pain that continuing any form of training would become completely impossible. Soon, extremely painful dark and ugly bruises would start to appear all over your body, never to dissipate no matter what treatments you attempt."

Xiao Ning'er's hand holding the scroll began to tremble uncontrollably, her grip tightening to the point where she was wrinkling the precious document. Realizing what she was doing, she hurriedly relaxed her grip, terrified that she might accidentally tear it. With increasingly rapid breathing, she continued reading with desperate intensity.

"These are the unmistakable symptoms of a rare disease called Arctic Disease. It's an illness caused by frequent training during nighttime hours, which leads to chilled air entering the person's body and systematically blocking their veins. In mild cases, the person would become seriously ill and weakened. And in severe cases... it would lead to the person's body exploding from internal pressure, resulting in immediate death!"

"No way..."

Xiao Ning'er's entire body began trembling violently and extreme despair engulfed her entire existence like a suffocating blanket. Tears immediately gathered within her eyes and the scroll slipped from her numb fingers, falling onto the wooden floor with a soft thud. Her breathing became rapid and erratic, and the surroundings seemed to slowly be consumed by encroaching darkness.

Thud.

She collapsed onto the floor.

Her eyes seemed to lose all focus, her chest heaving up and down with desperate intensity, and her lips parted as she found it increasingly difficult to breathe normally.

Tears welled up within her eyes and began flowing freely, her voice choked and broken, filled with overwhelming fear and dread.

"Am I... going to die?"

While she had been skeptical at first, after reading the scroll describing her illness and symptoms with such precise, intimate detail, she felt as if her entire world had completely shattered around her.

She vividly remembered the day when her engagement with Shen Fei was announced. On that terrible day, she had made a solemn vow to herself that she would break through the chains of fate that had been placed upon her by the world. She had promised herself that she would never let anyone else control her destiny and would never be at the mercy of fate's whims. Since that pivotal day, she had fallen into an endless loop of intense training day in and day out. Even nights were not spared from her relentless pursuit of strength. Unlike other girls her age, who spent their days in comfort and luxury, free of serious worries and dreaming about romance or other pleasant things, she had given up absolutely everything in her single-minded pursuit of power.

Alone, lonely, desolate, with no one to rely on, all she had was her unwavering conviction and her steadily rising cultivation level.

To the point where she had contracted this unknown, potentially fatal disease.

The extreme pain felt as if every night her body was being ripped apart, yet she never complained to anyone, never discussed it with a single soul. She simply gritted her teeth and stood steadfast against the agony. But at the same time, she understood the serious dangers her condition represented. So she had visited many doctors—those who claimed to be the absolute best in their fields—but no one could pinpoint the exact reason for her illness or provide any method to cure it.

And so, she had continued her grueling training regimen even while enduring extreme pain every single night. With the single hope that one day all of this sacrifice and suffering would finally pay off.

But now, reading that she would die if she continued, all her carefully maintained hopes were completely crushed. Ripped apart like fragile paper and scattered to the wind.

Despair... utter, complete despair.

Was all of it meaningless? The countless days she spent training, the endless days she spent in crushing loneliness, the nights she spent enduring excruciating pain in the hope that one day all of this would finally pay off... was all of it completely useless?

"No... No... No!" She gripped her hair tightly with both hands, her head spinning wildly and her voice rising in desperation. "It's a lie... yes, it has to be a lie! How can I die like this?"

But deep down, she knew it was true.

She would die.

If she continued on this path, she would die.

So... should she give up everything she'd worked for?

"Why... why... why is heaven so cruel to me? Why!? I don't want to die... I don't want to die... I don't want to..."

She buried her face into her knees, and tears, like water from a broken dam, kept flowing out of her eyes non-stop.

The light within her eyes started to decrease steadily, slowly but surely, she was losing all hope. She was giving up on everything.

At this critical point, if someone didn't offer her some form of hope, Xiao Ning'er would most likely become completely unresponsive to the world around her.

Then, like a beacon of light in the never-ending tunnel of despair, her eyes landed on the fallen scroll. Like a starving beggar who had been thrown food after days of hunger, she crawled desperately toward it and grabbed it with trembling hands.

Her tear-stained eyes stared at the scroll with burning intensity, as if wanting to memorize even the smallest mark placed upon it.

"That was all I could find regarding your specific illness. I'm sorry I couldn't help you more by finding the exact method to cure it completely. But don't worry, even though I couldn't find the precise cure, I did discover some important clues. Believe me, I'll definitely find the complete cure to your illness—please don't give up hope. For now, do not train during the nighttime hours. The more you train at night, the faster the illness will progress toward something fatal. Other than that, I've left some medicine for you to take near this scroll. It is made from combining Golden Striped Grass with Imperial Sky Grass. While it won't remove the illness entirely, as long as you keep taking these pills for ten consecutive days, it should halt the disease from progressing into something immediately life-threatening."

After finishing reading, her eyes moved to search the desk.

It was then she realized that on the desk, there was indeed a small cloth pouch. Hurriedly picking it up with shaking hands, she opened the pouch to discover two glass bottles inside, each containing five carefully prepared pills, for a total of ten doses.

As she stared at them, Xiao Ning'er was completely dazed.

One second, she had fallen into absolute despair thinking that she was going to die, and the next second, she was pulled back from the brink of hopelessness and realized that there was still a chance for her survival. No matter how small that chance might be, it existed.

She could live! There was still hope!

At that thought, her gaze returned to the scroll and lingered over it for a very long time. She was unaware of the changing feelings developing within her heart. She didn't know the identity of the person who had written it or for what reason he wanted to help her, but one thing was absolutely certain—the desire to meet her mysterious savior blossomed powerfully within her chest. And it was an extremely deep, overwhelming desire!

Unconsciously, she pressed the precious scroll against her chest, a look of longing appearing across her face.

She closed her eyes, that same expression of deep longing remaining.

"No matter who you are or what purpose drove you to help me, if in this lifetime I have the chance to meet you, I'll definitely repay this favor even if it costs me my life!"

Her voice, filled with heartfelt gratitude and genuine gentleness, spread throughout the silence of her room.