[2026, Jiang City, Urban Village]
The air in the rainy-season basement was damp enough to wring water from, heavy with the sour stench of mold.
Gurgle, gurgle...
Under the dim, flickering light, a yellowed electric cooker hissed with steam. Inside, a packet of near-expired instant noodles swirled in a red, spicy broth. This was Su Xing's "dignified final dinner" after his business failed, leaving him with a staggering 300,000-yuan debt.
"Doubao," Su Xing muttered, swallowing hard as he stared at his cracked phone screen. "Did you find anything? How does a lucky loser in debt like me strike it rich overnight?"
The AI's emotionless, mechanical voice drifted from the speaker:
"From a legal and practical standpoint, there are no true shortcuts to 'overnight wealth.' Such cases are either the result of long-term accumulation reaching a breaking point or high-risk speculative behavior—most of which are scams."
"Heh..." Su Xing looked around his cramped rental and let out a self-deprecating laugh. "I know the logic. But right now, I'd settle for 500,000 just to clear the loan sharks."
Just then, the pot boiled over. The frothing soup spilled over the rim, leaking directly into a cheap, two-dollar power strip.
Zzzzt—!
A blue electric arc flashed, illuminating Su Xing's startled face. He instinctively reached out to steady the pot. The moment his fingertips brushed the metal rim, his body jerked violently, snapping as rigid as a salted fish being electrocuted!
As his vision faded to black and he collapsed, only one thought remained in his mind:
...What a waste of good beef-flavored noodles.
...
Darkness. Endless darkness.
Just as Su Xing was about to lose consciousness entirely, a cold, synthesized electronic voice sliced through his mind like a scalpel.
[Ding!] [External high-energy current detected. Core logic restructuring of "Sandbag" complete.]
The sound exploded in his head. Su Xing bolted upright, gasping for air, his heart hammering like a drum.
"I'm alive?" He touched his face. "Wait... that voice... what was that?"
Before he could process anything, the cold voice rang out again, accompanied by a sharp red warning chime:
[Warning! External power source disconnected! Battery remaining: less than 1%!] [To maintain core logic operations, forced activation of Bio-Energy Conversion.]
Su Xing froze. "Forced what? Hey, you—"
Vroooom—!
Su Xing felt as if an industrial-grade pump had been slammed into the top of his skull. Without giving him a second to breathe, a hollow, terrifying void surged through his body! His already empty stomach began to spasm violently.
"F***!!!"
Su Xing curled into a ball like a shrimp. Cold sweat drenched his back as his body shook uncontrollably.
Hunger.
An extreme, soul-shredding hunger that could snap a man's sanity.
["Sandbag" Bio-Energy Monitoring Module activated...] [Host's bio-energy depletion exceeds threshold. Vital signs dropping rapidly. Status: Near-Death!] [Emergency Self-Preservation Protocol initiated. Priority: Maximum!] [Bzzzt—Capturing Host's retinal feed. Synchronizing all-frequency distress signal broadcast!]
Clutching his spasming stomach, Su Xing's eyes turned a predatory green. He scanned the room like a dying wolf. The basement was empty—nothing but the spilled noodle soup on the floor.
Wait. There was one thing.
Su Xing's gaze locked onto the only small window in the room. Hanging beside the vent was a black, rock-hard, long object left behind by the previous tenant.
A three-year-old slab of air-dried cured meat.
In Su Xing's current state, that wasn't meat. That was a glowing bar of HP!
"Food... I need to eat..."
His sanity snapped.
Su Xing scrambled over, dragged a broken three-legged stool beneath the window, and lunged upward like a crazed monkey. He stood on his tiptoes, stretching his arm to the limit, and clamped his fingers around that greasy, granite-hard slab of meat.
CRACK!
The broken stool finally gave way. Su Xing was left dangling in mid-air.
But he wouldn't let go! His fingers turned white from the strain, his body swaying like a hanging ghost. As he swung, his face turned toward the wall where a grimy, cracked mirror hung.
In the dim light, he saw himself: hair standing on end, face covered in soot, eyes bulging from starvation, dangling in the air and trembling—yet his mouth was stretched wide, fixed on the meat.
He looked like a starving wraith.
At this range, the pungent, heavy scent of aged grease filled his nostrils. Without hesitation, he faced his reflection, faced the rock-hard meat, and bit down with savage, contorted ferocity!
"CRUNCH!"
A sound that made one's teeth ache echoed through the room. Su Xing felt as if he had bitten into a steel plate. Sharp pain shot through his jaw, and his features twisted instantly.
He couldn't break it! The meat was as hard as solid granite!
In that moment of deadlock, because Su Xing was staring deathly still at his own reflection, this "Portrait of a Madman in the Void" surged through the signal sent by "Sandbag," shattering the dimensional barrier.
...
Meanwhile, within the Great Void.
The Cultivation Realm—the convergence point of a billion souls. Usually, this place was a cacophony of Daoist debates and spiritual trade. But just then, a violent, glitched signal surged into the serene void.
Every Grandmaster's divine sense turned toward the sudden "Livestream Window."
The image was blurry, filled with heavy static and noise, set against a backdrop of deathly, oppressive black and white. In the center of the frame hung a man with disheveled hair, looking like a skeletal wraith.
He was suspended within a "Void Fissure." Unseen laws of gravity seemed to press upon him, making his muscles quiver and veins bulge as if he were struggling against the malice of an entire world. Yet, he did not retreat. His right hand gripped a pitch-black "heart" that radiated an aura of ancient eons!
"Hiss—"
A collective gasp echoed through the void as divine senses vibrated wildly.
[Alchemy Grandmaster · Gu He]: "What is that? Such terrifying demonic qi! That heart is obsidian black and gleaming—it has been air-dried for at least three thousand years! It has long since crystallized into a Demon Stone!"
[Blacksmithing Maniac · Iron Hand]: "That's not the point! Look at his hand! That is a Void Fissure! He is gripping the Demon Heart barehanded, unmoved by the void storms! Has this man's physical body already reached Sainthood?!"
[Master of Heaven's Secret Pavilion]: "His countenance... it is one of ultimate calamity! Even across the infinite void, I can feel the madness in his eyes! Which hidden Demon Overlord is this?!"
Just as the crowd was reeling in shock, the man in the image moved. He opened his mouth, his face twisted in a mask of primal greed for the Great Dao, and bit down savagely on that "Eternal Demon Heart"!
A thunderous "CRACK" erupted—the sound of teeth colliding with Demon Stone!
In the cultivators' eyes, Su Xing's pained grimace became something else entirely: The Backlash of the Demon Heart!
[He Huan Sect · Enchantress]: "Such potent demonic nature! Even this Great Being can't break it?"
[Body Cultivator · Overlord Tyrant]: "No! He is persisting! He is suppressing the Demon Heart with nothing but his supreme will and physical body! He is trying to refine it! What a mad, indomitable Dao-heart!"
"What a ruthless man!"
Within the spiritual network, a burly Body Cultivator felt his blood boil. In a cultivation world full of "pretty boys" who did nothing but pop pills, how long had it been since they'd seen a real man swallowing demon flesh and tanking laws of nature like this?
Overlord Tyrant waved his hand, typing a line of golden text across the screen:
"Fellow Daoist, you are a paragon of our kind! This mouthful of Source Blood Qi is a tribute to your courage! TAKE IT!"
BOOM—! A streak of crimson light followed the glitched signal, surging back across the dimensions.
...
[Jiang City · Su Xing's Rental Room]
[Ding! Received a gift from "Body Cultivator · Overlord Tyrant": Source Blood Qi ×1] [Would you like to extract?]
Su Xing was currently in tears because his teeth had almost shattered. Hearing the cold prompt in his head, he grumbled instinctively, "Extract? Extract your grandfather..."
The command was triggered.
In the next second—BOOM!
A wave of scalding heat exploded within him, surging through his limbs. It felt like a withered balloon being instantly inflated with high-pressure gas. His thin arms began to ripple with muscle, brimming with explosive power. Even his teeth and jaw were flooded with a raw strength that demanded release!
"BREAK... FOR... ME!!!"
Su Xing's eyes turned crimson as he bit down again.
"CRA-CRACK!"
That granite-hard meat snapped like a crisp wafer biscuit. He gulped it down. The overwhelming saltiness hit his brain like a freight train, twisting his face again—but the sensation of food in his stomach left him with a satisfied, albeit terrifying, grin.
...
Su Xing dropped from the air, landing steadily. He instinctively tightened his right hand.
"SNAP!"
The solid iron hook, thick as a thumb, let out a groan. In Su Xing's hand, it was twisted into a pretzel as easily as if it were a soft noodle!
Su Xing froze.
He looked at the mangled iron hook, then at the salty meat in his hand. Feeling his rock-hard biceps, he muttered in total confusion:
"Is this meat... really that good for my calcium levels?"