Chapter One: Knowledge Is Power

"Knowledge is power."
Chen Meng felt someone nudging him. He struggled to open his eyes and then saw those six characters written in bold on a red sheet directly in front of him.
Beneath the words was a large blackboard, marked heavily by the sweeps of an eraser, with nothing else written upon it. To the right of the blackboard hung an electronic clock, as large as a washbasin, displaying the time: 10:25.
Chen Meng shook his head, trying to clear his mind, convinced that he must be dreaming. How else could he explain that just moments ago, he had graduated from a prestigious university—one of the elite 985 schools—and was celebrating with classmates, only to find himself suddenly transported here?
No matter how hard he shook his head, the scene before him refused to fade from this supposed "dream."
What the hell!
"Chen Meng, how can you give up now when there are still three months until the college entrance examination? Even if you can't get into a top university, there are still regular ones. If not regular, then at least a junior college. Scoring just one more point could put you ahead of tens of thousands of others—this concerns your entire future."
A middle-aged man, clutching an exam paper, spoke with a tone of bitter disappointment, then turned to address the rest of the class. "And you, all of you—I've told you before: knowledge is power, knowledge changes fate. If you don't work hard now, you'll regret it one day."
"Mr. Chu?"
Chen Meng stared at the familiar man before him, momentarily dazed.
Chu Jiang, his high school history teacher—not his homeroom teacher, but someone who had often filled their days with motivational words and life lessons.
Wait!
Chen Meng swallowed hard as realization dawned. Wasn’t this his high school classroom from senior year? Had he... been reborn?
This has got to be a joke!
He looked again at the classmate who had nudged him. Although this guy didn’t even dare raise his head in front of the teacher, Chen Meng knew him all too well—his deskmate, Ma Yiqun.
So I was sleeping in class?
Chen Meng finally accepted the truth. The thought of returning to eight years ago, however, made him inexplicably excited.
Reborn! Even if it's only eight years back, with everything he knows about the coming years, he was certain he could turn the tables and ascend to the pinnacle of life.
"Mr. Chu, it was my fault. Um... you called me for something?" Chen Meng, seasoned by experience, understood his teacher's good intentions and admitted his mistake without hesitation.
After he apologized, many in the class stared at him in surprise—clearly, no one expected Chen Meng to apologize.
He said nothing more. The old him would never have admitted fault, would have just stood there in silence.
"Good that you know your mistake. It's not too late to work hard now," Chu Jiang replied, a bit surprised but quickly regaining composure. "Ma Yiqun, tell Chen Meng what I asked him to do."
"Me? Alright, sir." Ma Yiqun paused, then quickly stood up. "Chen Meng, the teacher wants you to answer question forty-nine on the mock exam paper—the first essay question in the history section."
"Very good, looks like you were paying attention," Chu Jiang said, nodding in satisfaction.

Ma Yiqun drew a sharp breath. Close one—thank goodness he hadn’t zoned out today.
"Did you hear that?" Chu Jiang asked Chen Meng.
Chen Meng smiled. Oh, Mr. Chu, you have no idea I'm no longer the old Chen Meng. You don't know how hard I worked when I repeated the year; I did every past exam more than once, and in the college entrance exam, I scored a perfect mark in history. Otherwise, how could I have gotten into a top university?
Old Chu, today I’m about to give you a lesson you’ll never forget—let you see that even so-called troublemakers have their springtime.
"Mr. Chu, yes, I heard you. You want me to answer question forty-nine on the mock exam..." Chen Meng replied confidently, picking up the exam paper in front of him. The score on the paper was indeed an eyesore, but it didn't matter anymore—he had been reborn. With this advantage, there would be no need to repeat a year; he’d get into a top university for sure.
But as his eyes fell upon the forty-ninth question, his confidence slowly gave way to confusion.
What kind of question was this?
Chen Meng was stunned, his mind reeling—had he not only been reborn, but crossed into another world as well?
"What's wrong, is the question so difficult?" Chu Jiang frowned, unable to comprehend the look on Chen Meng’s face. Was it really worth such a fuss? This question had been covered countless times.
"Is there... is there a mistake in this question?" Chen Meng stammered, voice trembling. "Please summarize the major historical events before the advent of the Divine Body Era for humanity. But... what is the Divine Body Era? Why have I never heard of it?"
"You—honestly, you’re driving me mad! I must have explained this question eight hundred times. And the rest of you—I’ve told you over and over, this is almost always guaranteed to appear on the college entrance exam, yet some of you still can’t answer it completely. Ma Yiqun, you answer it." Chu Jiang looked at Chen Meng, truly despairing. Rotten wood cannot be carved, he thought. But then again, who else could fall asleep every class and not wake up no matter how loudly called?
Chen Meng was beyond help.
Ma Yiqun silently lamented his luck, but he was confident with this question, having scored nine out of ten points on it before.
He began to answer,
"At the start of the last century, the Earth experienced violent upheavals—seawater flooded in, coastlines collapsed, countless buildings and people were swallowed, with casualties exceeding one billion. In the aftermath of this catastrophe, along the equator from 120 degrees east to 120 degrees west, a massive spatial rift appeared.
"Not long after, gigantic animals began to emerge from the rift. These creatures were not very intelligent, but most possessed terrifying strength and speed. Upon entering Earth, they destroyed many countries and regions.
"At the same time, nations began sending exploratory teams through the rift into the unknown beyond. Soon, a major discovery followed: on the other side was a vast, terrifying, indescribable world, later named the Primeval Wilderness.
"As our explorations continued, humanity encountered, for the first time, a truly intelligent lifeform in the Primeval Wilderness. Its body structure resembled ours, but it pursued not technology, but cultivation—a fearsome means of strengthening itself. The original seventy-one-member team suffered forty-two casualties, but managed to defeat this being with heavy weaponry and retrieved a book containing the basics of Primeval cultivation. Unfortunately, at the time, language barriers prevented us from understanding its contents.
"Three years later, the renowned linguist Meng Qiu succeeded in infiltrating the Primeval Wilderness. Since our bodies were similar to the natives’, unless closely inspected, it was difficult for them to tell us apart. For two years, Meng Qiu worked to decipher their language, which later became known as Primevalian—a compulsory subject for us now. With Meng Qiu’s translations, we finally unlocked the secrets of the cultivation manual. That’s when we realized the area of contact between Earth and the Primeval Wilderness was only its outermost region, known as the Wilds, ruled by beasts. To reach the civilized nations at the heart of the Primeval, we would have to cross the Wilds.
"In the following decade, we sent countless highly intelligent, Primevalian-speaking talents into the Primeval. Most never made it through the Wilds, but those who did brought back many precious texts, including various cultivation manuals. The surviving nations and research institutes on Earth began to study these works. Three years later, the first cultivator successfully forged a Divine Body—marking the dawn of a new era for humanity, the Divine Body Era."
...
As Chen Meng listened to Ma Yiqun’s answer, his mind buzzed.
A new era? This must be a dream—he was certain of it.

"Chen Meng, are you listening?" Chu Jiang glanced at the petrified Chen Meng, having given up hope. "Alright, everyone sit down. Ma Yiqun’s answer wasn’t completely comprehensive, but still quite good. Let’s continue and try to finish the remaining questions on the mock exam this period."
Chen Meng sat down mechanically, unable to calm himself for a long time.
Finally, as the class neared its end and after several repeated tests, he was sure of one thing:
This was not a dream. It was real. He must have arrived in a parallel world, one eerily similar to Earth. This was the only explanation he could accept.
"Since I’m here, I might as well make the best of it."
Chen Meng’s mentality was always strong—otherwise, he’d never have withstood the pressure of repeating a year and made it into a prestigious university.
Ding-ling-ling!
The bell rang, signaling the end of class and the school day.
"Chen Meng, let’s go eat!" Ma Yiqun, seeing that Chu Jiang had left, immediately transformed into a different person.
"I want some peace and quiet," Chen Meng massaged his brow.
"So do I," Ma Yiqun cast a glance ahead. There sat a girl dressed in a white dress, her figure graceful and alluring.
Chen Meng looked at Ma Yiqun helplessly—his deskmate had always been a brooding romantic; apparently, this trait followed him to the parallel world as well.
The girl sitting in front was Tang Wenjing, the goddess of their class. Yet, up until his graduation from graduate school, Chen Meng had never exchanged more than a few words with her.
The reason was simple: Chen Meng knew his own limitations.
"Enough, I really do want to be alone. Go eat without me," Chen Meng shook his head. "If you can, bring me something back."
"Fine, fine, I’ll leave you to your thoughts!" Ma Yiqun replied, a little impatiently, though his voice was loud enough for Tang Wenjing in the front row to hear. She turned her head with curiosity, glancing at Chen Meng.
Chen Meng felt awkward. Watching Ma Yiqun disappear from sight, he gazed out the window at a forty-five-degree angle, pretending nothing had happened.
That afternoon, Chen Meng couldn’t focus on class, but after a lunch break and the rest of the day, he finally pieced together the nature of this world.