Su Bai sat alone in the quiet courtyard of Clear Cloud Peak. The evening breeze rustled the bamboo leaves, but his absolute focus was on the desolate, ancient-looking pill resting in his palm.

He opened the system to verify the item’s description one last time.

[Item: Dao-Severing Mortal Dust Pill]

[Description: A taboo poison once used by ancient demonic sects to cripple righteous geniuses. Forcibly shatters the ceiling of the user’s Dantian, causing all accumulated Qi to leak out infinitely. It permanently prevents the user from ever condensing a Foundation, locking them in an endless, broken loop of Qi Refining until they wither into a mortal.]

Su Bai flipped open his notebook and meticulously logged his operational forecast.

Item: Dao-Severing Mortal Dust Pill

Original Effect: Shatters Dantian ceiling, leaks Qi infinitely, prevents Foundation Establishment, locks user in Qi Refining.

Reversal Expectation: Reinforces Dantian ceiling, hoards Qi, forces Foundation Establishment, breaks user out of Qi Refining.

"It’s flawless logic," Su Bai muttered to himself. "It’s an automatic elevator back to the executive suite. What could possibly go wrong?"

He stored the notebook and took a deep, steadying breath.

First, he popped one of Shattered-Soul Oblivion Pills into his mouth, jumpstarting his Dead Wood root into a state of ravenous, hyper-active Overclocking.

Then, without a single shred of hesitation, he tossed the terrifying execution pill into his mouth.

Instantly, a massive, freezing tidal wave of pure, concentrated energy exploded in his stomach.

Su Bai smiled. It was working perfectly. Instead of burning agony, a familiar, refreshing, minty-cool sensation flooded his meridians. It rushed directly toward his Dantian like a high-speed data transfer.

Boom!

His Dantian stretched, then groaned under the sudden influx of heavy Qi.

Boom!

He felt it physically expanding. His Dantian was rapidly filling with a thick, dense mist of spiritual energy.

’Keep going!’ Su Bai cheered internally. ’Condense! Turn into a liquid Foundation!’

He sat perfectly still, then waited for the gaseous Qi to liquefy.

He waited.

And waited.

Slowly, the confident corporate smirk slid right off Su Bai’s face.

He was wrong. He was completely, mathematically wrong.

A spike of sheer panic pierced through his excitement as his corporate brain suddenly realized the fatal flaw in his business plan.

He had assumed the breakthrough was an automated process. He had the hardware (the Reversal Body) and the power supply (the infinite Qi capacity from the pill).

But converting Qi Refining (which was a gaseous mist) into Foundation Establishment (which was a highly compressed pool of liquid energy) wasn’t something the body just did on its own!

His Dead Wood root couldn’t compress the gas without specific instructions.

It required an instruction manual. It required a Cultivation Method.

’I don’t have the software!’ Su Bai realized in absolute horror.

But it was too late to hit the abort button.

The massive, endless rush of Qi continued to pour into his Dantian from the Mortal Dust Pill. Because it wasn’t being compressed into a liquid Foundation, the gaseous mist had nowhere to go. The internal pressure skyrocketed exponentially.

’I’m going to explode!’ Su Bai panicked. His face turned paper-white. ’I have way too much RAM and no Operating System to manage it!’

A normal cultivator in this situation would have violently detonated, turning into a spectacular, bloody firework over Clear Cloud Peak.

But Su Bai had the Reversal Body. And the poison he had taken was specifically designed to shatter the Dantian’s ceiling to let Qi escape.

As the pressure reached a critical, explosive mass, the pill’s original "Shattering" protocol activated.

A blinding, tearing pain ripped through Su Bai’s core.

"Ugh!" He winced violently. He doubled over and clutched his stomach as unbearable agony wracked his nerves.

Just as his Dantian was about to violently rupture, the Reversal Body finally took over.

Instead of letting the ceiling shatter, his constitution violently reinforced it. It grabbed the massive, expanding pressure of the untamed Qi and weaponized it, using the sheer force to stretch the Dantian’s boundaries infinitely outward.

It made the ceiling completely indestructible, and endlessly expansive.

The agonizing pressure vanished in an instant. It was replaced by a profound, terrifying emptiness.

Su Bai’s eyes rolled back into his head. He slumped forward onto the flat meditation stone, falling into a deep, absolute coma.

***

Hours passed. The moon rose high over Clear Cloud Peak, casting a pale silver glow over the silent courtyard.

Slowly, Su Bai opened his eyes. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

He didn’t feel pain. He didn’t feel bloated or on the verge of exploding. He felt... hollow, yet impossibly full. It was a bizarre physical paradox his mind struggled to grasp.

He quickly closed his eyes and looked inward. He inspected the state of his internal hardware.

The gaseous mist of Qi hadn’t turned into a liquid Foundation. But the sheer volume of the mist was staggering. It looked like an endless, swirling galaxy of black frost. The "walls" of his Dantian were simply gone. His Qi capacity was completely, utterly boundless.

He hadn’t reached Foundation Establishment.

But he definitely wasn’t in the peak Stage of Qi Refining anymore, either.

The energy signature radiating from his body was incredibly heavy. It carried an ancient, desolate weight that defied modern cultivation logic.

Su Bai stared at the endless sea of mist inside him.

He was utterly bewildered.

"Did I... did I just hit the 10th Stage?" he whispered to the empty, moonlit courtyard.

He had just wanted a standard promotion. Instead, he had accidentally rewritten the company’s entire structural hierarchy.