Su Bai sat cross-legged in his restored, though slightly drafty, wooden hut.

His newly recovered Qi was settling perfectly at the 5th Stage of Qi Refining. However, his mind wasn’t entirely at ease.

He needed to apply the scientific method.

’Does my body truly reverse everything, or was the Heavenly Demon Blood-Burning Pill just a fluke? What if the System’s rewards are uniquely coded to my physique, and normal world items will still kill me?’

To survive in this cutthroat cultivation world, he needed a control group. He needed to test non-System items. Specifically, he needed to buy a bunch of deadly, low-grade garbage and see if his body turned it into gold.

Pulling an unadorned black cloak over his robes, Su Bai stepped out of his courtyard and began his descent.

At the base of the Radiant Sky Sect’s towering peaks lay the Grand Radiance City. It was a massive, bustling mortal metropolis completely under the sect’s protection. Mortals, rogue cultivators, and sect disciples mingled freely here, trading goods, herbs, and artifacts.

As Su Bai walked through the crowded streets, the hood of his cloak slipped back slightly.

He instantly drew stares.

His skin was the color of translucent mutton-fat jade. To some passing disciples, he looked untouchable and majestic. To others, his extreme pallor made him look like a tragic, beautiful scholar dying of a rare illness.

"Senior Brother Su!"

A group of outer sect disciples immediately rushed over.

To the outer sect, Su Bai wasn’t just a Core Disciple. He was the saint who had traded them Spirit Rice for stale mortal bread for six years.

Furthermore, word had already spread like wildfire from Chen Yu and Wang Lin. Everyone knew that Senior Brother Su was secretly a peerless Daoist teacher who could break bottlenecks with a single sentence.

"Senior Brother, are you here to trade again?" a young female disciple asked, blushing fiercely as she clutched a bag of buns. "I brought extra today!"

Su Bai looked at the buns. A week ago, those would have been a feast. But now that he tasted something better, mortal food would just taste like ash.

"Not today, Junior Sister," Su Bai said softly. He offered an apologetic smile. "I am here on other business."

The group visibly deflated. They looked like a pack of kicked puppies.

Su Bai sighed. He couldn’t help it. Looking at these struggling, bright-eyed disciples, he was vividly reminded of the fresh-faced junior interns he used to train back at his old tech firm. They had the drive. They just lacked the proper guidance from middle management.

"However," Su Bai added. "I hear some of you are struggling with your cultivation manuals. I am willing to offer guidance, but I have a condition."

The disciples’ heads snapped up. Their eyes went wide with disbelief and joy.

"I cannot have people showing up to my peak one by one at random hours," Su Bai explained. "It disrupts the workflow. If you have questions, collaborate. Compile a consolidated list of your bottlenecks, and come to me as a group once a week. We will call it... ’Office Hours.’ Do you understand?"

The disciples didn’t know what ’Office Hours’ meant, but they understood the core message. The Peerless Senior Brother is willing to teach them!

"Yes, Senior Brother! Thank you, Senior Brother!" they cheered.

Satisfied that he had streamlined his future tutoring schedule, Su Bai bid them farewell and headed toward the center of the city.

His destination was the Liu Family Auction House.

It was a new multi-story pavilion run by a family affiliated with the Inner Sect. They even had a massive bronze cauldron in the courtyard where retained alchemists brewed pills for the public.

They were incredibly famous for their Dragon-Tiger Vitality Pills. A stamina booster loved by exhausted mortals and cultivators alike.

When Su Bai entered the lobby, it was surprisingly quiet. The main auction was currently taking place in the inner halls, leaving only a lone, pretty clerk at the front desk.

When the clerk looked up, she froze. She was new to the job, but she instantly recognized the famous "Crippled Core Disciple" of Clear Cloud Peak. His otherworldly looks and melancholic aura were unmistakable.

She quickly put on a professional smile. "Welcome to the Liu Family Auction House, Senior. How may I assist you today?"

Su Bai walked up to the counter and unceremoniously dumped a small pouch of Spirit Stones onto the wood.

"I want all of your Pill Dregs," Su Bai said directly. "The scrap pills. Give me as many as these stones can buy."

The clerk blinked. Her smile stiffened.

"Ah... and do you have any of the famous suicide pills?" Su Bai added thoughtfully. "The Shattered-Soul Oblivion Pills? I’ll take one of those, too."

The clerk’s breath hitched. She stared at the incredibly handsome, perfectly pale cultivator in front of her. Her mind raced to the most tragic conclusion possible.

’Heads of the Heavens...’ she thought. ’The rumors are true. His cultivation is crippled. He has finally given up! This peerless, beautiful man wants to overdose on toxic garbage and seal his fate with an Oblivion Pill! Sigh... the heavens are truly jealous of geniuses.’

Despite her internal weeping, she was a professional. The auction house had a strict non-interference policy. If a cultivator wanted to buy a suicide pill, they sold suicide pill.

"We do receive requests for... such items, Senior," she said. Her voice was laced with profound, tragic pity. "I will prepare them for you at once."

As the clerk hurried into the back room to gather his lethal order, Su Bai stood in the quiet lobby.

’This is the perfect time,’ he thought.

He mentally summoned his System. He had saved his daily sign-in specifically for this location.

"Sign in."

[Ding! Signed in at Liu Family Auction House.]

[Reward: Artifact - Wraith-Slumber Manacle.]

A heavy, cold iron bracelet materialized in Su Bai’s system storage. He eagerly opened the item description.

[Artifact: Wraith-Slumber Manacle]

[Use: Once worn, it constantly injects ’Corpse-Slumber Miasma’ directly into the wearer’s meridians. This highly potent curse attacks the spiritual sea, simulating the paralyzing lethargy of a rotting corpse. It does not physically drain the muscles, but it tricks the soul into feeling like it hasn’t slept in a decade, making the limbs feel as though they weigh a thousand pounds.]

Su Bai read the description in silence.

His expression didn’t change but internally, his heart was doing backflips.

If his Reversal Body worked the way he thought it did, this wasn’t a torture device. If the curse forced his brain to feel intense, debilitating lethargy and sleep deprivation... then reversing it would produce the exact opposite effect.

’It’s a permanent, spiritual espresso IV drip,’ Su Bai realized. He was absolutely thrilled. ’If I wear this, I’ll never feel tired again. I can work, read, and train 24/7 without ever needing a coffee break!’

"Senior?"

Su Bai blinked and looked up. The clerk had returned. She placed two heavy wooden boxes on the counter. One was filled with foul-smelling, dark green pill dregs. The other held a single, ominously black pill resting on a velvet cushion.

"Your... items, Senior," she whispered, looking as though she were handing a man his own severed head.

"Perfect. Thank you," Su Bai smiled warmly. He swept the boxes into his storage ring with a flick of his wrist.

He gave her a polite nod and turned to leave. His steps were light and eager as he headed back toward the mountain to begin his highly lethal science experiment.

The clerk watched his retreating back until he disappeared into the crowd. She let out a long, sorrowful sigh, deeply mourning the fact that she would likely never see that handsome, tragic face ever again.