Fang Ping originally thought his biggest problem was the college entrance exam.
Like most students, his days were filled with practice papers, classroom lectures, exhausted teachers, and the constant pressure of figuring out what kind of future he could realistically afford. Nothing about his life looked unusual at first glance, which honestly made the strange parts harder to notice.
People around him talked about martial arts in a way that didn’t feel normal.
Not the kind shown in movies or online fantasies, but real influence, real status, real fear. Classmates discussed “martial sciences” as though it could completely change a person’s life overnight. Schools treated cultivation rankings with almost the same importance as academic scores, and even news reports casually mentioned martial artists alongside major corporations and political figures.
The unsettling part was that nobody else seemed confused by it.
To everyone around him, this was simply how the world worked.
The deeper Fang Ping pays attention, the clearer the hidden structure of society becomes. Wealthy families invest unimaginable amounts of money into cultivation resources for their children, martial universities stand above ordinary institutions, and the strongest fighters possess influence powerful enough to affect entire cities. Behind the surface of modern civilization exists another world entirely, one built on strength rather than rules.
And strength is expensive.
Registration fees alone are enough to crush ordinary households. Pills, training, nutrition, instructors—every step forward requires resources most people spend years trying to earn. For students born into average families, the path of cultivation often feels less like opportunity and more like something designed to remind them where they belong.
Unfortunately for Fang Ping, once he notices this world, he can’t ignore it anymore.
Curiosity slowly turns into obsession.
He starts noticing small things he ignored before, teachers becoming unusually careful whenever martial arts instructors visit the school, students from wealthy families casually discussing cultivation tutors that cost more than an average yearly salary, even local businesses treating official martial artists with a level of respect that feels closer to fear. The more Fang Ping pays attention, the more obvious it becomes that strength affects almost everything in this society, including opportunities ordinary people never even realize they lost.
That realization changes him more than he expected.
Because Fang Ping understands himself well enough to admit something uncomfortable: after seeing how this world really works, returning to an ordinary life no longer feels satisfying.
The problem is that ambition alone means nothing here.
Talent matters.
Money matters.
Background matters even more.
And Fang Ping starts with almost none of it.
Still, some people are perfectly willing to gamble everything for a chance to climb higher, especially after realizing just how terrifying the gap between the weak and the strong truly is.
