I Just Wanted to Live, but I Somehow Became Better Than the Main Character

Ye Yong currently had no trace of cultivation. Sure, he might have a divine physique, which allowed him to go toe to toe with a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator if they don’t use spiritual energy, but in the end, he was still a mortal. Without spiritual energy, Ye Yong wouldn’t be able to use battle arts, and being unable to use battle arts meant that Ye Yong wouldn’t be able to improve his proficiency in the battle arts. At least, that was how it was supposed to be.

But as someone with the idling system, Ye Yong could improve his proficiency in the battle arts even if he just laid down and down nothing at all. All he needed to do was to memorize the battle art.

Ye Yong didn’t really have any long-term goals (other than surviving). His current goals were to get back to the Foundation Establishment Realm. The Heavenly Luo Sect’s assessment date would take place two months later, and Ye Yong wanted to at least get to the fifth layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm by then. He at least wanted to be considered a small genius if he couldn’t be the number one genius.

After joining the sect, Ye Yong would need to learn battle arts to fight. He didn’t want to be someone that fought with nothing but his flesh like a barbarian. His goal was to be a handsome swordsman that spoke with his sword rather than his fist.

Ye Yong was currently heading to the cultivation arts palace to learn all the mystery-grade battle arts that the Ye Family has. The Ye Family only had about 30 mystery-grade battle arts. After all, the Ye Family was a family clan and contained the characteristics of the Ye Family. On the other hand, sects had to take in different people from all around, so they needed a ton of battle arts to be able to have at least a few battle arts that could suit almost everyone. Sects have thousands of battle arts, so even if the idling system didn’t have any limitations, Ye Yong wouldn’t be able to learn all the battle arts that the sects have.

But why did the young masters and young ladies of large families like Ye Yong need to join a sect? Well, it’s kind of like having a student go to school. Part of it was the learning aspect. The other part was to make friends and connections. When they got older, they could establish their own sect if they were powerful enough. If they weren’t, they could simply return to their family and become an elder or something.

…

Ye Yong had an extreme-grade wind-type spiritual root. Normally, it was only suitable for wind-type battle arts, but because Ye Yong had the Chaotic Origin Divine Physique, Ye Yong could use all other elements as chaos was nothingness, and nothingness begets something.

As such, since the option of being a master of all was available to him, Ye Yong wanted to be a master of all. He did, after all, had the idling system.

Ye Yong got to the cultivation arts palace. The person in charge of the cultivation arts palace was the third elder of the Ye Family- Ye Yong’s second grandfather. When Third Elder Ye saw Ye Yong, he didn’t say anything and just let out a sigh. Ye Yong greeted him and walked into the cultivation arts palace.

There were quite a lot of members of the Ye Family in the cultivation arts palace. They were all choosing battle arts, and when they saw Ye Yong, they had complicated looks in their eyes. Compared to the adults that doted on Ye Yong, some of them were gloating over Ye Yong’s loss in cultivation as Ye Yong had always been above them as the Fifth Genius of the Great Zhou Dynasty’s Ten Peerless Geniuses. Now that Ye Yong had crippled his cultivation and become a mortal, he was like an ant to them. If it wasn’t because Ye Yong had a mother and a father in the Nascent Soul Realm, they would have already trampled on Ye Yong because of his past actions and temper.

“Young Master Ye,” some people still greeted Ye Yong, but the servants that used to try to get Ye Yong’s favor all tried to stay far away from Ye Yong. A few people that were somewhat talented and at the 3rd or 4th layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm ignored Ye Yong completely.

Ye Yong didn’t care about them and just went over to the shelf that contained the mystery-grade cultivation arts. He picked one up and started to read. The instant Ye Yong finished reading a cultivation art, the system automatically generated a “mind-book” and the idling system judged that Ye Yong had learned the cultivation art and started cultivating the cultivation arts.

‘Ding. The [Five Tiger Fist] has been learned. Progress: 0.’

‘Ding. The [Wind Pressure Sword] has been learned. Progress: 0.’

Of course, “learning” an art didn’t mean that Ye Yong actually understood anything. Only when the progress got to 100 and entered the introductory stage would Ye Yong actually be able to use the cultivation art.

This whole morning, Ye Yong was like a psychopath as he flipped through one book after another. It was as if he wasn’t there to learn but to disturb others from learning.

“Ye Yong, what are you trying to do?”

Ye Yong was on the last mystery grade cultivation art when his cousin, Ye Mao, showed up behind him. Ye Mao was two years older than Ye Yong and was currently 20 years old. He was at the fourth layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm and had a stable foundation. Someone that was able to get to the fourth layer of the Foundation Establishment realm at 20 years old without relying on pills and medicine was considered a genius, but because Ye Yong had gotten to the seventh layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm at 18 years old with an extreme-grade spiritual root, he completely overshadowed Ye Mao and made him and the other “geniuses” seem mediocre.

Now that Ye Yong had crippled his cultivation, Ye Mao was the most talented person in the younger generation of the Ye Family and Ye Yong’s cousin, so he was qualified to question Ye Yong’s behavior.

“Reading cultivation arts,” Ye Yong said. He didn’t know who Ye Mao was as the he read didn’t have any pictures. Even if there were pictures, there would at most be pictures of 2D people while these people were 3D.

“Who reads cultivations arts like you do and walk around endlessly? You’re bothering others.”

“Sorry, but this is the last one. I’ll stop reading after this one.” Ye Mao wanted to say something, but as Ye Yong’s attitude was pretty good and had said that it was the last book, he couldn’t keep bothering Ye Yong as continuing to do so would be him provoking Ye Yong. Ye Yong had only crippled his cultivation recently, so the elders were still focused on him. As such, Ye Mao couldn’t afford to offend Ye Yong for the time being. After some time passed and the elders completely give up on you and find out how talented I am, then I will be the one who decides what goes on in this family. Thinking about it this way, I really have to thank you for crippling your cultivation. Otherwise, I wouldn’t know how I would attract the elders’ attention.

“Be careful next time,” Ye Mao grunted, turning around and leaving.

Ye Yong continued to happily memorize the cultivation arts and let the 38 cultivation arts cultivate themselves. Ye Yong had an indescribable feeling as he looked at the list of cultivation arts. He felt like he was a master that didn’t know anything but had a group of talented and hardworking disciples, and he only needed to sit back and relax as he enjoyed the fame that his disciples brought him. So satisfying.

Ye Yong looked at the third floor of the cultivation arts palace. That was where the earth-grade cultivation arts were located. Only those in the Crystallization Realm were qualified to go there and cultivate the earth-grade cultivation arts. The first floor contained the yellow-grade cultivation arts, which Ye Yong considered to be trash.

This meant that it was time for Ye Yong to go back to his residence to cultivate and focus on breaking through to the Qi Refinement Realm.

…

Lin Wei hadn’t seen Ye Yong at all for 5 days straight. Although she was always paying attention to any sign of movement in Ye Yong’s residence, Ye Yong had set up a Separation Formula, so Lin Wei could only “see” Wu Xue go in and out of Ye Yong’s residence every day to bring meals for Ye Yong.

Lin Wei sighed. Her face was filled with sadness. She estimated that Ye Yong would need at least a month to return to the Qi Refinement Realm and 5 years to return to the seventh layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm. If Ye Yong was slower, then he could take up to 10 years to return to the seventh layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Ye Yong had started cultivating when he was 7 years old, meaning that he had taken 11 years to get to the seventh layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm. He might have cultivation experience, but that didn’t mean that he would be faster.

Lin Wei sighed again. Just as she was about to go get some spiritual beast meat to make soup for Ye Yong, she saw Ye Yong come out of his residence with her divine sense.

Translator’s Notes:

My finals are done! I can start normal translation again and keep to the schedule (probably). I will try to translate extras but don’t expect too much because I got a lot of chores assigned to me because I have a long ass break. Oh, and I’m being forced to go out and find an actual job to work at for a week or 2 because exposure. Yay.

I was going to post this a bit earlier but uh I was too busy simping and uh kind of just left this halfway done.