I became a martial arts saint while playing games.

Unit 1305, Building 7, Pinganli Residential Area, Tongshui County.

"Time to eat!"

Hearing his mother's voice coming from the kitchen, Gu Yan, who was sitting cross-legged in the bedroom, opened his eyes. He took a deep breath, finished his internal energy cultivation, and got out of bed.

As you step out the door, the aroma of food wafts out, making your mouth water.

Father Gu Mingshan was helping to bring dishes out of the kitchen, placing them one after another on the table.

"Mom, so much food today?"

Gu Yan entered the kitchen, turned off the rice cooker which was already in the keep-warm mode, and took a rice scoop to prepare to serve the rice.

Wearing an apron, Liu Mei, the mother, took three bowls out of the cupboard and placed them on the table, saying with a smile, "This is the first time our college student has come home, so we have to make it a grand occasion."

Gu Mingshan joked from the side, "Son, you're finally back. You have no idea, I haven't seen a single piece of meat while you were gone. I've been eating nothing but vegetables and tofu these past few days..."

"Go away, go away! I wonder who ate such a big plate of braised pork yesterday." Liu Mei took off her apron and scolded with a laugh, "Our son is at the age of practicing martial arts, he should eat more to consume the energy of nature. Unlike you, you just waste your food."

Gu Yan knew that his parents often joked around, so he didn't take it to heart. He sat down at the table, picked up his chopsticks, and said as he ate, "Mom, we're in the humanities. Although we also practice martial arts, the standards for martial arts are relatively lenient, and the physical exertion isn't that great."

"Liberal arts is fine too." Gu Mingshan took a bite of rice and said casually, "Do you remember Old Chen from Dad's workplace? His son never had any talent for martial arts since he was a child, so he just focused on studying liberal arts, specifically law and urban management. Now he's graduated and joined the Martial Arts Management Bureau. No fighting or killing involved, he's in charge of registration, files, and policy documents. He sits in an office, sheltered from the wind and rain, with a stable salary and good benefits. He's living a pretty comfortable life."

Liu Mei added, "Yes, there's more than just martial arts as a path. Living a peaceful and stable life is better than anything else."

Gu Yan knew that the two were intentionally trying to comfort him.

Both parents knew that their son's greatest wish had been to pursue martial arts, but unfortunately, his aptitude was mediocre and his understanding of martial arts was unremarkable. Fortunately, he excelled in humanities subjects and was admitted to a prestigious university, Linjiang University, majoring in humanities. However, his future as a martial artist was ultimately out of reach, and the two parents were always worried that their son would feel dejected.

Since ancient times, Dongxia has vigorously supported martial arts, with advanced martial artists reaping both fame and fortune. While many people believe that there are many good career paths in the humanities, who wouldn't want to embark on the path of martial arts and give it a shot if they had the talent?

Gu Yan had been fascinated by martial arts since childhood, but unfortunately his talent was mediocre. Although his family was not poor, they were only of average means in Tongshui County.

The ancients said that scholars are poor while martial arts are rich. To pursue the path of martial arts, one needs considerable expenses for teachers and medicines, and this has been the case since ancient times.

Furthermore, with the advancement of modern technology, the effects of modernly refined supplements are incomparable to those of ancient medicines, and the effectiveness of money has naturally increased with technological progress.

Those born into humble circumstances who possess exceptional talent will naturally receive support from the state. However, state resources are also limited, and those with mediocre talent and no mining family support will naturally have no chance to pursue martial arts.

After having dinner with his family, Gu Yan returned to his room and sat cross-legged with his eyes closed.

Martial arts are prevalent in Dongxia. Although Gu Yan is a liberal arts student, he also takes martial arts courses. The "Basic Breathing Method" taught in the first year of university requires students to practice for at least one cycle every day, and it is part of the daily curriculum.

While the humanities also have this requirement, management is lax and there is no supervision. Even if students are lazy and don't practice, there is no punishment; it basically depends entirely on their own self-discipline.

The martial arts classes in the humanities only serve to take into account the "comprehensive development" of students; they are more about physical fitness than martial arts.

Since entering the academy, Gu Yan has diligently practiced the "Basic Breathing Technique" every day without ever slacking off. However, the more he practiced, the slower his progress became, and he deeply felt that martial arts required either extraordinary talent or significant financial investment.

Without power or influence and with mediocre talent, even if one is full of liver and liver until one ascends to immortality, one will ultimately find it difficult to achieve anything in life.

"It's been over a month since I transmigrated, where's the promised cheat code?" Gu Yan sighed inwardly.

In his past life, he read online novels about transmigrators, and all the veteran characters were born with cheat codes—some grinded for experience points by signing in daily, some had a personal guru by their side, and some even had points added directly...

In the end, they all became unparalleled in the world, sweeping across the land and reaching the pinnacle of life. But I have been reborn for over a month and still have no extraordinary abilities, which is quite disheartening.

Fortunately, Gu Yansheng was open-minded. He thought that he was lucky to have been reborn, and although the martial arts society he had transmigrated to was very different from his previous life, the original body he had transmigrated to seemed to be himself from a parallel world, and his parents were the parents he knew.

Although the world is different, Gu Yan feels as if he has been given a second chance at life in terms of family. Gu Yan believes that even though his martial arts talent is ordinary, with the experience of his two lives, he should be able to live a comfortable life without worrying about food and clothing, if not extremely wealthy. Spending more time with his parents in this life can be a way to make up for the regrets of his previous life.

Gu Yan sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, intending to practice his cultivation every day, but as soon as he closed his eyes this time, words suddenly appeared in the darkness before him.

Slaying demons and monsters

The four large, eye-catching characters, written in the official script of Yu Wei, are thick and sharp, with a sense of being carved by a knife and axe.

Gu Yan's breath hitched.

He was all too familiar with that font and that title.

"Slaying Demons and Exorcising Monsters" was the name of the last game he was playing before his rebirth.

In his previous life, this was an online game that sparked a craze in the domestic game industry. Players would step into a chaotic world teeming with evil spirits, learn various martial arts, either slay demons and monsters to become heroes of the chaotic world, or follow their own desires to become a demonic overlord.

Upon its release, the game sparked heated discussions due to its high degree of freedom, strong immersion, and excellent combat feel.

In his previous life, Gu Yan was a hardcore player of this game.

In fact, before he transmigrated, he was streaming himself all night to break the world record for speedrunning the main storyline of a game.

He was just one step away from breaking the record. With three minutes left in the process, he would break the world record for "fastest main story completion." His viewers in the live stream were already flooding the chat with comments like "I was there!" and "Taking photos!" and the atmosphere was practically electric...

...and then he traveled through time.

I was quite frustrated when I first arrived because I couldn't leave a record before time travel.

Therefore, as a speedrunning expert, Gu Yan has thoroughly studied this game.

In the darkness, the four characters "Slay Demons and Eliminate Evil" flashed by, and then a traditional Chinese ink painting of mountains and rivers slowly unfolded. Distant mountains were shrouded in mist, rivers were hidden, and a progress bar slowly flowed at the bottom of the field of vision.

It was the game loading screen that Gu Yan was all too familiar with.

Despite it being the most familiar interface, Gu Yan was completely bewildered.

What's going on? I was grinding speedruns until I was practically smoking, and the game even came along with me?

Is this my cheat code?

Throughout history, time travelers have always possessed extraordinary abilities, defying fate and displaying incredible power.

And this cheat of mine... could it be that I can close my eyes anytime and anywhere and play offline single-player mode?

But the fact that the game from his past life could appear out of thin air in his mind was already an extraordinary phenomenon. What benefits the game could bring was still unknown.

[Loading martial arts techniques... Loading complete.]

Loading map... Loading complete.

Once the progress bar reaches its end, the "Enter Game" option appears on the screen.

With a thought, a cursor appeared out of thin air in Gu Yan's mind. He directed his thoughts, and the cursor moved accordingly.

He clicked "Enter Game," and an endless gravitational pull seemed to emanate from the ink wash painting. His vision spun, and his consciousness, like a leaf falling into water, was sucked into the painting.