Stillshade County.
"Train the muscles, bones, and skin from the outside; strengthen the body from within through breathing. At Highpeak Martial School, we treat everyone equally. Even a precious internal training method, a way to strengthen the body from within, has been taught to you. So work hard, and better, stronger techniques will be waiting for you!"
Cheng Yue, Highpeak Martial School's eldest martial brother, called out loudly. His title reflected seniority in training. Everyone listened attentively. In one corner stood a small, thin man with dark skin. He, too, held his head high, but a closer look would have revealed the blankness in his eyes.
Lu Zhiyuan had closed his eyes and opened them to find himself inexplicably transported from modern Singapore into this world. Ten-odd days had passed since then. After absorbing the memories of this body's former owner, he realized that this world resembled ancient Earth.
Except there were martial artists here who could leap and bound through the air. Killing an ordinary person was as easy for them as crushing a chick.
Lu Zhiyuan was now a menial at a clinic, doing odd jobs. He was not even an apprentice.
Learn medicine? There was no chance of that. They would never give him the opportunity.
Learn it in secret? Anyone caught doing so would be beaten and crippled on the spot, then left to fend for himself.
Unwilling to spend his whole life like that, the former owner had behaved obediently at the clinic and worked without complaint, hoping to win favor and learn a few skills.
Unfortunately, every other menial had the same idea. They competed to impress their employers and worked themselves to the bone, until the former owner began to wonder what he was doing with his life.
With no other recourse, he had taken his savings to Highpeak Martial School to seek instruction, hoping to change his fate.
Highpeak Martial School was straightforward: as soon as the former owner sought instruction, they taught him a breathing method and a matching fist art. He treasured both techniques and practiced them relentlessly in his spare time.
After three months of martial training, he had still not reached Basic proficiency in either the fist art or the breathing method. Instead, overtraining had worn him down until he fell ill and died!
Having received the former owner's memories, Lu Zhiyuan was naturally eager to learn martial arts. He, too, had practiced for a while.
But there was a real reason the former owner had failed to reach Basic proficiency in either technique after three months of martial training.
That body simply had poor martial aptitude. Lu Zhiyuan had inherited it and found that his own martial aptitude was no better.
Could he use his modern way of thinking to make some money and live comfortably as a wealthy man?
He had considered that at first. But the former owner had signed a twenty-year contract to work as a menial at the clinic. He had to remain there for the entire term.
Leaving was not impossible, but he would have to pay a hefty sum in silver to terminate the contract.
What was more, anything else he acquired belonged to the clinic. If he concealed any of it and was discovered, they would cripple him.
Utterly inhumane. Utterly brutal.
The clinic was so terrifying, yet the former owner had spent everything he had just to get in.
At least the clinic would let him live, even if it worked him like an animal for the rest of his life. Other places would not even offer him that much.
Then, just a moment ago, an illusory panel had appeared before Lu Zhiyuan's eyes.
[Name: Lu Zhiyuan]
[Occupation: None]
[Techniques: Highpeak Fist, Highpeak Breathing Method]
[Realm: None]
"Technique detected. Spend one silver tael to simplify Highpeak Fist?"
"Technique detected. Spend one silver tael to simplify Highpeak Breathing Method?"
The panel showed some information about Lu Zhiyuan, with two prompts flashing beneath it. A silver tael was the local unit used to reckon amounts of silver. He had been distracted because he kept looking at the newly appeared panel.
"What are you standing there for? Start practicing the fist art!"
Cheng Yue had come up to him without his noticing. He shouted, "If you still fail to reach Basic proficiency in Highpeak Fist, you will have to pay again next month to keep coming to the school. You know that, don't you?"
Lu Zhiyuan came to his senses. Not daring to say anything more, he redoubled his efforts at practice.
Cheng Yue watched for a moment, then shook his head. He knew Lu Zhiyuan's circumstances. Coming to Highpeak Martial School had been a desperate gamble. It seemed the young man was destined to remain ordinary after all. There was no changing it.
Two hours later, Lu Zhiyuan left the school drenched in sweat. Apart from hunger, he had gained nothing.
He hurried back to the clinic, greeted several familiar menials, and retreated to his room.
It was a shared sleeping room, usually occupied by nearly ten people. Sour, pungent odors kept forcing their way into his nose. Fortunately, he had grown used to them. The first time he woke here, the smell had nearly knocked him unconscious.
"One silver tael. I don't have that much."
Sitting on the communal sleeping platform, Lu Zhiyuan frowned. He still knew little about how the panel worked. He tried asking questions, concentrating, and silently reciting every command he imagined might activate it. Nothing changed. Nothing answered.
Only the two prompts kept flashing, urging him to pay.
But he had spent all his savings to attend Highpeak Martial School. In the few months since then, he had not managed to save another silver tael.
"I have to find some way to get the money."
Ideas flitted through his mind. Then he remembered a medicinal herb the former owner had hidden outside the clinic.
Four months earlier, the clinic's supply of medicinal herbs had run low, so it had sent a group of menials into the mountains with herb gatherers to collect more. The former owner had hidden that medicinal herb away. On the same trip, they had encountered uncanny entities, dangerous, unnatural beings, and three people had died. That was what had convinced the former owner to take up martial training.
The former owner had heard that cultivating martial arts to a high enough degree would allow a person to fight uncanny entities. Even if you could not fight them, any companions with weaker blood vitality, the vital strength within the body, would be targeted before you.
Things had been unsettled outside the county seat lately, and the clinic kept running short of medicinal herbs. Trips to gather them in the mountains every few months would probably become routine.
Lu Zhiyuan stepped out of the room. He considered borrowing from the other menials, but one silver tael was a huge sum to them. No one would lend him that much.
Borrowing smaller amounts from several people might attract suspicion. After a moment's hesitation, he left the clinic.
An hour later, he retrieved the medicinal herb. It was still where it had been hidden. Wearing a conical hat to conceal his face, he secretly sold it at a marketplace for one silver tael and fifty copper coins.
He dared not return to the clinic. Instead, he climbed into an abandoned courtyard in Stillshade County.
"Simplify Highpeak Breathing Method."
He repeated the words silently. The next instant, the one silver tael in his sleeve vanished, and the panel flickered slightly.
"Simplifying Highpeak Breathing Method... Simplification successful... Highpeak Breathing Method → Breathing!"
Breathing?
Before Lu Zhiyuan could make sense of it, he saw his information on the panel change.
[Name: Lu Zhiyuan]
[Occupation: Martial Artist]
[Techniques: Highpeak Fist, Highpeak Breathing Method (Basic 1/100)]
[Realm: None]
As he breathed naturally, warmth spread through his body. The number following Basic in the breathing method's entry kept rising. In moments, it had reached Basic 10/100.
Insights into Highpeak Breathing Method surfaced naturally in his mind.
"I can cultivate just by breathing?"
He was stunned. Wasn't this simplification function a little too much? Highpeak Breathing Method used a special way of breathing to stimulate the internal organs and strengthen the body.
After simplification, he could increase his proficiency in the technique, his command of it, simply by breathing.
It was absurdly powerful. Lu Zhiyuan liked it very much!
Bang!
He was about to investigate the breathing method further when someone kicked open the courtyard gate. A group of men charged in menacingly.
"Steward He, that's him." Deng Li pointed at Lu Zhiyuan. "I saw him holding a medicinal herb, selling it, then running in here."
Lu Zhiyuan frowned. Deng Li had been at odds with the former owner, but he had not expected the man to witness the sale. Or perhaps Deng Li had been watching him all along and had finally found an opportunity.
"Search him!"
He Bingchuan waved a hand. Several menials immediately rushed forward. Lu Zhiyuan offered no resistance and let them search him.
Within moments, they had thrown all his money onto the ground. There were only fifty copper coins.
"Didn't you say he sold it for one silver tael?" He Bingchuan frowned and turned to Deng Li.
"He must have hidden it in the courtyard."
Deng Li was a little flustered, but quickly thought of an explanation. He strode up to Lu Zhiyuan, grabbed his collar, and shouted, "Lu Zhiyuan, we know what you did! Hand over the money, or it won't be so easy on you later!"
"I didn't sell any medicinal herbs. Don't make false accusations." Lu Zhiyuan pried Deng Li's hand away, looking innocent.
"Steward He, the money must be in this courtyard. If we search properly, we're sure to find it." Deng Li glared at Lu Zhiyuan before turning back to He Bingchuan.
He Bingchuan said nothing. He looked around the dilapidated courtyard. Dust covered the ground. The only footprints were the ones they had made, and nothing elsewhere looked disturbed.
"What are you doing here?" he asked Lu Zhiyuan.
"My martial training hasn't worked out, so I came here for some peace and quiet," Lu Zhiyuan said quietly.
He Bingchuan grinned. He had heard that this menial had gone to Highpeak Martial School to seek instruction but had achieved nothing after more than three months.
"Deng Li, come here."
"Yes, Steward He." Deng Li hurried over without daring to delay.
Slap!
With a dull thud, Deng Li fell to one side, stunned. He instinctively clutched his cheek, which was already swollen and red. His mouth moved, and several teeth fell out.
"Next time, don't come to me without evidence. Understand?" He Bingchuan regarded him calmly.
"Y-yes!" Frightened by his expression, Deng Li nodded hastily.
He Bingchuan shook his head. Bored, he turned and left the courtyard. The other menials hurried after him. Deng Li got to his feet and stared venomously at Lu Zhiyuan. He did not dare blame He Bingchuan, so all his anger fell on Lu Zhiyuan instead.
"You got lucky this time!"
He glared, but Lu Zhiyuan gave no response. That one silver tael had already vanished. There was no way to find it. As for bringing in the merchant to confront him, why would the clinic go to all that trouble over a single silver tael?
"Hmph!"
Getting no reaction only made Deng Li angrier. He gave Lu Zhiyuan one last cold look, then left.
An hour later, back in the clinic's shared sleeping room, Lu Zhiyuan examined his panel.
[Name: Lu Zhiyuan]
[Occupation: Martial Artist]
[Techniques: Highpeak Fist, Highpeak Breathing Method (Proficient 930/1000)]
[Realm: Martial Novice (1/100)]
His proficiency in Highpeak Breathing Method had reached Proficient. Every breath now produced a slightly more noticeable sensation in his body. His cultivation had also advanced to Martial Novice.
The school's eldest martial brother had told him that a Martial Novice was an ordinary person who had only just begun martial training. Real achievement meant reaching the Skin Tempering stage.
That would truly set him apart from ordinary people. Highpeak Martial School would also accept him fully as one of its own.
While he quietly studied the panel, it changed again.
[Techniques: Highpeak Breathing Method (Mastered 1/10000)]
[Realm: Martial Novice (2/100)]
The warmth in his body seemed a little more pronounced, and his realm progress had risen by one point. At the same time, his stomach began to rumble. As his body gradually grew stronger, it naturally consumed energy.
The clinic usually provided only two meals a day. Fish and meat were out of the question, but there was enough to eat. At least it did not stint on that.
Lu Zhiyuan deliberately ate much more than usual. Even so, hunger woke him in the middle of the night. His panel still showed Mastered proficiency in the breathing method, but the progress had already reached a few thousand. He estimated that he could advance beyond Mastered the next day.
He wondered whether there were any further proficiency stages beyond it.
His realm progress had risen by several points as well. By his estimate, it might take fewer than twenty days to reach the Skin Tempering stage and become a true martial artist.
Then, whether he stayed at the clinic or went to Highpeak Martial School, he would have some bargaining power.
After eating his fill during the day, Lu Zhiyuan worked with boundless energy. His stronger body had improved his stamina, but more than that, he finally had something to look forward to.
Every breath brought strength. What a wonderful thing. Watching the numbers on his panel change from time to time gave him a tremendous sense of achievement, too.
Before noon, his proficiency in Highpeak Breathing Method reached its highest stage.
[Techniques: Highpeak Breathing Method (Perfected)]
There was no room left for it to rise. Insights into Highpeak Breathing Method kept circling through his mind. Having cultivated the technique to this degree, he had nearly matched its creator's command of it.
Perhaps no one at Highpeak Martial School had ever attained Perfected proficiency in this breathing method.
After all, it was only a basic breathing method. There was no need to grind away at it endlessly. Lu Zhiyuan had done no such grinding either. He had simply cultivated it all the way to the highest proficiency stage.
With his proficiency now at Perfected, the sensation the breathing method produced grew even more pronounced. The panel confirmed his guess. Reaching the Skin Tempering stage might originally have taken twenty days; now, he estimated that ten would be enough. Twice as fast.
His appetite gradually increased, but no one scolded him. One of the stewards had even singled him out for praise a couple of days earlier.
Compared with the other listless menials, Lu Zhiyuan had been noticeably more positive lately. His improved spirits pleased the steward, bringing him to the man's attention.
The other menials envied him and became considerably friendlier. Only Deng Li, lurking in a corner, watched him with cold eyes.