Dragon Hibernation Stance required the person to put one leg in the front and the other in the back extremely widely, and they were to twist their backs like a venomous snake. They also had to be as energetic as snakes when they gathered their strength to attack.
They were supposed to look like hungry snakes who had just woken up from winter and were very aggressive.
In the Ninth High School, there were only a handful of top students in the "rocket class" who could maintain this stance for more than ten minutes.
Class 6 was a very normal "strolling class", and there was half an hour before class dismissal.
Everyone knew that Meng Chao was injured during his second year of high school and had stayed in the hospital for a few months.
After he was discharged, he decided to let loose and live however he wanted. He did not intend to get into college, and he was average and sloppy when it came to the basic Nine Great Stances.
If he maintained the Dragon Hibernation Stance for half an hour, he would probably have to crawl home when school ended.
Quite a number of students mourned him and thought about the ruthlessness of Demon Yan.
Zuo Haoran crossed his arms over his chest and sat down with a cold sneer.
Meng Chao stood in the corner obediently.
'Dragon Hibernation Stance is a very simple, elementary stance and was obsolete in my nightmare. How in the world did it go again?'
Meng Chao tried hard to recall it.
His mind was still in a slight mess, so he could not quite differentiate between his dream and reality.
"Stop pretending to be cool. Just beg for mercy!"
His classmates thought that Meng Chao did not dare to enter the Dragon Hibernation Stance, and they could not bear with the sight. They gave him a gentle reminder.
"He's just a bad egg in the batch. This is what he deserves!" Zuo Haoran mumbled under his breath, but he spoke at a volume that could be heard by the people around him.
Before his voice could fade, Meng Chao moved.
Whoosh!
The leg he positioned in front was bent, and the leg he positioned at the back was tense. He spread his arms out like a sentient snake, and he moved his back like an aquatic dragon which had just woken up from an abyss. It had saved up enough strength and was prepared to strike when rain poured down in spring.
Meng Chao's spirit and strength exploded forth like a torrent rushing down from the mountains. He could not control himself at all.
"This is…"
His classmates were dumbfounded.
They felt as if Meng Chao had been reborn and become someone entirely new.
The movements of his muscles, bones, and limbs were filled with a relaxed and confident air. Even when he was just standing casually, he gave off none of the stiff movements high school students had.
His posture was not perfect, but it was even more beautiful than the normal Dragon Hibernation Stance.
Even the tips of his fingers were trembling slightly, giving off a faint, murderous air.
"What the heck? Was Meng Chao's Dragon Hibernation Stance so good?"
"It's even better than the class rep's!"
"It's just an illusion. He won't be able to deceive me. He's using his life to pretend to be cool. Just watch. In at most one minute, he'll definitely collapse!"
One minute passed, but Meng Chao remained at ease as if he could remain in this stance until self-study period at night.
Suddenly, he remembered something and said with an apologetic look, "Mr. Yan, is there something else? Am I not maintaining the standard stance? I'm really sorry. I haven't practiced it for a while, and my movements aren't perfect. I'll change it when I go back, so please excuse me for this."
"…"
Yan Dongxing wanted to say something, but in the end, he did not say it. A few expressions fleeted through his dark face. In the end, without a single word, he returned to the podium.
The students began to curse in their hearts.
'Meng Chao, you bastard! Are you even speaking human?! If your Dragon Hibernation Stance isn't proper, then how is ours? Earthworm-like? Is it just an illusion?'
Everyone felt that after Meng Chao woke up, his stance and his ability to pretend to be cool had gone up with a whoosh.
All sorts of gazes went to Zuo Haoran, and the pressure also returned to him.
The class rep felt as if he had just been slapped in the face by Meng Chao.
There was a slightly embarrassed expression on his face, but a monstrous look flashed past his eyes.
"We're returning to the lecture, come on!" Yan Dongxing tapped at the blackboard. "One Hundred Saber Techniques and Thunder Rapier are the two most important high-middle tier cold weapon techniques. The last question in the national college examination last year was about Thunder Rapier.
"So this year, there is a high chance that it will be One Hundred Saber Technique. Everyone, listen as I analyze the seven advancing moves that will allow you to cut into a monster's scale armor with a saber."
Yan Dongxing was a master in saber techniques, and he was a top-class teacher.
It was said that he had a senior brother, who was a peerless fighter ranked among the ones who set the questions for the national college examination.
In the last three years, Yan Dongxing focused on guiding those in the third year in high school, so his chances of guessing the right questions were very high.
When the class heard their teacher mention his best skill, everyone became excited and forgot about Meng Chao.
He continued maintaining the Dragon Hibernation Stance, and as he watched the exquisite and matchless profound skills of the saber technique, his gaze became slightly unfocused.
'That's so crude. There's plenty of weaknesses in this saber technique.' As if he was possessed, he began murmuring in his heart. 'There are at least nine openings in the first skill "Forward Wind Cutter" alone. If you use this saber technique to fight against the real powerful beings of the Other World, you'll definitely die in the first clash of blades.
'But that's not Demon Yan's problem.
'This One Hundred Saber Technique has just been developed and is in its first version right now.
'Before Dragon City was destroyed, One Hundred Saber Technique had absorbed a lot of the essence from Blood Spirit's Nitoryu and Ice Giant's Broadsword Technique. After being refined multiple times, it was upgraded to Version 7.3.5.
'I'm using the Ultimate Version of the One Hundred Saber Technique to size up One Hundred Saber Technique V1. It's only natural that I'll find that it's full of weaknesses.
'... Hang on a second. What are Blood Spirits? And what are Ice Giants? Why did these strange things appear in my head?'
Meng Chao had a complicated expression on his face.
He could no longer deceive himself and say that he had just been daydreaming earlier.
Was it the legendary rebirth?
Well, being reborn was nothing.
Even though Meng Chao was just a normal high school student, he did read webnovels.
And he lived in Dragon City.
More than fifty years ago, for some reason, Dragon City transmigrated to the Other World from Earth.
A lot of supernatural, unbelievable things had happened in the city.
Children at three years old awakened to supernatural powers; old women at eighty years old began practicing ancient martial arts; housewives ripped apart zombies with their bare hands; white-collar workers fought against monsters after they got off work. All of those became common occurrences in Dragon City.
Since the transmigration had become a fact, being reborn naturally had its own profound scientific logic as well. Meng Chao could accept it.
But based on the fleeting scenes he saw in his head, his future and Dragon City's future were pretty pitiful.
The Earthlings who transmigrated thought that they understood their new home, but they did not expect that the Other World would be much bigger and so strong that it surpassed the limits of human imagination.
Right now, they were only moving around the uncivilized area of the Other World. They had not even gone past the "newbie village" yet.
And beyond the newbie village…
Meng Chao felt as if he was suffering from a hangover. His memories from his previous life were scattered and blurry. He could not quite remember how the creatures who surrounded and attacked Dragon City looked.
He only remembered that there were true civilizations in the Other World, and all sorts of powerful and ridiculously powerful fighters along with various insanely powerful enemies walked the land.
The "monster crisis" they talked about right now paled in comparison compared to the insanely powerful enemies.
Dragon City had raised the flag of Earth civilization to march into the mysterious other world. They killed, fought, and struggled.
They enjoyed a period of glory where they were known as the Extraordinary Disaster".
In the end, they dealt with various enemies by their lonesome and could not escape from the disaster.
Meng Chao closed his eyes and felt like he could see millions of purple shooting stars exploding above Dragon City.
They were destructive flames, but they were even more dazzling than fireworks.
The incredibly vivid picture seemed to have happened a moment ago. It burned in his mind and etched into the depths of his spirit.
'Is this… our end?' Meng Chao asked his seventeen-year-old self. 'Damn you, I refuse to believe it! This is just an outlandish nightmare!'
He opened his eyes swiftly.
'Dragon City won't be destroyed! And I won't end up as a third-class fighter and live a mediocre life either!
'Since I returned from that nightmare, I will definitely be able to change the future so that those extraordinary beings from the Other World… who I can't name, will open their stupid eyes and witness what the Extraordinary Disaster truly means!'
The seventeen-year-old Meng Chao had not been defeated by the harsh society just yet.
He still treated statements like "My fate is decided by myself, not by God. My fate is that I don't believe in fate, and I will go against it to change my destiny", which were created by adolescent delusions of grandeur and were incredibly embarrassing, as his motto.
He gritted his teeth, and his gaze became firm.
A flame burned in the depths of his eyes, and it looked like lightning. It grew brighter with each passing second, and it caused him slight pain.
'What is this?' Meng Chao was shocked.
A red light that looked like fire and lightning floated at the top right corner of his field of vision. It was elusive, just like floaters.
The others were probably unable to see it, or else, if such a strange flame had started floating around the classroom, they would have started screaming.
Also, it was rather familiar.
During the end of his nightmare, when Dragon City was destroyed, he seemed to have seen this strange flame gush out of the center of the city.
Now, the strange flame had accompanied him back to his teenage years.
The next moment, it shattered with a bang and turned into lines of profound and complicated symbols.
Hundreds of them danced madly within Meng Chao's field of vision. Then, they twisted about to turn from strange letters that looked like earthworms to even stranger words. They looked like a message that came from beyond the constellations and the depths of the universe itself.
After changing dozens of times, the notification was translated to words from Earth.
[The host has passed the mind and willpower appraisal tests.
[Kindling has been bound successfully. The host's identity has been verified. You are now Fire Relayer Meng Chao.
[Congratulations on becoming the Fire Relayer of this civilization. I hope that you will do your best to pass on the fires of civilization. Here are 10,000 points as a reward for your initial contribution.
[The Fire Relayer has been found to contain old internal injuries and not be skilled in any basic skills. Would you like me to automatically distribute your contribution points so that you can upgrade yourself to your best state?]
'Kindling? Fire Relayer? Contribution? Contribution points as rewards? Is this a gift pack for my rebirth?'
Meng Chao was full of questions, but he nodded instinctively.
[Used up 1,000 contribution points in exchange for the use of one Initial Stage Healing Skill. Healing progress, 10%.
[Used up 1,010 contribution points in exchange for the use of one Initial Stage Healing Skill. Healing progress, 19%.
[Used up 1,025 contribution points in exchange for the use of one Initial Stage Healing Skill. Healing progress…]
A string of notifications flashed in Meng Chao's field of vision.
At the same time, warmth filled his body in streams. They were like the first shoots that grew during spring, and they caressed him with the gentlest of motions.
'My injuries! Even the doctors could do nothing about the internal injuries from when I botched my cultivation last year, but now, they're healed? I can sense that the torn muscles and tendons have all been connected together!'
Meng Chao's eyes went wide. He was so happy that he wanted to sing.
After the series of notifications regarding his healing popped up, a new notification showed up in his line of sight.
[Used 3,500 contribution points in exchange for Reckless Bull Technique, a basic technique to execute power. It has been upgraded to Specialist Level.]
'This is…'
All sorts of details flashed in Meng Chao's mind.
The complicated and intricate formulae of Reckless Bull Technique activation included the calculations of how all the muscles and blood vessels in the human body would twist up, how the blood and electrical signals would circulate in each of the acupressure points. Right after, the strength of the bones, ergonomics, all sorts of cultivation methods, and various scenes of practicing the Reckless Bull Technique in the nightmare popped up in Meng Chao's head.
The memories of his previous life had been blurry before, but now, they flashed brilliantly in his mind and turned into a torrent of notifications that filled his motor nerves and brain cells, allowing him to instantly become an expert in using Reckless Bull Technique.
Meng Chao felt like he could control all his muscles with ease and bring out all his strength to deliver an extremely fierce and powerful punch.
'This is awesome! So, even a third-class fighter is this strong?'
He was incredibly delighted for a moment, but the pleasure came to an abrupt end.
A notification popped up before his eyes.
[Basic skills are divided into five stages: Normal, Specialist, Master, Perfection, Ultimate. When you reach 100% in Skillfulness, you will be able to level up. Skillfulness can be accumulated by fighting and training. You can also exchange for it with contribution points.]
'Then I'll exchange it all. Do I look like someone who cares about some measly contribution points?'
[The Fire Relayer's healing progress is currently at 62%. If you want to continue using the Initial Stage Healing Skill, you will need to exchange 1,150 points for it.
[Your Skillfulness for Reckless Bull Technique at Specialist level is at 22%. If you want to upgrade it to Master Level, you will need to spend 1,756 contribution points.]
[You have 3 contribution points left. You cannot use them to exchange for anything. Please accumulate more contribution points.]
'I… had 10,000 contribution points, right? How did they end up getting spent so quickly? Could you push it to Master Level? I'll give you an IOU.'
[No can do.]
'Then you should at least tell me how I'm supposed to earn contribution points.'
[The flames of civilization must burn endlessly. The stronger the civilization is, the stronger the Fire Relayer is. Please hurry up and contribute to civilization so that you can unlock more skills and missions!]