Morning arrived as the roosters cocked in the early morning. Li Duyi stretched his body as the bubbles from his bones popped, making a popping sound.
*Nnnn* " That was refreshing, new day, new journey," Li Duyi said. Then, he exercise for the day which was his daily routine back on Thrae, which consist of 100 push-ups, 50 repetitive leg raises 3 sets, 3 minutes of planking and then stretching for flexibility but with his plump body it wasn't easy. By the time he finishes with his exercises, he jogs for an hour before he wash himself.
While he was doing his exercises, someone saw him, a teenager around 13 years of age. The teen walked towards Li Duyi who exercises in a strange way, which is weird for his taste or any citizens of this village.
" Hey! What's with those strange movements? You look goofy. " The teen snickered before positioning himself and smugly looking at Li Duyi.
" Watch me do my moves and learn from it," the teen said, Li Duyi looked at him and saw the golden particles surrounding the teen and thought to himself.
' That kid... he has great luck surrounding him. Also, I feel like I can steal those particles, but I don't know how. I just feel like it,' Li Duyi thought to himself before nodding at the teen and stopping himself.
" Please teach me," Li Duyi said, apathetic as ever. But as Li Duyi said, a little bit of golden particles move towards him and were absorbed.
The teen smiles smugly before he does martial arts, which is perfect for tempering one's body. As for the golden particles, Li Duyi is a little shocked by what happened, but his face still doesn't change.
'Looks like I can absorb some of the particles by interacting, but still, it might have a side effect on me if I consume too much ' Li Duyi thought seriously but put it back to his mind to learn the martial art of the teen.
The martial art the teen uses consists of 10 moves, jab punches followed by a back kick then followed by a 360 kick then followed by a chopping motion then followed with an elbow that seems to thrust towards the chest which is followed by a crouching tiger stance with tiger's claw thrusting forward the lungs, which then follows with a grappling motion, before he does weird footwork, moving confusingly. In some cases, he looks like a drunkard, then he suddenly shows a ferocious aura emanating around him before he did a little feint punch that changes immediately to a high front kick.
" See that? That's the beauty of my martial arts and I call it, Overpowering Dominating Heavenly Martial Arts. Awesome right!?" The teen said with a smug face.
" Don't know, but you should change your naming sense. You could have just called it Overwhelming Dominator Art. Anyway, goodbye " Li Duyi said as he walked away from the teenager's eyes.
" Overwhelming Dominator Art? That sounds... Awesome! Yeah, that will be the new name of my martial arts! Wait... Where is he? I forgot to ask him about his name, I hope he remembers most of my Overwhelming Dominator Art. Well, not my problem anymore" The teenager then walk away with a happy face.
.
.
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Li Duyi who walked away was seen looking at the massive building where numerous people are going in and out. Li Duyi walked inside and saw that it is humongous inside, he walked towards the counter as he ask.
" Hello, is this the place called Huang's Mission Hall? The guard told me to come here if I have to do a job with little to no requirements " Li Duyi said, the lady at the counter looked at the plump Li Duyi and nodded.
" Yes, welcome to the Mission Hall. You can pick a mission there, where the posters are. Reminder, don't accept missions that are beyond your strength." The lady said, Li Duyi nodded as he walked towards the announcement board, he saw numerous posters that consist of gathering a herb called Red Ginseng. It also has the price that the higher the age, the higher the price the mission hall will give. Upon seeing the difficult mission, Li Duyi picks it up and give it to the previous lady for the procedure.
"Good luck on your journey little guy and be careful of the monster okay " The lady smiled, waving her hand. Li Duyi nodded before walking out of the building. The next destination is going outside of the village to get some red ginseng but since he has no tools, Li Duyi stops and looks around before continuing, knowing full well that he has no money.
So, he must do it the hard way, picking it by hand.
Upon arriving at the gate, he saw the guard from the previous day. He greeted the guard before continuing his journey, with his vision ability, he know where most of the red ginseng grow. As such, he move in that direction, and upon arriving, he saw red ginsengs lining up as if screaming for someone to uproot them. Li Duyi who saw this became extra careful of his surrounding as he picks up a branch that is hard enough to not break when hitting.
As he walk closer to the herbs, a growl was heard behind his back, and saw a tiger double his size, looking at him murderously.
Li Duyi grip his branch and pointed it toward the tiger.
The two had a stand-off when Li Duyi stepped on a twig that causes noise, signaling the tiger to attack him but with his vision, he foresaw such a thing to happen as he dodge it with hairs breath, a line of blood appears on his cheeks as wipes it off. He looked at his blood before licking it as a fighting intent oozed off his body, he sprinted towards the tiger who also does the same.
The tiger leap gave Li Duyi a chance to slide under the tiger. As he slides under the tiger, Li Duyi slams his branch toward the stomach of the tiger, making it whimper before it regains its stupor.
" Looks like you are the one who can't be dealt with easily. I feel bad for the beating you'll experience " Li Duyi said, apathetic.
The tiger then saw a vision of Li Duyi beating it black and blue until it stops breathing, making it fear Li Duyi as it tried to run away but how can Li Duyi let such a fat and juicy tiger go away? He sprinted towards the tiger at full speed and uses all his power through his swing towards one of the legs of the tiger as the bone crack loudly, the branch of Li Duyi was glowing which is a sign of intent. This can only be achieved by years of training on their type of training and some can't even achieve such a thing but Li Duyi can and do it easily as breathing.
But Li Duyi doesn't know that and only thought that the sunlight reflected towards his branch. Moments later, a plump teen and a tiger are seen in a field full of red ginseng, the tiger being beaten to death.
" Let's finish the mission by getting two red ginseng that ranges between 50 and 100 years old. From the poster, it says that 50 years old is around 10 silver while 100 years old is 5 times that of 50 years old price. That means, I'll get a total of 60 silver which I can live for 2 months. As for this tiger, I'll just sell it and... Wait, that'll draw me an unnecessary attention to myself but if I don't get the attention of the higher up, my chances of getting my hands on the cultivators book lessen. Hmm, I must have some foothold first before I do any drastic movements or I'll die because of carelessness. " Li Duyi said, weighing the pros and cons of selling the tiger. Knowing such a cliche plot, Li Duyi doesn't want to go such a path, knowing full well that he must not rely on luck that much.
With that in mind, he decided to cook the tiger and feed the rest to the red ginseng, from what he knew about the herbs, the reason why it was sought after by the mission hall is that it's beneficial to the cultivator and they will do anything to get a hands-on such red ginseng and some might even be fought for a 100 years old ginseng, but he also knows the limitation, that's why he didn't get the 200+ years of age red ginseng.
Since he is the greatest genius of Vlad Tepes Family, making fire is one of the easiest ways for him. Upon finishing eating the Tiger, he notices that his fats are reducing slightly and his overall strength increases.
The reason why he wins the fight against the tiger is that he was once a genius at martial arts, with his vision, he can pinpoint any weaknesses and with the strength of his body that has been baptized by the qi, it wasn't a hassle to kill a Tiger.
He unrooted the 50 and 100 years old ginseng before walking back to the village. He greeted the guard with an apathetic face which is weird for the guard but he doesn't care enough.
Li Duyi arrived at the Mission Hall before passing the two ginseng, the lady was shocked and was happy for Li Duyi for getting the ginseng. Li Duyi nodded as he receive his payment, he walked out of the mission hall and walk to one of the inns of the village called, moonlight inn.
He paid at the counter for a month's stay which cost him 15 silver coins. While at it, he also walks towards the gate and gives 5 silver to the guard who's skeptical about accepting the silver Li Duyi shoves it his face and walks back to the inn. As for the guard, he was shocked as it was the first time it happened to him.
Li Duyi walk to his room and saw a mirror, he glance at it and saw his new appearance. He had silver-white hair, a typical overly handsome face if not for the fact that his plump body make him cute. Of course, Li Duyi doesn't care about that and continues checking his body.
" Looks like I can't escape my destiny as the most handsome man. Doesn't matter, I have to figure out how to cultivate " Li Duyi said before washing himself and walking towards the library. Thankfully, the village has a library but understandable because of its population.
Li Duyi pick any book he could find, from history to eroge books. He doesn't care and continues to read, even an eroge book has a way of showing how the world works. So, Li Duyi isn't that picky when picking a book.
Li Duyi continued skimming throughout the library for a few days, only stopping when he is hungry, needed to exercise which is unlikely as he does it in the early morning, and doing a mission for his living fee.
In the past few days, Li Duyi was known as the Apathetic Prince as he transformed from a plump cute teenager to a shredded martial artist prince. Causing a massive commotion among the girls and boys alike, as for the men and women, laugh at the chaos brought by Li Duyi who doesn't care enough, he even outright rejected a girl right in front of him and did it as brutally as he could that makes the girl cry. The reason, is annoying to his life and a nuisance to his reading. This infuriated the boys and also cause jealousy that they tried to gang up on him and beat him up but when they tried it, all the neighborhoods heard a screeching sound and boys running for their lives.
With such a reputation, some might think that his peaceful life will be back but no, other mobs swarmed in and throughout the fight, he uses them as a way for him to know more about the special physique of the people and from what he gathered, he is a special case. He has 3.142 billion acupoints while the humans of this realm only had 361 acupoints which means, it will take him quite a while to temper all his acupoints it might take years. Because of this discovery, he now had a goal to achieve and that is by making a cultivation technique that simultaneously temper all his body from skins to acupoints.
To do that, he must first have a cultivation technique. Today is also the day he decided to beat the guy who has the golden particles and see if he can absorb all of it and make it his own. He doesn't know what it does but he has to do it and trust his senses. It might make him powerful, luckier, or nothing.
Li Duyi followed the particles and arrived at a lake where he saw the teenager practicing his martial arts.
" Hey, let's spar" with devoid of emotion, Li Duyi asks him out. To which abruptly stop the teenager's training before grinning and jumping towards him.
" Alright! I'll show you my improved Overwhelming Dominator Art" The Teen said.
" Right, my name is Lin Fan, and you?"
"Li Duyi"
" I see, you are the one who's been the talk of the village. About a guy who brutally rejects girls' confession, beating guys left and right and walking away as if nothing happen. You've changed a lot since I first saw you " Lin Fan said, reminiscing.
" We only saw each other the past few days, I haven't changed one bit. Except for my appearance but beside that, let's start" Li Duyi said, still with his apathetic face. Lin Fan who heard Li Duyi nodded.
" You are right. Then, let's start " As soon as Lin Fan finishes his line, Li Duyi already appeared in front of him and punch him with full force, surprising Lin Fan as his nose bleeds but Li Duyi doesn't stop there and instead continued beating Lin Fan while the golden particles kept diminishing away from him as Li Duyi kept absorbing it.
" Wa*punch* Wait stop!" Lin Fan shouted at the top of his lung, his face swollen from being punched multiple times without ever having a chance to fight back. Lin Fan looks at Li Duyi fearfully but he composes himself and asks Li Duyi why he attack him immediately.
" In war, an enemy won't stop even if you tell him to stop. So, I just let you have a taste of real life. That's the end of our spar" Li Duyi said to Lin Fan who had a pondering look, as for the golden light. It's already gone and was replaced with bright white particles. This means it doesn't matter if Li Duyi gets the golden particles for himself. He also notices that his vision seems to be strengthened by the golden particles. He can remember every word from the books he had read in this world.