Chapter 1. Lin Xiang
Within the Sky Fortune City, the capital of Sky Fortune Kingdom, the Seven Profound Martial House stands before the Great Mountain Zhou. The Seven Profound Martial House is a martial house set up by the Seven Profound Valleys - a martial arts clan with over 600 years of heritage. It is also the only martial house set up by them in the Sky Fortune Kingdom.
As one of the biggest martial houses, the Seven Profound Martial House possesses a great number of cultivation methods, martial skills and martial masters as its tutors. It was only natural that it would become the holy land of the many young aspiring martial artists.
Correspondingly, the entrance qualifications for new recruits in Seven Profound Martial House were set at a high threshold. It would not be an exaggeration to say that only one in a million would be able to qualify.
Under the scorching heat of summer, a teenage boy practiced spear moves within a forest of the Great Zhou Mountain, with a focused expression on his face.
He wore ordinary gray training clothes that closely stuck to his slim body. His silky black hair was bound into a practical half-ponytail, waving around as he repeatedly practiced ordinary spear strikes in a smooth combination, honing his technique to perfection.
In his hands was an ordinary looking heavy iron overlord spear, rigid and with a sword-like spearhead. The spear was fully made of iron, akin to an olympic weight-lifting bar that had at least 20 kg of weight, yet he thrust out and waved it without difficulty as if it was a bamboo stick.
This young man's name was Lin Xiang. He possessed a Medium 3rd Grade Martial Talent.
In Sky Fortune Kingdom half of the citizens have no martial talent to speak of and are unsuitable to walk the path of martial arts.
Forty percent of them have a Grade 1 Martial Talent, which is the worst among martial artists. Even if these people were to practice martial arts, they would not be able to achieve anything.
As for the remaining population, only less than ten percent would have a Grade 2 Martial Talent. If these people were to be diligent in their practice of martial arts, they have a chance to accomplish something in life. However, becoming a master of the martial arts would be near hopeless for them.
With this, Lin Xiang's Grade 3 Martial Talent could be considered in the top 1% of the population. He was a rare talent.
However, someone with a medium 3rd Grade Martial Talent would still only be the lowest of the low among the disciples of the Seven Profound Martial House. In the first place, it would be extremely difficult for someone with Lin Xiang's background and talent to even be admitted at the age of fifteen or sixteen.
Lin Xiang was well aware of it. Even in a poor mortal nation like the Sky Fortune Kingdom, he could only be considered to have an average talent among martial artists that doomed him to a life of mediocrity.
Yet, no matter how delusional or impossible his goal was, Lin Xiang had long swore to himself to dedicate his life to the pursuit of Immortality and the highest realms of cultivation. He was still glad that he was able to cultivate martial arts and wasn't completely hopeless like many other mortals of this world.
The truth is, Lin Xiang is not a native of this world, but was originally someone living on modern Earth. Fifteen years ago he had chanced upon this world, growing up to be the teenage boy of today.
Back on Earth Lin Xiang wasn't even able to cultivate, so it was only natural that after coming to this world he desired to gain great power for himself.
In order to grab the family's attention and become a target of nurturing as a martial artist, despite his average talent and poor family situation, Lin Xiang used the advantage of possessing a mature intellect in a child's body and displayed some of his early wisdom and talents when he was a baby, thus he became viewed as a prodigy.
Together with the fact that he was always very hard-working, diligent and talented in martial arts training and in studies of pretty much anything, his parents managed to convince the main Lin family patriarch to dedicate a considerable amount of resources and attention to nurture him.
It was not a lot of wealth, but at the very least Lin Xiang managed to receive a thorough martial arts education just like the other direct descendants, a veteran soldier as an instructor for martial arts and armored combat, a few expensive cultivation pills to cleanse his body and other various training materials. Thanks to this he managed to build his foundation and gained a lot of knowledge and experiences about the world while growing up.
Before reincarnating, Lin Xiang read a novel called the 'Martial World'. After coming to this world, he eventually figured out that he now was in the world described in that novel.
In this world he was the novel protagonist's, Lin Ming's, elder twin brother.
Being aware that it was the Martial World that he came to, Lin Xiang had always wished to acquire the Magic Cube instead of Lin Ming, because otherwise, no matter how hard he worked, he would never achieve anything and would only be an insignificant side-character among trillions of trillions of cultivators in this boundless world.
In order to be able to acquire the Magic Cube, Lin Xiang was worried of making changes that spread far and wide. He didn't want the history to change too much so that the location where the Magic Cube appears doesn't change and it could still be found in the capital's Grand Clarity Pavillion in one of the vicious beast's stomachs.
However, Lin Xiang was aware that it was impossible for the world to remain the exact same as in the novel simply because he existed here. In the original, Lin Ming didn't have a brother.
In addition, if Lin Xiang aimed to be an insignificant person that didn't cause any impact, then once he grew up he would have little strength, abilities and knowledge, and would have simply wasted fourteen years of his life!
There was even a chance that the Magic Cube would simply never be found by either Lin Ming or him!
Thus, Lin Xiang decided on a compromise.
He limited his actions only to the main Lin family and didn't travel around if possible so that his influence wouldn't reach beyond the Green Mulberry City. He was a loner and was mostly focused on his training. Instead of ignoring Lin Ming, he made sure that Lin Ming would follow a similar path to the novel and grow close to Lan Yunyue.
For fourteen whole years Lin Xiang patiently waited for the fateful day when Lin Ming and him would register for the Seven Profound Martial House, waiting for the time when he would have a chance to acquire the Magic Cube.
However, even though Lin Xiang attempted to limit the butterfly effect, there was still a chance that the Magic Cube would simply not be found in a vicious beast's stomach by Lin Ming because of the tiniest change in the flow of events… But what Lin Xiang counted on the most was Destiny.
Being once a novel reader and a writer, Lin Xiang understood that in this kind of world of Martial Arts, Earth's logic and Butterfly Effect couldn't be perfectly applied.
In these kinds of cultivation worlds, things like Fate and Destiny existed, thus certain things would still happen even if the past events slightly changed.
With Lin Xiang's knowledge, it seemed that it might be especially true in the 'Martial World'. In the 'Martial World' novel Lin Ming's destiny was to be betrayed by his crush Lan Yunyue and become heartbroken, thus hardening his heart of martial arts which made him come to the Sky Fortune City to apply for the Seven Profound Martial House, finding the Magic Cube in the process.
Then with the help of the Magic Cube Lin Ming would complete the karmic cycle related to the Magic Cube, helping Mo Eversnow with her revenge, finding the Empyrean Promordiu's Inheritance related to the Demon Bead, and so on, becoming the fated savior of humanity.
Lin Xiang also knew that Lin Ming was special because even if someone else found the Magic Cube, they likely would not be able to achieve as much as him!
Lin Xiang's guess was that Lin Ming was fated to find the Magic Cube. Afterwards he had a clear and predestined path to walk on, receiving challenges, opportunities, and lucky chances at every step of his journey, always making it out alive from incredibly risky situations.
There was no guarantee that it was the truth in reality, but because of this illusory thing called 'Destiny', Lin Xiang believed that Lin Ming had a very high chance of encountering the Magic Cube one way or another, even if Lin Xiang made changes.
In the first place, fate had already followed its written course. Lan Yunyue did not disappoint Lin Xiang - she left Lin Ming for Zhu Yan, whereas Lin Ming had also grown up to have a similar character as in the novel, being stubborn and determined to walk the Martial Path with dedication.
And even if Lin Xiang wouldn't manage to snatch the Magic Cube before Lin Ming inside the Grand Clarity Pavillion, he would still keep a careful watch of Lin Ming for any signs that his cultivation is rapidly improving. If there was no other way, he would quickly assassinate him, taking the Magic Cube from his body, stealing his destiny!
With this thought, Lin Xiang glanced over to the side.
Not far away, a teenage boy practiced his punches by striking a rough looking big tree in front of him. He had long black hair and slightly above average looks, looking nearly identical to Lin Xiang.
Both his hands held rectangular iron knuckle dusters. He threw punch after punch, striking heavily against the tree trunk.
"Peng! Peng! Peng" Heavy sounds echoed out around the forest.
The layer of bark on the big tree that was struck had sunk downwards noticeably, exposing its grayish wooden texture.
It was precisely Lin Ming. He also possessed a medium 3rd grade Martial Talent.
Lin Ming also knew that with his martial talent and progress, he had even lower chances to enter the Seven Profound Martial House than Lin Xiang.
With this in mind, along with his female childhood friend, the beautiful Lan Yunyue who also possessed a 3rd Grade Martial Talent, they had agreed to take the entrance assessment for the Sky Fortune Martial House together, even though it is nowhere near as good as the Seven Profound Martial House.
The Sky Fortune Martial House is part of Sky Fortune Kingdom. Since the day of its inception, it only has 80 years' accumulation of martial skills and foundation, a limited number indeed.
Legacy martial skills are something of great importance to martial artists. Without a good set of martial skills, the goal of completing the final Physical Training Stage, the Pulse Condensing Stage or higher, is near impossible.
The Pulse Condensing Stage is a realm that most martial artists strived to reach. It is also the first turning point for cultivators of the martial way.
Once the Pulse Condensing Stage is successfully attained, a martial artist's lifespan would be greatly increased. Additionally, they would also be granted the title of nobility, allowing them to live a life of prosperity, bringing a blessing to their descendants.
It is in this Pulse Condensing Stage training that the Sky Fortune Martial House falls greatly behind the Seven Profound Martial House.
Lin Ming's heart pulsed for the sake of the martial way. It was only natural that he too desired to enter the Seven Profound Martial House. If his talent was insufficient, then he could only rely on his own diligence and perseverance to impress the examiners.
However, the prospects of him entering were very low. Moreover, once he failed, he would have to waste half a year's time to wait for another opportunity. For martial artists, this amount of time is highly precious.
Placing all this into consideration, in addition to the fact that he had promised Lan Yunyue, Lin Ming decided to enter the Sky Fortune Martial House instead.
Lin Ming and Lan Yunyue had trained and played together for many years. Even though the both of them were still young and the topic of marriage never came up, those emotions have already begun budding.
Lin Ming's parents had also shown their approval and love toward Lan Yunyue. They would always invite Lan Yunyue to their house for dinner.
A mutual feeling of goodwill existed between Lin Ming and Lan Yunyue, leaving only a thin piece of paper between the two. Once they grew slightly older, this piece of paper would certainly be torn apart.
Lin Ming viewed the agreement between them both seriously. He had determined to charge toward the Pulse Condensing Stage even if he could only train within the Sky Fortune Martial House!
However, on the day that Sky Fortune Martial House held its entrance assessment, Lan Yunyue failed to show up. At first, Lin Ming had assumed that Lan Yunyue was unable to arrive due to some matters, it was only later that he learnt of Lan Yunyue entering the Seven Profound Martial House.
Additionally, the one who had ensured her success in becoming a disciple of Seven Profound Martial House was Zhu Yan, the genius Young Master of Green Mulberry City's number one Zhu family.
Although Lin Ming was only fifteen years old, he has a greater level of maturity compared to others. He understood the meaning behind Zhu Yan's act of ensuring that the Seven Profound Martial House accepted Lan Yunyue.
For a great family such as the Zhu Family, their prerequisite in selecting future wives lay not in terms of appearances, but rather their martial talent. A highly talented wife would have a higher chance of giving birth to a martial genius.
Although Lan Yunyue's family is only average, her Superior 3rd Grade Martial Talent is very good considering her gender. In addition, Lan Yunyue herself is a beauty with an outstanding temperament. It was only natural that Zhu Yan would fall for her.
For Lan Yunyue, the difference between the Sky Fortune Martial House and Seven Profound Martial House was simply too great. The opportunities, honor, glory and potential accomplishments that both could be able to provide are simply incomparable. This is especially true regarding the extension of life that could be gained after one successfully reaches the Pulse Condensing Stage. Such a kind of temptation was simply irresistible.
Faced with such appealing prospects, most females would have chosen to go with Zhu Yan as well. After all, Zhu Yan himself possesses handsome features; his family background and future both far better compared to Lin Ming's.
Although Lin Ming was able to understand, to say that this matter did not greatly affect him would be a lie. He shut himself within his room for three whole days.
After that, with the encouragement of his brother, he finally walked out and proceeded to have a strict routine of only eating, sleeping and training. Moreover, the intensity of his training had become much higher than before.
Before Lan Yunyue had left him, Lin Ming had already made the decision to break through into the Pulse Condensing Stage and pursue an even higher realm of martial cultivation. Afterward, it was the same. Lan Yunyue's act of leaving him had only hardened his resolve towards the Martial Way.
He made the decision to enter the entrance assessment for the Seven Profound Martial House, even though the chances of him entering with his current cultivation and progress were simply abysmal.
"Peng! Peng!" The heavy sounds of iron knuckle dusters striking against the tree trunk echoed continuously throughout the forest.
The name of this tree is Iron Tree. Not only does it possess an extremely tough layer of bark, it also has strong regenerative properties. Many beginners of the martial way would choose this Iron Tree to train themselves.
As for the Iron Knuckles that Lin Ming was wearing, these were designed and lent to Lin Ming by his elder brother to protect his fist from trauma when striking an Iron Tree, and to save on healing medicines. They had a very simple minimalistic rectangular design with no finger holes, and were slightly dented. They were fully made of metal and the pommel was thick and wrapped in leather.
After throwing out who knew how many punches, Lin Ming finally exhausted himself.
Leaning upon a tree trunk, he sat down on a piece of rock and took out a gourd from his backpack. He lifted up the ground and drank from it to quench his thirst.
Inside the gourd was watered down tea brewed with a small amount of the most common True Essence nourishing herbs that were picked up in the forest by Lin Ming in the past. This kind of home-made medicinal tea wasn't delicious at all. In fact, it tasted like 'tea' brewed by a child who picked up random weeds and grasses in the forest and boiled them.
The taste of the liquid was even a bit disgusting and there were bits and pieces of leaves in it, but Lin Ming didn't even flinch as he swallowed a few large gulps.
After swallowing the bitter medicinal tea, Lin Ming looked to the side.
In a clearing not far from him, a teenager practiced his spear moves with a cold and focused expression. It was Lin Ming's brother, Lin Xiang.
As a baby, Lin Xiang had shown extraordinary early intelligence and wisdom, and Lin Ming's parents had placed great hopes on him.
It was unfortunate that during testing it turned out that his Martial Talent was only a mere above-average Medium 3rd Grade.
However, because of Lin Xiang's outstanding early intelligence, and also an extremely hardworking attitude and talent toward combat and studying, their parents still somehow managed to convince the Lin family Patriarch into nurturing him as one of the Lin family's young geniuses, allowing him to receive a level of support from the main Lin Family similar to a direct descendant.
Thanks to his talent and hard work, Lin Xiang was even known as a 'young spear genius' in the Green Mulberry City.
While at the age of eight Lin Ming was sent to the capital to attend a scholarly school, which was paid for with his parents' hard-earned money, Lin Xiang received martial arts education for four years together with other Lin family direct descendants, which was funded by the Lin family patriarch.
In turn, Lin Xiang did not disappoint at the start either. He had top scores in all subjects without exception, and had especially high achievements in advanced mathematics that even left the teachers stumped. His spear skills had reached a high level of proficiency, while his cultivation was progressing at an acceptable rate. In addition, Lin Xiang managed to shock the entire family when at the age of twelve he actually improved a chant of cultivation technique he received, causing it to have a 20% improved true essence circulation rate.
Unfortunately, at the age of fourteen there was a sudden change. After reaching the 1st Stage of Body Transformation at a decent speed, Lin Xiang's progress became very slow and it seemed as if he exhausted his potential or became lazy. At this time he was already more than fifteen years old, but was far from reaching the Second Stage of Body Transformation.
With this, it became apparent that Lin Xiang wouldn't have any great accomplishments in the future, and the main family had given up on providing further support for his cultivation. He even earned the reputation of being 'the disappointment of the Lin family'.
At this time Lin Xiang was left to only rely on himself just like Lin Ming.
In comparison to his older twin brother, Lin Ming was quite an ordinary youth from beginning to end. He never viewed himself as some kind of martial genius or a prodigy.
He had never received any support from the main family either, yet at this moment his cultivation had already caught up to Lin Xiang and might have even slightly surpassed him.
However, Lin Ming didn't feel any sense of superiority. Instead, he was only surprised and confused by the fact Lin Xiang's progress was lagging. And that's because he knew best the absurd amount of effort, blood and sweat that Lin Xiang had poured into his martial arts training throughout the years!
Yet, despite achieving little progress, Lin Ming had never seen his older brother being affected by the ridicule of others or the futility of his training as he only continued working extremely hard and persevering on his Path of Martial Arts.
Truth be told, his big brother's example was one of the major reasons why Lin Ming had decided to fervently pursue the path of Martial Arts at the age of 12, and also the reason why he was training very hard.
From birth Lin Xiang was viewed as a prodigy, while Lin Ming was as ordinary as an ant. There was a large difference between the treatment the two brothers were receiving and a difference in their statuses even though their martial talent was the same, yet Lin Ming didn't feel much jealousy either.
That's because Lin Xiang was his dear Big Brother who had always cared for him.
When Lin Xiang received a single 100-year old Blood Ginseng from the family, he split it in half with him, so that Lin Ming wouldn't develop any internal injuries from martial arts training. When Lin Xiang received two Golden Deer Pills from the family for his own use, he readily shared one with Lin Ming.
Not mentioning many other things that happened between the two, and how Lin Xiang supported him when Lan Yunyue left him, Lin Ming would feel ashamed if he had any bad thoughts toward his big brother.
At this moment, watching Lin Xiang practice the simple and bland spear moves with the height of concentration and dedication filled Lin Ming with a certain awe. Although Lin Xiang's moves were not particularly flashy, fast or profound, they contained a certain level of simple charm and beauty of martial arts.
Lin Ming thought, 'Lin Xiang truly loves Martial Arts. Even such simple spear moves seem like art when he practices it. Even though he remains in the First Stage of Body Transformation, he still keeps persevering. This is the kind of Martial Arts Path that I pursue!'
At that moment Lin Xiang noticed that Lin Ming was looking at him, and looked over expressionlessly, before returning to continue his practice.
Lin Ming said nothing. He closed his eyes and began to chant a heart mantra and practice breathing in a specific manner in order to absorb heaven and earth energy from the atmosphere, revolving it inside his body to temper it.
Lin Ming's current cultivation was at the First Stage of Body Transformation, the Strength Training Stage. In the Strength Training stage the martial artist lays down the foundation of his strength and true essence is mainly concentrated at the surface of the muscles and outer layer of the skin.
For those who pursue martial arts, the most crucial base for their growth is a cultivation method for revolving true essence. For their cultivation speed to keep up with other geniuses their age, the use of cultivation pills and medicine is also necessary.
However, Lin Ming's circumstances made it impossible for him to have access to any decent cultivation techniques or any cultivation pills.
Lin Ming's parents are ordinary people and run a restaurant within Green Mulberry City. However, even this restaurant does not belong to them, but actually belongs to the main Lin family of Green Mulberry City.
Although Lin Ming's maiden name is also Lin, his family line had been separated from the Lin family by several generations. The Lin family placed some of their less important assets into the hands of their distant relatives for management.
Lin Ming's parents' livelihood is dependent on their management of this restaurant. Every year they would be given a fixed amount of income and some commission. This money was enough for them to subsist on, however, it would be a stretch to use it to fund the pursuit of martial arts of their two sons who were both fervent cultivators.
Lin Ming's parents had originally wanted Lin Ming to be the one to continue the family business and become a treasurer for the restaurant. However, seeing Lin Ming's ardent devotion towards the martial path, they eventually chose to take out all their savings for Lin Ming to purchase healing herbs.
Because of this, Lin Ming's family savings had decreased bit by bit. Yet Lin Ming and his brother both remained at the 1st Stage of Body Transformation.
The Body Transformation Phase is the first realm for those who pursue the martial way. It involves the primal tempering of their bodies and is separated into six stages:
The 1st stage is Strength Training, 2nd is Flesh Training, 3rd is Viscera Training, 4th is Altering Muscle, 5th is Bone Forging and 6th is Pulse Condensing. After that, one would be able to step into the Houtian Stage.
At this time the evening was nearing and the Lin family restaurant's lobby was
After sitting down, Lin Ming cultivated for one hour. He then straightened himself and was about to continue training his fists when a fat youngster walked into view.