Chapter 1. Lin Xiang
The Sky Fortune Kingdom is a relatively small country at the south of the Sky Spill Continent. Although it is considered relatively small, it is only in relation to the scale of this immeasurably large world because its lands stretch for tens of thousands of miles.
It is mostly a land of grassy plains and forests with several large cities where the majority of the population is concentrated.
Among these cities, the Sky Fortune City is the capital city of the Sky Fortune Kingdom. A major reason for Sky Fortune City's importance is the existence of Seven Profound Martial House which is located before the Great Zhou Mountain, not far from the city itself.
The Seven Profound Martial House is a martial house set up by the Seven Profound Valleys - a grade-three 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 the biggest martial house in the kingdom, the Seven Profound Martial House possesses a great number of cultivation methods, martial skills and martial masters as its tutors. Becoming its disciple was the dream of all young aspiring martial artists in the kingdom.
Correspondingly, the entrance qualifications for new recruits in Seven Profound Martial House were set at a high threshold. In order to join, a youth needs to be at around fifteen to seventeen years of age and at that point have reached at least the 2nd Stage of Body Transformation. It might not be an exaggeration to say that only one in a million would be able to qualify.
Today is the day of registration for those who wish to take the Seven Profound Martial House's entrance assessment three months later.
Under the scorching heat of summer, a fifteen-year-old boy practiced spear moves in a glade of the Zhou Mountains. He was one of the many youths who had come to the Sky Fortune City with the aim of participating in the Seven Profound Martial House's assessment.
The young man wore a simple set of gray training clothes that closely stuck to his streamlined and strong body. His silky black hair was bound into a practical half-ponytail and waved around as he repeatedly practiced a spear move after spear move in a smooth combination of drills, honing his technique to perfection.
The spear in his hand was not made of wood, but solid iron and a mixture of other metals. Because it was created with an addition of special materials, it weighed 50 jins (30,2 kg), yet the teenage boy waved it around with ease and fluidity as if it was not a heavy iron bar, but a light wooden stick.
This young man's name is Lin Xiang. He possesses an inferior 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.
Then the majority of the remaining 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 of achieving a small level of superhuman strength. However, becoming a master of the martial arts would be hopeless for them.
With this in mind, Lin Xiang's Grade 3 Martial Talent could be considered top class. He's a one in a hundred talent! A rare talent!
However, with this kind of talent grade it would still be incredibly difficult for him to be admitted into the Seven Profound Martial House. To be accepted at the age of fifteen at that, it's only something that those rich aristocratic juniors who consumed countless cultivation elixirs since birth had decent chances of achieving it; and even then, they would only pass with a bottom-most score and be the lowest of the low among the disciples in the Martial House.
Lin Xiang was well aware of it. An inferior 3rd Grade talent was indeed really weak for someone who aspires to become a martial artist. Even among the martial artists of a poor mortal nation like the Sky Fortune Kingdom, he could at best only be considered to have an average talent that doomed him to a life of mediocrity, a guard or a foot soldier. Standing among his peers and reaching higher realms of cultivation such as Xiantian and above was nearly hopeless for him.
Despite this, Lin Xiang had already long swore to himself to do his best in this life to pursue the limits of cultivation, no matter how impossible his dream was and even if he had to take great risk and this road would likely cause his demise.
Even with such a poor martial talent, Lin Xiang was still glad that he was able to cultivate martial arts and wasn't completely hopeless like many mortals of this world.
The truth is that Lin Xiang is not a native of this world, but was originally someone living on modern Earth. More than fifteen years ago he had chanced upon this world and grew 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 had a strong desire to gain great power for himself.
In this world he was Lin Xiang, a family branch junior of the Lin family of Green Mulberry City, one of the smaller cities of the kingdom.
His parents manage a restaurant, however, this restaurant is not owned by them, but by the main Lin family. Their family line had been separated from the Lin family by several generations.
In order to prosper and nurture powerhouses, every large family concentrates their resources on the most talented among juniors instead of spreading them thin on the mediocre, especially focusing on those from the main family line. The Lin family was naturally the same.
There are many juniors in the Lin family with a martial talent greater than Lin Xiang. In addition, Lin Xiang was not even from any of the main family lines and his status in the family was very low.
With both of these factors combined, it would be extremely difficult for Lin Xiang to become the target of the family's nurturing and acquire ample cultivation resources. Without resources and training material, even if he worked his hardest, his progress would be mediocre and he would not be able to keep up with other juniors his age at all.
Lin Xiang knew this, so in order to grab the family's attention despite his low talent and status, he had 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 still a baby, becoming 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, Lin Xiang's parents managed to beg the Lin Family Patriarch into agreeing to dedicate a considerable amount of resources and attention on nurturing their son.
Lin Xiang didn't receive any cultivation pills from the Lin family, but he still managed to receive a thorough martial arts education just like the other direct descendants, a low-grade human step Foundation Spear Technique cultivation manual and various other training materials.
Thanks to all this he managed to build a foundation and gained a lot of knowledge, skills and experiences about the world while growing up.
Before reincarnating, Lin Xiang read a cultivation novel called the 'Martial World'. He had only read half of it, but after coming to this world he eventually figured out that he now was in the world described in that novel.
It appeared that in this world he had taken the Protagonist Lin Ming's place.
A tradition of Sky Fortune Kingdom is to give a child an official name 100 days after their birth, while before that point a newborn baby would have a temporary 'milk name'.
According to Lin Xiang's parents, they have initially given him a milk name of Little Ming due to his large, bright and curious eyes, but after seeing his outstanding early wisdom and maturity above an ordinary child, they have decided to give him a more grand name of Xiang, wishing for him to 'soar' and accomplish great things in the future.
However, compared to Lin Ming, Lin Xiang's martial talent grade is even weaker. While Lin Ming in the novel had a medium 3rd grade martial talent, Lin Xiang's innate talent to absorb true essence was weaker by a small grade.
Lin Xiang was aware that it was the Martial World that he came to and that he had even taken Lin Ming's place, so he had always wished to acquire the Magic Cube just like Lin Ming. Otherwise, no matter how hard he worked, he knew that he would never achieve much and would only be an insignificant ant among trillions of trillions of cultivators in one of the billion lower worlds.
In order to be able to acquire the Magic Cube, Lin Xiang was originally very worried of making changes that spread far and wide. He worried that if he acted too differently from Lin Ming in the novel and changed the outside world too much, then the location where the Magic Cube appears might change and it could not be found by him in the stomach of a vicious beast in the capital's Grand Clarity Pavilion.
However, he eventually became aware that it was impossible for the world to remain the exact same as in the novel simply because he existed instead of Lin Ming.
Just because he had taken Lin Ming's place in the family didn't mean that attempting to imitate Lin Ming could allow him to find the Magic Cube. Not only was his talent weaker and he did not possess Lin Ming's body, but he even appeared to have been born slightly later. Thus, it might have been a different world altogether.
As Lin Xiang understood it, the major reason why Lin Ming found the Magic Cube in the first place was because he was destined to find it.
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 events would still happen even if the past was slightly changed.
With his knowledge of the novel, it seemed that Destiny might be especially applicable to the 'Martial World'.
In the 'Martial World' novel, Lin Ming's destiny was to be betrayed by his childhood crush Lan Yunyue and become heartbroken, thus causing him to harden his determination to pursue the peak of martial arts, which in turned made him come to the Sky Fortune City to apply for the Seven Profound Martial House and eventually find the Magic Cube in the process.
Then with the help of the Magic Cube, Lin Ming would complete the karmic cycle related to this divine artifact by 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 knew that Lin Ming was special because even if someone else found the Magic Cube, they would likely never be able to achieve as much as him!
Thus, Lin Xiang's assumption was that Lin Ming was simply fated to find the Magic Cube and it was not by chance. Afterwards he even 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, leading to the point when he becomes the fated savior of mankind.
Even when it came to the soul fragments Lin Xiang consumed randomly, they were all ones that he needed the most at any given moment of his journey, being arranged to him by fate.
In the end, Lin Xiang accepted the fact that if he's fated to find the Magic Cube in this world, then he would find it.
If he is not fated, then he would not find it no matter what he does. In that situation he can only cry, brush those tears off and continue persevering on his path to see how far he can reach.
He could do nothing but hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Lin Xiang's only hope was that because of his identity as a transmigrator and his birth in Lin Ming's family, he was somewhat special. In addition, because he had read the novel and had similar aspirations, if there was anyone who could follow Lin Ming's path in this world, then it would be him!
In addition, if Lin Xiang aimed to be an insignificant person that didn't cause any impact and didn't grasp the opportunities of his youth, then once he grew up, he would have little strength, abilities and knowledge, and would have simply wasted fifteen years of his life!
Although finding the Magic Cube was extremely crucial for his dream of becoming a supreme and immortal existence, even if he did nothing and stayed low-key, there was still a chance that the Magic Cube would simply never be found by him in this world!
If he did not find the Magic Cube and did not make the best use of his first fifteen years of life, then his future would be simply a dark gloominess.
Thus, Lin Xiang decided on a compromise.
He had shown off great talent as a child, acquired cultivation resources from the family and increased his strength as much as he could in preparation for the future.
If he actually fails in acquiring the Magic Cube, then it could only serve as a proof that he was correct in placing such importance on doing his best during his fifteen years of life.
At the same time, Lin Xiang still tried to imitate the original Protagonist Lin Ming as much as he could. He mastered deboning and cooking by helping in his parents' restaurant. While growing up he was also very close to Lin Ming's childhood crush Lan Yunyue and so on.
It was not only to try and emulate the future events from the novel, but more so for him to have similar circumstances and experiences as Lin Ming.
In turn, Lan Yunyue had not disappointed him. They were nearly as close as boyfriend and girlfriend for many years, and Lin Xiang had always been very kind to her, and even made a promise to join the inferior Sky Fortune Martial House with her, but she still chose Zhu Yan over him, a young noble of the Zhu family.
Even though Lin Xiang was more outstanding, intelligent and respected in this world than Lin Ming, she had still left him.
Just like in the novel, Lan Yunyue did not even appear at the Sky Fortune Martial House during the appointed date. Even afterwards Lin Xiang had heard nothing from her and it was only several days later that Lin Xiaodong informed him that Lan Yunyue was admitted into the Seven Profound Martial House thanks to Zhu Yan and was now Zhu Yan's fiancee.
Although Lin Xiang was prepared for it from the very beginning and even hoped that he could copy the novel's flow of events, to say that it did not still hurt him would be a lie.
After Lan Yunyue left him, he immediately hardened his resolve and came to the Sky Fortune City to join the Seven Profound Martial House just like Lin Ming.
For fifteen whole years Lin Xiang patiently waited for the fateful day when he would register for the Seven Profound Martial House, waiting for the time when he would have a chance to acquire the Magic Cube.
Today, this day has finally come!
"Huff!" After practicing spear moves for who knows how long, Lin Xiang had finally exhausted himself and his form started slipping; he let out a breath as he placed his spear vertically against the ground.
He put his spear aside and walked to the side to where he had his backpack. He picked up a towel, brushed the sweat from his forehead and then sat down at the patch of grass.
After scouring in his backpack for a moment, he took out a gourd, lifted it up and took a few large gulps to quench his thirst.
Inside the gourd was not water, but a medicinal tea brewed by using some common true essence nourishing herbs that Lin Xiang bought on the market for a bit of silver. These were the lowest grade spirit herbs that were picked up in the wild by mortals, the only ones that Lin Xiang was able to afford for his day to day use.
This kind of home-made medicinal tea had a very raw and unpleasant taste even with the added sugar. In fact, it could be compared to a 'tea' brewed by a child who picked up random weeds and grasses in the forest and boiled them. The taste of the liquid was quite disgusting and there were even bits and pieces of leaves floating in it, but Lin Xiang only slightly flinched as he smoothly drank the tea without a care for the taste.
This kind of tea only had a mild effect on nourishing true essence, but Lin Xiang didn't mind it. It was still very effective for its low price and was better than nothing.
For those who pursue martial arts, the use of cultivation pills and medicinal herbs is necessary to help them keep up with other geniuses their age.
However, Lin Xiang's circumstances made it impossible for him to be able to afford cultivation pills.
After swallowing the bitter medicinal tea, Lin Xiang put away the gourd.
He sat with shins resting against the grass and his buttocks against his calves, his body straight. He was about to begin meditating when a fat youngster came into view.