Chapter 12: Accepting a Disciple, Gaining Fame!

Han Li and Han Fei, leading nearly ten martial arts academy apprentices, swore vows of vengeance for their eldest brother, only to be met with a devastating blow the very moment they struck.

Li Chang'an moved with the speed of a jagged bolt of lightning, shifting and weaving so swiftly that no one could possibly react in time!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The roar of iron and bone collided, the unyielding sound of fists plunging into flesh echoing continuously.

Even Han Li, who had already touched the threshold of internal vital energy, could not survive three moves under Li Chang'an’s fierce assault, sent flying backward like a ragdoll under the thunderous force.

From start to finish, barely five minutes had passed.

Nearly ten sturdy men, including Han Li and Han Fei, lay sprawled haphazardly across the dirt.

Standing in the center of the clearing, Li Chang'an panted heavily for a moment before returning to the courtyard to call out his parents and his grand-uncle, Li Xiao, who had been hiding behind the door listening to the commotion, and said, "Father, Grand-uncle, I must trouble you to help clean this up. Toss them by the edge of the woods as usual, and make it look as though they were torn apart by wild dogs!"

Unlike the previous time.

Li Chang'an no longer cared how the outside world viewed the deaths and disappearances of these people.

Or to put it another way, such an undisguised display of force was precisely to let the outside world know of his strength!

After all, this was a world where fists spoke the truth. As long as he maintained an unfathomable combat power and underlying reserve, Li Chang'an believed that no one would dare to lightly bring trouble to his door again!

Meanwhile, the crowd of villagers who had witnessed this scene fell into a near-deathly silence.

Immediately following...

An uncontrollable uproar erupted once more!

This was the first time Li Chang'an had fought in front of so many people; thus, the shock and commotion it caused were almost overwhelming!

By his own single-handed strength, he had swept through nearly ten men as easily as slicing melons and chopping vegetables.

What difference was there between such a feat and the martial masters of legend who commanded divine and demonic powers?

From then on, the villagers looked at Li Chang'an with changed eyes. Not only did they cease to be wary of him, but they even began to actively send their own children to play with him.

After all, though the villagers had previously felt gratitude and admiration toward Li Chang'an.

It had been limited to only a portion of them.

Many still forbade their children from coming near, a clear sign that apprehensions still lingered in their hearts.

Yet this battle completely allowed the villagers to witness Li Chang'an’s miraculous and terrifying nature, and many began to revere him as the 'Guardian Deity' of Li Family Village!

...

On the ninth day of the first lunar month in the two hundred and thirty-eighth year of the Demonic Qing Royal Calendar, Li Chang'an celebrated his fifth birthday.

Over these past two years, relying on his heaven-defying comprehension, Li Chang'an had independently understood numerous cultivation techniques, and the vital energy vortex within his body had expanded from its initial size of a pigeon's egg to the size of a palm.

Reasonably speaking, such efficiency was already wildly exaggerated, yet Li Chang'an himself was not satisfied.

—For no other reason than the fact that although the golden finger of heaven-defying comprehension was absurdly powerful, Li Chang'an was starting from absolute zero on the path of martial arts.

Even if he understood many cultivation methods and supreme techniques through sheer comprehension, he still could not escape his own limitations.

Under normal circumstances, once the vital energy vortex inside the body reached the size of a palm, one should be a mere step away from becoming a true martial master.

Yet this was a step Li Chang'an could never seem to cross.

By the time he turned five, the bone structure of his body had basicially formed, and both his physical strength and endurance had increased drastically, but the vital energy within him had grown to a hard limit.

Li Chang'an knew this was because the vital energy circulation technique he had comprehended from that Daoist priest back then possessed inherent limitations, only capable of bringing him to this current stage.

Consequently, he halted his continued cultivation.

After all, without being able to compress the vital energy vortex within his body into a liquid state, continuing to swallow and absorb energy would only burden his physical form; he had to wait for an opportunity of breakthrough, or a complete set of martial arts cultivation methods.

And of these two, the former required luck and inspiration, while the latter required searching far and wide for famous masters. Neither was within easy reach for a mere five-year-old Li Chang'an.

After all, this was no era of peace and prosperity; demons and monsters roamed everywhere.

His current meager strength might suffice for self-preservation in villages, towns, or county seats, but once he left home, should he encounter a demon through bad luck, he would still fail to escape the fate of becoming a withered skeleton by the roadside.

Therefore, Li Chang'an shifted his entire focus toward perfecting his techniques and guiding his 'disciples.'

The effect of heaven-defying comprehension was simply too absurd!

Even if Li Chang'an stayed home every day without moving, he would frequently comprehend various cultivation styles and martial moves. Because his comprehension speed was too fast, it resulted in a great many techniques that he himself had no time to practice.

Thus, to avoid waste, and after a round of examination, Li Chang'an ultimately took several children of the same age from the village as his disciples.

The martial talent of most of these children was exceedingly mediocre, with only a few showing promise.

Among them, the most diligent and hardworking was the child named Li San, who had been the very first to come and bow to Li Chang'an as his master.

Li San’s mother had died during a difficult birth, and his father had perished at the hands of Han Laoba. He currently lived with his elderly grandparents. To practice alongside the other children, he would wake at two or three in the morning to finish his chores, working right until the morning sun rose.

He possessed a fierce determination that the other children lacked.

Li Chang'an thought highly of him and made him the 'Eldest Senior Brother' among the many disciples under his sect, though on the surface, he rarely showed him a pleased countenance.

The reason... was simple!

—Though Li San possessed talent, he was a mischievous brat who could not handle praise.

The moment Li Chang'an offered him the slightest praise, he would believe himself invincible under heaven, grinning foolishly with his large mouth open for an entire day.

[Ding! Fate successfully defied and altered!]

[At five years old, you are physically strong and overflowing with vital blood, rewriting the destiny of delayed development and starvation, and earning a modest reputation around Li Family Village, known as the 'Prodigy'!]

[Reincarnation evaluation has risen; you have received an additional 1,000 Reincarnation Points!]

Looking at the message from the Reincarnation Imprint upon his retina, Li Chang'an smiled with satisfaction. This was his second time rewriting his fate, and the harvest was greater than the first.

On this day, Li Chang'an was still cultivating.

However, unlike the past, aside from himself, more than twenty children of varying ages stood before the gates of the Li family courtyard.

Among these children, the older ones were practicing diligently against the morning sun.

The younger ones stood nearby mimicking them, copying actions blindly, or simply nursing and watching the excitement.

These days were not peaceful.

A massive, formidable insurgent army had appeared near Sanhuang County. To cope with the potential turmoil, the county was currently recruiting soldiers and expanding its armaments.

This unusual signal caused the adults of the village to become highly strung, which simultaneously restricted the children's range of activity; bored, the children gathered outside the Li family door.

"Capture the golden essence to secure the foundation of life, the sun's soul to the east, the moon's splendor to the west."

"Within it, refine the medicine of longevity, which when consumed, makes one equal to heaven and earth."

"Marvel not that news from the Jade Pool is rare, it is only because mundane matters separate us from heaven's secrets..."

In the distance, a Daoist priest in his fifties was reciting Daoist classics aloud, leading a young Daoist priest in his twenties down from the other side of the mountain path.

As they neared the courtyard gate, the old Daoist walking in front abruptly ceased his chanting, halting his steps to look sideways at this slightly bizarre scene before him.

One look was all it took to leave him stunned.

The old Daoist’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he lost his composure and cried out, "Holy shit!"

Hearing this vulgar exclamation, the young Daoist behind the old priest furrowed his brows in displeasure, clearly contemptuous of his master’s shouting and unseemly behavior.

However, when he likewise raised his head to look not far ahead, he uttered the exact same words as his master: "Holy shit!?"

Years ago, the two of them had happened to pass through Li Family Village.

In their memory, it was nothing more than an ordinary hamlet nestled along the lower reaches of the Three Yellow River.

Yet now, what was it that met their eyes?

A crowd of frail, diminutive children in tattered rags, gathering outside the courtyards in small groups, practicing martial ki and forms with uncanny precision?

...