Chapter 2: Defying the Heavens with Comprehension

The Tianyang Continent, the Demon Qing King Era, the ninth day of the first month, year two hundred and thirty-three.

In Fengzhou's Sanhuang County, within a cramped side room cleared of clutter in Li Family Village, lay an expectant mother, her frame frail and emaciated yet her abdomen round and swollen.

"Three, two, one, push!"

Several older women crowded around the laboring mother, their voices clipped and urgent with anxiety.

Outside the door, the husband listening to the commotion was drenched in a sweat born of desperate worry.

Watching the minutes and seconds tick by without the sound of a newborn's cry from the room, the man’s countenance grew increasingly grim and pale.

Yet, aside from pacing frantically in circles, he possessed no means to prevent the situation from spiraling toward a tragic end.

To begin with, the town’s only reliable physician had been devoured by a demon beast during a herb-gathering trip in the mountains the previous year, leaving behind nothing but a blood-stained garment; even if the man were alive, the family's current destitute state meant they could never hope to afford the exorbitant fee required to engage his services.

Just as the atmosphere grew unbearably heavy...

"Waaah, waaah!"

A sharp, piercing cry of an infant broke from the room.

Before the man could react, a midwife rushed out cradling a newborn boy wrapped in swaddling clothes, her face bright with smiles: "Li Dashan, smoke must be rising from your ancestral graves today, you lucky rogue! Both mother and child are saved!"

Upon hearing the news of their safety.

The tension holding the man together vanished instantly as if the bones had been drawn from his body; he collapsed to the ground, murmuring to himself: "The ancestors protect us, the ancestors protect us, our Li family finally has an heir to carry on the line!"

Seeing his mix of joy and grief, the woman smiled before urging him: "Quick, give him a name. Only once a child is named can heaven not snatch him away!"

Roused by her urgency, the man finally came to his senses.

Looking once more at the quiet, un-crying infant in the swaddling clothes, he said without a second thought: "The name was chosen long ago. If a boy, he shall be called Li Changan, in the hope that he enjoys long-lasting peace... Thank you for your hard work in tending to my wife. Thank you, thank you!"

With that, the man fished a few steamed corn buns, still holding his body heat, from his breast pocket and proffered them with trembling hands.

Weighing the buns in her hand, the woman frowned slightly, but remembering how bitter life had been of late, she said no more. She nodded and instructed: "Very well. Remember not to let the mother touch cold water or catch a chill during this period. If circumstances allow, give her some good nourishment to replenish her body..."

Catching sight of the man’s bitter smile, the woman's voice trailed off, suddenly realizing that these instructions were entirely redundant.

The woman sighed, returned the cradled Li Changan to the man, waved her hand somewhat listlessly, and turned to depart on her own.

...

Thus, Li Changan arrived into this world in a manner he had never anticipated.

Gazing at the cheap father before him who was laughing and crying all at once, Li Changan intended to fetch a soft sigh, yet unexpectedly, the moment he opened his mouth, he expelled a large mouthful of amniotic fluid, nearly choking himself to death.

Li Dashan was startled by this display and bustled about in a frantic rush for a good while before finally wiping away the disgorged fluid.

Having done all this, looking down at the quiet, small infant in his arms, a smile he could not suppress finally broke across Li Dashan’s dark, weathered face, revealing a profound fondness for Li Changan.

To this, Li Changan offered no response, merely patting his slightly flat belly; he was hungry...

For the next three months, Li Changan lived a mechanical existence of eating when hungry and sleeping when full.

Though the milk Huang Xiaoru produced daily was scarce, the household had made a few provisions for his birth after all.

It was barely enough to keep him eighty percent full.

In truth, this period was quite unbearable for Li Changan; after all, his soul belonged to a fully formed adult, yet he was now trapped within an infant's body, unable to move freely—a feeling that was far from pleasant.

Fortunately, during this process, he could exercise his limb strength through conscious rolling and crawling, so as not to find it entirely tedious.

From what could be gathered of the situation, so long as Li Changan did not court disaster blindly, there would be no threat to his life before the age of six.

As for how to rewrite his destiny?

It seemed he could only rely on his innate talent and on-the-spot reactions to face what was to come.

For now, the most crucial task was to lay low and develop inconspicuously.

Only by enduring this grueling, empty interim would Li Changan possess the strength to rewrite everything.

—Consequently, Li Dashan and his wife discovered to their astonishment that their child was remarkably well-behaved; once fed, he neither cried nor fussed, completely unlike the children of other households who wailed incessantly all day long.

Amidst their wonder, the couple also breathed a collective sigh of relief.

After all, the world at present was far from peaceful, swarming with vicious and cruel demons; a child’s crying might bring ruin upon the household at any moment!

...

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another three months slipped away.

The ninth day of the seventh month, year two hundred and thirty-four of the Demon Qing King Era.

Li Changan was now six months old, his weight increasing from six and a half catties at birth to ten and a half catties, his height and weight both showing noticeable growth.

Ordinarily, this figure could have increased further, but his mother, Huang Xiaoru, lacked nutrition and could not sustain her milk supply; Li Changan's staple food had already shifted from breast milk to thin porridge, so his growth rate naturally could not accelerate.

Li Changan was certainly dissatisfied with this thoroughly mediocre pace of growth.

According to the destiny described by his reincarnation mark, the first fateful node he had to face would arrive at the age of three, when the newly appointed magistrate of Sanhuang County would strip away every scrap of money and grain Li Dashan had painstakingly amassed.

That event would lead directly to his starvation and a congenital deficiency in vital energy and blood.

Li Changan would certainly not sit idly by and allow such a thing to transpire.

Thus, he had to acquire the ability to resolve this matter before turning three!

At six months old, Li Changan learned to crawl.

When his parents were home, they would occasionally place him on the ground, granting him a period of free movement.

On this day, while Li Changan was playing with mud by the doorway, he suddenly spotted an old Daoist priest in a patched robe passing along the path beside the ridge of the field.

Fixing his gaze on the departing figure of the old Daoist, a strange light suddenly flashed in Li Changan's eyes!

[Incredible comprehension triggered! You observed Wang Su channeling his inner qi, successfully mastering the cultivation method of inner qi!]

[Incredible comprehension triggered! You observed Wang Su's gait, successfully mastering the martial arts technique "Shadowless Steps"!]

With the arrival of this information, Li Changan was astonished to discover that countless key cultivation points and precautions regarding inner qi and martial arts techniques had materialized out of thin air within his mind.

This left him so stunned that he nearly burst into laughter.

The Tianyang Continent was a martial world teeming with gods, ghosts, and demons.

And the inner qi he had just comprehended was the sole gateway for humanity in this world to transcend the mundane; only by cultivating inner qi and becoming a martial artist could ordinary folk secure enough power to protect themselves in this chaotic age where human life was treated like cheap grass.

Li Changan had originally thought that with his hell-mode beginning, attempting to cultivate inner qi and become a martial artist would likely require an immense price just to touch the threshold.

Yet he had never imagined that before he was even two years old, he would somehow stumble his way into learning the circulation method of inner qi, and in the process, even comprehend a martial arts supreme technique of no small power!

"Is this the initial talent of 'Incredible Comprehension'? The golden finger brought by a transmigrator is indeed defying of natural order!"

...