At Chihe Apartments, Yaoguang had just reached for the television when everything suddenly went dark...
"The power's out again," he murmured.
The power outages had been happening a little too often lately...
Could this have something to do with the demons?
Blackouts had become increasingly frequent over the past year or two.
That meant the demons had not always been in this world—or at the very least, they had only begun to stir recently.
But if that was the case, how had Xia Li built his reputation ten years ago?
He couldn't find the answer. Even so, there was no point dwelling on it too deeply.
A year ago, a young man had accidentally encountered a demon. After reporting the incident, the young man was attacked and killed by another demon the next day. That was when Yaoguang transmigrated into this world and took over the young man's body.
The fact that he had been found so quickly showed just how deeply the demons had infiltrated human society.
Whatever the case, he only needed to focus on his own path.
If a demon came to kill him, he would kill it.
"Every country is different. Dayu isn't Daxia."
Yaoguang sat on the sofa and closed his eyes to rest.
Inside his mental world, an ancient tree nearly four meters tall slowly grew, radiating a mysterious aura.
This tree seemed to be the reason behind his transmigration. However, there was still much he needed to learn about it.
The one thing he knew was that the three branches growing from its main trunk each represented a different profession.
[Martial Arts] [Demon Hunter] [Merchant]
Practicing martial arts, killing demons, trading for profit... All of these actions provided nourishment to the tree—or more precisely, experience points—allowing its branches to grow. The key was that he could direct the tree's nourishment toward whichever branch he wanted to develop.
At present, Yaoguang's focus was on the Demon Hunter branch.
[Killed a high-level Horned Demon of the Third Tier. The first level of the Demon Hunter branch has received growth nourishment... Growth halted because the main trunk absorbed all the nourishment.]
He then glanced at the Martial Arts branch.
[Nourishment injected from the main trunk. Rapid growth in progress.]
Upon closer inspection, the Martial Arts branch contained more detailed information.
[Tier: Third Tier, Grandmaster]
[Dao Fruit: Formless, Perception][1]
As the Martial Arts branch continued to grow rapidly, Yaoguang could feel it piercing through the void and absorbing the infinite, intangible martial arts knowledge from a mysterious realm. That knowledge then flowed into his mind, where he absorbed it completely.
At that very moment, everything concerning internal-organ training at the Grandmaster level became crystal clear to him.
He fully absorbed every detail of the knowledge related to internal-organ training.
Even among fellow Grandmasters, no one could match his insight into the internal-organ training stage. Not even a Martial Arts Paragon could match one-tenth of his level of understanding.
A short while later, Yaoguang opened his eyes.
The third level of the Martial Arts branch had already begun to bloom, only one or two steps away from bearing fruit.
"The third level of Martial Arts hasn't reached perfection yet, but I can already feel it. My body can now complete the internal training stage. I only need another three to five years to renew my blood and cleanse my marrow."
He fell silent for a moment. "No, I can push it further! With all this knowledge, I can train my organs through methods that others might consider extreme. That will significantly shorten the time required. If I use medicine to speed up the process, I can complete the internal training stage within a year."
He could become a Grandmaster in one year and a Martial Arts Paragon in two.
"Besides..."
Yaoguang drew a deep breath. His chest swelled, and the power within his body condensed in an instant. Then, as he thrust his arm forward, his bones and muscles crackled in unison.
Boom!
A heavy, dull sound erupted throughout the house.
The air in front of his fist shattered, creating an invisible shock wave that swept in every direction.
Several small decorations in the living room were lifted and scattered by the wave, and even the curtains billowed violently.
"Core Jin," Yaoguang muttered.
The Four Martial Arts Trainings encompassed externally tempering the body, stretching the tendons and strengthening the bones, strengthening the internal organs, and finally renewing the blood and cleansing the marrow.
In other words, it meant strengthening the body to the point of evolution.
Meanwhile, Real Jin, Hidden Jin, Transformation Jin, and Core Jin were the Four Combat Methods of the Martial Way.
Only someone who had mastered Core Jin could concentrate their Qi into a single central point, then use that power to undergo blood renewal and marrow cleansing.
"So this is Core Jin."
Yaoguang calmed his surging blood and Qi.
After forming a core, completing blood renewal, and cleansing the marrow, a person would break through the limits of the human body and step into a new realm. They would surpass the limits of ordinary humans and become a Martial Arts Paragon.
That was why those who reached this realm were revered as Martial Arts Paragons.
There might not even be one such person in all of Tiannan Province. Besides...
"A Martial Arts Paragon can already surpass the limits of the human body. Then... what about the levels above it? A Martial Arts Deity? Some kind of celestial being? Eternal life? The ability to ride on clouds, shake mountains and rivers with a single punch, or perhaps even shatter the void?"
He didn't know. However, since demons truly existed, the idea that humans could become immortal beings was not impossible.
His thoughts lingered for a moment on the flower beginning to bloom on the Martial Arts branch.
"The Dao Flower of the third tier has already bloomed. Less than twenty percent remains before the Grandmaster level is complete. I wonder what kind of Dao Fruit it will produce later."
Whenever a level reached perfection, its branch would bloom and bear fruit.
Each Dao Fruit could give rise to a secret technique.
The Formless Technique at the Martial Arts Practitioner level and the Perception Technique at the Martial Arts Master level had both been obtained from those fruits.
Ring ring ring~
A ringtone suddenly shattered the silence. Yaoguang glanced at his phone screen. The call was from Su Anping.
Anyone looking at his call history would notice that this number called once every day.
As for who owned the number... he was the father of the body's original owner.
Logically speaking, since he had been reincarnated into this body, he should have borne that karma.
However, this family... well... was truly ridiculous.
Every single member of it had problems.
Considering that the body's "parents" had divorced more than two years ago, their relationship was tangled and a complete mess. He had simply followed the original owner's approach and ignored them entirely.
The phone rang for a while before finally stopping.
Just when Yaoguang thought it was merely another routine call, his phone rang again.
This time, it kept ringing six times in a row.
The caller clearly intended to keep calling until he answered.
It wasn't only Su Anping calling. A woman named Zhang Ya was calling as well.
She was the original owner's mother.
When the ringtone sounded for the eighth time, Yaoguang thought something serious might have happened. He finally answered the call.
As soon as the call connected, Su Anping's anxious voice came from the other end.
"Ah Guang, hide quickly—"
But before the man could finish, Zhang Ya seemed to have snatched the phone away. "Su Yaoguang! What's wrong with you? I've called you so many times, and you didn't answer! You think you're so great now, huh? You—"
Yaoguang ended the call, cutting the woman off mid-rant.
Ten seconds later, the ringtone sounded again. He immediately shut off his phone.
"Boring."
Yaoguang tossed his phone onto the bed.
Hide?
He didn't even need to guess. This was definitely another trivial problem from the Su Family.
Except that the "Su Family" did not refer to Su Anping's family, but to the family of his biological father, Su Huaifeng.
He paid it no mind. He went straight to the cultivation room, using the Tiger and Leopard Thunder Method to train his lungs and stimulate his marrow. He worked to complete blood renewal and marrow cleansing so he could surpass the limits of ordinary people and become a Martial Arts Paragon.
However, this time... the situation was different.
Before he had even cultivated for an hour, Yaoguang sharply sensed that a small trap in the outer hallway had been triggered.
He looked up.
With a light push off the tips of his toes, Jin burst forth. His body shot out of the room and landed beside the laptop glowing in his study.
The monitor was divided into eight window panes. In one of them, three agile figures could be seen rapidly approaching.
"Demons?" Yaoguang was slightly startled.
He activated his Perception Technique. His surroundings condensed into a projected map within his mind, but there wasn't a single red dot on it.
Not demons, but humans... Then he remembered the phone call. So the Su Family was really serious this time?
Among the three intruders, one was clearly highly skilled at picking locks.
The door to Yaoguang's rented apartment meant nothing to them; they broke through it with ease.
Once inside, the long-coated man leading the group spoke in a low voice. "Do it quickly. Let Young Master Su die without feeling too much pain."
"Young Master Su? He doesn't even acknowledge his own ancestors. How can he be called a young master of the Su Family?"
The close-cropped man clicked his tongue. "A family feud can get this bad? This is really opening my eyes. The Su Family is truly ruthless."
"This is just some foolish act by their younger generation. Why do you care so much? We're getting paid, and that's all that matters. We've taken on too many jobs lately, so we can't stay in Dayu for long. Once this job is done, we're getting out of here immediately."
The three exchanged a few brief, hurried remarks, but suddenly, another voice interrupted them.
"Then can you tell me which member of the younger generation hired you?"
"Who else? Of course, that cheap little brother of his—"
The close-cropped man intended to answer, but his voice cut off halfway. His eyes snapped toward the study door.
Yaoguang turned on the lights.
The incandescent light flooded the room, instantly illuminating it.
Almost at the same time, the long-coated man, clearly the group's leader, exploded into motion. He lunged forward like a cheetah pouncing on its prey. In an instant, he crossed the four meters between them, and the gleaming dagger in his hand swept in a swift, vicious arc toward Yaoguang's throat.
Yaoguang didn't even glance at the dagger.
He merely raised one hand, pressed his fingers together into a sword shape, and thrust straight toward the man's throat.
Thud!
The movement was unremarkable, without any unnecessary flourish or anything of the sort. It was simply fast.
So fast that before the man's dagger could even touch him, Yaoguang's finger sword had already crushed his Adam's apple.
The vicious internal force behind the thrust not only destroyed the man's throat but also sent a violent shock through the nerves in his neck, stripping him of control over his body in an instant.
The man's deadly attack missed, passing just three centimeters from Yaoguang's neck as their bodies brushed past each other. The attacker staggered, then crashed hard to the floor.
Throughout the entire process, Yaoguang had not moved a single part of his body except his hand.