“Guess I really do owe it to the system!”
After figuring out his situation and confirming that, with the system’s help, practicing the Shaolin Boy’s Skill only increased his skill proficiency without any side effects, Jiang Nian let out a heartfelt sigh of admiration.
With his worries gone, he dove headfirst back into intense training.
Even without a famous master to guide him,
And despite having absolutely zero martial arts foundation prior to this,
By relying on the ‘Du Gao’ memories provided by the system,
Jiang Nian constantly refined his movements according to that knowledge.
His training progress skyrocketed.
So much so that in just four short hours…
[Rank Up]
[Shaolin Boy’s Skill – Unranked (9/10) → Shaolin Boy’s Skill – Novice (0/100)]
As the system’s breakthrough notification appeared,
In a daze, Jiang Nian felt his surroundings shift.
He was no longer in the park but standing on a muddy, filthy street.
Children born in times of war lived like stray dogs.
They wandered the streets aimlessly, fighting viciously over a single scrap of food.
He was no exception.
Until one day.
A group of people passed through this poor, remote village.
This was the first time the dog had ever seen a person.
It was also the first time the dog realized he wasn’t that different from a person—
Both had one head, two arms, and two legs.
But the person sat inside a luxurious carriage, dressed in fine silks and eating delicate food.
While the dog was only fit to survive in the muck and sewage mixed with feces and urine.
A longing stirred within the dog’s heart.
He wanted to become a person.
So he followed behind the people.
Along the journey, the dog faced countless crises.
But the obsession to become human kept him going.
It drove him all the way from that countryside village to the imperial capital.
The magnificent capital was an eye-opener for the dog, leaving an indelible mark on his heart.
He wanted to stay here.
And as it turned out, his wish was granted.
The next day, a group of strangers he’d never seen came looking for him. They said they would castrate him. The dog struggled, but the men said they could make him a person.
The dog submitted.
Immediately after, the dog found himself in a vast hall of glittering gold.
Sitting inside the hall was a man—the very first person the dog had ever seen.
The person said many things and gave him some objects.
But what the dog remembered most vividly was the name that person gave him—Du Gao!
The dog had become a person.
To maintain this identity,
Du Gao worked diligently and conscientiously, serving those the person called ‘His Majesty’ and ‘Consorts.’
In his spare time, he dared not slack off, assiduously practicing the cultivation method the person had bestowed upon him.
However, out of old habit,
He would occasionally tease and toy with the consorts.
But the person stood behind the dog.
So the dog remained safe and sound, his arrogance even growing bolder.
This made him no longer content with just teasing the consorts within the palace.
His gaze, therefore, turned outside the palace walls.
“Haah—”
Jolting awake from the haze, Jiang Nian gasped sharply.
He looked around warily, bewildered.
He was standing right there in the park.
Recalling what he had just witnessed during his breakthrough, his mind felt adrift.
“Holy crap, did that rank-up just give me a psychotic episode?!”
Jiang Nian grumbled, finding the whole thing utterly ridiculous.
What he had just seen was the life story of that ‘Du Gao.’
Although he had already witnessed it once when the character was unlocked,
This time was different.
If he had to make a comparison,
It was like the previous memory was watching the movie Let the Bullets Fly without any analysis.
But what he saw now was watching Let the Bullets Fly with the director’s commentary turned on.
He finished with a completely new level of understanding.
He knew Du Gao more intimately now.
But soon, his attention was pulled away by the changes happening within his own body.
After the Shaolin Boy’s Skill advanced to the Minor Achievement stage,
A warm current, seemingly born from the air, appeared inside Jiang Nian’s body with each breath.
It flowed through his limbs, bones, and twelve meridians, continuously repairing the physical damage to his body.
In just a few breaths,
Jiang Nian, who moments ago was dead tired and drenched in sweat, found his breathing gradually steadying, and even the aches and pains in his muscles had subsided significantly.
And that warm current didn’t dissipate.
It gathered in his lower abdomen, circulating continuously.
Jiang Nian could feel that whenever he wanted, he could mobilize it at will.
“This is…”
“Inner Strength?!”
Sensing the anomaly within him, those two words instantly popped into Jiang Nian’s mind.
Just like in many Wuxia dramas,
The historical martial arts romance show Jiang Nian was acting in also featured the concept of Inner Strength.
When he received ‘Du Gao’s’ memories,
Jiang Nian knew it was only a matter of time before he would master Inner Strength.
But he never imagined that “only a matter of time” would mean this soon.
“Wait, I just started training, and I already have Inner Strength?”
“I didn’t even have to go through skin tempering, bone forging, or the Hidden Force and Overt Force stages?”
“System, are you sure there’s no mistake here?”
The sudden arrival of good fortune left Jiang Nian dumbstruck, even suspicious that something might be wrong.
“…”
The system did not reply.
It merely silently displayed a notification.
[Rank Up]
[Congratulations, User, on advancing to Third-Rate Martial Artist]
“…”
“So… I guess that’s a confirmation?”
Without any additional information,
Jiang Nian could only interpret it that way.
After all, his previous Realm status was ‘None.’
Now that he possessed Inner Strength, he was directly promoted to a Third-Rate Martial Artist.
Presumably, this change occurred only because the system had certified it.
Afterward, Jiang Nian wanted to keep training a bit longer to grind some more proficiency points.
But it wasn’t long before his stomach started rumbling loudly.
Left with no choice, Jiang Nian had to put his martial arts practice on hold for the moment.
He went to a nearby eatery, ordered a plate of braised pork over rice, found a corner seat, and dug in heartily.
While eating, he didn’t forget to contemplate the Inner Strength he had just acquired.
Since he had only just cultivated it today,
His Inner Strength was not powerful—merely the thickness of a strand of hair.
He tried applying it.
Although the weakness of his Inner Strength meant he currently couldn’t strike from a distance or fly on a sword,
He could use it to regulate his body and soothe the muscle soreness that came after training.
As for the Shaolin Boy’s Skill itself,
After breaking through to the Minor Achievement stage, aside from granting him Inner Strength, it had only refined his techniques slightly.
There was no major transformation.
“Overall, not bad at all,”
Jiang Nian assessed internally.
The ability to use Inner Strength to relieve muscle soreness was an absolute necessity for him right now.
After all, the Shaolin Boy’s Skill was an Internal Strength art—extremely difficult and physically demanding.
And when the body undergoes intense exercise, it produces lactic acid.
This substance causes muscles to contract, constricting blood vessels and leading to aches and pains.
Continuing high-intensity training under such conditions could easily lead to rhabdomyolysis.
Therefore, originally, Jiang Nian had planned to listen to his body, adopting a schedule of training one day and resting the next for healthy progression.
But now, with Inner Strength repairing the micro-damage in his body…
“I could literally train every single day without issue.”
Jiang Nian suddenly felt invincible again.
So, after wolfing down his pork rice and scanning the payment code, he headed straight back to that small park.
Eleven o’clock at night.
Yang Mi’s villa compound.
Bang!
The front door slammed shut heavily.
Liu Kaiwei stood outside the door, his face as black as thunder.
After spending the entire afternoon coaxing Yang Mi and even offering up a portion of his professional resources as compensation,
Yang Mi had finally relented, agreeing not to bring up divorce anymore.
Liu Kaiwei thought the matter was settled.
To his dismay, Yang Mi stated that their relationship was now in name only and proposed a set of three strict rules.
Thinking back on those three rules—
He was not allowed to touch Yang Mi.
He was not allowed to pry into Yang Mi’s affairs.
He was not even allowed to live in the same house.
Liu Kaiwei was grinding his teeth in fury!
As an entertainer from Hong Kong, Liu Kaiwei was a quintessential second-generation star with an excellent family background.
The biggest hardship he’d ever tasted in his life came in a Starbucks cup.
He never expected to stumble so badly here with Yang Mi today.
And the worst part was, Liu Kaiwei felt completely helpless.
He was currently in a crucial rising phase of his career.
A scandal would have a devastating impact on him.
If his wife of just two months divorced him now as well,
Liu Kaiwei’s career in Mainland Chinese entertainment would be essentially over.
Even if he could still land roles using his father’s connections,
The audience would likely never accept him again.
“She knows she has me over a barrel, that’s why she’s blackmailing me!”
“That bitch!”
“Bitch!”
