Chapter 3. The Myriad Flowers Piercing Swordplay

    Bai Zhe figured out how to make money while he was going back home. He knew that his freelance job took a lot of time, and the pay was only enough to live on day by day.

    He did not look down on the job. He knew that freelancers could even have some savings if they were frugal. But it would be better if he had more money. He needed it to buy herbs that were the ingredients of medicine to strengthen qi power. Though he had his power sealed in his soul, he could not use it until he reached the earth qi.

    After making calculations in his mind, Bai Zhe decided to write a martial arts novel because he had experiences from Da Xian, so he had a lot of stories to tell.

    ‘If I cannot be a superstar, at least the money from the novel will help with living expenses,’ he thought before jumping down from the roof next to the building of the Bai family’s apartment.

    The private hospital where Yi Han was being treated…

    Yi Han’s limbs were tied to the bed. His wrists and ankles were red from fabric burns. He still squirmed and screamed in pain, even though his throat was sore.

    Outside, his father, a politician in the capital city, was furiously shouting at the doctor who took care of the boy’s case.

    “How could you say that everything is normal? Do you think he’s faking it? How can someone pretend to be in pain for hours?” Yi San pointed at his son who was writhing on the hospital bed.

    “We did a thorough check on his body, sir. Everything is normal. If there was some new disease, we would have found some abnormality. But there is none. We even injected him with some sleep medication, but it did not work. It’s something we have never seen before,” said the doctor.

    As Yi San opened his mouth to berate the doctor once more, Yi Han stopped screaming. The men immediately looked at the boy. The doctor hurried to Yi Han when he noticed the boy was lying still.

    “Huff…huff.” Yi Han was panting. His chest went up and down heavily and sweat dripped down his face. His clothes were damp. The pain had vanished into thin air because the power of the qi character was gone.

    “Son, are you all right?” asked Yi San.

    “It…it doesn’t hurt anymore. But…I’m thirsty,” Yi Han told his father. His eyelids felt heavy. He was tired and his body ached.

    “I will have the nurse come clean you and change your clothes. You should eat and drink something before getting rest.”

    “Dad,” the boy called his father. He wanted something.

    “What is it?” Yi San asked.

    “I want to move to a new school,” the boy answered. He recalled himself writhing on the floor while his classmates looked at him. Yi Han felt embarrassed enough to decide to transfer out of the school.

    “Alright. I will find you a new school,” Yi San told his son, just before his phone rang.

    “Thank you, dad. You should pick up the phone,” said Yi Han.

    After answering it and talking for a while, Yi San walked toward his son with a furious expression and slapped the boy.

    Slap!

    “Dad, why did you do that?” Yi Han touched his left cheek, which had been struck.

    “You used my name to sign out drugs?” he asked.

    “It was just a small amount,” answered the boy.

    “Small amount, my foot! It was a half-kilogram of crystal meth. Tell me where the rest is. If not, my future in politics will be doomed.”

    YI Han instantly told his dad about the drugs and apologized for his mistake. Then, he realized that all his friends had been sent to rehab; he would soon follow.

    The Bai family’s apartment

    Bai Zhe placed his bag in the corner of the room when he arrived home. He then brought out all the equipment for sewing dolls and swiftly threaded a needle.

    “Sigh.” Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply and then exhaled.

    When Bai Zhe opened his eyes, the needle in his hand started to move smoothly. The fabrics for the dolls were sewn together with his skillful hand. All the seams looked exactly like they had been sewn by a machine.

    “Damn. I did not know that the Myriad Flowers Piercing Swordplay from the Emei Sect could be adapted to sewing dolls. If all the sisters knew, they would definitely spank my behind,” he thought and continued to sew the dolls.

    He took a break to eat with his family, then went back to work. Bai Zhe finished sewing and stuffing the dolls at 3 a.m. The boy sighed deeply, looking at his hands shaking without a stop.

    ‘My body cannot handle this any longer. I will never do this kind of job again. I still have some homework to do. Seems like the qi practice will not happen tonight.’ He looked at this schoolbag, which had been abandoned since the evening. He got up and cleaned up everything before he started to do his homework.

    Since he understood all of the lessons at school, today’s homework was a piece of cake compared to the last assignment.

    ‘Let’s take a shower. Mum will wake up soon.’ He took a shower and got dressed. Bai Zhe used the qi character to restore his shirt and pants, making them look new.

    He spotted a pile of books in a corner of the room, which were the novels that the original Bai Zhe had bought. He chose the most damaged one, thinking it might have been read the most frequently. But when the boy opened it, he found that it was a pornography book, filled with naked models. Then, memories of the original Bai Zhe masturbating popped into his mind.

    “Ewwww. Are you really so horny as to use these pictures for some release?” Bai Zhe mentally cursed.

    After he finally collected himself, Bai Zhe closed the book and hid it at the bottom of the pile, then searched for an actual novel.

    It was not long before his parents’ bedroom door opened. Bai Lian Hua exited the room to see her son reading a book. It made her ask him a question curiously.

    “Did you stay up all night? I heard noises,” she asked.

    “Yes. The sewing job needs to be finished today so I did it ‘till 3 a.m. I’ve already showered and gotten dressed. Just breakfast and I will be good to go,” said Bai Zhe. He did not forget to give her his puppy dog eyes. No one in Da Xian ever got mad at him when he made those eyes.

    “Well, I will make breakfast. Meanwhile, you should get some rest. I will tell you when it’s ready.” Bai Lian Hua was worried about her son. He always chose to work to get money for the family over studying. That was the reason why his grades had dramatically dropped. Though she had told him that they were doing just fine, he never listened.

    “Okay.” Bai Zhe closed the book and put it in its place. He used his qi to clean the area up before taking out a pillow to lie on.

    “Hey, do not sleep here. The floor is dirty. Your uniform will…” Bai Lian Hua had to stop her lecture when she saw Bai Zhe’s uniform, which had been old and dirty.

    “I saved some money and bought a uniform when I had enough. We can use this white shirt for a couple of years,” he lied so she would not get suspicious.

    “That’s great. Your uniform was looking like a dirty rag more and more every day. Anyway, do the dolls belong to Auntie Chen?” she asked.

    “Yes. I will deliver them when I walk to school,” he answered.

    “No. If you go this early, you will disturb her. I will leave a little late today. I will do it.”

    “All right.” Once Bai Zhe laid his head on the pillow, his eyes immediately closed.

    He started to control his qi by purifying the qi power around him before absorbing it into his body and directing the power to his Dantian. He used this power to strengthen every part of Bai Zhe’s body: bones, blood vessels, tendons, nerves, and muscles. His body did not get enough nutrients, so his insides were weaker than they seemed.

    Bai Lian Hua woke him for breakfast after a while. Bai Zhe's father walked out of the bedroom with a big yawn and a hand in his pants to scratch at… No matter how one looked at it, they were the mannerisms of some old uncle who had let himself go completely. What contradicted these mannerisms was that his body looked like that of a well-trained soldier. All of his muscles were well-defined. It could be said that he had less than 12% body fat.

    Even though Bai Qing Yun, Bai Zhe’s father, had his face covered by a beard, appearing to be on the fierce side, signs of his handsomeness were still evident. He also had a body that was the envy of many men. Bai Zhe was very curious about how he had developed those muscles, even though the food and eating habits of this house were quite poor. It did not make sense or follow the scientific principles that Bai Zhe had learned from this world.

    ‘It may be possible that he is a martial artist. I will check it out later,’ Bai Zhe thought.

    “What are you looking at, buddy? If you want this body, you better eat more,” Bai Qing Yun said.

    “Stir-fried vegetables and rocks boiled with salt cannot help me build muscles,” he answered in a level tone.

    “I am sorry. Should I buy us some meat for dinner?” Bai Lian Hua thought that Bai Zhe might want to eat some meat because he only got to eat boiled rice with vegetables and rocks boiled with salt last month.

    “You should use the money I gave you from the doll sewing job. I do not want you and Dad to pay more just because I want to eat meat,” said the boy.

    “That’s being a man. I will go take a shower. You better eat and get going so you will not be late. And pay attention in class, okay? So, you won’t end up being poor labourers like us.” The father took a towel and placed it on his shoulders before entering the bathroom.

    “Well, did you get any other job?” Bai Lian Hua asked her son.

    “Probably a job at the same construction site. It was just a job watching over things at night. Also, I won’t be alone. There will be ten other workers there. You don’t need to be worried. I have to patrol the site and when I am not on patrol, I just study and do my homework,” he answered.

    “All right, but don’t do this so often that you do not get time to rest,” she advised out of consideration for him before affectionately stroking her son’s hair.

    “Yes, Mum,” said the boy. When her hand touched his hair, Bai Zhe felt warmth like when he was with the masters who had raised him from when he was little in Da Xian. He used chopsticks to pick up the side dishes and place them in his rice bowl and shovelled the food into his mouth like the original Bai Zhe usually did so he could please Bai Lian Hua.

    “There’s no need to rush. Oh, right. Can you go see Uncle Fu after school? When I was walking home yesterday, he told me that his delivery man’s vehicle flipped over and he is still at the hospital, so he needs someone to cover the job. Plus, the package for delivery is costly. He trusts no one except our family, but your dad and I have to work at that time, so I’d thought of having you take this job. The work does not require a lot of labour. Are you free this evening? If you’re not, just say so and I will tell Uncle Fu to find someone else,” Bai Lian Hua said.

    “I’m free. I can go,” he answered.

    “All right. I will call him.”

    Bai Zhe used the same method to go to school after breakfast. The difference today was that when he ran into his schoolmates, they tried to stay at least 2 metres away from him.

    ‘Stay away from him. Yi Han tried to get into a fight with him yesterday. Now the boy is in hospital. Yi Han’s friends did the same thing, and he exposed their drug use. They got suspended and have been sent to rehab. All his classmates said he might be into some dark magic.’ The sound of gossiping was low, but Bai Zhe could hear each word clearly.

    ‘Things being like this isn’t too bad. According to Bai Zhe’s memories, these people aren’t that impressive,’ he thought.

    An ambulance drove into the school at the same time that he was entering the main gate. Then, the ambulance personnel hurriedly rushed into the building. All the students who had come to school early kept their eyes on them. It was certain that everyone was curious about what had happened.

    Not long afterwards, a boy was carried down from the building by the ambulance personnel. He was screaming in pain. His hands and legs were bound to prevent him from falling from the stretcher while he was being moved.

    The flashback of Yi Han’s situation popped into everyone’s mind like déjà vu. They looked at the boy who was carried onto the ambulance, then turned to Bai Zhe, while trying to get even farther from him.

    ‘Shit. That guy looked at me.’ One of the boys gave a great start when he saw Bai Zhe looking his way.

    Bai Zhe observed the reactions of the people around him. He saw that they all were trying not to avoid his gaze and flee from that area. He shrugged his shoulders once, without any care for the eyes of those around him, and walked toward the school building.

    He found that Bai Zhe’s desk, which had been scribbled on by those who had bullied the owner of this body, was gone. No. Rather, it had been changed. From listening to extremely low-volume conversations of his classmates, he learned that the desk that he had inscribed with the qi character had been moved using a special method to the school’s trash incinerator in order for it to be burned because it was believed that the desk was cursed by black magic. The schoolboy who had been sent to the hospital that morning had been trying to write on Bai Zhe’s desk. Thus, he had been affected by qi character like Yi Han.

    Furthermore, Bai Zhe’s desk had been set about 2 metres away from other desks. Seeing that though, he could not care less. The boy walked over to sit in his chair, hung his bag on a hook on the side of the desk, brought out his book, and started to read it.

    The bell rang not long after that. His homeroom teacher came in and talked with the students. However, it was obvious that the teacher got quite uncomfortable when Bai Zhe stared at her.

    After homeroom, the teacher fled from the room, and 5 minutes later, the teacher of the Rune language subject, which was the first class of the day, entered.

    She was a thirty-something-year-old female teacher. Her name was Xue Ren. She had short slightly permed brown hair and wore a form-fitting white shirt and blue pleated skirt, which made her long legs look even more attractive. Though she was wearing glasses, they were very stylish glasses and did not appear dull when paired with her beautiful, sharp features. She could be deemed a beautiful woman. All of the male students paid great attention in her class.

    “We will continue from last time. Everyone opens your book to page 29.” Xue Ren started teaching immediately.

    She started talking in Rune, which was the universal language of this world and continued using it throughout the class. At first, Bai Zhe tried hard to memorize as much as possible. However, it was not long before he realized that Rune was exactly like the language that the people living in the western kingdom of the continent of Da Xian used. Thus, it did not take too much time for him to understand it.

    Though Xue Ren felt a little uncomfortable due to the rumours about Bai Zhe, she was still a teacher, so she called on him to answer questions or have a conversation with him in Rune language. She found that today, he could actually reply to her fluently. It could be regarded as a major improvement, even though some of his vocabulary was old-fashioned.

    “Good job, Bai Zhe. You may sit. Everyone, we are now halfway through our class. I have a little surprise for you,” said Xue Ren. The teacher brought out a paper bag from a high–end brand, and a mischievous expression appeared in her eyes.

    “Wow, are you giving away high-end stuff?” one of the female students asked with excitement.

    “Uh-uh. No. This is actually a pop quiz.” She beamed while taking a pile of quiz papers out of the bag. This was in contrast to her students, whose expressions became bleak like they were taking bitter medicine when they heard the word ‘quiz’.

    Bai Zhe was able to do the quiz. He had been able to do at least 9 out of 10 parts without breaking a sweat. This was the first thing he would do for this life. That was to have better grades. They would allow him to pass the entrance examinations for a good high school in the near future.

    After the quiz, the Rune class ended. Some students had collapsed, face down onto their desks, while some tiredly leaned back in their chairs, as if they had used all of their energy for the quiz.

    Bai Zhe’s other classes went smoothly. Bai Zhe was able to learn everything from the teachers very quickly because he was already a gifted learner.

    When the school bell rang, he gathered his books and notebooks into his schoolbag and placed the bag onto his back before hurriedly exiting the school since he had to go to Uncle Fu’s antique shop. It was almost the time of the appointment that his mother had made.

    Bai Zhe jumped from one roof to another, then jumped down into an alley where no one was around and walked toward Elder Fu’s—or Uncle Fu, according to this body’s memories—antique shop.