In a derelict street, an unkempt and freakishly dirty beggar looked at a kid in front of him. The child was roughly 10 years old, holding a lollipop in his hand with snot drooping from his nostrils. The beggar said, “Young brother, I can tell that you are a martial genius just by looking at how clear your bone marrows are. I will now hand over the task of protecting the peace of this world over to you. Look, here’s a book containing a secret cultivation art. Since we are linked via the threads of fate, I’ll sell it to you for just 10 bucks!”
This fellow dripping yellowish snot all over the place… Hehehe… is none other than me! Hmph! Even though I’m just 10 this year, there is nobody smarter than me, be it in the past or present. At my current age, I have doctorates in both metallurgy and engineering!
Looking at the beggar, I sighed. People nowadays are really getting more and more idiotic. Seems like you’ve watched way too many shows. You actually dared to use this stupid and overused method to scam little kids of their money. Sadly, you chose a wrong target this time. My brain is way more developed than yours!
“Pui!!!!!!” I spat a mouthful of thick saliva towards the beggar. Right at this moment, he knew that he had it coming for him. Instead of having tears roll down his dirt-stricken face to guilt trip strangers passing by, he had a mouthful of saliva flying towards him with the intent of cleaning his dirty face. Hehehehe. Never would he know that I had so much saliva even though I’m so young. Glancing at the saliva dripping from his chin, I smirked in satisfaction and turned to leave…
“WAIT!” The beggar screamed at my rapidly disappearing figure. I instantly stiffened and stuck rooted to the ground. Whilst turning around slowly, I thought to myself, “What is he up to now? Could it be that he has decided to rob me since he failed his salesman’s pitch? Damn it. Even though I’m a prodigious kid… at the end of the day, I’m still a kid. How can I ever hope to defeat him or escape?”
Unexpectedly, the beggar wasn’t inflamed at all. Looking at me seriously, five or six books magically appeared in his right hand. “I still have many books here. Here’s a bargain for you. Buy one get one free!”
Stunned, I looked at the books he held in his hands with my mouth agape. “Six meridian swords”, “Eighteen subduing dragon palms”, “Art of the nine suns”, “Sunflower scripture”, “Hundred slashing knives”, “Nine lonely swords”.
Holding the 10 dollar note firmly in my hands, my heart skipped a beat. Don’t get me wrong, I still had no interest in the junk he was holding up to me… I was just attracted to those few words he just said: ‘buy one get one free’!
Being under my mother and sister’s tutelage my entire life, I grew up with this principle ingrained in me – no matter the circumstance, once I met with a bargain or an offer, I must rush towards it and obtain it. Buy, buy and buy!
Flicking the money I had been guarding for the past few hours, I snatched two books away from his hands without even glancing at them. Subsequently, I ran away like a gust of wind. Hehehe… Just wait for it… Once my sister and mother hears of me being finally able to buy something on discount, they will get the shock of their lives!
Grinning, the beggar picked up the money from the ground. “Trying to win against me? You are way too green for that. I’ve seen the money you were holding since long ago. Hahahaha… Look, isn’t it in my hands now? HEY! Auntie! Give me 10 steamed buns!”
At the same moment, I was rushing towards home as fast as I could while flipping through the “secret” martial techniques I had bought like a bolt of lightning. Even though they definitely can’t be anything good, at least they were bought in accordance to my tutors’ sayings: Once something is a bargain, it must be bought even if deemed useless!
Hmmm… Seems like the print quality is pretty decent. Heh! HEY WAIT! What’s this small print right at the bottom… West River Printing Company… 3rd edition?! 100,000 books published?! How is this any secret cultivation technique? However, what struck me hardest weren’t any of the above but just these few numbers right at the end… Pricing: 38 cents!
Upon reaching home, I found out that both my mother and sister were out, most likely grabbing more ‘bargains’ back home. With nothing to do and dying of boredom, I only had these two rubbish books to keep me company.
Hmmmm… Interesting… it actually seems quite genuine!
An hour later, I finally crammed the entire contents of both books deep into my brain. ‘Art of the Nine Suns’ weren’t all that much, only about three to four thousand words. To a prodigy like me, all it took to get the information engraved into the depths of my memory forever were just a few fleeting glances!
As for “hundred slashing knives”… heh… it’s way simpler. It just consisted of nine pictures, each depicting one man. The only difference lay in his stance and the explanation below each picture. According to the synopsis of the book, this knife technique combined the essences of all the top knife techniques of this world. It was created by an amazing martial artist named Long Xiangshao and can be considered to be the pinnacle of all martial arts related to knives.
What? You have no idea who Long Xiangshao is? Just go and find any random bookshop, and purchase or borrow a book from the series “Searching for the Qin” from the author Huangying. After reading it, you’ll definitely understand. What are you waiting for?! That book is a legend that can never be missed!
At the same time, in the country’s General’s conference room, over one hundred people stared at a radar with trepidation while a red dot flashed repeatedly.
An asteroid, most likely part of a planet in the past, floated on and on in the boundless space for billions of years. However, its path came too close to Earth and with Earth’s gravity, it drew closer, its speed increasing with each passing second. It could very well lead to the extinction of all life on Earth.
A man in his fifties, with a face full of seriousness, asked depressingly, “How long till the asteroid enters the stratosphere? Also, any updates regarding the blast?”
A ferocious looking male clad in army uniform saluted the man and answered loudly, “30 seconds until the asteroid reaches the stratosphere, missile launch in 10 seconds, sir!”
Nodding his head heavily, the commander continued asking, “How are the chances of the explosion breaking up the asteroid? Will it cause any losses to the general public?”
The captain replied unerringly, “Sir, after the explosion commences, the main body of the asteroid will be disintegrated into countless pieces of debris. Due to the friction caused by air resistance while they are falling from the stratosphere, they will heat up and eventually disappear…”
Nodding his head in satisfaction, the commander called out, “Squadrons 103, 114, 135 and 136, prepare for lift-off immediately. Conduct a search and destroy for all remaining asteroid debris that could cause any damage to the surface of the Earth. Do not, I repeat, do NOT allow any remnant piece of debris to land on the ground!”
“Yes Sir!”
After saluting his commander, the captain turned around cleanly, and ran towards the control panel. He then repeated the commander’s directions into the microphone.
Simultaneously, an asteroid hundreds of kilometres in diameter continued its assault towards Earth from outer space. Surrounding the asteroid were numerous spacecrafts of different designs. All of them were leaving the vicinity of the asteroid, some nearing the speed of light. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the asteroid had been lined with tens of thousands of explosives. On command, this huge piece of rock will be blown up instantaneously, leaving behind small pieces of debris which will eventually be worn down by friction while falling to Earth.
The huge asteroid continued its journey towards the surface of the Earth. In a few seconds, it entered Earth’s atmosphere, causing a sonic boom. Due to the proximity of the asteroid to Earth, the gravitational force acting on it became stronger and stronger. This led to the increase in velocity of the asteroid. Due to the friction with air, the asteroid gradually turned into a gigantic ball of flames!
Concurrently, all of China’s population had their eyes glued to the sky. Right beside the sun appeared a horrific fireball over one hundred times bigger than the sun!
“10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… FIRE!”
In unison with his shout, the commander pressed down violently on the button to fire up the explosives. The red fireball started shimmering, and booming sounds never heard before traveled towards the general population, and caused the ground to shake just like a small earthquake!
In accordance to the calculations done by scientists, the explosives triggered at the same time, and the asteroid shattered into hundreds of millions of rocks before starting to burn up. A moment later, the sky became littered with countless comets streaking towards the Earth. This was a breathtaking spectacle that mesmerised the hearts of the people watching it.
Inside the airbase, sirens started sounding frantically. On the radar, a piece of rock emerged from the core of the asteroid. This weird looking piece of rock was several kilometres wide, plummeting towards the Earth!
Even though the atmosphere was slowly wearing down this piece of rock, one could tell that no matter how fiercely it burns, it’ll definitely impact the ground, and cause a huge calamity!
Numerous aircrafts shot towards the remnant piece of rock, sending missiles after missiles at it. Eventually… this piece of rock was decimated under the combined efforts of all the pilots and disappeared!
Everybody heaved a sigh of relief. However, outside of the radar’s range… a piece of silvery metal continued hurtling towards the ground. Due to its nature, one would be hard pressed to see it with their naked eye.
ζ
I leaned on my window, watching the spectacle in the sky. It’s really too beautiful to be described with words. The sky lit up like an apocalypse with thousands of comet trails that eventually disappeared into nothingness. This scene will be something I’ll never forget!
Suddenly, the sky flickered with silver. I discovered, to my horror, that I had become incapable of movement. Following this, the space around me started to distort, and I lost consciousness!
In a derelict street, an unkempt and freakishly dirty beggar looked at a kid in front of him. The child was roughly 10 years old, holding a lollipop in his hand with snot drooping from his nostrils. The beggar said, “Young brother, I can tell that you are a martial genius just by looking at how clear your bone marrows are. I will now hand over the task of protecting the peace of this world over to you. Look, here’s a book containing a secret cultivation art. Since we are linked via the threads of fate, I’ll sell it to you for just 10 bucks!”
This fellow dripping yellowish snot all over the place… Hehehe… is none other than me! Hmph! Even though I’m just 10 this year, there is nobody smarter than me, be it in the past or present. At my current age, I have doctorates in both metallurgy and engineering!
Looking at the beggar, I sighed. People nowadays are really getting more and more idiotic. Seems like you’ve watched way too many shows. You actually dared to use this stupid and overused method to scam little kids of their money. Sadly, you chose a wrong target this time. My brain is way more developed than yours!
“Pui!!!!!!” I spat a mouthful of thick saliva towards the beggar. Right at this moment, he knew that he had it coming for him. Instead of having tears roll down his dirt-stricken face to guilt trip strangers passing by, he had a mouthful of saliva flying towards him with the intent of cleaning his dirty face. Hehehehe. Never would he know that I had so much saliva even though I’m so young. Glancing at the saliva dripping from his chin, I smirked in satisfaction and turned to leave…
“WAIT!” The beggar screamed at my rapidly disappearing figure. I instantly stiffened and stuck rooted to the ground. Whilst turning around slowly, I thought to myself, “What is he up to now? Could it be that he has decided to rob me since he failed his salesman’s pitch? Damn it. Even though I’m a prodigious kid… at the end of the day, I’m still a kid. How can I ever hope to defeat him or escape?”
Unexpectedly, the beggar wasn’t inflamed at all. Looking at me seriously, five or six books magically appeared in his right hand. “I still have many books here. Here’s a bargain for you. Buy one get one free!”
Stunned, I looked at the books he held in his hands with my mouth agape. “Six meridian swords”, “Eighteen subduing dragon palms”, “Art of the nine suns”, “Sunflower scripture”, “Hundred slashing knives”, “Nine lonely swords”.
Holding the 10 dollar note firmly in my hands, my heart skipped a beat. Don’t get me wrong, I still had no interest in the junk he was holding up to me… I was just attracted to those few words he just said: ‘buy one get one free’!
Being under my mother and sister’s tutelage my entire life, I grew up with this principle ingrained in me – no matter the circumstance, once I met with a bargain or an offer, I must rush towards it and obtain it. Buy, buy and buy!
Flicking the money I had been guarding for the past few hours, I snatched two books away from his hands without even glancing at them. Subsequently, I ran away like a gust of wind. Hehehe… Just wait for it… Once my sister and mother hears of me being finally able to buy something on discount, they will get the shock of their lives!
Grinning, the beggar picked up the money from the ground. “Trying to win against me? You are way too green for that. I’ve seen the money you were holding since long ago. Hahahaha… Look, isn’t it in my hands now? HEY! Auntie! Give me 10 steamed buns!”
At the same moment, I was rushing towards home as fast as I could while flipping through the “secret” martial techniques I had bought like a bolt of lightning. Even though they definitely can’t be anything good, at least they were bought in accordance to my tutors’ sayings: Once something is a bargain, it must be bought even if deemed useless!
Hmmm… Seems like the print quality is pretty decent. Heh! HEY WAIT! What’s this small print right at the bottom… West River Printing Company… 3rd edition?! 100,000 books published?! How is this any secret cultivation technique? However, what struck me hardest weren’t any of the above but just these few numbers right at the end… Pricing: 38 cents!
Upon reaching home, I found out that both my mother and sister were out, most likely grabbing more ‘bargains’ back home. With nothing to do and dying of boredom, I only had these two rubbish books to keep me company.
Hmmmm… Interesting… it actually seems quite genuine!
An hour later, I finally crammed the entire contents of both books deep into my brain. ‘Art of the Nine Suns’ weren’t all that much, only about three to four thousand words. To a prodigy like me, all it took to get the information engraved into the depths of my memory forever were just a few fleeting glances!
As for “hundred slashing knives”… heh… it’s way simpler. It just consisted of nine pictures, each depicting one man. The only difference lay in his stance and the explanation below each picture. According to the synopsis of the book, this knife technique combined the essences of all the top knife techniques of this world. It was created by an amazing martial artist named Long Xiangshao and can be considered to be the pinnacle of all martial arts related to knives.
What? You have no idea who Long Xiangshao is? Just go and find any random bookshop, and purchase or borrow a book from the series “Searching for the Qin” from the author Huangying. After reading it, you’ll definitely understand. What are you waiting for?! That book is a legend that can never be missed!
At the same time, in the country’s General’s conference room, over one hundred people stared at a radar with trepidation while a red dot flashed repeatedly.
An asteroid, most likely part of a planet in the past, floated on and on in the boundless space for billions of years. However, its path came too close to Earth and with Earth’s gravity, it drew closer, its speed increasing with each passing second. It could very well lead to the extinction of all life on Earth.
A man in his fifties, with a face full of seriousness, asked depressingly, “How long till the asteroid enters the stratosphere? Also, any updates regarding the blast?”
A ferocious looking male clad in army uniform saluted the man and answered loudly, “30 seconds until the asteroid reaches the stratosphere, missile launch in 10 seconds, sir!”
Nodding his head heavily, the commander continued asking, “How are the chances of the explosion breaking up the asteroid? Will it cause any losses to the general public?”
The captain replied unerringly, “Sir, after the explosion commences, the main body of the asteroid will be disintegrated into countless pieces of debris. Due to the friction caused by air resistance while they are falling from the stratosphere, they will heat up and eventually disappear…”
Nodding his head in satisfaction, the commander called out, “Squadrons 103, 114, 135 and 136, prepare for lift-off immediately. Conduct a search and destroy for all remaining asteroid debris that could cause any damage to the surface of the Earth. Do not, I repeat, do NOT allow any remnant piece of debris to land on the ground!”
“Yes Sir!”
After saluting his commander, the captain turned around cleanly, and ran towards the control panel. He then repeated the commander’s directions into the microphone.
Simultaneously, an asteroid hundreds of kilometres in diameter continued its assault towards Earth from outer space. Surrounding the asteroid were numerous spacecrafts of different designs. All of them were leaving the vicinity of the asteroid, some nearing the speed of light. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the asteroid had been lined with tens of thousands of explosives. On command, this huge piece of rock will be blown up instantaneously, leaving behind small pieces of debris which will eventually be worn down by friction while falling to Earth.
The huge asteroid continued its journey towards the surface of the Earth. In a few seconds, it entered Earth’s atmosphere, causing a sonic boom. Due to the proximity of the asteroid to Earth, the gravitational force acting on it became stronger and stronger. This led to the increase in velocity of the asteroid. Due to the friction with air, the asteroid gradually turned into a gigantic ball of flames!
Concurrently, all of China’s population had their eyes glued to the sky. Right beside the sun appeared a horrific fireball over one hundred times bigger than the sun!
“10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… FIRE!”
In unison with his shout, the commander pressed down violently on the button to fire up the explosives. The red fireball started shimmering, and booming sounds never heard before traveled towards the general population, and caused the ground to shake just like a small earthquake!
In accordance to the calculations done by scientists, the explosives triggered at the same time, and the asteroid shattered into hundreds of millions of rocks before starting to burn up. A moment later, the sky became littered with countless comets streaking towards the Earth. This was a breathtaking spectacle that mesmerised the hearts of the people watching it.
Inside the airbase, sirens started sounding frantically. On the radar, a piece of rock emerged from the core of the asteroid. This weird looking piece of rock was several kilometres wide, plummeting towards the Earth!
Even though the atmosphere was slowly wearing down this piece of rock, one could tell that no matter how fiercely it burns, it’ll definitely impact the ground, and cause a huge calamity!
Numerous aircrafts shot towards the remnant piece of rock, sending missiles after missiles at it. Eventually… this piece of rock was decimated under the combined efforts of all the pilots and disappeared!
Everybody heaved a sigh of relief. However, outside of the radar’s range… a piece of silvery metal continued hurtling towards the ground. Due to its nature, one would be hard pressed to see it with their naked eye.
ζ
I leaned on my window, watching the spectacle in the sky. It’s really too beautiful to be described with words. The sky lit up like an apocalypse with thousands of comet trails that eventually disappeared into nothingness. This scene will be something I’ll never forget!
Suddenly, the sky flickered with silver. I discovered, to my horror, that I had become incapable of movement. Following this, the space around me started to distort, and I lost consciousness!
