A New Beginning

Luo Zhiyuan woke from the chaos once again. He slowly tried to sense the state of the twins' souls and whether his body had recovered. Gradually, he sensed two familiar presences very close by. Oh, it was those twin troublemakers. They seemed fine. What a relief.

His awareness stretched out again. Hmm, this feeling... it should be the feeling of having a body. There didn't seem to be any damage; his torso and limbs were intact. Good. Thank goodness no major disaster had occurred. It would have been one thing if he'd died, but he would also have left Luo Feng without an heir. That would have been a terrible sin. After all, in the world of Swallowed Star, these were Luo Feng's only two sons.

Wait, why were the three of them sharing one body?

Before he could figure out what was going on, an irresistible force began to merge Luo Zhiyuan's soul with the twins' souls, blending them together.

Luo Zhiyuan was completely terrified, but he couldn't resist. All he could do was keep muttering, Please don't let this kill me. I just got a new body, and I haven't even done anything yet. There's a whole wonderful world waiting for me to explore...

One hour...

Two hours...

The next morning, Luo Zhiyuan woke up once again. All right, once again. This time, he realized he was truly awake because his eyes were open.

It felt as though centuries had passed since he'd last seen the world with his own eyes. Before he could even marvel at how beautiful the world was, a flood of memories poured into his mind.

First came the twins' memories. They had coexisted inside their new bodies, sharing one body and communicating with each other. All of those memories, along with their emotions, were transmitted to Luo Zhiyuan in one go.

Then a mysterious pressure, as if it had come from some distant horizon, appeared in Luo Zhiyuan's heart. He felt an imposing, solemn spiritual pressure that made him feel he wasn't even an ant in its presence—at best, he was a speck of dust.

This mysterious pressure sent Luo Zhiyuan some Inheritance Memory, letting him know that he now had something of a cheat ability. Deep within his soul, he had gained three Innate Secret Techniques: Soul Fusion, External Incarnation, and Flowing Time. They were, respectively, a Combat Secret Technique, a life-saving technique, and a cultivation technique.

Luo Zhiyuan roughly sorted through these memories. He still didn't understand the details of the three Innate Secret Techniques, but he had a general idea. He would have to experiment a few times to figure them out. But why did he have Innate Secret Techniques? Weren't they usually found only among the extremely rare races and Special Lifeforms in the universe? Those lifeforms were favored by the Origin Law of the Universe. Since there were so few of them, the Origin Law of the Universe granted them secret techniques to help them survive.

Could it be that after I transmigrated, the Origin Law of the Universe noticed me and realized I was a unique lifeform in this universe, so it granted me Innate Secret Techniques to give me a few more ways to save my life? Strictly speaking, I should be the only transmigrator in this universe, right? I can't figure it out. I'll think about it later. At least I'm the one benefiting.

Luo Zhiyuan suddenly remembered that he had already been forced to perform Soul Fusion once. He had simply fused away the souls of Luo Feng's two sons. Soul Fusion created a Soul Space in his sea of consciousness. Once the other soul was drawn inside, any soul weaker than his would fuse with him directly. Souls of equal or greater strength could also be destroyed and devoured by other means.

Soul Fusion would strengthen his Spiritual Force and consciousness, and he could choose to take on the other person's memories and emotions. He had acquired all the twins' memories and feelings, which gave him a genuine sense of guilt toward Luo Feng and Xu Xin.

Although Luo Zhiyuan hadn't deliberately killed their sons, the two little ones' souls had indeed vanished. So he chose to keep all the memories and emotions of those two young souls and incorporate them into his own. In doing so, he came to regard Luo Feng and Xu Xin as his family. He then accepted the two people, who were still strangers to him, with a sense of relief. Of course, he didn't think of them as his parents—at best, they were his foster dad and mom.

Luo Zhiyuan was somewhat relieved that, through a twist of fate, his name was still Luo Zhiyuan. Otherwise, being called Pingping or Xiaohai would have been awkward. His father had given him that name years ago, saying it was in tribute to the Zhiyuan. As it turned out, he really had died in that other world. His father's words had become a prophecy.

Before long, Luo Zhiyuan started worrying again. He found that he couldn't control his body properly. He clearly wanted to sit up, but halfway through, he toppled to the side and hit his nose. He hadn't wanted to cry. Really, he hadn't. It was just that this body had started crying on its own.

Luo Feng quickly appeared beside him. One look told him Luo Zhiyuan had hit his nose, and he mercilessly started laughing at him.

"Oh, dear, our Little Zhiyuan is already one year old. Why does he still cry so easily? Aren't you embarrassed? Ha ha!"

Luo Zhiyuan looked at Luo Feng with tears in his eyes, wanting to say he hadn't meant to cry. But the moment he opened his mouth, he cried even louder. It was all because this body wouldn't listen to him!

Xu Xin soon came over too. Seeing Luo Feng teasing Little Zhiyuan, she rolled her eyes at him and hurried to pick the boy up. As she walked, she said, "There, there, Little Zhiyuan, don't cry. You'll look funny if your nose gets all crooked. Since Dad won't comfort us, let's punish him by making him cook breakfast!" Luo Feng could only pinch his nose and accept his fate.

After a terrible breakfast, Luo Feng carried Luo Zhiyuan to the grass in the community garden to do some physical training. After nearly three months of conditioning, Little Zhiyuan's physique was already excellent. He would probably reach the Martial Artist level—the Apprentice level—in another two months. A Martial Artist just over one year old would surely make plenty of Earthlings' jaws drop.

Luo Zhiyuan tried hard to control his body. After getting used to holding a spoon and chopsticks at breakfast, he could now just about keep himself from making any serious mistakes. Following Luo Feng's instructions, he started with some stretching, then did some leg stretches, and finally began a game of chasing a ball.

Yes, it was the sort of game people played with cats and dogs. But Luo Feng was controlling the ball with Spiritual Force, making it roll erratically across the grass while Luo Zhiyuan chased after it.

Luo Zhiyuan had lost count of how many times he'd rolled his eyes at Luo Feng. If this didn't help him get better at controlling his body, with Luo Feng making the ball impossible to catch, he'd have ignored him and let him play by himself!

After nearly an hour, Luo Zhiyuan was fairly familiar with his body—though only after taking quite a few falls. He was drenched in sweat and covered in grass. No matter how good his physique was, he was still a child, and his stamina was limited. So he flopped onto the ground and started playing possum, refusing to get up.

Luo Feng decided they'd trained long enough. Seeing Little Zhiyuan drenched in sweat, he let him get away with it.

As he lay on the ground, Luo Zhiyuan suddenly thought of something. He still didn't know what year it was. From the twins' fuzzy memories, he only knew he was over one year old. He didn't know how far the story had progressed, either. That was bad. Earth was still in for a lot of trouble around this time!

Luo Zhiyuan rolled over, got up, and walked over to Luo Feng. Slightly out of breath, he asked, "Dad... what... year is it? I mean... when's my... birthday?"

"Ha ha! What's wrong? You just had your birthday yesterday, and you're asking when it is today? It's a long way off. Did you not get enough cake yesterday? No worries, there's still some at home. You can have more when we get back!"

"Okay, I want to eat lots." So his first birthday had been yesterday? That meant Luo Feng hadn't left Earth yet. If he remembered correctly, Luo Feng's first trip away from Earth, to Mars, would be in winter. Great! Now that he knew the timeline, he could plan things out.

Over the next few days, Luo Zhiyuan endured all sorts of teasing from Luo Feng—including chasing the ball. Well... it counted as exercise, he supposed. At the same time, he settled into the Luo Family more and more, and whenever he had a spare moment, he tried to recall what troubles were coming to Earth in the near future.

Hmm... first, Luo Feng would go to Mars before the end of the year and make a small fortune. Then, next spring, Hong and Thunder God would awaken and cultivate with Luo Feng. Once he turned two, Luo Feng would reach an alien civilization's planet for the first time and make his first close contact with a civilization from the universe. Then, on November 23, 2062, the first group of alien explorers would arrive on Earth—and they wouldn't mean well.

Although Luo Feng handled Earth's first close encounter with aliens without much trouble, the second group, arriving three months later, would cause major problems and throw the whole world into chaos. Once that crisis was over, Earth would be free of major troubles for a while.

That meant he had nearly a year and a half. Luo Zhiyuan planned to cultivate as quickly as possible during that time, so he could at least defend himself. Otherwise, if something happened and the cosmic slaves Luo Feng had bought didn't get him to the survival base in time, he'd be in grave danger. Luo Zhiyuan didn't want to get himself killed.

But how could he become strong enough to defend himself within a year and a half? There wasn't enough time! He hadn't even reached the Martial Artist level yet. Time... right, the Innate Secret Technique Flowing Time was a cultivation technique. He didn't know how well it worked, but he could try it.

He decided to act on the idea. During a nap, when no adults were watching, Luo Zhiyuan used Flowing Time on himself for the first time in his bedroom.

A wondrous sensation flashed through Luo Zhiyuan's heart. It was hard to describe accurately. It was as if the whole world had slowed down. Even the curtains swaying in the breeze were moving more slowly, and he could clearly see them rise and fall bit by bit.

But when he tried to move, he found that he had slowed down too, though not as much as the outside world. It was a strange contradiction. It seemed that only his mental awareness was unaffected.

Then an insight came to him: his physical fitness was too poor. Once his body reached Planetary Level, his movements would be able to keep up with his mind. Then he could use Flowing Time to speed up his own passage of time and gain more time to cultivate. According to his Inheritance Memory, the flow of time could only be accelerated by up to ten times, but that would be enough.

Flowing Time lasted for about a minute before it stopped on its own, because Luo Zhiyuan's body didn't have enough energy to sustain it. He felt utterly exhausted, completely drained, and short of breath. A splitting headache came on too. Just as he started to panic, a surge of energy welled up from deep in his mind and began nourishing his entire body.

This... could it be Spiritual Force? Had I awakened my Spiritual Force? Luo Zhiyuan couldn't move at all. All he could do was feel the energy coming from his mind as it transformed and strengthened his body.

His body continued to evolve under the effects of the energy. He couldn't speak or move, and he only occasionally twitched or showed signs of blood seeping through his skin. He also let out a few faint moans without meaning to.

Luo Feng, who was chatting with his family in the next room, was the first to notice something. Thinking Little Zhiyuan had woken up, he went to check. Instead, he saw the boy drenched in sweat, with blood seeping through his skin.

Alarmed, he immediately called for Babata to take a look. After scanning Little Zhiyuan's body for a while, Babata said cheerfully to Luo Feng, "Well, well, this little guy of yours really is gifted. He's awakening his Spiritual Force at just one year old. Don't worry. It's his first awakening, and he's undergoing a cleansing of his body to improve his physical fitness. It's a good thing. After this, he should reach the Apprentice level and be able to start cultivating properly. Not bad, not bad. He's got a bright future ahead of him. Ha ha!"

Luo Feng relaxed when he heard that and stayed by his side. The rest of the Luo Family came over too. Once Luo Feng explained what was happening, they stopped worrying.

About two hours later, Luo Zhiyuan's body finished evolving. He knew what had happened, but as a one-year-old child, he couldn't act too strangely. He turned to Luo Feng and asked, "Dad, what happened to me?"

Luo Feng smiled and thought for a moment. He figured a little kid probably wouldn't understand anything about awakening Spiritual Force, so he decided to make something up. "It's nothing. You were dreaming in your sleep and got all sweaty. Come on, let's get you cleaned up before your mom comes home and says you stink."

A dream, my foot! All right, since Luo Feng wasn't saying anything, Luo Zhiyuan didn't ask either. He answered with an "oh" and went to take a bath with him.

While they were bathing, Luo Feng told Little Zhiyuan, "Zhiyuan, you can start cultivating now. You always envy the way I can fly, don't you? Once you start cultivating, you'll be able to fly just like me."

Oh? That was good news. He'd known awakening Spiritual Force would improve his physical fitness, but he hadn't expected it to bring him straight to the Martial Artist Apprentice level. He'd saved two months. Not bad.

Luo Zhiyuan immediately put on an excited expression. "Really? That's great! I want to start cultivating right away so I can fly as soon as possible. Then I can go out and play by myself." Acting like a kid was exhausting...

During the bath, Luo Zhiyuan managed to break a few things. The reason? His newly strengthened body was out of his control again.

After that, Luo Feng went back to teasing Little Zhiyuan—well, exercising him, so to speak. While helping him get used to his body as quickly as possible, he also began teaching Luo Zhiyuan the basics of cultivation: how to absorb universal energy, how to convert it into his own gene-origin energy, the Guidance Technique, and all sorts of other cultivation tips. However, these weren't the cultivation methods used on Earth. They were the cultivation techniques of the Yunmo Star Lineage that Babata had found. Babata had decided to find Luo Feng a junior fellow disciple—his son—and that had kept him delighted for days!