February 3, Magic City, Beiding District.
"Ugh~ That hurts a little."
Lu Hao slowly opened his eyes, aching all over, and looked around.
He was sitting cross-legged in a clean room, bare-chested, with blood seeping from numerous wounds.
Where was he?
He'd gone to bed like usual. How had he woken up covered in blood?
Had he been kidnapped and taken for human experimentation?
Wait.
Lu Hao suddenly grinned. He thought he knew what was going on.
He had to be dreaming. The dream just felt a little too real.
So Lu Hao raised a hand, pinched his thigh, and twisted it a hundred and eighty degrees.
Ten seconds passed before Lu Hao reached a conclusion: this wasn't a dream.
It hurt so much. It had never hurt this badly before.
The pain felt so real!
It hurt so much.
Lu Hao rubbed his thigh. His already injured body had just taken another blow.
Was he in some kind of sealed room, hurting himself?
Even if he wanted to hurt himself, he wouldn't do it like this, bleeding all over.
Had he poisoned himself?
That didn't seem likely either.
Even Conan would need a hundred episodes to figure this one out.
As Lu Hao wondered what to do, a wave of drowsiness washed over him.
He couldn't sleep. He absolutely couldn't sleep.
If he fell asleep, he might never wake up again.
Lu Hao warned himself not to fall asleep. If he did, he'd be going straight to his grave.
He steeled himself and gritted his teeth.
Lu Hao twisted his thigh another hundred and eighty degrees.
But it was no use. The drowsiness seemed to come from his soul, and he couldn't resist it or force himself to stay awake.
Before long, Lu Hao fell asleep.
Even as he drifted off, his right hand remained twisted around his thigh.
Lu Hao felt as though he'd returned to his mother's womb.
Safe, warm, comfortable.
Cut off from all the turmoil and noise of the outside world, he was surrounded by endless peace and tranquility.
In the boundless chaos, Lu Hao sensed something approaching and merging with his body.
Just then, a stream of memories came to him: memories belonging to another Lu Hao, a person with the same name.
Like watching a movie, Lu Hao witnessed this "Lu Hao's" entire life. At the same time, he felt the other man's emotions.
Time meant nothing in the chaos. An unknown amount of time passed.
The chaos slowly faded, and the aches and pains returned.
Lu Hao opened his eyes and found himself back in the familiar yet strange training room. Guided by his memories, he took a jade bottle from a nearby cabinet.
He poured out a pill and swallowed it. The pill had a fragrant, herbal aroma. After taking it, he felt energy rise from his abdomen and repair his wounds.
He also felt a slight tingling. Before his eyes, the bleeding stopped, and the wounds began to scab over.
Seeing how effective the pill was, Lu Hao was amazed, even though he'd learned about it from his memories. At the same time, the future filled him with anxiety.
According to his memories, martial artists existed in this world, along with all kinds of martial arts universities. The closest was Magic City Martial Arts University, where his older brother was a student.
Martial artists were revered by countless people. Their Vital Blood was measured in units called cards, and the Minister of Education was Zhang Tao, a Grandmaster martial artist.
At this point in his recollections, some well-read veterans of web fiction would already know where he was.
High martial arts, Vital Blood, cards, Magic Martial University, Zhang Tao...
Put those together, and you got: "subway, old man, cellphone.jpg."
This was the world of the famous Global Martial Arts.
It was also a world no transmigrator wanted to end up in. The Three Realms were a giant chessboard, and everyone was being raised like Gu. The story would end in just over three years—less than four.
When he'd read the novel, he'd found it thrilling. He'd only thought the timeline was too short, but he'd enjoyed the story and hadn't felt much else.
Only after arriving in this world did he feel the despair. The decisive battle was just over three years away. Not everyone was Fang Ping, capable of reaching Rank 3 in a year and Rank 9 in three.
This damn world!
Lu Hao was only a bit-part character in the original story. If he hadn't transmigrated, he might already have died trying to temper his bones a second time.
Three years. There were only three years left.
Should he hide until Fang Ping settled everything?
The original ending was great, but that was how things had gone in the original story. Now that Lu Hao was here, what if he caused even the slightest butterfly effect? What if Fang Ping failed to grow strong enough?
He couldn't rely on others. He could only rely on himself.
As his injuries healed, Lu Hao tried to figure out what to do about the future.
In his previous life, he'd been a wage slave struggling at the bottom of society. He could have died in his sleep without anyone noticing.
Now, he'd failed to temper his bones a second time by forcing the process. That meant his martial arts talent wasn't especially good; he'd already failed on his second bone tempering attempt. Still, it wasn't a big deal. With enough resources, he could continue training.
His family was considerably better off than Fang Ping's. He could say he came from a martial artist family, and they could give him quite a bit of help.
Lu Hao's father, Lu Jingxuan, was a Grandmaster who was away for work most of the time. He only came home once or twice a year, and the original Lu Hao didn't know what his father did.
Now, Lu Hao had a guess. His father was probably guarding an Earth Cave somewhere, which was why he could only return once or twice a year.
As for Lu Hao's mother, she was a Rank 5 martial artist and the director of the Detective Bureau in Beiding District, where they lived. The Detective Bureau was a law-enforcement agency that dealt specifically with martial artists.
Lu Hao had grown up with his mother by his side. His father, on the other hand, was rarely home, and the original Lu Hao had resented him quite a bit.
But the Lu Hao of now felt no resentment. His father was a Grandmaster guarding an Earth Cave for the sake of the Human Race. That was what it meant to be a Grandmaster.
If the short timeline was the downside of the Global Martial Arts world, then its upside was its ideals and convictions.
The strong protected the weak. Absolute Peak warriors had guarded Sea-Guarding Mountain for a hundred years. They would rather die standing than live on their knees.
The martial arts world here could be called the warmest and most peaceful of any world. There was none of that backstabbing and scheming. Even if there were a few flaws, they didn't detract from the whole.
Under Zhang Tao's leadership, the martial arts world had a strong, united spirit and stood together against outside threats. It felt like a warm home.
Zhang Tao welcomed everyone who fought for humanity. It was thanks to Zhang Tao that the martial arts world had become so prosperous, and that it had retained its humanity.
The title of Human Emperor and leader of the Human Realm wasn't just for show.
As for Lu Hao's older brother, Lu Tianbai, he had died in battle last September. The school's explanation was that he'd been killed by Evil Cult martial artists while fighting them during his breakthrough to Rank 3. His mother had stuck to the same story.
But now Lu Hao understood. It hadn't been the Evil Cult at all. His brother had probably broken through to Rank 3 and entered an Earth Cave, where he'd encountered enemies and died in battle.
The original Lu Hao had pushed himself so hard to temper his bones a second time because of his brother's death. His older brother had been a rare talent who'd tempered his bones twice.
The school and his mother had given him the same explanation, but the original Lu Hao had noticed plenty of things that didn't add up.
That was why the original Lu Hao had tried to temper his bones a second time and get into Magic Martial University, so he could find out how his brother had really died. But he'd overestimated himself, ruptured his meridians, and died.
After absorbing the original Lu Hao's memories, Lu Hao had developed a strong attachment to his late brother.
In the future, he would take the same path and fight against the Earth Caves. One day, he would wipe out the Magic City Abyss and avenge his brother.
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