Changing Fate

Chen Fei's joy had not yet faded when a thought suddenly surfaced. The original owner's memories had vaguely mentioned that martial arts inheritances existed in this world, and that the most basic realm seemed to be called the Skin Refining Realm.

At advanced stages, it could not only strengthen the body and improve health, but even ordinary street thugs would be unable to get near you.

If this panel could let him cultivate to the Skin Refining Realm, then not only would he have a better chance against the Sea Shark Gang, but he would also have a little more confidence in saving enough money to redeem his registration.

The torrential rain outside continued to patter without pause as night gradually descended.

Chen Yue lay on his hard plank bed. Perhaps because the technique was taking effect, he became hungry especially quickly today. He had gnawed on half a bran cake that afternoon, yet his stomach was already growling again. Still, his body felt unusually light, and much of the sluggish heaviness left behind by drowning had faded.

Chen Yue summoned the panel.

[Wave-Turning Breathing Technique (Fourth Layer 79/10000)

Realm: Martial Apprentice (1/100)]

The realm was newly displayed on the panel. According to the original owner's memories, it should have been the realm of those who had yet to become Skin Refining Realm martial artists.

Also, the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique Chen Yue knew only went as far as the third layer. The proficiency required for the first three layers was 100, 500, and 1,000 respectively.

Chen Yue had thought cultivation would stop after the third layer, since there was simply no method for further cultivation. It was not that the third layer was the limit; rather, the old Pearl Household had only taught the first three layers.

Yet this panel had somehow accomplished the impossible, continuing to cultivate toward a fourth layer for which no cultivation method existed. The only difference was that the required proficiency had surged to 10,000.

From time to time, Father Chen's suppressed groans drifted from the inner room. Mixed with the sound of rain outside the window, they pierced Chen Yue's heart like needles.

The next day, the torrential rain still showed no signs of stopping. Pearl Village lay beneath a pall of gloom. Every household had its doors tightly shut, and the occasional sigh was swallowed by the rain.

The Pearl Tax was drawing closer and closer. With no way to go out to sea and gather pearls, everyone was like ants on a hot griddle. Chen Yue remained at home. Apart from helping his mother tend the fire and changing his father's herbal medicine, he spent all his remaining time cultivating the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique.

[Wave-Turning Breathing Technique (Fifth Layer 2899/100000)

Realm: Martial Apprentice (5/100)]

The fourth layer of the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique had long since been completed, and the panel had directly advanced to the fifth layer, with the required proficiency surging once more.

Based on the insights granted by the first four layers, Chen Fei judged that the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique probably had only five layers in total.

Fortunately, the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique had been simplified into breathing. Though the proficiency requirements looked outrageous, they actually increased extremely quickly. Even with 100,000 proficiency needed, he estimated that he could finish cultivating the fifth layer in four or five days. He simply did not know what changes would appear then.

The most obvious changes Chen Yue experienced came from the Martial Apprentice realm. Even in this cold, damp weather, he could not feel the slightest chill. Even the old hidden injuries lingering in his body seemed to be slowly improving.

On the morning of the third day, when the rooster crowed for the first time, the rain that had pounded down all night finally stopped.

Chen Yue pushed open the creaking wooden door. A salty, fishy sea breeze carrying fine sand rushed into his face. In the distance, the sea still heaved with ink-black waves, their crests smashing against the reefs and shattering into a vast whiteness of foam.

Yet Pearl Village had already grown lively. Shouts and the clatter of oars mingled together. Many men, carrying pearl-gathering knives polished bright with use, hurried toward the shore in little boats patched atop patches. Only seven days remained until the Pearl Tax. If they did not go to sea now, the Pearl Official would truly drag them away to fill in the sea.

"Yue, how about... we try our luck in the shallows?" Father Chen leaned against the headboard, watching the activity outside. His right hand unconsciously rubbed his swollen, shiny right leg, and his voice was full of conflict.

He feared something might happen to his son, but he also worried over the Pearl Tax hanging above their heads. Wang entered carrying a bowl of freshly heated wild vegetable porridge. The bowl trembled in her hands, yet she did not urge Chen Yue as she usually did. She merely said softly, "Eat something hot first. The waves are so high. Even the shallows aren't safe."

Chen Yue pushed the bowl of porridge toward his father and took a bite of the rock-hard bran cake himself. "Father, Mother, wait a little longer. The waves haven't settled, and the underwater currents are chaotic. Going now would be gambling with our lives."

As he spoke, he walked to the corner and sat down, resting his hands naturally on his knees as he sank his breath into his abdomen and drew in qi according to the secrets of the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique.

The rise and fall of his abdomen grew steadily more even, like the tides by the sea. With every breath, he could feel a cool current slipping down his throat, soothing his torso and spreading warmth through all four limbs.

That day, apart from helping his mother carry water and changing the salve made from mashed seaweed and herbs on his father's wound, Chen Yue spent all his time cultivating.

When the midnight watch drum sounded from the village entrance, Chen Yue summoned the panel.

The numbers on it made his eyes light up. The Wave-Turning Breathing Technique had risen from Fifth Layer 2899/100000 to 18325/100000. Slow, but steady.

What delighted him most was his martial cultivation: Martial Apprentice 12/100. That was 7 points more progress than when he had checked during the day.

With his breathing, a warm current spread from his dantian through his limbs and bones. Chen Yue could not help stretching, and his joints gave off faint crackling sounds.

He touched his cheek. The sickly pallor he had always worn had faded somewhat, and even the calluses on his palms seemed to have softened. The Wave-Turning Breathing Technique truly had remarkable effects in strengthening the body and improving health.

The days passed amid cultivation and waiting. In the blink of an eye, only four days remained until the Pearl Tax. At last, the sea calmed, its azure waters so clear that the sand beneath could be seen.

Just as dawn began to break, Father Chen endured the pain and climbed out of bed. He tightly wrapped strips of cloth around his injured right leg. Cold sweat seeped from his forehead, but he smiled and said, "Father will take you to West Bay. I often went there when I was young. There are many Pearl Mother Shells there, and the currents are steady."

The little boat was an old heirloom passed down through two generations of the Chen family. Its bottom had been patched with three layers of tung-oil cloth, yet it still creaked as it moved.

Chen Yue stood at the stern and looked down at the panel. The values were now worlds apart from before: Wave-Turning Breathing Technique, Fifth Layer; Martial Apprentice 33/100.

Ever since the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique reached the fifth layer, his Martial Apprentice progress had increased rapidly every day, leaping from around 7 points daily to 10. The old injuries on his body had long since healed as well.

But this was accompanied by a tremendous consumption of food. He could eat three bran cakes and two bowls of porridge in a single meal, and the family's meager food stores were visibly nearing exhaustion.

The saying that scholars were impoverished while martial artists were wealthy was not false in the least. Without silver to support it, even practicing martial arts became a luxury beyond reach.

"Don't try to act tough once you're in the water,"

Father Chen sat at the bow steering the boat. The oar cut through the seawater, leaving behind a slender trail. "If your chest feels tight, pull the rope three times. Father will definitely pull you up."

As he spoke, he took a cloth-wrapped item from his clothes and handed it to Chen Yue. It was half a wheat cake wrapped in oiled paper, the last of the family's fine grain, originally saved to nourish Father Chen's body.

Chen Yue's eyes grew hot. He stuffed the wheat cake back into his father's arms. "Father, you eat it. I'm not hungry."

He tied a coarse hemp rope around his waist, its other end firmly secured to an iron ring on the deck. Taking a deep breath, he held it long and deep, far beyond the limit an ordinary person could endure.

Chen Yue leaped forward with a splash into the sea. The icy water instantly enveloped him, yet he did not feel the suffocating pressure in his chest that he remembered.

Following the secrets of the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique, Chen Yue sank his breath into his abdomen and drew in qi. His body descended steadily, as though filled with lead.

Sunlight streamed through the seawater, casting mottled shadows across the sandy seabed. Palm-sized Pearl Mother Shells sat embedded in the cracks between reefs, clearly visible. He searched swiftly and skillfully. The instant his fingertips touched a shell's patterns, he could tell whether it contained a pearl. This was a skill left behind by the original owner, and now, combined with the keen touch granted by the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique, his efficiency had increased severalfold.

On the boat, Father Chen stared fixedly at the rope. With every passing moment, his heart sank a little deeper.

Father Chen knew exactly how long Chen Yue could normally stay underwater, but the expected time had nearly come and the rope remained utterly motionless.

Father Chen's face instantly turned pale. He hurried to the side of the boat and reached down to pull the rope. At once, a responding tug came from the other end, accompanied by a gentle shake.

Father Chen let out a breath of relief, tears nearly falling from his eyes. But he did not dare delay, using all his strength to pull his son upward.

"Cough, cough..."

Chen Yue surfaced, spat out the seawater in his mouth, and raised two heavy Pearl Mother Shells in his hands. Slippery wet seaweed still clung to their shells. "Father, we've got a catch!"

He wiped the water from his face and explained with a smile, "I've gained something from practicing the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique lately, so I can stay underwater a little longer."

Father Chen froze, then remembered this method that the villagers had forgotten. In those years, the Pearl Households whose lives were somewhat better off had indeed mostly learned a few tricks from this breathing technique.

A long-lost smile appeared on his face, and even the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes relaxed. "Good lad! Get up here and rest. Have some hot water!"

After resting briefly, Chen Yue entered the water again.

This time, he dove deeper and searched a broader area. By the time the sun slanted westward, more than twenty Pearl Mother Shells had piled up in the boat's hold.

After prying them open, they found one round, medium-grade pearl resting inside. It was the size of a fingernail and gleamed a lustrous white, good merchandise that could be handed in directly for the Pearl Tax. There were also five inferior pearls. Though small, they could still be exchanged for some money.

Not only was it enough to pay the Pearl Tax in full, there would even be some left over.

On the return journey, the setting sun dyed the sea gold and crimson.

Father Chen rowed the boat and hummed a fishing song from his youth, his voice hoarse yet lighthearted.

Chen Yue sat at the stern, carefully putting the pearls into a cloth bundle as he calculated in his heart: first pay the Pearl Tax, then exchange the remaining pearls for some rice and herbs, and buy Father and Mother each a thick coat.

This winter, they would no longer have to suffer the cold.