Li Hai's soul was submerged in an endless void, drifting aimlessly up and down.
He couldn't remember at all how long he had been drifting through this boundless, lightless realm.
He could only vaguely recall the last thing he'd seen before falling into it... A huge truck hurtling straight toward him.
"So..."
Li Hai murmured dazedly, "My life ended in a car accident?"
At the thought, he—always as hot-tempered as a flame—couldn't help cursing furiously, even with his mind still hazy:
"Which bastard drank too much dog piss and drove without looking where he was going? Just let me turn into a ghost, and I'll make sure you pay for it..."
Just as Li Hai grew more and more incensed, cursing under his breath, an impatient voice suddenly came from the far reaches of the void:
"Doctor Zou, do you think this brat's going to make it?"
The voice sounded both very far away and very close.
"Who's talking?! Brat... Who are they talking about?"
Li Hai's muddled mind stirred a little. "That sounds like Mandarin, but the accent... It's got a bit of a Cantonese flavor."
Before he could think any further, another voice, old and frail, came drifting from afar:
"Steward Liu, don't worry. This little beggar must have been frightened out of his wits by something nasty in the mountains and passed out. Once he drinks this calming and heart-nourishing decoction of mine and sleeps through the night, he's sure to wake up."
"Another voice. A beggar... Could they be talking about me?"
For some reason, Li Hai, adrift in the boundless void, felt... as if that voice was talking about him.
So he asked in bewilderment, "What's going on? Wasn't I already dead? How did I become a beggar?"
A faint suspicion took shape in Li Hai's mind.
Could he have... transmigrated?
Into someone else's body?
Another voice came from the far reaches of the void:
"As long as he wakes up, that's good. The master still wants to see him."
After those words, no other sounds came.
At the same time, Li Hai's mind quickly grew hazy again, and in an instant, he sank into a deathlike slumber.
Much later, a warmth suddenly appeared, enveloping Li Hai's consciousness.
Then, after a tremor that started faint and grew stronger, his hazy mind abruptly cleared.
The misty void swirling all around him vanished with a whoosh, like a dream or a bubble bursting.
Then a dim oil lamp, a bed, a door, a table, and a stool came into view through Li Hai's slowly opening, bleary eyes.
He lay on the bed; the table and stool stood beside it; the oil lamp sat on the tabletop; and the doorway was three steps from the foot of the bed.
Surrounding them all were four dirty, mottled, yellow earthen walls.
"I..."
Li Hai, lying on the bed, struggled to raise his two skinny hands, like chicken claws. Staring wide-eyed in bewilderment, he said, "How did I... end up looking like a scrawny dog? Could it be... I really transmigrated? And into a dead body, at that?"
At last, he was certain that he had probably transmigrated.
He was so sure because he had never been this thin or weak in his entire life.
Ever since he could remember, he had been a born powerhouse.
Even if all he ate was white rice and cold boiled water, he'd put on both fat and muscle like crazy.
So all his life, Li Hai had been big, burly, and stout. He was always the one bullying other people, and no one could ever bully him.
Even after he grew up, Li Hai's work had remained closely tied to one thing: meat.
That was, selling pork.
That's right. Before transmigrating, he'd been a bona fide pork vendor at a wet market.
Just then, a mysterious, searing current suddenly exploded deep within Li Hai's soul.
Boom—
As a violent tremor surged through his entire body, an extremely crude, illusory interface abruptly appeared before his eyes.
At the very top of the interface were eight bold black characters:
[Study Hard and Make Progress Every Day]
Below those eight black characters were a few brief lines of information—
Host Name: Li Hai
Level Rank: None
Skills Owned: None
Trait Entries: None
Stronger Fragment: None
"Got it!"
Li Hai, bedridden and sickly, grinned. "This must be the legendary [System]."
Though he was an ordinary pork vendor with little education, Li Hai had still read hundreds of web novels, so he knew that a system was standard equipment for transmigrators.
But... what exactly did this mysterious system called [Study Hard and Make Progress Every Day] do?
Could it let him add points to his stats? Travel through the myriad realms? Or spin a wheel for a grand prize?
"I have a rough idea what levels and skills mean, but what are these trait entries and fragments?"
As Li Hai pondered the question, a short, chubby old man with white hair and beard suddenly pushed open the door, walked into the earthen house, and headed for the bedside.
As soon as the old man came close, his pair of aged eyes met Li Hai's curious gaze.
"Oh? You're awake."
The old man grinned. "Good, good. You were only out for half the night, and your soul has already returned to your body. You're full of energy, too. Looks like my medicinal decoction still works wonders. Hmm... I'd better let Steward Liu know."
With that, he slowly walked toward the door.
Li Hai paid no attention to the old man leaving.
The moment the chubby old man appeared in his field of vision, an illusory information interface immediately materialized in his mind—
Character Name: Unknown
Level Rank: None
Skills Owned: Five Animals Qigong
Trait Entries: None
Stronger Fragment: None
Curiously, when Li Hai fixed his gaze on the qigong listed in the old man's skill column, it immediately expanded to reveal a large amount of information:
"Five Animals Qigong has three levels in total. This character has mastered all three. Learn this technique—Yes/No?"
Curious, he chose to learn it without really understanding what he was doing.
Vrrm—
In an instant, a vast amount of written information surged into Li Hai's mind from nowhere.
And, incredibly, he understood the meaning of these unfamiliar messages completely in a single moment.
In other words, Li Hai had merely glanced at the old man and instantly learned the technique he practiced, without the slightest difficulty.
And it wasn't some superficial, half-baked learning. It was as if he'd studied and pondered it hundreds or thousands of times, until it had soaked into his very bones.
As for the technique itself, it could be summed up as taking the tiger, deer, bear, ape, and crane as one's teachers and learning to imitate their movements.
Through years of diligent practice and cultivating one's essence and breath, one could eventually achieve abundant vitality, sharp eyes and ears, healthy internal organs, and a long life.
All in all, this Five Animals Qigong was a health-preserving technique.
As luck would have it, it was exactly what the severely weakened Li Hai needed most right now.
And after he had completely mastered the qigong, some subtle change suddenly appeared in Li Hai's previously empty character interface.
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