Knowing Heaven's Mandate, Understanding Change

Early in the morning, Lu Bian walked along a narrow mountain path. Dewdrops clung to the plants on both sides of the trail, and as he hurried past, the moisture dampened his pant legs. The mountains were covered in wild yellow chrysanthemums, and Lu Bian had come out at the crack of dawn to forage for edible wild mushrooms in the woods.

The horizon was only just beginning to brighten when Lu Bian had risen and headed into the mountains.

If someone had asked him to wake up early to practice martial arts, he would have slept in until he woke up naturally. But if it were to forage for mushrooms, he could crawl out of bed before the sun even touched the sky.

The people of the Dali Kingdom did not seem to have the habit of eating wild mushrooms, and they rarely ventured deep into the mountains, leaving the vast fields of fungi for Lu Bian to claim.

Lu Bian had experienced mushroom foraging five or six times before he transmigrated. His grandmother was from Yunnan Province, and he carried the genes of the Yunnan people; the ability to identify wild mushrooms had been passed down from his elders. Now living in the Dali Kingdom during the Great Song era, the memories of his childhood spent at his grandmother's house in Yunnan were awakened.

As the sun rose in the east, Lu Bian had filled his basket with mushrooms and began his walk home.

Living in the wilderness, he rarely interacted with others. Only on market days in nearby villages would Lu Bian venture from the mountains to trade for daily necessities.

This leisurely life made Lu Bian feel like reciting a poem:

"The autumn chrysanthemums have a lovely hue, I pluck their petals wet with morning dew."

"Drinking this brew that makes all worries cease, I leave the world behind for inner peace."

"Though I drain the cup alone, the pot pours on its own."

"As the sun sets, all creatures find their rest, and homing birds return to the forest's breast."

"I whistle and chant beneath the eastern eaves, content with the life that this world leaves."

This was a poem by Tao Yuanming. He had done enough exercises on literary appreciation in high school to remember it, and feeling that it fit the mood, he recited it aloud.

Having cultivated the Ultimate Boundless to the twentieth heaven, Lu Bian's mind and memory were incredibly sharp, allowing him to retrieve knowledge he had long since returned to his teachers.

In this era, he could even pass for a half-cultured man.

A scholar... Lu Bian considered himself a martial artist.

Seeing a branch in the distance, Lu Bian excitedly picked it up.

It was straight and long—a good branch.

He snapped off the excess twigs, upgrading the branch in his hand into a wooden staff.

"Strike the twin dogs!"

The grass and brush at his feet were severed instantly.

Raising his hand, Lu Bian began to practice the "Dog Beating Technique" that he was still in the process of conceptualizing.

Lu Bian pondered a question: it seemed that ever since he transmigrated, he had been at odds with canines.

The first crisis he encountered after arriving was caused by two wild wolves, and his hands had been crippled for over half a year after being bitten by the Howling Celestial Dog.

The great wind rises, the clouds fly away; how can I find brave warriors to roam the world?

Any wild dog he met had to be beaten; there was no other way.

The Dog Beating Technique had to be created; there was no other way.

"Ah, they're here." A light flashed in Lu Bian's eyes.

There were wolves in the mountains, and they moved in packs. This was the reason no one else in this era dared to go into the mountains alone to forage.

Wolves were dogs, and dogs were wolves.

Either way, they were all canines.

"Yeah~!"

"Beat the dog's head!"

Lu Bian gripped his wooden staff and charged at the pack, striking at their heads with fierce momentum.

The wolves scattered quickly; this was not their first meeting.

Every time, the pack ended up defeated and fleeing.

Wolves were vengeful, and the grudge between Lu Bian and this pack had reached an irreconcilable point.

"Guide the dog to the sky!"

Lu Bian thrust his staff under a wild wolf, flipping it over with a sudden jerk and leaving it belly-up.

The still-forming Dog Beating Technique was exceptionally agile and wondrous in its changes, predicting the movements of the cunning wolves and striking them just as they were about to shift.

Trip, chop, flick, lead, poke...

The mountains echoed with a series of long, drawn-out howls that reverberated through the empty valleys.

Every wolf in the pack was given a thorough "reception" by Lu Bian before they tucked their tails and fled, leaving behind trails of excrement.

"Will you come back again?"

Lu Bian shouted at the wolves that had already vanished from sight.

"..."

"You'd better come back."

Lu Bian strolled leisurely out of the mountain path and returned home.

Once home, Lu Bian began to light the fire and cook his meal.

Some say that boiling wild mushrooms into soup is a waste of good ingredients, but Lu Bian preferred to drink the soup regardless. As for staples like rice and noodles, Lu Bian had already sworn them off; after all, who needed them when he could fill his belly simply by breathing?

After satisfying his cravings, Lu Bian began his training.

Holding a bamboo rod in his hand, Lu Bian pondered in his mind.

Imaginary training—it was something Krillin and Gohan had done aboard their spaceship while traveling to Namek.

Training alone, Lu Bian used imaginary practice to conjure up an opponent. He envisioned a large black dog; how should he strike this dog with the bamboo rod in his hand?

To Lu Bian, creating his own martial art was equivalent to writing a graduation thesis for university.

With Magnetic Rotation at the twentieth heaven, it was time to write that thesis.

He needed to pay attention to the plagiarism rate; if it overlapped too much with the Ultimate Boundless Qigong, it wouldn't be considered a self-created martial art, but merely an innovative application of that divine technique.

"This is difficult to conceive..."

He exhausted every move at his disposal against the imaginary black dog. The process of exerting force, the variations in his techniques, the parts of the body he struck—Lu Bian always felt something was not quite harmonious.

Techniques were the outward form of martial arts; was the art he was creating currently missing its "soul"?

That was it.

Why did he want to beat a dog?

Why would a dog be beaten?

What attitude should one take when beating a dog?

"Beat your dendrobium!!"

The dendrobium was one of the absolute weak points of the canine species; striking a dog's dendrobium was a lethal blow.

The fiercest and most violent move emerged from beneath Lu Bian's rod.

Lu Bian pulled back his strength just in time, but the tip of the bamboo rod burst into splinters.

"Oh?!"

He brought the splintered end of the bamboo rod before his eyes, earnestly recalling the changes in the flow of force as he retracted his strength, and suddenly, Lu Bian realized something.

"If this were to burst inside a dog's dendrobium, the damage would be unimaginable!!"

A flood of inspiration surged through Lu Bian's mind.

The Ultimate Boundless Qigong had been a shackle while Lu Bian was creating his own martial art, but now that inspiration had struck, he completely discarded the Ultimate Boundless from his "Dog Beating Technique."

Specks of starlight flickered in Lu Bian's mind, and he subconsciously used the Book of Supreme World Ordering to read the starlight within his thoughts.

To know the mandate of heaven, to understand change—this was the power of the Book of Supreme World Ordering.

"So it can be done this way!"

"The Dog Beating Technique isn't just for beating dogs; it can also beat dog-breeds and dog-donkeys!!"

"Hee-haw?" Hearing someone mention a donkey, the foolish donkey in the yard looked toward Lu Bian.

Feeling the donkey's gaze, Lu Bian smiled and walked toward it.

He untied the rope, letting the donkey serve as his sparring partner.

Although his donkey looked foolish, it was actually incredibly cunning. Back at Eagle Sorrow Stream, it had eaten many rare mountain treasures watered by Little White Dragon, and its intelligence had already been awakened.

"Hee-haw!"

"Bray!!"

"You stupid donkey, don't dodge, come at my rod!!"

"Why are you running away!!"

"Running... fine, this move shall be called Beat the Drowning Dog!!"

Facing Lu Bian's boundless and endless offensive, the donkey gave a sudden leap and landed on the roof.