[Shi Tianwu uploaded Ultimate Boundless Qigong]
The first resource had appeared in the Chat Group.
The only two people currently in the Chat Group, Shi Tianwu and Lu Bian, were the group owner and group administrator. They had already become "close" friends.
What would happen if the consciousness of a Martial God like Shi Tianwu existed inside your body?
Your memories and thoughts would be impossible to hide from him. He would know everything about you.
He could dig up forgotten memories from the depths of your mind, and help you recover knowledge you'd forgotten from school.
Shi Tianwu had seen all of Lu Bian's brief life of just over twenty years in the space of a moment.
Having gained a thorough understanding of Lu Bian, Shi Tianwu decided to upload Ultimate Boundless Qigong to the Chat Group's shared resources, so Lu Bian could reinforce and review it whenever he wanted.
Night passed, and Lu Bian sat on the stone steps to rest.
He'd thrown punches all night, leaving his whole body exhausted, but his mind was still wildly excited. Even as he rested, he wasn't fully at rest.
Shi Tianwu controlled Lu Bian's body and used a special breathing technique to strengthen its absorption and processing of the strange energy in the world around them.
A breathing technique...
Shi Tianwu had created a special breathing technique for Lu Bian on the spot, naming it the Lu Bian Breathing Method.
"Brother Tianwu, aren't you being a little too good to me?"
"I'm starting to think you have ulterior motives."
Lu Bian teased Shi Tianwu.
"Because we're friends now."
"And I, Shi Tianwu, don't want to lose you as a friend, Lu Bian."
Shi Tianwu explained.
"A sincere heart must never be extinguished. Show compassion to the weak, help one another, and people from anywhere can become friends..."
"Sorry. I saw those words in your memories by accident," Shi Tianwu said.
"Ah, yes. Don't give up on that feeling, even if it's been betrayed a thousand times over." Lu Bian finished the rest of the quote.
Even though he was only a few years away from turning thirty, whenever Lu Bian thought of those words or saw them appear, he could never stop himself from tearing up.
When he was eight, he said goodbye to Ultraman Ace. "Big Brother Hokuto" had told him those words on TV, and Lu Bian had etched them into his heart and never forgotten them.
Shi Tianwu had been moved, too, when he saw them in Lu Bian's memories.
If someone in his world could have said such words, and held such feelings and acted on them, then perhaps everything would have turned out differently.
Martial Gods had always stood above everyone else.
Because they had power.
"..."
Why think about all that?
This isn't the time for it.
"Shi Tianwu" stood and looked out beyond the mountain.
"Shall I take you out of here?" Shi Tianwu asked.
"Staying here isn't the right choice. While I can still remain in your body for half a day, we should go somewhere people live."
"Sorry for the trouble, Brother Tianwu." Lu Bian felt terribly embarrassed.
"Don't think about doing anything to repay me. Nothing you give me would be of any use."
Shi Tianwu sensed the thought just beginning to form in Lu Bian's mind and cut him off.
"Fine."
"Brother Tianwu, a favor is the hardest thing to repay. I owe you one." Lu Bian said earnestly.
"Heh!" Shi Tianwu chuckled.
Even a favor was something he had no need for now.
After his body had rested fully, "Shi Tianwu" rose and headed uphill.
He needed to get to higher ground to see the surrounding forest clearly and work out a suitable route down the mountain.
So "Shi Tianwu" turned and climbed the stone steps, entering the mountain gate.
"Huh? Tianwu, you're going uphill? Is that right?"
"Are you scared? It's daytime now. No ghosts are coming out," Shi Tianwu said.
"It's not ghosts I'm afraid of," Lu Bian replied.
As they climbed, all they saw in their shared field of vision were crumbling walls and ruins.
A great fire had once burned the temples and pavilions here to the ground.
They reached a section of road that had gone unrepaired and realized they were only halfway up the mountain.
But halfway up was high enough to see farther afield.
"There! I see a road."
"Mm."
"Though it looks like nobody uses it."
"Then let's head down."
[Beep...]
[Bruce Wayne joined the Chat Group]
"A new person, and only now?"
"The Chat Group's recruitment efficiency seems a little slow," Lu Bian complained.
"Why is it him?!"
"Are people in our Chat Group using their real names online?"
Lu Bian: [Welcome... Mr. Wayne.]
Shi Tianwu: [Welcome, Mr. Bruce Wayne.]
It was great sharing a brain with Lu Bian. Shi Tianwu immediately learned from Lu Bian's thoughts what sort of person had just joined the group.
The new member, Mr. Wayne, didn't respond to the group owner or administrator's welcome.
"Brother Tianwu, look. If you click someone's avatar in the Chat Group, you can see their personal information. They can choose to hide it, though."
"Mm, I understand."
Shi Tianwu immediately hid his own personal information.
The details shown when you clicked an avatar in the Chat Group weren't much: birthday, age, gender, zodiac sign, and so on. They weren't worth much.
But for the newly joined Mr. Bruce Wayne, Lu Bian and Shi Tianwu could learn plenty.
For starters, the group members' avatars. The Chat Group didn't just require everyone to use their real names; their avatars were also the same as the photos on their IDs.
"Is that date of birth right?"
"Born in 1951?"
"No wonder his avatar's an old man."
"So he really is Mr. Wayne now," Lu Bian remarked.
The new member Bruce Wayne's avatar showed an old man with long, snow-white hair and two impressively bushy eyebrows. His first impression was that the man looked like a strange old coot.
Bruce Wayne: [Requesting a video call]
[Beep. Request approved...]
Seventy-year-old Bruce Wayne looked at the frail young man in the video call window with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Why aren't you wearing clothes?" old Bruce Wayne asked Lu Bian.
"Because I don't have any," Shi Tianwu replied.
He, Shi Tianwu, was currently controlling Lu Bian's body.
"So this is what another world looks like? Are you from another world?"
"Yes, Mr. Wayne."
"That's pitiful. Can I send you a few sets of clothes?" old Bruce asked.
"The Chat Group doesn't have a function for sending items."
"What a pity."
"I'm having some trouble keeping up with all these newfangled things."
Old Bruce scratched his head.
Mr. Wayne, surely you're not pretending you don't understand?
Lu Bian silently grumbled to himself.
Before you continue