Memory Inheritance

Memory Inheritance

Fate had thought that, after obtaining a secret Summoning Technique manual handed down through the ages, Li Junshan would be itching to start studying it. Who would have thought that once the two of them returned to the tavern, Li Junshan ran into the kitchen, then came back out in the blink of an eye.

"If you hadn't mentioned it yesterday, I'd nearly have forgotten. I haven't gone to see Andri in ages. You coming?" Li Junshan blinked and asked Fate.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Fate felt there ought to be some excitement to watch. That mission offering two gold coins to break someone's legs definitely had a story behind it.

"What are you carrying on you? Why does it smell so good?" Fate had caught a strange fragrance coming from Li Junshan.

Li Junshan chuckled and said nothing. The two of them followed the street all the way east. By now it was already evening, and Windfire Town, noisy for an entire day, was gradually quieting down. From time to time, people greeted Li Junshan, and it was clear that his popularity in this little town was fairly good.

Before long, they reached East Street. From far away, Li Junshan heard the ding-dong of metal being struck. They turned a corner, following the street, and a blacksmith's shop with a huge iron hammer hanging from it appeared before them.

A burly, red-bearded man nearly two meters tall was holding a red-hot iron billet in tongs with his left hand, while the hammer in his right hand rose and fell in a steady rhythm. Opposite him stood a young fellow, his body knotted with muscle, wielding an enormous iron hammer as he coordinated with the blacksmith to pound the iron slab.

"Andri..." Li Junshan called out from a distance.

"You little bastard." The blacksmith looked up and saw Li Junshan. He instantly flew into a towering rage, grabbed his hammer, and charged over.

"You still dare come here?" The blacksmith Andri reached Li Junshan in just a few strides, with the red-hot iron slab in his left hand and the hammer in his right. It seemed he was too embarrassed to truly strike hard, so he lifted his foot and kicked at Li Junshan instead.

How could Li Junshan just stand there and take a beating? He nimbly hopped to the side, pulled an oilcloth parcel from his chest, and said with a cheeky grin, "This is a filial offering to you."

As Li Junshan opened the oilcloth parcel, a wondrous fragrance immediately drifted out. The blacksmith, who had followed after him, withdrew his foot, widened his eyes at the things inside the oilcloth, and asked, "What the hell is this now?"

Wrapped inside the oilcloth were several golden-yellow pancakes. Their crisp, deep-fried surfaces were covered with many bits of meat, and some strangely colored powder had been sprinkled on top. Forget the aroma—even just their appearance was enough to make the mouths of the few people nearby flood with saliva.

"Ghee Pancake. You wouldn't know it even if I told you. I came here sincerely to apologize to you, so how about it? Is my sincerity enough?" Li Junshan looked crafty.

"Bullshit." Andri handed the tools in his hands to the apprentice, whose face was full of drool and who kept swallowing. Then he slapped him and cursed, "Go back and work the iron."

Watching the apprentice walk off sullenly, Andri turned back and cursed, "Bullshit. You think a few of these things will make me forgive you? In your dreams. Sally is my most precious treasure, and you, you bastard, actually dared to peep at her while she was bathing!"

Fate instantly broke out in a cold sweat and subconsciously took a step to the side.

Li Junshan gave an awkward laugh. "Wasn't that a misunderstanding? I'm so little. How could I have that kind of thought? Even if my heart had the will, my body wouldn't have the strength. That day, I was looking for you to make an iron stove for the tavern, and I only bumped into it by accident."

"Pah." Andri spat, his beard bristling with anger, and cursed, "Even if I wasn't in the iron shop, who in Windfire Town doesn't know I live in the front courtyard? You were sneaking around to the back courtyard to find me? Go fool the undead!"

Li Junshan repeatedly cried innocence. Wanting to change the subject, he said, "Do you know how much effort these few Ghee Pancakes cost me? Even Anna has never eaten them. Never mind how hard the flour was to come by—these oils were all ground by my own hands, and the meat bits on top are premium Snow Chicken meat I secretly traded for from a mercenary yesterday behind Anna's back, using five hundred skewers of Malatang."

Li Junshan had not actually lied. This world did have a kind of flour, but its taste was extremely strange, and most people used it to make black bread. Just finding white flour had taken him a full month. By chance, he had come across a plant similar to wheat, but there was far too little of it. It took him a month to save up half a basin, and even he usually couldn't bear to eat it.

Andri kept cursing under his breath, but his eyes remained fixed on those few Ghee Pancakes. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and the more he swallowed, the more saliva filled his mouth.

Li Junshan saw it all and poured oil onto the fire. "Ghee Pancakes have to be eaten while they're hot. Wait a little longer, and once they get cold, they won't taste good anymore."

"At least fifty more." Andri snatched the oilcloth parcel in one grab, stretched out five thick fingers, and said in a gruff voice.

"Fifty? Old bastard, you sure make it sound easy," Li Junshan cursed inwardly. Empty promises cost nothing, so he nodded vigorously, then craned his head and looked toward the blacksmith's shop.

"Sally, long time no see!" Li Junshan shouted slyly toward the shop.

The few Ghee Pancakes went down Andri's stomach in an instant. Seeing the look of intoxication on his face, Fate stretched his neck and swallowed his saliva, then looked toward the shop. His eyes immediately bulged, his face filled with disbelief.

The apprentice from before had taken Andri's place, the small iron hammer in his hand rising and falling. Right opposite him, a blond girl of twelve or thirteen stood on a stone platform beneath her feet. Both hands barely managed to grip an enormous iron hammer weighing no less than a hundred catties, and she kept hammering away.

The young girl's still-childish face held both purity and charm. A willow-branch frail body, an enormous iron hammer rising and falling, the fierce clang of blows, the furnace roaring and howling...

All this powerful contrast nearly made Fate's eyeballs roll right out.

Hearing Li Junshan's shout, the girl paused slightly, though her hands did not stop. Whether because of the blazing furnace or some other reason, a blush bloomed across her jade-white cheeks.

"Get lost." Once the Ghee Pancakes were in his belly, Andri immediately turned hostile and cursed, "You little brat. With that West Mountain skinny-monkey look of yours, you still dare have designs on my precious daughter? My Sally will at least marry a noble in the future."

With a whoosh, an iron hammer descended from the sky and smashed down hard in front of Li Junshan, who had still wanted to tease a few more words out of them. The bluestone ground instantly cracked into a spiderweb.

"Dad, if you keep talking nonsense, I'll smash every jar of wine in the house." Andri's daughter Sally jumped empty-handed down from the stone platform she had been standing on. Her mouth spoke to her father, but her eyes glared fiercely at the grinning Li Junshan.

Andri stroked his red beard and said with a chuckle, "Even if you take apart your old dad's bones, I still have to say it."

Sally choked with anger, rolled her eyes at Andri, then raised her fist at Li Junshan and put on a vicious expression. "If Aunt Anna hadn't come to plead with me, I'd beat you little monkey to death."

On her tender, fair fist, cyan Battle Qi light flickered and pulsed. Fate immediately sucked in a breath of cold air.

"My heavens, how old is she? She can actually emit the cyan light only high-level warriors have." Fate felt his brain was no longer enough to use.

"Sally, even if you cut off my head, carve all the flesh from my body, grind my bones to dust and scatter them, then use Sealing Magic to imprison my soul and make me forever endure the pain of Soul Fire, I still have to say it..." Li Junshan's face was full of deep emotion, his voice rising and falling as he spoke on endlessly.

"Bastard!" Andri flew into a violent rage, raising a fist the size of a wine jar and smashing it down at Li Junshan.

Li Junshan had been prepared long ago. Before the fist could fall, he turned and slipped away like smoke, running more than ten meters off, then shouted loudly, "Sally, I love you!"

Andri was so angry his red beard trembled. Before he could chase after him, Li Junshan had already run out of the street corner, turned, and vanished from sight.

Sally's face was bright red, and she could not stay there either. She twisted her waist and ran toward the back of the shop, while the apprentice stood there in a daze, his face innocent.

Fate was still immersed in Li Junshan's heartfelt confession. When he saw Andri glare at him, he shrank his head back and hurriedly chased after Li Junshan.

"You... that Sally... how..." Fate caught up to Li Junshan and asked stammeringly.

"My future wife. How about it? Pretty, right?" Li Junshan said smugly.

The corner of Fate's mouth twitched, and he nodded hard.

When they returned to the tavern, the sky was already dark. Anna was not there either, so the two of them casually ate a few bites, then each returned to his own room.

After shutting the door, Li Junshan took out the Summoning Technique secret manual he had gotten from the old beggar and slowly flipped through it. In a very short time, he skimmed it once and had a general understanding in his heart.

A Summoner's training method was somewhat similar to a mage's: they condensed and expanded their spiritual power through meditation. The difference was that mages used spiritual power to control the magical elements in the atmosphere, while Summoners trained their spiritual power, then summoned and controlled Magic Beasts through the form of sigil contracts. They also had to cultivate and expand their Spirit Space.

This booklet contained a set of diagrams guiding one into meditation and sigil contracts, so Li Junshan followed the instructions in the book. Like the monks sitting in meditation he had seen in his previous life, he sat down cross-legged, formed a strange hand seal according to the illustration, and tried to meditate.

Before long, Li Junshan felt his consciousness gradually blur. His mind went blank, yet his awareness was incredibly clear, not muddled as it would be in sleep.

He did not know how much time had passed when, all of a sudden, a jumble of complicated information came pouring into Li Junshan's mind one after another. In an instant, his head felt as if it were going to explode.

"Xenomorph... game... Li Junshan... Viscount Crowell... Nicholas... Floro City... Harriman Family..."

Li Junshan's mind fell into chaos. His temples throbbed violently, and unable to bear it, he clutched his head with both hands and shook it desperately.

Only after a long while did that chaotic information finally settle down, as if it had returned to his memories.

When Li Junshan recovered, he finally learned his identity in this world.

The original owner of this body was named Nicholas. He lived in Floro City. His father was named Crowell, a collateral branch member of the famous Harriman Family of the Lans Empire. Crowell had inherited the title of viscount from his father. He was loyal and honest by nature, and he had no talent for magic or Battle Qi. In the eyes of most members of the Harriman Family, to put it bluntly, Crowell was a cripple.

The Harriman Family had several hundred years of history in the Lans Empire. After so many years of spreading branches and scattering leaves, it naturally had a large population. Yet a cripple could inherit the title of viscount by hereditary succession, and this aroused the covetousness of certain people within the family. According to imperial law, if a hereditary noble had no offspring, then if he himself was willing, he could transfer his title to a blood relative. It was precisely because of this law that calamity came crashing down on Nicholas's head.

Through the inexplicable inheritance of all of Nicholas's memories during that meditation just now, Li Junshan clearly recalled that moment.

On the road home from the academy one day, Nicholas had suddenly been ambushed by a group of mysterious people. His two guards were killed on the spot, while Nicholas was abducted by them and taken all the way in the direction of Windfire Town.

"The master said not to touch this little brat for now. Take him to Windfire Town, where the empire's power hasn't seeped in, and lock him up there. We also left a child's corpse at the scene, about the same build as him, with its face hacked to a pulp. That piece of trash will probably think his son is dead. If he refuses to hand over the title to the master, we'll use the little brat's life to threaten him."

This was the information Nicholas had happened to overhear from the people who had kidnapped him while they were on the road. Perhaps those kidnappers had spent too long in comfortable surroundings, or perhaps they had underestimated the complicated situation in Windfire Town. Before they even reached Windfire Town, they were robbed by another group.

The people who robbed them were mercenaries. The mercenaries of Windfire Town were different from the official Mercenary Guild. When there was business, they were proper mercenaries; if they could not get any assignments and could not even fill their bellies, then once they covered their faces with scarves, they became bandits.

In the chaotic battle, Nicholas was struck by a stray arrow and lost consciousness...

After that, Li Junshan had taken over Nicholas's body.