[Nine Transformations Golden Cicada]

Great Jing Dynasty, Taixi City, Golden Rainbow Martial Arts School.

"Eat, eat. If you can eat, then eat more..."

Inside the old courtyard quarters, Shen Xiu stared intently at an earthen jar on the table.

The jar held half a bowl of medicine dregs, and within those dregs was a nearly transparent Golden Cicada the size of a peanut.

As it crawled, it gnawed on the blackened medicine dregs still laced with residual poison.

The Golden Cicada ate with great relish. With every bite, faint golden specks flickered over its body, making it look exceedingly mystical.

Seeing this, Shen Xiu smiled in satisfaction.

After several days of feeding, the Golden Cicada's satiety had risen another one percent on the status panel before his eyes.

[Host: Shen Xiu]

[Cultivation: Not Yet Initiated]

[Talent: None]

[Technique: None]

[Clone: Nine Transformations Golden Cicada (Not Yet Transformed, Satiety 99.7%)]

The utterly bare panel gave off nothing but a sense of poverty.

Fortunately, he possessed a Golden Cicada that could alter his physique and talents through transformation.

This Golden Cicada was called the Nine Transformations Golden Cicada, an undying, indestructible existence. It would transform nine times in total, and each transformation would grant him, its host, a talent.

As for what sort of talent it would be, he had no idea.

Now, its final satiety was nearly full. It was only a hair's breadth away from transformation, making the nearly year he had spent patiently feeding it since transmigrating here worthwhile.

That was right—he had transmigrated here a year ago.

The moment he transmigrated, he possessed this boy who shared his name.

The transmigration had come so abruptly that he had not even had time to delete his browser history or the study materials on his hard drive.

Then he became a Labor Disciple at the Golden Rainbow Martial Arts School.

As a martial arts school that was at the height of its power in Taixi City, with hundreds of disciples and enough influence that both the black and white paths gave it some face, the Golden Rainbow Martial Arts School was not somewhere one could enter easily, even as a Labor Disciple.

After all, anyone who worked there for a year would have the opportunity to learn martial arts.

In this era, where Fierce Beasts ran rampant and evil spirits threw the world into chaos, human lives were as cheap as grass. An opportunity to learn martial arts meant another chance to survive, so civilian youths outside were scrambling until their heads bled.

The original owner had merely been a commoner boy whose parents had both died. Frail by nature, he should never have had a chance.

Yet he possessed a courage few ordinary people could understand. He sold the dilapidated hut outside the city for a few taels of silver, then forcefully stuffed them into the hands of an instructor in the school to gain entry.

Having realized how cruel this world was, Shen Xiu naturally cherished the opportunity. After discovering the Golden Cicada, his cheat, he tested all kinds of food before determining that medicine dregs were currently the best option.

It ate meat too, but he had no money.

For now, he could only let the Golden Cicada eat medicine dregs and muddle through the days. Fortunately, it was unafraid of residual poison and could occasionally feed back to him a wisp of medicinal power so faint it was nearly imperceptible.

Drops of water could pierce stone; accumulated little by little, it would eventually have some effect.

He was not especially strong now, but he was far better off than when he had first arrived.

As time passed, the medicine dregs in the earthen jar gradually diminished until the Golden Cicada swiftly ate them clean.

Sensing the Golden Cicada's satisfaction, Shen Xiu moved his mind. The crystalline Golden Cicada spread its wings and flew up, turning into a streak of light that drilled into the Dantian in his abdomen.

"Shen Xiu, it's time for us to fetch water."

Just then, a clear young voice called out from outside.

Shen Xiu opened the door and saw a broad, square-faced youth carrying two wooden buckets as he walked toward him from the entrance of the courtyard quarters.

"Coming, coming."

Shen Xiu rose, rubbed his legs, then briskly ran to the corner of the courtyard, picked up two thick wooden buckets, and headed straight out.

This was Wang Si, his roommate from the same batch. The tasks of Labor Disciples like them were all kinds of menial work within the school—sweeping, washing clothes, fetching water, leveling the ground.

In short, everything except martial arts training.

Every morning, their task was to fill the more than twenty water vats in the rear kitchen courtyard for preparing medicinal soups, meals, and the like for the Formal Disciples.

"Shen Xiu, are you still eating those medicine dregs? I'm telling you, stop eating them. Have you forgotten how you fainted almost a year ago?"

Walking along with two wooden buckets in hand, Wang Si hesitated for a moment before trying to persuade him.

"It's fine. I know what I'm doing." Shen Xiu smiled.

Wang Si had entered the school at the same time as him, and they got along well.

He evidently thought Shen Xiu had been secretly eating medicine dregs in his room that morning, but Shen Xiu had no way to explain their purpose. He could only answer like this, and when Wang Si could not persuade him, he could only give up.

When they reached the entrance to the rear kitchen courtyard, they saw a fat man glaring at them with a look of disgust. His booming voice sprayed spit and dust everywhere.

"Why aren't you working already?! If you don't finish, don't even think about eating!"

This fat man was a steward of the Golden Rainbow Martial Arts School. He oversaw the food, clothing, and daily necessities of the Labor Disciples, and often skimmed their monthly wages.

Toward Labor Disciples like them, he was either beating or berating them, never giving them a pleasant look. No matter how early they arrived or how quickly they worked, Steward Yu would always curse at them like this.

As though it would earn him something.

If saliva could drown people, the fury of those Labor Disciples would probably have flooded all the way to Steward Yu's ancestral graves.

Yet even so, few disciples dared to resist or talk back, because Steward Yu was said to be a distant relative of their deputy headmaster.

That deputy headmaster, Xiang Shou, was a powerhouse at the Third Realm Bone Marrow Cleansing stage. Even in vast Taixi City, someone like him was renowned and carried considerable intimidation.

How could Labor Disciples like them, who were not even Formal Disciples, dare entertain thoughts of resistance? At most, they cursed him a few times in secret and spat on the ground.

The last Labor Disciple who had argued with and resisted Steward Yu was still hauling night soil from the school latrines to this day.

The two ignored Steward Yu's abuse and began working.

The work was no light burden and consumed much stamina. By the end of the morning, Shen Xiu and Wang Si had filled all twenty-odd water vats in the courtyard. They were left panting heavily, drenched in sweat.

Even so, when Steward Yu saw them, he still came over to berate them a few times.

After finishing the water-carrying, the two had no time to rest. They only drank a few mouthfuls of water, wolfed down a bowl of cauliflower rice at the Canteen with barely the slightest hint of meat, then went to the martial arts field in front to move training equipment.

As they worked, they could see several Formal Disciples in fitted azure robes sparring on the field, trading unfamiliar fists and kicks in an evenly matched battle, their momentum fierce and powerful.

Whenever he saw this scene, Shen Xiu felt a trace of envy, yet it was an envy beyond his reach.

Those martial arts techniques were things only Formal Disciples could freely practice and wield.

Still, Shen Xiu only envied them for a moment before settling down to work. Counting the days, his year was nearly up. It should be within the next few days that he would receive the opportunity to learn a cultivation technique.

Over these next two days, he had to fill the Golden Cicada in his Dantian. He felt that after the Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell and underwent its first transformation, it would bring him an unexpected change.

The day's labor continued until the hour of Xu. Only after the night watchman's calls sounded outside did the Golden Rainbow Martial Arts School gradually grow quiet, with only a few Labor Disciples still cleaning up the aftermath.

At that time, Shen Xiu hurried to the rear kitchen and took over another Labor Disciple's work, dumping basin after basin of black medicine dregs into wooden barrels on a cart outside the back door.

After finishing, he kept an earthen jar of medicine dregs as the Golden Cicada's rations for the next two days.

If Steward Yu had not watched so closely, and if the Golden Cicada did not eat only such a small amount each day, he would probably have taken more.

Unfortunately, these medicine dregs had already had their essence extracted through brewing, leaving only dross behind. Their remaining medicinal effects were almost nonexistent, while the residual poison was even greater, so people could not eat them carelessly.

Otherwise, he would have eaten some himself. The original owner had been rather experienced in that regard.