Ring, ring~
The phone rang.
"Qin Ze, I bought a chicken. Want to come over for dinner later?"
Whenever Ma Yan bought something good to eat, she thought of Qin Ze.
When she found the money Qin Ze had left last time, she insisted on returning it too.
In Ma Yan's words, she had hands and feet of her own and didn't need charity yet.
"Did you get another bonus?"
"How did you know?"
Qin Ze had guessed from the excitement in her voice over the phone.
"Remember that new company project I joined? There's been some new progress lately, and this is the second bonus they've given us!" Ma Yan said happily.
Qin Ze smiled.
So she had called to share the good news with him.
"I still have to cultivate tonight, so I won't come over."
"Save me a drumstick. I'll come eat it tomorrow."
After mooching several meals off her, the two had become close friends.
Ma Yan said, "All right, I'll save you one."
"Work hard at your cultivation. You have to become a martial artist!"
Qin Ze wanted to say that he would be a Level One Martial Artist after tonight.
But when the words reached his lips, he changed them to "I will."
After ending the call with Ma Yan, Qin Ze placed his right hand in the bone-tempering water.
This was the last portion.
After a whole week of tempering bones day and night with his clones, he had used up all the Bone-Tempering Liquid.
But dawn was just ahead!
Qin Ze concentrated his qi and blood, continuously refining his right thumb.
Tempering bones with qi and blood was actually quite painful, like having a heavy object repeatedly rolled over his finger.
But the Bone-Tempering Liquid felt soothing, much like a sedative.
This experience of ice and fire lasted more than two hours.
Splash-
Qin Ze lifted his right hand.
The last finger bone needed for his first bone-tempering was finally refined.
That also marked the successful refining of his entire right hand.
Although his fingers didn't sparkle like The Magic Chef Xiaofugui's, Qin Ze could feel a distinct change.
The qi sea was the first to bear the brunt, expanding several times over.
Qi and blood poured endlessly out of the qi sea, furiously washing through every limb and bone in Qin Ze's body.
It was as though a dozen pairs of girls' soft, boneless little hands were kneading, rubbing, and pressing his body.
Under the repeated washing of qi and blood, his meridians began to thicken little by little.
That would allow more qi and blood to pass through in a short time, making it easier to unleash explosive power in battle.
A quarter of an hour later.
Qin Ze opened his eyes and breathed out a mouthful of turbid air.
Bang! Bang!
The clones standing on either side set off two party poppers, sending streamers fluttering down onto Qin Ze's head and shoulders.
Another clone opened a bottle of champagne and sprayed it everywhere.
"From now on, we're Level One Martial Artists!"
"So the brothers will start at level 0.5 from now on?"
"Fuck, I was born at the wrong time. I fought tooth and nail just to reach level 0.5."
"It's fine. You can go back in the furnace and be remade."
"Should we throw a party to celebrate?"
"We still haven't held the memorial service from last time."
"Then let's do them together."
"Yay, memorial service party!"
"..."
The forty-odd clones chattered as they busied themselves in the living room.
Qin Ze couldn't be bothered to stoop to their level.
He was hungry after going a whole day without eating, so he went into the kitchen and made some instant noodles.
When Qin Ze came out of the kitchen carrying his noodles, he found the atmosphere outside extremely somber and strange.
The clones stood in three rows with solemn expressions, a large headshot of Qin Ze displayed before them.
"Good evening, friends and family."
"Today, we have gathered for Qin Ze's memorial service."
"Dozens of brothers gave their blood and flesh in exchange for the original's breakthrough today."
"The brothers who come after us will never have to blaze the trail. They'll be born level 0.5 martial artists."
"This isn't because the original is so generous, but because we were here..."
One clone acted as the host, reciting an emotional eulogy he had prepared in advance.
The other clones all had their heads lowered, their expressions mournful.
Qin Ze leaned against the kitchen doorway, slurping noodles as he watched his own memorial service.
How should he put it?
Attending his own memorial service was pretty surreal.
"This Qin Ze Monument will forever commemorate everything the departed have done."
"History will not forget, and neither will we."
A clone set a wooden plaque more than thirty centimeters long in front of the memorial portrait. On it were written the words "Monument of Qin Ze" in large characters.
"First bow."
"Second bow."
"Third bow."
"That concludes the rites."
The clones bowed three times in unison.
The host pushed the memorial portrait and the Qin Ze Monument aside, the corners of his mouth rising.
"The memorial service is over."
"Now it's party time!"
Sexy DJ music blared from the speakers. The host jumped onto the table and shook his head wildly, while the other clones danced to the music.
For a moment, it was a wild dance of demons.
How was there even a trace of sorrow left in the atmosphere?
"They've really gone mad."
After slurping down his noodles, Qin Ze returned to his room.
He lay down comfortably.
He had kept himself bottled up for so long since transmigrating. He'd let himself indulge this once.
Now that he had successfully broken through to Level One Martial Artist, he finally had some means of protecting himself.
Qin Ze hesitated over whether to go to the Otherworld immediately.
It wasn't just for the Soul Orbs on Sky Island, but also to verify his suspicions.
After thinking it over for a while, Qin Ze decided to develop some more first.
After breaking through to Level One Martial Artist, he could produce three clones a day.
It wouldn't be too late to charge into the Otherworld once he had amassed a hundred or two hundred clones.
When the time came, he would bring Brother Devour and Dharma King along. The two of them were nearly level two as well.
Accompanied by the explosive DJ music in the living room, Qin Ze soon fell asleep.
Early the next morning, Qin Ze went downstairs for breakfast.
His leave had expired, so he had to report to school today.
"Boss, three steamer baskets of soup dumplings, two bowls of porridge, and a dish of pickles."
Qin Ze found a corner and sat down.
Since becoming a full-fledged martial artist, his appetite had grown too.
Even martial artists had to obey the law of conservation of energy.
The television on the wall was playing the Jiang City morning news.
"In recent days, several people have gone missing in our city. The majority of those missing are women between the ages of sixteen and thirty."
"The Jiang City Police Department has obtained preliminary leads and is doing everything in its power to solve the cases. It also reminds women not to go out alone."
"In other news, an act of arson occurred in the shantytown last night, causing extensive property damage. One person died, and no one was injured."
"The police have preliminarily identified the perpetrator as a woman who set the fire because she could no longer endure caring for her bedridden, paralyzed mother after so many years. The deceased was the perpetrator's mother."
"The perpetrator has fled. Police are pursuing her, and anyone with information may call..."
Most of the people who came to eat at this hour were elderly men and women.
They were all outraged by the news.
"What an ungrateful wretch. Her mother raised her all those years for nothing."
"She burned her own mother alive. How could she bring herself to do it?"
"Matricide! In ancient times, she'd have been sentenced to death by a thousand cuts!"
"She really deserves to die!"
"She looks so kind in the photo. Who would've thought she could do something so cruel?"
"..."
Qin Ze was busy wolfing down his food. Curious to know who could be so ruthless, he looked up at the television.
When he saw the perpetrator's photo on the screen, Qin Ze froze, and the dumpling in his mouth fell to the floor.
Because the person in the photo was none other than Ma Yan.