The First Lesson, Luo Feng's Shock

In the alley, the dim yellow streetlights stretched the two men's shadows long.

Luo Feng watched the unfamiliar young man warily, his body still in a defensive stance. Though the man had just helped him out of a tight spot, in this age when monsters ran rampant, he understood that unsolicited favors meant one was either a crook or a thief.

"I don't know you," Luo Feng said. "Why did you help me?"

Instead of answering directly, Qin Yuan looked Luo Feng up and down with an appraising gaze.

"A punching force of 1,200 kilograms and a speed of 21 meters per second. That's pretty good for a Quasi-Martial Artist," he said calmly. "But your fighting style just now was too crude. When several people surrounded you, you chose to meet force with force instead of using the terrain and your footwork to create distance and pick them off one by one. If those men had been real killers, you'd already have died three times."

Luo Feng froze.

It wasn't because the man had seen through his strength at a glance, but because he had instinctively felt that every word the man said was right. During the fight, he really had exposed fatal openings on at least three occasions. The thugs had simply been too weak to take advantage of them.

"Who exactly are you?" Luo Feng asked again, a trace of gravity entering his voice.

"You can call me Qin Yuan," Qin Yuan said. "As for who I am... I can't tell you yet. You only need to know that I mean you no harm."

He paused, then continued, "Luo Feng, eighteen years old, a senior in high school and an advanced student at the Dojo of Limits in Yi'an District. Your father is Luo Hongguo, your mother is Gong Xinlan, and your younger brother is Luo Hua. Your family isn't well-off. Your father is an ordinary renovation worker, your mother works at a supermarket, and your brother's legs were disabled in an accident..."

"Enough!" Luo Feng interrupted, his gaze turning sharp. "You investigated me?"

Qin Yuan shook his head. "There's no need to investigate. Whatever I want to know, I naturally find out."

He raised a finger and pointed it at the spot between Luo Feng's brows. "I can see your potential, an immense potential you haven't even realized you have yet. That's also why I came looking for you."

Luo Feng fell silent for a few seconds, then asked the most important question. "What do you want?"

"To take you as my disciple," Qin Yuan said bluntly.

"Take me as your disciple?" Luo Feng frowned. "I'm not even a martial artist yet. What makes me worth taking as your disciple?"

Qin Yuan smiled. That was a good question. If he couldn't offer a reasonable explanation, someone with Luo Feng's personality would never trust him so easily.

"Have you read webnovels?" Qin Yuan asked.

"...I have." Luo Feng was somewhat bewildered.

"Then you should know the concept of a 'protagonist,'" Qin Yuan said. "In my eyes, you're the protagonist of this era. The trajectory of your destiny is completely different from that of ordinary people, and your future is destined to be extraordinary. I've come to help you set foot on that path ahead of time."

Luo Feng looked at Qin Yuan as though he were a madman.

Why did this man's words sound so mystical? Protagonists, trajectories of destiny-he sounded like a swindler from the jianghu.

Qin Yuan saw his suspicion, but he wasn't in a hurry. He raised his right hand, palm up.

The next second, under Luo Feng's astonished gaze, a fireball the size of a fist appeared out of thin air above Qin Yuan's palm. Its scorching heat warped the surrounding air, yet Qin Yuan's hand remained completely unharmed.

"This is..."

Before Luo Feng could finish, the fireball turned into a spinning ball of water, then a crackling arc of lightning, and finally a cluster of wind blades compressed to the utmost. Four utterly different forms of energy shifted continuously above Qin Yuan's palm, each containing enough power to raze the entire alley to the ground.

"Th-this... What kind of ability is that?" Luo Feng's voice trembled slightly.

He had seen martial artists fight. Powerful martial artists could shatter boulders with a punch and snap great trees with a kick. But the ability to control water, fire, wind, and lightning was completely beyond his understanding of martial artists.

"It's just the barest surface of the Universe Origin Law." Qin Yuan withdrew his hand, and all four forms of energy dissipated at once. "Every one of your future enemies wields power hundreds of millions of times greater than this. And I can teach you how to obtain that kind of power."

Luo Feng's breathing quickened.

He wasn't a fool. The abilities this man had displayed were definitely not something an ordinary martial artist could possess. Even those legendary War God Level experts might not be capable of such a feat.

Where... did this man come from?

"I need time to think," Luo Feng finally said.

"All right." Qin Yuan nodded. "I'll give you three days. Three days from now, if you're willing to become my disciple, come find me at this place, at this time."

He took a slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to Luo Feng. Written on it was an address in an abandoned industrial district outside Yangzhou City.

"Remember, don't tell anyone about this, including your family and friends," Qin Yuan warned. "Otherwise, it won't just bring you trouble. It'll put them in danger too."

Luo Feng took the slip of paper and nodded solemnly.

Qin Yuan smiled in satisfaction and turned to leave. But after taking two steps, he stopped and spoke without looking back:

"By the way, it's not impossible to heal your brother's legs."

Luo Feng shuddered and abruptly raised his head, but the mouth of the alley was already empty. The mysterious young man had vanished into the night, as though he had never appeared at all.

He looked down at the slip of paper in his hand and clenched his fist.

Could my brother Luo Hua's legs... really be healed?

For Luo Feng, each of the next three days felt like a year.

He turned every word Qin Yuan had said over and over in his mind, recalling each of the abilities he had displayed. He even secretly went to an internet café and searched for everything he could find about the name "Qin Yuan," but found nothing. It was as though the man had sprung from a crack in a rock, leaving no trace of a past.

What weighed on him most was the sentence, "It's not impossible to heal your brother's legs."

Luo Hua's disability was the greatest pain in Luo Feng's heart. Years ago, his younger brother had been struck by an out-of-control truck while saving him, leaving both his legs permanently paralyzed. For all these years, Luo Feng had carried that guilt and trained in martial arts with all his might, hoping to earn enough money to hire the best doctors for his brother.

But every doctor had said that Luo Hua's nerve damage was irreversible and that, with Earth's current medical capabilities, a cure was impossible.

And now someone had told him it wasn't impossible.

On the evening of the third day, Luo Feng arrived at the address on the slip of paper.

It was an abandoned industrial district, its rust-streaked factory buildings casting long shadows in the setting sun. Following the directions on the paper, Luo Feng entered one of the most inconspicuous warehouses.

The inside of the warehouse was unexpectedly clean. The floor had been cleaned until not a speck of dust remained, and two meditation cushions sat in the very center. Qin Yuan was sitting on one of them, his eyes half-closed, seemingly in meditation.

"You're here." Qin Yuan opened his eyes, his tone calm. "Half an hour earlier than I expected."

Luo Feng walked over to face him, but instead of sitting down, he looked straight at him. "You said my brother's legs could be healed. Is that true?"

"Sit down and we'll talk." Qin Yuan pointed to the cushion opposite him.

Luo Feng hesitated, then sat down cross-legged.

"Your brother's paraplegia was caused by damage to his spinal nerves," Qin Yuan said. "Earth's medical technology really can't cure him. But beyond Earth, there are countless ways to restore his legs to their original condition."

"Beyond Earth?" Luo Feng's pupils contracted slightly. "You mean... you're not an Earthling?"

"I am an Earthling," Qin Yuan said. "But I came from beyond Earth."

At first, the statement sounded contradictory, but Luo Feng quickly understood what it meant-the man was an Earthling, but he had already left Earth and been to other places in the universe.

"Is there... really other life in the universe?" Luo Feng asked. Humanity had been asking that question for hundreds of years, but had never received a definite answer.

Qin Yuan nodded. "Not only is there other life, there's more than you can imagine. The entire universe is divided into countless star regions and Universe Countries. The Milky Way Galaxy, where Earth is located, is nothing more than an inconspicuous little corner of the Silverblue Galaxy under the Ganwu Universe Country. The Ganwu Universe Country alone governs more than a hundred million galaxies like the Milky Way Galaxy."

Luo Feng's mind went blank.

More than a hundred million Milky Way Galaxies? How many life-bearing planets would that be? How many intelligent races?

"And we humans are known in the universe as the 'Earth Lineage,'" Qin Yuan continued. "We're one of countless branches of the Human Race as a whole. In the universe, humanity is one of the peak races, with dozens of super existences at the Universe Master level and territory spanning hundreds of millions of light-years."

He paused, giving Luo Feng some time to digest the information, before delivering the most important sentence:

"And you, Luo Feng, have the potential to become an existence of that level. Or even... higher."

A long silence fell over the warehouse.

Luo Feng lowered his head, both hands tightly gripping the trousers over his knees. In just a few minutes, his worldview had been completely overturned. He had once thought that becoming a War God was the pinnacle for a martial artist, but now someone was telling him that the universe held countless existences hundreds of millions of times more powerful than War Gods, and that he actually had the potential to become one of them.

"Why did you choose me?" Luo Feng raised his head and looked at Qin Yuan with a burning gaze. "The universe is so vast, and there are so many geniuses. Why did you come all the way to Earth to find me?"

A trace of admiration flashed through Qin Yuan's eyes. Even when faced with such world-shattering information, Luo Feng could remain rational enough to ask that question. He truly was the protagonist who had made it to the end in the original work.

"Because..." Qin Yuan spoke slowly. "You and I are the same kind of person."

"The same kind of person?"

"Neither of us believes in fate," Qin Yuan said. "Neither of us is content to be ordinary. And both of us are willing to pay any price to protect what we cherish."

He stood up, walked over to Luo Feng, and held out a hand:

"Luo Feng, become my disciple. I'll take you to see the true universe and teach you how to become a supreme powerhouse. In return, you only need to do one thing-"

"Never forget why you wanted to grow stronger in the first place."

Luo Feng looked at the hand before him, countless images flashing through his mind-his disabled brother, his hardworking parents, and the War God Lu Gang, who had protected countless ordinary people from the claws of monsters.

He took a deep breath, reached out, and grasped Qin Yuan's hand.

"I agree."

[Ding-Master-Disciple System triggered!]

[The host has successfully taken his first disciple: Luo Feng (SSS-grade potential)]

[Master-Disciple Bond established. Current bond level: Level 1 (first acquaintance)]

[Whenever the disciple breaks through to a new realm, the host will receive a corresponding 'cashback reward' (comprehension, resources, Gene Level, etc.)]

[First disciple reward: System Points +2,000, Law Comprehension Acceleration (10 eras) ×1, Gene Level Upgrade Card (100×) ×1!]

The system's notification sounded in Qin Yuan's mind. He looked at the young man before him, whose gaze was resolute, and a satisfied smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

The gears of fate had begun to turn.

And this time, Luo Feng's path to ascendancy would be even more brilliant than in the original work.