Mass Grave Hill lay on the outskirts of Northshire. Overgrown with weeds and frequently visited by wild dogs, it was an excellent place to dispose of unidentified corpses-and the perfect final resting place for Aige's body...
It was midnight, when yin energy was at its strongest. Several wild dogs were digging for food, with all manner of filthy things scattered everywhere. If you dared get close enough to look carefully, you might find that those things were entrails dragged from someone's belly, or a half-eaten head...
One wild dog pricked up its ears. Something seemed to have moved in the weeds a short distance ahead. This was its territory, and it had to know what was going on... So the dog crept silently toward the spot!
Little Aige... Oh, no! It was Master Li's soul, cursing up a storm inside the battered body! He already knew that his soul had somehow entered this body. Since Aige's soul had not yet completely dissipated, his powerful soul had absorbed and assimilated it outright. That, combined with being inexplicably placed here, had greatly improved his mental power, making it several times or even dozens of times stronger than an ordinary person's. But... although he had successfully defeated the body's original owner and gained actual control of it, Master Li had made the miserable discovery that he couldn't actually make the body obey him.
The reason was simple... With its arms and legs broken, how was the brain supposed to direct them?
Carl had been vicious. In his rage, he had meant to kill Aige outright, not injured him by accident as he had claimed when paying the fine to the local government! Poor Aier had first had both arms broken, and then both legs smashed with a wooden stool Carl had picked up... It hurt like hell!
That was the truth behind Aige's death!
Was this how heaven toyed with people? Had it gone to all the trouble of pulling his soul here just so he could watch a wild dog tear him apart while he was helpless to fight back?
As a top-tier Rogue, Master Li had never lacked composure. Even in such dire straits, he could still make self-deprecating jokes about heaven. Watching the wild dog drool disgustingly in front of him, he couldn't fight back with his body, but he could move his head enough to make soft noises and warn it that he wasn't dead yet...
"If you want to eat me, you can damn well wait until I'm properly dead!" After a while, once the fusion with the body was complete, he could finally speak. He raised his voice, intending to drive the dog away...
The wild dog was indeed startled. After the "corpse" made so much noise, it immediately fled some distance away. But before long, it realized that the "corpse" couldn't move at all, and that only a pair of bright, lively eyes turned to follow it. Then it began scheming again...
The wild dog made no move, but it lingered nearby, waiting for an opportunity. A cold sweat broke out on Master Li's forehead. He was just a shut-in; when had he ever faced anything like this?
Stay calm! Since heaven dragged me here, it must have some other purpose. Otherwise, who would be bored enough to do something so pointless? I need to take a good look! Keeping up the most basic warning to the wild dog, he slowly sank his mental power into his sea of consciousness...
This is it! he shouted in his sea of consciousness, though he was its only visitor, so there was no one else to hear him!
It was an exquisite box, and he recognized it at a glance. It was the box that appeared at the beginning of Hearthstone, made of ancient golden-yellow wood. Even the grain seemed to follow some special law. In the very center was Hearthstone's distinctive rune, a simple hook-shaped mark. Now, however, a faint blue magical light flickered from it, as though it contained the fundamental truths of heaven and earth, or had come alive and was calling to him...
This must be the culprit that brought me to this world, right?
There was no need to dwell on the extra details. He should see if there was anything that could get him out of his current predicament.
Li Wei... No, he was called Aige now! In this world, he was the newly reborn Aiger Stoke, and he probably could never return to being the Li Wei of a later age! (From this point on, Li Wei will no longer appear in this story. All subsequent references will be to Aige, except under special circumstances.) Come on! No need to mourn for too long! Forcing those sentimental thoughts aside, Aige calmly reached out and touched the Hearthstone rune... As though another world had opened, a dazzling light made him narrow his eyes, but he stubbornly refused to let his attention lapse for even a moment... Inside the Hearthstone box, he obtained a "Book of Hearthstone," a magic book capable of holding every card.
However, there was currently only one card in the book:
A zero-star Wisp minion card, of white, excellent quality, with one-star attack power in all attributes and one-star defense in all respects. In other words, it was a zero-cost 1/1 white card with absolutely no other special attributes!
To be honest, in Hearthstone, white cards were one grade above gray cards (basic cards), and a little rarer. But having only 1/1 stats (note: 1/1 means one attack and one health; this expression will be used frequently later in the story) hardly did justice to its white, excellent rating. At least in the game, because it cost zero to summon, it still had a purpose, and it was also the only zero-cost neutral minion card... But even now, Aige had no idea why the Book of Hearthstone had rated it excellent, much less how he was supposed to use it.
Some good news filled Master Li with joy. At the top of the second page of the Book of Hearthstone, an exquisite volume with only two pages, he spotted a distinctive staff symbol. He knew it all too well: it was unmistakably the Priest's scepter... Evidently, the Book of Hearthstone regarded him as a Priest, perhaps because he had just unlocked the Priest class while playing Hearthstone earlier.
Being a Priest was great! The game currently had nine major classes, not counting the Monk and Death Knight, which Blizzard had yet to release: Priest, Mage, Warlock, Rogue, Hunter, Shaman, Paladin, Warrior, and Druid. They matched up perfectly with World of Warcraft. Otherwise, why would the game be called Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft?
The young master knew perfectly well that the Priest's special hero skill was called Lesser Heal, and it could restore two health to any target. The skill was awesome: it could heal minions or himself, making it quite practical and perfectly suited to the Priest's role as a healer.
Aige examined it carefully and found that a skill called Lesser Heal had indeed been imprinted in his sea of consciousness, as though he had known it since birth. But its description read: Priest hero special skill, active, instant cast. Restores two stars of health to any target. Magic cooldown: one day! (Note: The actual amount restored by the two-star healing effect is closely tied to the hero's own strength. The stronger the hero, the more it restores. Two stars is an approximate rating.)
He turned back to look and found a similar description on the Wisp minion card. The Wisp's one-star attack power in all attributes was likewise closely tied to the hero's own strength. The stronger the hero, the greater the Wisp's attack and defense adjustments...
He would leave the minion aside for now, but this Lesser Heal was clearly Master Li's lifeline at the moment... All four of his limbs were broken, and a vicious dog was waiting for him to draw his last breath. He had to get out and save himself, quickly!
But when he emerged from his shock over the Book of Hearthstone, an even bigger golden egg landed right on his head!
Because his mental power had met the requirement, Aige had actually unlocked the Mage primary class from World of Warcraft. Not only had he gained bonuses to strength, agility, intellect, and spirit, but a Mage class spellbook had also appeared in his sea of consciousness...
The dazzling, iridescent spellbook, which could record the Mage's wondrous spells, had a cover made from the hide of an unknown animal. Its peculiar feel and the sense of power it conveyed made the young master wonder whether it might be made from some kind of dragonhide.
Pale blue hide? Could it be from one of the blue dragon Malygos's offspring? He's a true Dragon Aspect in World of Warcraft, and the dragon of magic at that...
The book was divided into three schools-Fire, Frost, and Arcane-corresponding to the three major branches of magic. At present, it recorded only the first spell he had learned: Level 1 Fireball. Its casting time, damage, and range were similar to those in World of Warcraft, though some details had evidently changed as a result of the Warcraft system merging with the laws of the continent...
None of that mattered so much to Master Li anymore. What mattered most now was that he, Aige, might use this opportunity to be reborn. When the time came, he would repay every grudge and settle every grievance!
When Aige opened his eyes again, he found that the wild dog was still in the same spot, as though it hadn't moved at all during that whole time. The discovery surprised him. Ever rational, he immediately came up with a bold conjecture: did time in the outside world slow down, or stop altogether, when he entered the hero space?...
He would test that later. Now that he had obtained the Warcraft Hearthstone System-a name he had picked at random, since it really was a system... er, or rather, two separate systems-the first thing he had to do was see whether he could restore this body with all four limbs ruined. Otherwise, a cripple who couldn't even control his own body had no right to talk about growing stronger or taking revenge!
Master Li had always been an atheist, but now he prayed silently to the great god System... Pray to God and Buddha? That didn't seem as direct as praying to the great god System, did it?
Lesser Heal! I hope you come through for me...