Li Qiang still had no idea why he had changed like this. In his room at the Jinjiang Hotel, he gazed at the person in the mirror and touched his face, thinking, No one will recognize me now. I never imagined I could look this good. Ah, but what use is looking good? My home is gone, my friends are gone, and my company is gone too. Now I truly have nothing.
Li Qiang now stood a full hundred and eighty centimeters tall, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. His skin was as fair, smooth, and tender as a baby's, with a faint blush flowing beneath it. He felt as though every muscle in his body held explosive strength. His long, narrow eyes shone with an intimidating brilliance, and the lines of his face were strong and forceful, as though carved by knives and axes. He could not quite be called beautiful, but he was brimming with masculinity. Not a trace of his original appearance remained.
What Li Qiang found most unbelievable was that his reflection looked like a boy of eighteen or nineteen. Only his eyes retained their former maturity.
Fu Shan told Li Qiang that they would leave Earth in twenty days. He had matters to attend to in the meantime and would come back to pick him up.
Li Qiang was very pleased with his new appearance. It felt great. Now he could start everything over from scratch.
After showering and getting dressed, Li Qiang left the hotel.
The first thing Li Qiang did was rent a room at a warehouse. He reasoned that since he was leaving Earth and might not return anytime soon, he might as well spend the next few days buying things that could prove useful later. Besides, if he did not spend the cash in his bracelet, it would be nothing but a pile of wastepaper once he left Earth.
"Hello, what good liquor do you have?" Li Qiang asked a pretty salesgirl with a smile in a tobacco and liquor shop.
The normally eloquent salesgirl looked up at Li Qiang and was struck speechless. Her heart bounded like a startled deer, and a blush crept onto her face. Handsome! This boy is unbelievably handsome! My boyfriend can't compare to him at all.
"Heehee." Across the counter, two equally young salesgirls whispered into each other's ears, breaking into suggestive giggles now and then.
"H-hello, what did you... say... Oh, sorry, what would you like to buy?" The pretty salesgirl blushed even harder.
"Hehe." Li Qiang chuckled softly. He liked this feeling very much. "I'd like to buy some good liquor. Could you recommend something?"
What happened next left the salesgirl dumbfounded. This unbelievably handsome boy bought almost every brand-name liquor in the shop in one go. After setting down several thick stacks of banknotes, he instructed the laborers he had hired to carry everything away, then waved her a carefree goodbye and sauntered off toward the next store.
For a long time afterward, the pretty salesgirl still remembered that handsome, wealthy boy, fantasizing about how wonderful it would be if he were her boyfriend.
His shopping continued until evening before Li Qiang finally stopped his frenzied buying spree. He first returned to the rented warehouse and put everything into his storage bracelet. By the time he reached the hotel, it was past eleven at night.
"I'll buy more tomorrow." Sitting on the bed, Li Qiang could not sleep at all. It seemed that only frenzied shopping could bring a little calm to the pain in his heart. The poverty of his childhood and his later struggles in business flashed through his mind, scene after scene like a film. Li Qiang did not sleep all night.
The wildly extravagant shopping spree continued for nineteen straight days, stopping only when he had spent almost all the cash stored in the bracelet. A businessman by background, Li Qiang habitually estimated his expenses and was shocked to discover that he had spent more than nine million yuan in nineteen days, equivalent to over a million US dollars. The space inside his bracelet was already half full. From clothes to shoes, books to paper, rice to salt, he had bought everything he could find on the market, as well as a large quantity of medicines and some small medical instruments.
On the afternoon of the twentieth day, Fu Shan appeared before Li Qiang right on time.
Mars was a close neighbor of our Earth. Its diameter was forty-two hundred miles, roughly half Earth's, and its mass was 0.11 times Earth's. A relatively thin atmosphere enveloped Mars. Mars was a mysterious "red planet."
Mars had three distinctly different types of terrain.
The first was craters, a lunar type of terrain.
The second was chaotic terrain, formed by large-scale subsidence. At their widest, the sunken regions stretched sixty miles across.
The third type of terrain on the Martian surface was ordinary plains, with no hills, ridges, or craters visible at all. They resembled a vast wilderness spread with sand or dust.
Fu Shan and Li Qiang stood in the second type of terrain: an enormous sunken region.
Since Earth had all but been forgotten by the cultivation world, its teleportation arrays had been abandoned and vanished a hundred years earlier. Only people who had come from Earth, like Fu Shan, would spare no expense in energy immortal stones to return to their homeland. Anyone who was not an expert cultivator could not return even if they wanted to.
Fu Shan sat cross-legged on the ground. Teleporting from Earth to Mars had cost him five top-grade Jade Tide Stones and far too much of his own power. With a wave of his hand, he raised the Five-Color Flame Gauze Cover to protect them both, then immediately began meditating, concentrating on recovering with an energy stone in each hand.
Li Qiang was still utterly bewildered. He could not believe that a person could travel from Earth to Mars through human ability alone. The very thought was inconceivable. Forced by circumstances to leave Earth, he would never see his family or friends again. At the thought of this, all his feelings of loss surged up together.
No matter what, once he achieved success in cultivation, he would return to Earth. With that decision made, his mood calmed considerably, and only then did Li Qiang examine his surroundings.
Dark red cliffs towered into the heavens beneath a deathly still sky. The surrounding silence was terrifying. A hemispherical dome of flowing colors surrounded him and Fu Shan like a giant tent. Though he did not know what it was, Li Qiang understood that this treasure must serve to protect them.
In his utter boredom, Li Qiang discovered something remarkable: he could go without breathing and feel no discomfort whatsoever. He looked at Fu Shan, who sat cross-legged, and knew he would not wake anytime soon. So he sat cross-legged beside him, considering how, ever since the Purple Flame Heart had transformed him, he still had no idea what had changed inside his body. With time on his hands, he might as well give it a try.
Once he sat down and crossed his legs, Li Qiang was stumped. He had absolutely no idea where to begin. "Hmm, right, I've read martial arts novels before. There was something about sinking your Qi into your Dantian. Let's try that."
"Huh, nothing. Great-grandfather's troubles! I refuse to believe I can't figure this out!" Li Qiang grew determined.
Holding his breath, he closed his eyes and quieted his mind. A very, very long time passed. Just as Li Qiang was about to despair, a boom rang out, and he felt as though his body had exploded open. Though his eyes were closed, he clearly saw a mass of purple flame expanding inside him. Li Qiang understood that the Purple Flame Heart had stirred.
That movement was no small matter. Like a huge stone tossed into water, it sent ripples spreading outward in layer after layer. The Purple Flame Heart was now like the water's surface, and Li Qiang's holding his breath and stilling his mind was like a huge stone crashing into it. The Purple Flame Heart's immense power had been activated.
Dazzling purple light began radiating from Li Qiang. It was so brilliant that it lit up all the surrounding scenery.
Only Li Qiang knew his own suffering. The moment the Purple Flame Heart activated, he regretted it, because he had absolutely no idea what to do next. Now this really is great-grandfather's troubles. Who knows when Brother Fu will wake up? What am I supposed to do?
The Purple Flame Heart's power swelled further and further until Li Qiang could no longer stay seated. He shot up from the ground like a cannonball leaving its barrel, burst through the protective Five-Color Flame Gauze Cover, and hurtled toward a nearby cliff. Staring at the cliff rushing toward his face, Li Qiang screamed in terror, "Waaah... the mountain's collapsing! Help..."
Bang... rumble...
He had actually called it right. A large section of the cliff collapsed from the impact. Huge rocks fell from the cliff, hurtling toward the Five-Color Flame Gauze Cover below amid deafening roars and countless clouds of dust.
Embedded deep in the cliff, Li Qiang was so frightened his soul nearly fled his body. He shouted wildly, "Brother Fu, get out of the way... Huh, how am I still alive?" He watched helplessly as the rocks crashed into the Five-Color Flame Gauze Cover. Its multicolored light suddenly began spinning rapidly, its dazzling brilliance undimmed even by the swirling, billowing dust.
Gradually, everything settled down. Li Qiang discovered that the fallen rocks had actually formed a neat ring around the Five-Color Flame Gauze Cover, without a single one breaking through.
"A treasure, what a treasure! Mommy... how am I supposed to get down from this high up?" Li Qiang was embedded in the cliff more than seventy meters above the ground, purple light radiating from his entire body. From a distance, he looked like a lamp hanging on the cliff. Fortunately, this was Mars. Who knew what a sensation it would have caused on Earth?
Crack... crack... crack... As the Purple Flame Heart continued releasing its power, the rock around Li Qiang began breaking off chunk by chunk. "This isn't fun, this isn't fun. Do me a favor... please stop breaking. Eee... waaah... I don't want to play anymore... help...!"
Boom... Heaven shook and earth trembled!
Li Qiang slammed more than half a meter into the ground, his limbs spread wide. Only after a long while did he climb up with a miserable expression. "Ptooey... ptooey..." He spat out a mouthful of dirt and sand, then viciously punched a huge rock beside him to vent his frustration.
Boom... Another tremendous crash rang out. The huge rock burst apart as though detonated by explosives, sending fragments flying everywhere. "Damn, what the hell... this thing explodes too!"
Li Qiang stood dumbly on the ground. "Brother Fu, did you turn me into a monster? This is going to be the death of me." Frightened by a situation in which his slightest move brought trouble, Li Qiang no longer dared move recklessly. He tiptoed toward the Five-Color Flame Gauze Cover, trying to get inside.
"Huh, why can't I get in? Brother Fu, open the door!" The Five-Color Flame Gauze Cover kept Li Qiang outside. No matter how hard he tried, he could not take even half a step inside. He pressed his whole body against it and gazed pitifully at Fu Shan within.
After an unknown amount of time, Fu Shan slowly opened his eyes. What greeted him was a naked young man, his purple-flamed body pressed against the protective dome, staring imploringly at him, the thing between his legs dangling loosely. He heard him shout, "Thank heavens! Brother Fu, open the door!"
Fu Shan jumped in surprise. Wasn't this Li Qiang? With a wave of his hand, he withdrew the Five-Color Flame Gauze Cover. Suddenly deprived of support, Li Qiang fell to the ground with a thud.
Watching Li Qiang scramble awkwardly to his feet, Fu Shan could not help bursting into uproarious laughter. "Hahaha... hahaha... little brother... haha, there may be no outsiders here, but there's no need to go this far... hahaha!"
Once he relaxed, Li Qiang immediately discovered that he was stark naked. It turned out that all his clothing had turned to ash after the Purple Flame Heart activated. He had just taken a garment out of his bracelet and had not even opened its packaging when, with a puff and a faint wisp of smoke, it too turned to ash. Li Qiang was dumbstruck.
Holding back his laughter, Fu Shan said, "Little brother, you can't use the things you brought from Earth right now. Until you can control the true fire released by your Purple Flame Heart, it'll burn whatever it touches."
Crossing both hands over the thing between his legs, Li Qiang said with a mournful face, "If I weren't fairly confident in my current looks, I really couldn't go on living. But I still can't face anyone like this."
His woeful expression sent Fu Shan into another fit of wild laughter. He had never expected the little brother he found this time to be such a character.
"Don't worry, little brother. Even I didn't expect your current condition. Reaching the Spirit Quiescence Realm in such a short time has really opened my eyes. An ordinary cultivator needs decades to reach this stage. Hey, you're truly impressive, getting here in just a few days. It makes a man envious."
At the praise, Li Qiang could not help puffing out his chest. Then he suddenly realized something was wrong and hurriedly bent over to keep covering his treasure, crying in embarrassment, "Big brother, I don't care about Spirit Quiescence or whatever. Hurry up and think of something. Don't leave your little brother stark naked!"
"Hehe, I originally planned to have you refine your own armor to wear before you reached the Spirit Quiescence Realm, but that won't work now. Never mind, I'll give you a suit of armor I've already refined. But you'll still have to learn how to refine armor yourself later."
Fu Shan approached Li Qiang, a suit of silver armor appearing in his hands. With a sweep of his arm, the silver armor attached itself to Li Qiang's body as though alive.
The moment the armor was on, the purple flames began scorching it. Iridescent light shimmered over the silvery-white armor, and purple flames rippled like flowing water across its surface. Slowly, the flames sank into the armor, flowing within its silvery-white surface in a beautiful display.
With the armor on, Li Qiang felt no weight at all, only a cool sensation all over his body that was extremely comfortable.
Li Qiang was already growing accustomed to marvels. He had acquired another treasure. Examining the armor on his body, he felt truly at a loss for words. It was simply a consummate work of art. Pointing at it, he asked, "What's this treasured armor called? It's beautiful. Oh, no..." A question suddenly occurred to him. "How do I take it off?"
"Hehe." Fu Shan smiled a little wickedly. "This treasured armor is called Stars Filling the Sky. It's a supreme-grade inner armor. Once it's on, it never comes off. But when the Spirit Quiescence Realm ends and your Nascent Soul first forms, the armor will attach itself to your Nascent Soul and won't be visible outside anymore. Then you'll need to refine a second suit of armor. That will be true battle armor, which you can put on and take off."
"What, I can't take it off? Then how... how am I supposed to face people? You don't expect me to walk down the street in glittering armor, do you? I... I..." Li Qiang grew a little anxious.
"Don't worry. It's perfectly normal where we're from. No one will laugh at you," Fu Shan reassured him.
"I'll give you this Jade Pupil Slip. You can learn and understand everything through it. Just send a little of your power into it. Give it a try." Fu Shan took out a piece of black jade the size of a cigarette pack and handed it to Li Qiang.
One try delighted Li Qiang. It turned out to be a memory stone containing vast amounts of information on making items, cultivation methods, formations, and so on. It was practically a computer packed with information.
"We should go. The teleportation site is some distance from here. Let's walk."
Li Qiang asked curiously, "Brother Fu, is the technology on Sealed Fate Planet very advanced? How does it compare with Earth's?"
Fu Shan smiled. "It's hard to compare. They're different kinds of technology. There are some things that people where you're from can't understand, but each has its strengths. Coming back to Earth this time really opened my eyes. Compared with the past, it's as different as heaven and earth. Once you reach Sealed Fate Planet, take your time learning new things."
Very excited, Li Qiang asked, "Are there lots of planets we can visit? Is it fun?"
"There are lots of planets we can visit, but it takes a great many immortal stones, and there must be an existing teleportation array. As for whether it's fun, you'll find out when you get there."
"Can I still return to Earth someday?"
"Yes, but you'll have to cultivate to the Body Integration Realm before you have the ability to return. Earth's ancient teleportation arrays vanished long ago. Returning to Earth depends entirely on your own cultivation level."
Li Qiang still did not understand what the Body Integration Realm meant to a cultivator. Reaching it required countless years of cultivation. He thought he could return very soon. Had Fu Shan explained a little more clearly, he would have gone mad. It had taken Fu Shan more than seven hundred full years to gain the ability to return to Earth. How long would it take Li Qiang?
Before long, they reached the teleportation site. To Li Qiang's surprise, it was actually assembled from large energy stones and looked rather like an Eight Trigrams diagram.
Fu Shan smiled. "I traveled from here to Sealed Fate Planet my first time too. But this place has been abandoned for many years, and very few cultivators still remember it. If your cultivation weren't so low, I wouldn't have thought of taking this route." His voice carried a note of wistfulness.
"All right, stand in the center of the array and wait for me to activate it." Fu Shan began replacing some depleted energy stones and setting the formation in motion. Light began flowing slowly between the stones.
Fu Shan sighed. "This teleportation site has been neglected for too long. It needs to run for a while before it can align its direction."
Sitting in the center of the array, Li Qiang felt increasingly nervous. He had traveled from Earth to Mars without understanding what was happening, but this time he was fully aware, and he did not know what would happen. He prayed silently, Passing immortals, gods and buddhas of every path, Brother God, Amitabha, bless me with a smooth arrival on Sealed Fate Planet. Amen. He made the sign of the cross and felt reassured.
As though in answer to his prayer, a series of piercing whistles suddenly sounded in the distance. Fu Shan straightened and frowned toward the distance, saying solemnly, "Who's calling with those whistles? Come here!" His voice was not particularly loud as it left his mouth, but before it had traveled far, the sound waves seemed to explode, rumbling in all directions with echoes of "Come here... come here... come here..." It was truly astonishing.
Li Qiang thought, Damn! That effective? If my prayers bring out a monster, I'll really make a fool of myself.
No monster came. Instead, the newcomer was Fu Shan's sworn enemy.