Tiger-Striped Warrior
Haoyue was an ordinary office worker, going 9-to-5 day after day with a dull and monotonous life.
In his spare time, his favorite things were reading novels and occasionally playing a few games to relax his body and mind.
During a three-day mini-vacation, he played games to unwind. After playing for an entire afternoon, he was just about to log off when he found that a college classmate he hadn't seen in a long time had come online.
Then he kept playing in a duo with his classmate until 7 o'clock the next morning. Feeling somewhat tired, Haoyue could barely lift his eyelids, and as soon as he got back to his bed, he fell fast asleep.
After falling asleep, his consciousness plunged into boundless darkness.
A long time later.
Haoyue groggily opened his eyes. What met his gaze was an old, rough wooden ceiling, its mottled, intertwining lines carved with the traces of time.
The air was lingering with the bitter scent of herbs, mixed with the unique woody fragrance of a wooden cabin.
"Where is this..."
He subconsciously propped up his body, his head feeling dizzy and heavy with no strength throughout his entire frame.
Yet the next second, Haoyue abruptly froze, sitting bolt upright. He lowered his gaze to look at his own palms.
A pair of slender, small hands-pale and shriveled, looking malnourished-were clearly hands that only a child would possess.
A shock instantly struck Haoyue's heart.
He quickly glanced around this small room.
The room was cramped and narrow, the adobe walls mottled and cracked. In the corner stood an old, paint-peeling wooden table, upon which sat half of an extinguished candle and a chipped coarse earthenware bowl.
On a wooden hook in the corner hung a few coarse cloth garments, washed white and mended many times.
This was definitely not his rented room; there was no modern atmosphere here at all.
His heart suddenly accelerated into a wild beat, and an absurd feeling swept through his entire body.
Haoyue raised a hand to stroke his own cheek. The angles were lean, his eye sockets slightly sunken; it was the face of a malnourished young child, definitely not the round face of an adult who stayed up late all year round and had acne all over.
"Could I have time-traveled, buddy?"
Everything was unfamiliar, yet unusually real.
"Haoyue, you're awake?"
The wooden door was gently pushed open, and a thin-figured middle-aged woman walked into the room carrying a wooden basin.
She was only a little over thirty years old. Her brown hair was simply pinned up, and the corners of her eyes and lips were covered in deep fine lines. Her coarse cloth long dress was covered in patches upon patches; although worn, it was kept clean and neat.
"You child, you ran a high fever and slept for three whole days. You scared your mother to death."
The woman put down the wooden basin and raised her hand, wanting to touch Haoyue's forehead to check his temperature. Her movement was gentle and practiced, clearly long since accustomed to it.
Haoyue instinctively shrank his body backward.
The woman's movement paused, and heartache and worry immediately surged into the depths of her eyes: "Does your body still feel uncomfortable? Mother will go boil you some stomach-nourishing wheat porridge right now."
"Wait."
Haoyue spoke, his voice dry, hoarse, harsh, and grating. He looked straight into the woman's eyes and asked in bewilderment, "What did you call me? And who are you?"
"Haoyue, has your fever scrambled your brains? I am your mother, Martha Bolei." Martha's brows locked tight, filled with worry.
In a split second, a strange stream of memories poured overwhelmingly into his mind.
His name was Haoyue Bolei.
His family was the Bolei Family!
This continent was called the Yulan Continent, a world of magic and battle-qi.
Haoyue roughly guessed the world he was in.
This should be the world of Coiling Dragon that he had liked very much in his previous life, and his family was very likely the Bolei Family, one of the Four Ultimate Warriors of the Yulan Continent, the Tiger-Striped Warriors!
Because in his memories, his father had once told him that two thousand years ago, the once-prosperous Bolei Family suffered a devastating calamity. Afterwards, the descendants' bloodlines were all insufficient, making them unable to practice the family's secret manual, nor could they practice other battle-qi secret manuals.
And since they could not practice battle-qi, they could only train their physiques. Yet how difficult was it to train the physical body? Even with decades of training, the highest they could reach was only the level of a 6-rank warrior, which was why they had ended up in such a plight nowadays.
As time flowed on, the world gradually forgot the existence of the Tiger-Striped Warriors.
As for this body of his today, it was precisely a surviving lineage of the Bolei Family.
What made matters even worse was that the original owner's father had ventured deep into the Magical Beasts Mountain Range last month on an expedition and unfortunately lost his life. Comrades-in-arms had brought back the news of his death, leaving behind only a sum of external debts for him.
Mother Martha solely relied on washing clothes for the townspeople to make a hard living, raising the eight-year-old original owner by herself. Three days ago, the original owner caught a cold, his high fever refused to subside, and he breathed his last, allowing the one who came from Earth to replace him.
"I..."
Haoyue's Adam's apple bobbed up and down. Ten thousand emotions surged, and for a moment he did not know how to speak.
Seeing him in a daze, Martha instead breathed a sigh of relief, softly rambling on: "As long as you've woken up, the family secret manual your father left behind has always been properly kept by me. When you get your health back up, you can see if you can practice it."
"Family secret manual?"
Haoyue's heartbeat suddenly sped up.
Martha bent down, took a leather booklet with worn edges and a yellowed cover out of the old wooden chest in the corner, and handed it into Haoyue's hands: "This is an heirloom passed down by our ancestors. Although I heard your father say that no one has been able to cultivate it for a very long time, you must still take good care of it and fulfill the family's inherited mission."
Haoyue's fingertips trembled slightly as he took the booklet.
The cover of the booklet was carved with two ancient beast patterns alongside writing from the Yulan Continent. Thanks to the perks of being a transmigrator, he could understand the words without needing a translation.
Tiger Pattern Secret Canon.
It was the cultivation technique unique to the Tiger-Striped Ultimate Warriors!
Haoyue took a deep breath, suppressed the turmoil in his heart, and quickly sorted through his situation.
The good news: he had been reborn in the Coiling Dragon World as a descendant of one of the Four Ultimate Warriors, the Tiger-Striped Warriors!
The bad news: he was only eight years old, came from a poor family, was malnourished, had debts to repay, had no father, and faced a difficult road ahead.
But as Haoyue held the yellowed secret canon, his eyes did not grow dim. Instead, a brilliant light kindled in them.
He had memories of the story of this world, and he believed he could surely turn danger into safety.
More importantly, it was currently the year 9982 of the Yulan Calendar.
Lin Meng, who would one day rule over Hongmeng, and Linley Baruch had only just been born this year.
He had a full eight years more time to grow than Linley!
Besides, even if he wasn't very good at cultivating, getting close to Linley and following the protagonist couldn't hurt, right?
"Haoyue?" Seeing him stare off for so long, Martha called softly.
Haoyue lifted his gaze to his mother before him. Her eyes were full of love for him.
"Mom." Haoyue came back to himself. "Can I read this secret canon and cultivate on my own?"
"It was left for you, after all, so of course you can." Martha gently stroked the top of his head, her eyes full of hope. "Once you've recovered your health, you can focus on cultivating. Mom will always believe in you."
Haoyue lowered his head and quickly opened the Tiger Pattern Secret Canon.
The writing on the title page was old and blurred, but the ancient words were clearly inscribed: Tiger Pattern Secret Canon, the required cultivation technique for Tiger-Striped Warriors. Once cultivation reached mastery, one would awaken one's innate tiger pattern and gain a powerful body, allowing one to challenge opponents of higher levels...
Haoyue closed the secret canon and looked up at Martha, his eyes brimming with the passionate spirit of a chuunibyou.
"Mom, I'll cultivate hard."
"I'll stand at the top of this continent, restore the Bolei Family's glory-that's my duty. I'll make sure you never have to suffer again and can live a good life."
Martha was stunned at first. Then her eyes reddened, and she bent down to gently embrace her young son, her voice catching with emotion. "All right. Mom will be waiting. My Haoyue can definitely do it."
At that moment, daylight spilled in through the window, falling on the yellowed Tiger Pattern Secret Canon and on the young boy's strong heart.