Chapter 4
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Embracing a New Life
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Ha Cheol-hyeok had been bewildered at first as well. He had no idea why he had ended up in this unfamiliar world.
"Even now, I still don't know what’s going on..."
He had no clue how something like this could even be possible. But there was one thing he vaguely sensed.
It was his desperate longing, starved for a parent's warmth, that had conjured this dream.
Experiencing it firsthand, the paternal love turned out more bitter than sweet, but even that didn't feel so bad.
"Ruyan... For your sake, I'll live fully as you."
Ha Cheol-hyeok resolved to become Ruyan completely.
As Ruyan's acupoints began to open, Ha Cheol-hyeok's own heart was opening in tandem.
Despite being told to rest, Blanc never stayed cooped up in the house.
He spent most of his time researching new theories of magic, all to heal Ruyan's body.
The rest of the time, he headed down to the village to earn money for meat.
Soon enough, Ruyan was left alone again. He crossed his legs once more.
"A goal in life... It's been ages since that feeling stirred in me."
At some point, he had lost all sense of purpose. If he had to guess, it started after becoming the Divine Bow of the martial world.
There were no more walls to surpass, no rivals to measure against in martial prowess.
He had simply continued his daily training, locked in an endless battle with himself.
"And in the end, I fell into Heart Demon Deviation."
He had lived a grand life, but it ended in utter emptiness. He thought he'd have no lingering attachments.
Yet stepping into this young body, another life awaited.
Ha Cheol-hyeok—no, Ruyan—wanted to live.
"I want to act childish and spoiled with that man called my father. I want to show him some real filial piety."
Wasn't that his lifelong wish? Of course, recovering his body came first.
He needed to regain his health, form a dantian, and restore his power from his past life.
Only once Ruyan regained his strength could he tend to Blanc's ruined waist.
"No need to rush. It'll happen in due time."
Ruyan took a light deep breath and slowly focused his mind.
Nature's energy flowed through the wide-open Zhongwan, Shangwan, and Jueque acupoints.
It wasn't a smooth flow, but with one channel cleared, the stagnation seemed a bit lighter.
"I've bought some time. Now, let's secure the muscle meridians."
To practice martial arts, one's energy meridians needed to be firm—but Ruyan decided to prioritize the muscle meridians first.
Opening all acupoints and forming a dantian would take ages.
Lying idle that whole time would be terribly inefficient.
"A healthy body draws in healthy energy."
To reclaim his past power swiftly, combining exercise with qi cultivation was best.
From that moment, Ruyan earnestly began gathering ambient energy.
With no dantian to hold internal energy yet, the process was entirely external.
It demanded intense focus and formidable patience.
For a full three hours, Ruyan didn't twitch a muscle, ceaselessly projecting his will.
Whoooong.
The condensed external energy surpassed ten years' worth of internal power, whipping into a violent gale on its own.
The pitiful campfire flickered out, and the straw bedding scattered in the wind.
"A bit more! Not enough yet."
Still, Ruyan pressed on. He clung stubbornly to nature's energy.
Another hour passed, and the fierce winds battered his body, making it hard to hold his cross-legged pose.
"This should do."
After four straight hours of focus, he reached his target.
Roughly fifteen years' worth of internal energy!
Ruyan divided it into the three acupoints.
It was far too vast for mere acupoints without a dantian.
This time, the stagnation didn't resist. It was already territory claimed by pure energy.
As before, Ruyan absorbed nature's energy and immediately redirected it.
Kwarung!
Lightning struck inside his body.
All impurities along the path burned away to nothing. The twisted channels aligned perfectly in orderly fashion.
It was incomparably swifter and more ferocious than circulating a single year's worth.
Boom!
A clash rang out, and the Gumi acupoint burst open without real resistance.
The rock-like stagnation filling it shattered—melted clean through.
Boom, boom, boom.
Zhongjing, Danzhong, and Yutang acupoints opened in a straight line.
The path from his lower abdomen surged cleanly up past his solar plexus to his chest.
"Finally, some relief."
Even with ample internal energy, bulldozing acupoints like this was incredibly dangerous.
But who was he?
The Divine Bow!
A martial god hailed as the strongest amid hundreds of thousands of warriors in the jianghu.
He wouldn't tolerate mistakes in wielding internal energy.
Whoooong.
The internal energy shot straight to Yutang, then halted effortlessly—as if its wild charge had been a joke—catching its breath.
By standard inner cultivation methods, it should next head to the throat's Yintang acupoint.
That was the forward small heavenly cycle along the Ren meridian.
But Ruyan shattered common sense here too.
"If the will is true, the path doesn't matter."
He who had mastered the supreme Return Heart Technique had no need to follow ordinary routes.
"We've come this far—finish it in one go."
Nature's energy suddenly split in two at Yutang.
Any other warrior seeing this would faint from shock or curse him mad.
Controlling external energy that wasn't even one's own was challenge enough.
Doing so in a cursed body without a dantian bordered on impossible.
Yet Ruyan decided to split and control it simultaneously.
A feat possible only to him across the Central Plains and Sobles Continent.
"Go!"
The two streams, split precisely in half, diverged to his shoulders and resumed their advance.
Juefen on the right and Zhuying on the left fell, as muscle meridians began true repair.
Kuung.
The energy flowed down both arms to his fingertips without blockage.
Then, collision erupted at his fingertips.
With both sides attacked at once, the stagnation had nowhere to flee and began resisting.
Of course, Ruyan had anticipated it. That was why he split the energy.
"You've suffered enough—now be free."
Both streams devoured the stagnation without a millimeter's error.
Flarrrk.
Fire ignited in the stagnation that had gnawed at Ruyan's life for years.
It thrashed desperately to the end, but it was futile. Swept away without even a clash, it melted.
Paat.
And finally, it vanished completely.
This was the moment the body cursed beyond holy magic's reach broke its chains.
Recovering both arms exhausted all the nature's energy.
The stagnation was tough, but most had gone into prying open sealed acupoints.
With fifteen years' worth, he barely managed the upper body—proving this body was the worst of the worst.
"Even the Central Plains' Tianyin Blocked Meridians are child's play compared to this."
Those born with Tianyin Blocked Meridians were said to inevitably die, but that wasn't true.
A super-expert with a dozen years' cultivation could baptize them back to health.
Yet Tianyin was feared because such aid was rare.
This body was far worse.
"Even purer nature's energy hit its limit at the upper body. Even baptism couldn't cure it."
A body inferior to Tianyin Blocked Meridians.
Born even in the Central Plains, it was destined for death.
But for some reason, fate had twisted—and Ruyan now faced a new life.
"At least the upper body’s usable now."
With his arms' stagnation cleared, Ruyan crawled off the straw bed.
He gripped a half-burned log.
"Heh, worse than I thought."
Just a wooden chunk.
Yet lifting it had him sweating bullets.
In his past life, sheer muscle let him yank a manor’s beam and swing it.
His bow alone weighed a hundred jin—over sixty kilograms—like a shuttlecock.
Now unable even to lift a log, despair crept in.
"Have I ever felt this powerless?"
Not even when starvation drove him to wild mountains or first drawing a bow.
This body’s limit seemed holding a rice bowl.
"No different from a newborn."
Forming a dantian was vital, but forging this frail shell came first.
"No way around overworking it."
He knew efficient ways to build strength and flexibility.
But without basic stamina, that knowledge was useless.
Time to brute-force it.
Ruyan lifted the log madly, oblivious to his sweat-soaked clothes.
"Two weeks! I’ll build base stamina by then."
A scrawny, pathetic kid on the outside—but his eyes blazed with the sharp aura of an era-defining absolute.
How much time had passed?
When Ruyan, wrestling the log, collapsed too exhausted to twitch a finger, Blanc shuffled in.
He had just finished odd jobs in the village and returned.
"Ruyan! What on earth are you doing?!"
Blanc rushed over in shock, but despite his horrified face, his pace was glacially slow.
He might even be more worn out than Ruyan.
Watching bitterly, Ruyan waved with the brightest smile he could muster.
"Just exercising."
"What? Exercising? How..."
"Felt light today. Wanted to move a bit."
"Even so! What if you hurt yourself?!"
He was half right. Ruyan was definitely pushing too hard.
But Blanc didn't know one thing: Ruyan's body was no longer so fragile it'd break from this.
"I'm fine. Sweating actually feels refreshing."
"Aigoo! Look at you drenched. Dad'll heat some bathwater quick."
Blanc, having just arrived, dashed out again to boil water.
Ruyan considered stopping him but let it be.
He wouldn't listen anyway—and deep down, Ruyan wanted to bask in that affection.
"Come to think, when was my last hot bath?"
Even in the Central Plains, always alone, he never bothered heating water.
His body felt no chill plunging into frozen streams midwinter.
But this body was different.
Hot water would loosen his muscles, aiding recovery.
"Yeah. For healing, I can indulge a little."
Since he'd entered a fifteen-year-old's body, enjoying it a bit couldn't hurt.