Apotheosis Begins with Tai Chi

「Autumn. Zhao City.」

Shrouded beneath the shadow of the iron-clad city walls, the slums remained as dark as night even during the day.

The alleyways were slick and twisted. Shanties, cobbled together from broken planks and rotten felt, stood in a jagged, interlocking maze, leaning inward. To stand in their midst was to feel as if you were being slowly chewed by the gaping maw of an abyss.

”It’s all thanks to you for bringing Cheng back. I don’t know how I can ever repay you...”

”Please, Auntie, don’t say that. We couldn’t possibly... We have other matters to attend to, so we’ll take our leave.”

Chen Cheng had been awake for a while.

Curled on his side on the bed planks, his jet-black eyes stared unblinkingly at the door.

Fragments of his mother’s hushed conversation with a man and a woman still lingered in his mind.

”The Red Moon Nunnery is still buying corpses... The Vegetable People Shop is almost out of stock...”

”Yesterday, Old Li sold his grandson who’d starved to death, just to get enough money for his daughter—a Hidden Prostitute—to pay her taxes...”

’What kind of world is this...’

Chen Cheng slowly pushed himself up.

A dull pain at the back of his head shot down his neck and spine, clenching tight.

A cold wind drilled through the cracks in the plank walls, mixing the outdoor stench of feces and sour water with the damp, mildewy smell of the room. The odor was so sharp it made him scrunch his brows.

Just a moment ago, countless memory fragments had forcibly pierced his mind, rapidly assembling into a world called Earth and a complete flashback of his past life.

The wisdom of his past life had awakened.

His Heart Spirit felt as if it had been reforged, and only now did he feel a profound revulsion to the foul air he had grown accustomed to since childhood.

”Cheng! You’re awake?”

His mother, of the Li Family, backed into the room, pushing the door shut behind her and sliding the wooden bolt into place.

”Mother...”

Chen Cheng tried to force a smile to reassure her, but the sharp pain in his head made his expression look worse than if he were crying.

”How did you end up fainting in a dark alley? It’s a good thing Xiaolong and Hu Niu were passing by... If it had been anyone else, they would’ve carted you off and sold you by now...”

His mother’s eyes were bloodshot. Before she could finish, tears streamed down her face like a broken string of pearls.

’Xiaolong... Hu Niu... They’re the ones who brought me back?’

Chen Cheng had no memory of what happened after he passed out.

As for Xiaolong and Hu Niu, they were the brother and sister next door, friends he had grown up with since they were children.

As they got older, they went their separate ways to survive. He hadn’t seen Xiaolong in over a year.

He did, however, run into Hu Niu occasionally.

She had just turned sixteen. Her features had blossomed, making her much prettier than she was as a child, and her figure had filled out nicely, as if she’d only recently been getting enough to eat. Quite a few matchmakers had already come knocking on her door.

”Cheng... What on earth happened? Say something...”

His mother’s sobs pulled Chen Cheng back from his jumbled thoughts.

’...That bastard Lai Tou!’

Chen Cheng collected himself. After a moment of recollection, an image surfaced in his mind: a youth whose head was covered in festering sores.

”I was running an errand for the trading company today... On the way, Lai Tou from the Black Wolf Gang clubbed me from behind...”

Chen Cheng raised a hand and scrubbed his face. The rough skin of his palm scraped against his wind-chapped cheeks, making them sting.

For three long years, he had been a handyman at the Tea and Horse Trading Company.

He worked from dawn till dusk—feeding horses, moving goods, running errands, chopping wood, hauling water, sweeping, doing laundry... There was always an endless amount of work.

Though still young, the toil had left him looking world-weary and had hollowed out his body.

This afternoon, Lai Tou, having gotten word of his route, had ambushed him, knocked him out with a single blow, and made off with the goods.

At the time, he hadn’t felt too bad. He’d staggered back to his feet and dazedly walked back to the trading company.

After he explained the situation, the beautiful Master, who rarely made public appearances, personally came from the inner courtyard to inspect his injuries. She didn’t make him pay for the lost goods, but she wouldn’t employ him any longer.

As for this month’s unpaid wages... how could he have the gall to ask?

He had trudged back to the slums in silence. Just as he was almost home, his head had suddenly felt like it was splitting open, and he had lost consciousness.

”...How did you get on the wrong side of the Black Wolf Gang!?”

His mother’s face was a mask of terror, her voice trembling.

”I’ve never provoked them,” Chen Cheng said, his brow tightly furrowed. ”Every month when I get paid, don’t I always pay the peace coins on time?”

”What happened today was a robbery and an attempt on my life!”

He was certain that Lai Tou’s blow was meant to be fatal.

A local Gang member killing some wretched pauper was no different from killing a stray dog on the street.

In the bottomless, stagnant water that was the Outer City, it wouldn’t cause the slightest ripple.

The Patrol Guard Bureau wouldn’t even bother to investigate.

Even the victim’s family would be unlikely to report the crime.

Living in the slums, even a three-year-old knew that the gates of the Patrol Office only open for those with money. If you have right on your side but no silver in your pocket, don’t even bother.

Lai Tou knew this, which was why he acted with such impunity. If he hadn’t been in a hurry to move the goods, he probably would have carted Chen Cheng off to be sold for a few silver coins.

This world...

Though the poor walked on two legs, they were no different from livestock awaiting slaughter.

Once targeted, you had no chance of survival.

”If he really meant to kill you... he... he’ll definitely come after you again!”

His mother’s fingers twisted the patched-up sleeve of her tunic, her hands shaking violently.

Chen Cheng nodded, his expression serious.

”I’ve already thought this through... I... must learn martial arts!”

”...Learn martial arts?”

His mother froze for a second, then slowly nodded.

She didn’t understand grand principles, but she wasn’t blind.

In this abyssal hellscape of a slum, only a Martial Artist could live with a shred of dignity.

Look no further than the current Gang Leader of the Black Wolf Gang. Didn’t he become the living devil of Kuhuai Village on the strength of his martial arts?

He extorted peace coins every month and killed at will, doing whatever he pleased. In his eyes, the hundred-plus families of Kuhuai Village were no different than pigs and dogs.

If her son knew martial arts, he wouldn’t have been felled by a single blow, nearly losing his life.

”Mother...”

Seeing his mother nod, Chen Cheng’s expression grew grave.

”Right now... I don’t have even half a copper plate to my name...”

Between the Black Wolf Gang’s monthly extortion and the government’s endless taxes, every last drop of oil had already been squeezed from his bones.

Now that he’d lost his job, even putting food on the table was a problem. How could he possibly think about learning martial arts?

As if on cue, his stomach let out a loud growl.

His mother started, then instinctively turned and walked two steps to a corner of the room. She returned with half a bowl of watery gruel, so thin you could see the flecks of bran and rotten vegetable leaves floating in it.

”This... is from lunch. I ate half... I was going to... save it for tomorrow...”

Her voice was tinged with an undeniable embarrassment. Her hands, with their thick knuckles covered in chilblains, trembled slightly.

Chen Cheng said nothing. He took the bowl and drank two mouthfuls to show he didn’t mind.

Then he walked over and set the bowl down, where he saw, as expected, the empty rice pot in the corner—so clean that a mouse would slip if it fell in.

When his father was still around at the beginning of the year, the family could still afford coarse rice and gray flour.

Later, his father was forcibly conscripted, and they never heard from him again. The family’s rice gruel became thinner with each passing day.

His mother took on odd mending and washing jobs day and night, but how could that possibly keep up with the Gang and the Government Office bleeding them dry from both ends?

Chen Cheng had lived at the trading company for years. Only now did he realize that his mother had been reduced to surviving on bran gruel, and that she lived from one meal to the next with no guarantee of the next.

He had originally planned to ask his mother for some money to help him get through this crisis.

But now...

”Don’t worry about the money,” his mother said, wiping the corner of her eye with her sleeve.

”When the Government Office came to draft soldiers, you were at the trading company, so you don’t know what happened at home...”

”Originally, your grandfather wanted his three sons to draw lots to see who would go... Your first uncle refused to die, and your third uncle was sick at the time...”

”In the end, your grandfather decided your father would go. He made your first and third uncles swear an oath that they would look after the two of us...”

”Your grandfather also promised you a chance to learn martial arts. It was a favor he was owed from his younger days. He said you could learn for free for half a year...”

His mother paused, her gaze faltering.

”Back then, I was thinking that a steady job was hard to find, and I was also afraid you didn’t have what it takes to be a Martial Artist... If you quit your job at the trading company and then failed to learn anything... So... I never mentioned it to you.”

”But now, you’ve lost your job, and you have a killer after you... Whether you have the talent or not, this is a path you have to take...”

Chen Cheng listened in silence, his fists clenching unconsciously.

He had always thought his father had just been unlucky, to be forcibly dragged away by the Government Office.

He never knew there was this story behind it all.

No wonder... Third Uncle’s family was also struggling immensely, yet he would still come by every so often, sometimes even bringing a little food.

As for his grandfather and first uncle, they hadn’t cared about the widow and orphan since his father left.

Their vows to look after them weren’t worth a damn.

And that promise of learning martial arts...

Chen Cheng’s eyes darkened. He held no hope for it.

Recalling the simple, honest, and emaciated man who had given his all for his wife, son, father, and brothers, Chen Cheng’s fists clenched even tighter.

”This can’t wait. We’re going over there right now!”

His mother’s face was etched with anxiety, as if every moment they delayed put her son in greater danger.

”And it just so happens, your third uncle sent word a few days ago. He said your father finally sent a letter home, but the messenger delivered it to your grandfather’s place. We can pick it up today as well.”

Chen Cheng nodded without a word.

Even if the hope was slim, trying was better than just waiting around to die.

Besides, he had to retrieve his father’s only letter. He had to make the trip.

He pushed himself to his feet. The dull ache in his head was still there, but it no longer hindered his movement.

His mother took two coarse cloth jackets from a wooden chest. They were stuffed with straw and hemp fibers, making them hard and heavy, and they reeked of damp mildew.

They each put one on before heading out the door.

Walking through the gloomy, oppressive alleys, they navigated around piles of junk and shanties that leaned in so far that, in some of the narrowest spots, only one person could squeeze through.

Garbage, feces, and puddles of urine were everywhere. Waves of stench, almost tangible, crawled into the nostrils and flowed straight into the lungs. Every breath was like swallowing fermenting, rotten pus.

His mother walked ahead, her steps hurried, but she kept looking back at Chen Cheng.

It was as if she was afraid he’d get lost, but also that his weak, injured body might give out and he’d collapse.

Fortunately, Chen Cheng’s condition seemed to be gradually improving...

BOOM!

Halfway there, a sudden clap of thunder exploded inside his skull without warning.

An indescribable and irresistible torrent of divine energy slammed into him.

It surged and intertwined deep within his Heart Spirit, finally coalescing into a primordial sigil resembling a vertical eye, glowing with a faint, ethereal light.