Shackles of Humanity

With his nutritional needs met, he could finally dedicate himself to studying the Body Techniques. In truth, these techniques were derived from the various fitness, wellness, and combat skills of his previous life.

In China, there was a saying: ”Train the muscles, bones, and skin on the outside; cultivate a breath of qi on the inside.” According to Shisan, Skin Refining required not only exposure to natural elements like the sun and Frozen temperatures, but also the use of external force to hammer the body and speed up its metabolism. ’But where can I find an external force like that?’

After mulling it over for a few days, he finally came up with a plan. Once, while out fishing with the old fisherman, they had passed a place called Wanghai Cliff. The terrain there jutted out into the sea, where the Sea Tide was incredibly fierce. He figured that using the waves as an external force to temper his body might just work.

He put his plan into action immediately. There were two high tides a day, with the strongest occurring when the moon was at its zenith. At first, facing the surging Sea Tide, Luo Kai couldn’t even keep his footing on the reef. But gradually, he grasped some of the techniques of the Immovable Body. About a month later, he could stand like a reef himself, remaining completely still as the waves crashed over him.

This life was peaceful and tranquil. Luo Kai sometimes felt, in a daze, that he had found the true meaning of life. But life’s hardships are unavoidable. When winter arrived, the old fisherman took a fall on a ridge between fields. After that, his health declined steadily. The rheumatic bone disease that had tormented him for half his life finally claimed his life.

Before he died, the old fisherman looked at Luo Kai with cloudy eyes, as if gazing upon his own child, his expression full of kindness and peace.

After the old fisherman passed away, Luo Kai silently buried him. ’A person’s greatness isn’t measured by grand achievements but is witnessed in the ordinary,’ he thought. Though the old fisherman had lived an obscure life, he had preserved his innate human kindness. He was, without a doubt, a great man in his own humble way.

A few days later, the old fisherman’s younger brother arrived from a neighboring village, his entire family in tow. They produced household registers and a family tree, declaring that they were the rightful heirs to the old fisherman’s property and that a vagrant like Luo Kai had no right to inherit a single thing.

Luo Kai said nothing and quietly left the home. With nowhere else to go, he found a patch of hillside at the edge of the village, put up a simple tent, and settled in.

He resolved to support himself. The area was full of unclaimed, barren slopes. If he could clear a few acres before spring, he could plant grain the following year.

He borrowed a fishing spear from the fishermen and went out to sea by himself. Though the old fisherman was gone, he had taught Luo Kai many of the small skills a country boy needed to know—fishing being just one of them. Besides, the ocean was his true domain. With survival instincts on par with any sea creature, his haul was naturally abundant. He could catch a dozen or so fish in a single trip. By trading his catch with the fishermen for grain, he managed to get through the winter.

In the spring, Luo Kai borrowed some seeds and coffee saplings from the fishermen to plant in the wasteland he had cleared. Watching the saplings grow day by day, he finally experienced the sense of satisfaction the old fisherman had described.

Luo Kai harbored no grand ambitions. It seemed his days could simply continue on, ordinary and peaceful.

「In the height of summer.」

A full moon hung in the sky. Below Wanghai Cliff, Luo Kai stood on a reef, nervously watching the massive waves roll in. Tonight was a full moon, and the Sea Tide was much larger than usual. If he was careless enough to be swept away, even with his physique, he would be in for a world of hurt.

The ferocious Sea Tide arrived right on schedule. Luo Kai felt as if he were being repeatedly slammed by a charging army. Each wave was stronger than the last, each surge more violent than the one before. He could only grit his teeth and hold his breath, knowing that if he let it go, the sea would swallow him whole.

More than ten minutes passed, yet the colossal waves showed no sign of stopping. They came one after another, each stronger than the last, their layered Giant Power seemingly infinite.

Veins bulged all over Luo Kai’s body. Seizing a brief lull between waves, he took a sharp breath, his heart hammering in his chest once more. He now had to resort to the Qi and Blood Surge technique to withstand these relentless, overlapping waves.

This had to be the one-night-a-year tidal event when the moon was closest to the planet. The waves were dozens of times more ferocious than normal. The violent tide was like countless Giant Hammers pounding his muscles and bones. Under the relentless assault, the very cells deep within him grew tougher and more resilient.

About an hour later, the tide began to recede. Luo Kai let out a slow breath, leaped off the reef, and scaled the cliff face back up to Wanghai Cliff. He examined his skin carefully in the moonlight. ’Shisan said that the first step of Skin Refining is developing thick calluses to cope with external pressure,’ he mused. ’But I’ve been training for over a year, and my skin hasn’t formed any calluses. In fact, it’s become even more supple. It feels like I could squeeze water out if I pinched it.’

Under the cold moonlight, which cast a silvery sheen across the sea, Luo Kai stood on a large boulder on Wanghai Cliff and began practicing the contortions of the Soft Body Technique. While his Skin Refining had shown little progress over the past year, his Soft Body Technique had advanced by leaps and bounds. He could now bend his body into unbelievable positions, just like a contortionist from his previous life.

After he finished practicing the Soft Body Technique, all his fatigue melted away. Luo Kai picked up a rice cake and began to eat. His harvest had been good this year; his few acres of reclaimed land had produced over a thousand pounds of rice. Combined with the fish he caught on occasion, he could just about support himself.

Once he had eaten his fill, he started walking home. As he passed an orchard, his expression flickered. He sensed several people among the trees. ’Thieves?’

He was debating whether to investigate when several unfamiliar men emerged from the trees. They were laughing and swearing boisterously, loudly chomping on fruit. They were all dressed in camouflage and armed with knives and guns. The ground around them was littered with fruit that had been discarded after a single bite.

The men noticed Luo Kai as well and gave him a brazen once-over. One of them, a brawny man wearing a bandana, shouted, ”Who the hell are you?”

’Firearms and gunpowder are expensive in this world. They’re not something ordinary people can get their hands on,’ Luo Kai thought. ’These men aren’t ordinary.’ He pointed toward the nearby village. ”I’m a fisherman from the village.”

The man sneered. ”What are you doing wandering around this late? Scram!”

”The apples aren’t ripe yet,” Luo Kai said calmly. ”Come back in a month, and I’ll treat you.”

The brawny man let out a cold laugh and suddenly swung his rifle butt at Luo Kai’s head. ”I told you to scram!”

Luo Kai leaned slightly to the side. The rifle butt struck a fruit tree next to him, snapping it in two.

The man stared, stunned for a second, before his face contorted with rage. He whipped out the dagger at his waist. ”I’ll gut you!”

A skinny man nearby grabbed his arm. ”Four, don’t cause trouble!” He then waved his hand at Luo Kai. ”You’d better get going.”

The fist Luo Kai had clenched tightly relaxed again. He turned and walked away. As he passed out of the tree’s shadow, the stark white moonlight illuminated the hideous scars covering his body. The expressions on the men’s faces changed in unison.

”That kid’s no fisherman.”

”Yeah. We’ll head into the village tomorrow and ask about him. That kid is more than he seems.”