Divine Spirit World, Southern Continent, Azure Mountain
28th January, Year 42002 of the Elemental Era
It was late in the night, and rain was pouring down from the heavens. There were many majestic buildings shining brightly in the dark. There were two leading villages on the mountain, alongside many smaller ones: Mountainview Village, headed by the Wang family's Wang Jinlong, and Tranquil Vale Village, headed by the Li family's Li Minghui.
Li Family Mansion, core area
In the dimly lit chamber, silence fell as a newborn baby appeared. The thin and weak woman glanced anxiously at the maid, and her tired gaze then met the man standing next to her. Both were waiting for the baby's first cry, but only silence filled the room.
Zhang Hao felt a weird pleasure after immense pain and was instantly awakened. But only darkness filled his vision. His eyes were closed. He used all his willpower and forcefully opened them, looking at the surroundings curiously.
A loud thunder echoed amidst the rain.
The maid, looking at the boy's eyes, said slowly, "He is safe!"
Li Minghui's rejoiced voice echoed, "Haha! Worthy of my—Li Minghui's—son! You will be known as Li Gang." He was happy that his son was strong enough not to shed tears even when feeling the tremendous pain of birth.
Zhang Hao couldn't accept it for a while. 'I transmigrated! I never thought I would transmigrate one day. But why? Why me? What about my family in the other world? My parents?'
He was filled with sadness as he started thinking about various things. Any normal person would not be happy about such a sudden transmigration.
At the same time, beyond the Divine Spirit World
Immortal Zhu glanced at the young boy and narrowed his eyes. Wanderer!
It wasn't hard for him to see through this.
Li Gang's body and soul were so incompatible that it became apparent from higher-dimensional perception. Immortal Zhu could clearly see that his body and soul were conflicting with each other.
Li Gang didn't have enough strength to move around.
He thought inwardly, 'It's best to learn the language first.'
Due to the primitive instincts of babies, Li Gang felt his focus was quite enhanced. At the same time, he held much more advantage compared to ordinary babies.
He possessed an adult mindset and, at the same time, a baby's growth rate, making him an unrivalled genius.
It should be noted that Li Gang's soul transmigrated when he was just a fetus. But a mortal's soul doesn't have the ability to store memories—they only have instincts. Yet for some reason, his soul carried all his memories. However, as soon as his soul was attached to this fetus, all the memories and common sense he possessed were absorbed by his brain.
Thus, when he was born, he felt he had some kind of control over his body. He was able to forcefully open his eyes and even endure the pain of birth without crying.
Time passed.
1 month later
People have a very weird notion that transmigrating is a joyous or even blissful event. Unfortunately, they can never understand the true pain!
Initially, Li Gang had the curiosity of a child and would observe his surroundings, listen to people's words, and try to decipher them. But as time passed, his adult mindset's dominance showed. His mood began to drop. He started getting bored. As days passed, he began feeling irritated by every trivial moment.
In just one month, Li Gang felt completely devastated. He felt highly depressed, facing all kinds of psychological burdens and was on the verge of collapse.
He felt frustrated by his immense restrictions.
He felt frustrated from being teased meaninglessly.
He felt frustrated at being incapable of controlling his own body's urges. It wasn't that he couldn't control them, but for how long? Even though he could move his hands, he was still incapable of removing his clothes on his own. He would often dirty his undergarments and grow agitated because of how uncomfortable it felt.
He felt frustrated for not being able to vent his inner anger.
He felt frustrated that he couldn't do anything.
All day long, he had to gaze at the ceiling or endure some maids teasing him.
He couldn't understand what they were saying. He wanted freedom. He wanted to escape. Loneliness is not the absence of people; it is the absence of anyone who can understand your pain.
This home was hell to him! He wanted to return to his original world!
And out of everything, the only salvation he found was his mother. Whenever she was with him, he felt some kind of relief.
Unfortunately, she could never understand what he was facing. She had her own duties, and it was impossible to accompany him every moment.
It's said that ignorance is bliss. If she knew about Li Gang's situation, she would probably be even more depressed than him!
At the same time, Li Gang also realized how bad his situation was. He understood that for him, mental and physical growth were very important, and this kind of situation could lead to severe mental illness.
On that day, he decided to suppress all of his emotions and use every single moment to think! He decided to divert all his depression by keeping his brain active through different kinds of activities. He understood that if suffering has no meaning, then one must carve meaning out of suffering.
He forced himself to focus on everything he saw. Whenever he was awake, he tried to observe his surroundings and deduce whatever was possible from the slightest clues he found. Even if it was a meaningless deduction, he would still do it.
Sometimes he guessed right, sometimes wrong.
But the progress of his growth enhanced exponentially from that day forward. He resolved not to waste even a single ounce of time.
He forced himself to notice everything in detail.
His growth was soon observed by people around him.
Some pitied him for his lack of future due to his lower talent, and some showed appreciation. In this remote region, his talent could be said to be average, even though it wasn't up to the mark for a future Village Head.
He learned the language within the next 4 months and started speaking fluently one month after that. In the next 2 months, he learned to walk.
His physical growth was quite ordinary compared to his mental growth, since he focused more on his mental fortitude.
However, after learning to communicate, he still never actively tried to converse with others. He wouldn't speak much, and this troubled Song Yunlan and Li Minghui.
Li Gang wasn't indifferent. He would show humane emotions at times. But as time passed, due to inner loneliness, he became more and more indifferent to external affairs.
Li Gang even tried to attract Li Minghui's attention during this period because he wanted to learn more about the world. He wanted to cultivate like those Warriors.
Unfortunately, Li Minghui ignored him.
It wasn't that he didn't love his child, but he was too busy with clan affairs. This was quite common in this troubled world. No father had time for their son as long as they were in decent social positions. They would love their child in their own way, even if it wasn't apparent from outside.
Li Gang knew that, but he still tried.
When he was one, he started reading all kinds of books related to worldly affairs, languages, alchemy, poisons, and so on.
He wanted to gain as much knowledge as possible.
In this unfamiliar world, knowledge could be the key.
Three months passed. During this period, he learned about many things. He also realized this world followed physics laws, yet at the same time, it didn't—as if this world had its own laws.
At this time, his mother also became pregnant with another child. Li Gang pretended not to know, since he shouldn't be aware of these kinds of knowledge yet.
In another three months, he found two old books in the library. One of them was kept in a clean-up box where no one would notice.
Because Li Gang had the habit of observing even trivial things, he noticed it instantly. He went ahead and picked it up. After checking it, he found it contained many myths about the Cultivation System and the Warriors outside the world. There was even mention of someone called the Elemental Emperor. This instantly piqued his interest, since his family were believers of the Elemental God—and here it mentioned an Elemental Emperor, not a God.
The other book was a new addition to the library.
It hadn't been there before.
He picked it up and checked it. He was shocked to discover it was a Grade 6 Poison Technique named Toxin Refinement Arts.
He frowned inwardly. 'Who put it here?'
He also questioned whether it was even credible, since if it was such a great method, why would anyone leave it here?
But he ignored these thoughts and went ahead to study it. After reading it, he suddenly realized why anyone would put it here.
It turned out it was written in a completely different language. He had already learned it from the language book and could read it fluently. The reason he raised the earlier question was because he assumed most people should know this language. But what if the one who discovered this book and placed it here didn't?
That would explain a lot. He murmured, "I am really stupid!"
The reason he said that is because even the cover page title "Toxic Refinement Arts" was written in different language, but he failed to judge before. He thought inwardly. 'I have long way to go!'
Around the same time, he also stopped trying to seek Li Minghui's attention.
He started studying this art and memorizing as much of the content as possible. At the same time, he internalized how the different ingredients combined.
Six months later, Li Yuxong was born. However, it didn't affect Li Gang's lifestyle.
He kept his focus on understanding this technique.
3 years passed.
He had already learned everything in the Toxin Refinement Art. What remained was applying it practically.
Unfortunately, he lacked the strength to collect ingredients.
No one was allowed to train before the age of five in this village. It was reasonable—this was a remote village and lacked appropriate cultivation methods.
If these little kids got injured during cultivation, even if they could be healed, there would be irreversible damage to their mentality. They were quite conservative in their ideas and had no intention of taking risks. This was also why this place remained remote.
In a world dominated by strength and wisdom, if you don't even dare take risks, you deserve to be backward!
However, most of the higher-ups did train their children before the age of five, but without providing them any legitimate cultivation method. They only tried to solidify their foundations with basic exercises.
Li Gang reached the age of five, and he also formally began his cultivation.