Chapter 1: Body Tempering

In the height of midsummer, the setting sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky with evening glow.

In Chen Family Village, a wedding had just concluded.

After the guests and neighbors had eaten their fill, they dispersed one by one, their laughter and chatter echoing through the small village.

Chen Yuan followed behind his parents, dressed in a short hemp tunic. In his right hand, he carried a bulging coarse cloth bag, and with his left, he held the hand of his ten-year-old younger sister as they walked toward home.

The dim, golden sunlight cast long shadows behind them.

"That old thing Chen Dahu, he really saved face today. How did he end up with such a pretty daughter-in-law..."

His parents commented on the wedding with a hint of envy, while his little sister chattered incessantly, marveling at the liveliness of the wedding and the richness of the feast.

Although they hadn't performed the six traditional rites of betrothal, in the impoverished Chen Family Village, this simple wedding was the most bustling event outside of the New Year, drawing more than half the village's households.

Chen Yuan wore a smile, listening intently to his sister’s excited recount, occasionally tugging her hand gently to remind her to avoid the potholes and stones on the dirt path.

"Second Brother, the braised pork was so delicious, I want to eat more... Second Brother, did you eat that white cake? It was so sweet... Second Brother, so chickens can be eaten? Aren't chickens for laying eggs?... Second Brother..."

As his sister posed one question after another, the smile on Chen Yuan’s face slowly faded.

He lowered his head, looked at his thin, frail sister, and said softly

"Be good, little sister. Whatever you want to eat in the future, Second Brother will buy it for you."

"Really? Then I want to eat chicken! Hmm, no, the chickens have to lay eggs to trade for copper coins, so I'll eat the braised pork instead. And that white cake, the one sweeter than white sugar..."

His sister’s voice grew increasingly bright, but Chen Yuan fell silent.

Chen Tiezhu turned back and scolded

"You wild girl, you’re the clever one, wanting to eat whatever is expensive!"

Mother Chen pushed him

"Enough! It’s not easy for the child to attend a feast, can’t she even talk about it?"

Chen Tiezhu glared at his wife, turned around, and said no more.

His little sister pouted and lowered her head, playing by stepping on their shadows.

Chen Yuan held his sister’s hand even tighter.

The family walked in silence until they reached a small courtyard.

Inside the yard stood two thatched huts, one large and one small, enclosed by a waist-high thorn fence.

A dilapidated wooden gate swayed precariously, held shut by a wooden latch.

Chen Tiezhu undid the latch, and the family entered the larger hut. Chen Yuan let go of his sister’s hand and placed the cloth bag on a rough yellow-wood table.

The room was dim, lit only by a tiny window hole covered in yellowed paper.

On the table sat a small candlestick with half a thin, burnt-down candle.

Mother Chen took a chipped earthenware bowl from a cabinet with a broken door, then pulled five heavy, coarse flour cakes from the cloth bag and placed them in the bowl. She turned the bag inside out, shook it twice, and poured the fine flour crumbs into the bowl as well.

These cakes were leftovers from the host’s feast, distributed among the villagers; the Chen family had received five.

Mother Chen picked up the bowl, glanced at Chen Yuan, then set it back down and took out one of the coarse cakes, handing it to him

"Erniu, you have a big appetite, you didn't get your fill at the feast, did you? Eat another cake."

Chen Yuan took the coarse cake

"Thank you, Mother."

"Oh, why are you being so polite with your mother? You’re acting just like those schoolboys, so good with words..."

Mother Chen scolded him, but her face blossomed into a smile, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes layering over one another.

She was only in her early thirties, yet she looked like a woman nearing fifty, her face weathered by hardship.

Chen Tiezhu chuckled

"You have to admit, Erniu is a mature lad; he’ll surely amount to something one day."

He sat at the table, took a long dry-tobacco pipe, inhaled deeply, and exhaled slowly, his face full of intoxication.

Chen Yuan smiled and put the coarse cake back into the cloth bag.

Mother Chen frowned

"Saving it for tonight again?"

Chen Yuan laughed

"I'm not hungry yet. I'll eat it before bed, otherwise, I'll wake up hungry in the middle of the night."

"Fine, then go chop the firewood."

"Alright, I'm going now."

Chen Yuan took the cloth bag and went into the other thatched hut.

This hut was small. Under the window hole to the right of the door sat a dirt bed covered with a thatched mat of uneven color, and the left side was piled with various farm tools and sundries.

Chen Yuan looked outside, then gently unbuttoned his hemp tunic.

An unbelievable sight occurred: his stomach sank inward in an extremely unnatural way, creating a shallow hollow where he had tucked the four coarse flour cakes. From the outside, however, there was no sign of anything unusual.

He took the four cakes out, put them into the cloth bag, and his stomach slowly returned to its normal shape. He buttoned his tunic, his figure looking exactly as it had before.

Chen Yuan lifted a corner of the thatched mat, hid the cloth bag underneath, picked up an axe from the pile of sundries, and went into the yard.

He gathered a small stack of firewood from the corner of the yard, went to an open space, stood up a log as thick as an arm, and swung the axe down.

*Crack!*

Chen Yuan’s arm muscles bulged as he cleanly split the wood in two.

*Crack!*

Another swing, and the second log snapped in response.

*Crack! Crack!*

Holding the four-pound iron axe, Chen Yuan split log after log, his breathing steady and his expression unchanged.

His little sister, bored in the house, came out to watch him chop wood and clapped in approval

"Second Brother is so strong, so amazing..."

A quarter of an hour later, Chen Yuan finished chopping the small pile of wood and stacked it by the stove.

By now, the sun had set, and the sky had turned dark.

Chen Yuan fed the chickens, told Mother Chen, and took his sister back to the small hut to sleep.

After playing all day, his sister was exhausted. Chen Yuan told her the story of "Wu Song Fighting the Tiger," coaxed her a little, and she fell into a deep sleep.

Chen Yuan, however, felt no sleepiness at all. He lay with his eyes open, quietly listening to the sounds of Chen Tiezhu and Mother Chen chatting in the other hut.

As the night deepened, the moon slowly rose, casting a pale glow through the window hole onto the thatched mat.

Finally, Chen Tiezhu’s snoring began, and the only sounds left in Chen Yuan’s ears were the chirping of insects and his sister’s soft breathing.

He rose quietly, stepped off the bed on tiptoe, and went to the corner of the hut. By the cold moonlight, he removed a piece of yellow clay from the wall, revealing a narrow hole.

He took out the cloth bag, gently pushed open the door, and stepped into the yard.

He looked left and right; there was no one around. The Milky Way hung in the sky, and the stars shone brightly.

Chen Yuan opened the cloth bag and took out an object.

It was a white jade *jue* (ring), delicate in texture, emitting a faint cyan light under the starlight.

Suddenly, the stars in the sky all flashed at once, converging into a thin beam of white light that descended from the heavens and landed on top of Chen Yuan’s head.

Chen Yuan closed his eyes slightly, feeling a cool sensation wash over his entire body, leaving him with a slight, comfortable tingling feeling from head to toe.

Ten breaths later, the cyan light on the jade *jue* faded, and the white light dissipated along with it.

Chen Yuan opened his eyes, and a wave of hunger surged up.

He had clearly already eaten at the feast, but now he felt like a starving refugee who hadn't eaten for three days and nights, his stomach growling incessantly.

Chen Yuan swallowed his saliva, returned to the hut, put the jade *jue* back into the bag, hid it in the wall hole, and then took out the five coarse flour cakes, devouring them ravenously.

Before long, all five cakes were in his stomach. This was two days' worth of food for an ordinary person, yet it was only enough to make him feel half-full.

Chen Yuan lay back on the bed, feeling the emptiness in his stomach, and sighed softly.

He had been in this world for three years, and he had rarely eaten a full meal.

He was originally from Earth, China. Although he had only graduated from an average university, he had studied the most popular major: Computer Science.

After graduation, he followed the trend and founded an internet company. Surprisingly, he succeeded in several rounds of financing, and in less than two years, the market value reached over a billion dollars. His own net worth soared to over a hundred million, making him a famous young entrepreneur in the country.

Young and wealthy, he was naturally surrounded by all kinds of temptations.

Chen Yuan fell into a life of luxury, surrounded by fancy cars and beautiful women, living in decadence and partying every night.

Alcohol is a poison that eats the intestines, and lust is a blade that scrapes the bones. After a few years of excessive indulgence, an irregular lifestyle, and frequent all-nighters, his body completely collapsed, and he was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer.

Chen Yuan panicked. He sold all his shares, checked into a hospital, and used the most advanced technology and medicine for treatment.

But money is not omnipotent. Chen Yuan lay in a hospital bed, spending the last two years of his life.

Only before death did he realize with regret that he was no match for destiny; he had simply caught the wind of the era, which allowed him to achieve something.

The past extravagance and luxury were like a dream.

When the vanity faded, nothing remained.

In regret and pain, Chen Yuan closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, he had become Chen Erniu.

This was a place called the State of Qi. The language and writing were vastly different from China, but the level of development was similar to ancient China, and the cultural customs were much the same.

Three years ago, ten-year-old Chen Erniu caught a cold, had no money for treatment, and died of illness.

Chen Yuan’s soul traveled through time and space, occupying his body.

The jade *jue* had followed Chen Yuan’s soul to this place.

After his success in his previous life, Chen Yuan had played the part of a refined scholar, buying many antiques and collectibles.

The jade *jue* was one of them, an ancient artifact from the pre-Qin era.

At a Sotheby’s auction, Chen Yuan had fallen in love with the jade *jue* at first sight, spending tens of thousands of dollars to win it. He loved it dearly and never let it leave his side.

However, the jade *jue* did not bring him good luck; he still contracted AIDS.

But after crossing over, Chen Yuan discovered the magical side of the jade *jue*.

Under the starlight, every twelve hours, the jade *jue* could draw starlight into his body.

After the infusion, Chen Yuan would feel hungry.

If he ate in time to replenish his energy, his body would become stronger than before, and his strength, flexibility, agility, and five senses would all be improved.

Even his thoughts and mind would become clear and sharp.

But he could only perform the next starlight infusion once the feeling of hunger had disappeared.

Otherwise, even if twelve hours had passed, the starlight drawn by the jade *jue* would have no effect.

After discovering the magical effect of the jade *jue*, Chen Yuan was ecstatic, but he quickly calmed down.

The ups and downs of his previous life had worn away all his sharp edges, making him incredibly cautious.

He dared not tell anyone about the jade *jue*’s special nature, not even his parents or sister, only performing the starlight infusion at appropriate times.

But the Chen family was poor and could barely maintain enough food and clothing.

In three years, Chen Yuan had only performed the infusion twenty-one times, mostly on specific days like New Year’s, ancestral sacrifices, weddings, funerals, or when relatives visited.

Only at these times could he eat his fill.

Yet, these twenty-one infusions alone had made Chen Yuan’s physical strength far exceed that of an ordinary person, greatly increasing his power and allowing him to control his body with meticulous precision.

When he ate at the feast today, he had stolen a few coarse flour cakes, controlled his abdominal muscles to hide them against his body, and kept them hidden for several hours without being discovered, which gave him the opportunity for this starlight infusion.

Although these five cakes were only enough to make him half-full, after the starlight infusion, it wasn't strictly necessary to replenish energy that same night; as long as the hunger was eliminated within three days, his physical strength would still improve.

The remaining four cakes were enough to help Chen Yuan digest the gains from this infusion.

But after tomorrow, he would still be hungry.

The next starlight infusion remained a distant prospect.

Chen Yuan sighed lightly, endured the half-hungry feeling, closed his eyes, and slowly drifted into sleep.

(End of chapter)