Chapter 8: Worldly Affairs

As time passed, Ling Tian had arrived in this world for a year already. It was the 7th of July the next day; it was also Ling Tian's birthday and the Ling family had already made preparations for a large banquet. It was also the "one-year-old catch" for young master Ling as well. To the Ling family, this was an extremely big event with all the upper echelons within the Sky-Bearing Empire coming to witness the event. At the same time, they will also have a meal and bootlick the Ling family. [1]

A year was enough for Ling Tian to understand many things. With his intelligence, the conversations amongst his family members were enough to give Ling Tian a basic understanding of this world. But as he became more informed about this world, Ling Tian became more and more confused.

This world, or rather, planet, was extremely different from the Earth which he lived on in his previous life. However, there were many similarities between them. On this planet, there were three large continents: Heavenly Star Continent, Heavenly Sun Continent and Heavenly Wind Continent. The continent which the Ling family was in was the Heavenly Star Continent. All of the three continents were separated by a large ocean.

However, the humans on the three continents were not as complicated as those on Earth. The inhabitants on the three continents were all of the same skin color. If they were to be compared to the people on Earth, they would be the yellow people representing the Chinese people. It is as though this planet was completely ruled by the yellow people. Furthermore, those demon clans, bestial humans and magic which Ling Tian imagined were non-existent in this world.

On the Heavenly Star Continent, the Sky-Bearing Empire was not the only empire. There were a total of seven to eight large and small empires. The relationships among the empires were not able to escape from mutual deception and war. However, the strengths of the various empires were similar with their territorial lands evenly divided. As such, all of the empires all covetously eye on one another, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

What made Ling Tian the most surprised and puzzled was that the culture on this planet was essentially the same as that on Earth. Here, they also revere Lao-tze, Confucius, Mencius, Han Feizi and others. At the same time, everyone here spoke Chinese as though it was a planet-wide language.

In this world, there was also martial arts. However, as compared to the various sects on Earth, the martial arts in this world was just too pathetic to be compared. Almost all of the martial arts techniques here focused on external martial arts. There were only a few martial arts manuals which were able to allow one to cultivate inner Qi.

The battles in this planet were fought by cold, hard steel all over. If Ling Tian were to compare the state of this planet to Earth, the state of this planet would be like the Sui and Tang Dynasty, where technology was extremely lacking.

Ling Tian lamented to himself, "With the amount of knowledge I have, I can be said to be like a super prophet on this planet. Goodness, just how would I be able to keep a low profile? Almost everything I say will be like the perfect edition. Furthermore, there are no computers on this planet, no internet, no television or any media. The most ridiculous thing is that there isn't even the most basic media like newspaper! Not to mention the fact that there aren't the XuanHuan or Wuxia novels which I like to read..."

"F**k!" As Ling Tian thought about all of these, that was the first word which floated up in his mind! How can I survive like that! Ling Tian was completely frustrated.

After taking a look at his grandfather's study once, Ling Tian completely gave up. In the large study, almost all of the books were narrative history and could be said to be the most hypnotic type of books. Apart from the one book called "Legend of Heavenly Star Emperor", the rest of the books were filled with derogatory praises which can make a person puke for a full three days and three nights after reading it. Only his grandfather would be able to pick it up and read it happily every day! From time to time, he even recited them out loud with joy...

The thing which Ling Tian's grandfather liked to do the most was hug his grandson while holding a biography in his other hand. He would then read it out and attempt to influence his grandson with culture. After going through a round of that, Ling Tian completely did not like his grandfather anymore. That feeling was even worse than when he was beaten up in the garbage chute and had his martial arts crippled in his previous life. If he had a choice, Ling Tian would rather sit on the Tiger Bench than hear his grandfather recite. [2]

My goodness! Even the words 'completely frightening' can barely explain just how it feels. I believe even Buddha would not be able to endure it! Out of helplessness, Ling Tian could only find a hypnotic martial art from his memory and practiced it bitterly. He did not expect it to have any other use other than to hypnotize himself when he was suffering from cultural influence by his grandfather.

As such, from that day on, whenever his grandfather hugged him for a session of cultural influence, Ling Tian would hypnotize himself and the effect was wonderful!

Ling Tian became silent. He was completely pessimistic and disappointed in this world. He had lost all confidence in this world.

If not for the fact that it was just too rare a chance for him to be reincarnated with his memories, Ling Tian would most likely have stopped eating to commit suicide.

In that year, the only thing which Ling Tian gained was that the pure XianTian Qi had finally entered the first stage with the help of the Divine Dragon Shaking Formula.

Do not look down on the fact that it was only the first stage. You have to know, Ling Tian used pure XianTian Qi to set the foundation for the first stage of the Divine Dragon Shaking Formula! In the martial arts world, this was something which only existed in legends! This meant that Ling Tian would never face the difficulties of breaking through the different acupuncture points which normal martial arts cultivators would face. As long as he continued to cultivate, the Qi absorbed would be transformed into pure XianTian Qi in his body.

If the meridians of an ordinary martial arts cultivator were like small streams with many obstructions, then the meridians in Ling Tian's body were like large smooth flowing rivers! The both of them just cannot be compared with each other! The difference between Ling Tian and an ordinary martial arts cultivator was like a pauper born into a poor family and a prince born into the imperial family!

After entering XianTian, the biggest benefit was that one would never enter cultivation deviation. In this year, Ling Tian had entered into a martial arts world which he could only dream of entering in his previous life: immersing himself completely in martial arts without any worry of disturbances. Due to the fact that he still had to play the role of an infant who did not know how to walk or speak, he had a full 24 hours each day to cultivate.

This was also something which could not be avoided: If Ling Tian were to run around the place and spew vulgarities from the day he was born, no one would think that he was a genius. Instead, they would only think that he was a monster!

When he was tired of cultivating his inner Qi, Ling Tian revised all of the martial arts formulae which he obtained from his previous life to ensure that they were all still committed to his memory. In this planet where martial arts knowledge was scarce, Ling Tian knew just how large the wealth of knowledge he had was! If he were to casually use any of these martial arts formulae from his mind, it would be enough to cause a large earthquake on this planet! All of these would be the treasures for him to build his legend and protect his life in future and nothing could go wrong with them.

After carefully sorting through all of the martial arts formulae in his heart, Ling Tian began his next step. That was to sort through all of the martial arts techniques in his mind which consisted of various fists, swords, palms, movements and many other techniques.

In his previous life, Ling Tian's martial arts was crippled. After being saved by Ling Meng'er, he stayed by the shore of the Eastern Ocean alone and the only things which entertained him were online games and novels. Because he had a martial arts background, he was naturally more interested in fighting-type games. As he sorted through all of the martial arts techniques, Ling Tian had once again found the feeling of playing online games!

Of course, the greatest difference between playing online games and what he was doing was that one was killing in a virtual world while another was a simulation of battles in his mind. Although both were virtual in nature, Ling Tian was able to emulate all of the actions with his own limbs now. As such, the moves which Ling Tian simulated were those of close combat to achieve a one-hit kill.

It must be said that it was indeed a large job for Ling Tian to sort through all of this information. There was an uncountable amount of information in Ling Tian's mind and it was simply impossible to sort through all of that in just a single year. Thus, Ling Tian only picked and chose those which he felt was more important. His first choice was to protect himself especially since he felt so helpless and unsafe. Thus, his safety was his utmost priority.

As Ling Tian lay in the cradle, he closed his eyes, looking as though he was silent and contented. But in reality, his mind was moving rapidly and incessantly.

[1]: This is an event where various items such as books, brushes, abacus and many more would be placed in front of a child for him to pick one. The item which he picks would be indicative of his inclinations in future.

[2]: The Tiger Bench is a cruel method of torture used in China which may result in death.

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