The letter from Hogwarts was not treated with the reverence or curiosity one might expect from an orphan being offered a gateway to a hidden world. Instead, it was casually tossed into the orphanage fireplace by Li Gang. He watched with a cold, detached expression as the thick parchment curled and blackened, turning to ash along with the remnants of the coal from the previous night. In his opinion, such a mischievous prank was a waste of his time, an insult to a man who had spent three millennia deciphering the laws of the universe. He had no room in his life for fairy tales or anonymous invitations to schools for children.
However, fate did not accept his rejection so easily.
One afternoon a few days later, the weathered wooden door of the orphanage was pounded with drum like knocks.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
Each sound was as heavy as a blacksmith's hammer hitting an anvil. The force was so great that the massive doorframe hummed in protest, and flakes of plaster crumbled from the walls like snow. The children in the common room huddled together in sudden, visceral fear, their eyes wide and trembling. Mrs. Martha, the head caretaker, her face turning a sickly shade of pale, walked with shaking legs towards the entrance.
The door was pulled open only a crack before it was forced wider by a presence that defied logic. A huge, hairy head squeezed into the space, almost filling the entire doorframe by itself. The man possessed a tangled, wild mass of long black hair and a beard so thick it made his facial features almost indistinguishable. His height was terrifying; he stood like a primitive giant from the forgotten ages of the world.
A chorus of suppressed gasps and stifled screams erupted from the orphans. To them, this was a monster from a storybook come to life.
The Giant beetle black eyes, hidden beneath his unruly hair like glinting obsidian, scanned the frightened little faces in the room. He was looking for someone specific. Finally, his gaze settled on a figure sitting in the far corner, and a hint of undisguised surprise flashed in his dark eyes.
It was a young man. Though he was only eleven years old, his height already approached that of many adults. He lacked the typical scrawniness or soft chubbiness of his peers. Beneath his thin, worn clothes were clearly defined, sculpted muscle lines that looked as though they had been chiseled from granite. His broad shoulders and thick forearms exuded a quiet, explosive sense of power. He simply sat there, unmoved by the chaos, emanating an aura of mountain like steadiness that was utterly out of place in such a mundane setting.
"I am looking for Li Wolf," the Giant rumbled. His voice did not just fill the room; it seemed to boom from deep within his massive chest, vibrating the very floorboards.
He walked directly towards Li Gang. Each step made the old wooden floor groan in sharp protest, as if the building itself were bowing under his weight.
As this behemoth approached, a vast, ocean like pressure of vital energy washed over Li Gang. Finally, a ripple appeared in the cultivator's usually unperturbed eyes. For the first time since his reincarnation into this world, he felt such pure, immense physical power in another living being. It was raw, mixed, and crude. This man clearly didn't know how to refine or circulate this power, yet its foundation was far more substantial than that of any ordinary mortal.
It was the aura of a kindred spirit.
A barely perceptible flicker of interest passed through Li Gang's eyes. He stood up, meeting the Giant's gaze with an intensity that caused the larger man to blink in surprise.
At the same time, the Giant, who introduced himself as Hagrid, also keenly sensed something. This child before him did not feel like a child at all. To Hagrid's instinctual senses, it felt as though he were standing before a sleeping dragon or a prehistoric beast. That extremely restrained sense of power made the half giant feel an instinctive, prickling alarm.
"Hello, Li," Hagrid grinned, trying to offer a friendly, non threatening smile through his beard. "I am Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."
He extended a hand as large as a trash can lid, wanting to initiate a handshake. To show friendliness, he deliberately softened his movements, afraid of accidentally crushing the hand of this sturdy looking boy.
Li Gang extended his hand expressionlessly.
His palm was pitifully small compared to Hagrid's massive paw, but his knuckles were unusually large and his fingers were long and powerful. The muscles in his forearm bulged, and veins slightly protruded under the skin as if his limbs were cast from tempered steel.
The two hands, vastly different in scale, gently met.
Just as Hagrid was about to withdraw his hand, Li Gang's fingers suddenly exerted force. He gripped back with the suddenness of a closing trap.
"Ugh!"
Hagrid's smile instantly froze. It was replaced by a look of pure astonishment mixed with a flash of genuine pain. He felt as if his palm had been clamped tightly by a red hot iron tong. That terrifying, concentrated grip made even his half giant bones begin to ache faintly. It was a pressure that should have been impossible for a human, let alone a child.
He looked at Li Gang in horror. This eleven year old possessed a grip strength that rivaled the creatures Hagrid dealt with in the Forbidden Forest.
Li Gang released his hand as quickly as he had gripped it, acting as if he had only performed a trivial gesture.
Hagrid shook his numb palm, and the look in his eyes towards the boy completely changed. The patronizing warmth of an adult was gone, replaced by a hint of genuine awe and respect. He cleared his throat, explained his purpose with a bit more gravity, and stated that they also needed to pick up another equally important new student on the way.
"A change of scenery for cultivation is good," Li Gang remarked. He was indifferent to the school itself, but he was curious about a world that produced beings like Hagrid. With this mindset, he agreed to go.
________
The young man and the Giant left the orphanage, drawing stares from every neighbor on the street. They got onto a massive, clanking motorcycle and finally stopped in front of a perfectly ordinary house at Number 4, Privet Drive.
The door was opened by a corpulent man with a neck that had almost disappeared into his shoulders. His face was already purple with rage before he even saw the guests.
Hagrid led Li Gang inside, where they met a thin, bespectacled boy who looked like he had been starved for a decade Harry Potter.
Li Gang's first glance fell on Harry. His three thousand years of cultivation experience allowed him to make an instant judgment: this child had an unusual skeletal structure. He was a rare, unpolished gem of high potential. However, his vital energy was severely depleted, and his body was pitifully weak. He looked like livestock kept in long term captivity rather than a growing young man. It was a waste of good talent.
Uncle Vernon, already feeling intimidated by Hagrid's sheer size, felt an instinctive, cold fear when he saw the accomplice behind the Giant. This boy was much taller than Harry, and his muscles exuded a silent, oppressive presence that felt like a predator in a cage. But the thought of his authority being challenged in his own home made Vernon's anger override his reason.
"I said! He is not going anywhere!" Uncle Vernon roared, spraying saliva as he shouted. He tried to mask his deep insecurity with volume.
Hagrid's face darkened, his hand moving toward his pink umbrella.
Before the Giant could make a move, Li Gang stepped forward.
He said nothing. He simply stood there, a silent small mountain of bronze flesh. The air around him seemed to grow heavy, causing Vernon to feel an inexplicable sense of suffocation.
Then, Li Gang extended his hand and gently pushed Vernon's barrel like belly.
The movement was understated, almost casual, as if he were merely moving a curtain aside.
The next second, Uncle Vernon's body, weighing well over two hundred pounds, flew backward like a kicked ball. His feet left the ground entirely. With a sharp whoosh of displaced air, he crashed heavily into the wall of the hallway behind him.
Bang!
It was a dull thud that made the entire house shake on its foundations. Vernon slid down the wall like a pile of discarded mud, clutching his stomach and retching violently. His face was too purple to allow for speech. His wife, Petunia, and his son, Dudley, were already scared out of their wits, cowering and trembling in the kitchen doorway.
Harry Potter stood frozen, his mouth slightly open. He looked at the man who had tormented him for ten years, now reduced to a shivering heap on the floor, and then he looked at Li Gang. In that moment, the boy with the lightning scar felt a shift in the foundations of his world. Magic was wonderful.
_______
On the way to Diagon Alley, sitting in the rattling car of a subway train, the atmosphere was peculiar.
Li Gang looked at the thin boy beside him. Harry was clearly still in a state of shock, his eyes darting between the Giant and the powerful boy who had just silenced his uncle. Li Gang spoke calmly, his tone carrying the weight of an undeniable decree.
"Your body is too weak."
Harry looked up, startled. He saw a young man who was only a few months older than him in name, yet who seemed to exist on a completely different plane of physical reality.
"Remember," Li Gang's gaze was profound, as if he could see through the very marrow of Harry's bones. "No matter how profound the technique, no matter how bright the magic, without a strong physical body as its foundation, it is a castle built on sand. Strength is the root of everything. The flesh is the vessel; if the vessel is weak, it cannot hold the power of the heavens."
He slowly clenched his fist, which was already as large as a casserole. A series of fine, crisp cracks, grating to the teeth, emanated from his knuckles.
Crack... crack...
Harry had never heard such a blunt, overbearing theory. He looked at Li Gang's figure, which was full of explosive power, then recalled the scene of Uncle Vernon being launched by a single, effortless push. An unprecedented shock exploded in his heart, shaking every perception he had built over his miserable eleven years.
"That is right!" Hagrid, sitting across from them and taking up three seats, suddenly slapped his thigh with a sound like a thunderclap. "That is absolutely right! Wizards need strong bodies too! This is true courage!"
Li Gang ignored Hagrid's enthusiastic agreement. His gaze remained fixed on the spark of desire that had ignited in Harry's green eyes. He said lightly, "Do you want to become stronger?"
Harry was stunned. The question was simple, yet it felt like the most important thing he had ever been asked.
"I can teach you," Li Gang's tone remained calm, almost bored. "When we get to school, cultivate with me. I guarantee that if you follow my path, no one will ever bully you again. You will not need a wand to command respect."
"I..." Harry's throat worked as he swallowed hard. He nodded almost without hesitation, his head moving with all his might. "I want to!"
"Haha! Count me in too!" Hagrid excitedly thumped his chest, indicating that he also wanted to learn a few tricks from this young monster.
A powerful body cultivator, a savior of the wizarding world, and a half Giant. A strange, silent alliance began to form in the swaying subway car.
Soon, they arrived at a small, dilapidated pub called the Leaky Cauldron. After passing through the dark, cramped interior, Hagrid led them to the backyard. He faced a plain, unremarkable brick wall and pulled out his pink umbrella.
"Three up... two down..." he muttered to himself, gently tapping the bricks with the tip of his umbrella.
A magical scene unfolded before them. The tapped bricks began to writhe and contract like living things. A small hole appeared in the center of the wall and quickly expanded into a wide archway, revealing a bustling, colorful street behind it.
Harry watched in wide eyed awe, exclaiming in wonder at the sight.
Li Gang, however, only frowned. He watched the slowly moving bricks with a look of pure disdain.
"Too slow," he commented.
Hagrid and Harry both looked at him in confusion.
"Smashing this wall with a single fist would be much more efficient," Li Gang stated calmly. To him, it was a simple, logical fact of life.
The three walked into Diagon Alley. The dazzling array of magic items, from flying brooms to cauldrons bubbling with neon liquids, kept Harry captivated. Hagrid proudly pointed out everything, his chest swelling with the joy of introducing a new wizard to their world.
Li Gang, however, had no interest in the trinkets. In his eyes, these were all merely external objects, crutches for those who lacked the strength to manifest their own will through their flesh. He walked through the crowd like a wolf among sheep, his eyes searching for something that actually possessed the weight of power.