The kitchen fire crackled low, casting flickering shadows across the soot-stained walls. The scent of steamed buns, burnt grease, and old copper filled the air. In one corner of the Zhen Family's vast kitchen, a young man knelt quietly, stirring a pot of millet gruel as if his soul were somewhere far away.
His name was Ah Yue.
To the cooks, guards, and servants, he was just another kitchen slave—unremarkable, silent, invisible.
But Ah Yue did not belong to this world.
---
He had once lived on the Blue Planet, a place of machines and electricity, where martial strength was a myth and men died quietly in hospitals under fluorescent lights. In that life, Ah Yue had been no one. An exhausted intern working night shifts, slowly ground down by poverty and pressure until his body failed.
He died in silence.
Then, he opened his eyes in a body not his own, in a world where strength was law and fists shaped fate.
---
The boy whose body he now inhabited had been a kitchen slave in the Zhen Family, a mid-tier martial clan in Grey Iron City. The original Ah Yue had succumbed to fever, forgotten by all. But with that death came a second chance—for someone else.
And with it, a System.
> [Drawback System Activated]
This world contains flawed martial techniques. You will not suffer their harm. All drawbacks will be reversed into corresponding benefits.
At first, Ah Yue thought it was a hallucination brought by fever.
But a week later, he found a manual hidden behind a cracked wall near the firewood pile. It was old, water-stained, and wrapped in rotting cloth.
Its name was simple:
> Five Poison Palm – Low-Grade Level 1 Martial Art
Cultivation Speed: Fast
Requirements: Absorb five specific poisons to awaken the body's toxic meridians.
Warning: High lethality. Known side effects include organ failure, nerve degradation, skin necrosis, and mental instability.
It was a technique abandoned long ago. Too dangerous. Too flawed.
Perfect for him.
---
That night, long after the kitchen fires had died down and the other slaves snored in their straw beds, Ah Yue crept into the herb dump behind the outer hall. The moonlight was thin, the air cold.
In his hand, he held a cloth pouch.
It squirmed slightly.
Inside was a mountain scorpion, black and thick-tailed, caught beneath a ceramic bowl two nights ago. It was the first poison required by the Five Poison Palm.
The manual instructed him clearly: Let the poison enter your bloodstream. Withstand the pain. Channel the toxins through your palm meridians.
No antidote. No guidance.
Just pain.
Ah Yue didn't hesitate.
He rolled up his sleeve and pressed the scorpion's tail against his forearm.
The sting landed with a sharp snap.
Venom surged into his blood. His arm locked up instantly. Pain bloomed—raw, searing, like fire beneath the skin. His shoulder convulsed. His vision blurred.
Then—
> [Drawback Detected: Neurotoxic Paralysis]
Reversing...
Drawback Reversed → Effect Gained: "Toxin-Conducting Veins"
Venomous palm arts enhanced. Muscle control improved under pressure.
The pain faded.
A warmth spread from his arm to his wrist, then to his fingers.
His right palm began to glow faintly under the moonlight. A faint image—a scorpion-shaped mark—flickered across his skin before fading into the flesh.
He clenched his fist.
There was strength in it now. Different from physical force. More subtle. More deadly.
The Five Poison Palm was beginning to awaken.
---
By morning, he was back at the hearth, stirring porridge like always. Liu Tao, the butcher's assistant, smacked him on the head for being slow. The cooks shouted. The guards sneered.
No one noticed the change in him.
But deep inside, Ah Yue had taken his first step into the martial path.
Not through clean manuals or noble lineage.
But through poison, pain, and perseverance.
---
In the slave quarters, beneath his straw bed, he hid the manual again. Four poisons remained:
Toad bile – induces madness
Snake venom – corrupts blood
Centipede venom – disrupts nerves
Spider toxin – rots the skin
Each more dangerous than the last.
But Ah Yue smiled faintly.