The Kingdom of Yan, Xuesha Demonic Sect.
One early morning, the dawn barely broke, as the light fog seemed a veil, dying the Demonic Mountain that stretched for thousands of miles like an ink wash painting.
"Wild Ape Treading Snow."
"Barbaric Ape Crashing Mountain."
...
Lu Lin's movement rose and sank, practicing 'Demonic Ape Blood-Qi Art' from the first to the twenty-second move, all in one continuous stream. Shortly after, he drew a deep breath, trying to break through the twenty-third one, yet halfway through his attempt, his body stiffened like a rusty machine, unable to take even half a step.
"Just work!" Lu Lin let out a deep roar, a blood web faintly visible in either eye, as his full strength erupted, trying to make a forcible breakthrough.
But from his back and thighs came a splitting ache, and his shoulders felt as though weighed down with a thousand-jin(one jin equals 1.1 pound, 0.5 Kg) boulder. He faltered, then fell on his butt, panting for dear life, sweat pouring out of his body, as his back and thigh muscles twitched, as if having been brutally torn.
"I have failed again...." He shook his head, with a bitter smile, then wiped sweat from his forehead. "It has been three days. I can't even get over the twenty-third move. Demonic Ape Blood Qi has a total of thirty-three moves. Only half a month left to meet the three-month deadline.... It is a piece of luck to become a transmigrator, but can it be that I am going to die before my story begins? "
Since his sudden transmigration five days ago, all through his first bewilderment and apprehension, now he had gradually accepted it.
This was a cultivation world.
Mount a magical weapon to soar across the azure sky; use spells to draw power from the heavens, breaking down mountains and cutting off rivers; the Gold Core and Nascent Soul Realms might bring endless longevity... All were so tempting.
However, the precondition for all these was a spiritual root.
One without a spiritual root would be trapped in a lifetime of martial arts training.
In this cultivation world, a martial arts practitioner was humble as dust underfoot.
Their tough body, hardened through countless difficulties, was fragile before a cultivator.
Much less fighting a Gold Core or Nascent Soul guru, they could not even, after a lifetime's training, withstand a casual attack from a Foundation-Establishment cultivator.
Despite this, all cultivation sects still kept their fair share of warriors(martial arts practitioners).
For nothing but their usefulness.
With their physical strength, they could do more things than ordinary folks----mining, lugging about heavy objects, acting as death warriors, or serving as cannon fodder in the exploration of a Secret Realm...
The previous owner of this body was among the warriors-to-be whom Xuesha Demonic Sect had conscripted and brought in. Two months before, he was marched here by the Sect disciples and taught this Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art.
The Demonic Sect never kept trash.
Within three months, if one failed to master the thirty-six moves and enter into the Body Tempering Realm, they would have only one ending----being flung into a beast cage and becoming the feed for mystical beasts.
The practice was called trash recycling.
This body not only had no spiritual root but also lacked the slightest talent for martial arts. All through a two-and-a-half-month sweaty struggle, he had reached no further than the twenty-second move. With only half a month left, his wish to master the thirty-sixth moves seemed no different from a hopeless dream.
"I can't give up. Try again!" Lu Lin gritted his teeth and, mustering his soreness-softened body, stood up again.
"Please! Give me a few more days! Just a few days! I will definitely make a breakthrough! I swear!"
A disconsolate, shrill cry carried here from somewhere near.
Lu Lin swung his eyes over and saw an ashen-faced, lean teenager being dragged like a dead dog from among the crowd. The boy, his face slick with tears and snot, was desperately struggling, his ten fingers scraping blood lines on the hard ground.
Crack!
A bony-faced, goateed superintendent, deadpan, put a foot down as the boy's wrist bone cracked, broken. The cold voice sounded, "Time is up. Rules are rules."
The wailing soon faded away.
The goateed superintendent swept his wolf-like gaze over the deathly silent crowd. "What's there to see? Keep on! Practice when still alive! If your training fails, here is the example!"
All of them felt a chill inside and hurried back into their hard training.
Lu Lin had a sharper bitterness in him. Over five short days, he had seen seven or eight similar scenes. Almost every day, there were people dragged away to feed the fierce Demonic Wolves.
If no miracle happened to him, half a month later, he would follow them into the Wolves' stomach.
"What a harsh life... Transmigrate into this cultivation world yet without a spiritual root, end up a penned-in warrior at the Demonic Sect...Even if I were an ordinary mortal, I would be better off than now." Lu Lin thought with a sigh.
Escape? That was more out of the question.
According to this body's memory, every warrior had been implanted with a certain mark by the Sect immortals. Once escaping, they would soon be snatched back.
By then, one would be a hundred times more miserable.
Besides, don't think that one can be carefree after entering the First Level of the Body Tempering Realm.
Within one and a half years, one must set foot into the Third Level of the Body Tempering Realm.
Within three years, one has to break through into the Fourth Level of the Body Tempering Realm---Tendon Refining and Flesh Forging! Can't manage it? Then go feed Demonic Wolves as well, or even worse, become an ingredient for pills.
The Demonic Sect never kept trash, lest you forget the sentence.
Only upon reaching the Fourth Level of the Body Tempering Realm would one's circumstances slightly improve.
But only slightly.
For one above the Fourth Level would be summoned by immortals to carry out all kinds of tasks every so often, as a pawn or simply cannon fodder, risking their life at any moment.
In any immortal's view, a warrior was a tool, an expendable, their death mattered little, since they could conscript more people to train.
The mortal land was swarming with people.
Complaints were useless. He had no choice but to buckle down.
If wishing to live on, he could only constantly ramp up his strength. Only with enough power would he stand a greater chance of survival.
An example was those above the Seventh Level of the Body Tempering Realm or even those achieving the Primal Blood Qi Realm. They were worth more to immortals, who would give them more attention and would not let them die easily.
Soon, an hour passed, marking the end of today's training.
However, this was just the beginning. Next was their consuming work every day.
Mining ores.
Lu Lin worked mainly as a miner at Xuesha Demonic Sect.
Dragging his seemingly lead-filled legs along, he shuffled back to the bunkhouse, picking up a weighty iron pickaxe and shouldering a bamboo backpack basket before heading out.
The road leading to the mining area was lined with curiously-shaped rocks, devoid of life.
In the time a stalk of incense takes to burn out(fifteen to thirty minutes), he saw a huge bottomless pit, whose walls were dotted with over a hundred caves like a beast's maw.
Countless miners crowded in them like ants.
Lu Lin chose one and marched into its depths.
The inside path meandered along and had countless branches. In silence, he walked down a few hundred meters, arriving at the end of a tunnel.
"Time to get to work." He set down the bamboo basket, drew in a breath of air smelling of dirt and ore, and, with the pickaxe in the two-handed grip, swung it with full force at the ore wall.
Dong!
The dull crash echoed inside the cave. The strong recoil numbed both his arms.
This was a Xuan-iron mine, its walls harder than rock. Lu Lin's all-out strike could only break off a small chunk of dirt and stone.
He dared not stop and wielded the pickaxe once again.
They had a daily task.
Every day, they had to turn in three jins (one jin equals about 1.1 pounds)of Xuan-iron ore. It was no big deal if you couldn't come up with it at day's end. You could make up for it another day, as long as you averaged three jins a day in a month.
If over the past month you had failed to meet the bottom line, then sorry, but you had to go feed the Wolves.
Dong dong dong... The monotonous yet heavy strikes kept resounding in the narrow space.
An hour passed, and Lu Lin was sweaty under his thick clothing, his body sore and tired. He had to lean against the icy wall to catch his breath.
"If I got a chilled beer now, it would be awesome..."
Lu Lin sighed inwardly and grew nostalgic about his days on Earth.
Though a wage slave back then who worked long hours every day, at least he got time to blow off steam.
After getting off work, he could call out several friends for chilled beers and barbecue and brag about everything under the sun.
And those slim waists swayed and swirled on his phone screen late into the night.....But here, the shadow of death nipped at his heels, forcing him to work against time and leaving him almost no break.
A brief rest later, he clenched his teeth and rose again.
Another half hour flowed by as he dug in boredom.
Dong!
A layer of rock fell off, revealing to his eyes a shiny milky-white spot of light; Lu Lin's heart gave an abrupt leap.
"This is....a shoddy spiritual stone?"
His spirits were lifted.
Shoddy spiritual stones came along with a vein of Xuan-iron and were precious, worth far more than Xuan-iron ores. One piece of it would equal ten jins of Xuan-iron ore and also bring an additional reward of silver. This was Lu Lin's first time seeing it in these five days.
He held his breath and gingerly dug along its fringes. Before long, an irregular-shaped milky-white crystalline stone, the size of an olive, fell into his palm.
Within the stone, slivers of fog-like impurities were visible; right because of them, it was a shoddy one.
In legends, those pure and flawless were invaluable.
[Discovered: Lower-class spiritual energy. Exchange for one month of hard training? Y/N]
A message, without any warning, surfaced in Lu Lin's mind.