In the quiet and bizarre void, countless circular bubbles gathered together, bobbing up and down like a vast ocean!
Looking closer, inside every single bubble was a universe. The difference was that in some universes civilization was flourishing, and the bubbles emitted a brilliant, dazzling multicolored light, while other bubbles were dim in color, their universes completely dead, filled only with howling winds and lightning, with no telling when life might ever be born.
Some bubbles were expanding, even swallowing surrounding bubbles in a single gulp, while other bubbles simply shattered and vanished, leaving no way of knowing when another tiny bubble would be born in their place.
Suddenly, a streak of white light, coming from nowhere, slashed across the sea of bubbles. It traveled at extreme speed, crossing countless universes.
Sometimes it wove between mechs and monsters, sometimes it frolicked before crowds of immortals, finally plunging like a comet into a living universe of moderate size, surrounded by many tiny bubbles.
"Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon... Chemistry is the study of all changes in the myriad things; the substitution of one substance for another is truly the supreme Dao!" An old man sat on the farmland, stroking his beard as he listened to the babbling of the children in the classroom, his wrinkled face filled with hope.
"Bah! Universal gravitation, cosmic stars, electromagnetic conversion. Investigating things to the utmost to comprehend the principles of all things—that is the true Dao leading to the heavens!" Another old man, pushing a creaking, squeaking wheelbarrow, wore a dark red, rugged face full of provocation.
"Hmph! Foolish!"
"Bah! Retarded!"
"Sigh." Nearby, a teenager of ordinary appearance, about fifteen or sixteen years old, stood up, patted the dust off his backside, and muttered to himself, "Have a fight already! This is a dispute of orthodox teachings, a battle of philosophies! It's worth wagering your life and dignity on."
Unfortunately, the two old men grunted and snorted for a long time without the slightest intention of making a move. Instead, they both turned back and shouted at the teenager, "Fan Yi, you brat! Tell us, which one is the true Dao leading to the heavens?"
Fan Yi curled his lip. "Back when you wanted people to impart knowledge to you, you called it destiny. Now that you've wrung people dry, you call them a stinky brat."
"Hahaha, you unscholarly, stinky brat!" The old man sitting on the ground to rest unceremoniously took off a straw sandal and knocked it against a nearby boulder.
"Though I don't know why you drifted to this desolate place of exile when you were ten years old, the two great Daos of physics and chemistry that you brought are truly things that only sages can comprehend. Yet your stumbling, bumbling level is truly a disgrace to your teachers!"
"Old Zhangtou is right." Old Li, pushing his small pushcart, wore a look of utter contempt.
"..."
Fan Yi felt like he had just suffered a critical hit!
"Hmph! My boat is built. When the time comes, I'll sail back to the Central Plains by myself and won't take you along."
"None of us were planning to go back anyway." Old Zhangtou grunted, put his shoes back on, and got up to help Old Li push the cart.
"That's right." Old Li's dark red face split into a grin, revealing a mouthful of scorched-yellow teeth. "History is written by the victors; we might as well take root right here. Perhaps a thousand or hundreds of years from now, who knows who the true Yan-Huang orthodox line will be!"
"History is written by the victors? Bah! Feudal dregs."
"Heh, you unscholarly brat." Old Li picked up a pebble from the ground and flicked it with his finger. The pebble shot forward like an arrow released from a string.
The corners of Fan Yi's mouth curved slightly upward. His left hand swept out in a blur of afterimages, catching the pebble straight out of the air. The muscles on his arm rippled imperceptibly, completely neutralizing the Ninth Heaven of Dark Force carried within the pebble.
"Mere parlor tricks." Fan Yi opened his palm with a smug look.
"Heh! The kid has quietly mastered the Ninth Heaven of Dark Force. No wonder his mind is wandering."
"So be it. He's young and has seen the world; he's not like the new generation in the village who grew up here from childhood, nor is he full of despair like the rest of us. It's just the time for dashing youth—he might as well go make a stir in the Central Plains." Old Zhangtou sighed.
"Hmph, although this boy is precocious for his age and possesses the skills of a killer, the ways of the world are perilous; who knows what kind of trouble he'll stir up in the Central Plains martial arts world."
Fan Yi rolled his eyes. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"
"Since the two of you agree, I'll be on my way. I said goodbye to the people in the village long before I came."
Fan Yi turned around and hauled a sword and a bundle out of the bushes. "Thank you, Elder Li, for the sword, and Elder Zhang, for the silver." With a loud laugh, he turned and ran.
"This stinky brat!" The two old men watched Fan Yi's retreating figure as he ran farther and farther away, and shook their heads. "Clearly possessing the Great Dao, yet he insists on learning martial arts and wants to venture into the pugilistic world. Still, this is the vitality of youth."
Fan Yi was in a great mood. He had originally been a college student about to graduate only to become unemployed, when out of nowhere he was struck by lightning, and then transmigrated to this island to become a ten-year-old child.
For four years, if it weren't for his frail body and his covetous eye on the martial arts of the two old men, he would have run away long ago.
As for a golden finger, he figured it was probably just his own small, weak, negligible martial arts talent!
A year ago, when he cultivated Mingjin, his cultivation began to grow automatically.
It didn't stop until he reached the Ninth Heaven of Dark Force, but Fan Yi could feel that this was merely a tiny pause; his body simply needed time to adapt.
Once the unknown adaptation period passed, he would step in one fell stride into a peak that neither of the two old men had reached in their youth: Hua Jin!
According to the two old men, Hua Jin was not as clearly demarcated as Mingjin and Dark Force; once one reached Hua Jin, one could only accumulate and polish it bit by bit, until one day, with a flash of divine inspiration, one entered Dan Jin.
And beyond that lay the legendary realm that no one in thousands of years had ever reached: See God and Not Destroy!
As for whether he himself could reach See God and Not Destroy, Fan Yi said he wasn't sure, but he faintly had a hunch that he might well become the ceiling of combat power in the mortal world—meaning sitting one realm higher than the strongest individuals.
Fan Yi had also asked whether there was anything like true qi or magical power.
But the two old men told him he was afflicted with feudal toxins.
Qi Refiners were merely a legend, let alone any cultivators of immortality.
Fan Yi remained noncommittal. After all, in his previous view, even this Ninth Heaven of Dark Force was a feudal dreg. He decided that while wandering the pugilistic world, he would incidentally search for the traces of Qi Refiners.
Fan Yi jumped onto the five-meter-long boat he had designed and had the old carpenter build. Food and drink occupied more than half the space on board.
Fan Yi untied the mooring ropes and incidentally glanced up at the large island. Then he turned to row the boat, never looking back even once.
The seeds of science had already been planted by him, and he was also very curious about what kind of tree of science would grow in this world of unscientific Internal Force thousands of years later, and what kind of scientific skills would be unlocked.
Fan Yi touched the tattered book tucked inside his chest.
In his past life, he had never been free from childhood to adulthood; in this lifetime, he was going to roam the pugilistic world with his sword, living up to this chance given to him by the heavens!
"Oh, that's right, Old Li, when did you teach that stinky brat swordplay?"
"Wasn't it you who taught him?"
"Huh? I just gave him a picture-story book I bought for five copper cash back then."
"...... You mean that bullshit twenty-one-style divine sword used to fool kids that's on every street?"
"...... Yeah."
"...... Never mind, at least it's got the eighteen basic sword stances in it."