chapter 1 Life and Death Bead

There was a martial arts hall in every city in every state and county in the Tian Wu Country. Anyone over ten years old and had the qualifications to practice martial arts could become a martial arts hall student and practiced martial arts.
These martial arts halls were created by the sects holding the local powers in order to select outstanding talents for the sects and enrich the younger generation into the circle.
Yun Long shire county, Qing Yun City Martial Hall.
"Hiss..."
Waking up from his deep sleep, Stanley Luo took a breath of air and felt the sharp pain on his body.
Immediately afterwards, something terrible occured to his head. He quickly reached to touch his chest, and after openning his clothes, he screamed, "The bead is gone?"
This move affected the injury of the broken ribs in his chest, causing him to grimace again in pain.
Stanley Luo frowned, recalling what happened before he fell into coma.
He remembered that Yedda Liu, whom he had always had a crush on, was being pestered by Troy Zhang, a notorious playboy among Wudian students, for which he was hot-headed at the time and stood out.
Needless to say, the result was that Stanley Luo was severely beaten by Troy Zhang and his men, and it seemed that in order to show off his power in front of Yedda Liu, he hit him so hard that he fainted on the spot.
Before he fell unconscious, Zhang Hao stepped on his chest. The kick was so powerful and heavy that his ribs were broken on the spot. The bead placed close to his arms was also squeezed by the heavy pressure and embedded in his flesh and then slipped into his body.
Stanley Luo was born in an ordinary family. His parents were ordinary people with no martial arts qualifications. He had an older sister at home. Their daily livelihood depended on his father, Don Luo, who went to the mountains to collect herbs.
That bead was picked up by his father when Stanley was very young. The bead was black and white, crystal clear, and very beautiful. No matter it was summer or winter, he would felt a faint warmth when the skin contacted with the bead, so it was his favorite toy. Even when he grew up, he kept it close to his chest.
But this moment, this bead had disappeared!
"Did it really get into my body?"
Just when Stanley was thinking wildly, his head suddenly swelled so much that it felt like his skull was about to explode.
"Boom!"
It was like a violent tremor in the soul, and then his eyesight went dark, and Stanley Luo felt that he appeared in a dark and empty world.
"Where is this place?"
Fearing of unknown things and this phenomenon beyond his own cognitive scope, Stanley got extremely nervous.
Suddenly, a flash of light appeared in the dark space. It was a bead that exuded black and white brilliance. It was crystal clear, unpredictable and mysterious.
Stanley recognized it at once. This bead was his favorite toy since childhood.
Then, before he could react, the beads suddenly flew towards him, then crashed into his body and merged with him.
At the same time, a huge amount of information flooded into his mind.
Not knowing how much time passed. Stanley, who had fainted in the room, opened his eyes. He clearly felt a slight throbbing in his soul, and he also sensed that the bead was in his body, as if it had merged with his soul into one.
"The most precious Life and Death Bead, the eight dimensions in the universe, the heavens and the worlds, billions of living beings...the life meridian diagram...what kind of mess is all this?"
The new memories in his mind made Stanley almost crazy, but they were also full of mystery, and he gained some enlightenment from them.
After a long time, he gradually calmed down. He sat cross-legged on the bed. With a thought, he visualized another himself in his mind, but this self in his mind had meridians that exuded a faint white light connected to each other, all over the body.
And these white light meridians, according to the enlightenment he obtained from the Bead, were called life meridians. The life veins were connected to each other, forming a life meridian diagram.
By visualizing his life meridian diagram, Stanley discovered that the life meridians in many places on his body were much darker than other veins.
And these dim life veins were where he got injuries when he was beaten by Troy Zhang and others.
These injuries were very serious. For Stanley, who was at the second level of cultivation, if there was no good healing elixir, it would take at least more than a month to recover, and it would also have after-effect in the body, which would affect the later martial arts practice.
"Once I use the inner energy to repair the dim areas in the life meridian diagram, the injury can be restored?" The information that emerged in Stanley's mind felt a little unbelievable, completely beyond his cognition.
"Whether it works or not, I'll try it."
After thinking about this, Stanley sat down cross-legged on the bed and started the exercises. His cultivation level was the second. The inner energy was contained in the skin and flesh. With the operation of the exercises, the inner energy began to circulate in the meridians.
He felt that he was immersed in a mysterious and profound situation, and the inner energy was transforming in his body into a strong vitality, as the serious injuries in various parts of his body began to recover quickly.
In Stanley's visualization, the dark places in his life vewin diagram gradually became clearer and brighter.
"Is this the secret behind the Bead? By directly repairing the life meridians, the injuries on the body can be automatically restored? This is too amazing..."
Stanley couldn't be more shocked by the changes that had taken place in his body. The mysterious Life and Death Bead merging with him seemed to give him some special ability above the world!
If the human body was injured, the vital meridians would be damaged. When the injury was repaired, the vital veins would be repaired, and vice versa!
With a leap, Stanley got off the bed. The broken ribs on his chest had recovered, and there was no longer any pain.
He moved his body, and saw all his injuries actually recovered to normal.
"Although the inner energy has been exhausted, I am originally at the second level of cultivation. I can only store a small amount of inner energy in my skin and flesh, so I can recover quickly." Stanley checked his body.
This time he sat down cross-legged on the ground, intending to run the exercises to restore the lost inner energy.
In the process of the exercise, he would naturally visualizehis own life meridian diagram in his mind, and the route of the internal energy running through the meridians was clearly visible.
There were nine levels of martial arts, from the first to the ninth level, divided into Basics and Skills.
The higher the level of the Basics was at, the more meridians and acupuncture points involved in the movement of internal energy were, and the better the effect of the practice was gotten. If for a low-level exercise, it was the contrary case.
Stanley was just an ordinary commoner, and he practiced the lowest level of first-grade Basics, which only involved a few meridians and acupuncture points in the body. It had been three years since he entered the martial arts hall to practice at the age of ten, but he had only reached the second level of cultivation.
It was clear how poor the effectiveness of first-grade martial arts training was, and as far as he knew, some peers with superior family backgrounds were practicing high-grade martial arts, and some of them had reached the fifth or even sixth grade!
In Stanley's understanding, he only knew the three realms of martial arts laying ahead of him were the Cultivation Realm Lian Ti, The Cultivation Realm Qi Hai, and The Cultivation Realm Xian Tian. Each realm was divided into nine levels, which meant that martial arts cultivation was like ascending to the nine heavens, with each step more difficult than last one.
Practitioners in the Cultivation Realm Lian Ti were called martial artist apprentices. Only those who reached the Cultivation Realm Qi Hai were deemed as true martial artists. Those in the Cultivation Realm Xian Tian were called martial arts masters!
A martial apprentice like him at the second level of cultivation was the worst of the martial arts hall students. In the eyes of those from aristocratic families, he was trash and untouchables!
Suddenly, Stanley's attention was attracted by the life diagram he had visualized in his mind. He came up with an idea instinctively that maybe the route of inner energy could be improved and optimized.
The cultivation of the second level was very low, so Stanley quickly recovered the lost inner energy, but the thoughts that grew in his heart could not be shaken off.
All his attention was attracted by the life meridian diagram visualized in his mind at this moment. With that thought, he changed the routes of Qi operation, as he thought, in the meridians of the life meridian diagram.
Unknowing to him, the first-grade internal Basics, which originally only involved a few meridians and acupuncture points, operated through more and more meridians, far beyond the scope of the first-grade.
"Puff!"
Suddenly, the life diagram in his mind collapsed, and Stanley woke up from that mysterious and profound state.
"The running route just now was wrong, so the life meridian diagram collapsed." Stanley muttered to himself.
Meridians and acupuncture points were crucial to martial arts practice, especially when practicing internal Basics. If there was any mistake, the meridians might be damaged at least or broken at worst and resuiting in disability, and what was worse, the practitioner might go astray ang die.
The martial arts spread throughout the world had all been confirmed to be correct without any problems. No one dared to change the operation route of the practice rashly. Otherwise it was easy to make a big mistake and it would be too late to regret it.
Stanley also knew this very well, so he did not try it personally, but visualized the life meridian diagram in his mind. With the insight, he knew every meridian and acupuncture point of the human body well, so as to improve the route of the exercise.
Although the Life Meridian Diagram collapsed due to an error in the end, the original first-grade internal strength had been improved by him and had become more complicated than the route recorded in the first-grade Basics he had been practicing, and the effect of the training was bound to be much better.
Frowning slightly, Stanley touched his chin and said to himself, "The starting point of the first-grade internal cultivation is poor, so its improvement has its limits. I wonder what the effect will be if I practice this now?"
At this moment, Stanley was convinced of the enlightenment he had received from the Life and Death Bead, and immediately began to operate the improved technique.
The vitality of heaven and earth seeped into the body through the limbs and pores, and condensed into internal energy in the operation of the exercises, and was refined into the skin and flesh.
Among the nine levels of cultivation, the first three were for tempering skin and flesh, which was to store a small amount of internal Qi. The fourth to sixth levels were for tempering muscles and bones, and the seventh level was for tempering internal organs, and the eighth level was for refining blood, and the ninth level was for refining bone marrow.
After a long time, Stanley opened his eyes and felt refreshed all over. He could feel the inner energy in his skin and flesh when clenching fist, which was a bit stronger than before.
But in the past, the same practice time would not have such obvious effects.
"The improvement of the practicing was successful!" Stanley was surprised and happy.
In addition, Stanley also discovered that the inner energy he had cultivated now contained boundless vitality as well as the power of destruction.
"The Qi of both life and death?" With the enlightenment the precious Life and Death Bead give him, Stanley knew that his life began to change...