Henry Harper, after learning all of this, immediately selected an internal cultivation manual from the system and, without hesitation, placed the Nine Yang Divine Skill onto his character template. What a joke—this world’s internal energy seemed completely different from what he’d read in martial arts novels on Earth. There was no manual that could directly produce internal energy. The so-called internal cultivation secrets of this world were merely ways to use the body’s muscles, the air in the lungs, and the flow of blood to vibrate the body, thereby strengthening it and accelerating the cultivation of internal energy. Rather than calling them internal cultivation secrets, it would be more accurate to say they were something like the internal martial arts of Earth’s traditional kung fu. This was absolutely different from the internal cultivation manuals in Earth’s martial arts novels, where simply practicing would guarantee the development of internal energy!

In other words, he’d struck it rich—he had a system, and the manuals in the system were straight out of martial arts novels, which meant they were absolutely... uh...

Henry Harper was prompted by the system: to practice the Nine Yang Divine Skill, he had to first master at least three types of yang-style external martial arts... This requirement didn’t exist in the game. Fine, the game system had been made more realistic... The Nine Yin Manual required about three types of yin-style external martial arts... The Tai Xuan Classic required one each of boxing, swordsmanship, saber techniques, and an unconventional external martial art... The Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic required a Buddhist external martial art, but at an extremely high level...

All of the top-tier internal skills in the system had requirements—no, in fact, every internal skill in the system had requirements. Each demanded at least one or several external martial arts before they could be practiced. This left Henry Harper, who had hoped to develop internal energy before the age of ten, then enjoy the good life, or at least be able to support himself and immediately leave this foul orphanage, deeply disappointed. However, it also cooled his impatience.

This was the real world, not a game he was playing. There was no such thing as SAVE, no reloading from a previous checkpoint. If he died, he would truly die. If he wanted to survive, and to see this world while alive, he had to be extremely cautious...

The twenty-slot martial arts limit, and the various special effects from combining different martial arts—like practicing both Nine Yin and Nine Yang at the same time in the game would produce a myriad of combination effects; or if Tai Chi Fist and Tai Chi Sword were both mastered, a Tai Chi ultimate defense effect would appear; or if the Miao Family Sword and Hu Family Saber were both mastered, a “unity of sword and saber” effect would emerge—these were all things he had to consider. After all, this was a world where there were no do-overs, where once you started, you couldn’t regret it. What he needed to do was not make rash decisions about his future, but to proceed step by step, grounded in reality...

Henry Harper carefully selected various external martial arts from the system, as well as the internal cultivation manuals that could be linked to them after training, while also considering the future possibilities these external and internal skills represented. In the end, he chose this path: the first step, of course, was internal energy...

Arhat Fist, a Buddhist external martial art, to be mastered to the highest level, and then...

The Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic!

Chapter Three: Nine Years of Hardship

Henry Harper felt the system in his mind, where the data clearly showed that his Arhat Fist had reached level ten. With just a bit more practice, he could push it to the highest level, and then he would be able to practice the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic.

With his emotions surging, Henry Harper completely ignored the long-haired beautiful girl standing nearby watching him practice. He walked right past the dazed girl and headed straight to the cafeteria.

Nine years—nine whole years! He had spent nine years just to master this first external martial art!

Ever since he transmigrated to this world and chose the first external martial art from his cheat-like game system, his initial thought was that this was way too easy. He could effortlessly gain internal energy, and from then on, have internal power, marry whomever, obtain whatever, and achieve whatever...

But this wasn’t a game. Even though he had this game system, this world was, after all, a real world, not a game world. In other words, he hadn’t found any experience points...

Yes, the most inconspicuous yet most important thing in a game: experience points. Experience points not only level up your character, but also your martial arts. In the game, after reaching level ten with experience points, you could then master an external martial art by simply practicing it a few times, which took only a few seconds. But in the real world, where was he supposed to find experience points!?

At first, Henry Harper thought he could gain experience by killing, so he took on a lot of work in the orphanage cafeteria, including killing fish and chickens. Although the numbers were small, there were still some. But he didn’t gain any experience points at all. As for killing people... Henry Harper didn’t think that, with his nine-year-old child’s body, he could kill anyone, and besides, he never intended to kill anyone...

Unable to gain experience points, he became depressed for a month. After that, he pulled himself together and could only rely on one method to master Arhat Fist: repeated practice...