That night, after returning home, David Bolton began searching for documents related to the house. As luck would have it, he finally found the hidden property certificate and a notarized document inside his pillow.

The notarized document had been handled entirely by his uncle back then. In order to buy David Bolton's family's new house at a low price, his uncle generously gave up his inheritance rights to this old house, making David Bolton the sole heir.

Three years ago, the total price of this old house was only twenty thousand. His uncle used half of his inheritance rights to offset a hundred thousand of the house payment, making the deal exceptionally advantageous at the time.

But man proposes, God disposes. Who could have predicted the housing prices would skyrocket afterward, or that this area would be selected for shantytown redevelopment?

Although this small house isn't worth much, and the current demolition compensation is only sixty thousand, the most valuable part is that owning this old house grants the qualification to purchase a resettlement apartment—that's the key point.

Houses in the same area are already approaching ten thousand per square meter, but they can buy at less than half that price. This made the uncle, who voluntarily gave up his inheritance rights three years ago, deeply regret his decision.

David Bolton carefully put away the documents hidden in the pillow. As a newcomer, his values in this world hadn't yet fully formed, but he understood that this shabby old house was currently his greatest asset.

He shook the pillow, and a thumb-sized object rolled out. The item was black and red, mostly dark, with three irregular white circles arranged on top, looking somewhat like a three-eyed dzi bead.

David Bolton reached out and picked up the object. It was quite heavy. The black part resembled charcoal, while the white circles were spotless, like three white jade rings embedded in a piece of black coal. It was this thing that had poked his head while he slept.

David Bolton was not unfamiliar with this item. It was called a Fire Source Stone. When he worked as a fire-tender and odd-job man in the Doushuai Palace, he often used it. The Fire Source Stone contained Samadhi True Fire and was a common fuel used by the Supreme Lord Laozi for alchemy.

This Fire Source Stone, however, contained no energy. In other words, the Samadhi True Fire inside had already burned out, making it no different from a piece of coal slag. There was a small hole in the center, running through from end to end, suggesting it had once been used as a pendant.

Looking at the Fire Source Stone, David Bolton couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. A spent Fire Source Stone was nothing but waste.

Chapter 7 Not Me

David Bolton found a red string, threaded the Fire Source Stone onto it, and hung it around his neck, as a small token of remembrance for his previous work.

He yawned, preparing to go to bed early. He still had class tomorrow. Although classes were boring, he had to attend in order to quickly adapt to this brand-new role.

Skipping class was routine for David Bolton, and the teachers usually turned a blind eye to his behavior.

Not only was he the worst student in the entire grade, but his athletic performance was also consistently at the bottom.

That afternoon, there was a rare sunshine sports class. Most of the students in the class chose to stay in the classroom to review, though some were freely active on the playground and in the gym. Their attention was soon drawn to a bulky figure on the track.

David Bolton was jogging along the school track. Compared to his poor academic performance, he was even more eager to improve his terrible physical condition.

A medical record he found in the small house showed that several of his current health indicators were abnormal: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, bradycardia, fatty liver, carotid artery sclerosis...

Most of these problems were caused by excessive obesity, so David Bolton needed to lose weight as soon as possible.

In the past, he could have solved these issues by refining a few pills, but now he didn't have that option. He did know some cultivation methods, but after being banished to the mortal world, his immortal meridians were severed, making it impossible to cultivate into an immortal again.

The bodies of mortals and immortals are different. For immortals, the physical shell isn't important, but for mortals to live comfortably and long in this world, the first step is to temper their bodies.

David Bolton persisted in running a thousand meters. His pace could only be described as tortoise-like, but after two and a half laps, he still achieved some exercise effect, sweating profusely and gasping for breath.

After finishing the kilometer and taking a short break, David Bolton went to the school gym to do sit-ups. He used all his strength and only managed three.

There were quite a few students in the gym. Those who were freely active pointed and laughed from a distance at the clumsy movements of the fat guy. Anyone could see he was trying hard to lose weight.

Everyone who knew David Bolton knew he was a lazybones and had never seen him so motivated to exercise before.

However, despite David Bolton's unusually active behavior, this ordinary, unremarkable fat guy still didn't attract much attention. Most people just laughed it off, thinking he was only enthusiastic for a short while and would soon give up.

Grace Howard had never paid attention to David Bolton before—at least not until the day before yesterday, when that letter suddenly reminded her of her first day entering Beichen No. 1 High School.

During that year's high school entrance exam, her scores had been completely overshadowed by a boy, causing her innate sense of superiority and competitiveness to suffer an unprecedented blow. She even saw it as a challenge.

Just as she was gearing up to compete with this boy in their first year, she discovered that he was just a flash in the pan. His brief brilliance faded completely after entering Beichen No. 1 High School.