Volume One

Chapter 001: Meteor

On the night of December 21, 2012, the Centaurid meteor shower streaked across the sky.

Somewhere in China, an ordinary young man with a bit of an artistic and silly streak, Henry Clark, was standing on the rooftop of a tall building, admiring the meteors flashing by and vanishing into the night.

No family, no friends, and certainly no girlfriend. Lonely Henry Clark couldn’t help but get a little poetic, making a wish to the meteors: “May I become a shooting star, shining in the night sky…”

……

Eastern Divine Land, Black Dragon Mountains, Yitian Peak.

The new moon had just risen, and the sky was filled with stars.

“Bang, bang, bang…” Amid the howling mountain winds atop the peak, a special, muffled sound echoed in a fixed rhythm, unceasing.

It was late autumn, and the mountain wind was bitterly cold, yet Henry Clark wore only a pair of coarse cloth shorts. His bronze skin gleamed with a metallic sheen under the faint moonlight, his nearly naked body bulging with muscle, as if cast from bronze and iron, exuding power and vigor.

At the same time, the lines of Henry Clark’s muscles displayed a wondrous harmony and fluidity. His strong, slender body was like refined steel—unyielding and fierce, yet also resilient and supple.

Henry Clark stood with chest out, head held high, and back straight. His upper body remained motionless, while his right leg continuously swept at the massive bluestone before him. The way Henry Clark kicked was quite unusual—his long, powerful right leg moved like a supple whip, or perhaps a fish’s tail, lashing the bluestone with a strange, flexible force.

In the pale moonlight, one could clearly see stone chips and dust exploding from the bluestone in all directions.

The move Henry Clark was performing, Azure Dragon Swings Its Tail, concealed hardness within softness, yin giving birth to yang. Henry Clark’s external and internal strength flowed as one; when his leg, like a whip, struck the stone, the yin-like internal force penetrated deep, finally transforming into a burst of yang’s explosive power.

With each kick, the internal force penetrated several inches into the bluestone, then suddenly exploded. That’s why the bluestone would burst outward from within.

“Nine thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine…” Henry Clark kicked one leg after another, alternating both legs without pause. This training seemed simple and monotonous, but in reality, it required deep understanding and unity of body and mind.

The spirit first grasped the elusive changes of the divine dragon, the whole body’s muscles and bones forming a great dragon, the leg thrown as the dragon’s tail. At the same time, the flow of internal force through the meridians had to be coordinated, fully expressing the essence of this leg technique.

Each kick consumed not only physical strength and internal energy, but also spirit. The drain was far greater than it appeared.

The intense exercise caused the tiger bone and bear gall ointment smeared on Henry Clark’s body to melt and seep in, its medicinal power slowly penetrating his flesh and bones.

The arduous cultivation gave Henry Clark great strength, but also brought various hidden injuries. The tiger bone and bear gall ointment was an excellent medicine for strengthening bones, enriching blood, and boosting energy. The Vajra Five-Aspect Wheel that Henry Clark practiced was extremely fierce, especially in the early stages, requiring the aid of medicine to protect the body.

After completing ten thousand kicks, Henry Clark finally slowed down. By now, all the ointment’s medicinal power had been absorbed, and a layer of grayish bluestone dust clung to his oily skin.

Henry Clark walked several yards away, took a deep breath in the chilly mountain wind, then suddenly shouted, “Open!”

All his muscles tensed and flexed at once, and all 108,000 pores expelled force outward. The dust covering his body exploded in a cloud, and in the howling wind, the powder quickly dispersed without a trace. Henry Clark reached up to touch his bare scalp, a bit disappointed to find there was still some dust that hadn’t been shaken off.

Not a feather could be added, not a fly could land.

This was a sign of force reaching the hair’s end. Force is divided into hard and soft, technique into yin and yang. When internal and external strength reached a certain level, the body’s power became so sensitive that even the slightest weight of a feather or a fly could not settle upon it.

The Vajra Five-Aspect Wheel that Henry Clark practiced had already progressed from skin and flesh to muscles and bones. At this stage, power shifted from hard to soft, from yang to yin. The invulnerability and overwhelming force had to be refined into subtlety, tempered into the marrow.

The muscles, flesh, and bones all exerted force outward, and the subtle power shot the dust from his body. Unfortunately, the strength at the crown of his head was still lacking, unable to shake off all the dust.

He was just one step away from the third level of Vajra Body Refinement, yet he could not break through. Henry Clark couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. Fortunately, his Azure Dragon Surges the Sea Leg had finally achieved some small success, making the year of hard training worthwhile.

Ten years ago, Henry Clark, who had made a wish to the meteor, inexplicably transmigrated to this magical world, reborn in the body of an eight-year-old boy named William Grant. From then on, Henry Clark began this grueling life of relentless training.

The Red Lotus Temple, where William Grant resided, was the headquarters of the demonic Tianlian Sect. The Tianlian Sect was a giant among the demonic sects, extremely powerful and ruthlessly cruel. Within a thousand miles, the name Tianlian Sect truly struck terror into people’s hearts.

As the sect’s main base, the Red Lotus Temple was also where disciples were trained. The Tianlian Sect always believed in the law of “survival of the fittest, the strong are revered.” In training disciples, they encouraged them to compete and fight against each other.