Chapter 1 Historical Changes Caused by Meteorites

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"Young Master, Young Master~" Chen Xi heard someone chirping beside his ear, though it sounded muffled and indistinct.

His head felt so heavy; Chen Xi struggled to open his eyes and thought, "I should have known better than to drink so much."

Three days had passed, and Chen Xi finally began to understand the current situation. It was the broadly defined Great Three Kingdoms Era. The Yellow Turban Rebellion had just been quelled, a time when heroes emerged in droves. It was also an era that Chen Xi, when bored, would fantasize about—after all, whether it was White Horse Silver Spear Zhao Zilong or the embodiment of wisdom Zhuge Kongming, the fervor for them in later generations was boundless. There's no other way to put it since there were so many Chinese people.

His identity now was a branch of a branch of the Yingchuan Chen Family, with even that connection being quite tenuous. Virtually unnoticed, even if he disappeared, only a maid and an old butler cared for him at home, a classic case of 'if one eats, the whole family won't starve'.

Watching the butler expertly wield a sword as if it could repel water, Chen Xi truly did not know what expression to wear. Could it be that people of this era were all so formidable? Could it be that the historical records were correct, that the quality of ancient people completely surpassed modern ones by a long shot? At any rate, Chen Xi was skeptical.

"How has Young Master Chen been feeling these days?" an old man dressed as a physician popped his head in, asking with a smile.

"I have gotten much better," Chen Xi quickly bowed and replied. Frankly, from what he knew, even a simple headache or fever could be deadly in this era, and with the severity of his previous illness, the fact that this elderly man managed to bring him back was no simple feat.

"Your complexion has improved a lot, Young Master Chen. You should still continue to practice your Inner Breath," the old man said with a smile, "Since that's the case, I will not stay any longer."

"Elder Master Chen," Chen Xi called out as the man turned to leave.

Butler Chen quickly brought over a horse, with unbelievable speed.

"Old man, seeing your eagerness to depart, I assume you must have urgent matters. Please accept this horse as a means of transportation, and do not dismiss it," Chen Xi said, pressing the reins into the man's hand. For all this time, he hadn't known the man's name, nor had the man mentioned his own.

The old man looked at Chen Xi, pondered for a moment, and then nodded in acceptance of the gift. He indeed had urgent matters, and having a horse would save a lot of trouble.

"Phew, after all, he saved my life. I should repay him as soon as possible. A physician's parental heart is their business, but repayment is mine. Chaos is about to descend soon, and if something were to happen to the old man, there wouldn't be a chance to repay later."

After the old man left, Chen Xi closed the door and prepared to go back to his room to read. For him, there was nothing more important than relearning the script of this era. Although he retained some of Chen Xi's memories, it was clear that they were not entirely complete.

"Young Master, that horse was a gift from the master when he was alive, brought back from Bingzhou especially for you. Giving it away just like that... Doesn't seem right," Butler Chen finally spoke up after Chen Xi had closed the door.

"It's no issue, I have no use for that horse. Oh, and take all the books from the study and bring them to my room. I need to review them," Chen Xi replied with a shake of the head. He knew the value of that horse, but compared to a life-saving grace, he felt it was worthwhile, at least his conscience was clear.

Chen Xi's family was not poor; on the contrary, they were a wealthy household. However, after his father, Chen Luo, passed away, Chen Xi fell seriously ill. The cost of medication and treatment drained much of the family wealth, and coupled with internal family rivalry, what was once a wealthy family had now fallen into decline.

But for Butler Chen, as long as Chen Xi recovered from his illness, there was still hope for the Chen Family to rise again. Most of the servants and singers had left when Chen Xi had been bedridden, and now a once great household was reduced to just Butler Chen and Chen Lan, who was both a singer and a maid.

Chen Xi was rather philosophical about such matters. Let them leave if they will, he thought; having the two most loyal retainers remaining was a blessing in itself.

Since his recovery, Chen Xi had not left the gates of the Chen Family residence for three whole months. In that time, he had fully mastered everything he once learned, such as literacy and the arts of music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Of course, the most important were spiritual power and formations.

After revisiting all these subjects, Chen Xi realized that the Late Eastern Han Dynasty was entirely different from the one in his memories. History might be the same, but the world had changed entirely.

As he pored over the history of the Chu-Han Period, Chen Xi quietly noted a passage: At the siege of Gaixia, Xiang Yu emerged alone and, with the strength of a single man, routed Liu Bang's thirty thousand elite troops before dying from exhaustion. Xiang Yu, who could have escaped, chose to die in battle rather than disappoint the troops of Eastern Wu. The undefeated Overlord, even in death, no one dared to approach.

Chen Xi meticulously reviewed all historical records and finally confirmed one thing: history had diverged four hundred years earlier during the era of the Chu-Han contention.

The initial change stemmed from a meteorite, referred to in records as the Divine Stone, a stone that fell to the land of the Central Plains and altered the physical constitution of its people.

In the seven hundred year stretch of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there had been very few individuals capable of cultivating Qi to strengthen themselves, and even fewer who could refine their spiritual power to resonate with the universe. But that very stone caused an anomaly across the land of the Central Plains, fundamentally changing everyone's constitution.

Almost anyone could now cultivate Qi, and the difficulty of refining spiritual power was greatly reduced. This led to military generals of the Chu-Han Period becoming increasingly powerful, with Xiang Yu being among the topmost of them.

In the original history, the phrase about his prowess "able to pull up mountains and overshadow the world" would have been an exaggeration. But in this world, it was an undeniable truth; at the peak of his power, Xiang Yu could rip out a small hill and throw it, turn air into liquid, the solid air acting like a small missile to blast a hole in the ground. In short, he was no longer human.

In the four hundred years that followed the Han Dynasty, different martial cultivator schools emerged. Military generals, who once relied on natural talent, gradually systematized a path to cultivation, making the phrase "one slash to kill a thousand" not a myth but a reality.

In the same manner, various schools of thought developed around refining spiritual power, with the emergence of secret techniques and Taoist arts, which also led to the development of methods to counter top generals. The advent of formations drastically weakened the top generals' killing capacity. Of course, for scattered and disorderly soldiers, death was the only outcome.

After four hundred years of development, Qi and spiritual power could be said to be widespread. Although most people didn't possess anything of significant quality, they at least had the qualification to access these powers. This meant that at the end of this Han Dynasty, there were farmers capable of throwing several-hundred-pound boulders over a dozen meters...

As for the strength of military generals, there were explicit records of Xiang Yu pulling mountains and throwing them. Estimating by the same ratio, Chen Xi thought that Lyu Bu could probably smash a mountain into rubble with his full force...

This was no longer the historical Three Kingdoms Era. It was probably more like a mythological version of the Three Kingdoms Era, Chen Xi silently reflected.