Hark work pays off!

-Five months later-

-Inside Xiao Che's room-

-9:40 pm-

A young black-haired boy can be seen laying on a bed in a dimly lit room, if his old acquaintances were to see him right now their jaws would hit the floor.

The girly and fragile lad has disappeared and in his place is a well-toned boy, with a somewhat mature face.

A thousand pushups, thousand pull-ups, one hour plank then a hundred kilometers run while carrying heavy water buckets on his shoulders, he was practicing martial arts, but unlike one would expect he did nothing impressive.

People here value cultivation more than martial arts, fighting means fighting overpowering someone of lower cultivation than you, while charging straight ahead, so good quality martial arts books are almost non-existent since no one is working on improving them.

So halfway through he gave up trying to search for martial books and continued to train his body, in the beginning, it was hard but gradually he got used to it, also he often accompanied doctor situ to get some understanding of biology here.

Anyway, like every other day, today as well Xiao Che religiously followed his workout routine but today is special, before that a long-ass recap.

*****************************

-Recap-

During the last few months, he was keenly observing his surroundings, noting every minute detail he could find.

First things first, he met the supposed 'geniuses' of the clan as well as the city, the strongest and most talented one being in the eighth of Element profound realm, this was the son of clan head Xiao Yunlong, a 20-year-old.

[AN: excluding XQ, like second only to XQ]

A single glance was all it took for Xiao Che to conclude that this was a poisonous snake, always with a smile on his lips, anyone would think that he is one's greatest well-wisher, also he was being overly chummy.

One day he saw Xiao Che training by himself, in name of 'encouraging' his 'junior brother' he gathered the entire Xiao Clan to see his improvement, cliche, he was well aware that his 'junior brother' can't cultivate and was stuck in cultivation, so to mock him he introduced himself as such.

"Xiao Yunlong, 8th stage Element profound realm, 18-year-old, please guide" intentions as clear as the cloudy sky.

What was Xiao Che supposed to say?

"Xiao Che, 15-year-old, please guide" the audience did not even try to hide their contempt.

With that the young master rushed forward straight thinking of knocking out Xiao Che in one hit, unfortunately for him his opponent was not a random mob who can only stand straight and wait for attacks to hit him.

As the young master was closing in, Xiao Che moved forward and intercepted his outstretched punch by hitting it with his left palm from below, while ki was concentrated on his right.

Even though Yunlong was full of openings from the very start, this moment of shock served as the best possible moment to counter.

As the ki-infused punch met Yunlong's face, he was lifted off the ground by 1 meter at the very least, unexpectedly Yunlong lost all of his teeth and his face got permanently squished.

From it, this much is clear that either this young master is exceptionally weak or Element profound realm was just hyped.

Since he has the highest level in this realm in floating cloud city, which Che saw so far, it can be concluded that people in the Elementary profound realm are only just above average people in terms of strength and speed, it is no stretch to call them as equivalent to fit athletic humans, like a person who has been going to the gym for a year or two at most, so yeah it IS overhyped.

On a side note, Yunlong was indeed 'guided' to the afterlife, whether he comes back or not depends on him and his non-existent willpower.

The Clan head was not happy with this development, he can't have this happen to the 'greatest genius' of the Xiao Clan, much less if it was his son.

Even though he tried to 'punish' Xiao Che but Xiao Lie countered that this was an accident moreover this was initiated by his son no less.

Even after the persuasion the clan head was hell-bent on his decision, and few elders backing him didn't help either, which resulted in a heated argument.

This further evolved into a skirmish between the two, result, two elders dead, the clan head losing his one hand, and Xiao Lie breaking through into Earth profound realm.

Xiao Lie reaching Earth profound realm surprised the whole floating cloud city, the old man no longer looks old but rather a man in his late thirties, this news even overshadowed the death of two Clan elders, who didn't even get the chance to get named.

[AN: since they are the first characters to die in this fic, it would leave a bad taste in my mouth if they died unnamed, so the first elder who died was named Xiao Bob, while the second one was Xiao Alex, two of the most well-known names from the dark age of web novel]

And why would it not? in this backwater city where a twenty-year-old who didn't even reach Nascent profound, is considered a top 'genius', so someone reaching Earth profound was stuff from myths.

That day whole Xiao Clan was brimming with joy, so a party was organized, luxury food, bootlickers, and one-armed clan head, doesn't that make him one punch man? oh, and his son is in a coma.

Slowly but surely, Xiao Che regained his honor back, a cripple beating a Profound realm cultivator was unheard of, much less if said cultivator was the top genius of the sect.

It became a topic of heated discussion among the folks, the clan head tried to suppress this but for how long? the disappearance of his son and the whole sect witnessing it just added to the fact, Xiao Lie reaching Earth profound realm didn't help either.

~~~~~~~~~~

Still, the most surprising thing which happened was Xiao Che meeting his future father-in-law, Xia Hongyi, and his son Xia Yunba, they also attended the banquet.

Nothing much to say about Yunba other than his cheerful personality, over two meters of height, and supposedly 'lack' of talent, anyway, moving on we have Mr. father-in-law, Xia Hongyi, the most underrated character in Against the Gods.

The legendary man who made a God-emperor wear a green hat and came out scratch free, if this is not the most daring man in primal chaos then who is? even though I believe ntr to be a shitty genre, this man, no this MAN is worthy of respect.

Everyone should aspire not to have balls of steel but rather balls of Xia Hongyi, and people who want to go plus ultra can have one ball of steel and one ball of Xia Hongyi, happy?

Even though it was all unintentional.

Xia Hongyi has the appearance of a slightly overweight middle-aged man with a calm and gentle demeanor, he is like your friendly neighborhood uncle.

Putting that aside, when Xiao Che came to know that he was getting married to floating cloud city's no. one beauty he was on cloud nine.

He began daydreaming of her, not only that he even thought about the name for their future kids! ha-ha-ha no.

Nothing of that sort, he got his priorities straight, and he refused the marriage, his decision of annulling the marriage was shocking for many while others were overjoyed, but the response was twice as shocking, yes, his refusal was refused.

Xia Qingyue, the peerless genius, and beauty of floating cloud city refused his refusal of annulling the marriage, the one who was shocked the most was Xiao Che, is this girl being petty by any chance, he doesn't remember her ego being high as skyscrapers... or was it?

For as long as Xiao Che has been training, he has naturally seen the whole of Floating cloud city, but he never once saw Xia Qingyue despite visiting Xia manor a few times, which he found weird.

Other than that nothing noteworthy happened.

Well, that's it for the flashback, now coming back to the present.

***********************************

-Inside Xiao Che's room-

-9:30 pm-

For the people of this world, it is common knowledge that every individual has a set of fifty-four profound veins, which he tried to confirm further by following doctor situ.

But how can a person from the modern world take that at face value?

If a person has even a little bit of knowledge of the human body or circulatory system then he knows that the number of 'main' veins in a human body is thirty-four, and arteries are twenty.

If people here count veins and arteries combined as 'Profound veins', then that explains the reason behind fifty-four profound veins.

And if he were to believe people saying his veins are damaged then doesn't that mean he would have died by now?

Or at the very least lost some of his limbs or organs, he doesn't even feel weak or anything as such.

This is also the main reason why he followed doctor situ, he now has at least some medical knowledge, add that to his modern biology knowledge, and boom, he became a third-rate doctor, who is capable of tying your neck with a rope if a snake bit you, to prevent blood flow.

'Not like there is any harm in trying anyway' He assured himself, then folded his legs and sat down on the bed in lotus position

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath for calming both the nervous system and the overworked mind, in a timed way of breathing where the exhalation is longer than the inhalation.

As someone who is used to living in a polluted world where people can't even breathe clean air, noticing something in this pure air was piece of cake.

Slowly but gradually, he could feel the presence of 'something' around him, that something being 'ki', but unlike the ki in his body which he could access long ago, this was slightly denser and more unrefined, hopefully, he didn't have many problems sensing it.

The first step was not that difficult for the reincarnate, soon, after sensing ki in the environment he began to exert his intent on the outside world to gather the ki around him, which after some trials and errors succeeded.

As he felt the ki gathering in his body, he tried to guide it inside his body, which was more difficult than other steps, after a few long and painful minutes he got the hang of it, but it was not as easy as he could not move the ki freely, rather he could just slightly alter its direction because when he tried to move it rapidly most of the ki was lost, as it escaped his body.

After a few times when he collected sufficient ki near his stomach, he began to purify it, as foreign ki and people's emotions were mixed in it.

The purified ki was then gradually and carefully brought inside his heart where he slowly pushed it into his arteries, this was the plan after all, instead of infusing ki randomly in his veins he would first try it in his arteries alone.

Out of the total twenty arteries, eight of his were 'open' for cultivating, so he just guided the ki in it, and since he was guiding ki in the same direction as the flow of blood, there was no resistance either.

Soon however something unexpected happened, his body began to heat up, as his blood flow increased, luckily it was within the margin of error, so he slowed down the pace of ki infusing in arteries and channeled some ki in his veins as well.

Simultaneously he changed his breathing pattern as well, first, he folded his tongue lengthwise and inhaled deeply through the fold, then held the breath for a count of eight and then exhaled through the nose, while keeping the mouth closed.

It was slightly tricky in the beginning, as on one hand, he was guiding ki clockwise in eight arteries while anti-clockwise in three veins on the other.

Despite the new breathing pattern aiding the process it still had its contribution in increasing its complexity.

Xiao Che even in his wildest dreams would have never thought that the simple concept of 'arteries and veins' and a few yoga exercises would be THIS much useful here.

He continued the process as long as he could, absorbing the nearby ki, then refining it from impurities and finally guiding it throughout his body.

After what felt like a few long minutes, he felt an unnatural increase in his strength, as he opened his eyes slowly, the world that came into his view felt clear than ever, it was like he was seeing this world with a whole new perspective.

What does it mean?

That he has finally begun his road to cultivation.

Yes, he officially entered the first-ever realm of cultivation, the first stage of the Elementary profound realm.

But he is not in a hurry to advance his cultivation though, rather he wants to improve his martial arts for the time being, and maybe learn some alchemy and formations, and while he is at it might collect some wifus, hmm, nah... since he is a firm believer of "More than one wifu will ruin your lifu" sect, he would go for only one wifu, that's it, hopefully.

So, in a few months when he is a little bit more strong and has his backup (Jasmine), he is going to leave for some face slapping, I mean martial arts training.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Knock Knock*

"Little Che! are you inside!" shouted Lingxi after knocking on the door

'What is she doing here in the middle of the night, wait, don't tell me, no, it can't be, could it be that she finally can't hold herself back and want to eat me, no! even if you are my little aunt I won't give in easily

"NO! Little aunt, you can't lust after your nephew"

"Wha.. what are you saying stupid little Che! why would I lust after you, it's already morning, grandpa was worried about you since you were not waking up, but looking at you making such jokes I think you are fine, hump' don't forget to come down for breakfast"

Lingxi was a bit embarrassed, she came to check on him because he is an early bird, and when you don't see an early bird early in the morning, it is not wrong to be worried right? and WHAT the hell does he mean, that she is lusting after him, she loves him, but as his aunt, she has familial love for him not romantic one! today she is going to teach him a lesson that you don't just slander Lingxi and get away with it, there ARE consequences.

As Lingxi left with a huff, Xiao Che was baffled to hear her response, isn't this what a tsundere would say? putting that aside, it is already morning! it felt like just a few minutes passed!

Twelve hours! TWELVE HOURS! and thirty minutes, he had been cultivating for twelve whole hours straight, if he studied for that long in his old world then he was sure to become an urban legend among his friends.

Forget breakfast, he greeted his grandpa and went outside for his daily training, today he was going to run with some extra weight, he did become slightly strong after reaching Element profound realm after all, leaving behind a shell-shocked Xiao Lie, who sensed Xiao Che's cultivation, wasn't his grandson a... a.. a person who can't cultivate?

Even though he was training his body but you don't just start cultivating like that right, even if his grandson was cultivating secretly for the last few months it would still be a great achievement because even the geniuses of great clans or even the sacred grounds take about one whole year to just enter the first stage of cultivation, but before he could question him, he had already left.

It's not like Xiao Lie is desperate to know how this happened, he is happy that his grandson could finally cultivate.

*******************

Both the old man and Xiao Che were unaware that even in realms of god such a thing is unheard of, there the man who reached it fastest took seven days, it would shock the whole god realm, maybe even question their talent, if they were to ever know that someone on this half dead star which lacks even normal ki, entered the first stage of cultivation in just twelve hours.