Chapter 1: Awakening.

Aiden Long slowly opened his eyes, for some reason, the simple task felt so difficult at this time, he could hear a lot of voices around him and a sharp, persistent pain coursing through his body. He tried to sit up, while his eyes struggled to adjust to the brightness but his muscles protested with a searing ache. Blinking against the harsh light filtering through the canopy above his bed, he struggled to make sense of his surroundings.

"Doctor, he's waking up!" a young girl's voice exclaimed, a mix of relief and worry evident in her tone.

Aiden's vision cleared just enough to see a man in a white coat leaning over him, examining his pupils with a small, glowing crystal. Beside the doctor stood a beautiful woman with tear-streaked cheeks, clutching a handkerchief to her mouth. Her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy from crying and probably lack of sleep, but filled with hope as they locked onto his.

"Thank the heavens," she whispered, stepping closer. "Aiden, my dear boy, can you hear me? it's your mother"

"Mother?" Aiden croaked, but the word felt almost foreign on his tongue. He didn't recognize the woman, and yet a part of him felt very close to her, she looked familiar and yet so unfamiliar to him but he could feel it in his bones that the woman meant a lot to him.

"Ohh my, don't you recognize your mother?"

"He's been through a lot," the doctor said, his voice calm and measured. "Lady Long, give him some space. His mind and body need time to recover."

The doctor checked on Aiden's body again and after confirming that he seemed to be okay he got up to leave and Mrs. Long quickly followed him outside.

The young girl, Yuer, hovered near the foot of his bed, her hands wringing the hem of her apron nervously. Her wide eyes were fixed on him as if she were afraid he might disappear from before her eyes.

Aiden tried to speak again, but his throat felt raw. Instead, he closed his eyes, hoping to ease the pounding in his head. His mother's voice drifted to his ears, tinged with worry and concern. Aiden could hear clearly them even though they were already outside the room.

"Doctor, will he be alright?" she asked, her voice trembling. "He's been unconscious for so long."

The doctor sighed, a sound of professional detachment mingled with empathy. "He seems to have suffered a great shock, and that's why he's been in a coma for the past seven days. His mind might take some time to adjust, and he may experience some disorientation and temporary memory loss."

"What can be done to speed up his recovery?" The worry in her voice made Aiden feel sad.

"A vitalis elixir should get him back to his feet in a few days, I will send it over when I get back to the guild."

"Thank you, Doctor." The gratitude in his mother's voice was impossible to conceal.

As the two spoke, their voices began to fade as they moved further away from Aiden's room. His mother returned after escorting the doctor away and quietly sat by his bedside.

"Mother..." he managed to whisper, his voice a hoarse rasp. "I... I don't understand. What happened to me?"

Lady Long took his hand in hers, her touch warm and comforting. "You remember me.?"

"Yes, Mother." 

"You were struck by lightning during a terrible storm, Aiden. We feared we had lost you. But you're back now, and that's all that matters."

This was a secret known only to Mrs. Long and the servant girl Yuer, they were finding it hard to believe that Aiden survived being struck by lightning even though they witnessed it with their own eyes, and therefore decided to keep it a secret from everyone.

As Aiden listened to his mother's voice, his fragmented memories began to come together, and the past 16 years of his life flashed before his eyes.

"Yaoer?" Aiden turned to the servant girl and gently called out. He could now remember everything about his life. 

"Master Aiden, do you need anything? Water? Food?"Yaoer stepped forward, her shy demeanor giving way to genuine concern.

Aiden shook his head slowly, trying to focus on the present. "No, Yaoer. Just... just some time to think."

Mrs. Long nodded approvingly. "Rest is what you now need most."

Mrs. Long gently adjusted Aiden's pillow and quilt then kissed his forehead.

"Rest my boy, Yaoer will bring you some medicine later."

As Mrs. Long and Yaoer stepped out, Aiden closed his eyes once more, trying to calm the storm within his mind. He was the young master of the long family, famously known as the useless genius because he was unable to practice martial arts but his insights and understanding were far above his peers.

Aiden was just about to fall asleep when his mind was flooded by a new wave of information, and he realized that what had happened to him was something out of the ordinary. Something had changed within him, something profound and inexplicable. It was as if a dam had burst, releasing a torrent of information that overwhelmed his senses. 

Aiden's mind continued to reel, the influx of information relentless. He felt as if he were trying to piece together a shattered puzzle. The memories of his life before the lightning strike were now mixed with foreign memories of a very distant past, almost as if they belonged to someone else. 

"Asclepius? Medicine god codex? Way of the Dragon?" Aiden murmured to himself, feeling overwhelmed by the information flooding his mind as he tried his best to make sense of everything the flood of information finally stopped.

Aiden closed his eyes and felt the changes in his body for the first time, he realized that he was able to achieve internal peeping, something that only martial artists were capable of and he was surprised to find that he had somehow stepped into the third level of body tempering and there seemed to be a steady flow of energy into his dantian.

"Gang Qi" Aiden exclaimed in surprise.

Qi was something that could be sensed by those who had broken through the shackles of the human body by reaching the peak of the ninth level of body-tempering and officially stepping into the realm of a martial artist, and yet here he was still in the third level of body tempering but able to sense Qi.

"Yintang dan." A pill recipe appeared in Aiden's mind and before he had time to process the information he suddenly became drowsy.

As he drifted back into a restless sleep, one thought lingered at the edge of his consciousness: "The useless genius is about to rise" he felt like a sleeping dragon finally awakened.