AN UNEXPECTED CRISIS (1)

On any given morning, Long Ming walked through the bustling streets of the big city, searching for the items his mother had asked him to buy. Since they lived in a village far from the city, he always explored every corner and maximized his time there.

At some point, as he strolled down a famous street known for its various street vendors selling assorted items — often dubious ones — he stumbled upon a book lying on the ground that piqued his interest.

"Interested, kid?" a man asked Long Ming. He was a street vendor peddling various wares, including some books, throughout the city.

"What's this book about, old man?"

"Old?!" The man felt offended at being addressed this way, as he was not even thirty yet, but he didn't let his feelings show and replied, "This is a book about cultivation, kid. And it's one of the rarest! The kind that many immortals would descend to this world to get their hands on!" The man began spouting a bunch of exaggerated and elegant things, trying to entice Long Ming and sell him the book.

Long Ming was just a 13-year-old boy, so he seemed like an easy target for the man.

"Alright, alright. Cut the nonsense, old man. How much do you want for this thing?" Despite his youth, Long Ming was not naive and knew well when someone was trying to deceive him.

"For such a grand book, I could charge up to a thousand gold coins and it would still be a fair price! However, I feel that this encounter was predestined and it is your destiny to acquire it; so, just for you, I'll sell it for 1 silver coin." The vendor, with a shrewd look, hid a wicked smile, hoping to profit greatly from the transaction.

"One silver coin? Are you crazy, old man? Or are you trying to rob me? If it's the latter, it's easier to put a blade to my throat! If this book were so important, it would have been acquired by those so-called immortals already. And if it's my destiny to obtain it, then I'll get it for free in the future. So why would I spend 1 silver coin now?" Long Ming spoke with presumption and pride, as if it were an obvious fact. His voice carried an arrogant tone that made a vein pop on the vendor's forehead.

"Rob you? Oh, you brat!" Despite his irritation, the vendor maintained his composure, trying to convince Long Ming to buy the book.

"Look, 1 silver coin may seem like a lot, but in the face of a glorious future like this, it's worth less than dung!"

"Listen, old man, if one silver coin is worth so little, why not sell it to me for 5 copper coins? Since copper is worth more than dung!" 

After a lengthy discussion, the vendor finally relented and sold the book for 3 copper coins. Long Ming walked away happily, humming a tune, while the street vendor tried to suppress his tears.

After acquiring the book, he went about his tasks and a few hours later returned home. On the way home, Long Ming took the opportunity to read the book, quite curious about its content.

"Oh! So cultivation is a way to become stronger and live longer, huh..." The book wasn't very large, with only a few dozen pages, and its content was quite simple.

According to the book, cultivation was a way to transcend one's own existence and rise above the heavens. But being a cultivator was far from easy and quick, requiring a lot of talent and effort. Furthermore, cultivation was accompanied by great adversities and misfortunes.

"As they say: no pain, no gain..." After finishing reading the book, he had already reached the entrance of his village.

Thunderstorms!!!

Several flashes of light appeared and disappeared all over the world, accompanied by thunderous roars.

Below, the earth began to shake and break into various pieces, cracks with kilometers of depth and width appeared in every corner of that place.

The night sky lit up with several 'points' of light, these points increasing in size every second.

After a few seconds, it became possible to perceive that these points were, in fact, meteors! And not just one, but many, dozens or even hundreds of thousands of meteors!

When the meteors fell to the ground, extremely powerful shockwaves swept away everything in their path, pieces of earth the size of mountains began to fly through the air, and countless craters the size of entire countries appeared in every corner of that world.

It was an unprecedented apocalyptic scene, and the dimensions of this event were incomprehensible to any living being witnessing it.

Soon after, even the world itself began to break into thousands of pieces, each as large as some stars, and traveled aimlessly through space.

When the world shattered into various pieces, everything seemed to have returned to normal. The darkness of space began to conceal all signs of this event, until suddenly, an overwhelming aura appeared out of nowhere.

It was an oppressive aura that distorted the very laws of the universe, and before it, everything was mere dust and insignificant insects.

At that moment, the observer of this entire event felt as if they were being stared at by an omnipotent entity, and their consciousness was instantly expelled from that place.

"AHHHHH!!!" Long Ming woke up screaming, his heart pounding frantically, and his entire body, soaked in sweat, trembling uncontrollably.

"What's wrong, brother? Did the boogeyman invade your dream?" Long Ming's scream woke up his younger sister who, annoyed at being awakened suddenly, began to mock him.

"Tsk, go back to sleep, brat," Long Ming grumbled as he sat on his bed and tried to regain his composure.

He had just had a disturbing and vivid dream. It was as if he had witnessed the destruction of the entire world, and the sensations of all that were still vivid in his mind. But it wasn't that that frightened him, as he always had strange dreams; what frightened him was that aura that appeared afterward.

It was an oppressive aura that should not come from any mortal, an aura worthy of a God who holds the entire universe in his hands. And that "thing" realized he was there, and stared at him!

Long Ming knew it was all just a dream, it had to be. Just a dream. But that thing, that being, seemed very real and capable of killing him with just a thought if he hadn't woken up in time.

"What was that?" he asked himself internally, the fear of the whole experience still lingering in his heart. He raised his head and looked to the side, where his younger sister was.

At that moment, she was already asleep again.

"A dream. Yes, it was just that. It had to be just that," he began repeating those words as if they were a mantra, and when he regained his composure, he lay back down and closed his eyes.

"A dream," repeating those words he finally managed to fall asleep.

Several days had passed since then, Long Ming barely remembered anything from that dream, however, occasionally a strong feeling of weakness and powerlessness seized him. It was a consequence of that dream, of that strange encounter with that "thing"; which saw him as a mere insect, and there seemed to be nothing Long Ming could do in opposition.

"If I started cultivating, could I... become strong?" Long Ming had never been interested in things like strength and longevity, but since that day, after that dream, Long Ming felt extremely fragile and constantly in danger. It was as if at any moment, a great catastrophe could kill him, along with his entire family.

"Perhaps it's worth trying... they say strength is the only thing we can rely on. Even if I don't want to, strength is still the pillar that holds up Heaven and Earth; that's how things have always been, after all," with this determination, he went to that same street where he bought that book, and searched for martial arts manuals.

"Manual of the War God's Body!"

"Manual of the Fist of Doom!"

"...".

As soon as Long Ming set foot on the street, he heard several voices presenting their products. According to them, each of those manuals was super powerful and mysterious, created by gods and immortals, capable of changing the whole world if properly practiced.

Anyone passing through that street would know that these manuals were fake, with a lot of exaggeration, hyperbole, and fallacies, so instead of being a 'manual', it was closer to a fairy tale book. Despite this, there was still a considerable demand for these books, something that puzzled Long Ming a lot, but he thought it was some kind of hobby for these people.

And even with all these exaggerations and hyperboles, they were still martial arts manuals... to some extent. Moreover, they were cheaper than legitimate manuals, so Long Ming decided to take the risk.

That city even had a pavilion that sold legitimate martial arts manuals, but each manual from that place was extremely expensive and Long Ming, even if he saved for several months, might not be able to buy a single manual.

Furthermore, many of the young masters who accessed the pavilion might consider his presence there a grave offense. Therefore, it was completely out of the question to buy a real manual.

"Sir, how much does this manual cost?" After walking around that place for a while, Long Ming finally found a book that caught his attention, called: "Manual of the Blade that Divides Heaven and Earth."

"This manual? It costs only 2 copper coins, kid! Legend has it that this manual was created by a Sword Saint who, after reaching the pinnacle of the sword art, divided Heaven and Earth with a single stroke!"

"Of course, of course, he really did that," Long Ming mocked internally, as he tossed two copper coins to the man. This was not a cheap amount for Long Ming, but his instincts told him it was worth it; of course, not everyone would trust their instincts, but Long Ming had always been lucky to follow his intuition and this time, probably, it wouldn't be any different.

After buying this manual, he continued to walk around that place, and after almost half an hour, he returned home carrying four books with him.

They were all manuals that his intuition told him could be useful. Of course, Long Ming still had to separate the wheat from the chaff, to find out which parts of these books were useful and which parts were pure rubbish.

"I hope I'm right..." he muttered as he looked at the four books strewn on his bed, about to sift through this pile of mud in search of some nuggets of gold.