Evolution

Liu Feng woke up groggily he sat up straight so that he could organize his thoughts on how to go about his day.

“I first have to go to the Job Centre to register for the garbage collector job HUH!?!?”

“Why do I still have a dantian and why the hell is my dantian red, what is happening”

Liu Feng sat in a lotus position to examine his dantian properly. His dantian was crimson red the color of blood he noticed that it pulsates glowing ever so slightly, it was almost like a flawless ruby sphere. Surprised by the change he tried circulating the basic military Qi gathering art, to his amazement Qi from the surroundings which normally used to disperse back once reaching his dantian was now accumulating in his dantian.

“I…I..I..can cultivate now, how? This does not make any sense” Liu Feng muttered under his breath.

Only after a while did he notice that the Qi in his dantian was accumulating at an extremely fast rate it could be said that his dantian was forcefully sucking in the surrounding Qi as if it was dehydrated for so long.

Normally one rotation of the basic military Qi gathering art can fill up only 1% of the dantian, so it takes roughly 100 days of cultivation to break into the next layer since the basic military Qi gathering art can only be done once a day as it puts too much of strain on the physical body.

“My dantian is filled up to 20% with just one rotation! This is insane!! I can cultivate 20x faster than an average human being!!!”

“I Liu Feng have been given a second chance at life all from that necklace,” he thought to himself as he reached for the necklace under his bed.

As he fiddled around with the necklace trying to figure out how it caused his dantian to evolve, but he did not notice anything odd about the necklace it was still the same old necklace. He remembered that the necklace was giving of red Qi when he was cultivating but when he just cultivated now it did not emit any red Qi, he was extremely puzzled.

“I’ll just have to check tomorrow when I cultivate, with my new and improved dantian ill be able to break into the 1st layer of Qi gathering in another 4 days at the rate my dantian is filling up” he smiled as he thought about how his life is going to change.

“Shit I’m late for school”

Rushing out with his bag he hurriedly put on his shoes and ran to school.

*RIIIiiiiinnnnnggggg*

“Ah just in time”

“Hey Liu Feng, why were you late today?” A tall skinny boy started walking towards Liu Feng as he questioned him.

“I woke up late today as I overslept” Liu Feng replied as he scratched his head.

“Okay come let I Lei Jun your good brother treat you to coffee in the cafeteria as I just got some allowance from my dad, after helping him sell off some grade 1 Qi gathering pills at the family’s medicinal shop”

“Okay since it’s your treat don’t blame me for wanting to get a latte”

“We are brothers even if you wanted to have a frappe it is still my treat”

“Okay then I’ll get a frappe” Liu Feng cheekily said

“My dear brother that was just me bragging please get a latte instead I don’t have enough for a frappe for the both of us” Lei Jun smiled and said

“Okay okay I was just kidding let us go get two lattes”

The two friends went to the cafeteria, Lei Jun has been Liu Feng’s best friend since middle school they both have been through thick and thin when Liu Feng was bullied in middle school for being an orphan the one who stood up for him was Lei Jun ever since then they have been bosom buddies. With Lei Jun defending him from the bullies and with Liu Feng helping Lei Jun with his studies, Lei Jun’s family runs a small pill shop ever since the first great war.

“So how do you think you can get the scholarship for University?” Lei Jun asked as he sipped on his latte.

“I think it is possible since I need to get to Qi gathering 3 for the mid-year exams I should be able to,” said Liu Feng confidently.

“I don’t want to burst your bubble but going from no cultivation to Qi gathering 3 in 6 months is impossible even for the top students and you’re are someone who lacks any talent in the cultivation department,” said Lei Jun with concern on his face. Since he knows that Liu Feng needs that scholarship badly as he will not be able to pay for University by himself.

“I understand that I don’t have any talent but I think this time I will be able to do it, you can call it a gut feeling,” Liu Feng said as he rubbed his nose.

“Give me your hand brother,” Lei Jun said as he reached out for Liu Feng’s hand

“I am not into guys just saying,” said Liu Feng

“F**k you who said I was into guys Nah just take this”

“This…this is too precious I can’t take this” Liu Feng said as he stared at the grade 1 Qi gathering pill in his hand.

“Don’t worry. What are brothers for I took it as payment for my work from one of my dad’s recent shipment, take it and try your best for the scholarship even if you don’t get it I will drop out and accompany you in whatever you are going to do”

Liu Feng was deeply touched, one must know that a single grade 1 Qi gathering pill costs 1 green dram which is equivalent to a 100 white dram. To put it into perspective the late which they ordered was 2 white dram, so a single grade 1 Qi gathering pill is equivalent to 50 lattes.

“Thank you brother I will forever remember this favor”

“Why say things like thank you and stuff between brothers, come let us go for the next class before Han Yau shouts at me and makes me stand outside the class again”

“Ha Ha Ha I remember how he screamed at you for sleeping in his class yesterday and how you woke up with drool all over your face”

“Let's not talk about that embarrassing incident ever again,” said Lei Jun with blackface.

Liu Feng went about his classes as usual but he could not hold back his excitement of wanting to cultivate.

He was now able to implement everything he learned into cultivating and it was not just empty knowledge. Again Liu Feng got beat up in combat class, but he did not feel that annoyed and getting beat up.

"One day, I would be able to stand up for myself, I would not need Lei Jun to come and rescue me every time." Liu Feng said with determination.

After school, Liu Feng rushed home to organize a time table for his training plan until the mid-year exams. Liu Feng sat on his bed as he collected his thoughts and came up with a well planned time table, since he was able to absorb 20% worth of surrounding Qi every day it will take him another 4 days to break through to the Qi gathering 1 but with the grade 1 Qi gathering pill that Lei Jun gave him he would be able to break into Qi gathering 1 tomorrow based on his hypothesis. And then he would be able to learn martial skills from the school since he met the requirement.

“With this new and improved dantian I will be able to get the scholarship as well as possibly break into the Qi condensation realm and maybe even into the Qi refinement realm as well,” Liu Feng thought to himself as he smiled and clutched his necklace tightly.

Observing the necklace he traced the engraving of the necklace which was a hammer. "What does this engraving mean?" Liu Feng thought.

Thinking if the hammer had any meaning as to why it broke his dantian and made it better.

"Since it is a hammer did it reforge my dantian?" Liu Feng murmured.

"But if it did indeed reforge my dantian, then where is this necklace from?"

"The government said they found it on me when I was a baby. So does it mean that my parents gave it to me? But for what reason?" Liu Feng had a lot of questions in his head.

"Ahhh!" Liu Feng grumbled irritated that he had no answers to all those questions.

Keeping the necklace back safely under his bed, Liu Feng ordered some food as he decided to treat himself.

Opening his wallet he saw that there were only coupons, which allowed him to eat at the shelter. "Dammit I got excited about nothing," Liu Feng said taking a coupon and leaving his apartment.

Walking to the food shelter which provided food for the poor, Liu Feng realized that this would soon change if he could cultivate and get the scholarship. He entered the shelter giving his coupon and queued up with the rest of the people with a metal tray in his hand.

"The food is always shitty here, but the food is still food I guess." Liu Feng grumbled as he collected the watery rice and some kind of mixed vegetable.

Sitting down in a corner Liu Feng started eating, every mouth of food he took he had to force it down his throat. The food tasted disgusting as it looked.

Done with his dinner, Liu Feng made his way home.

"Home sweet home." Liu Feng said lying down on his bed. "I got to get the scholarship cause if I don't I will not even have a place to call home and will have to stay at the shelter once I turn 16. Which had no bed itself just a mat, which separated me and the cold floor," He said.

Liu Feng tried to force himself to sleep, but he could not due to the excitement of being able to cultivate tomorrow.

"Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow this would not be a dream. And my dantian would still be filled with 20% of Qi." Liu Feng observed his dantian which had Qi floating around inside it.

The red color of his dantian mesmerised him, observing the pulsating dantian Liu Feng slowly fell asleep.