Chapter 9: The Blueprint of Life!
Jiang Wu clenched his fist and gave Jiang Zhe a boost of encouragement.
"Xiao Zhe, don't listen to his nonsense. Don't put too much pressure on yourself."
Jiang Sisi rolled her eyes at her brother, clearly blaming him for bringing up irrelevant outsiders again.
"Xiao Zhe, with your current strength, dealing with those low-tier beast soldiers should be a piece of cake," she said. "But don't get careless. Having a strong body and powerful strikes doesn't guarantee you can kill a beast. For a newly-initiated warrior, the first time shedding blood is like sharpening a blade—it's an entirely different kind of trial. You must adapt to it, temper your mind, and above all, don't be soft-hearted!"
Jiang Wu grinned sheepishly and agreed, "Haha, my bad, my bad. We Jiang family members don't need to worry about how outsiders see us."
But he still added seriously, "That said, do try to kill more beasts. Once you're used to the bloodshed, when Grandpa and Uncle get back, they'll take you to the Wildlands for real training. You'll grow much faster and become a qualified warrior sooner."
The growls of the beasts in the iron cage, his cousin and sister's earnest advice, and the excited chatter of warriors around him all rang in Jiang Zhe's ears, stirring a surge of heroic spirit in his heart.
Across two lifetimes, this was the first time he'd taken part in such a grand event.
He'd lived barely forty years in total, with much of it wasted. His heart was still young, still brimming with idealism.
"Young and chivalrous, forging bonds with heroes across the land.
With hearts open and hair bristling,
In a single conversation, pledging life and death alike."
Sixteen years of refining his heart and immersing himself in literature allowed Jiang Zhe to voice this surge of emotion effortlessly.
Beside him, Jiang Wu paused in surprise. Once he grasped the meaning of the poem, he clapped enthusiastically. "Excellent! That's exactly how we warriors should be!"
"Tch. I guess reading those 'useless' books wasn't a total waste," he added, "Unlike me back in the day—stood right there and all I could say was 'Damn!'"
Jiang Sisi rolled her eyes again and stepped away to distance herself from her goofy brother.
...I don't know this dropout from the education system.
Jiang Zhe twitched his lips—clearly, his second brother didn't treat them like outsiders.
Meanwhile, the beast town had been fully prepared, and the military began issuing instructions. Over a thousand candidates were now gathered at the entrance to the "exam site."
"Second Brother, Sisi, I'm heading in. Wait for my good news."
"Good luck!"
"You've got this, Xiao Zhe!"
Jiang Zhe, carrying his round shield and iron whip, merged into the crowd.
Once the rescue teams were in position, a command from the military officer triggered the floodgate—more than a thousand prospective warriors surged into the beast town like a tidal wave.
By now, night had fallen. Large searchlights illuminated parts of the town, but most areas remained cloaked in darkness.
Jiang Zhe crept through the shadows like a hunting tiger, searching for prey.
At the street exit of a narrow alley, a tiger-mastiff with yellow fur and black stripes happened to pass by. Its nose twitched twice before it suddenly turned its head, locking eyes with Jiang Zhe in the alley.
"Roar!"
It bellowed and charged into the narrow alley, eager for a feast.
But it didn't know Jiang Zhe had also targeted it—for his first kill.
In the confined space, man and beast clashed at close quarters. Jiang Zhe sidestepped the charge with ease. The beast twisted around to lunge again, its bloody maw wide open and reeking of rot.
"Disgusting. Good thing I skipped dinner—you deserve to die."
Cursing, Jiang Zhe slammed his shield-clad left arm into the tiger-mastiff's face, driving its massive head into the wall with terrifying force.
—Is this human a monster?
The beast's vision swam with stars, its mind dazed. It nearly blacked out from the blow.
Jiang Zhe didn't give it a chance to recover. His right hand swung down the iron whip with surgical precision, crushing the beast's hips.
Crunch!
With one rolling blow, its hindquarters turned into a bloody mess.
"Roar!"
It howled in pain, thrashing wildly.
Jiang Zhe shifted the shield slightly, then charged like a bear into a tree, smashing its skull. Blood and brain matter splattered across the wall like blooming flowers.
The foul stench and splattered gore made Jiang Zhe frown slightly.
He wasn't squeamish—just mildly uncomfortable. But his attention was soon drawn elsewhere.
From the beast's corpse, faint motes of light began to drift up and gather toward his chest like moths to a flame.
Jiang Zhe remained impassive.
This was normal. In fact, it was invisible to outsiders—a result of his cultivation method, The Golden Human Life Blueprint.
This secret art, aimed at enhancing his genetic foundation, had two aspects: external training and internal training.
External training was conquest—defeating or killing enemies, seizing their essence to nourish oneself.
If someone peeled off his combat gear now, they'd see arcane runes covering his chest and shoulders. The glowing motes were temporarily stored in these markings.
In the early stages, the best ink to draw these runes was the blood of defeated enemies; otherwise, any energy-rich material would do.
The former was hard to get in the city, so for the latter… Jiang Zhe had burned through half a box of furnace ash just to make passable ink.
At planetary-level cultivation, this would become easier. Raw energy could be exuded to form runes on the body, passively absorbing motes of light.
Internal training was visualization.
It could only be performed after gathering light points through external training.
The five human diagrams on his golden foldout sheet were actually star charts of the Martial Immortal Constellation. By meditating on them, one could refine the captured essence, which, combined with nutrients fed back from the constellation, would help condense stars within the body.
Each star represented one level of enhanced genetic potential.
There were a total of 181 stars. In the end, one would transcend, becoming a Golden Human, reaching 1810x the normal human genetic limit.
Due to this bizarre cultivation method, Jiang Zhe had once uttered that mad-sounding line:
"What cannot kill me… will make me stronger."
He had only spaced out for a moment.
Bending down, Jiang Zhe cut off the beast's left ear and stowed it in his bag before exiting the alley.
As he stepped out, a rank stench rushed in from the left.
Without even glancing, he raised his shield.
Thud!
"Meow—!"
A thin, half-meter-long figure was sent flying with a muffled yowl.
"Little Shadow Cat~"
Jiang Zhe smirked.
No need to finish it off—he could already see the faint glow drifting over. That meant the creature was dead or incapacitated.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Soft footsteps, barely audible, reached Jiang Zhe's hyper-sensitive hearing.
Scanning his surroundings, he quickly realized he was surrounded—dozens of glowing eyes blinked at him from the darkness.
Both sides of the street, behind him, even the rooftop across the way… a quick sweep confirmed it. Sixteen shadow cats.
"H-grade monsters with no intelligence, only instincts… yet they're working together?"
"This pack alone is a huge threat to new warriors. And you guys just let them roam free?"
From the darkness, a calm voice replied, "That's why I'm here. Do you need backup?"
A figure suddenly appeared on a rooftop three meters to his left—a military officer.
His arrival startled the cats. Instinctively, they pounced.
Six cats attacked him on the rooftop. Nine launched themselves at Jiang Zhe.
Shadow cats moved at about 40 meters per second—slower than Jiang Zhe by far.
With a light tap of his toes, he leapt clear of their encirclement.
He even passed between two of them, whipping out his shield and iron whip mid-air to hammer their hips with eagle-like force.
"Two!"
Jiang Zhe still had the leisure to count his kills. Once he broke the siege, he spun back into the alley entrance.
Not to flee—he was diving into the fray.
With speed far beyond the shadow cats', he toyed with them.
Using micro-movements to dodge precisely, he moved through the swarm like a leisurely stroll.
His iron whip was a nightmare—whoever it touched was maimed.
"Four!"
"Seven!"
"Nine!"
"And then…"
With a grin, Jiang Zhe hurled his whip—striking down a cat mid-leap on the rooftop.
A secret finishing move—one of Jiang family's unarmed techniques. Jiang Zhe had learned it at a glance.
"Ten!"
He chuckled. "Hey bro, you want the rest of these cats?"
The officer hadn't even engaged his attackers—he'd just danced around them, fully focused on whether Jiang Zhe needed help.
"Assessment continues," the officer said coldly, before leaping away and vanishing into the night.
The remaining five cats scattered. Jiang Zhe chased them down one by one, doubling their speed, collecting left ears.
The faint light flowing toward him sparkled like a starry river in the night.
"So little… it's like scraping meat off a mosquito's leg…" he muttered, dissatisfied.
But he knew why—the beasts were too weak. With such a wide power gap, the "conquest value" was too low.
To truly improve, he'd have to defeat stronger foes—ideally those at or above his level.
"A coat made from scraps, a tower built from grains; advance one step a day, and eventually reach the sea."
Jiang Zhe comforted himself.
He retrieved his whip.
That fancy throw looked cool, but retrieving it was a pain.
Then, he resumed the hunt.
Among the three types of monsters in the town, Jiang Zhe liked the tiger-mastiffs and shadow cats best—squishy and easy to kill.
The iron-haired wild boars were tougher. Though one whip could still kill, it took 20% more strength to do so.
( End of the chapter )