NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2: Awaken
A few days later, inside a cave, Li Ming had regained consciousness hours ago.
Finally, he left.
He was waiting for the person who was taking care of "Li Ming" to leave.
"I don't know, how something that should have only been possible in fantasy came to reality."
Right now, only the thought of his family, and how devasted that might be after seeing his dead body.
I hope, father and mother don't starve themselves.
Li Ming, instead of thinking that he was left alone in an unknown world, was worried if his family was doing okay without him.
Or he might be trying to not let his line of thinking flow in that direction.
He rubbed his chin and fell in deep thought.
The condition he was in, did not know how to express his emotions.
He had seen the status window inside his consciousness and also the 'cliché' of suddenly getting transmigrated into this world of cultivation. He did not feel any joy, simply because his life, although sometimes good and sometimes bad, was still much better compared to living like an orphan in this world.
Li Ming had a hollow feeling inside his chest, like someone had took away his heart leaving only a shell, his body.
He knew, there would no longer be anyone, who would take care care of him like his parents did. No siblings whom he hated so much he wanted to kill them but also loved them so much that he could not bear to.
No more would he hear the sweet sound of his little brother calling him 'Brother~' and hugging him every time he was being bullied by his elder sister.
At the end, Li Ming could only shook his head. His upbringing was not so weak that he would cry after experiencing some problems, even if that problem was leaving his world and getting transported here.
I promise, I will return.
Li Ming made a promise to himself, which he knew his chances were pretty close to non-existent. This was a completely different world, and who knows how many seconds, hours, days or lets hope not, years might have passed on Earth. Li Ming buried the emotions that were trying to flow out of him in the form of tears.
...
He stumbled to his feet, the coarse fabric of his robe brushing against his battered skin. A cracked mirror hung on the wall of the cave, tilted at an odd angle. Li Ming hesitated, then limped toward it, the sound of his uneven footsteps echoing in the cavernous space.
When he finally stood before the mirror, he grimaced at his reflection. His face was pale and gaunt, a testament to the days he had spent unconscious. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, making him look more like a ghost than a disciple. His once-neatly tied hair now hung in a tangled mess around his face, strands matted with dried blood and sweat. A faint, swollen bruise on his left cheek added to the pitiful sight.
Li Ming raised a hand to touch the reflection of his face. His fingers paused halfway, trembling. "I look like I've crawled out of a grave," he muttered bitterly.
The tattered robe he wore was barely holding together, with several tears revealing the thin frame underneath. He pulled at the collar, revealing faint scars crisscrossing his chest—souvenirs from the beating that had left him in a coma. His body looked frail, far from the strong, intimidating image of a sect disciple.
Li Ming exhaled sharply and looked away from the mirror. "Trash disciple," he repeated, this time with a mix of anger and resignation. The System showed his reputation plus nickname for him wasn't entirely unwarranted. He was always at the bottom of the rankings, his techniques clumsy, his progress slower than anyone else's. And now, after losing so miserably to the protagonist—the so-called "better-trash" of the sect—his name was likely the punchline of every joke in the outer disciples' quarters.
He turned back to the mirror, forcing himself to look into his own eyes. Behind the exhaustion and humiliation, a flicker of determination began to spark.
"So what if I'm trash?" he whispered, his lips curling into a faint smirk. "Even trash can burn if you throw it into the right fire."
"But... if that right fire is the protagonist than, thankyou, next."
Li Ming grabbed a cloth from the corner of the cave and began cleaning his face, wincing as the fabric scraped against the bruises. He pulled his robe tighter around himself, hiding the evidence of his weakness.
His mind drifted into the memories of 'Li Ming', and he also knew that he had been hired with many others as well by some third-rate villain, to do the dirty work of the villain.
"Now that I am viewing the memories of 'Li Ming' from a passer-by perspective, its clear that the way the authors of these cliche novels showcased villains, was not the way they really acted."
"That third-rate villain is also pretty smart, only hiring people who had some past with the protagonist."
If he had just transmigrated a little early then he would not have become an enemy of the protagonist. He was lucky that the protagonist was only in the early stages of his growth and his hands had not been stained with the blood of his enemies.
This Body's previous owner was just jealous of protagonist, Xiao Chen. Just because they both had the same low-grade spiritual roots but Xiao Chen's progress was much faster then Li Ming's.
As usual, in cultivation worlds, these people liked to divide everything into tiers. Same with the spiritual roots, After low-grade there were mid-grade and after that High-grade Spiritual roots.
Status window.
Name: Li Ming
Age: 18
Reputation: Trash Disciple
Talent: [Extreme Space-Time sensitivity]
Cultivation: Semi-Earthen Seed Realm (2/10)
Spiritual root: Low-grade spiritual root (0/1000)
Attributes: Five Elemental Attributes
Skills: Roar (Mortal) [initial (90/100)], Iron fist (Mortal) [Initial (40/100)], Mist-weave Chi Art (Low-Grade Yellow-rank) [Initial (20/100)]
"What?!" Li Ming had a shocked expression, "This body had five elements and he was still termed as Trash Disciple."
"No, in the memories of this body there was only two attribute: wood and fire. That means that other three are attributes that I already had in the previous world."
Li Ming was honestly brimming with excitement, he was more talented than the previous body owner. Something else also made him curious, as from the memories 'Li Ming' did not have anything like "Extreme Space-Time sensitivity". Then it could only be associated with his transmigration because that was the only time he had came into contact with Space.
Woohoo~
He became thrilled and took out a notebook from his sack and just when he was about to right some future plans. he stopped.
"Hoo~ Survived." Li Ming had forgotten that in this world of cliche anything that was considered impossible in the real world could be possible here. For example, Li Ming writing about his experiences and suddenly a notebook being delivered to the heroines on this whatever 'world' and than for some reason them flocking at him.
Li Ming wiped the no-existent sweat on his forehead and threw away the notebook.
He continued reading his stats. and his eyes narrowed when he reached the cultivation section "Earthen Seed Realm".
"what realm is this? where is the Qi-Condensation realm?" Li Ming brain had short-circuited after reading an unknown name of the realm of cultivation with 'semi' written before it.
It was common sense, that no matter the what the realms would remain same From cultivating Qi-condensation to Foundation Building and so on.
Before he could continue pondering the entrance of the cave opened and someone walked-in. Li Ming was confused.
wasn't the cave supposed to open only when the owner is outside?
Li Ming was an outer disciple of 'Mist Sect', living in the cave residence provided by the sect to its disciples. Like every Xianxia novel, the protagonist starts from a backwater sect, situated in some desolate corner of the world. He was only connecting the dots of his current and previous memory, It was also a possibility that he might be wrong and he would too love to be proved wrong. However, the chances of that happening were pretty close to none.
"Li Ming!" the disciple who entered was also wearing the robes of outer disciple. The person who entered name was Chen Yuan.
"Thankyou, for looking after me while I was in coma, and also hiring a physician to prescribe me medicine."
Li Ming was not an ungrateful person, and he knew if Chen Yuan wanted to harm him, he wouldn't have called the physician in the first place.
"Huh?!" Chen Yuan stared at Li Ming with a blank expression.
"Li Ming, are you really alright now. Do you want me to go and call the physician one more time."
Li Ming knew why Chen Yuan acted like this, but he had to change himself or if he continued on the path he had previously walked as 'Li Ming' in this world than sooner or later he would either get killed by the protagonist or by the enemies of Xiao Chen for not fulfilling whatever was said by them.
"I am alright Chen Yuan, being so close to death made me realise my past mistakes. From now on I will no longer live how I used to."
"Why are you talking like some demon emperor joining the righteous path, although you bullied others but you too in return got beaten by them and your recent going into coma was for the same reason, right?" Chen Yuan laughed at Li Ming.
Li Ming also understood because he was just a small fish in a huge aquarium, for some what he considered acts of bullying might be cute in the eyes of other.
"Say, why do you have entrance token of my cave?"
"..."
"Forget it. Give it back." Li Ming stretched out his hand, just fifteen inches away from Chen Yuan.
"Li Ming, how could you be so heartless." Chen Yuan feigned crying and wiped his tears. Then he rubbed his thumb and index finger together.
"Here." Li Ming stuffed a stone in Chen Yuan's robe. This was no ordinary stone. It was a low-grade spiritual stone. Like every other thing stones or specifically spiritual stones were divided into classes. A low-grade spiritual stone was enough to feed a mortal family of 5 for three full months; if they were frugal.
"Is your life only worth this much?" Chen Yuan asked his voice sounding cold, Although he had helped Li Ming but that was only because he was short on money and, Li Ming was known to be someone whose ego inflated with the amount of praise and sometimes he would give rewards to these people. Chen Yuan had thought that saving this type of person would at least increase his wealth by 10 or 20 low-grade spiritual stones. But he got only a minute stone that too of low quality.
"Right now, Yes." Li Ming moved back and did a 360 rotation. Showing the condition he was in currently.
Even talking to Chen Yuan was difficult, his voice sounded hoarse. Thankfully, Chen Yuan was not paying attention to his voice.
Appearing weak right now would be like: bleeding in-front of a shark.
Chen Yuan also saw that Li Ming's robes were tattered, and his whole body radiated smell of sweat. Li Ming had not taken a bath for a whole week nor had he gone out in the sunlight. Lying inside the cave all the time covered in darkness most of the time leading to Li Ming's skin looking more pale.
He does not seem to be lying. Chen Yuan thought and decided to give up on asking for extra money.
"Okay. I will accept this but... the fee of physician and the medicines that you have been prescribed were money that had been loaned by the sect. Now that you are alive you would have to return it."
Mist Sect was a place where the Xiao Chen resided, and the Mist Sect had a tradition of loaning money to disciples who were just accepted into the sect in case of severe injury or for increasing their strength by purchasing pills and skills, something like: health insurance in his previous world.
Only catch was that if the disciple died then the loan would be waved off. If the disciple survived than he would have to pay back the loan with interest that was 4% of the loaned sum. It was different for everyone, For inner disciples the interest was only 1.5%. Because they were the real future pillars of the sect. Us Outer disciples were only cannon fodders except Xiao Chen.