Martial Star Ocean - Chapter 0

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Kindled Lamp Temple Village was located near Shanxi Province’s Baoji City, situated at the forest edge of the Qin Mountain Range. It was a village with rolling hills and rivers and lush green vegetation that shined with life. The scenery was beautiful and the folk here lived a simple lifestyle. It was like a paradise hidden away from the modern world and was locally famous within the entire Shanxi Province. This was because in the back mountains of this village, there was a temple that had stood there since the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. This temple was called the Kindled Lamp Temple and was also where Kindled Lamp Temple Village had obtained its name from.

The setting sun fell down beyond the mountain range, its dusky glow illuminating Kindled Lamp Temple Village.

It was the middle of summer. With the mountains and forests and the verdant greenery, the land was like a scene from a drawing, leaving one’s heart filled with awe and joy.

A slender youth with large eyes and thick eyebrows hummed a song, a stalk of grass crookedly sticking out of his lips. He was walking away from the only livestock slaughterhouse in the village and the light bloody smell that came from killing a pig covered him. A grass basket was raised in his hands, in which he had put a portion of fresh pig liver.

This youth was called Li Mu – he was 14 years old.

During July of this year, Li Mu finally graduated from middle school. In terms of test results, he was the student with the highest test scores within his entire graduating class.

Li Mu was an orphan and never knew his parents. When he was young he had been adopted by Kindled Lamp Temple, and within Kindled Lamp Temple, there was actually only a single person in charge. This so-called dean was not a Buddhist monk at all, but an old religious scam artist from the countryside.

One old one young, the both of them lived with each other and relied on each other in this old and dilapidated temple.

When not in school, Li Mu lived in Kindled Lamp Temple, drinking the spring waters and practicing the ancient traditions. The old conman who adopted him had a considerable level of prestige in Kindled Lamp Temple Village. Because of this, and because of his strong and earnest facial features, he was well loved in the village. Growing up, he drank and ate food often with the villagers; he could be said to have been raised by the entire village.

Starting when he was 10 years old, during his school winter and summer school vacations, Li Mu had been forced by that old fraud grandpa of his to take a part-time job at the village slaughterhouse and kill pigs. He had been doing this job for four years already.

The reason the old swindler had given Li Mu was that he must do this in order to increase his killing intent.

“I’m just a junior high school student so what’s the point of me needing to cultivate some sort of killing intent? Then again, if you really could cultivate killing intent by killing pigs then the village butcher Uncle Qin would already be an unrivalled death god… that old conman really has been getting muddled these days.”

Recalling this event, Li Mu felt as if he would go crazy.

In four years he had killed no less than 100 pigs. Li Mu felt as if his hands were already stained with blood. This was a sin, simply a sin!

“Awoo… woof! Woof! Woof!”

A thick and boisterous black and white husky dog came running in from behind Li Mu.

Li Mu had picked up this dog three years ago at the entrance to his school. At the time, this dog had only been a little puppy, just a few months old. It had been abandoned on the street and was just a sickly bag of skin and bones that was starving to death.

Li Mu had brought this dog to Kindled Lamp Temple where he raised it himself.

During those three years the husky grew fat and strong, and it was also incredibly large. From some angles, it was just like a little calf. This dog had become a scourge upon the village and was the ruling tyrant of the 60 some wild dogs that wandered around Kindled Lamp Temple Village. It frequently gathered an army of dogs to roam the countryside, leaping through the mountain forests and causing the chickens and ducks within the village to wildly flap about in a panic. If it weren’t for Li Mu and his grandpa having extremely good connections with the village, then this chubby and wild dog would have long since been turned into dog meat hotpot by the complaining villagers.

Because of this, Li Mu gave the dog the name of General.

The General of dogs.

“Woof! Woof!” General eyed the fresh pig liver in Li Mu’s hand basket. Drool dripped down from the dog’s mouth and it let out cries of joy as it hopped around Li Mu.

From the slaughterhouse to the old temple in the back mountains, the walk totaled around 20 minutes.

Along the way, the scenery was hazy and glorious, the sunset like molten gold.

When Li Mu met fellow villagers returning home from work, he would warmly greet them.

The aunties and uncles in the village had treated Li Mu well ever since he was a child, just like he was part of their family. He had eaten with every one of the villagers before, and Li Mu felt nothing but heartfelt gratitude towards these simple and kind people.

The villagers also greeted Li Mu and smiled in return.

The sun fell down across the western skies.

Seeing Li Mu and General disappear along the distant mountain roads, some people heaved a deep sigh.

“Hah, what a pity. That child Li Mu has an incredible academic record and is wise beyond his years. He was even the number one test student in the entire school. In our village, he is absolutely the best seedling to educate. I just don’t know why Grandmaster Li won’t allow him to continue attending high school.”

“That’s right. I heard that the principal of the city’s best high school personally went to Kindled Lamp Temple and wanted to recruit that child on completely free tuition. He was even willing to put him in the special class and give him monthly living expenses… but all of that was rejected by Grandmaster Li.”

“Well, I guess that Grandmaster Li probably wants Li Mu to inherit his legacy.”

“It’s the modern era already. Grandmaster Li’s feng shui abilities and his skills in blessing good health, eliminating ghosts and demons, and things like that are already useless. He can’t possibly want that child Li Mu to follow in his footsteps and wander around everywhere like a conman as he tries to capture ghosts and whatnot, right? Grandmaster Li really does have some skills but I also heard that he has a mental illness, and sometimes when that mental illness rears its head, it can be extremely horrifying. I feel sorry for that child Li Mu having to take care of that old man.”

The villagers discussed amongst themselves, all of them filling pity for Li Mu.

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“Old man! I’m back!”

Li Mu loudly shouted as he returned to the temple.

Usually the old conman would shout back from the rear courtyard, but today there was no such response.

Li Mu thought little of it. He gave General a gentle kick, ordering him to play on his own. Then, he walked towards the kitchen.

Within the entire Kindled Lamp Temple, there was just him and the old conman. The temple was serene and peaceful.

Because he had jogged all the way back to Kindled Lamp Temple, Li Mu’s body was covered in a faint layer of sweat. After entering the kitchen he first put away the pig liver in storage, lest that hunger-driven General try to steal it away. Then, he stepped over to the well at the entrance to the kitchen and took out a scoop of water, drinking it in loud and refreshing gasps.

After putting the scoop back down, Li Mu walked into a cleared out area in the middle of the temple and began to practice his fist skills and inner arts.

The fist skill was called the True Martial Fist.

The inner art was called the Xiantian Arts.

These were extremely pretentious and misleading names.

Both of these things had been taught to Li Mu by that old conman.

When Li Mu first learned to walk he had been forced by that old conman to start practicing these two things. True Martial Fist was a martial arts technique and the Xiantian Arts was a breathing method. On this day, he had already practiced these things for 11 full years. After being forced to practice these two things for an hour every day, they had long since been ingrained within him as habits.

According to that old conman, the True Martial Fist was the fist of the immortals. When the 18 styles of the True Martial Fist were completely mastered, one could break open mountains and sunder rivers. Even if one merely reached small success, a single fist could still easily beat up an armored vehicle. As for the Xiantian Arts, that was even more extraordinary. It was capable of washing the marrows and bones and creating a qualitative change in the human body. It allowed one to step into the Xiantian realm whereupon one could then fly in the heavens like a celestial being.

But the problem was that Li Mu had practiced these two skills for 11 years and the True Martial Fist technique wasn’t even able to break a wooden plank. As for the Xiantian Arts, all it did was strengthen his lung capacity.

Li Mu didn’t even see a shadow of the amazing powers that the old conman said these skills would grant him.

Of course, the old conman already had his own explanations prepared and ready for why this was so.

According to the old conman, the current Earth was at the fading twilight of the immortal martial path. The strength of the heavens and earth had been depleted and the world was exhausted of spiritual energy. This planet simply wasn’t able to meet the necessary minimum requirements for cultivating, and thus these two immortal cultivation methods that he had passed down to Li Mu had no way of being successfully cultivated.

And that old man was actually shameless enough to speak this ridiculous reasoning out loud.

What a liar!

But Li Mu had long since grown too lazy to debunk that old conman’s claims.

What angered him the most was that, since that old conman even acknowledged that there were no means to successfully practice these things on Earth, why would he still be forced to learn them!?

During his first few years of practicing these skills, the five or six year old Li Mu wanted to resist. But, that old conman had beaten Li Mu up into a pile of bruises with a stick and Li Mu had no choice but to continue practicing even as he whined and cried.

After Li Mu grew up the old conman wasn’t able to beat him up with his stick any longer. Then, since physical methods didn’t work, he’d use alternative methods instead. The moment that Li Mu was disobedient and decided that he didn’t want to practice anymore, the old conman would then start screaming and babbling incoherently as if he were having a mental breakdown, and he would even run naked around the temple. As a result, Li Mu was at a loss of whether to laugh or to cry. Under this pressure, he had no choice but to continue his training.

And after that, Li Mu became accustomed to it.

In any case, training in these skills could strengthen his body at the very least, just like someone doing an hour or two of exercise every day.

Hu – !

Hu – !

Hu – !

One fist technique and one cultivation method. After his training was over, Li Mu’s body exuded heat.

In particular, his insides were hot and dry as if they had caught fire. But overall it was quite comfortable.

Li Mu had also become accustomed to this too.

After his evening work was over he walked over to the rear court shirtless, where the entrance to the old man’s room was.

“Hey old man, I’ve finished training. What did you want to eat for dinner? I brought by some fresh pig liver from the slaughterhouse, so how about I make those wintermelon pig liver noodles that you love to eat the most…”

Starting from six years of age, Li Mu embarked on the career path of a child laborer. He was forced by the old conman to cook and for all these years, the food that the two ate had all been skillfully prepared by Li Mu.

“Today is an important day. Let’s not worry about dinner for now. There is something extremely important that I must tell you.”

The old conman spoke in a rare, serious tone. His voice drifted out from behind the curtains of his room.

“Important day?” Li Mu was startled. He rubbed his head, thinking about it. Today was the 14th of July, 2017. It wasn’t a legal holiday, traditional lunar year holiday, some sort of nation commemoration day, and not even some international event anniversary… it was just a normal day, so what was so important about it?

“Come to the room’s entrance and sit down. Listen to what I have to say.” The old conman’s voice was solemn and dignified, completely dissimilar to the usual blusteriness. “I must say something and this is very important, so listen carefully and don’t interrupt before I’m done.”

“Oh? Alright.” Li Mu said, puzzled. He sat down on his knees in front of the entrance.

He had a deep foreboding premonition.

This was because in the past, every time the old conman said that there was something important occurring, it had always been an outbreak of his mental illness.

Li Mu was afraid that this time was no exception.

“Well, let me be brief and simple. The situation is like this. Outside our solar system, several super martial arts sects of the Violet Glory Star Domain want to construct a massive transmission array formation on a completely unprecedented scale in order to facilitate and hasten development of the star territories in the southern Milky Way. And, the immortal power pulse of this array formation just so happens to pass through Earth, thus Earth must be deconstructed and relocated. I am going to send you away from Earth, but before leaving there are some matters that I must speak to you about lest you go to other planets and end up being unable to adapt…” The old conman spoke with incomparable clarity from his room.

…W-w-w-w-what?!

Li Mu was stunned.

The Earth was going to be relocated?

Violet Glory Star Domain?

And super martial arts sects?

Sure enough, it was just as he thought.

Had the old conman suffered a relapse of his illness?

Moreover, the illness this time seemed to be more serious than before. He could actually spout out this sort of nonsense.

If this conversation continued any further then the old man would start saying things like aliens wanted to invade Earth in order to steal the nation’s treasured giant pandas.

Li Mu dryly coughed. “Old man, stop here for a moment… how about this, I think we should put the matter of Earth being relocated on the backburner. Your body is more important. You might have a fever, so how about I bring you to the hospital so you can get a shot and bring down your fever?” Li Mu said, trying to fill his voice and expression with as much sincerity as possible.

Past experiences taught Li Mu that once this old conman’s mental illness broke out again, he had to go with the flow of the conversation and absolutely could not deny or argue against his claims, otherwise the old man would turn even crazier.

Pa!

A slipper flew out from the room and accurately smacked Li Mu’s forehead.

“Look you little bastard, don’t interrupt me when I’m speaking. The array formation has already begun so time is of the essence. It’s as if you are trying to anger me to death with your nonsense. Just listen to what I have to say!” The old man angrily shouted from his room. “I am not sick. It’s just you little bastard your field of vision is too narrow and you’re just a frog in a well… agh, shut up! Just shut up!”

Li Mu rubbed the shoe mark on his forehead, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

This old man’s mental illness outbreak was a little intense today. He was actually angry to this extent.

“Okay, okay, okay. Just calm down and continue speaking, I won’t interrupt you again…” Li Mu said to appease the old man.

The old conman gasped as he continued to speak, still angry and unable to catch his breath. “Long story short, those several super martial arts sects in the Violet Glory Star Domain are known for being dark-hearted bastards. Although they call it relocation, that’s only a pretext they are giving to deal with public opinion from the neighboring star territories of the Violet Glory Star Domain. In the end, I estimate they will simply directly demolish Earth, thus the destruction of Earth isn’t too far away… the good news is that constructing such an ultra-massive transmission array formation requires a long period of preparation. According to Earth-time, there is around 20 years left… I will first send you away from Earth to a low level martial arts planet in the Violet Glory Star Domain. It will be better for you to temper yourself there. 20 years from now, if you can cultivate the True Martial Fist and Xiantian Arts to the highest level of their potential and even break through the barriers of a planet’s shackles, then there might be a way to solve Earth’s crisis.”

“Oh… so that’s how it is. I understand now. Old man, don’t you worry. Even if it wasn’t for Earth, I would still practice these two great supernatural powers that you passed down to me for you and the villagers of Kindled Lamp Temple Village…” Li Mu sensed that the old conman’s mental illness outbreak was a bit too serious, thus he joined in on the act.

“Good. It’s good if you understand.” The old conman’s relieved voice drifted out from his room. Then, he continued to speak, “You little bastard, us being grandson and grandfather can also be considered fate. From this point on, you will have to wander about on your own. Since that’s going to happen, let me give you a few more words of advice. Do you know what is most important for us martial artists that travel through the wilderness of space?”

Oho. This old conman seemed to be a little too immersed in his play.

Li Mu was left speechless. He could only continue with the act.

He pretended to ponder with deep earnestness. Then, he spoke with righteousness thick in his voice. “We martial artists must blaze our paths forwards. No matter what difficulties we encounter, we must fight against the fate that the heavens decree upon us. In the wild world we must uphold righteousness, risking dangers and making sacrifices for our friends. We must never flinch in the face of evil, even if that means giving our lives in the name of justice…”

Before Li Mu finished speaking –

Pa!

The second slipper flew out from the room and struck Li Mu’s forehead.

“You stupid… idiot! I teach you every day and yet it goes in one ear and out the next. Just where have all my lessons gone? Risk dangers and sacrifice yourself? Giving your life in the name of justice? Wrong, wrong! Totally wrong! Completely wrong! You little bastard, it’s as if you are deliberately trying to irritate me. Remember this. In the world of martial arts, the first rule is to run if you cannot win. And if you cannot run, then just lie down and admit defeat. You can even call your enemy your father if you like… no matter what, survival is most important. Make sure your safety comes first and you live no matter what.”

The old conman was breathless with rage. He spoke with deep disappointment, as if he were trying to teach a lesson to a dog that just wouldn’t understand.

Li Mu muttered, “The hell…”

The old conman continued to speak with sincerity. “Child, through these years, I have already passed down my lifetime of galaxy-shocking abilities to you, everything that has allowed me to freely roam the stars. What I can teach you, I have already taught you. I know that I have been strict with you and forced you to do things that you didn’t want to do, and I know that you didn’t have a perfect childhood because of that. But, everything I did was for you. Just you wait and see. Once you arrive on that low level martial arts planet you will finally understand just how precious those abilities I taught you are. You will definitely feel grateful…”

Li Mu curled his lips.

In all honesty, if he hadn’t known that this old man was spouting complete nonsense with total sincerity, then he really might have been moved.

This old man’s sickness was so serious. Just how could he urge him to go to the hospital?

At this time, the old conman said again, “Alright, that’s enough. When you go out adventuring make sure you don’t embarrass me… now come, I will send you off.”

Li Mu chuckled.

This was a good chance.

He would find a way to approach that old man and then tie him up and bring him to the hospital before further considering what to do.

Li Mu parted the curtains to the room and walked in.

However, the moment that he walked into the room he felt everything blur in front of him. Something completely unexpected occurred. After stepping into the room, what was in front of Li Mu was not the ground, but what seemed to be a fathomless abyss. As he continued forwards his foot stepped on the void and he fell directly downwards. The wind whistled in his ears and a feeling of weightlessness overcame his body…

“Fucking hell. How despicable. You old man you have gone completely mad, you actually dug such a deep pit in your room…!”

Li Mu cried out in indignation and grief.

But his voice came to a sudden and abrupt stop.

As if he had vanished from the world.

“Mwahahaha! I succeeded! I spent a full 10 years constructing this Nine Stars Heaven Connection Array and even used half the spirit blood in my body to activate it, all so that this little bastard can benefit from my hard work. Finally, I’ve managed to send off that stupid child of mine. Finally, I have been freed! Hahaha, I can finally return… shift the array formation coordinates… hahaha, I don’t want to stay on this damned planet with its dried up spiritual energy any longer, hahaha…”

The old conman’s maniacal laugh echoed through the room.

But at this time, from outside Kindled Lamp Temple, the sound of footsteps rose up.

“General, Brother Mu is in this room?” The pleasant voice of a young girl sounded out.

Outside, the calf-sized husky General was leading the way, his tail wagging.

What followed him was a beautiful 13-14 year old girl.

This young girl was tall and slender, around five and a half feet. Her ink-dark hair was thick and luxurious and her appearance was beautiful. She had snow white skin and without even speaking she revealed a charming smile. Her chest bulged out from beneath her white t-shirt and tight-fitting jeans accentuated her thin and slender figure. With her slim yet curvaceous figure, she was already a complete beauty in the making. The quiet and cold Kindled Light Temple seemed to brighten up from the presence of this beautiful young girl.

If Li Mu were here, he would definitely recognize her. This young girl was Wang Shiyu, a member of the study committee in his junior high school. She had been the popular class beauty and he had even shared a table with her once.

“Woof… woof woof!” General leapt up in excitement, his tail wagging as he led the way towards the old conman’s room.

Wang Shiyu followed close behind, thinking little of it. As she moved forward she said, “Brother Mu, are you inside? Mister Chen asked me to look for you. He hopes that you can continue your studies in high school…”

However, in the next moment, the young girl and the dog echoed at in unison from the old conman’s room.

Following that, the two voices also abruptly ended.

Then, a long period of silence followed. The old conman’s trembling and aggrieved voice finally rose up a little later –

“No… you damned dog… ah, you tricky little girl… how could you just break in like that… damn it all. Because I lost too much blood and energy I couldn’t stop them and I definitely wasn’t able to change the coordinates of the array formation before it activated… heavens, a mere mortal girl and a stupid dog were also sent away through the array transmission, wasting away all the remaining spirit blood I had left over… ahhh! What a mess, this is a one-time use array formation. Now, without an array formation and without spirit blood I have been trapped on this forsaken Earth. Heavens, are you playing with me here?”

The old conman felt as if he were going crazy.

A long time afterwards, the old conman’s mumblings rang out from the room once more.

“You little bastard, this should be a little fun. Your dog and that little sister were also transmitted over… your meeting on that planet will definitely be interesting… you smelly brat, you’d better reach the peak of the Xiantian Arts in 20 years and break through the shackles of the planet to save me, otherwise I can only be buried along with the Earth…”

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