Chapter 1 – The Beginning

A young man sat up on his bed in the darkness soaked in sweat and taking deep breaths.

“What..what in the world was that dream? Who was that person?” The young man muttered, frightened.

He got up only to fall when he felt an unbearable sharp pain in his head for a second and if one looked closely, his eyes and aura were no longer the same. It felt as if he was another person entirely.

“Haa…I see. So I’ve died before…” The young man muttered, but this time his voice was firm.

He got up from the floor and lighted up his room by injecting a bit of his qi into a lamp.

“If I had trained harder, perhaps I would be stronger…” He muttered to himself.

He went to the mirror in his room to get a better look at himself. A 16 year old young man with an immature face that had delicate looks and bit of feminine quality reflected back at him. His body was lanky, but had signs of developing muscles.

“As expected of a rich family, at least I trained a bit. If it was me from before, I wouldn’t even have this appearance!” The young man gave a heavy sigh.

He had died before, but reincarnated. However, during those 16 years of his life in this world, he was the only son of his parents in the Lin family, by the name of Lin Ye. He had no memories of his previous life and it was only today that his memories of his previous life, Wu Jin came to him.

He touched his head to feel his hair and nodded.

“Good. At least it’s of suitable length. Best if I do it tomorrow, probably won’t be easy to do. What a pity though…If I trained a bit harder, I would definitely be able to surpass the me from before!” Lin Ye gave another sigh and walked back to his bed.

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With the sun beginning to rise, Lin Ye was already up and training. If it was the Lin Ye from before, he wouldn’t even be up until noon and no way would he even be training.

The servants that saw him were all surprised and most mumbled “What’s wrong with Young Master today?”

“Whew…as expected. This body definitely lacks compared to my old one.” Lin Ye said with heavy breaths.

It wasn’t unexpected to him as his body before had to become stronger in order to survive and to be able to ensure that he could do his job efficiently and in return he gained a lot of scars, experience and a mindset that ensured he did what should be done. Although, he wasn’t a famous or sought after bodyguard, the times he did get a job he usually ended up with a new scar or a new wound.

“I wonder...what happened afterward…? That dream is still so vivid…did they get the item or not?” Lin Ye thought for a while, but decided not to think about it in the end.

“Forget it, that life is now over. I can’t find the answer no matter what I do. I’ll have to adjust to this life, although I’ve regained myself I still find this weird as hell.”

It felt as if those 16 years of his life was a dream and it was now that he woke up from that long dream. It scared him a bit at how strange it was, but at least he was here now and that gave him a bit of relief.

After training for a while and feeling that his qi was stable enough, he went back into his room, tied up his hair into a small ponytail, fetched his money pouch and walked out.

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As it was still early, most people weren’t awake yet so there were only a few stalls and market houses open. He was not unfamiliar with this street as the old him often traveled here to buy stuff as whatever he wanted could be gotten here. Although it wasn’t crowded now, soon in the afternoon there would bustling people and that would make it hard for him to get what he wants, so he decided to come now instead of later.

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“I wonder if they sell any dragon scales? Hopefully I can find one.”

Dragon scales were rare materials, as getting a scale of a dragon was not easy and getting an unblemished, intact scale was even harder. Even a small scale could sell for a small fortune and since he had never looked for one before, he could not be sure if could find one. He had to find one with qi intact, no matter how small thus it must be a somewhat fresh scale.

He went to multiple different stalls and market houses, but could not find any. This put his spirit down a bit, but he did not give up.

After visiting nearly all the stalls and market houses that were opened or opening, he had finally found one! It was a shabby looking stall with a rough looking man with a sign on the stall “Selling Materials”.

Lin Ye looked to the dragon scale that was giving off a faint bit of qi. It was a red, fiery looking dragon scale that had traces of blood on it. He was excited at having been able to find it, but he quickly calmed down as now he needed to be able to obtain it.

Lin Ye motioned with his eyes to the scale and the man just nodded. Lin Ye picked it up and pushed a bit of qi into it.

“Good. This scale is still fresh, I don’t know how long this can last thus I need to use it quickly!” Lin Ye thought in his mind.

“I’m interested in this scale. What’s the price for it?” Lin Ye inquired.

“1000 silver coins.” The man replied in a quick and flat tone.

Lin Ye nearly choked. What the hell was that price?!

“1000 silver coins? That’s not right. For such a small piece of a scale, it should be only around 300-500!”

The man snorted.

“Look kid, I’m probably the only one selling a dragon scale and there’s the fact that it’s still a bit fresh. My team and I went through a lot of sacrifices for this scale, and even then it was such a small scale.”

Lin Ye gave a heavy sigh and took out his money pouch.

“Damn it! 1000 silver coins is nearly all of my money!”

Lin Ye was about to pay when the man suddenly saw the Lin family name on his pouch.

“Oh, wait. Seeing you want it so bad, I’ll give it to you for 500 instead.”

The man’s sudden change of attitude surprised him, but he didn’t tarry as he worried the scale would lose its qi. He paid and hurriedly ran around a bit to search for another material he needed, however, it seems he wasn’t that lucky. He gave a depressed sigh and hurriedly ran home instead.

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Upon arriving at the Lin clan’s entrance, it was already close to noon. There was a stout looking man with a face that did not match up with his physique waiting at the entrance. Upon seeing Lin Ye, he hurriedly ran over.

“Y-Young Master, y-your father has told you to c-come see him.” The man stuttered while talking all the while with his face down.

Lin Ye looked at the man with mixed feelings. This big looking man was Ze Bai, a servant of the Lin family, who was only 15 and truly did not match his physique. He had a baby face, was timid and often bullied. It seems that when he was still “Lin Ye” he also bullied him.

Lin Ye scratched his head as he felt awkward and a bit guilty. He nodded his head and tapped Ze Bai’s shoulder.

“I got it; tell my father I’ll see him later.”

He could see Ze Bai flinched a bit, but he didn’t move instead he nodded his head.

Lin Ye gave a sigh. “It seems I have to fix some things.”

Lin Ye left all the while Ze Bai was staring at his back, wondering if the Young Master was in a good mood today or something.

Upon arriving at his room, he closed the door quickly, locked it with his qi and took out the scale.

“Whew…With this I can again practice the Black Dragon Arts.”

Black Dragon Arts was one of his main martial arts he relied on back in his old world. It was passed down to only the head of his family, while the rest used an incomplete version. The requirements were a dragon scale containing qi and….hair. In his old world there were no dragons, thus how his family got hold of a dragon scale was still a mystery to him.

Lin Ye undid his hair and cut a bit of it to form a symbol on the scale. With that, he sat down on the floor and carefully placed the dragon scale on his lap. He closed his eyes and circulated his qi and then directed it at the dragon scale. As expected, there was a clash; however, since it was only a tiny strand of dragon qi, it quickly died down. With this, he started to absorb this qi into his body and let it revolve around his body. The hair on the scale started to submerge into the scale.

He followed after what he remembered from the manual of the Black Dragon Arts. Weaving and guiding his qi into a certain shape, attempting to push and feel his qi even for a split second into his hair, it took him a lot of effort and an unknown amount of time, but he finally felt a slight tug of qi into his hair. His hair was floating!

“Now!” Lin Ye roared.

With that, he opened his eyes and attacked his own qi points! These were the points that he shaped before! Lin Ye winced a bit, but kept attacking his qi points. When all the points were attacked, if one looked closely it vaguely resembled a dragon.

It was hard for him to maintain consciousness and his body's qi was quickly drying up.

"Shit! This body is...too weak! Damn, am I going to fail?!"

He kept focusing and trying, he did not notice it, but there was a faint pulse inside of him for a split second and he instantly felt his qi points relax.

"It...it worked!" Lin Ye said with heavy breaths.

He slumped and relaxed.

“Huh…Finally done.”

The dragon scale that was on his lap was now dimmed and then turned into dust.

Lin Ye patted his pants and got up. He threw out a punch and felt much more speed and force than before.

“Good. This should be the first stage. I wonder if I can surpass the fifth stage in this new life…” Lin Ye muttered.

“All I need is a fire source to completely learn the Black Dragon Arts. Well…first I should see what father wants.”

With that, Lin Ye unlocked his door and walked out.