Finlay woke up the most terribly sick he had ever felt. It hurt all over and he was feeling so weak, he couldn’t even properly open his eyes. He tried in vain to move his hands to wipe away the crusted tears on his eyes. His hands felt like lead and could only barely even manage to move them with utmost efforts.
He heard a small scream as his other senses came in slowly. Without being able to even open his eyes, let alone move, he could only hope he is in a safe place for now. He heard stomping as if someone was running away. He then heard a fading voice from a distance.
“...Mother Bai! Mother Bai!! He’s awake! I saw him move his hands! Quickly, come take a look! Quick!”
Finlay frowned in confusion. His head was still a bit muddled, he couldn’t get a grip on his situation and found the words he just heard bizarrely both familiar and unfamiliar. His brain fog slowly cleared and he remembered that he was in an orphanage and that this mother Bai must be the only kind woman to care for and stick by the boy at this orphanage, due to his host’s mental condition.
He could hear the words but only comprehend small bits and pieces. At least he was able to guess most of their meaning. Finlay soon discovered something that might explain the reason why.
Universal Language comprehension (A+)
Youjing language (15%)
He remembered Youjing, the commonly spoken language in the Hidden golden immortal realm, the lands he was reborn in. He also remembered that the one they are speaking must be a local dialect with some variance to the base version but he couldn’t help but notice how the status still showed only completion rate for the full language.
By the time his mother Bai was brought over, he was able to open his eyes a sliver and could see the vague silhouette of her at the doorway.
“Little ming! Little ming, can you hear me? By the Goddess, he’s burning up! Li’er, Go bring some fresh water and a clean rag! Go, quickly!”
“Yes mother Bai!”
As the young girl ran off, Mother Bai turned her attention to him. Coming closer, she softly spoke to him with worry.
“Little Ming, how are you feeling now? You have really made your Mother Bai worry to death. No, don’t try to move now. You must be good and listen to your mother Bai till -”
“Senior sister Bai! Sister Bai! Quick, come out and see this! There is a strange appearance in the sky!”
Before She was able to finish her words, she was called outside by another Mother of the orphanage in an urgent voice. Hearing the urgency in the voice, Mother Bai frowned but still replied.
“Sister Liumei, I will be there in a bit.”
“You listen to your Mother Bai for the next few days and I promise you will be back to hopping around doing your usual antics in no time. Now Mother Bai needs to go take a look at something and will be back in a bit. Be a good boy and don’t move while I’m away.”
She offers words of comfort to the sick boy in the bed who just looked at her without much of a response. She lightly pecked him on the forehead and left outside to take a look. Finlay kept his mouth shut and played dumb all the while since he couldn’t actually speak like a native with just 15% of a language.
Soon after, there are many distant noises and shouts. Li’er soon arrived with a clean cloth and some water in a small bucket. She wordlessly tried to wipe away his face only to grimace halfway through.
“Mother Bai asked me to take care of you, but Stupid Ming! Eww! What did you do to make it stink so much?!”
Even though she was making disgusting noises, she continued her task, either out of good nature or because she respects Mother Bai that much to follow her words.
“Hmp! This time, Stupid Ming has really cause Mother Bai to worry to death. She even lost weight worrying over this empty headed stupid bastard.”
“You know you’re already almost 14 years old. When are you going to make some money to contribute?? Everyone leaves when they’re 13. Even if you are not able to, stop worrying mother Bai like this. Know that she isn’t just here to care for you. Those little ones really need her.”
Even as she was scolding the older boy, she finished cleaning his face and after washing the rag in the bucket, she laid it over his head to help with the fever. Once she was done, she couldn’t help but potu.
“Hmp! Hmp! Everyone is rushing outside but I’m here to watch you till one of the old timers comes back. I hope I’m not missing out on something good. The other kids are all outside, what to do….?”
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She finished with worry from not being able to fulfill her childish curiosity. Her eyebrows frowned in deep thought before she started to have a twinkle in her eyes.
“Hey stupid Ming, I have already done what I came to do and you can’t move from here anyways, so doesn’t that mean I can go take a look quickly and come back before Mother Bai? Nothing is going to happen so fast anyways. See?? This dazzling Li’er is indeed the smartest in the orphanage. Bye! See you later!”
She finished with a smug look for coming up with such a brilliant deduction and ran outside even before she finished her line.
Finlay couldn’t hold back a sigh of relief from the excessively chatty little brat. He was already suffering from a bad headache and the disoriented feeling from the senses in a new body are still yet to subside and he was unfortunate to encounter such a character. He just offered a quick prayer to the Nine that she wouldn’t be here much during his recovery.
He was worried because he already knew his circumstances. It was as he was already informed before his soul was zapped away to here. The previous soul was already in a life and death battle after he was suffering from underlying issues with the body and getting beaten up by unknown bullies who didn’t look kindly upon a mentally challenged individual in such a harsh world.
Such a body is obviously not convenient enough for his purposes and the body stats he was able to choose before also do not match. Shortly after he is reborn, he is supposed to go through a few days of painful suffering and changes to reach the designated body quality.
This is still considered the initial phase and he knew that for the full transformation, it is expected to take about 6 months. During which he would need to eat good qualities of meat and herbs everyday as he expels all the impurities in this body.
He will be back on his feet within a week and he needs to carefully consider what his actions are after that. He doesn’t truly know any of these people, even if he has some vague memories of them. But he will definitely remember their kindness today regardless.
Mother Bai was back shortly after that and he was cleaned off the currently, very small amounts of extracted impurities and fed some porridge.
In this way, Mother Bai would take care of him without complaint or even a hint of disgust. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with the little brat.
She would be left in charge of watching over him once the normally busy mother Bai has to leave and she would go on nonstop about various complaints she had not just on him but all the other ‘mean’ people at the orphanage. Finlay couldn't sleep or enter meditation to escape the pain due to her continuous chatty mouth.To his dismay, he realized that he was able to understand this walking headache much better than Mother Bai.
He definitely suffered due to her more than the actual transformation process itself. Like this, he gritted his teeth and helplessly laid down in the
room obediently as the first week passed.
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*Sniffle*
Ronn, the usually fierce looking god of war, lets out a tear as if he couldn’t suppress his emotions anymore, now that the beloved junior has left.
“You bastard, are you fucking crying?!! How the fuck are you even the god of war amongst us??”, watching this, Khann couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
Suddenly being scolded like this, the infuriated Ronn couldn’t help retort.
“Shut up you piece of shit! I was having an emotional moment there! And you can’t be the one to say that. You think I didn’t notice that little bit of divine energy you used to hold your face straight?? You hypocrite!”
“Hump! So what? I’m a dignified god and I used my powers to maintain an appropriate appearance. How is that wrong? It’s you who’s looking like a bastard.”, Khann defended himself.
As always, Dinn, the eldest amongst them, came to diffuse the situation.
“Alright little brothers, enough of that for now. The boy just left and you’re already starting??”
“Don’t stop me this time big brother Dinn, this bastard’s been acting too much like a drama queen lately.” Kahnn couldn’t be discouraged even after a word from Dinn.
Dinn didn’t get angry or serious at being ignored like before. He let them argue it out naturally.
On the side, Xinn couldn’t help muttering his own thoughts at this scene.
“*sigh* Haven’s dammit! This lot hadn’t had normal human contact for too long! I wonder how long this is going to go on this time.”
After a Chicken fight between Ronn and Khann, followed by a round of brotherly affection and apologizing later, the ever stoic Dinn finally opened his mouth to ask the important question on everyone’s mind.
“So what do you think? Will this method work?”
“Yeah I like the kid and believe in his ability but this time, we went all out with our reserves as well…..If we fail with this as well,....”, Gonn couldn’t help adding to it. He had an uncertain, worried expression in his eyes.
Obviously, the questions were directed to Jinn. He put on an assuring smile as he replied.
“Don’t worry brothers. This time, I have a good feeling! That’s not just because of the kid. The goddess this time made too much of a blunder. I have collected some key information on her dirty work and access to a key security point through her careless actions. If I have some more time, I’m confident in collecting some damning evidence on our enemies. We can do something high profile to create a mess to attract the higher ups. Even if it fails, we’ll be running interference for the kid.”
“As long as he makes it past the halfway point, I’m confident he won't disappoint us.”, Mann expressed his belief in their champion.
“What brother Mann say’s is correct. The initial stages of his journey is the riskiest phase. He can only depend on his luck to make it through it. We’ve already done everything we can.”, Jinn expressed his agreement and concern.
“Alright then, everyone. This time, we will follow little Jinn’s plans. But don’t neglect the boy. We will provide support however we can when possible. Little Jinn and Xinn, I leave his monitoring in your hands. Now, let us discuss the details of little Jinn’s arrangements ....”
“Wait big brother! Something is happening!”, the calm Jinn couldn’t help blurting out with a slightly surprised and panicked voice.
“Yes I can see it too!”
It was at this moment when Finlay had just opened his eyes. Unbeknownst to him, the mid day, cloudy sky was displaying a bizarre event. The blue sky was slowly flickering in colour and vaguely displaying the normally invisible stars in the daylight. If there was a knowledgeable person here, they would recognize the event for what it was.
This is a sign displayed by the entire world and the heavenly Dao that something beyond ordinary has appeared in the mortal world. This was obviously in response to Finlay’s extraordinary S grade abilities.
“Let me see if I can-”
“No! Let me handle this.”
Before Jinn could propose something, Dinn decisively took matters into his own hands.
“Bend to my will!...” With a shout and exerting his terrifying divine strength and his unique authority as the first god of the world, Dinn was able to forcibly suppress the appearance of the heavenly sign, avoiding a big disaster for Finlay and their plans.
Oblivious to how he was once again rescued from near utter disaster, Finlay was busy dealing with his headache due to a certain chatty brat..
To be continued.