"Urghh..." Duan Li groaned as he slowly woke up and sat on the ground. He pinched his forehead with his thumb and index finger together to reduce the headache from the intense pain that suddenly assaulted him earlier on.

He then looked around at his surrounding with a confused expression, "What in the world... just happened?" he said to himself, feeling quite bewildered.

He remembered that he had only tried to pluck out that mysterious pearl away from the tree to get a better look at it, before a blinding white light suddenly flashed and encompassed him followed by surges of intense pain ramming through his head that caused him to immediately faint!

Duan Li then turned to look at the halfway chopped tree and to his surprise, realized that the golden pearl was no longer there. In its place was now a hollow rounded space -- the only evidence that his experience before was neither a dream nor an illusion!

"Did the pearl broke apart when I touched it?" he thought to himself but immediately shook his head afterwards.

"That cannot be, even my axe was forcefully repulsed with a metallic clanking sound before. Thus, it should be pretty sturdy…" he mumbled and then squatted to the ground, searching among the fallen leaves in case it fell off from the tree after he touched it.

After several minutes of futile attempt in searching for that mysterious pearl, he finally stood up and tidied himself to dust away the dirt from his clothes.

"Forget it... I should just continue chopping down trees for the firewood. I need to get back by noon or else mother would become worried..." he sighed helplessly and decided to put the previous matter to the back of his head.

They are living in a world full of miracles after all, and some couldn't really be explained in proper words. Therefore, Duan Li reckoned that the tree he was about to chop before was probably another weird occurrence that would happen from time to time.

...

"Mother, I am home!" shouted Duan Li as he laid down the pieces of firewood which he had strapped to his back with the help of some ropes by the entrance.

"Ahh… there you are! I was beginning to get worried! Tell me, where did you ran off to this time?" queried his mother with a stern, reprimanding look with both hands on her waist. However, if people from the village were to see that expression right now, they would only find that face to be quite adorable and teased her instead.

Duan Li also had a similar feeling as well, but the difference between him and the normal villagers was that he could get beaten up if he made fun of his mother. Her fists were no joke.

When he was about to answer, he stopped and thought for awhile. If he were to tell her the truth, there was a chance that he could get beaten up by his mother for making up unbelievable story.

After all, who would believe him if he were to say a pearl was growing inside the tree he was chopping?

There was also another guarantee that her mother would become worried that he had been exposed to some hidden danger and would stick to him day and night for weeks to come, invading his space and privacy.

He recalled that there was a time in his childhood day when he told his mother that he ate an unknown fruit. After that, his mother never took her eyes off him for three months, just in case to stop him if he somehow turned into a grotesque monster.

"Well... after I finished chopping down the trees for some firewood, I decided to sit down and rest..." replied Duan Li with a satisfied nod. He decided to not tell his mother about the bizarre experience he just had before. He felt that this answer of his should be natural.

"This kid..." Meng Yue couldn't help but to want to pummel her son after seeing the latter cupping his chin for a straight 30 seconds without saying anything and staring at her with judgemental eyes before replying to her!

Did he finally take this mother of his as a fool? Who wouldn't realize that you were cooking up something with such an act?!

The fact that Duan Li's height is 185 centimeters tall which is innumerably taller than her, made it felt even worse being stared down at from such a sharp angle!

However, she could only sigh and couldn't bring herself to pummel her son today, as it was a special day for him. "Well, as long as you're fine..." she said with a smile and continued, "Come let's eat now, the food is ready!"

Hearing this, Duan Li's eyes turned bright. For him in this world, there were only three things that he could truly enjoy doing - sleeping, eating and reading books! Everything else didn't really matter to him and he chose to not care too much about worldly matters. As a result of this reclusive and hermit lifestyle of his, he didn't manage to make a lot of friends except a few stray cats.

...

Nom! Nom! Nom!

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"Slow down... you're going to choke yourself up!" Meng Yue couldn't suppress herself and giggled when she saw her son eating like a savage from the mountains.

Not knowing his mother's thoughts on him, Duan Li continued to eat innocently.

"Finished!" He exclaimed after putting down the bowl onto the wooden table with a 'thud!' sound feeling quite satisfied. He truly loves his mother's cooking as he could feel the gentle warmth of her motherly love every time he ate it.

"She probably giggled at me because she was happy that I also liked her food!" He was feeling truly lucky to have such a caring mother.

If only he knew what his mother thought of him when he was eating, he would probably cry and run away from home the next day to live the life of a vagrant.

"Good! Don't forget to wash those dishes and before I forget, take this money..." Meng Yue said as she took out and handed a pouch filled with some copper coins. "Go to grandma Ying's grocery store and buy some fresh fish enough for about three people for the dinner tonight."

Hearing this, Duan Li became curious and asked, "For three people? Is someone visiting tonight?"

"Yes, you will know by tonight! Consider the remaining copper coins in there as your pocket money. After all, isn't today your 21st birthday? Happy birthday! Now get going!" replied his mother with a wide smile.

"Eh?" Duan Li was thoroughly surprised by that particular sentence!

21st birthday?

He had forgotten that today was indeed his birthday!

"Thanks mother!" He replied excitedly as he then hurriedly washed the dishes. After that, he headed out and ran to the direction of the village's central market. It was already late noon and if he didn't hurry, he wouldn't have enough time to browse all the items there to buy for his birthday present as they might close soon.

Looking at the disappearing figure of her happy son from the distance, Meng Yue couldn't help but to smile. However, she felt a little conflicted inside.

"Its finally time for you to find your own way in this world..."

...

Finally reaching the village marketplace, Duan Li could no longer run like a hyena as the streets was filled with people. It had a busy atmosphere and people of all ages were doing various activities and daily transactions with the vendors and stores along the street. Although he wasn't a fan of being in crowded places from all the noises and shouting, he had to especially put up with it today in order to find something for himself. Furthermore, it was a place where he could listen to the numerous kinds of conversations; from adventures down to the latest hot news and gossips.

Who knows if someone there somehow would mention something that could interest him?

Also, although Duan Li hadn't got that much money to him, as part of the three things he only cared about in the world, he had spent most of his pocket money on buying various books in the marketplace regarding the various contemporary basic knowledge and fields. Thus, with both of these combined, despite being a hermit, he actually knew quite a bit on the current state of affairs in the world.

Firstly, this small village they were in is called the *Liu Shi Jiu village, with a total population of roughly over a thousand. It is situated on the Tian continent and ruled by the Jiu Empire. It is only one of the innumerable *Cunzhuang or villages which the magistrate couldn't even be bothered to name properly. Thus, they are simply called as villagers from village sixty-nine when they are outside.

Secondly, the Tian continent by itself is quite vast and wide. In fact, cartographers approximated that the total land size of the continent should span some few million kilometers altogether. However, of these total landmass, only about 30 percent were suitable for habitat by people. This is because the Tian continent only had a few places where humans could live safely away from danger. The rest are lurked with various form of hazards, be it monsters or carnivorous plants and toxic environment!

Moreover, of these 30 percent, the land is further divided by the nine empires spread across the continent, some are sparse while others are closely located to each other. Thus, war was quite a common occurrence. In terms of power, the strength of the Jiu Empire and its close rival by the border, separated only by the mountain ranges stretching all the way from the North to the South, which is the Liu Empire to the East, is practically equal in strength.

Although skirmishes would often broke out at the borders, rarely has there ever been any sort of an all-out wars between the two of these empires since their founding two thousand years ago.

That is because, compared to the other seven empires out there, their individual strengths as an empire were not even worth a mention. Had any of these other seven empires decided to invade, they would be doomed. Thus, the relationship between the Jiu and Liu Empire could be considered as complicated.

The only reason why these two empires were currently safe from invasion was due to its geographical location being surrounded by long stretches of deserts with extreme heat during the day and freezing cold temperatures during the night. Furthermore, the thousands of kilometers long rivers and massive lakes are the habitat of many instant-kill behemoths and colossal sea monster creatures that could wipe out a few million soldiers in an instant!

Therefore, at times of peace, these two neighboring empires would only poke at each other here and there playfully. Sometimes, they do fought some small wars so as to not get rusty, but these are mostly 'war' in names as it was pretty much just some friendly competition between the two.

Thus, if any of these two were to be invaded by the other seven empires, both would immediately ally themselves together and stand back to back like a pair of old best friends on reunion to fight together until the end!

"Hais!"

Duan Li felt that this kind of situation was quite ironic, or it would be more accurate to state it as romantic. He conjectured that the founding emperors of the Jiu and Liu empires must have been in love with each other as they are of the opposite sexes! However, they do not dare to confess to one another during their lifetime and had only expressed their mutual feelings through petty fights and rivalries. Thus, this trend had escalated down to their present era.

"Hais! People should be more straightforward with each other so as to not implicate the later generations..." Duan Li sighed with his hands clasped behind his back.

He then continued to scurry around the marketplace and eventually found himself in some suspicious alley, where a person offered him some books about being a real man that was on discount.

Duan Li, being an upright man of justice, definitely would not allow such things to fall on the wrong hands. Thus, he bought some.

...

After a few twists and turn around some corners, he finally saw grandma Ying's grocery store on the distance. As he was approaching closer however, voices from shouts and yelling could be heard coming out from the store. A crowd was also beginning to form around it.

Duan Li's brows furrowed together.

"A fight?"

With his hands clasped behind his back, he calmly walked over to see what the fuss was all about.

...