Chapter 26: Reflection
\nThe tall, thin man Wang San and another passerby stood frozen.
\nWasn’t this the pedantic scholar who couldn’t even subdue a chicken? How did he knock out Old Hua with a jar! Seeing blood gushing from Old Hua’s head wound, both men trembled. But their fear soon turned to rage.
\nHow dare he!
\nA mere scholar.
\n“You dare attack us? I’ll end you!”
\nWang San grabbed a nearby cage to smash down while the other man lunged to choke Zuo Meng. Neither were martial artists – they could bully untrained commoners but stood no chance here. Zuo Meng stepped back half a pace and kicked Wang San’s chest, sending him flying.
\nHis descending foot then crushed the second man’s stomach, leaving the thug curled like a shrimp and wailing.
\n“Lacking inner strength is troublesome.”
\nAfter two simple moves, Zuo Meng was already panting. His current body remained too weak, even with combat experience.
\n“Xue! This isn’t over!”
\n“Prepare for court!”
\nWang San abandoned his companion, scrambling away from the shop.
\nZuo Meng righted the toppled furniture and kicked the whimpering thug’s backside.
\n“Take your friend and disappear.”
\nThe thug initially feared being silenced. Realizing he’d been spared, he hoisted Old Hua and fled without another sound.
\n“Trouble handled.”
\nZuo Meng produced a white paper marked “IOU” from his sleeve – Xue Chuan’s original debt note. As a self-made Jianghu operator, pocketing valuables during fights came naturally.
\nHe burned the note over a candle flame.
\nAfter dusting his hands, Zuo Meng left the shop.
\n“Lay low outside until things calm down.”
\nLocking up, he rode his new donkey from the city.
\nThe wilderness beyond appeared desolate.
\nA nearby forest housed beasts and mountain bandits – forbidden to ordinary people but ideal for Zuo Meng’s Closed Door Meditation. Wildlife and thieves posed little threat when one carried poisons and hidden weapons. Having defeated the Poison King in the real world, he knew enough about venoms.
\n“Good spot.”
\nZuo Meng found a clearing with a pond, grassy banks, and boulders. The air felt fresher here, saturated with ancient and totemic energies stronger than elsewhere.
\nHuang and Xuan Gui had always existed here, profoundly influencing this world. Without Zuo Meng’s interference, these primordial deities might have transcended the Three Realms entirely.
\nTheir presence guaranteed transformation.
\n“Eight years at most before the change comes.”
\nThe totemic and ancient eras Zuo Meng had shaped as creator would ripple through future civilizations. Like immortal influences on mortals across epochs, this impact would endure.
\n“Such world-altering phenomena don’t occur in the real world. But by mastering these transition points, I might simulate the process externally – leveraging reality’s pressure points to forge Transcendent power.”
\nZuo Meng had entered the Dream World not as creator, but to experience an ordinary person’s path to Transcendence.
\n\u201cEarlier when I took action, I tested some real-world techniques and found no major issues. This means techniques work the same whether in the real world or the Dream World.\u201d
\nAs for inner strength, Zuo Meng focused on his dantian. After days of practice, he’d generated a faint flicker of internal energy there \u2013 barely enough to notice, let alone use. He abandoned thoughts of altering natural laws for now. While in the Dream World experiencing life as an ordinary person, he realized his past approach had been too crude. Directly modifying laws wasn’t effective \u2013 even low-level inner strength had nearly ruptured him. Higher energies would’ve made his body explode.
\nThese flaws only became visible through an ordinary person’s perspective.
\nDiscovering this danger settled Zuo Meng’s mind. He began reviewing every detail of his martial arts training.
\nTwo days passed swiftly.
\nWhen he opened his eyes, he stopped meditating.
\n“Practicing real-world inner strength just repeats old lessons. It doesn’t transform my core essence.”
\nHis two-day effort confirmed it \u2013 while external-world inner strength could be cultivated, it only rehashed existing knowledge without creating qualitative change.
\n“This era’s martial arts are too primitive. Without internal skills as reference, my solo research progresses too slowly. I need to spread inner strength cultivation \u2013 harness a whole world’s wisdom to find solutions.” His past approach had been simplistic. Beyond manipulating laws and fortune, people themselves were resources.
\nIf one researcher moves slowly, what about ten? A hundred? Thousands? Even an entire world?
\n“I’ll return to the city by dusk. Ancient societies lack surveillance anyway. Without signed IOUs, those three lenders can’t win a case against me.” Facing stalled progress, Zuo Meng abandoned further effort and headed back to seek other power-boosting methods.
\nBy afternoon, he reentered the city.
\nHis shop reopened smoothly. Perhaps realizing the IOU was lost, Wang San’s group never filed complaints. The debt matter faded quietly. Untroubled, Zuo Meng resumed his lazy fish lifestyle.
\n“Ugh, this dump’s still open?”
\nA green-robed girl entered \u2013 Zhi Hua, the merchant’s daughter who’d tried buying kingfisher paintings days earlier before being dismissed.
\nServes you right for having no customers!
\nShe glanced around the empty shop. Of course it’s deserted \u2013 the owner’s permanent scowl violated every business norm.
\n“Wait… this painting…”
\nTurning to leave, her eyes caught a piece in the corner \u2013
\nA mountain-water landscape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chapter 26: Reflection The tall, thin man Wang San and another passerby stood frozen. Wasn’t this the pedantic scholar who couldn’t even subdue a chicken? How did he knock out Old Hua with a jar! Seeing blood gushing from Old Hua’s head wound, both men trembled. But their fear soon turned to rage. How dare he! A mere scholar. “You dare attack us? I’ll\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[3],"tags":[],"fcn_genre":[],"fcn_fandom":[],"fcn_character":[],"fcn_content_warning":[],"class_list":["post-1405","fcn_chapter","type-fcn_chapter","status-publish","hentry","category-dreaming-to-become-a-creator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fcn_chapter\/1405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fcn_chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/fcn_chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fcn_chapter\/1405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"fcn_genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fcn_genre?post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"fcn_fandom","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fcn_fandom?post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"fcn_character","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fcn_character?post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"fcn_content_warning","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmp.gravitytales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fcn_content_warning?post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}