Su Hao’s life was quite simple. During the day, he wandered around the corners of the small town, and when the night fell and everything turned pitch black, he would return to the kitchen through the dog hole and bury himself in the pile of firewood.
In just five days, Su Hao managed to acquire what he needed. He had decent clothing, a pair of homemade grass shoes, a wooden stick with sharp iron pieces bound to it as a makeshift spear for self-defense, and some savings in his pocket, so he no longer needed to worry about daily meals.
His body began to grow stronger, and his complexion gradually improved.
The time was ripe, so Su Hao began spending two hours each day refining his blood qi.
Before doing so, Su Hao conducted a full-body scan of his new body and discovered the differences between this one and his previous incarnation.
Firstly, the people of this world referred to themselves as “Zhu Huo Ren/People of Zuhou.”
Physically, they were taller and stronger than conventional humans. At his current age of over three years, he had the strength equivalent to that of a seven or eight-year-old human child.
Their skin was a dark shade of yellow, with hair mostly being brown or black. The cross-section of their hair was oval-shaped, leading to most people having a messy and curly appearance. There was a tuft of white fluff on the tips of their ears, making their hearing extremely sensitive.
During the day, their eyes were human-like, providing clear vision, while at night, their eyesight resembled that of cats. After Su Hao started supplementing his nutrition properly, he began to see clearly at night.
Their nails were extremely hard and sharp. With some polishing, they could serve as weapons.
Their teeth didn’t seem to have fully evolved yet, with fangs slightly protruding from their upper and lower jaws.
The entire bone structure was thicker and more robust, yet extraordinarily flexible, allowing them to perform movements that ordinary humans couldn’t.
All vital organs were intact, and there was an additional organ near the stomach. It was about the size of an egg, attached to the outside of the stomach, connected by a network of densely branched tubes that extended throughout the body.
Su Hao was quite puzzled by the function of this organ. It seemed like a random lump of flesh that the Creator forgot to remove.
At a deeper cellular level, there weren’t many differences, except that the genes responsible for recording life information had some variations compared to those of humans from his previous lives. They seemed to be more refined, but that was to be expected since it was a different world.
However, none of this information was the most crucial for Su Hao.
What he cared about was whether this Zhu Huo Ren body could successfully refine blood qi. If it could, everything else was manageable; if it couldn’t, he’d have to start over from scratch.
The good news was that this body could still refine blood qi, and the amount of blood qi it could refine was even more than that of martial artists in his previous world. This made Su Hao realize that blood qi, as a form of life energy, objectively existed.
So, Su Hao began to concentrate on refining blood qi.
Two months later.
Su Hao had reached the level of an advanced ordinary martial artist. His body had gradually adapted to the presence of blood qi, and the amount of blood qi he could generate had reached its limit.
At the same time, Su Hao had successfully learned the language of this world. He could understand what others were saying and could awkwardly express his own thoughts.
With the information from his predecessor, Su Hao also learned about the identity of the young boy he had taken over. The boy was a homeless child in the small town named Duo Wei. His parents had disappeared one after another a year ago, leaving him to wander the city, scavenging for food. He was often bullied by older homeless children who deemed him too young and useless. None of these groups of street children took him in; they simply let him fend for himself.
As he was nearing the end of his rope, he never expected to be possessed by Su Hao just before his death.
From his arrival until now, Su Hao had successfully survived, and things had generally gone quite smoothly.
The most reassuring part was that he had already acquired blood qi at the advanced ordinary martial artist level, giving him some self-defense capability.
All he needed to do was use the centrifugal method to accumulate a large amount of elite blood qi.
The only problem was that his current body was still less than four years old. Although it was much stronger than human children, it was still quite fragile.
Having such a fragile body with an enormous amount of elite blood qi might not be ideal; it could easily harm himself.
But Su Hao didn’t have a choice. He needed to gain stronger self-defense capabilities as soon as possible. While elite blood qi might not be suitable for close combat with enemies, it could be used to strengthen weapons and create runes for special enhancements.
Having elite blood qi would significantly improve his chances of survival. Without it, a simple accident could send him wandering through the universe once more.
He wasn’t afraid of death, but he wanted his death to have some value.
“So, the next step is to advance to the elite level!” Su Hao was filled with hope for the future. Once he reached Master status, he could start exploring this world.
What horrors lurked in this world’s nights? Su Hao was curious.
However, he couldn’t stay in the kitchen of the small courtyard any longer; the firewood there was running low. If he continued hiding there, he might end up being used as firewood in someone’s stove.
First, he needed to find another hiding place. His money was only enough for food, and he couldn’t afford to rent a house. Moreover, as a child this small, renting a house might expose him to various risks.
With a certain level of self-defense capability, Su Hao no longer hesitated and acted decisively.
He wrapped the sharp iron pieces of the short spear with a piece of cloth, holding it as a walking stick, and began to explore uncharted areas.
Su Hao’s ideal hiding place was somewhere unexpected and inconspicuous.
Soon, Su Hao found the hiding spot he was looking for.
A collapsed earthen wall that formed a triangular space, and by clearing away the weeds and rubble, laying down some dry grass and tattered cloth, and sealing both ends except for a small entrance just big enough for him, he could create a simple hiding spot.
When he went out, he would block the small entrance with stones so that no one would discover this place.
Su Hao acted quickly.
In a short time, he had completed the construction of his hiding spot. This was something he had done frequently in his past life, living alone in the wilderness, and practice makes perfect.
Su Hao rolled into the hiding spot, blocked the entrance with a stone, leaving only two small holes at the head and tail. The entire hiding spot blended seamlessly with the surroundings, making it impossible to tell from the outside that someone could be hidden inside.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Su Hao relaxed. After a moment, he sat up and began to transform the elite blood qi.
…
Three days later, Su Hao left his hiding spot and headed to the marketplace.
He needed to buy some food first and then find someone he could trust to get some money to purchase fabric clothing. Winter was approaching quickly, and he had to buy enough warm clothing and blankets before it arrived.
He learned that the name of this small town was Siling City.
The city consisted mainly of low, simple houses, and the further one went towards the city center, the higher the quality of the buildings. The basic unit of currency used was called “zhu,” small coins made of mixed metals. Ten thousand zhu could be exchanged for one gold.
Yes, in this world, gold was still the universal currency.
Su Hao bought some food, lowered his presence instinctively, and navigated through narrow alleys. However, he was blocked by six larger children, all older and bigger than him.
Su Hao was nearly four years old and stood at about 1.2 meters tall, while these six children varied in size but were all much stronger. Their average age was around six, and their average height was about 1.5 meters.
In terms of physique and numbers, they completely overwhelmed Su Hao.
The tallest child had a prominent scar on his eyebrow and was evidently the leader of this group. He walked up to Su Hao, glanced at the food in his hand, and arrogantly asked, “New here?”
Su Hao looked around and stammered, “Something?”
The scarred child grinned and said, “Of course. Surviving in this area requires paying protection fees to our ‘Little Flying Dragon Gang.'”
After saying that, he reached out to grab the food from Su Hao’s hand.
Su Hao deftly twisted his wrist, avoiding the scarred child’s grasp. He calmly replied, “Oh, I don’t have any.”
The scarred child’s attempt to grab the food was unexpectedly evaded by Su Hao. His face couldn’t help but show some frustration. He was about to confront Su Hao when the young boy blocked his path.
Su Hao took a step forward and stomped fiercely on the scarred child’s foot.
“Ouch!” The scarred child immediately cried out in pain, clutching his injured foot.
Seeing this, the other five children rushed forward, surrounding Su Hao and preparing to attack.
Soon, painful screams echoed in the narrow alley as all six children sat on the ground, clutching their feet in agony.
Their gazes towards Su Hao were filled with fear.
“Weird…” the scarred child unconsciously muttered a word but then quickly held his tongue, his face showing fear.
Su Hao furrowed his brows and asked, “Weird what?”
But the scarred child was too terrified. He ignored the pain in his foot, limped to his feet, and fled. His five companions, seeing this, also panicked and fled in different directions.
Su Hao reached out to grab one of them, hoping to find out what had frightened them, but to his surprise, the child’s eyes rolled back, and he fainted, his body releasing a pungent odor of urine.
Su Hao sighed and let go, quickly turning away from the scene.
…
At the end of the day, Su Hao had a fruitful harvest. He had bought a set of thick clothing and a small piece of cotton cloth, hoping that he would have a comfortable night tonight.
As night approached, Su Hao packed his belongings and prepared to quietly return to his hiding spot.
However, in the quiet air, he sensed something unusual.
It seemed like he was being watched by something.
He turned around to look, but there was nothing to be seen.
Su Hao maintained his pace, silently repeating, “Little Light…”
