Chapter 4: Ten Thousand Blood Bead

"Thank you, Uncle Li. I'm going back to my room to rest."

Li Fei stood up.

"Take this plate of strawberries with you."

Zhang Yuqing added.

So, Li Fei picked up the fruit plate from the table and returned to his room.

In the living room, Li Lei looked dejected:

"If it weren't for Xiao Fei's father blocking that blade for me back then, I would have died on the battlefield long ago, and I wouldn't have this family business today. I promised Xiao Fei's father that I would treat Xiao Fei as my own, but now..."

How could he not see through Li Fei's intentions? He knew that Li Fei had taken the initiative to suggest not applying to university and going to the Martial Arts Hall instead because he didn't want to make things difficult for him.

Zhang Yuqing held her husband's hand and comforted him:

"Haven't we been good enough to Xiao Fei all these years? Is there anything Tianyu has that I haven't also prepared for Xiao Fei? Even in a normal family, if there is only one opportunity, it should go to whoever has more talent, and you have seen Tianyu's talent."

"Hmm."

Li Lei nodded.

He thought for a moment, then turned to look at Zhang Yuqing: "Xiao Fei must be unwilling in his heart; otherwise, he wouldn't have thought of going to the Martial Arts Hall. He must be trying to compete for the quota to be recommended to university from the Martial Arts Hall. Regardless, we should still support him in giving it a try."

Zhang Yuqing understood her husband's meaning.

Although the expenses for the Martial Arts Hall were not as high as those for the university's Martial Arts Department, practicing martial arts required money everywhere. Li Lei was unwilling to let Li Fei suffer, which meant this family would have to bear a significant additional expense.

Zhang Yuqing looked at Li Lei and smiled softly:

"You are the head of the household; you have the final say."

In the room, Li Fei sat at his desk.

On the bookshelf to his left were various books, most of which were related to martial arts, such as: *Illustrated Guide to Fatal Human Acupoints*, *Thirty-Six Grappling Techniques: Third Edition*, and *Complete Collection of Great Lan Dynasty Martial Arts*.

These were all textbooks for the vocational Martial Arts Department of the Great Lan Dynasty.

What Li Fei was holding and reading at this moment was *The Great Lan Record*, a book detailing the history of the Great Lan Dynasty.

"This world is truly marvelous."

As he read, Li Fei couldn't help but exclaim.

He was not originally from this world.

In his previous life, after graduating from university and entering the workforce, he had never made a single mistake in ten years thanks to his cautious and thorough way of doing things, finally earning a chance for a promotion.

But just at that moment, he happened to stumble upon a secret and saw things he shouldn't have seen.

After ten years of being cautious, he finally couldn't hold back and acted on impulse once, writing a whistleblower letter.

After that, the promotion opportunity was gone, and he was targeted and bullied in the workplace!

All the most bitter and tiring work was thrown at him, and he was the one assigned to every holiday shift.

Working overtime every day, overtime, overtime... and having to endure all kinds of scolding, being a scapegoat, and suffering under high mental pressure.

Li Fei had thought about resigning, but at over thirty years old, it was difficult for him to find another job.

So he endured it for two years, and on a night when he was working overtime until the early hours, he died suddenly...

When he woke up again, Li Fei discovered that he had transmigrated!

The technology of this world was roughly at the level of the nineteenth century of his previous life, and the most powerful country in the world was still a feudal empire called the Great Lan Dynasty, which considered itself the Celestial Empire and had been established for over five hundred years.

The Great Lan Dynasty was initially an absolute monarchy, but later changed to a dual constitutional monarchy, with the Emperor and cabinet ministers governing the country together.

Over the past five hundred years, many far-reaching events had occurred in the history of the Great Lan Dynasty, and there had been two major events in recent decades.

The first major event was seventeen years ago, when the Great Lan Dynasty went to war with several Western countries simultaneously, and as a result, the allied forces fought all the way to the gates of the Imperial Capital.

In the end, the Great Lan Dynasty's strongest Sky Blue Iron Cavalry defeated the allied forces outside the Imperial Capital, saving the Great Lan Dynasty.

Although the Great Lan Dynasty won this battle in the end, the strength of the Western countries aroused the vigilance of many, leading to the second major event—the Mingxin Reform.

The content of the reform was to introduce the culture and technology of Western countries, striving in every aspect to "learn the advanced techniques of the barbarians to control the barbarians."

Over seventeen years, the Great Lan Dynasty had been influenced by Western culture and had undergone many changes; for example, the electric lights in Li Fei's room, the radio on his desk, and the bicycles and cars parked outside were all products of the reform.

These products were nothing to Li Fei, who was used to high-tech products in his previous life; what really interested him was the extraordinary power of this world.

In the description of *The Great Lan Record*, the weapons used by the allied forces back then included rifled guns with a range of up to 500 meters, heavy machine guns known as the "end of the cavalry era," mortars with a maximum caliber of 70mm and a range of up to 3000 meters, as well as armored vehicles, warships, and airplanes!

Such weaponry was enough to sweep away any army using cold weapons.

However, historical records stated that the 120, 00 allied troops were broken by 10, 00 iron cavalry and suffered a crushing defeat!

After this battle, Western countries did not dare to provoke border conflicts for seventeen whole years.

This made Li Fei realize that the extraordinary power in this world was not simple.

This world had martial arts and also sorcery.

Among the six ministries of the Great Lan Dynasty cabinet, there was even a department specifically named the "Orthodox Law Department," where the people were experts in practicing sorcery.

And because the Great Lan Dynasty was founded on martial arts, it placed even greater importance on them.

But whenever it involved extraordinary content, *The Great Lan Record* was vague and glossed over it.

Although his predecessor had chosen the Martial Arts Department when he was admitted to vocational school, the instructors did not mention much about martial artists, only saying:

"If you can get into university in the future, the martial arts instructors there will tell you what a true martial artist is."

Li Fei was naturally interested in sorcery, but sorcery was too mysterious, and he had no idea how to get in touch with it. The Martial Arts Departments of the twelve universities were clearly visible halls of martial arts, so he had to get into a university's Martial Arts Department.

He wanted to become strong and never again be stepped on and manipulated like in his previous life!

Touching his chest, Li Fei moved his mind and immediately sensed a dark blue bead existing within his body.

When he transmigrated, this thing was already in his body, and his mind could connect with it at any time to intuitively obtain the information within it.

If this information were described in language, it would be like this:

【Ten Thousand Blood Bead

Level: 1, 36%

Blood Soul: 10】

This Ten Thousand Blood Bead was closely related to Li Fei's life, quantifying his life into 10 Blood Souls.

Simply put, these 10 Blood Souls represented Li Fei's vitality, or his health bar.

If the health bar was gone, the person would die.

And as long as the health bar remained, Li Fei would not die immediately no matter how fatal the injury he received was.

Most importantly, this Ten Thousand Blood Bead could automatically absorb energy from the human body to level up, and leveling up could increase Blood Souls and unlock other abilities!

With such a thing, Li Fei was naturally full of confidence in himself.

Moreover, he felt that the Ten Thousand Blood Bead could not only make him capable of enduring injuries but might also help him practice martial arts.

In his predecessor's memory, there was such a passage:

Two months ago, the vocational school organized a physical examination.

At first, the content of the examination was the same as in the past, all routine physical fitness tests, but in the end, every student was made to drink a bottle of poisonous potion.

After drinking the potion, everyone's body showed different degrees of abnormalities.

Some people had violent reactions, with full-body skin allergies and foaming at the mouth; others only had slight dizziness and nausea.

Once someone felt they couldn't hold on, the teacher in charge of the examination would give them the antidote prepared in advance.

Finally, scores were given based on each person's physical reaction and the length of time they persisted.

After the test, the school teachers told the students that only those with a score of Grade C or above were eligible to apply for the university's Martial Arts Department.

His predecessor's score was Grade B-minus, which was considered a good score.

It was based on this memory that Li Fei felt the Ten Thousand Blood Bead might be helpful for martial arts practice.

"Perhaps martial arts practice in this world requires taking some drugs that are harmful to the human body, so the school needs to test everyone's reaction to drugs in advance. And I have the Ten Thousand Blood Bead; as the health bar gets thicker in the future, my endurance will become stronger and stronger. Perhaps I am a one-in-a-million talent!"

Li Fei thought this, full of anticipation.

(End of chapter)