Nine Transformations of the True Spirit

In the midsummer, the setting sun was setting in the west, and the sunset glow filled the sky.

In Chenjia Village, a wedding had just ended.

After the guests and neighbors had eaten and drunk their fill, they gradually dispersed, and laughter and joy echoed in the small village.

Chen Yuan followed his parents, wearing a linen short coat, holding a bulging coarse cloth bag in his right hand, and holding his ten-year-old sister in his left hand, and walked towards home.

The dim sunlight sprinkled down, leaving a long shadow behind the two.

"Old Chen Dahua, this old thing is so proud today, how can his daughter-in-law be so pretty..."

His parents commented on today's wedding with a little sourness, and his little sister also chattered non-stop, marveling at the liveliness of the wedding and the richness of the banquet.

Although there was no six rituals such as the betrothal ceremony, in the poor Chenjia Village, this simple wedding was already the most lively event except for the New Year, and brought together more than half of the families in the village.

Chen Yuan smiled and listened carefully to the little sister's excited story. He gently pulled her hand from time to time to remind her to avoid the potholes and stones on the dirt road.

"Brother, the braised pork is delicious, I want to eat more...Brother, have you eaten the white cake? It's so sweet...Brother, it turns out that chicken can be eaten. Aren't chickens used to lay eggs...Brother..."

The little sister asked one question after another, and the smile on Chen Yuan's face slowly faded.

He lowered his head, looked at the thin little sister, and whispered:

"Little sister, be good, whatever you want to eat in the future, brother will buy it for you."

"Really? Then I want to eat chicken! Well, no, chickens have to lay eggs for copper coins, so let's eat braised pork, and that white cake, which is sweeter than sugar..."

The little sister's voice became clearer and clearer, but Chen Yuan fell silent.

Chen Tiezhu turned around and scolded:

"Wild girl, you are so naive, you eat whatever is expensive!"

Mrs. Chen Li pushed him:

"That's enough! The child finally got to the feast, and you can't say anything?"

Chen Tiezhu glared at his wife, turned around and said nothing more.

The little sister pouted and lowered her head to step on the shadows.

Chen Yuan held the little sister's hand, and it became tighter.

The family came to a small courtyard in silence.

There were two thatched houses in the courtyard, one large and one small, surrounded by a thorny fence as high as a person.

A dilapidated wooden door was shaking, with a wooden pin inserted.

Chen Tiezhu untied the wooden pin, and the family walked into the larger thatched house. Chen Yuan let go of the little sister's hand and put the cloth bag on the rough yellow wooden table.

The light in the room was dim, with only a very small window hole covered with yellowed window paper.

There was a small candlestick on the table, with half a thin candle on it.

Chen Li took out a pottery bowl with a missing corner from a cabinet with half a door missing, and then took out five heavy coarse flour cakes from a cloth bag, put them in the bowl, turned the cloth bag over, shook it twice, and poured the fine flour crumbs into it.

These cakes were left over from the host family after the banquet, and were divided among the villagers. The Chen family got five.

Chen Li picked up the bowl, glanced at Chen Yuan, put the bowl down, took out a coarse flour cake, and handed it to him:

"Erniu, you have a big appetite. Didn't you eat enough at the banquet? Have another cake."

Chen Yuan took the coarse flour cake:

"Thank you, mother."

"Hey, why are you being so polite to mother? Why are you like those kids who study, so good at talking..."

Chen Li blamed Chen Yuan with her mouth, but her face was full of smiles, and wrinkles were piled up at the corners of her eyes.

She was only in her early thirties, but she looked like a middle-aged woman in her fifties, with a frosted face.

Chen Tiezhu chuckled:

"Don't tell me, Erniu is a mature kid, he will definitely have a promising future."

He sat at the table, holding a long dry pipe, took a deep breath of smoke, and then slowly exhaled, his face full of intoxication.

Chen Yuan smiled and put the coarse flour cake back into the bag.

Chen Li frowned:

"Save it for dinner?"

Chen Yuan smiled:

"I'm not hungry now, I'll eat it before going to bed, otherwise I'll be hungry in the middle of the night and wake up again."

"Okay, then you go chop the firewood."

"Okay, I'll go right away."

Chen Yuan took the coarse cloth bag and came to another hut.

This hut is not big. Under the window hole on the right side of the door, there is an earth bed, on which is a thatched mat of different shades of color, and on the left are various farm tools and sundries.

Chen Yuan looked outside the door and gently untied his linen clothes.

An incredible scene appeared. His stomach was abnormally sunken. In the shallow pit, there were four coarse flour cakes, but there was nothing unusual on the outside.

He took out the four coarse flour cakes and put them into a coarse cloth bag. His stomach slowly returned to its original shape. He put on the linen clothes again, and his figure was exactly the same as before.

Chen Yuan lifted a corner of the straw mat, covered the coarse cloth bag, picked up an axe from the pile of sundries, and came to the yard.

He picked up a small pile of firewood from the firewood pile in the corner of the yard, came to the open space on the side, stood up a piece of wood as thick as his arm, swung the axe, and chopped it down.

Crack!

Chen Yuan's arm muscles bulged, and he chopped the firewood in half neatly.

Crack!

Another axe went down, and the second firewood broke with a sound.

Crack! Crack!

Chen Yuan held a four-pound iron axe and chopped off one piece of firewood after another, breathing slowly and without changing his expression.

The younger sister was bored in the house, so she came to the yard to watch Chen Yuan chopping firewood and clapped her hands:

"Second brother is so strong, so amazing..."

A quarter of an hour later, Chen Yuan chopped off a small pile of firewood and piled it next to the stove.

At this time, the sun had set and the sky had darkened.

Chen Yuan fed the chickens again, said goodbye to Chen Li, and took his little sister back to the hut to sleep.

The little sister played for a long time and was mentally exhausted. Chen Yuan told her a story of "Wu Song fighting the tiger". After coaxing her for a few words, she fell asleep.

Chen Yuan himself was not sleepy at all. He opened his eyes and listened quietly to the voices of Chen Tiezhu and Chen Li chatting in another hut.

As the night deepened, the moon slowly rose. The moonlight shone through the window hole and cast a clear glow on the thatched mat.

Finally, Chen Tiezhu's snoring sounded, and Chen Yuan only heard the sound of insects and the gentle breathing of his little sister.

He got up quietly, got out of bed lightly, and came to the corner of the hut. With the help of the cold moonlight, he took a piece of loess from the wall, revealing a narrow hole in the wall.

He took out a coarse cloth bag from it, gently pushed open the door, and came to the yard.

Looking around, there was no one around. The Milky Way was hanging in the sky, and the stars were shining.

Chen Yuan opened the coarse cloth bag and took out something.

This was a white jade jue (jue), the jade was fine, and under the starlight, it emitted a faint green light.

Suddenly, the stars in the sky shone together, gathering into a thin beam of white light, falling from the sky and landing on Chen Yuan's head.

Chen Yuan closed his eyes slightly, and felt a cool feeling enveloping his whole body, and his whole body was slightly numb, which was very uncomfortable.

After ten breaths, the green light on the jade jue disappeared, and the white light dissipated with it.

Chen Yuan opened his eyes, and a feeling of hunger rose.

He had obviously eaten the banquet, but at this time he was like a starving person who had been hungry for three days and three nights on the road to escape the disaster, and his stomach kept making gurgling sounds.

Chen Yuan swallowed a mouthful of saliva, returned to the house, put the jade jue back into the cloth bag, hid it in the hole in the wall, and then took out the five coarse flour cakes and devoured them.

Soon, all five coarse flour cakes were eaten. This was the amount of food that an ordinary person eats for two days, but it was only enough for him to barely eat half full.

Chen Yuan lay back on the bed, feeling the emptiness in his stomach, and sighed softly.

He had not eaten a few full meals in the three years since he came to this world.

He was originally a Chinese on Earth. Although he only graduated from an ordinary second-tier university, he studied the most popular computer major.

After graduation, he followed the trend and founded an Internet company. He successfully raised funds several times in a row. In less than two years, the market value reached more than one billion US dollars. His net worth also soared to hundreds of millions of US dollars, and he became a famous young entrepreneur in China.

Being young and rich, there are naturally all kinds of temptations around him.

Chen Yuan fell into the land of gentleness, luxury cars and beautiful women, living a life of luxury and debauchery, and reveling every night.

Alcohol is a poison that penetrates the intestines, and sex is a steel knife that scrapes the bones. After a few years, due to excessive indulgence, extremely irregular life, and often working all night, his body completely collapsed and he was diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer.

Chen Yuan panicked, sold all his shares, and was admitted to the hospital, where he was treated with the most advanced technology and drugs.

But money is not omnipotent. Chen Yuan spent the last two years of his life lying on the hospital bed.

Before he died, he suddenly realized that he was not a son of destiny, but he had caught up with the trend of the times and made some achievements.

The absurd extravagance of the past was like a dream.

The vanity disappeared without a trace.

In regret and pain, Chen Yuan closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, he became Chen Erniu.

This is a place called Qi State. The language and writing are very different from those of China, but the degree of development is similar to that of ancient China, and the cultural customs are also similar.

Three years ago, Chen Erniu was ten years old and caught a cold. He had no money to treat it and died of illness.

Chen Yuan's soul traveled through time and occupied his body.

Yu Jue also followed Chen Yuan's soul and came here.

After Chen Yuan succeeded in his previous life, he bought a lot of antiques and cultural relics.

Yujue is one of them, an antique from the pre-Qin period.

At a Sotheby's auction, Chen Yuan fell in love with Yujue at first sight and spent tens of thousands of dollars to buy it. He loved it very much and never left it.

However, Yujue did not bring good luck, and he still contracted AIDS.

But after traveling through time, Chen Yuan discovered the magical side of Yujue.

Under the shining of the stars, Yujue can attract starlight to the body every twelve hours.

After the infusion, Chen Yuan will feel hungry.

If you eat in time and replenish energy, your body will become stronger than before, and your strength, flexibility, agility, five senses, etc. will be improved.

Even thoughts will become clear and sensitive.

But only when the feeling of hunger disappears can the next starlight infusion be carried out.

Otherwise, even after twelve hours, Yujue will attract starlight, but it will be useless.

After Chen Yuan discovered the magical effect of Yujue, he was ecstatic, but soon calmed down.

The ups and downs of his previous life had worn away all his sharpness, making him extremely cautious.

He did not dare to tell others about the special features of the jade, not even his parents and younger sister, and only used the starlight infusion at the right time.

But the Chen family was poor and could only barely make ends meet.

In the past three years, Chen Yuan had only had his body infused 21 times, mostly on special days such as New Year's Day, weddings and funerals, and relatives visiting.

Only at these times could he have a full meal.

And just these 21 starlight infusions made Chen Yuan's physical strength far beyond that of ordinary people, greatly increased his strength, and achieved a meticulous control over his body.

When he was having dinner today, he stole a few coarse flour cakes, controlled his abdominal muscles, and hid them close to his body. He was not discovered for several hours, which gave him the opportunity to receive the starlight infusion this time.

Although these five cakes can only make him half full, it is not necessary to replenish energy that night after the starlight infusion. As long as the hunger is eliminated within three days, the physical strength can be improved.

The remaining four cakes are enough to help Chen Yuan digest the gains brought by the starlight infusion this time.

But after tomorrow, he still can't eat enough.

The next starlight infusion is still a long way off.

Chen Yuan sighed lightly, endured the feeling of half hunger and half fullness, closed his eyes, and slowly fell asleep.