Chapter 19. Galaxy Martial God Hall - The Amusement Park Kidnapping Incident (2)
As I underwent training that made me wonder if it was truly appropriate for my age, my punches, which had been flailing about like a toddler’s tantrum, began to carry real weight.
Seeing my posture in the full-length mirror as I practiced the Azure Wood Fighting Method, Siu smiled and said, "It’s starting to take shape now. This is proof that your bones and muscles are developing properly."
Beyond just my physique, I had also succeeded in awakening the internal energy dormant in my Dantian.
When I asked if I had finally moved past the initiation stage and reached the Third-Rate realm, Siu shook his head.
"Simply drawing internal energy from the Dantian is not enough. You can only be considered to have reached the Third-Rate realm once you use that energy to reinforce your body."
"But I feel stronger when I draw it out?"
"That is not because your body has been reinforced, but because your alveolar and vascular oxygen exchange efficiency has naturally increased, and the speed of oxygen delivery between your blood and cells has improved."
Siu pulled up a thesis on oxygen transport on the display and kindly explained the correlation between Qi activation, blood oxygen saturation, lactic acid secretion, and the acceleration of liver detoxification.
To summarize his explanation, it was a similar effect to how people from high-altitude regions experience improved athletic performance when they descend to lower elevations.
By now, Siu was treating me not as a three-year-old baby, but as a disciple.
Hmm, studying through academic papers at this age—is this my punishment for not acting like a baby enough?
Having understood, I practiced reinforcing my bones and muscles along my meridians with the Qi drawn from my Dantian under Siu’s guidance.
"Muscles are the source of power, but if you only strengthen the muscles, the bones may shatter under the strain. True physical reinforcement begins with strengthening the bones."
The education utilized not just papers but video materials as well. The scene Siu played showed a massive, muscular bodybuilder whose arm snapped and bent in an impossible direction while arm-wrestling.
"Ugh, isn't that a bit too gory for my age?"
"Ah, my apologies. Sometimes when I converse with you, Young Master, I forget that you are still a baby..."
At my remark, Siu turned off the video and replaced subsequent scenes of injury with illustrations.
With the advancement of AI, it seems the system can convert videos for the viewer in real-time without delay.
Usually, I couldn't tell if this was the 21st century or the 51st, but seeing things like this made it hit home.
After the education ended, Siu brought out a lunchbox and said, "Let’s end the training here for today and go on a picnic. I’ve purchased tickets to a nearby amusement park."
It wasn't as if I only trained while living with Siu.
When it was time to rest, we rested; when it was time to play, we played.
Since Siu was not just my training android but a Nanny Android, he made an effort to build various memories for my healthy and bright development.
"Wow! An amusement park!"
I, too, enjoyed the playtime between the tedious and grueling training sessions.
Siu’s training pushed me to my absolute limits, and while there was the joy of growth, playing was still more fun.
An amusement park attraction in the 51st century!
My heart raced at the thought of how many incredible things would be waiting for me!
Seeing my excitement, Siu smiled and prepared for our departure.
* * *
The amusement park we arrived at, holding hands, was similar to the one owned by that company famous for being a copyright monster.
Though it was quite different, they had a mouse as the main character, and various characters like ducks, dogs, pigs, and rabbits were holding a parade.
Behind the animal characters came the princesses, followed by part-timers who used flashy footwork to leap across transparent wire platforms installed in the air, fluttering colorful fabrics and performing acrobatics.
"Wow, do martial artists work part-time jobs too?"
"It appears they are students from a martial arts specialized high school or university. Although spiritual elixirs are mass-produced, they are still expensive for students, so I hear many take on part-time jobs."
"Aha, I saw something about that on the internet, too."
Basic cultivation methods were taught as a mandatory subject in elementary school, alongside language, math, social studies, history, and science.
It was a world where all 3.2 trillion people across the galaxy had learned at least enough cultivation for their health.
Among the elementary students who learned these methods, those who showed promise before the age of 10 were given the option to enter a major sect. Those who weren't chosen by a major sect but still had a passion for martial arts mostly went on to martial arts specialized high schools.
Some did enter small or medium-sized sects, but those sects didn't have the resources to take in and raise many children like the major ones, so unless one was exceptionally talented, they wouldn't accept children other than the sect members' own offspring or relatives.
Naturally, talented children would choose a major sect over a small or medium one.
If one graduated from a martial arts specialized high school or university, they could join a sect depending on their cultivation level, though one could still enter a major sect if their talent blossomed late.
"Young Master, it is good to look up information on the internet, but please be careful, as there can be biased or distorted information."
"Hahaha, I know. Don't worry, I don't visit communities that display political leanings."
Besides, being from another world, I don't find them relatable or even understandable.
"I’m sure you’ll handle it well, Young Master, but I can’t help but worry."
"You aren't restoring my search history or logs to check, are you?"
To my question, Siu simply offered a smile.
"...You're really not, right?"
"I have purchased the attraction Super Pass. Let’s hurry."
"Siu?"
I held Siu’s hand and walked past the part-timers showing off their flashy light-body techniques, entering the mysterious fairy-tale land.
He’s really not, right?
* * *
About 3 years ago.
A baby was born amidst the blessings of her parents.
Born as a girl, the baby was special.
Whether it was being a direct descendant of the Cheon Family Clan, known as the greatest clan in the galaxy, the Galaxy Martial God Hall, or having parents who had both reached the Transformation Realm, or being born with the Heavenly Martial Body that everyone admired—all of that might have been trivial compared to her true uniqueness.
The direct line of the clan included any descendant who carried the Cheon surname, regardless of how many generations removed they were from the Clan Leader.
The Clan Leader, Sword King Cheon Ja-su, was over 680 years old, and during that time, he had taken 13 wives, each bearing him two or three children.
About 600 years ago, his eldest son, who died of illness at the early age of 60, had four children, and those children had children, and their children had children as well.
Because the clan’s influence was felt across the entire galaxy, there were many cases where the women of the Cheon Family Clan took in husbands rather than marrying out, passing the Cheon surname to their children.
As a result, the number of people living with the title of "direct descendant" of the Cheon Family Clan reached five digits, so the bloodline of being merely the 17th descendant of Cheon Ja-su paled in comparison to the baby’s true specialness.
Both parents were martial artists who had reached the Transformation Realm, but in this era, that was a level far too insufficient to hold a senior position in a major sect.
In this day and age, the 3.2 trillion population received mandatory education in cultivation methods.
Thus, it was inevitable that there would be many who reached the Transformation Realm, a level near the peak of the pyramid.
There had been an era in the distant past when a Transformation Realm expert was treated as a god among men, but that was a time long forgotten.
The Heavenly Martial Body was a miraculous talent that everyone envied, but as humanity surpassed 3.2 trillion, there were thousands of people born with the Heavenly Martial Body or equivalent talent.
The secret that the baby possessed, which made all that specialness pale in comparison, was "Reincarnation."
Cheon So-yeon, the baby born "again" into the Cheon Family Clan, realized upon awakening to her reincarnation that she wasn't the only one.
In her previous life, Cheon So-yeon—the mid-era ancestor who had revived the Cheon Family Clan to the ranks of a major sect during the transition from the Yuan to the Ming dynasty in the 14th century—had perished in a three-way battle against the leader of the Demonic Cult and the leader of the Tyrant Alliance, the head of the evil faction.
At that time, she had only one regret: having been born a woman and forced to live as a man to become the Clan Leader. She had accepted her death, but the Demonic Cult leader’s henchmen had not.
"Please, even if it is in the distant future, lead us again! Oh, Heavenly Demon!"
The members of the Demonic Cult, unable to accept their leader's death, had used a strange art.
Cheon So-yeon had thought the cultists were doing some crazy, useless thing as she died, but it hadn't been useless.
The cultists' secret art of reincarnation had succeeded.
It had simply dragged her, who died at the same time and place as the cult leader, into the ritual as well.
If she had succeeded in reincarnating, the cult leader must have succeeded as well.
Perhaps not only the cult leader and herself, but the leader of the Tyrant Alliance, who had been part of the three-way battle, had also reincarnated together.
Thinking this, she, reborn as Cheon So-yeon, lived her life again as a newborn.
The world she saw through the eyes of a baby, not knowing how much time had passed, looked like an alien world, not the Central Plains of the Murim.
It was thanks to the Azure Wood Art, which her parents taught her through Cleansing the Meridians and internal energy infusion, that she realized this place was not an alien world, but simply the future.
"There, it's a healthy massage, our little princess."
"Just grow up healthy and don't get sick."
At her parents' words, tears flowed from Cheon So-yeon’s eyes.
The world was full of amazing things, and she had received the selfless love of parents she had never experienced in her previous life.
Her parents were neither sick nor frail, and they did not force her to be a man.
All her parents wished for was for her to grow up healthy.
Whenever she cried suddenly, her parents would panic, worried that she might be sick.
Cheon So-yeon was simply happy and grateful for such concern.
Possessing the Heavenly Martial Body and exceptional intelligence, Cheon So-yeon began to understand the world little by little as she started to speak around six months after birth.
She marveled at the more advanced martial arts and trained diligently.
Sometimes, she would become so engrossed in it, out of habit from her previous life, that her parents would worry and even stop her.
Cheon So-yeon formed her Dantian and began her initiation into martial arts around three months after birth, reaching the Third-Rate realm by the six-month mark, though she kept her cultivation level hidden.
Hiding her progress was not particularly difficult.
She simply had to avoid drawing out the internal energy within her Dantian while in front of her parents.
Unless one reached the First-Rate realm, a Third-Rate practitioner’s aura did not typically manifest outwardly.
The reason she concealed her cultivation was rooted in fear.
She feared that her talent might blind others with greed, just as it had with her parents in her previous life, and she feared that her current happy life might be shattered as a result.
While Cheon So-yeon was enjoying her new, happy life, her parents excitedly prepared to go out one day when she was about three years old.
"They say the amusement park has reopened! We’re going to go play there now. Aren't you excited, our little princess?"
"What is an amusement park?"
Cheon So-yeon did not know what an amusement park was.
At their daughter's question, her parents realized their oversight and began to explain.
Listening to their description, Cheon So-yeon thought to herself.
'Ah, is it a playground bigger than the park playground? A parade? Is it like when the traveling troupes come to the market and the clowns perform? I suppose even if the world changes, those troupes still exist.'
As someone from over 3,600 years ago, she could not even grasp the concept of an amusement park.
To Cheon So-yeon, her home, the park she occasionally walked to while holding her mother's hand, and the hospital were the entirety of her world.
"Mom and Dad have been so busy that this is our first time going out like this. We’re sorry."
Because her parents were at the Transformation Realm, they were quite busy on weekdays and rarely had the chance to go out.
On the weekends when they were free, they spent their time acting as her martial arts instructors, leaving little time for leisure.
It was an unavoidable choice made for her future because they loved their daughter.
Cheon So-yeon didn't mind at all because she simply cherished the time spent with her parents, but her parents felt guilty.
The fact that they had managed to carve out time to visit the amusement park was entirely to show their daughter a good time.
In the amusement park they visited, Cheon So-yeon saw a new world.
There were charming animal parades, princess parades, and even parades that utilized martial arts.
At first, she was indignant that they were using martial arts for clownish antics, but it ultimately served as a shock that helped her accept how much the times had changed.
Distracted by the excitement of playing, Cheon So-yeon belatedly realized that she had become separated from her parents and was all alone.
For a moment, gripped by the fear of being abandoned in the world, she looked around and spotted a young boy emitting an aura similar to her own, and she instinctively approached where he was.
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