Dinner finished quickly, especially after that… voice''s intrusion in his head. More than that, it was awkward for his family to be accustomed to his sudden change in demeanor, but it’ll grow on them. Liu Changfeng swore it.
He was finally able to show the familial piety he couldn’t show in his last life. Somehow his heart grew lighter eating a meal with them than when he killed his greatest enemy.
Left alone in his room, Liu Changfeng had a few hours before he needed to find his parents to talk. Until then, there were many things he needed to think about.
That brilliant shooting star… Liu Changfeng recalled. He had never seen such a thing before. It was as if the radiance of a thousand suns streaked across the hellish sky. And then that voice inside his head.
Defy Fate. Struggle against Fate. Change Fate. Control Fate. Destroy Fate. Ah, and those things called… Fate Shards too.
He sighed heavily. He’s too old to think about this. What he understood so far is if he does something, anything that he gained some sort of currency in exchange for… changing himself? No, it couldn’t be that simple.
It was far more likely he had to stray from the predestined outcome of his previous life. Perhaps a greater change would result in greater Fate Shards. He wondered if that is also what the voice meant by appraising his actions?
Liu Changfeng donned a cold smile. What a rebellious shooting star. Truly, a fitting stroke of luck for this defiant old man.
Defiance. It was something Liu Changfeng knew very well. After all, he alone defied the end of his empire’s dynasty for as long as possible.
As for what would follow from this heaven-sent edict upon his regression… it didn’t matter to him. He intended to change fate anyway, with or without incentive. However, that led to the next matter—if he could obtain more of these Fate Shards, then he could purchase something, right? They sound like a currency. But where?
Liu Changfeng sighed, gazing up at his ceiling. “Am I wrong?” He mused.
Nothing.
“How will these Fate Shards benefit—”
Immediately the hairs on his arms stood stiff. Years of instinct honed from grueling battle revealed itself and he put his hands in front of his face to protect it from…?
“Huh?” He grunted in confusion.
Before him was a…great bronze mirror?
No, that can’t be right. It was as vast as the lacquered plaques that hung in the imperial palace, its surface rippling like the still waters of a moonlit lake. Yet unlike any mirror he had ever seen, it bore no reflection—only words, etched in a spectral light that seemed neither of this world nor the next.
Liu Changfeng frowned, reluctantly lowering his arms. He swiped his head away from the mirror but it somehow followed the center of his sight!
This was no ordinary vision, no fevered dream conjured by exhaustion. It was something real, something tangible, though his mind struggled to grasp it. If a great scholar were to glimpse such a thing, they might call it a divine decree, an imperial edict written not on silk but upon the fabric of fate itself.
And at its center, like inscriptions on an ancient war banner, were the words:
[Fated Grand Marshal’s Treasury]
Beneath it, in lines of glowing script, were sections as though from an unseen merchant, a shopkeeper whose wares defied reason:
[Please select which category of the treasury you’d like to view.]
[Body]
[Breath]
[Art]
[War]
Liu Changfeng frowned. He wondered how to…select. This is abnormal to him.
“...Body?” He asked.
[Body: Purchases Available!]
[Organs]
[Bronze Viscera: 50 Fate Shards]
[Iron Viscera: 250 Fate Shards]
[Black Gold Entrails: 1000 Fate Shards]
[Dragon Marrow Entrails: 2500 Fate Shards]
[Undying Demon Entrails: 5000 Fate Shards]
[Bones]
[Human Bones: Unlocked!]
[Panther Bones: 100 Fate Shards]
[Tiger—
“Okay, okay! Wait!” Liu Changfeng waved his hands at the mirror thing, stopping any more lines of text. He was overwhelmed. However, he could already tell what would follow. This Fated Grand Marshal’s Treasury… it sounded so good it made him skeptical.
Could he truly purchase new organs? No, even then! It was inconceivable! Near the end of the Age of Twilight, old experts, generals, Liu Changfeng himself all collected and developed new arts to strengthen their soldiers. The methods of cultivating organs were tedious and rare. Black Gold Entrails!? He could only gawk—such a thing was the height of organ tempering, let alone anything above it!
I’ll deal with this later, when I have enough of these Fate Shards to purchase something meaningful. For now, I’ll do what I can.
“Hup!” He hopped off his bed towards the luxurious chest where he remembered he stored a particular object—a Minor Bone Tempering Pill. Then he sat down on the edge of his far-too-large bed. The grueling discipline he had undergone in his later years immediately took over.
Breathe in… He started breathing in an odd, rhythmic fashion. For some time, only the sound of his breathing could be heard in the bedroom.
After the Nightmare Gates struck, ushering the Age of Twilight, old experts, generals, and even previous Grand Marshals alike scrounged together old martial arts, cultivation methods, and everything to strengthen their precious soldiers.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
As the last of them, Liu Changfeng knew almost all there was to know.
He sneered, looking at how pathetic his cultivation was. Cultivation level at a measly 1st Star of Primeval Refining?
Then, he raised his eyes. They were calm. He needed to focus on one thing—The last Grand Marshal’s path to power. All of the techniques and skills that allowed him to stand as the last bulwark for the empire.
It wasn’t even hours after his regression did he already start addressing his weakness.
First, he intends to break down his bones.
All martial arts starts with one''s bones and organs. If one doesn’t work from the inside out, you’ll be nothing but a hollow husk capable of shattering stones but yourself as well.
Currently, he was at a mere 1st Star of Human’s Bone—the lowest of the low.
Liu Changfeng muffled a curse. This was thanks to the original Liu Changfeng’s refusal to do anything that brought him pain.
To think pain at this level was enough to stop me back then. He frowned.
There was a total of five levels to cultivating one''s bones. They were namely Human Bone, Panther Bone, Tiger Bone, Qilin Bone, Dragon Bone. Panther Bone was the most common of these bone tempering techniques, and its training method was the easiest to find among the upper echelon of society. In comparison, the method to reach Tiger Bones was much harder, and only royalties and nobles had it. Furthermore, it was normally treated as a treasure and it was exclusive to the clan or family, and never leaked to outsiders. Qilin Bones were held only for the most powerful of noble clans, and even then only for their direct blood descendants.
True Dragon Bones were a thing of legends, passed down from the emperor to their heir. Liu Changfeng knew this only because of his position at the end of his long life.
Not that it helped. He brushed his once decapitated neck. Tempering one’s bones effectively could only occur in at a young age at that. Learning the truth of the True Dragon Bones didn’t help him at his elderly age. He was well beyond his youth and any bone tempering wouldn’t benefit him.
But this is why I am here now. With youth and the True Dragon Bones Art, I would be able to break the limits of his previous life and reach even greater heights!
Liu Changfeng pinched the pill and brought it to his lips. Held between his thumb and index finger, he placed it on his tongue.
Immediately the bitter taste of countless alchemic ingredients seeped out. Once the bitter tang spread, he felt searing pain everywhere. His limbs, skull, ribs, spine. Every bone was being deconstructed weakly by the minor pill. But this was where his experience surfaced where it couldn’t in his last life.
He opened his eyes.
Through the searing pain he shot up from the bed and grabbed his Liu family’s jade seal. It was heavy. In another life, he didn’t care about this jade seal other than how many gold taels it’d sell.
Not this old soul.
Palmed in his right hand, he slammed it down onto his right foot.
A sickening crack echoed through the room as the jade seal collided with his foot. Agony flared, sharper and more concentrated than the alchemic pill’s diffuse torment. However, he did not stop. Pain alone is nothing.
The pill’s essence was minor. He needed to dismantle his bones thoroughly to maximize its weak effects. And even if it was a greater level pill, he’d still do this regardless for just another iota of growth.
Again.
He clubbed his leg moving upwards. Pain clawed up his leg like wildfire, yet he gritted his teeth, breathing through the raw anguish.
Then the other foot and leg. His ribs, his arms, his collarbone—he targeted them all with precision and resolve. Each blow was calculated, avoiding fatal or crippling damage but pushing his bones to the brink of collapse. The jade seal’s surface is now smeared with crimson streaks.
If someone saw what he was doing, they’d call him deranged. Mad.
But if pain was all it took to fix this life, then he’d call this life easy.
Eventually, he tossed the bloodied jade seal atop his bed.
–FWISH!!
Liu Changfeng''s fist shot from his hips. Then another. Blood splatted across his room but he didn’t care. His focus was on his old memories—that of a friend demonstrating the True Dragon Bone’s Art before him. It looked like a dance. A series of martial techniques with no significance in battle or for a soldier.
-FWII! FWISSH!
His movements resembled the motion of a ferocious koi fish’s struggle up the Yellow River—one that will be tempered by fighting the upstream’s current, eventually turning into a magnificent dragon!
The air around his fist rippled, creating an audible snap as it cut through the space before him. His body twisted with precision, his left fist whipping outward with equal force.
His movements carried an ancient cadence, a sequence once revered but long since lost to time…the person Liu Changfeng audaciously called ‘friend’ before they both died.
This carried on for an hour before his body gave out.
He collapsed onto his back. Gasping for breath, he wore a bitter smile.
Not because of the pain, but the nostalgia of when he learned the True Dragon Bones Art.
Old friend—ah, but I must call you Your Highness in this life. You’ve yet to take the throne in this time…
Unknowingly, a lone tear trickled down his cheek.
“Just how many times has this old man been brought to tears?” He softly laughed.
–Knock, knock!!
“Young Master? Are you ready for your bath?” The faint, melodious voice of a maiden rang from behind the door.
Liu Changfeng''s bitter, nostalgic smile froze. The tear on his cheek dried as his expression twisted into something unrecognizable—neither joy nor sorrow, but a cold, battle-hardened face of a soldier.
That voice.
He remembered it. Too well.
But he didn’t allow her presence to destroy his composure. He’s too experienced for that. “I am, you may head inside.”
His personal servant—Mei Lian.
The door swung open and a young girl walked in. She was attractive and close in age. Draped in the standard robes of the Lui Clan’s servants, from head to two she radiated a bubbly air. It wasn’t a surprise for the young Lui Changfeng’s heart to be moved for her.
But her robes were nothing but the grass that hides a viper.
“Young Master? Are you...?” Mei Lian’s voice trailed off as she stepped into the room, her eyes widening in shock at the blood-staining Liu Changfeng’s clothes, the floor, and his hands. Her gaze darted to the bloodied floor and then back to him, panic flitting across her features before she quickly masked it with a soft expression of concern.
“You’re injured...!” she gasped, her hands instinctively reaching out.
Liu Changfeng waved her off, his eyes cold and unfazed, though the flicker of emotion in his chest darkened the longer he looked at her. “It’s nothing, the bath wouldn’t wash off,” he dismissed.
She looked perplexed. Who wouldn’t after seeing how violent his methods were?
But she was a servant. So she obliged hesitantly and brought the water basin instead, along with the clothes. Liu Changfeng rinsed his mouth and cleaned his teeth with a willow twig and salt.
He turned around and undressed so she could clean him. Her privates occasionally brushed onto his back and arms, but his face showed nothing.
“Are you sure you’re fine, Young Master?” She asked after cleaning him.
Liu Changfeng slowly dressed himself. “I am. Do not concern yourself.”
This Mei Lian was nothing but a watcheye from the Liu Clan’s rivals—the Zhulong Clan. In his previous life, she enraptured him in her allure and seduction. She fed him poison both with the words in his ear and in his meals.
Had it not been for her affecting his growth, his future potential wouldn’t be so hindered. It was one of the other reasons why he couldn’t grow any stronger aside from wasting the prime time to cultivate his bones. Years of poison…it made his heart sick.
After Liu Clan’s fall, her affiliation and ties to the Zhulong Clan became apparent when she was rewarded with becoming one of their Young Masters concubines. Only then did Liu Changfeng discover his first partner’s true face. To think she aided the ruin of his clan to elevate her status from servant to concubine.
“Ah, let me help!” Mei Lian yelped as she cleaned the blood splatter.
Stepping closer to put on his robes, she straightened them for a little too long.
“No need. Return to cleaning.” He scoffed and avoided her soft touch. He could dress himself just fine, this was just another one of her many meaningless ploys to seduce the Third Young Master.
Mei Lian pouted. First was the blood, but he was acting much differently today. Let alone different, he was treating her coldly.
“I’ll be off. Make sure this room is clean once I return.” Liu Changfeng’s face was expressionless as he brushed past her.
Wench. Savor your breaths. Living another second is mercy. He sneered as he passed the doorway.