Volume One: The First Arrival Chapter Thirteen: The Fireball

Li Family Village, Li Daniu’s small courtyard, night.

Meng Xingchen finished cultivating his internal energy. Instead of going to sleep as usual, he lightly leapt onto the roof and lay there, gazing up at the night sky, somewhat lost in thought.

Today marked the eighth day since he had been transported to this world. Just yesterday afternoon, he received a system notification stating he had completed the first main quest: Survival in Another World. The system rewarded him with 700 bio-energy points and a skill called Phantom.

Phantom belonged to the body movement category—in martial arts terms, it was lightness skill.

Learning Phantom required a prerequisite: mastery of internal energy cultivation. Fortunately, this was not a problem for Meng Xingchen.

After a period of diligent practice, he had reached the beginner level of Phantom, which allowed him to easily leap onto rooftops.

Over the past three days, he ventured into the mountains daily, going progressively farther each time. However, in total, he had only hunted seven jackal-lycanthropes and three wind wolves, earning less than three hundred bio-energy points.

In three days, he had accumulated less than a third of the bio-energy needed for a level upgrade. It was only thanks to the 700 bio-energy points from the quest reward that he barely managed to level up. This slow progress was hard for the fast-advancing Meng Xingchen to accept.

He pondered this as he summoned his status panel for a closer look.

Status / Quest

Name: Meng Xingchen
Race: Human
Ability: Insight (Mastered, Skill Priority: ★★)
Passive 1: Illusion Breaker—can see through fog and dispel illusions.
Passive 2: Night Vision—can see in low-light environments.
Active 1: Comprehensive Vision—consumes mental energy to detect surroundings within six meters, creating a 360-degree panoramic view.
Active 2: Internal Sight—consumes mental energy to observe internal bodily conditions, including qi and blood flow and the state of internal organs; can also detect others’ internal conditions through physical contact.
Biological Rank: Level 1, Rank 1 (5/1500)
Spirit: 12/12
Constitution: 15/15
Agility: 15/15
Race Contribution: 29/29
Skills:
1. Intermediate Internal Energy Cultivation
Mastery: Controlled (280/5000)
Internal Energy: 400/400
Skill Effects:
1. +4 to all attributes;
2. Enhancement: Direct internal energy to body parts, consuming it to strengthen respective abilities; can also infuse weapons to increase their lethality;
3. Internal Qi Burst: Circulates internal energy throughout the body, consuming 10 internal energy points per second; during this, Constitution and Agility increase by 6 points.

2. Basic Swordsmanship
Skill Effects:
1. +1 to Constitution and Agility;
2. When wielding a sword, increases attack power and reduces stamina consumption.

3. Phantom
Mastery: Beginner (36/500)
Skill Effects:
1. +2 Agility;
2. Consumes internal energy to enhance movement speed, jumping ability, and airtime; maximum jump height increased by 3 meters and jump distance by 5 meters;
3. Shadow Shift: Consumes 3 internal energy points to move rapidly, leaving behind a phantom at the original location lasting 0.5 seconds; cooldown 15 seconds.

Intermediate internal energy cultivation had progressed from beginner to controlled mastery, and internal energy capacity had doubled from 200 to 400. The all-attribute boost increased from +2 to +4. The enhancement skill now not only strengthened body parts but could also infuse weapons. The internal qi burst’s attribute boost rose from +4 to +6 for Constitution and Agility.

Phantom skill at the beginner level granted an additional +2 Agility. Had Meng Xingchen not invested a free attribute point into Constitution upon leveling up, Agility would have become his highest attribute.

Currently, leveling up required 1,500 bio-energy points, but judging from recent circumstances, without triggering quests, Meng Xingchen could barely earn 100 bio-energy points per day.

The mastery requirement for internal energy cultivation had jumped from 500 to 5,000—a feat not achievable in the short term. His strength growth had essentially stagnated.

Meng Xingchen sighed deeply. To continue advancing, he might need to move to a new map. Perhaps it was time to leave Li Family Village, this beginner village.

Though he had only been in Li Family Village for eight days, he had grown fond of the peaceful mountain village and its honest villagers. The thought of leaving filled him with melancholy.

At that moment, from the corner of his eye, Meng Xingchen caught a flicker of light and turned toward it. In the northwest sky, a bright glowing mass was rapidly falling.

A meteor? he thought to himself.

But as it neared, the light mass grew larger. With his eyesight, Meng Xingchen could tell it was a massive fireball.

If it were a meteorite formed by a shooting star, such a large one crashing down—even if far from here—would likely impact Li Family Village.

As he hesitated whether to wake the villagers to take shelter, the fireball had already fallen beyond the mountains and vanished.

The houses in Li Family Village were made of adobe walls and thatched roofs; even a huge meteorite impact causing an earthquake wouldn’t inflict great damage. Moreover, the fireball’s shape seemed peculiar—it might not be a meteorite.

Sure enough, after the fireball disappeared beyond the mountains for some time, there was no violent tremor. It probably wasn’t a meteorite.

What could it be? Meng Xingchen’s curiosity was piqued.

Driven by this curiosity, he decided to investigate. Thanks to his night vision ability, day and night made little difference to him. Though Li Daniu repeatedly warned him not to enter the mountains at night, as they became very dangerous after dark.

However, Meng Xingchen was low on bio-energy and confident that, with his current strength, he could hold his own even against a rank-three magical beast. He was not afraid of danger; rather, he dreaded dangerous creatures not coming to bother him.

Without hesitation, he returned to his room, grabbed his backpack, took up the long sword resting beside a round stool in the courtyard, and strode out.

Meng Xingchen’s backpack was no longer the crude one he had made by modifying a climbing jacket. He had asked a skilled village woman to sew one from wind wolf fur, with special slots for a short spear and a long sword, and enough space for a water bottle, rations, and other gear.

His main combat style had shifted from throwing short spears to close-range sword fighting, so he had abandoned all his bamboo spears except for two iron-headed short spears.

The fireball had fallen northwest of the village, so after leaving, Meng Xingchen followed the small river running in front of the village, heading west.

Though night had fallen, the pale blue full moon hung high, illuminating his path clearly. His vision was somewhat reduced compared to daytime, but objects within several hundred meters were still distinct.

He had tested his night vision and confirmed that, as described, it allowed him to see in dim light but not in total darkness. Without any light source, he couldn’t see, but even a faint glimmer sufficed.

After more than an hour, Meng Xingchen reached a cliff where the river was abruptly cut off. Though the cliff was not an obstacle for him, he chose to detour via a gentler slope beside it to enter the forest.

Inside the trees, light dimmed further. Even with night vision, his sight was limited to about ten meters; beyond that, things became blurry.

After only a few steps, Meng Xingchen sensed something amiss with a tree ahead. It looked like an ordinary large tree, only somewhat smoother, but he felt an unsettling sensation, as if it were watching him.

Meng Xingchen trusted his instincts, especially since his spirit attribute had surpassed ten points. He immediately activated his Comprehensive Vision. Instantly, everything within a seven-meter radius around him came into sharp focus, vividly imprinting in his mind.

Under this panoramic view, the “tree” revealed its true form: a massive snake as thick as an adult’s thigh. It hung upside down, its tail coiled around a branch, with its head hidden among the fallen leaves on the ground, camouflaged as a tree.

Its coloration and patterns matched the surrounding trees so closely that, if one were careless, even in broad daylight, they might not notice it was a snake, not a tree.

But under Comprehensive Vision, it was exposed with nowhere to hide. Even the snake’s tongue flicking out and retracting from beneath the leaves was clearly visible.

Meng Xingchen broke out in a cold sweat. If he unwittingly stepped into the snake’s attack range and got entangled, even he would find it difficult to escape.

He stared at the thick snake body, feeling at a loss where to attack. Snakes were notoriously tenacious; even if their head was severed, they could continue to strike for a while.

That massive body, thicker than his own thigh, would be painful to brush against even once.

Fortunately, he still had ranged weapons. Meng Xingchen drew a short spear from his back.

Not knowing whether this snake was an ordinary beast or a magical one, he cautiously channeled his internal energy to strengthen his arm and infused the spear with internal energy. With all his strength, he thrust the spear toward the snake’s head hidden beneath the leaves. At the same time, he left behind a phantom at his original position and retreated five meters.

The spear flew like lightning, piercing deep beneath the leaves almost instantly. A hiss followed as the snake’s head, pierced by the spear, raised a spray of leaves and lunged at Meng Xingchen’s phantom.

This strike was probably a residual reflex of the nerves. The spear had pierced its head, but the snake rammed its exposed spear shaft, like a horn, at the phantom.

The blow shattered the phantom against a tree. The snake’s body quickly coiled upward, tightly wrapping around the large tree. Its body constricted relentlessly, causing the tree, thick enough for an adult to hug, to creak under the pressure.

Nearly ten minutes later, the snake’s constriction slackened, and it finally collapsed at the tree’s base.

Meng Xingchen summoned his quest panel and saw a system notification at the bottom confirming the kill: “Killed a Rank 2 Magical Beast—Rock Snake. Obtained 233 bio-energy points, 2 human race contribution points.”

His caution had paid off. The Rock Snake’s body was far tougher than normal flesh. With his current strength and internal energy enhancement, even a stone-tipped spear could pierce it at close range. Yet the spear was lodged in the snake’s head, with about ten centimeters of shaft still exposed.

Rank 2 magical beasts were truly formidable!