1 The Trio

I slowly opened my eyes, and an unfamiliar roof entered my sight. It was one of those old wooden roofs from... hmm... maybe the 712 circle, or was it the 1013 circle? Anyway, it was the roof of an ancient Chinese house, made of wooden logs connected end to end by seamless hinges and complex joints. If I remember it right, you people call it the mortise and tenon joint.

The thatching on the roof was as thin as paper, and I could see some straws and reed bundles hanging down. The wooden walls had cracks and gave free access to the cold air wafting outside. Currently, I was lying on the cold wooden ground, and my head was resting on a mud-brick.

Without a doubt, I was in an ancient china setting. Only they were idiotic enough to progress in architecture and mechanics before thinking about comfort. Deducing that a feather pillow is way better than a rock-hard pillow couldn't be all that hard, right?

Since the windows were a few meters above me, I looked through the wall and stared at the sun. It was on the horizon, so it should be around 6AM now, perfect for a nap.

I disintegrated the uncomfortable stone pillow, created a soft latex pillow, and went to sleep; this world can wait.

____________________________________________________________________

"You dumbfuck! How can you sleep so peacefully?"

"Bitch! Wake up now!"

"We should teach this idiot another lesson!"

After an hour or so, I was awoken by the rude shouts of some teenagers. Without getting up, I opened my eyes, and three typical teenage bullies entered my sight.

"Look at this disrespectful fool! He's still not getting up!" said the leader bully.

"Let's fuck him up!" said the overzealous one. He is of the betrayer kind. People like him flee whenever faced with a real threat.

"Fucking ill-bred. Let's teach him a lesson," said the one who was just trying to fit. If you listen to his tone carefully, the pitch, timbre, and vibrato will tell you that he doesn't conform with his own statement. Moreover, his comment was just a mix of his what his friends have already said.

I just laid there and went through their memories. Apparently, my past self was a headstrong character before and couldn't look away when he saw them bullying some poor idiot. So, he did the natural thing that most headstrong idiots do—he challenged the leader bully to a fight.

My past self was a rising star flying through cultivation stages like his ass was on fire. He went from the first-grade of Foundation Establishment Realm to the sixth-grade in a month. Both he and the leader bully were in the sixth-grade, and he had defeated opponents with the same cultivation as him before. So, filled with confidence, he fought and suffered a crushing defeat in a fight that he thought would be a cakewalk for him. Since then, his cultivation stagnated, and he remained stuck in the sixth-grade of the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Not only did his cultivation stagnated, but now he was also a bitch for the bullies. He had to wake them up for the morning lessons, bring them the clothes he washed, polish their shoes, tie their laces, fix their seats in the cafeteria, and just hope they don't beat him more than four times a day. It went on for six months, and now his past self didn't even dare to question the leader bully's words as he was now in the eighth-grade.

Earlier, it was his past self's natural clock that woke him up at 6AM. He was to wake his "masters" for the morning lesson and do his regular stuff. Honestly, it was quite an apparent protagonist template to me.

But all that didn't matter now as they were facing me.

"T-this bitch! Look at how he is staring at us! First, you oversleep and make us miss morning practice and then dare to stare at us? I'll fucking gauge your eyes out!" The leader bully was angered by my stares, for some reason.

"Let's break his bones so that he wouldn't forget to wake us up next time." I don't know how the "betrayer" came up with this logic, but I wasn't gonna let them break my bones this easily.

So, I shifted myself, moved the latex pillow, and assumed a more comfortable position on the wooden floor. Since I had to move soon, I decided to rest a little more. After all, I can't get kinetic energy without any potential energy, now can I?

"Huh! Is he really trying to sleep again? This bastard!" The leader was quick to anger and even quicker on his feet. He had just formed and punch and was about to throw it towards me. Since he was in the eighth-grade, he had tempered skin, bolstered muscles, and metal-like bones. A punch like that could shatter rocks, let alone the bones of a mere sixth-grade cultivator.

It was getting a little exciting, so I snuggled up in my quilt.

But before the leader bully could even punch me, he was stopped by the third bully. Oh, I still haven't given him a name, have I? Umm... let's call him the dovetail guy.

Thinking about it now, who do you think is more similar to Suneo? The second bully or the third one? (In this question, we take leader bully = Gian/Big G as constant.)

"Let's not fight here. The others might complain about it. Let's go to the forest and deal with him there," said the dovetail.

Finally, I got a little incentive to look around. To my left was another stone pillow, whose owner was nowhere near me. To my right were eight stone pillows, all owner-less. A little distance from my legs were ten more stone pillows, all without their owners.

No, actually, their owners were all huddling up in a corner and watching this exciting spectacle. Or were they just afraid and thus huddling like sheep? Anyway, I was enjoying this spectacle too much since I was both the spectator and the participant.

Maybe I wasn't the clown, but the entire circus?

"Who would dare to snitch on us? Who has a death wish?" said the leader. His gaze was quite threatening when he looked at the bundled teenagers in the corner.

"We shouldn't take unnecessary risks! We can beat him in the forest, and it wouldn't even leave a mess," pleaded the dovetail.

"You scared, or something? You gutless wrench! I always knew you weren't cut for this! Senior brother and I will take care of this thankless bitch here and now!" said the "betrayer" with what I must say was quite a false bravado. He was insulting dovetail by calling him weak, but at the same time, he needed leader bully, AKA, senior brother's help to defeat a mere sixth-grade weakling.

Anyway, even though this amount of sleep time wasn't to my liking, I was getting bored of their babbling.

Time for a new show.

Without saying a word, I stood up and began walking towards the door.

"Wei Jun, you coward! Where are you running? No one will be able to protect you from senior brother!" The "betrayer" had a way with words. Never once did he say, "I will beat you" or "I will break your bones." It was always "we" or "us" or "senior brother."

"Yeah, stop right there. Let me gouge your gutter eyes!" The leader bully felt bolstered when he heard the "betrayer's" encouragement. He was simply a little retarded.

"Senior Brother, look! He is walking towards the forest. He, too, doesn't want to humiliate himself in front of everyone," said the dovetail.

Finally convinced, the trio began following me.

Soon we were inside the forest, and without any warning, the leader bully punched my back.

Unwilling to be left behind, the "betrayer" threw a kick toward my head.

Even the dovetail guy slashed out with a dagger as if channeling courage out of Ares' tush.

The attacks landed solid.

Out of my twenty ribs, sixteen were broken now. My skull was a little cracked; thankfully, the "betrayer" was also a sixth-grade cultivator. And would you look at that—our little dovetail was able to puncture one of my kidneys. Aww, he is growing up.

"This will teach this bitch! How dare he stare at me. Let's gorge his eyes now." Before, I thought it was a coincidence, but now I'm positive that he has an unhealthy obsession with my eyes.

"Yes, senior brother! Let's cripple this fucke—"

"Betrayer's" words came to a sudden halt when he saw me turning towards them with a smile; I was sure that it was a friendly one.

Maybe the dagger sticking out my back or the deformed side profile, or the slightly cracked skull scared him.

Honestly, I wasn't even angry. So, what if I had bones in my lungs and a dagger in my kidney? Wasn't this the true essence of living? The pain that reminds you that you are alive. Wasn't this... fun?

Then again, too much fun will just become a bore later. I need to preserve its freshness. I don't want to deal with these idiots every day; I can't have them breaking my sleep every day. Moreover, arrogance without strength just annoys me now.

"Okay, it's decided. I'll just kill them." Even I was surprised by my first words here, not to mention the trio.

"W-what the fuck? How is he alive?" The leader bully was quite flustered, understandable.

"Senior brother, it is not like we were trying to kill him. Why would we try to kill our junior brother? We were just giving him an experience of real combat," said the "betrayer."

"Did you guys not listen? He said he was gonna kill us! Haha!" Oh! When did Ares get so courageous that a human relying on the confidence coming out of his tush can laugh at me? Have the greek gods forgotten about me so soon?

"But if I just kill them here, it'll leave a mess behind. I can't get famous as soon as I get here. What if the Immortal Emperor or whatever they have here came to pledge allegiance to me now? I can't have that."

Maybe my current state wasn't too supportive of my claims as I could see doubt and anger floating in their eyes.

"Ah! I got it! Gospel, delete them."

The trio waited for something spectacular to happen, but even after waiting for what seemed like hours, nothing happened. There was no crackling thunder, no heavenly tribulation, no ardor typhoons, nothing even remotely earth-shattering.

"Was this bitch just pretending? How dare he scare us!" A bit less scared and a bit more confident, the bully leader once again punched out.

"How about I help you with the dagger?" The "betrayer" was still a bit hesitant and didn't attack openly.

"I told you, guy! We can fuck him up real good in the forest." Dovetail was beginning to get on my nerves. Doesn't matter now, though.

This time too, their attacks flew with intent to kill. However, this time their attacks just passed me. They just phased through me as if they were ghosts. They couldn't even blow a gust of wind.

The only difference they could see baffled them. My skull was cracked, a dagger was sticking out of my kidney, and my ribs were noodles... before. Now, I looked like they never struck me.

Confused, the trio went on another offense. Again, all their attacks phased through me.

"What did you do? I refuse to believe I can't hit you!"

Denial.

"I'll skin you, you motherfucker! Just you wait, you'll beg for death."

Anger.

"Fellow, disciple. Please let me go! I was just trying to help you gain experience!"

Bargaining.

"Please, just kill us!"

Depression.

"Wei Jun, what you did to us. Please, tell us."

Acceptance.

"Actually, I go by Zha De now. As for you, I just erased your existence from this reality."