Chapter 1

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"Master, Master~" Chen Xi vaguely heard someone chattering in his ear.

His head felt so heavy, and Chen Xi struggled to open his eyes. [I shouldn’t have drunk so much...]

Three days had passed, and Chen Xi finally understood the current situation. It was a broad era of the Three Kingdoms, the Yellow Turban Rebellion had just been quelled, an age of heroes, and also an era that Chen Xi used to fantasize about when he was bored. After all, whether it was the silver-armored Zhao Zilong or the embodiment of wisdom, Zhuge Kongming, their fans and detractors were countless. There was no other way to put it; after all, there were so many people in China.

His current identity was a branch of a branch of the Chen family in Yingchuan, with a bit of a connection, but if he ran away, no one would notice. At home, there was only a maid who took care of him and an old steward, a typical case of one person being well-fed and the whole family not going hungry.

Watching the steward wield a sword so skillfully that not even a drop of water could penetrate, Chen Xi really didn’t know what expression to have. Could it be that people in this era were all so strong? Could it be that historical records were correct, and the physical fitness of ancient people far surpassed that of modern people? Was that even possible? Chen Xi didn’t believe it.

"Is Master Chen feeling better these days?" An old man dressed as a doctor poked his head in and asked with a smile.

"I’m much better, thank you." Chen Xi quickly bowed. Honestly, he knew that even a headache or a cold could be fatal in this era, and for him to have been so seriously ill, it was truly no small feat for this old man to have saved him.

"You look much better. Master Chen should still practice your internal breathing more." The old man smiled and said, "Since that’s the case, I won’t stay any longer."

"Old Master Chen." Chen Xi called out as he turned around.

The steward quickly led a horse over, the speed was simply unbelievable.

"Old Master, seeing you in such a hurry to leave, I assume you have urgent matters. This horse is a gift for you, as a means of transportation. Please don’t refuse it." Chen Xi forcefully handed the reins to the old man. To be honest, he didn’t even know the old man’s name, and the old man never mentioned his own name.

The old man looked at Chen Xi, thought for a moment, and then nodded to accept the gift. He indeed had some urgent matters, and having a horse would save him a lot of trouble.

[Phew, after all, it’s a matter of saving my life. I should repay the favor when I can. It’s the doctor’s duty to save lives, but whether to repay or not is my decision. The chaos is about to begin, and if something happens to the old man, I won’t have the chance to repay him in the future.]

After the old man left, Chen Xi closed the door and prepared to return to the inner room to read. For him, there was nothing more important than going back to study the writing of this period. Although he had the memories of the previous Chen Xi, they were clearly not complete.

"Master, that horse was a gift from your father when he was alive, from Bingzhou. Isn’t it inappropriate to give it away?" The steward said after Chen Xi closed the door.

"It’s fine, I don’t need that horse. By the way, bring all the books from the study to my room, I need to review them." Chen Xi shook his head and said. He knew the value of the horse, but compared to the favor of saving his life, he felt it was worth it, at least he could feel at ease.

Chen Xi’s family was not poor; on the contrary, it was a wealthy family. However, after his father, Chen Luo, passed away, Chen Xi fell seriously ill, and the family’s wealth was largely spent on medicine and treatment. Coupled with the internal exclusion within the family, what was once a wealthy household had now fallen into decline.

But for the steward, as long as Chen Xi recovered, the Chen family still had the hope of rising again. Most of the servants and entertainers had left because Chen Xi was bedridden, and now the large Chen family was left with only the steward and Chen Lan, who served as both an entertainer and a maid.

Chen Xi was very open-minded about this. If they left, let them leave. The two most loyal ones remaining was a good thing.

Since his recovery, Chen Xi had not left the Chen family’s main gate for three whole months. During this time, he had mastered everything that the previous Chen Xi had learned, such as writing, music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Of course, the most important were mental energy and array formations.

After reviewing all this, Chen Xi realized that this late Eastern Han era was completely different from the one in his memory. Perhaps the history would be the same, but the world had already changed.

Flipping through the history of the Chu-Han Contention, Chen Xi silently remembered a passage: At the Siege of Gaixia, Xiang Yu emerged alone and, with his own strength, defeated Liu Bang’s 30,000 elite troops, exhausting himself to death. Xiang Yu, who could have escaped, chose to die rather than disappoint the people of Jiangdong. The invincible Overlord, even in death, was feared by all.

Chen Xi meticulously reviewed all the historical records and finally confirmed one point: history had already changed 400 years ago during the Chu-Han Contention.

The initial change came from a meteorite, which was recorded in the historical records as a divine stone. A divine stone that fell on the Central Plains, a divine stone that changed the physical constitution of the people of the Central Plains.

Originally, those who could cultivate qi to strengthen themselves were few and far between during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Those who could cultivate mental energy to resonate with heaven and earth were even fewer. But that stone caused a transformation across the Central Plains, and everyone’s physical constitution underwent a fundamental change.

Almost anyone could cultivate qi, and the difficulty of cultivating mental energy was greatly reduced. This led to the increasing strength of the generals during the Chu-Han period, and Xiang Yu was the pinnacle among them.

The phrase "lifting mountains and covering the world with his might" would have been an exaggeration in the original history, but in this world, it was well-deserved. At the peak of his power, Xiang Yu could pull a small mountain out of the ground and throw it, and he could turn the air into a liquid, creating solid air that could punch a hole in the ground like a small missile. In short, he was no longer human.

In the subsequent 400 years of the Han dynasty, various martial cultivation schools emerged. The generals who relied on their natural talents during the Chu-Han period gradually systematized their cultivation methods, and the ability to cut through a thousand with one strike was no longer a myth but a reality.

Similarly, the cultivation of mental energy also developed into various schools, and so-called secret techniques and Daoist arts emerged. As they developed, methods to counter the top generals also appeared. The emergence of array formations greatly reduced the killing power of the top generals, but for scattered troops, it was a death sentence.

After 400 years of development, the cultivation of qi and mental energy had become widespread. Although most people didn’t master anything particularly good, they at least had the opportunity to come into contact with these things. In other words, in this world’s late Han era, there were farmers who could throw boulders weighing hundreds of pounds over ten meters...

As for how strong the generals were, the records clearly stated that Xiang Yu could pull a mountain out of the ground and throw it. By analogy, Chen Xi felt that if Lü Bu used his full strength, he could turn a mountain into rubble...

This was no longer the historical Three Kingdoms era; it was probably a mythological version of the Three Kingdoms era, Chen Xi thought to himself.

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