Chapter 4

The entrance of the village store was the busiest place in Green Mountain Village, bustling with people coming and going. Ding Ning stood at the door of the store, standing there in a daze, unmoving as people passed by him.

People looked at this fat boy from a poor family with curiosity. Ding Ning had few friends in Green Mountain Village. Although his behavior seemed strange, no one bothered to talk to him. They would only mutter under their breath as they passed by, "Fatso."

Although the surroundings were real, none of it entered Ding Ning's ears. At this moment, he had isolated himself from the world. The crowd and the noise around him were like a movie, happening but not affecting him. He was completely immersed in his own transformation.

The statue of the God of Wealth did not truly disappear; it appeared in Ding Ning's mind.

A vague figure, indistinct in clothing and appearance, emitted a faint, clear light, floating in Ding Ning's mind. He didn't know if it was in his brain or his cerebellum, perhaps it was in his consciousness. In any case, Ding Ning could clearly feel it.

Although it was vague, the figure still faintly resembled the God of Wealth.

Accompanying the God of Wealth was an extremely faint aura.

Thinner than a hair, perhaps infinitely long, it was truly distributed within Ding Ning's body, pulsing slightly with his breathing and heartbeat.

At this moment, Ding Ning could even clearly feel the problem with his heart. It was a very peculiar sensation, not seen with the eyes but purely felt. Even with his eyes closed, it still existed.

The area around his heart felt warm, and there was even some improvement. The comfortable feeling was so real, as if a person who had carried a hundred pounds for over a decade, having become accustomed to the weight, suddenly found it reduced by a pound, making the whole body feel much lighter.

Although it was very subtle, Ding Ning was absolutely certain that his heart had indeed improved at this moment.

It was important to know that Ding Ning's heart condition was congenital, preventing him from engaging in intense exercise or martial arts.

He even suspected that his mother brought him to live in Green Mountain Village because of his heart condition.

This illness was not entirely incurable. His mother had consulted many times. As long as they were willing to spend money, a heart stent at a capable hospital would ensure his life was not in danger.

However, once the stent was in place, Ding Ning would never have the possibility of practicing martial arts, and his physical weakness would accompany him for life. Lack of money was one reason, and it was also why he had not yet undergone heart surgery.

His master also had high hopes for Ding Ning. He even said that if Ding Ning didn't have this problem, his talent for martial arts would be one in ten thousand, perhaps even a once-in-a-century genius.

But this incurable problem had completely bound Ding Ning. He had already missed the best age for practicing martial arts and was destined to never achieve much in the future.

However, this strange event brought a glimmer of hope to Ding Ning. Perhaps, his heart could heal without surgery!

Silently experiencing the faint aura within his body, Ding Ning's senses became increasingly clear and sensitive.

Bit by bit, thread by thread!

As the aura entered Ding Ning's mind, some vague images began to appear in his mind.

In a daze, Ding Ning seemed to see an old man walking down a road, swaying and dazed, like a walking corpse. There was a large hole in his chest, but no blood flowed out. The area where his heart should have been was empty, the heart itself gone.

The old man threw gold and silver to the poor by the roadside, scattering wealth as he walked. He eventually saw a stall selling heartless vegetables, with a person standing behind it, visible only as a black shadow.

"What kind of vegetables are these?"

"Heartless vegetables," the shadow sneered.

"Can vegetables without hearts still live?"

"Of course, otherwise they wouldn't be called heartless vegetables. But can a person without a heart still live?"

The old man was taken aback. "A person without a heart cannot live."

"Since a person without a heart cannot live, why are you, a walking corpse, still alive?"

The shadow laughed coldly, and the old man trembled all over, finally falling to the ground. The image blurred and dissipated...

A massive wave of memories surged into Ding Ning's brain. The memory was so vast that a human brain could not possibly bear it all at once. Ding Ning's vision went black, and his brain "boomed." His body fell straight to the ground.

Countless pieces of knowledge he had never encountered before, like waves of seawater, flooded his mind. Immortals, demons, cultivators, the underworld, the heavenly court... most of it was about cultivation.

Unseen rare birds and beasts, fragrant elixirs and magical herbs, infinitely useful talismans and spells, immensely powerful magical treasures and artifacts, including how these things were cultivated, how the herbs grew, and how the talismans were drawn.

There was also how to cultivate, how to gather the essence of heaven and earth. These things flashed endlessly in Ding Ning's mind like a slideshow.

What appeared most frequently, however, were gold and treasures.

Shiny gold coins, gold ingots as heavy as mountains, luminous jade ruyis, colorful jewels, and golden treasure pots and money trees. These scenes appeared over and over again.

Unconsciously, Ding Ning developed a sense of closeness to these treasures, a deep, heartfelt closeness.

His head ached terribly, and he had no feeling in the rest of his body. He was unaware of the passage of time, of day or night, driven only by instinct to remember, to keep remembering!

Ding Ning's brain was like a sponge, continuously absorbing this knowledge, absorbing and digesting, digesting and absorbing, over and over again.

As time passed, Ding Ning gradually became accustomed to these things.

He no longer marveled at the unprecedented things, as if they were part of his own memory.

However, the figure guiding his cultivation remained vague, indistinct, and never spoke to Ding Ning.

The more Ding Ning learned, the more the figure became blurred.

After an unknown amount of time, when Ding Ning absorbed another memory about the forging of magical treasures, the figure finally twisted and dissipated with a loud boom!

At this moment, Ding Ning felt a bit reluctant. He wanted to learn more and couldn't help reaching out to grab the dissipating figure.

His arm felt heavy, and Ding Ning instinctively touched it, only to feel a blanket.

"Ugh..."

Ding Ning slowly opened his eyes.

The ceiling was gray and even had a hole in it. This place was very familiar to Ding Ning; it was the ceiling of the Guandi Temple.

Ding Ning struggled to sit up and found himself lying on his master's bed. The room was empty.

Sitting there dazed for several minutes, Ding Ning finally sorted everything out.

He had fainted at the entrance of the village store and had no memory of what happened afterward. He didn't know how much time had passed or how he ended up at the Guandi Temple.

However, those unprecedented pieces of knowledge were now deeply etched in Ding Ning's mind, like instincts.

It was not an illusion or a dream. Ding Ning had no doubt about the authenticity of this knowledge.

Now, Ding Ning's mind contained two sets of memories: one of his sixteen years as Ding Ning, and the other of a god-like figure who had lived for countless years.

For a while, Ding Ning couldn't distinguish who he was, whether he was a person who had traveled to his body or had absorbed the memory of a god.

After a while, Ding Ning finally determined that he was still Ding Ning, but his mind now contained countless pieces of knowledge that no modern person could believe.

Ding Ning looked up and saw a stack of yellow paper on his master's altar. He could immediately identify the function of these papers.

Simple, low-level talismans, unable to carry much essence, could only be used to create talismans with minimal power or low-level auxiliary talismans.

If he sold these... wait!

Ding Ning was a bit puzzled. Why was he thinking about money? Was he driven mad by poverty?

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