On a snowy night, in a ruined temple, ten-year-old beggar Gu Chenzhou huddled in a pile of straw, listening to the vicious dogs outside tear into scraps of food.
He clenched his frostbitten, purple fists. This was the tenth time someone had kicked over his begging bowl.
But when a butcher charged in with a pig-killing knife, and blood splashed across the bluestone floor, a mechanical voice exploded in his mind: “Killed a Body Tempering Realm, Third Level martial artist. Obtained trait [Might to Shatter Mountains · Beginner] (Strength +30%)!”
From that day on, the “punching bag” of the street thugs began to change. When they kicked him into a filthy ditch, he smiled and caught the wine jar they hurled at him; the [Iron Skin and Iron Bones · Green] trait sent cracks spreading across the jar. When they beat him unconscious, he crushed the last man's throat in a pool of blood, and the [Sword Intent Like a Prison · Fragment] trait formed crimson patterns in his eyes.
“What genius from the Myriad Swords Manor? He's just an experience pack for my trait library.” As Gu Chenzhou stood on the arena at the Sword-Trying Meet and looked at the stunned crowd, he felt the trait panel burning against his chest. Every trait lying there represented another step he'd taken to climb out of the mud, and the fate of this high-martial world was about to be rewritten.
