A Mage in the Martial Arts World - Chapter 001

The moment Li Wei opened his eyes, he didn’t know that his fate had completely changed nor that a major earthquake had just occurred in Hanqing Hall, the holy place of the Shi family. He simply thought he was about to face another dull and boring day.

The all-wooden house, antique furniture, thread-bound books, and old-fashioned pen, ink, paper, and inkstone a scene that could only appear in historical films or dramas, made him immediately realize this was definitely not his home.

He subconsciously raised his hand.

In his hand was a book with a sky-blue cover. On it were five words—The Natural Dao Sutra. The characters were simple and weighty, full of profound meaning, yet his attention didn’t linger on them.

He stared at his hands.

They were slender, pale, and delicate—a pair of pampered hands—but they definitely weren’t his.

He had crossed over. He instinctively understood that.

What surprised him was how calm he felt, as if what had happened wasn’t such a big deal.

After a bit of thought, he found the reason.

He loved reading web novels, and whenever he read about protagonists who traveled to other worlds and became powerful young heroes with tickets, houses, seats, and horses, he couldn’t help but envy them. Compared to his repetitive daily life, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t envious.

So he didn’t reject the idea of time travel. On the contrary, he longed for it deeply—though he never imagined that one day his dream would actually come true.

What was the name of the original owner of this body? What was his identity? And why didn’t he have any of his memories? According to every story, shouldn’t all time travelers receive that basic benefit?

As soon as he thought that, a sharp pain hit his head. The original owner’s memories came flooding in like a collapsing dam, surging uncontrollably into his mind and making him break into a cold sweat.

After a while, some of the memories he most wanted to know surfaced.

“Is it fate?” A strange expression appeared on Li Wei’s face. The original owner of this body was also named Li Wei.

The only difference was their status.

Before the time travel, he had been an ordinary commoner so plain that he would disappear in a crowd, while the original owner came from a prominent background.

The Li family to which the original owner belonged was very famous in the Tang Empire. Almost everyone had heard of them, especially the wealthy.

The Li family’s fame came partly because the family head had supported the current emperor when he was still a prince, spending the family’s entire fortune to help him rise. In return, the emperor had granted them the title of Marquis of Xiaoyao. But there was another reason for their fame—their fief, the Golden Sea.

The Golden Sea wasn’t a real sea but a vast desert Gobi—desolate, barren, and poor in water and crops. Yet countless people coveted it, for hidden beneath the sands lay real treasures.

Jade. High-quality jade.

The jade mined from the Golden Sea wasn’t only abundant but also exceptionally fine, accounting for nearly one-third of the entire Tang Empire’s high-end jade market.

The Tang people had always loved jade, seeing it as a symbol of virtue. A fine piece of jade was often worth a thousand gold, bringing the Li family immense wealth.

To be born into such a family was the dream of countless people. But what the original owner did could only be described with one word in Li Wei’s mind—self-destruction.

The continent on which the Tang Empire stood was called the Barbaric Continent.

Here, humanity wasn’t the dominant race. Monsters, demons, and humans shared the vast and boundless land.

Compared to humans, monsters and demons had natural advantages—they were stronger by birth, and their individual power far surpassed that of humans.

Sometimes, a single powerful monster or demon could destroy an entire city, even an entire nation. Humanity lived under constant pressure to survive.

To grow stronger, humans relied on their ingenuity to create a brilliant martial arts civilization, allowing ordinary people to gain power through cultivation.

The strongest martial artists could rival or even slay powerful monsters and demons, which made martial strength the ultimate measure of worth in this world.

With enough strength, one could easily gain immense wealth and respect.

Because of this, martial arts were widely practiced across the Barbaric Continent. Unless circumstances made it impossible, nearly everyone trained. Yet most never reached even the first realm of martial cultivation—Body Tempering.

To a certain extent, wealth was just an accessory to power. So even though the Li family was rich, without strong force to protect it, they were merely fat sheep in the eyes of hungry wolves.

By all logic, the original owner—living on the Barbaric Continent—should have understood this better than anyone and trained diligently. But he didn’t.

Instead, he spent his days with idle friends, indulging in every vice imaginable. His actions made the entire Golden City resent him.

Whenever people saw him or even heard that he was coming, they’d lock their doors at once. Some were so terrified they’d abandon their goods in the streets. It was worse than being robbed by bandits.

“What a waste,” Li Wei thought. “A total waste.”

After despising the original owner for a while, his gaze fell again on the sky-blue thread-bound book—The Natural Dao Sutra.

He now realized that the five words on the cover were unusual. The moment his eyes met them, he felt a strange force. He was quickly captivated, as if his eyes were glued to the book.

His expression went blank.

Then, suddenly, fear crossed his face—as if the book wasn’t a book at all, but a deadly snake.

This reaction came from the original owner’s final memory—the cause of his death.

What Li Wei never expected was that the true culprit behind the original owner’s death was this very Natural Dao Sutra.

Not wanting to repeat the same mistake, Li Wei decided to carefully sort through the memories he had inherited.

Gradually, he came to understand more about the original owner’s life.

Cricket fighting, cockfighting, raising hawks, and collecting antiques—these were his four main hobbies.

The first three were nothing unusual, typical of wealthy wastrels. The last one, though, was peculiar—and it caught Li Wei’s attention.

He soon discovered that the original owner didn’t collect antiques just for fun. He had an “ambition” behind it.

Apparently, someone had told him that ancient cultivation techniques were far more powerful than the current ones—that by mastering one, he could rapidly increase his strength.

So he began collecting ancient relics and scrolls, spending lavishly without hesitation.

He had spent thousands of taels on worthless scraps of metal and decayed manuscripts. By now, the so-called antiques he had bought filled several houses. In total, he had likely spent more than twenty million taels of silver.

In Li Wei’s eyes as a modern man, at least ninety percent of them were fake.

This time, the original owner’s downfall had been caused by The Natural Dao Sutra—a so-called “heavenly book” said to have fallen from the sky.

He had spent a full million taels to buy it, then studied it alone in secret.

Aside from the five readable words on the cover, the pages were filled with strange, meaningless patterns.

Yet for some reason, he had become obsessed, studying it endlessly even as his body and mind grew weak.

Eventually, his frail body could no longer bear it—and he died, leaving it for Li Wei to inherit.

Realizing how dangerous The Natural Dao Sutra was, Li Wei decided not to touch it for now.

He stood up from his chair and walked toward the bookshelf.

From the original owner’s memories, he knew there was another book there—one that the family had specially prepared for him—Divine Dragon Transformation. It was said to have been created by a powerful cultivator who had observed divine dragons for hundreds of years.

Practicing Divine Dragon Transformation could greatly enhance a person’s strength and physique.

Its creator once claimed that if one could master it completely, they could become as powerful as a dragon. Though no one had ever achieved that, it remained one of the most respected body-refining techniques.

The Li family’s copy was an incomplete manuscript gifted by the emperor himself—still priceless, and perfect for body tempering.

Body Tempering, Acquired, and Innate were the first three realms of martial cultivation.

As the name suggests, Body Tempering strengthened the body, refined qi and bl00d, and improved physical resilience to give birth to true qi seeds. Once true qi was formed, a person entered the next stage—the True Qi Realm—divided into Acquired and Innate levels.

The quality of one’s body tempering could influence all future progress. Though it could be improved later, a strong foundation was always ideal.

Divine Dragon Transformation was such a technique. Even incomplete, it was more than enough for the Body Tempering stage.

Filled with anticipation, Li Wei approached the bookshelf and quickly spotted the book. Its blue cover was adorned with the image of a majestic golden dragon.

He pulled it out, brushed off the dust, opened it—and immediately frowned.

The moment his eyes met the pages, he saw that the words were alive. They fluttered across the pages like frightened flies. He couldn’t read a thing, and soon his head began to spin. The dizziness grew worse and worse.

The book slipped from his hands and fell to the ground. His body swayed, and he barely managed to steady himself by grabbing the bookshelf.

“What’s going on?” Li Wei thought. This had never appeared in the memories he inherited.

“The Natural Dao Sutra,” a voice suddenly whispered in his ear.

Before the sound faded, Li Wei found himself in a strange place, surrounded by dim mist, with no end in sight. His body was suspended in midair.