Chapter 2 The Little Prodigy of the Lin Family

Before he knew it, three years had passed, and Lin Xing was now three years old.

Lin Xing was speaking just three months after he was born and reading books on his own after half a year! The Lin family dubbed him a laughingstock genius. Lin Xing was clever, witty, and very likable, calling everyone 'Big Brother,' 'Big Sister,' 'Uncle,' or 'Auntie.' You see, Lin Xing was a person from the 21st century, where equality was the norm, and there was no notion that servants were inferior.

His sweet tongue, politeness, and charm endeared him to everyone in the Lin family, who doted on this little young master endlessly.

Lin Xing had no idea that the basic social etiquette from his previous life would have such a huge impact here. He was fine with it, though. Being polite and kind to others cost him nothing, and building good relationships would make things easier in the future.

In those three years, using his smarts, Lin Xing had read many books about this world and pieced together from what others said that he had indeed arrived in another world straight out of legends. This world was quite similar to the structures described in the transmigration novels he had read in his past life, featuring Battle Qi and magic, Swordsmen and knights, as well as noble mages and powerful magical beasts in the Magical Beast Forests.

Swordsmen and knights were both types of warriors, but the difference was that swordsmen could learn various types of Battle Qi, while knights could only learn the Light Battle Qi of the Light Church. Swordsmen and knights generally had tough bodies, and with the protection of Battle Qi, their close-combat abilities were brutally strong up close. Especially in battles against mages, once a warrior closed in, it could be a slaughter. However, this wasn't absolute—the key to combat still came down to one's reaction ability and experience. A complete novice, even if he were a Sword God, could get himself killed by a battle-hardened Sword Saint.

Mages, on the other hand, wielded a variety of magic, which hinged on one's elemental affinity. The higher the affinity, the faster they learned magic and the greater their achievements. Of course, mages didn't have to stick to just one type of magic. If their affinity for other elements was sufficient, they could learn two or more at the same time.

In this world, there were seven common types of magic: wind, fire, earth, thunder, wood, water, and light—the most common types of magic on the continent.

Besides these, there were rarer types of magic, such as dark magic, spatial magic, mental magic, and the extremely rare and largely useless time magic.

On the continent, the ranks of swordsmen, knights, and mages were divided into nine levels.

Swordsmen: Apprentice Swordsman, Junior Swordsman, Intermediate Swordsman, Advanced Swordsman, Great Swordsman, Sword Master, Great Sword Master, Sword Saint, Sword God.

Among them, Sword Master, Great Sword Master, Sword Saint, and Sword God were further divided into early, middle, and late stages.

Knights: Apprentice Knight, Junior Knight, Intermediate Knight, Advanced Knight, Bronze Knight, Silver Knight, Gold Knight, Holy Knight, Divine Knight. Among them, Bronze Knight, Silver Knight, Gold Knight, Holy Knight, and Divine Knight were further divided into early, middle, and late stages.

Mages: Apprentice Mage, Junior Mage, Intermediate Mage, Advanced Mage, Great Mage, Archmage, Grand Mage, Grand Archmage, Magic God. Among them, Great Mage, Archmage, Grand Mage, Grand Archmage, and Magic God were further divided into early, middle, and late stages.

The continent had quite a few Saint Level figures, most distributed among The Four Empires. However, those at the God Level were without exception famous, top-tier figures. These individuals were practically like gods to most people on the Kasla Continent. Since there were only a handful of God Level figures, and these old masters had already gone into seclusion, Saint Level practitioners were the invincible beings on the Kasla Continent. With a population of over ten billion, there were only a few thousand Saint Level figures, most of whom were at the early Saint Level stage. This showed just how slim the chances of reaching Saint Level were.

Saint Level was what the vast majority of people on the Kasla Continent spent their lives dreaming of reaching.

In general wars, Saint Level figures did not take part because their destructive power was far too great. Especially Magic Saints—a single forbidden spell could annihilate hundreds of thousands of troops. Therefore, unless it was a critical war, Saint Level figures were not permitted to participate. After all, Saint Level figures were a powerful guarantee of a nation's strength and were extremely precious—losing one was a permanent setback.

While there were many Magic Saints, God Level figures were exceedingly rare. The few God Level powerhouses known to the public were all distributed among the Four Empires, while the smaller duchies were not known to have any. God Level powerhouses would not casually take action either—a single God Level powerhouse could take on ten or more Saint Level powerhouses alone, and with special skills, they could even handle groups of Saint Level powerhouses with ease.

Correspondingly, the magical beasts in the Magical Beast Forests were divided into several levels: Levels 1–3 were low-level magical beasts, Levels 4–6 were intermediate magical beasts, Levels 7–9 were high-level magical beasts, and above high-level magical beasts were Sacred Beasts, Divine Beasts, and the legendary super Divine Beasts.

Magical beasts generally had naturally tough bodies. Starting from Level 7, magical beasts were relatively powerful, and people of the same level were usually weaker than them. It was very difficult for a single person to defeat a magical beast of the same level.

Especially Sacred Beasts—only God Level individuals could take them down without breaking a sweat. Saint Level individuals stood little chance against Sacred Beasts, though exceptions existed. If a powerful Saint Level figure existed, they could also slay a Sacred Beast.

Lin Xing lived on the Kasla Continent, home to four empires: the Frozen Empire in the north, the Tike Empire in the south, the Huaxia Empire in the east, and the Ensi Empire in the west. Lin Xing was from the Lin family, one of the four great families of the Huaxia Empire, which directly commanded the formidable Red Dragon Legion, dreaded by enemies.

Currently, each of the Four Empires boasted some extremely powerful legions. Take the Red Dragon Legion, which Lin Zhantian belonged to. It was the Huaxia Empire's strongest legion. The entire legion consisted of 100,000 soldiers, every one of them battle-hardened, with an undefeated record! This wasn't just due to the soldiers' exceptional skills but also to the indispensable leadership. This legion had always been directly under the command of the Lin family, answering only to the Legion Commander and could ignore the king's orders!

The Huaxia Empire also had three other legions slightly inferior to the Red Dragon Legion, commanded by the royal family (the Royal Legion) and the other two great families.

The legions of the other three empires were similarly organized.

For two hundred years, the continent had appeared peaceful on the surface, with none of the Four Empires having launched a major war. However, the smaller duchies were constantly at war—today a country was destroyed, tomorrow a new one rose—all normal occurrences.

The Four Empires remained indifferent to these minor skirmishes among the small duchies, treating their wars as mere games!

Currently, the Four Empires were in a delicate balance. They wouldn't go to war without sufficient gain, even over a vassal state's destruction—there was no profit in it.

Understanding the structure of this world, Lin Xing felt a sense of helplessness: heroes emerge in chaotic times, but fortunately, there were still wars among the smaller states where he could test his mettle. It seemed he wasn't the type to sit still.

But...

Lin Xing looked down at his own body. Although he had grown taller, reaching about one meter, he waved his arms and kicked his legs. What could these short limbs accomplish? Moreover, even if he could achieve something, the old man at home wouldn't allow it.

Thinking of the old man, Lin Xing felt another wave of helplessness. The old man, Grandma, and his parents were so worried they had people tailing him every day to keep him safe.

But with his own skills, shouldn't he be able to protect himself? Although the Nine Yang Divine Art had only recovered to the second layer, with just this second-layer Cultivation Method, he could probably take out an Advanced Swordsman, right?

Lin Xing wasn't boasting—how could the Nine Yang Divine Art be underestimated? The top-tier cultivation method passed down through the Huaxia race for thousands of years—how could the people of this otherworld compare? When the Nine Yang Divine Art was mastered, flying through the skies, burrowing into the earth, slaying gods, and killing demons were just the tip of the iceberg.

Lin Xing shook his head and sighed lightly. How could they know that besides being clever, he was also a martial arts prodigy?

But Lin Xing wasn't foolish enough to reveal his abilities now. Everyone understood the principle that 'the nail that sticks out gets hammered.' Since the people here couldn't detect his divine art, he was just as happy to keep it under wraps. Moreover, this was the ultimate skill for both daily life and dirty tricks!

If he exposed it prematurely, how would he explain it to them? Something so powerful, yet neither Battle Qi nor magic—wouldn't that just invite trouble?

At the same time, Lin Xing had also come to understand what Battle Qi and magic were in this world. So-called Battle Qi was a crude application of the spiritual energy in the air by the people of this world. The cultivation methods of our Huaxia race involved drawing the spiritual energy particles from the air into the body, continuously tempering it to toughen it up, while storing the absorbed and refined energy in the dantian. The more energy stored in the dantian, the deeper one's cultivation.

But the Battle Qi here worked differently. Instead of absorbing and converting heaven and earth's spiritual energy, it directly formed outside, attaching to the body or weapons, which resulted in greater consumption and less sustainability.

Mages, on the other hand, used their spiritual power to communicate with the spiritual energy in heaven and earth, thereby utilizing the energy to form attacks.

Thus, the Nine Yang Divine Art was his secret weapon—no, his secret cultivation method, the ultimate technique for both daily life and dirty tricks!

If the founder of the Nine Yang Divine Art knew that this ultimate, supremely yang and righteous cultivation method was being used by Lin Xing to scheme against others, he might just crawl out of that world to flatten Lin Xing!

"When will I grow up? Stuck in this Prime Minister's residence every day, unable to go out—it's so boring. Once I'm grown, I can venture out into the world! It's utterly dull."