Chapter Fourteen: Fire Kid—Boss, I Want to Improve

The day of vengeance always comes swiftly. During the thrice-weekly food delivery, Mu suddenly erupted, overpowering the person who brought his meal. He stripped the man of his clothes, adjusted his own body and bones to match the man's build, and slipped silently out of the dungeon.

He knew well that he was still no match for the tribal chief, so he decided to bide his time and hide in the mountains. He was most familiar with the great wilderness—once he entered the mountains, even if the entire tribe came searching, they would not be able to find him.

While Mu was gone, a minor incident occurred. Greed is a powerful motivator—Luo Zu’s generosity around the campfire attracted the attention of a group of desperados, leading to a small conflict. In the end, Luo Zu managed to eliminate some of the humans as planned.

After dealing with them, Luo Zu slipped away quietly, this time without leaving behind any “shedded remains.”

Yet despite his prolonged stay in this other world, not even a single night had passed in the primordial wilderness.

The night was still long. Luo Zu continued to immerse himself in the world within the gourd.

At that moment, on the “Sacred Mountain,” the very peak where Luo Zu’s first shedded body lay, people finally stopped lingering and prepared to begin their exploration.

Meanwhile, out of the five martial paragons of the world, three had arrived, eager to witness the martial arts of a legendary master from the “ancient” era. How could such ferocious, soaring blood energy not draw them?

“It is the will of Heaven,” said the Plum Blossom Sword Paragon, one of the Five Paragons, standing atop the canopy, his natural jade sword in hand, his feet lightly poised on the leaves.

“This elder is truly formidable,” the Eight-Palm Paragon, another among the Five, exclaimed in admiration.

“Hmph, you and I have explored the Dao of Heaven for so long, have we ever witnessed such mysterious workings? Don’t tell me you actually believe that fellow’s nonsense,” grumbled the Lianshan Saber Paragon, clearly displeased.

He was referring to the Martial Paragon, one of the Five, who was always muttering about the Dao of Heaven, claiming that only by uniting body and spirit with it could one break through to the Grand Circulation and achieve even greater heights.

Some believed, others did not; the debate had never ceased.

Today, perhaps, that debate would finally end.

The corpse shrouded in blood energy atop the mountain would surely provide them with answers.

“Its might is like the wrath of Heaven itself. An unseen force stirs within us, making us yearn to merge with it. It is shaping our will. Have you not noticed?” A voice suddenly carried up from the base of the mountain.

A majestic figure appeared beside them, arriving so lightly that none of the three had noticed.

“Martial Paragon!”

This was none other than the Martial Paragon, who was faintly regarded as the foremost among the Five.

“Have you found the path forward?” The Plum Blossom Sword Paragon gazed intently at him.

“He is the path,” the Martial Paragon said, raising his hand to point.

After that night, news of the Five Paragons storming the Sacred Mountain spread throughout the land.

At the same time, the revelation that they had glimpsed the path forward sent shockwaves across the world.

The remains atop the Sacred Mountain acquired a new title—the Divine Martial Golden Body!

Furthermore, after the Five Paragons ascended the mountain, the Divine Martial Golden Body vanished without a trace. The world suspected the Five had taken it.

But the Five Paragons repeatedly insisted that they had nothing to do with its disappearance.

As the legend of the Divine Martial Golden Body spread, Luo Zu awoke—it was dawn.

He, who stirred wind and clouds within the gourd world, still had to brush his teeth and wash his face in person.

Though after cultivating Qi and transforming his spirit, he could clear away dust and bodily waste with a single breath, Luo Zu still insisted on brushing and washing every day.

He also actively promoted hygiene among the “Cave Dwellers.”

The first step was to completely forbid relieving oneself anywhere. He chiseled a small chamber inside the cave, diverted a drainage channel, and designated it as a latrine—doubling as a place to gather manure for fertilizing the fields at the cave entrance.

Once the rudimentary stone toilet was finished, Luo Zu leveraged his accumulated prestige to force everyone to use it, forbidding random defecation, except during hunts—inside the cave, this rule was strict.

As for brushing teeth and washing faces, Luo Zu had yet to promote the habit widely, mainly because he was still experimenting with suitable brushes; washing faces, though, could be done simply with the mountain spring.

Of course, promoting hygiene wasn’t a major concern—at least not in the primordial era, when people still struggled to eat their fill. But random defecation was unsightly and easily led to disease, threatening survival, so it had to be curtailed.

“Good morning, Chief Luo Zu,” Huowa greeted, baring his yellow teeth and breathing out a century’s worth of foul air as he approached.

“You mated with Ah Si again,” Luo Zu remarked coolly, glancing at his face.

Huowa’s grin froze on his face and scalp. “No way... Chief told me not to mate, so I absolutely won’t.”

Luo Zu made no comment. “In another year, you’ll be three hundred.”

Among the “Cave Dwellers,” adulthood came at eighteen, when the body’s organs matured. For the next five hundred years, physical strength would steadily increase, peaking around five hundred, then declining, and finally, by about a thousand, vitality would be depleted and death would come.

This was the conclusion Luo Zu and the elders of the settlement had drawn after much discussion.

Of course, the “Cave Dwellers” were only in their fourth generation; future trends remained uncertain. Would their lifespan increase, or would they gradually lose their ancient vitality? Only time would tell.

The main reason Luo Zu had recently forbidden Huowa to mate was that the man was in heat, constantly seeking partners, which had noticeably diminished his physical strength and hindered his Qi cultivation.

To refine essence into Qi, one must first have “essence”—here, meaning vital energy, not the other kind.

“You have quite a few offspring by now, don’t you?” Luo Zu suddenly changed the subject.

“Ah Si gave me twenty-eight, Ah Niu twenty-six, Ah Hei thirty-two, but only eighteen survived,” Huowa replied gloomily.

Despite the exceptional constitution of the first humans, the harshness of the primordial world meant that infant survival rates in the “Cave Dwellers” settlement remained low.

Few made it to adulthood. Even someone as robust as Huowa, whose partners were every bit as strong as the men, saw most of his offspring perish.

Only after Luo Zu took over the settlement and introduced a wealth of knowledge about childbirth did infant mortality drop dramatically.

“Keep practicing the Qi refining method I taught you. That way, we can protect our people and have even sturdier children,” Luo Zu said, patting him on the shoulder.

“Chief, why not teach us this today?” Huowa raised his fists and threw a few shadow punches as he spoke.

“This is martial arts.”

It was the combat technique Luo Zu had displayed during the last hunt, witnessed by all the hunting team members, who were now eager to learn.

Truly, in the primordial wilderness, everyone strove to improve.