Yu Xian slept, practicing his punches even in his dreams.
When he woke, darkness had already fallen outside the clinic.
Little Nora lay slumped over a chair beside Little Huangquan, its rear sticking up in the air as it snoozed away in a thoroughly comical posture.
He got up, walked over to Little Huangquan, and carefully examined her injuries. Confirming that she had begun to improve after having medicine applied, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
In truth, when he had first awoken and saw Nora, Little Nora, Niman, and the others, his mind had gone entirely blank; it had taken nearly three seconds to recall who they were.
A wave of emotion had surged from deep within him then, making him want to pull everyone into a tight embrace. But the long years spent throwing punches had made him slightly more composed. He had not translated those thoughts into action, merely gazing at each of them with a faint smile, letting the warmth in his heart dissolve into a trickling stream flowing gently through his soul.
"Little Nora, wake up."
Yu Xian scooped up the soundly sleeping Little Nora, rubbed its head, and called out softly with a smile.
"Big Brother? I think I'm hungry..." Little Nora woke in a daze. Seeing Yu Xian, it simply flopped onto his chest, its belly letting out a loud rumble.
Yu Xian chuckled. "Watch over Little Huangquan here. I'll go find something to eat."
"Okay, I'll take good care of Sister Huangquan." Hearing that Yu Xian was going to fetch food, Little Nora immediately did its best to perk up, nodding in agreement.
Yu Xian set it down on the adjacent chair, rose, and walked out of the clinic.
Passing a medicine cabinet, he noticed one of the drawers stood open, packed with square cubes of poria. He casually grabbed several handfuls, shoved them into his pockets, and stepped out into the street.
Hardly any pedestrians walked outside, suggesting that Mingzhu City carried a degree of danger at night.
It was the same in the ordinary residential districts of Silver City. Once night fell, they turned deathly quiet, with practically no one out and about. Accustomed to such scenes, Yu Xian picked a direction at random and strolled along. Some shops along the way were open while others were shut, and before long he spotted an eatery that was still in business.
He walked inside. In the back kitchen, several foxes were busy cooking, and a human leg was being chopped into several pieces.
"Uh... are you eating people?" Yu Xian asked, looking at the foxes with genuine curiosity.
The foxes in the kitchen turned one after another. Catching sight of Yu Xian, ferocity gleamed in their eyes, and they immediately strode out brandishing cleavers, bone choppers, and boning knives.
"We only want to turn into humans! What's wrong with that?" one fox muttered to itself.
Another fox suddenly accelerated, lunging at Yu Xian while snarling, "In this world, the only way to become human is by eating humans! You look so human—are you telling me you've never eaten one?"
*You can only become human by eating humans?*
Yu Xian frowned slightly. He was not sure whether this was some supernatural rule native to this world, or a glitch spawned from Feng Laixian's warped memories.
Seeing the fox close in, however, he promptly held a poria cube between his knuckles and threw a straight punch.
The poria cube instantly punched straight through the fox's skull, pierced through the wall several meters behind it, and blasted through multiple buildings before finally lodging in the wall of a distant house. Then the cube disintegrated into powder, tumbling to the ground while emitting wisps of smoke.
Seeing this, the other two foxes screeched in horror, "An Awakener—!"
In the next instant, they split up to flank Yu Xian from the left and right. Yu Xian remained completely at ease, clamping two poria cubes between his right fingers, and threw another punch.
With that first strike, he had already tested how much power he could unleash under normal conditions.
In truth, he remained an ordinary mortal, possessed of only standard adult strength—an astronomical nerf by his usual standards.
Yet when he exerted his entire body, channeling his strength into a single focused line, not even steel could withstand his fist.
He threw another punch, and the two poria cubes miraculously diverged, shooting left and right in an instant. They struck both foxes with pinpoint accuracy, blowing their heads apart on the spot.
"What a shame."
Yu Xian felt a twinge of nostalgia for the body he had possessed in the sea of flowers—one that never tired and never took damage.
Right now, after throwing just two punches, his hand felt slightly numb, and that was already after neutralizing most of the recoil.
*Hopefully there's some normal, edible food in here,*
Yu Xian thought to himself. He began rummaging through the eatery's cupboards and eventually unearthed noodles and eggs. Finding a clean pot, he cooked a bucket of egg noodles and carried the bucket back toward the clinic.
By the time he returned, Niman, Nora, and the others had also made it back. Shui Yuetian and Zhang Buyao had found a good amount of bread, so everyone gathered around to eat and talk.
"I asked around near the martial arts academy. Feng Laixian probably won't be easy to kill," Niman said to the group, holding her bowl and slurping a mouthful of noodles.
Though everyone had hoped Feng Laixian would still be an infant, that possibility now seemed slim.
"How old is Uncle Feng right now?" Zhang Buyao asked curiously.
Niman replied, "Word has it he's thirty-one. Why?"
"We're doomed. At thirty-one, Uncle Feng is already an extremely powerful Awakener. I doubt we can beat him," Zhang Buyao said with an expression full of regret, chewing on a piece of bread.
Yu Xian looked at Zhang Buyao. "Are Awakeners the Transcendents of this world?"
"Yeah. Transcendents in this world are called Awakeners, split into Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Top-tier. Uncle Feng seems to have already reached Top-tier at this age," Zhang Buyao nodded.
Little Nora gasped in shock. "Then how big is the gap between us and a Top-tier Awakener?"
"Probably... hehe, pretty big, I'd say." Zhang Buyao tried to think of a comparison, but failing to find one, she simply gave a couple of sheepish giggles to gloss over it.
Yu Xian asked, "Is there any way for us to become Awakeners?"
If one could become a so-called Awakener through post-natal training, he felt they might still stand a chance against Feng Laixian. After all, the suffering he had endured in the flower sea hadn't been for nothing; as long as the physical disparity wasn't overwhelming, he had confidence in prevailing.
"Awakeners are born, not made. Apparently, if you awaken before age eighteen, you become an Awakener; if not, you remain an ordinary mortal forever," Zhang Buyao replied.
Well then.
That route was a dead end.
Yu Xian let out a sigh. How the hell were they supposed to fight that?
Going after Feng Laixian in their current state would be no different from an ordinary mortal challenging a Dragon-rank powerhouse—it was outright suicide.
"Maybe we should think of another way," Niman suggested, looking around at everyone. After understanding the disparity in strength, she had pretty much abandoned the idea of killing Feng Laixian head-on.
Zhang Buyao lowered her voice. "If this were a normal world, there'd truly be no way for us to become Awakeners. But since this is Uncle Feng's memory world, there's actually a clever workaround."
"What workaround?" Niman asked quickly.
Zhang Buyao leaned in conspiratorially. "Usurping an identity, then roleplaying it and gaining the world's recognition. That way, we can become Awakeners."
"Would that actually work?" Niman asked, furrowing her brows.
Zhang Buyao nodded firmly. "Definitely. For instance, Yu Xian could play Wang Jieming right now. If Wang Jieming was an Awakener, then after playing him for a while—preferably strutting in front of Uncle Feng a few times—Yu Xian will naturally inherit Wang Jieming's identity and power, thereby becoming an Awakener."
*So that's how it works.*
*This world actually allows for that sort of trickery.*
A look of realization dawned on everyone's faces, and they began pondering suitable targets whose identities they could usurp.
Chapter 334