Night of the Broken Gliph

It’s scary how fast time flies. In just a blink of an eye, five years had passed. 

Huff! 

Huff! 

An innocent-looking, bald child was diligently training in the yard. He was only five years old, yet he was in good shape. 

He carried a large rock with a diameter of about two to three meters and repeatedly lifted it over his head. 

There were openings for the boy to slide both his hands into the rock, facilitating his workout. However, a young boy lifting a heavy rock was still an astonishing sight. 

The boy moved quickly, not stopping even for a second as he breathed in a pattern unique to him. He might be scrawny, but muscles could be seen on his young body.

The rock landed on the ground with a loud thud. 

That should be enough. He thought as he lay down on the ground to continue with different training regimens at a shocking speed. Arms, core, chest, legs…

It was as if he was racing against time…

Huff! 

Finally, he stopped training. His body was flushed red. 

He lay on the ground with his limbs spread out, breathing heavily as he rested and caught his breath, before his body gradually returned to normal.

He was only physically exhausted, not mentally. He was glad that he could persevere for ten minutes today. It was his best record thus far.

When he felt his body had returned to normal, he crossed his legs and started deep breathing exercises.

To others, he looked just like a kid wasting his day away daydreaming when instead, his body was slowly changing internally.

Invisible energy surrounded the boy. He took a deep breath, absorbing them into his body. 

He was practising Nine Levels Of Heaven’s Flame, a powerful cultivation style that his master, an elite from another world, taught him. 

Thanks to this style, he had been under pressure from various parties. Flame was originally from the Sallow Continent, a world consisting of magic and brawl energy.

Nine Levels of Heaven‘s Flame was a cultivation style that had the ability to ignore the systems of both magic and brawl energy. It would allow one to utilise powers cultivated from the style to perform magic or exercise brawl energy. 

Flame had no idea if the skill would work here, but practising the style was already a habit, much like breathing It was an irreplaceable habit.

After some time, he slowly opened his eyes. 

Unbeknownst to him, his childish eyes turned red for a split second.

“Where are you, Siu Yim?” A man shouted for him from the house. “Time for breakfast!” 

“Okay!” The boy answered. Two sets of workouts, with five minutes of breathing exercise in between… That’s about thirty minutes in total. Despite his improvements, Flame was still unhappy with the results. “In the past, my workouts have always lasted around one to two hours. This is too little!” He mumbled to himself as he hurried over to the house.

He plopped down in his seat and started digging in, not sparing the dishes or the middle-aged man across from him a look.

Porcelain skin, sharp eyebrows and a pair of beautiful almond eyes that crinkled when he smiled. He looked slightly feminine with his slender hands and the long, silky, black hair that flowed down his shoulder. Paired with the Chinese scholar’s cap that he was wearing, gentle was the perfect word to describe him.

“Sissy…” Flame glanced at the man as he munched on his food. 

The man was Chui Tin, and he was Flame’s father in this life.

Chui Tim was a flawless father. From delicious cooking to tidy housework, he could handle it all well. Even the shirt Flame was currently wearing was handmade by him. He was excellent as both Flame’s father and “mother”.

Not only that, Chui Tim was the only doctor in the village, too. His kind and altruistic character made him well-loved by the villagers. Flame had even witnessed young, gorgeous ladies leaving notes behind for his father after their consultation, asking to spend a night with him. 

Even though Chui Tim was perfect in many ways, there was something about him that Flame hated—his looks.

Don’t get me wrong; he’s attractive. In fact, you could even call him pretty. 

But being pretty means being a sissy! What’s worse is that as his child, I will take after his appearance! 

Flame sighed as he looked up at the ceiling, thinking about how masculine he was in his previous life and how precious his shiny bald head was. 

But all I have now is this bald head!

This thought upset Flame, as he turned to glare at Chui Tim before biting down on his food hard.

As if used to his son’s antics, all Chui Tim did was smile in reply. He watched Flame eat with gusto in satisfaction, like how all mothers would when they watched their children enjoy the food they cooked.

“Siu Yim, it’s time to study.”

“Tomorrow.” 

被改作單字焰，跟徐天姓徐。

In this life, Flame was given the name Yim, and he took Chui Tim’s surname.

Thus, Chui Yim was his current name.

“Yim” means flame, so it’s still similar to my original name, which I’m happy about.

“You’re five this year, and you’ve been saying that for almost a year.” Chui Tim replied, slightly upset with Chui Yim.

“I mean it. I’ll study tomorrow,” Chui Yim said as he gulped down his soup. He wiped his mouth with his hands and grabbed a few buns, stuffing them into his pocket. “I’m going out!” 

Watching Chui Yim run off, Chui Tim couldn’t help but give him another reminder. “Remember, you need to study tomorrow!”

“Okay!” 

And Chui Yim immediately forgot about it.

Chui Yim dashed out of the village and observed his surroundings.

When he was sure that nobody was following him, he approached a cave blocked up by a giant boulder. The wall rumbled as he tapped it, and the gigantic boulder moved to the side for him to enter. When Chui Yim entered, the boulder rolled back into its original position.

After a short distance, Chui Yim arrived at a spacious cavern. 

This was his workshop.

There were many well-organized racks in the room. Many weird-looking stones were placed on the shelves. Chui Yim didn’t pay much attention to them and went directly to the long stone table in the middle of the workshop.

It was a simple workshop, yet that was the reason why Chui Yim was unhappy.

Due to his age and heart deficiency, his movement was very limited, which was why he couldn’t build a better workshop. Even this simple workshop took two years to complete. He had to open the cave, create the giant rock mechanism, and even collect some of the weird stones himself. The villagers gave weird stones to Chui Tim as their consultation fee, and they were then taken away by Chui Yim as he “wanted to play with them.”

During this period of time, Chui Yim still hadn’t created anything. 

Other than some simple mechanisms and items, he hadn’t put his metalsmithing skills to use yet. 

Why? Because he was busy studying about the minerals of this world.