It’s Not Easy to Be a Man After Travelling to the Future

So that she could hold onto the free treatment provided by the country in her past life, over her 24 years of illness, Ling Lan had learned how to observe body language and react accordingly. She had learned how to appeal to the doctors and nurses around her, acting cute and being well-behaved. The quota for free treatment was limited, and there were always plenty of other patients waiting in line, so she knew she had to get the researchers and caregivers to like her and care for her personally. This way, subconsciously, they would want to keep her around and would put in a good word for her when necessary.

Her skills in this area were no use here against Number One, however. He was a battle-hardened veteran warrior — how could little inexperienced Ling Lan hope to glean anything from his body language? The more Ling Lan stared at Number One, the more helpless she felt, until the point where she felt that it might be better to just redeem all her points now after all. It’d be better than letting them all go to waste.

Just as she was about to ask to continue redeeming, the system announced, “Time’s up. Exchange 10 honour points for Rabbit Sky Leap, successful!”

Ling Lan was abruptly jolted into awareness. Unconsciously, it had already been ten minutes. Knowing that there was nothing else she could do, Ling Lan resolutely pushed aside all her anxiety. Since God had already helped her decide, there was no point having regrets even if she was going to lose all those honour points. It had to be said that Ling Lan was a very mature and adaptable girl — perhaps those 24 years of torment due to illness had taught her that there was no point in obsessing over the unobtainable.

The system continued to announce, “One redemption successful. Redemption mission completed, 1 honour point awarded. Remaining honour points: 140 points. Shall be reserved for the next redemption.”

Ling Lan was ecstatic. She had guessed correctly! As expected, honour points could be saved up — Number One’s words had been a hint after all. The word ‘use’ had been a subtle hint that honour points were precious, while the following statement that a random draw would be enforced after ten minutes indirectly implied that only one exchange was required.

This seemingly simple statement was actually rife with meaning. The cost of the items that could be redeemed ranged from 1 point up to several tens of thousands of points, and though Ling Lan only had 149 points, the things she could redeem were numerous. This presented a problem — if the enforced draw by the system randomly selected an item that only cost 1 point or 10 points, or perhaps even 50 points, what would happen to the rest of the unredeemed honour points?

Number One’s explanations had not covered any of that. Based on her previous experience, Ling Lan had quickly sensed something strange about the scenario, fearing that this was yet another trick. Perhaps this forced redemption was actually just a way for the system to teach new users how to redeem their honour points, just like how an instructor makes you practise a skill once in front of them right after they finished teaching you.

Of course Ling Lan knew that every little action of the learning space was not as simple as it seemed, so the forced redemption must have some deeper meaning beyond that. However, Ling Lan didn’t think it was necessary to spend much time and effort to figure it out.

So she chose the Rabbit Sky Leap which was most suitable for her. Not only could she practise it immediately, it was also a very subtle skill. Ling Lan was very satisfied with her choice. As for whether it was the best choice, Ling Lan was not overly concerned about that. She didn’t expect the best things to just appear in her path randomly, as if she were the ‘main character’ in a story, but was content to just take things as they came.

Instructor Number One was extremely pleased with Ling Lan’s performance this time as well. Without further ado, he switched places with Instructor Number Nine, who proceeded to instruct Ling Lan in the Rabbit Sky Leap as well as the next chapter of her physical skills training — the Body Refining Nine Stances.

Training for the Body Refining Nine Stances was a hundred times more difficult than training for the Basic Nine Stances. For the following month, Ling Lan trained laboriously to master the first stance with little to no effect — she couldn’t even get the positioning of a single arm right.

Ling Lan felt that this was a miserable mission. Judging by her current progress, she would never be able to accomplish it within the given deadline of five years. Fortunately, Ling Lan had a positive attitude. Even if it felt like an impossible mission, she wasn’t anxious or impatient. Every day, she worked hard to conquer it little by little, in hopes that when the deadline arrived, she wouldn’t be too far off the mark. Ling Lan had deduced from the first reward of honour points that the system’s punishment would most likely be based on a similar principle — the less she was behind, the lighter the punishment she would receive.

********

Very soon, it was once again the time for a session of gene agent injections. Ling Lan had assumed that this third session would be very much like the first two sessions, where she would just be laid on the bed to rest right after.

Unexpectedly, when all the military personnel had left, Ling Lan’s mother Lan Luofeng had picked her up and had walked through several hidden passages to arrive at a small room. There was almost nothing in the room — only a small single bed by one of the walls and a waist-high wooden tub in the centre of the room. Nothing else.

The moment Lan Luofeng entered the room, she asked, “Is everything ready?”

“Yes, Mistress!” A middle-aged woman stood within the room. Ling Lan recognised her — she was chamberlain Ling Qin’s wife, Ling Nanyi.

Lan Luofeng stepped forward to stand before the wooden tub. Ling Lan could now see that a little more than half the tub was full of an inky-green liquid that smelled heavily of medicinal herbs.

Ling Lan was deeply surprised — so far in this time period, all she had seen were medications of Western influence, such as injections or pills, which were bland and tasteless. Now, this familiar smell abruptly brought her back to the memories of her past life. She had had to drink so much of this sort of herbal concoction, but still … Ling Lan’s forehead scrunched up in worry — could it be that she was supposed to drink all of this medicinal liquid?

Ling Lan felt shudders of apprehension within her heart. From her mother’s and Ling Nanyi’s demeanour, that tub of medicinal liquid was most certainly for her. Looking at the wooden tub once again, and then mentally comparing it to her own tiny body …

Hell, were they trying to kill her? If she finished drinking all this medicinal liquid, she would definitely be the first baby in the world to die from a distended belly due to Chinese medicine.

Ling Lan’s mum was not as ruthless as Ling Lan had thought. “Is the temperature of the water alright? Ling Lan won’t be scalded, will she?”

Thank God, she was supposed to bathe in it and not drink it. Ling Lan cried internal tears of relief as she hugged her mother tightly. Her life was spared.

“Relax, Mistress. I have tested it properly, there won’t be any problems,” replied Ling Nanyi firmly. Ling Lan was the Ling household’s only hope — she would never allow any bit of carelessness when it came to Ling Lan’s welfare.

Lan Luofeng did not hesitate any further. In short order, she had stripped Ling Lan naked and placed her into the tub.

Ling Lan felt as if she were soaking in a hot spring, warm and comfortable, when suddenly she felt a surge of heat invade the core of her body from her skin. An indescribable feeling suffused her entire body — like pain yet not pain, like an itch yet not an itch. Ling Lan, who had never before been afraid of pain, actually couldn’t help but moan at the strange sensation.

Lan Luofeng was startled by this and looked at Ling Nanyi anxiously, wondering how Ling Lan was doing.

Ling Nanyi reassured her, “Mistress, this is normal, the young master is fine.”

As time passed, Ling Lan started getting used to the strange sensation. But then, the feeling escalated into intense pain, almost reminiscent of the body-shredding pain of her previous life …

Oddly enough, this intense pain actually calmed Ling Lan down instead, as she knew she was fully capable of withstanding this sort of pain from 24 years of experience.

“Huh? What is this thing?” Ling Lan heard Little Four exclaim within her mind.

“What?” Although she could manage the pain, it was still nice to have someone to talk to to distract her from it based on her experience. She was very happy to chit chat with Little Four even while wracked with pain.

“It’s a very strange energy … it is actually raising the activation of your muscles and their resilience.” Little Four was very surprised and curious. How was this tub of medicinal liquid brewed? There was no information on this concoction within his databases.

“This must be a secret formula of the Ling family, specially made for refining the body.” In contrast, Ling Lan wasn’t as surprised. No matter how weak and insignificant the Ling family was, they were still an old clan that had persevered for over several thousand years, so it was not at all surprising that they had developed this secret formula over the years and had passed it on through the main branch of the family, Ling Xiao’s branch.

“Lord, the things in this world of yours are amazing. Heavens, what did I discover? This medicinal liquid is actually 96 percent plant-based …” Little Four marvelled. Who’d have thought such an amazing concoction could be made without having to utilise any sort of advanced technology? This was truly a miraculous world.

Ling Lan sweat-dropped. What else would a Chinese herbal concoction be made of if not medicinal herbs?

“And what’s the remaining 4 percent? Why is it so familiar … poison? Yep, should be a type of snake poison … and what’s this? Scorpion? Ce-centipede, and … spider venom!” Little Four’s tone of voice kept getting higher and higher until he was practically screeching. It couldn’t be helped — within this one year, Little Four had learned about the various creatures that could be found in human society, and although he was OK with most of them, he really had no tolerance for creepy crawlies. According to his sense of aesthetics, they were so ugly that they should be wiped from the surface of the Earth.

Ling Lan chose to ignore Little Four’s manic flailing in her mind. She was busy marvelling at the fact that she was actually going through a purification ritual like some main character in one of those novels she had read.

Yep, travelling to the future was not too bad after all. The cheat code of the God of Time and Space Travel was pretty powerful.