One Sword to Immortality Chapter 1

Road to Health, A Nobleman’s Path to Improvement

The more a person ages, the more clearly they will see the world. Past longings and fantasies will all inevitably be crushed one after another by reality.

The things that we once worshiped, were once infatuated with, and once yearned for, will all gradually scatter away. Yet, they will not remain erased forever, and were merely buried and concealed within the heart, protected by walls on all sides from the invasion of reality. This area is our illusionary garden. It is magnificent, and it contains fantastic oddities of every description. It is absurd and ridiculous, yet it is full of happiness and life.

— Drifting toad

A group of youth walked towards a car while transporting some objects. Though each and every one of them were dressed up in an overly exaggerated matter, they all had smiles on their faces that were brimming with happiness and joy.

As long as one was familiar with the current popular trends, then they would know that these people were a group of cosplayers. For those who knew about this popular culture, they would immediately recognize that these people were acting out the roles of characters in a popular novel.

A young girl with round cheeks was dressed up as Xiao Lian. She didn’t have the air of the queen in the original novel, but instead had an extremely ‘moe’ feel. Among the group of youths, she was definitely the most vivacious; anyone that saw her would say that she’s cute. On the contrary, the second leading heroine, Huang Er, was supposed to be a famous fairy whose temperament was gentle and refined, however, she had a coldness about her. On her incomparably beautiful face, there wasn’t a trace of an expression.

A handsome older brother clapped his hands with a smile and said, “Our performance this time was quite excellent. In a moment, we’re going to go to Wanghai House. It’s my treat, so no one is allowed to leave just yet.”

The group of youngsters all began to cheer and clap in a lively manner, as if they revered the older brother that had offered to treat them out. All of them began to call out words of flattery, while some of the foodies had even begun to say what dishes they had wanted to feast upon.

Xu Liao began to laugh, and with some effort, he moved the last chest of stage props into the car. He was just about to find a seat within the car when the handsome guy who invited everyone saw him. The corners of his lips lifted, as he separated from everyone. He walked over and prevented him from walking any further before warmly saying, “Xu Liao! Thank you so much for helping our group with such hard work. Tonight, I originally also wanted to invite you to eat as well, but our car simply has too many people and too much stuff. There’s no room left, and it’s better if you leave first, and not scrunch up with the rest of us.”

Xu Liao’s round but honest looking smile went stiff for a moment as he glanced at the Huang Er cosplayer, who was standing away from the crowd with an expressionless face. Qu Lei, the cosplayer for Huang Er, didn’t seem to be paying any attention to this side all. She had her eyes closed as she leaned against a large tree, seemingly resting.  

Xu Liao immediately turned his head back, and an honest and straightforward smile appeared on his face as he laughed, “I need to return home earlier today and wouldn’t have been able to eat with you guys anyway, so I’ll leave first then.”

Xu Liao waved towards everyone, however, he quickly discovered that there were practically no one who had noticed him. What he had done was simply a pointless action, and could only lower his hands in embarrassment as he reluctantly left this group of people.

After Xu Liao walked far away, this group of youngsters suddenly began to roar with laughter. Someone even loudly hollered, “That little fatty actually took interest in Qu Lei, and was even reluctant to part with us. To run here and try to mix with our group, could it be that he didn’t even know what what roles were played today within our act?”

After that person spoke, another person immediately laughed. “With that bear-like figure? He’s as fat as Zhu Bajie, would Qu Lei even be able to stand him? Qu Lei and our captain is the true match!”

Upon hearing this, the Huang Er cosplayer Qu Lei slightly furrowed her eyebrows as she spoke unhappily, “There is nothing going on between me and Gao Wenhu, so please stop randomly pairing people together. I have some matters to take care of as well, and won’t be able to eat with everyone, so I’ll be leaving first.”

Qu Lei did not explain anything, and simply left in a hurry to the point where she didn’t even change out of her outfit.

The handsome brother who had invited everyone out to eat was Gao Wenhu, the captain of the Cosplay Club. Turning unsightly for a moment, he got into the car first without another word. For a moment, the atmosphere was quite tense before everyone quickly blamed the matter on Xu Liao before cursing at him under their breath with impolite words.

Xu Liao wiped his hands, and he felt a bit depressed. He couldn’t help but feel attracted to Qu Lei’s temperament ever since they had just entered junior high together. However, his personality differed too greatly from Qu Lei, and moreover since he was excessively fat, it was difficult for him to cosplay. To Qu Lei, who somewhat judged people by their appearance, it was impossible for him to attract the attention of a goddess like her no matter how hard he tried.

This time, he tried to be more outgoing. In the past few days, he had exerted a lot of effort, yet he was still pushed aside from Qu Lei’s Cosplay Club group.

The exhibition grounds were extremely far away from Xu Liao’s home. He had originally planned on taking the subway before taking the public transit home, but the moment his hand reached into his pockets, his face instantly started before looking sour.

“Crap! I forgot my money at home, how am I going to take the subway now?!”

Xu Liao was planning on bracing himself to go and ask for the club to allow him to hitch a ride, but then the two vans immediately drove past him. Without saying a word, he could only stand in the way of the smog as he choked on the smell.

“It looks like I can only walk home then. There’s 20 kilometers from here to there, will I be able to make it back by night time?”

Xu Liao could only rub his hands together helplessly before walking back home slowly.

Four hours later, the sky was already pitch black as Xu Liao continued to walk back home. It was a good thing that he had exercised often and was in a decent amount of shape.

In the first year of junior high, he had chased after Qu Lei, but she had said, “I don’t like fat people, if you can lose 60 kilograms, then I’ll think about it.” He then began to exercise and work out so that he could reach that deadline before three years.

He ran each morning and each evening, and in between lessons, he did push ups and pull ups. It was to the point where he even ran up each flight of stairs, and even when he was laughed at by fellow students, he never wavered.

Unfortunately, with the workout came puberty. He had drastically shot up in height, and by time of the second year of junior high, he had grown from 156 centimeters to 175 centimeters. Hs weight had became impossible to lose, sticking him at 95 kilograms. At this point, Xu Liao had realized that all the basketball players were ‘skinny and weak.’ In his second year of junior high, he had joined the basketball team but….that didn’t serve much use. By the third year of junior high, he had grown to 183 centimeters, and had only lost another 15 kilograms, leaving him at 80 kilograms — far from the goal Qu Lei had set. Even if Xu Liao were to have a six pack underneath his clothes, because of his naturally round face and bulky build, he looked as if he was a round fatty.

Xu Liao was already utterly exhausted, and he glanced up at the vast sky of stars. The starlight was brilliant and resplendent, improving his mood by quite a bit. Ever since he was little, he always loved to look at the starry sky. Each time he looked up at the stars in the sky, he would always feel much better, only with modern urbanization, it was already quite difficult to see this kind of night sky.

His gaze rested in the skies for a while, and then lowered his head. However in the next second, he suddenly felt as if something was wrong. He once again lifted his head towards the night sky, and only saw a vast sea of stars. They were brilliant like fireworks during a festival, filling up the Milky Way, arranged in various constellations…

However… With the sky so heavily polluted by the city, how was it possible for him to see such a magnificent starry sky?

Chapter end