The Favored Son of Heaven

Qin Fen trodded through the vast desert step by step with his body slowing down and then bursting with energy at irregular intervals. He had already subconsciously become one with the desert; he moved as the wind goes, and stopped as the wind stopped.

The sand dunes of the Sahara Desert undulated occasionally, forming a huge sand wall comparable to the Great Wall. Qin Fen walked on using only his instincts, without his true energy or navigation tools. He slept as he liked, and continued his journey after waking up.

A month had passed. Qin Fen’s skin color gradually became bronze after his body went through the trials of the sun and sandstorms in the desert. Subsisting on only non-toxic scorpions and snakes, his body was nourished by ingredients only from the desert. His body might’ve become thinner as a result, but he looked healthier and stronger than before.

As he walked quietly, Qin Fen did not feel the need to deliberately use his true energy to improve his five senses to feel the changes in the surrounding environment — he could clearly identify and feel the wind speed in the distance, the wind direction, and even the flow of sand near the foot when stepped on.

Being in the most natural state for a long time, Qin Fen merged gradually with the desert with his blood, body, and spirit. He didn’t pursue this deliberately, nor did he forget that everything was performed in the most natural state, his mind and body attuning itself with the glorious history of the Sahara that spanned millions of years.

The unforgiving heat was like a sauna for Qin Fen as he got used to the weather. His body even began to prevent moisture loss on its own.

The mysteries of martial dao seemed to be blown away by the desert storm. During the icy nights, the martial dao absorbed the historical imprint of the desert, forming a brutal side that unveils the mystery behind martial dao, purifying the soul.

After more than a month of walking, Qin Fen went from experiencing dizziness, dried lips, and weak limbs during the beginning to a total acclimation of the environment. He became more relaxed as he forgot about refrigerated drinks and secret martial arts.

“A storm is coming…”

Qin Fen looked up at the sky and said slowly. A few seconds later, lightning struck down to the desert as Qin Fen congratulated himself with a smile.

This was an incomprehensible feeling. He wasn’t told by the Sahara Desert itself of the storm, nor was it an ability he learned in the past. Rather, it was a mysterious instinct that he couldn’t put his finger on.

Lightning struck in succession shortly after and caused the sky to roll with the sound of thunder like hundreds of silver snakes rolling in the clouds, also resembling a major uprising happening across the world.

Qin Fen laid down and spread out his body, greeting the torrent of rain in his most comfortable posture as it washed away the dust from his body and also cleansed his martial dao that hasn’t been fully cleaned yet.

Another explosion of thunder was heard, shaking the land of sand in the process as its echoes were sent to faraway lands.

Thunders were heard following one another, and Qin Fen’s heart adjusted and synced itself eventually with the thunder.

A man in the desert was part of the desert, so why couldn’t the thunder be part of the desert too?

Qin Fen did not make a move deliberately. While nutrition could be matched and ingested forcibly, it would never be as healthy as absorbing nutrition using the instincts of man. Only the instincts were able to rid the nutrients of impurities before ingesting it with the body.

The rain in the desert came and went by fast.

In a blink of an eye, the heavy rain disappeared. Qin Fen looked up directly at the sun and then around gently the endless yellow sand. They were an eternal existence, existing here for millions of years, and would continue to do so for millions of years to come!

At this moment, Qin Fen’s soul seemed to have understood truly the glory of the Sahara Desert spanning centuries! It has never been conquered! It never considered itself to be conquered by humans! The humans may be able to cross the desert with modern technology, but they couldn’t conquer it!

With just a trip through the big desert, they could feel the cruelty of the Sahara. They did not really conquer the Sahara, as they thought of leaving the place as they crossed. How could one conquer something they wanted to get out of?

And how would the assistance of technology facilitate the conquering of centuries of glory?

For a moment, Qin Fen’s mind expanded limitlessly to the point it could accommodate everything he saw, including the sky above his head. All of his cells in his body trembled in unison, the hibernating true energy once again rose, flowing through his body. He widened his steps, sank his shoulders and elbows, and struck a punch.

True energy and blood, both boiled at this moment! The dust on his body that was stained with rain was seemingly hit with a major oscillation, as all of them flew away from his shirt.

True energy mixed with boiling blood bloomed from this strike. The incomparable smoothness of the fist struck the ground between his legs instantly!

Boom… and the dust flew everywhere. The yellow sand which was poor shock conductors were sent flying by Qin Fen in an area of a hundred meters covering the skies.

Qin Fen lightly tapped his toes as dust flew out of his body, imbuing the glorious of the Sahara into the fists. Only those that knew of the fist of the Sahara could understand the glory of the Sahara.

Ten days later, Qin Fen stepped out of the Sahara. This wasn’t a deliberate departure, but rather it felt that he was seemingly sent away by the Sahara Desert. Only those who were worthy enough in the eyes of the desert would be sent out.

Qin Fen turned and looked back to the boundless desert. This was a very mysterious feeling, but only those who have delved deep into it and felt everything could really understand it.

Qin Fen came across a military base nearby. After showing his identity as a colonel to the soldiers, he was immediately received with courtesy by the base.

The Snake King had long informed the African Military Administration through his channels. Qin Fen had made a small name for himself at the African Military Administration with his performance in the recruit tournament. All computers in the military bases around the Sahara held partial information about Qin Fen.

The military aircraft arrived quickly. Qin Fen once again sat on the plane after a long time. He looked at the Sahara where he had lived for many days from the sky. He was flooded with indescribable emotions. Within a month, he had opened new horizons for himself through his primitive lifestyle ranging from eating, walking, sleeping, and foraging.

It turned out that one could look at the world in this way. Qin Fen closed his eyes gently. The trek in Qinghai from the past was very different from his trek today. He was confident that he knew everything during that time, only to realize that he knew nothing after attaining the level of a master.

The plane howled as it pierced the air. Qin Fen stopped looking at the Sahara Desert below and drifted off into a deep sleep quietly. His breathing was no longer slow and powerful like a martial dao expert.

The soldier beside Qin Fen looked at him surprisingly. His breathing looked like he was an ordinary person without martial dao training. Yet he looked different from ordinary people. He was like a newborn, breathing with an indescribable nature. If observed carefully, it would create the illusion of him being more like a tree than a person.

Sleeping? Awake? The soldier did not dare speculate. His doubtful eyes hinted a glitter of envy. This young man was said to have made great achievements in the desert. Maybe he would be promoted again after he returned to the East Asian military headquarters in Shengjing?

“Promotion? This kid left the army for a year! The Snake King actually allowed him to perform such a task behind my back, and he succeeded!” Lee Myeong-Jeong ¹ slammed his fist into a thick table. The cup next to it was hit off the table by the shockwave, spilling its caffeinated contents all over the table.

Over the past year, Lee Myeong-Jeong had been unhappy. He had made several attempts to kill Qin Fen, even hiring the Blood Ranks Spear King to kill him. Lee Myeong-Jeong did not expect that Qin Fen would survive; he even achieved such a huge feat in the military.

The Genesis Society? The military had long known about the existence of the Genesis Society, but they always had difficulty discovering their hideouts. It was unexpected for Qin Fen to succeed in discovering their hideout shortly after returning to the army from the Sacred Martial Hall.

“Prevent Qin Fen from returning to the army completely?” Lee Myeong-Jeong’s face became gloomier and gloomier, with a dim of light shining brightly within, “I am afraid that even if we caught him deserting his post after completing his mission, it is hard to prevent him from returning to the army completely. No! I must avenge my son! I must have Qin Fen killed before he returns to the army!”

The glitter of light gradually turned into a cursed light. Lee Myeong-Jeong’s cheeks became more ferocious as his cheek muscles twitched. He clenched his fists, making the sounds of cracking bones, “There is only one way! It’s hard to kill him with underhanded tactics. Even if I succeed, Snake King will take action right after. I shall kill him in an obvious manner!”

“Yes!” Lee Myeong-Jeong’s smile remained full of ferocity. There was still a way to kill Qin Fen in this world — killing him in a fair and square competition!

A deathmatch contest would require a valid excuse. Lee Myeong-Jeong found the best excuse and candidate.

Bae Seong-Joon, the Martial God of the State of Korea! As the founder of Neo Taekwondo, he was committed to spreading his Neo Taekwondo throughout the Federation, hoping to once again set off a popular trend of Taekwondo across the world.

Therefore, in addition to his hard work, he had also trained several outstanding disciples in the past. These people will be publicizing Neo Taekwondo in the future, and they were all candidates who shall continue to bear his light in the future.

It could be said that the efforts put by Bae Seong-Joon’s in these disciples were equal to his training on martial dao.

Witnessing the growth of his disciples and the spread of Neo Taekwondo across the Federation only to be hit by a series of bad news.

Firstly, the defeat of the Pujia brothers had destroyed the opportunity for Bae Seong-Joon to represent East Asian Military Region at the recruitment tournament with Neo Taekwondo, losing the chance to promote the martial art in the process.

Immediately after, Lee Myeong-Jeong’s nephew was defeated by the martial dao champion, Qin Fen, at the recruitment tournament.

Within less than half a year afterward, more news came out. Qin Fen, who had just entered the Sacred Martial Hall, had once again mercilessly defeated the Neo Taekwondo martial artists who were harassing him, killing two of Bae’s disciples in the process.

In just over a year, more than half of the disciples of Neo Taekwondo whom Bae Seong-Joon wholeheartedly trained were killed by Qin Fen. Lee Myeong-Jeong had long heard of the Korean Martial God’s anger. If not for Qin Fen hiding in the Sacred Martial Hall, Bae Seong-Joon would’ve personally killed Qin Fen a long time ago.

Lee Myeong-Jeong always thought that Qin Fen, who was rumored to be the center of attention at the Sacred Martial Hall, was likely to be advertised by the army when he left the Sacred Martial Hall and returned to the army. Lee Myeong-Jeong planned to seek out Bae Seong-Joon at that time.

Unexpectedly, Qin Fen had low-key left the Sacred Martial Hall and completed a huge military feat at lightning speed.

Lee Myeong-Jeong suspected that if this continues, Qin Fen might become a master of martial dao one day. Qin Fen would then continuously rise through the ranks of the military, making it harder to kill him.

Lee Myeong-Jeong took the phone on the desktop and pressed a few keys. The Korean Martial God had great, constant connections with the Korean military. As one of the core members of the State of Korea military, how could Lee Myeong-Jeong not know of the Korean Martial God’s number?

“Master Bae? Hello, I am Lee Myeong-Jeong. I disturb you today to tell you that Qin Fen will return to Zhongzhou later…”

Bang!

Lee Myeong-Jeong immediately stretched his phone away from his ear. Yet, he could still hear the angry slam clearly from the phone.

Judging from the sound, Lee Myeong-Jeong was able to deduce that the angry Bae Seong-Joon had just slammed a wall into ruins with his palms.

Very good! Lee Myeong-Jeong placed the phone back to his ear slowly. He was really satisfied with Bae Seong-Joon’s reaction! The wrath of the Martial God of the State of Korea signified the end of Qin Fen.

“Where is he?”

At the end of the phone, there was an effort made to suppress anger, which led to an unusually icy voice. Even across the telephone, Lee Myeong-Jeong felt his scalp contracting in fear. The unbearable rage of a martial dao master can be felt even across the phone.

“Master Bae, if you are interested in seeing the young martial artist whose name was repeatedly mentioned, how about…” Lee Myeong-Jeong smiled like a blooming flower, “I will pick you up right now to meet him?”

“Ok, I will wait for you!”

Bang! Lee Myeong-Jeong heard the phone being crushed before he heard the “busy” tone from the phone. The Korean Martial God had made their phone the first victim of his anger.

“Boys! Get me the fastest vertical landing aircraft.” Lee Myeong-Jeong sorted out his uniforms, his happiness could be felt from his majestic pace.

With the Martial God of the State of Korea, Bae Seong-Joon, by his side, Lee Myeong-Jeong didn’t need to be afraid of appearing in front of the revenge-seeking Qin Fen this time.

He could be sure that this time, the young man’s days were numbered. Even if Qin Fen knew that the previous plots were orchestrated by Lee Myeong-Jeong, he couldn’t retaliate as the Martial God of the State of Korea would end his life.