Subsistence Texts

The seasons changed and the searing summer heat was replaced by cold winter mornings and freezing winter nights. Five months went by in the blink of an eye.

Hao Tian kept himself busy creating a written record of everything he could remember about the 'Body enhancements techniques' of the Durand Empire and other combat and battle skills.

Altogether there were close to 115 complete skills that he managed to recall.

He had filled out two entire school notebooks with just those but he didn't stop there and continued to write down every major world event that would happen between now and the final days, anything that could be remotely significant to his plans.

Hao Tian leaned back against the chair stretching his arms and shoulders, smiling as he looked at the fourth and the last book in front of him which was a small diary containing only names.

There were a few hundred names each with some information about where the person was born, came from, or was found.

These people were the ones that could be said to shine the brightest in his eyes. A few decades after leaving earth Hao Tian researched what exactly happened and how it led to their dystopian future.

And as a result, he found these names. Each one of these individuals would play a part that would lead to the eventual downfall of humanity on earth. Some of them were straight-up villainous in nature and did very little to hide their agendas.

Others either tried to fix things with some of them even attempting to fight back near the end, although it was far too late to achieve anything.

There was of course a lot of misinformation mixed in there because most of the records were secondhand accounts from other people. Not to mention there were many things left out on purpose.

For example, when the Durand Empire arrived in our Solar system, there were four groups of people that reached out to them individually. All the world governments were grouped together as just one such group.

Hao Tian had no idea who the other three groups were. But one thing that was for certain was they must have been powerful if the Empire choose to listen and agree to their demands even when they weren't the heads of nations.

"Ahh~, I'm done FINALLY! But there is so much to do..."

The brief moment of bliss quickly faded away when he saw all the books on his table.

"No time like the present, eh?" he told himself while grabbing the Body Enhancement Techniques.

There was a fair bit of variety in each technique and they were divided according to their uses. Each one had a different requirement with many of them needing extra materials to bring about any real results.

For example, one of the most basic ones was one called 'Subsistence Texts'. It didn't increase the attack or defense power but instead allowed the user to absorb up to 40-60% of the nutrients and energy from whatever they consumed.

He had learned this skill before since oftentimes he would be in battle for many tens of hours with limited rations and every little morsel of cold, dehydrated processed "food" counted.

There was a time when he fought for 34 hours straight on just one energy bar only because of this skill.

"I should start with something familiar then," he chose it as the first skill.

The texts required a couple of minor things so Hao Tian first went to Cui Lei's room to 'borrow' some sewing needles and then went towards the kitchen which was shared with the rest of the families and stole a small bottle of milk that was saved for his cousins.

In the past he never had the opportunity to drink or eat fresh nourishing foods that could help him grow. Even at 20 years of age Hao Tian looked to be in his early teens because of his emaciated, malnourished body.

He was bullied more than a few times because of that with no other recourse than to turn the other cheek.

He brought the things back to his room without being seen and locked the door.

According to the Subsistence Texts Hao Tian sat down cross-legged. The texts did not specify which position to sit in, only to be comfortable.

"Alright, now for the tricky part!"

He took out the needles and held them over a lit candle to 'sterilize' them as much as possible. A total of 18 needles were needed.

To be on the safe side there had to be at least one other person present that should have helped him do this but right now that wasn't going to happen. And since Hao Tian had helped many others soldiers do this before, he was more than a little familiar with the process.

One needle went into each side of the forehead almost a centimeter deep, two below each of the ears. All the remaining ones were inserted in various spots on his torse one by one until Hao Tian looked like a balding porcupine.

The pain was obviously quite intense but for someone like him that had been through so much, it wasn't even enough to make him flinch, at least not yet.

After putting in the last needle Hao Tian let out a deep breath. He flipped the milk bottle open and drank a few mouthfuls.

The cold milk slowly dripped down his gullet and just as he had expected the pain started increasing in intensity until it was more than five times the original amount.

His body temperature started to increase and red and purple veins showed themselves under his skin.

Hao Tian grit his teeth while a torrent of thick beads of sweat flowed down his forehead and back.

In total, this procedure had to be done for 14 days straight before every single meal. It would slowly change the anatomy of his body, redirecting more blood flow towards his stomach and abdomen.

The pain lasted for around 20 minutes.

Hao Tian took out the needles with trembling hands and instantly fall on his back, letting out short quick breaths.

"Was the pain...always this bad...?"

He could have sworn it didn't feel this painful when he did it before.

Exhausted both mentally and physically he fell asleep in less than a minute, woken up several hours later by the loud banging on the door.

*Bang*Bang*

"Hao Tian! Open the door now! What are you doing in there?!" Cui Lei shouted from the other side.

Hao Tian got up with some effort, feeling an ache throughout his body.

"WHAT WHAT?! Can't a guy have some privacy?!" he yelled back and opened the door. Cui Lei was ready to land a few swift slaps but upon seeing his condition the blood drained from her face.

"Oh my god, what happened to you?!" she grabbed him by the shoulders, carefully examining his body.

Confused, Hao Tian looked down and saw giant red spots in every place the needles were inserted. And on each spot was a small mass of solidified black goo.

He grabbed and peeled one of them, crushing it to dust in between his fingers.

'Are these the....impurities that were in my body?'

"Stay here! I'll go tell your uncle to bring the car around, you're going to the hospital!" Cui Lei shouted at his face and ran off before he even had the time to come up with an excuse.

"I heard about some techniques used for eliminating impurities from the body but all of those were classified. And I have used the 'Subsistence Texts' before but this never happened...what changed?"

Cui Lei returned, dragging Hao Tian along with her to the hospital despite his vehement opposition. The doctor ran some extremely basic tests like checking his vitals, as many as they could with their limited resources and thankfully found nothing out ordinary.

Hao Tian explained that he was out playing in the mud and some kind of ant bit him at which point the old doctor swiftly concluded his examination saying that they were just a few harmless insect bites and he would be okay soon enough.

Hao Tian thanked the heavens for the doctor's incompetency and lack of professionalism. If he told them to get any x-rays or blood tests done Hao Tian might really have been in danger since it would appear there was abnormality within his body.