I’m Someone Else

Chapter 346

Molly felt as if her heart had been stabbed with a knife, causing excruciating pain and a profound sense of discomfort.

“No wonder I haven’t seen Thomas and Miss Pearson these past few days. It seems like they’ve been spending time together.”

Instead of going directly to the office, she ran to the women’s restroom to wipe away her tears in secret. Even though she was in immense pain, she didn’t want Thomas and Olivia to notice anything unusual about her.

After her emotions gradually stabilized, she took a deep breath before making her way to the office.

“Thomas, why are you smoking here early in the morning instead of entering the office?”

At the entrance of the office, Molly bumped into Thomas, who was leaning against the corridor window and smoking. She put on a teasing expression and made a joke at his expense.

He smiled and replied, “You should go about your business. I’ll enjoy the breeze for a while.”

She didn’t say anything further and walked into the office.

Thomas fell into contemplation by the window, feeling somewhat overwhelmed. A day and a night had passed, and he still hadn’t come up with a solution. Could it be that he was truly powerless?

Among the ancient books left by the old man, there wasn’t a single method to help him overcome this predicament! Or had he missed something?

No. He would take another look at those ancient books later. Perhaps he could find something useful.

With that in mind, he entered the office, informed Olivia, and drove back to the Northpine Villa.

He found the luggage he had brought back when he retired from the army under his bed. The luggage was originally left at his rental house and didn’t contain clothes or personal items, but was filled with ancient books—the books that the old man had given him to ‘pass time’ in the military.

Back then, in order to move the SR-25 rifle, Thomas brought the luggage from the rental house. It saved him a lot of trouble now.

He opened the luggage and searched through it one by one. He had spent nearly eight years reading almost all the books inside. Of course, he didn’t have the extraordinary ability to fully comprehend their mysteries, but he had a rough impression of the content of each book and the effects of each technique. Every time he pulled out a book, he would recall it in his mind.

An hour passed, and he had gone through all the books in the box. Looking at the empty luggage, he smiled bitterly and shook his head. “Sigh… It seems like fate is against me.”

He felt like a dead ember at this moment and had no desire to deal with the scattered books on the floor. He pressed his hand against the luggage as he intended to stand up and lie down on the bed for a while.

Hmm?

Thomas keenly sensed that something was amiss. He glanced at the spot where his hand was pressing. It happened to be the hidden compartment of the luggage, and there seemed to be something protruding. It was hard and slightly rough to the touch.

“What’s this?”

This was his own luggage, which had accompanied him for eight years no matter where he went. He was very familiar with it, yet he couldn’t remember what he had put in the hidden compartment.

Zip!

With a sense of doubt, Thomas opened the hidden compartment.

At that moment, he was unaware that what he was unzipping wasn’t just the hidden compartment of his luggage but also the gateway to a new world!

A yellowed book appeared before his eyes. He furrowed his brows because he had never seen this book before.

The book had no title, and its entire content was written in runic alphabet. Fortunately, he had been forced to learn it when he was young. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to understand it. The first three pages of the book contained the division and ranking of ancient martial arts in the Droycore. Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.

Thomas squinted his eyes. He had a premonition that the solution to his current problem might be in this book.

Ancient martial arts were divided into internal and external martial arts. External martial arts, which were commonly seen in urban areas, focused on physical strength and fitness. On the other hand, internal martial arts were different. They cultivated internal energy stored in the elixir field and would be released during combat. If the ceiling of external martial arts was the human body’s limits, then internal martial arts were not constrained by the limits of the human body when cultivated to a certain level. Throughout history, external martial arts had been regarded as the lowest level of martial arts and looked down upon by martial artists.

However, Droycore’s history was incredibly ancient, spanning five thousand years filled with countless changes and unexpected events. Practitioners of internal martial arts had gradually hidden themselves away, so people in the city had little understanding of internal martial arts.

“Interesting!” Thomas’ interest was piqued by the contents of the book, and he continued reading.

According to the strength of martial practitioners, it was divided into four levels—Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow. Each level was further divided into nine grades, with each grade symbolized by 1300 pounds of power! The ninth grade of the Yellow level represented 12,000 pounds of power!

Hiss!

Thomos gosped. According to this logic, if he cultivoted internol mortiol orts to Heoven Tier Nine, wouldn’t he possess 46,800 pounds of power? How terrifying would thot be?

He continued flipping through the poges, ond when he reoched the content on the next poge, his eyes widened with excitement.

It turned out to be o cultivotion method for internol mortiol orts! Thomos hod olwoys relied on his formidoble combot power without the support of internol energy. This led to his current predicoment, where his body wos not in its peok stote, resulting in o decline in his strength. However, if he were to cultivote internol mortiol orts, wouldn’t he be oble to breok free from this limitotion? Could he elevote his strength to o whole new level? With thot, whot threot would those six old monsters pose to him?

He quickly skimmed through the entire nomeless book. This cultivotion method hod o totol of nine levels, ond ot the end of the book, there wos o poge written in red, indicoting o forbidden technique.

This forbidden technique ollowed one to increose their strength ot the cost of shortening their lifespon. However, he merely glonced ot it before ignoring it.

His mindset hod olreody chonged. He wonted to survive, ond it wos better to ovoid using forbidden techniques unless necessory.

After smoking three cigorettes in o row, Thomos finolly colmed himself down. He sot cross-legged on the ground ond begon ottempting to cultivote the Level 1 Technique occording to the instructions in the nomeless book.

“Qi sinks into the elixir field, penetrotes through the suprosternol notch, posses through the middle of the sternum, ond rushes into the void; it disperses through the eight meridions, nourishes the six viscero…”

He closed his eyes tightly while focusing oll his ottention on controlling the energy within his body.

Buzz!

A borely oudible sound seemed to echo in his eors, occomponied by on unprecedented sense of comfort. Then, the moss of energy he hod discovered in his obdomen before begon to slowly rotote. It wos stronge.

Whot exoctly is it? It hos been quietly existing in me for so long, so why is it suddenly becoming restless todoy?

Could it be…

Hiss!

Thomas gasped. According to this logic, if he cultivated internal martial arts to Heaven Tier Nine, wouldn’t he possess 46,800 pounds of power? How terrifying would that be?

He continued flipping through the pages, and when he reached the content on the next page, his eyes widened with excitement.

It turned out to be a cultivation method for internal martial arts! Thomas had always relied on his formidable combat power without the support of internal energy. This led to his current predicament, where his body was not in its peak state, resulting in a decline in his strength. However, if he were to cultivate internal martial arts, wouldn’t he be able to break free from this limitation? Could he elevate his strength to a whole new level? With that, what threat would those six old monsters pose to him?

He quickly skimmed through the entire nameless book. This cultivation method had a total of nine levels, and at the end of the book, there was a page written in red, indicating a forbidden technique.

This forbidden technique allowed one to increase their strength at the cost of shortening their lifespan. However, he merely glanced at it before ignoring it.

His mindset had already changed. He wanted to survive, and it was better to avoid using forbidden techniques unless necessary.

After smoking three cigarettes in a row, Thomas finally calmed himself down. He sat cross-legged on the ground and began attempting to cultivate the Level 1 Technique according to the instructions in the nameless book.

“Qi sinks into the elixir field, penetrates through the suprasternal notch, passes through the middle of the sternum, and rushes into the void; it disperses through the eight meridians, nourishes the six viscera…”

He closed his eyes tightly while focusing all his attention on controlling the energy within his body.

Buzz!

A barely audible sound seemed to echo in his ears, accompanied by an unprecedented sense of comfort. Then, the mass of energy he had discovered in his abdomen before began to slowly rotate. It was strange.

What exactly is it? It has been quietly existing in me for so long, so why is it suddenly becoming restless today?

Could it be…