The Great Tang's King of Provisions

Chapter 2: Li Xuanba’s Soul Travels to the Tang Dynasty

A poem reads: Stepping out, I behold South Mountain; my gaze stretches endlessly. Its beauty defies description; its verdant splendor fills my eyes. Sometimes white clouds rise, unfurling and rolling freely across the horizon. My heart resonates with this scene, and my inspiration runs deep. Mount Zhongnan features rugged terrain and winding paths, with a thousand peaks forming an emerald screen and deep, serene valleys. It contains five major valleys and over a hundred smaller ones, stretching for hundreds of li. To its right lies a mysterious valley known as Cold Ice Valley. The Cold Ice Valley is shrouded in a haze of white snow, with ice that has remained unfrozen for ten thousand years. Even among the immortals and cultivators of Mount Zhongnan, few venture here more than two or three times in a century, leaving the place utterly silent and desolate. Deep within the Valley of Frozen Ice, in a glacial cave, amidst the bone-chilling cold, a massive, crystal-clear block of black ice—one zhang tall and two zhang long—rested steadily. Enclosed within it was a man clad in golden soft armor. Standing over nine chi tall, with a broad chest and thick shoulders, he possessed a burly build that exuded an air of extraordinary valor. However, his face betrayed an age of only fourteen or fifteen, due to the lingering childishness in his features. This childlike quality was seemingly incongruous with his physique, but paired with the defiant and arrogant expression on the youth’s face, it gave him an air of wild, unrestrained spirit. The youth’s eyes were tightly closed; he did not appear to be frozen within the black ice, but rather seemed to be asleep. Combined with the bone-chilling cold surrounding him, everything appeared remarkably still. However, this stillness was shattered by cracks that suddenly appeared in the black ice. “Crack! A series of cracking sounds rang out as spider-web-like cracks suddenly appeared on the Mystic Ice. The cracks began to form bit by bit around the youth at the very center, eventually spreading across the entire block of Mystic Ice. “Boom!” Amid a thunderous roar, all the Mystic Ice covering the boy’s body suddenly exploded outward, scattering throughout the icy cave and crashing against the surrounding walls with a series of thunderous thuds. As the dark ice scattered, the boy’s eyes snapped open, and at the same moment, a low curse escaped his lips. “Damn it! Are you kidding me? Just a simple hydrogen combustion experiment, and it actually caused a massive explosion? If this gets out, it’ll be a total embarrassment for this young master!” After his outburst, the boy suddenly shuddered, staring in bewilderment at his surroundings. “No way,” he muttered. “After the explosion, shouldn’t they have sent this young master to the hospital? Why the hell did they dump me in this frozen wasteland? Could it be that they couldn’t save me, so they’re leaving me frozen here, waiting for someone from thousands of years in the future to come rescue me?” As he muttered to himself, the boy stood up straight. A rustling sound filled the air as the golden, flexible armor covering his body instantly crumbled into powder, falling onto the dark ice at his feet. It turned out that, having been constantly exposed to the frigid air inside this ice cave for years, the armor had long since fallen into disrepair; the moment the boy moved, it crumbled into sand. “I… Holy crap! That hurts!” Just as the boy was about to curse the armor for turning to sand, a jumble of memories suddenly flooded his mind, causing him to clasp his head in pain and crouch down. The boy’s real name was Li Xuanba. In the 22nd century, he was the most brilliant genius, holding 303 doctoral degrees, over 3,000 master’s degrees, and tens of thousands of patents. The original identity of this body—Li Xuanba, courtesy name Dade—was the third son of Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan, and the younger brother of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, by the same mother, Empress Taimu of the Dou clan. “Holy crap!” Amid the chaotic jumble of memories in this original body, Li Xuanba finally recognized the identity of his namesake from the past. His eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help but blurt out, “Holy crap!” Li Xuanba never imagined that simply conducting a hydrogen combustion experiment would result in his soul being transported—amidst that massive explosion—to the Tang Dynasty over a thousand years ago, where he would become the greatest hero under heaven—the Li Xuanba who shared his name. Or rather, the name he had given himself. After all, he was an orphan who had admired this Li Xuanba’s rebellious spirit, his reputation as the greatest hero of the Sui and Tang dynasties, and his strength that surpassed even the Four Symbols. So, subconsciously, he had given himself the exact same name as this Li Xuanba. Gazing at his fists, as big as clay pots, Li Xuanba cast a glance at the stone wall beside him. Bending his arm like a bow, he unleashed a fist that tore through the air with a thunderous crash, striking the wall. “Boom! Crack! Amid a deafening roar that shook the mountains and the earth, Li Xuanba’s single punch blasted a five-chi-wide crater into the wall, with spider-web-like cracks spreading outward on either side of the crater with a constant crackling sound. Seeing the sheer power of his own punch, Li Xuanba had no time to marvel at it; he clutched his head and ran toward the exit. For, to his shock, his single punch had caused the cave to teeter on the brink of collapse. “Boom! Rumble!” No sooner had Li Xuanba run out of the icy cave than, amid earth-shaking tremors and a deafening roar that sent countless birds and beasts scattering in panic, the icy cave collapsed completely. “Heh, heh, heh, heh! It really does possess the power of the Four Symbols—one punch to bring down a cave. What a rush!” After running out covered in dust and grime, Li Xuanba wiped the flying dust from his face, grinned widely at the cave—from which rocks were still falling—and shook his fists, which were as solid as copper hammers. This body was so much stronger than the one he’d had in his later life—no wonder Li Xuanba could face 1. 85 million troops single-handedly with just his two hammers, and even sweep away a million-strong army! With this immense strength of 50,000 jin, he was practically Sun Wukong wielding the Golden Cudgel! It really was true—a single blow could injure, and a single touch could kill. “Gurgle, gurgle!” Just as Li Xuanba was reveling in his triumph, his stomach suddenly began to rumble. At the same time, a powerful pang of hunger swept over him. “A measure of rice, ten jin of meat.” The moment the hunger set in, these six words immediately popped into Li Xuanba’s mind—for they perfectly described his appetite. “Ding! Hunger detected in the host’s stomach. The Xiaoyao System is activating.” “Activating… 1%, 2%…” A mechanical voice rang in his head, and Li Xuanba felt a sharp sting on the index finger of his left hand. At the same time, a familiar ring appeared on his left index finger—the one he’d worn before conducting his hydrogen combustion experiment, and the only possession he’d had since childhood, dating back to his days as an orphan. Looking at the ring on his left hand, Li Xuanba’s eyes narrowed, and his brain—now endowed with extraordinary intelligence—began racing. Something’s wrong! Very wrong indeed! He had seen this ring twice before—once in his past life, or rather, as Li Xuanba in the 22nd century, when he had also worn a ring. That ring was golden and featured only a dragon’s head. The other ring was the one worn by Li Xuanba during the Tang Dynasty; that ring was silver and featured only the dragon’s body, claws, and tail, with no dragon’s head. But this ring before him was a blend of gold and silver, with a perfect Eastern divine dragon coiled around it—it was actually two rings fused into one. “Could this ring have always been like this? Or was it separated later for some special reason? If so, my own background must be quite extraordinary as well. Could it be that Li Xuanba and I are actually separated in body and soul?” “Ding! The Xiaoyao System has been activated. The Farm branch is now open. Please check it yourself, Host.” Whoosh! After the words “System Activated” rang out, a light screen appeared before Li Xuanba’s eyes, displaying his detailed information. Name: Li Xuanba Gender: Male Age: 16 Status: The World’s Greatest Hero, The World’s Most Brilliant Mind Rank: Level 1 Experience: 0/200 Status: Hungry [Base Attributes]: Strength: 2500+10 (10 points for an average person) Intelligence: 0+2000 (10 for an average person) Leadership: 0+0 (2 points for an average person) Political: 0+0 (2 points for an average person) Active Skill: Scouting Passive Skill: None Life Skills: None Equipment: Carefree Treasure Ring Evaluation: Strong and robust—one man can hold off a million soldiers! Wise as the sea—one man is worth ten thousand! A complete idiot at leading troops, a complete idiot at politics. After reading the system’s evaluation of him, Li Xuanba smugly raised an eyebrow. The base attribute for an average person is 10 points, so his martial prowess is 251 times that of an average person—no wonder legend has it that Li Xuanba is the greatest hero under heaven. “Wisdom as vast as the sea”—that means he’s the wisest person under heaven! But what on earth were those last two evaluations? Are his leadership and political skills even worse than those of an average person? And why are they exactly zero? Um… Li Xuanba blinked, thought about the Li Xuanba of the Tang Dynasty, then thought about the Li Xuanba of later generations—it seemed that neither of them really possessed any leadership or political abilities! The Li Xuanba of the Tang Dynasty relied entirely on himself in battle; his mind was a complete mess, and he had absolutely no political ability. The Li Xuanba from the future was purely a tech geek; if playing video games counted as having a Command stat, then he actually did have one. Unfortunately, when it came to politics, he was, to put it bluntly, a complete political idiot. When you put it that way, if you added the two men’s military and political stats together… ahem… let’s just not go there. However, if the attributes from these two lifetimes can be combined, doesn’t that mean that “myself” and “myself” together are the real me?