Chapter 5: Change of Name

Tao Ran quickly collected his thoughts and once again focused his attention on the rather handsome face in the mirror.

Half-breeds in this world were usually very beautiful, and Li Mochen's parents were both rare beauties. So the original owner of this body naturally had a fresh, handsome, and romantic appearance, far superior to Tao Ran's original physique.

The only fly in the ointment was that this guy's complexion was slightly pale, as if he were somewhat malnourished.

At this moment, Tao Ran's eyes were vacant. He dipped his finger in water and wrote the three characters 'Li Mochen' on the mirror, then fell silent for a while.

He thought that no matter what had happened before, no matter how things were in the Primordial Dome Realm, in this world he could only be called Li Mochen. From now on, the name Tao Ran would be hidden only in his memory.

This was not only to better merge with Li Mochen's remnant soul and quickly achieve a seamless integration with this body, but also to establish a foothold in this world.

When Tao Ran's divine soul entered this body, he sensed the 'rejection' and 'squeezing' of this world toward him. For this reason, he had originally chosen fusion rather than the simpler 'devouring' or 'refining'.

But this method could only provide temporary relief. Until he and Li Mochen's remnant soul truly became one, indistinguishable from each other, he would still be an outsider in this realm.

Moreover, the many cultivators of this world were also worthy of Tao Ran's caution.

According to the original owner's memory, the Mahayana stage Tao Ran had reached in the Primordial Dome Realm was only equivalent to the 'Legendary' stage in the West of this world and the 'Lianxu' stage in the Eastern cultivation world.

It was hard to imagine that this world had so many powerful beings surpassing him!

His honorific in the Primordial Dome Realm was 'Divine Thunder Infinite Purple Void Immortal King', but that was merely a title conferred by the Langya Heavenly Dynasty, a name without substance. However, in this world, there truly existed a King of Immortals and a Lord of Gods.

Tao Ran guessed that outsiders like him were probably not welcomed by the cultivators of this world, so he needed to be restrained in daily life to avoid revealing any anomalies.

To avoid exposing flaws, he had to start with small matters and never be careless in 'self-perception'.

Thinking this way, he was indeed beset with troubles both internally and externally, making every step difficult.

'—Li Mochen, Andre Li Wiltenstein? Alright, happy new life.'

After sighing in an American tone, Li Mochen began to brush his teeth and wash his face. Having lost his Mahayana-stage physical body, he no longer had that pure and crystalline form; his face would get a little oily if not washed for a day.

After scrubbing himself clean, Li Mochen came out to carefully examine his dwelling.

The room was small, dim, cold, and damp. The walls were mottled and peeling from years of disrepair, and the room was filled with a musty smell.

From this dwelling alone, it was clear that the previous owner of this body had been living in extreme poverty.

This matched the situation in Li Mochen's memory: two months after the incident, the original owner could no longer afford the mortgage on the house his parents had bought. However, according to current federal law, when the bank repossessed the property, it also rented him this room as a shelter for one year.

But Li Mochen's character seemed to be quite diligent; every corner of the room was spotless, and the bedding on the bed was clean and odorless.

However, the refrigerator was completely empty, not even a breadcrumb. Before he had reincarnated into this body, the original owner had already consumed all the food supplies.

Li Mochen rubbed his growling stomach, a helpless expression appearing on his face again.

Since he had reached the stage of fasting, able to subsist on air and dew for long periods without eating or drinking, how long had it been since he last experienced this feeling of hunger?

But there was no help for it; this body was only a third-level magic swordsman, far from the fasting stage. Moreover, the cultivation system in America had no concept of fasting, nor did the Eastern civilization, which was somewhat similar to the Primordial Dome Realm.

People here were very capable eaters, believing that the more and better one ate, the faster one's strength grew and the stronger one's physical body became.

This was probably due to the difference in environment. The Primordial Dome Realm was resource-poor and spiritual energy was weak, so cultivators emphasized 'harmonizing virtue with heaven and earth, and brightness with the sun and moon'. Not only did they need to use as little spiritual energy as possible during cultivation, but they also had to protect natural treasures and rare beasts, avoiding excessive harvesting and slaughter.

In the terms of this world, it meant integrating with nature, protecting nature, and paying attention to environmental protection during cultivation to avoid waste.

But in the original owner's world, both matter and spiritual energy were so abundant as to be unbelievable.

—At least that was how it seemed to him. All the cultivation systems in the original owner's memory would likely be considered demonic if placed in the Primordial Dome Realm.

Li Mochen had no qualms about this, nor did he feel he had the standing to despise or criticize the cultivators of this world.

Different environments led to different perspectives on things. Besides, the people of this world had already realized this problem.

In short, he was prepared to do as the Romans do. The various rare treasures and miraculous elixirs of this world could help him recover his strength as quickly as possible.

But the urgent task at hand was still to fill his stomach first.

So Li Mochen, following his memory, moved aside a corner of a desk in the corner, revealing a hidden shallow pit underneath. Inside was a pile of banknotes of various denominations.

Li Mochen counted them; there were a total of five hundred and sixty gold shields. That was all the original owner's property. According to current prices in America, this could probably sustain him for a month. He really was quite poor—

Just then, he heard a 'thump thump' knock at the door, and a male voice came from outside: 'A Mo, have you slept enough? We need to go to work.'

After a night's interval, Li Mochen didn't react immediately. It took him twenty seconds to realize that the visitor outside was calling him.

Coming to his senses, he quickly took one bill from the stack of money in his hand and put it in his pocket. He rolled up the rest and prepared to stuff it back under the desk corner.

But then he frowned slightly, feeling that this way of hiding money was not very appropriate.

Li Mochen first looked around carefully, then kicked off, leaping lightly like a swallow along the wall, and placed the roll of money on top of the ceiling, behind the cover of the fluorescent light.

According to the original owner's memory, public security in the American Federation was polarized.

In the wealthy district where Li Mochen had previously lived, thanks to the efforts of many patrol officers, security was quite good. But the neighborhood he now lived in, called 'Wanderer', clearly did not enjoy such treatment.

This was just a slum in southern Atlanta, inhabited by a bunch of poor people, filled with a large number of black people without fixed jobs and illegal immigrants. Next to it was a public housing project built by the government specifically for housing black people. So on both sides of the street, one could see streetwalkers and black people peddling various drugs everywhere; robberies and thefts were common. At any time, a group of people might pull out guns and shoot at each other. Or a group of powerful 'Outlaws' might recklessly use their abilities in the streets.

When the original owner first moved here, he suffered losses twice, and all his belongings were looted.

Li Mochen had learned martial arts from his father since childhood, and his swordsmanship had initially reached a certain level. But faced with a gun pointed at his back, he was powerless.

After that, he learned to be smart: whenever he went out, he would try to bring friends along and never carry more than ten gold shields. The rest of his money was kept at home.

But Li Mochen felt that the original owner's thinking was still too simplistic. For habitual thieves, the money hidden under the desk corner was not safe. To be thorough, he needed to find a more secure method.

Li Mochen had always been a stingy person in the Primordial Dome Realm, and now that he had fallen on hard times, he was even more so.

These five hundred and sixty gold shields were now his entire fortune, the foundation for his survival in this world, and could not be lost.

Just as Li Mochen was carefully examining the fluorescent light above to see if any traces were left, the knocking sounded again with a 'thump thump'.

'Hey! A Mo, Andre, what's taking so long? Are you dead asleep?'