The Great Yan Dynasty, Cyan Yang County.
A bone-chilling wind blew from north to south. It swept across the lands of Qing Province, past the thousand-mile Black Water River, before finally swirling into the heavily fortified Cyan Yang Ancient City.
A few withered leaves danced on the wind, drifting down into a mottled alleyway.
Deep in the alley, a young man in a tattered cotton jacket lay on the ground, curled up like a shrimp, silent and still.
Beside him lay a torn fishing net and an overturned wooden bucket.
Near the bucket was a scattering of dry branches and firewood.
Three withered leaves fluttered down, landing on the young man.
Before they could settle, a sudden gust of wind swept them back into the sky, where they vanished in an instant.
In the cold wind, the young man shivered and slowly regained consciousness.
Cold...
So cold!
The chill seeped into his bones, his limbs feeling as if they were submerged in ice water. Chu Fan couldn't help but pull his tattered jacket tighter around himself.
'What's going on...'
'It's supposed to be summer. Why is it this cold after jumping into a river to save someone?'
The moment he opened his eyes, Chu Fan sensed that something was wrong.
Looking around, he found his surroundings completely unfamiliar. This wasn't the lake where he had dived in to rescue someone.
Even the clothes on his body were completely different.
Suddenly, a flood of memories rushed into his mind.
A summer night run, jumping into the water to save someone. He'd gotten the person to safety, but he himself had sunk into the lake.
A lonely young fisherman in Cyan Yang County, who had finally managed to net a few fresh fish, only to be robbed by thugs at his own doorstep and beaten unconscious...
The memories of two different worlds intertwined, chaotic yet clear.
It left Chu Fan unable to tell what was a dream and what was reality.
Forcing himself to endure the pain and cold, he finished processing the jumbled fragments of memory and let out a sharp, white puff of breath.
He now understood that the scene of him drowning after the rescue was no dream, and this savage, chaotic world before him was not an illusion.
He had really transmigrated...
A blast of cold wind made his teeth chatter.
Chu Fan struggled to his feet, gathered the scattered dry branches and firewood, and tied them into a bundle with a vine.
Then, he picked up the torn fishing net, the wooden bucket, and the bundle of firewood, and limped toward the mouth of the alley.
'It might snow soon...'
'I should get back home first.'
He stepped out of the dark alley and turned right. After no more than twenty paces, an old residence appeared before him.
Though the residence was dilapidated, two stone lions crouched before the gate, their eyes wide with anger, majestic and imposing.
Judging by the grandeur of the entrance alone, one could tell that the Chu Family's ancestors had once been prosperous.
In the Outer City of Cyan Yang Ancient City, a residence of this size was a rare sight.
Unfortunately, the gate was now deserted, and in the vast residence, only Chu Fan remained.
He set down the wooden bucket, pulled a Copper Key from his pocket, and unlocked the heavy, rust-spotted lock.
CREAK...
He pushed open the wooden door and stepped into the courtyard.
There were two trees in the courtyard.
One was a jujube tree, and the other was an osmanthus tree with a peculiar shape.
The osmanthus tree's trunk was gnarled like a dragon, but its canopy spread out like a giant umbrella, leaning entirely to the south. It looked like a gatekeeper with its arms outstretched—extremely strange, and visually striking.
Anyone who entered this courtyard was invariably captivated by the strange tree.
The two trees had weathered countless seasons. Their branches were etched with the marks of time, exuding an air of tranquility and age.
Chu Fan glanced at the osmanthus tree that "pointed" toward his parents' room and couldn't help but smile bitterly to himself.
'In my past life, a tree like this alone could have attracted tourists. I could have just charged admission and lived comfortably.'
'But now, I'm guarding this magnificent sight, yet I have to brave the bitter cold to fish in the river, often going hungry...'
...
Beside the osmanthus tree stood a chipped water vat. A corner of its rim was broken off, but inside, several small grass carp and silver carp were swimming cheerfully.
Chu Fan placed the fishing net and wooden bucket under the osmanthus tree.
He then tossed the bundle of firewood onto the woodpile in the corner.
He chopped a little firewood every day after returning from fishing. Little by little, it had added up, and now the corner of the courtyard was full.
Dragging his exhausted body inside, he collapsed onto the bed and pulled two old, tattered quilts over himself.
The two old, tattered quilts gave off a musty smell.
The dried grass stuffed inside poked out from holes in the fabric, as if silently speaking of the owner's poverty.
One was Chu Fan's own quilt.
The other had belonged to his deceased parents.
The cotton in both quilts had long since matted together, relying entirely on dried grass for stuffing.
Although they were ragged, the two quilts stacked together felt heavy and warm, providing an indescribable sense of security.
The mattress beneath him was also stuffed with dried grass, making it soft and fluffy.
Chu Fan lay quietly with his eyes closed. The cold wind howled outside his window, but his body gradually warmed, granting him a moment of peace.
In his mind, memories from his two lives flashed by one after another, like a revolving lantern.
The despair of sinking into the lake after his strength gave out, in particular, filled him with an unspeakable sense of powerlessness.
'I'm actually a pretty good swimmer.'
'But after running five kilometers, what energy did I have left...?'
As he thought about this, the memories of his past life gradually faded, while the details of his more than ten years in this life grew sharper.
Remembering the humiliation of being beaten up the other day, Chu Fan clenched his fists under the quilts.
RUMBLE~
The thunderous noise from his stomach jolted Chu Fan from his daze.
He grit his teeth against the pain wracking his body and struggled out from under the quilts.
Every movement felt like a thousand steel needles were coursing through him.
The viciousness of Liu Da and his gang of thugs was truly appalling.
Fortunately, they hadn't broken any bones. Otherwise, with the one hundred and twenty copper coins he had painstakingly saved from fishing, he couldn't even have afforded a single dose of medicine.
At that point, his only option would have been to sell his ancestral home to survive.
The thought of Liu Da and the others made Chu Fan's chest burn with rage.
This was the second time he had suffered at their hands.
That gang ran rampant through the neighborhood, stopping at nothing. They had repeatedly come looking for trouble, instigated by the local despot Huang Shouliang, who wanted to forcibly buy his ancestral home—worth over thirty taels—for a mere five taels of silver.
Chu Fan, of course, refused. As a result, on the third day after his refusal, Liu Da and his men cornered him on the street and gave him a savage beating.
Today, they had escalated things, even slamming his head against a wall...
And that slam was what had brought the Chu Fan from another world here.
Chu Fan gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath.
Liu Da's threat as he left still rang in his ears: if he didn't sell the house, the next time they came, he would have to choose between a broken arm and a broken leg!
At the thought of that scene, Chu Fan's whole body tensed.
This was a world where the Martial Dao flourished, and legends spoke of rampaging Demon Fiends and ghosts.
Liu Da and his men had trained at a Martial Arts Hall for half a year. Their skills were far beyond those of an ordinary person. Even if Chu Fan confronted them with a knife, he would be no match for them.
Only by learning martial arts could he escape this bullying and no longer have to endure hunger and cold.
However, the tuition for a Martial Arts Hall was exorbitant; even selling his ancestral home wouldn't be enough to cover it.
His predecessor had once tried to join the Seven Stars Gang, one of the three major gangs in Cyan Yang County. Joining them meant he could learn martial arts without paying tuition.
Unfortunately, he was a bit too old and his aptitude was mediocre. He was kicked out by the Seven Stars Gang members after exchanging just a few words.
Most of the people the Seven Stars Gang recruited were between thirteen and fifteen years old.
And in three months, he would be eighteen.
Unable to learn martial arts, he could only rely on fishing to survive.
If not for the pressure from Huang Shouliang and Liu Da, he could have scraped by just fine by fishing.
This year, the Black Water River had flooded, causing disasters in many parts of Qing Province and filling the lands with refugees.
Every time Chu Fan went out to fish, he would see refugees in rags.
An untold number of them had gathered at the foot of the Cyan Yang Ancient City walls.
In comparison, he still had his ancestral home for shelter and the skill of fishing; he shouldn't have been in such dire straits.
But damn it all, his house had been targeted. The next time Liu Da came, he was afraid he really would end up with broken limbs.
'I can hide for now, but not forever.'
After thinking it over and over, it seemed his only option was to sell the ancestral home to someone else and flee to the South City.
The original owner of this body had been attached to the ancestral home, so whenever a broker came to ask about the price, he had refused outright.
But how could the current Chu Fan be bothered with any of that?
Surviving was what mattered most.
If his limbs were truly broken, in this dog-eat-dog world, it would be a dead end!
TAP, TAP, TAP...
Chu Fan walked slowly through the residence, his footsteps echoing clearly in the empty courtyard.
The vast house was completely empty.
After his parents fell ill and died one after another two years ago, he had sold off nearly every valuable item in the house to make a living.
All that remained was a table, a chair, an iron pot, a net, a bucket, and two water vats... even a mouse would enter, shake its head, and leave.
After a sigh, Chu Fan pulled a dry wheat cake from his robes and tried to break it with force... It wouldn't budge.
This fisherman's hardtack was as tough as iron, made from cooked wheat grains pressed into a dry cake.
A careless bite could probably chip a few teeth.
Even with strong teeth, you had to nibble it into small pieces and wash it down with water just to swallow it.
He took the wheat cake to the kitchen, grabbed a cleaver, and used the handle to smash the cake into pieces in a pot.
He then scooped a small, palm-sized fish from the water vat in the courtyard, scaled and gutted it, chopped it into pieces, and added it to the pot as well.
Just as he was about to start a fire, he saw that there was no firewood by the stove.
Chu Fan went to the woodpile in the courtyard, sat on a small stool, held a log upright with his left hand, and gripped a Firewood Splitter with his right. He aimed at the log and swung down...
"CRACK!"
The blade sank only a third of the way into the wood; the log didn't split.
The pain from the beating by Liu Da and his men flared up instantly. His arms, chest, and legs ached all over!
Chu Fan hissed in a sharp breath, then raised his right hand, bringing both the blade and the log down in a powerful slam!
"CRACK!"
With the sound of splintering wood, the log split in two.
Chu Fan picked up one of the split halves, stood it upright, and swung down on the middle again.
This time it was much easier, and the wood split on impact.
[Firewood Splitting Saber Technique Experience Points +1]
"!!!"
Seeing the information that appeared in his mind, Chu Fan was so overjoyed he almost cried.
'It's here. It's finally here...'
Deep within his consciousness, a massive scroll slowly unfurled.
It was a Map of Mountains and Rivers. Dragon-scale patterns were faintly visible along its edges, and a myriad of phenomena flowed within the image—snowy peaks hung upside down above a sea of clouds, a nine-bend river surged upstream, and golden Runes flickered on the crest of every wave...
In the blank space to the right of the Map of Mountains and Rivers, lines of text appeared.
[Dharma Master: Chu Fan]
[Spiritual Essence: 0]
[Pollution Level: 0/100]
[Skill: Firewood Splitting Saber Technique (Entry-Level) (Trait: None)]
[Progress: (1/100)]
...
Chu Fan stared blankly at the Map of Mountains and Rivers.
He didn't know what the Spiritual Essence and Pollution Level on it were.
But he understood the "Firewood Splitting Saber Technique" below...
He shook his head slightly, then stood another log upright and, just like before, split it open.
[Firewood Splitting Saber Technique Experience Points +1]
On the Map of Mountains and Rivers, the progress for "Firewood Splitting Saber Technique" immediately became 2!
Ignoring his hunger and the pain in his body, Chu Fan immediately began to chop wood with a frenzy...
Sometimes it took three or four chops to gain 1 Experience Point.
Other times, it only took a single chop.
Chop after chop, he swung until the web of his hand grew numb and he was panting for breath.
[Firewood Splitting Saber Technique Experience Points +1]
[Progress: (99/100)]
"Just one more experience point to break through!"
Looking at the numbers on the panel, the exhausted and hungry Chu Fan was instantly re-energized!
He picked up a log, took a deep breath, and swung the splitter down...