Yong City, Shuofang Commandery.
Great Qin's northern frontier, the absolute front line defending against the Xiongnu.
At the foot of the Great Wall, a border town named Beacon Tower was enveloped year-round by sandstorms and a chilling murderous aura.
West of the town, inside a blacksmith shop wreathed in smoke and fire.
"Cough, cough... cough, cough, cough..."
A violent and suppressed cough came from the inner room, as if the person wanted to cough out her very lungs.
"Ling'er!"
A youth wearing coarse cloth work clothes, his body stained with grease and sweat, abruptly let go of the iron hammer in his hand and rushed inside in large strides.
Behind him, a one-legged old man currently pulling the bellows also stopped his movements, his aged face filled with worry.
On the bed in the inner room, a pale-as-paper young girl was curled into a ball, covering her mouth with an old cloth towel as her frail shoulders violently trembled.
"Brother... I'm fine..."
Seeing the youth enter, the girl forced out a smile, but before she finished speaking, another earth-shattering fit of coughing struck, spots of crimson soaking through the cloth towel.
The youth was named Wei Zhe. He snatched the cloth towel away, and seeing the blood on it, his heart felt like it was being twisted by a knife.
"You still say you're fine! Where's the medicine? Did you drink today's medicine?" Wei Zhe asked anxiously, his voice carrying a trace of unperceivable tremor.
"The medicine... ran out yesterday." The girl's voice was as thin as a mosquito's hum.
Wei Zhe's heart sank heavily.
His name was Wei Zhe. Seventeen years ago, he was abandoned in the snow of Shuofang Commandery, and the master of the blacksmith shop, the one-legged Jiang Bo, picked him up and raised him with his own hands.
The young girl on the bed was named Jiang Ling'er, Jiang Bo's only daughter, two years younger than Wei Zhe. The two were siblings in name, but childhood sweethearts in reality, having long since fallen deeply in love.
Jiang Ling'er had been frail since childhood. After a major illness three years ago, she had developed a lingering illness, requiring a medicinal herb called Purple River Grass year-round to nourish her constitution.
This medicinal herb was only carried by merchants traveling from the south and north, and its price was exorbitant, having nearly exhausted all the savings of the blacksmith shop.
"Brother, don't worry, the caravan will be here in a couple of days, Father... Father will find a way." Jiang Ling'er weakly comforted him, reaching out a chilly little hand as she tried to grab Wei Zhe's hem.
Wei Zhe turned his hand and tightly grasped hers, the warmth of his palm seeming to be the only thing he could offer her at this moment.
He turned his head to look at Jiang Bo, who was leaning on a crutch at the doorway in silent speechlessness. His lips moved, but nothing came out.
A way?
What other way could there be?
Over the past few years, in order to buy medicine for Ling'er, Jiang Bo had already mortgaged half of their ancestral shop. Today, aside from the three of them, the entire blacksmith shop only had that crumbling smelting furnace at the entrance left.
"Zhe'er, come outside."
Jiang Bo spoke hoarsely, turning and walking back to the side of the hearth.
Wei Zhe tucked the blanket in for Jiang Ling'er and spoke softly, "Ling'er, get some good rest, Brother will be right back."
After speaking, he walked out of the inner room.
"Jiang Bo," Wei Zhe said in a low voice.
"Three days from now, a new round of military recruitment begins." Jiang Bo didn't look at him, only staring at the blazing furnace fire as if looking at his own passing past.
"Great Qin Elite Warriors: behead one enemy, rise one rank in nobility, and be granted one qing of farmland and nine mu of homestead. If one unfortunately dies in battle, the consolation money is also enough for Ling'er's medicine for ten years."
The old man's voice was very calm, yet it struck Wei Zhe's heart like a heavy hammer.
Jiang Bo had once also been a Great Qin Elite Warrior. In a bloody battle against the Xiongnu, in order to cover his comrades, he had permanently lost a leg, and also lost the opportunity to seek military fame on the battlefield.
"Jiang Bo, you mean..." Wei Zhe's breathing grew rapid.
"My meaning is, this is our only path." Jiang Bo turned his head, that pair of eyes flashing with complex emotions—there was reluctance, there was resoluteness, and even deeper helplessness.
"I watched you grow up, and you're no different from my own biological son. To let you go to that place of nine deaths and a living, I... I can't bear it in my heart. But Ling'er..."
The old man didn't finish his words, but Wei Zhe understood completely.
To become a soldier of Great Qin, trading one's life for money, for a nobility rank, for the hope of Ling'er continuing to live.
I cannot go on like this anymore.
I possess an abundance of strength, yet can only watch helplessly as Ling'er's body crumbles day by day.
Living this life over again, if I cannot even protect the person I want to protect the most, then what meaning is there?
Seventeen years old, precisely the age to enlist.
Enlist in the military, behead enemies and establish merit!
Wei Zhe's gaze changed from confusion to incomparable firmness. He tightly clenched both fists, his knuckles turning white from the force.
He was a time-traveler, his soul coming from a peaceful and safe era. Having arrived in this era for seventeen years, he had long since grown accustomed to the clashing of armor and weapons and human lives being as cheap as grass.
He was clearer than anyone that in this chaotic era, the identity of a commoner was so powerless. If he wanted to get ahead and protect the people he cherished, his only choice was to pick up swords and step onto that road of blood and fire.
"Jiang Bo, I understand."
Wei Zhe took a deep breath and nodded heavily toward the old man. "I'll go!"
At the very moment he made up his mind.
"Clang."
A crisp sound, resembling the striking of iron tools, abruptly rang out in his mind.
At the instant Wei Zhe made up his mind to enlist in the military in exchange for fame and fortune.
A cold and mechanical electronic voice echoed in his mind.
"Host's strong will detected. Triggered Hundred Refinements to Steel System activation quest: Join the border army. Complete the quest, and the system will be officially activated, unlocking the beginner gift package."
"Does the host accept the quest?"
"System?"
Wei Zhe was stunned at first, and then a wave of wild joy surged into his heart.
As a time-traveler, how could he not know what a system was! This was the golden finger every time-traveler dreamed of!
He had originally thought he would struggle in mediocrity just like countless ordinary people of this era; he hadn't expected that at his most desperate moment, a turning point had arrived.
He was well-versed in history, knowing this was an era both magnificent and exceptionally cruel. Qin King Ying Zheng swept across the six states, struck northward against the Xiongnu, and campaigned southward against the Hundred Yue—what heroic and grand strategies those were.
He also yearned to witness with his own eyes that monarch whom later generations called the "through-the-ages First Emperor," yearned to leave his own name within this sweeping trend of the world.
Yet in the past, to take care of Jiang Bo and Ling'er, he could only bury this yearning deep in his heart, dutifully remaining a blacksmith apprentice.
Yet now, Ling'er's illness and Jiang Bo's helplessness had driven him to a dead end.
And the appearance of the system was undoubtedly a ray of dawn at the end of the dead end!
Enlisting in the military was originally a gamble of nine deaths and one life, but with the system, this turned into a heavenly boulevard!
"Accept the quest!"
Wei Zhe roared without the slightest hesitation in his heart.
"Quest accepted successfully. Reward issued in advance."
"Congratulations, host. System officially activated."
"Beginner gift package being issued..."
A succession of prompt sounds made Wei Zhe extremely excited.
"Congratulations to the host for obtaining digitized physique, able to continuously grow stronger through tempering oneself and forging divine weapons."
"Congratulations to the host for obtaining Profound Rank Forging Diagram: Hundred Battle Blade."
"Congratulations to the host for obtaining Profound Rank hammer technique Thousand Refinement Force."
"Congratulations to the host for obtaining one martial arts enlightenment opportunity."
"Does the host wish to claim the gift package immediately?"
"Martial arts?"
Wei Zhe was stunned once again.
He had always thought this world was merely a pure ancient battlefield where generals were powerful, relying on through-a-hundred-battles martial arts and innate divine strength to fight a hundred men single-handedly, but he had never heard of the existence of such supernatural power as "martial arts."
Could it be that this world was even more profound than he had imagined?
Following the brief stupefaction was an even more surging wild joy.
He was going to rise up!
He might become the only person in this world to step onto the path of cultivation!
Moreover, this system was named "Hundred Refinements to Steel"—it could not only temper oneself, but also forge divine weapons. Tempering should be getting stronger through killing enemies; forging was even more of his old trade as a blacksmith apprentice!
This was simply a system tailor-made for him!
"Claim the rewards!" Wei Zhe suppressed his inner excitement and silently chanted in his heart.
He knew that starting from today, his life would completely change.
"Host command confirmed."
"Rewards issued."
"Digitized physique has been activated. The host can obtain 'Tempering Points' through killing enemies, used to improve oneself; through collecting materials and 'Tempering Points', one can forge weapons."
"Martial arts enlightenment opportunity in use..."
The instant the system prompt sound fell, Wei Zhe felt a warm current pour in from the top of his head, instantly flowing through all his limbs and bones.
His entire person felt as if it were soaking in a warm medicinal bath, incomparably comfortable.
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