Good News

After finishing work, Lin Sheng naturally had no intention of lingering.

In this reeking slaughterhouse, no normal person would want to stay.

Tremor Mountain Tower provided these lowest-ranking workers with two meals a day, at noon and in the evening.

Of course, the meals were nothing more than coarse-flour buns and a bowl of vegetable soup for each person.

Lin Sheng took his two coarse-flour buns and vegetable soup from the serving window, then squatted in a corner of the courtyard outside the dining hall and chewed slowly.

For the amount of work they did in a day, this little food was naturally not enough.

But in this ancient society with insufficient productive power, having food like this was already considered rather good.

The slaughterhouse workers all squatted in twos and threes by the walls like Lin Sheng did, though their table manners were far more savage than his.

The older workers naturally formed their own small clique.

At that moment, several older skinners ate while chatting excitedly, apparently discussing a topic that interested them greatly.

"Brothers, have you heard the recent news from Tremor Mountain Tower?"

"You mean the beast tide at Yangping Mountain!?"

"That's it. But this beast tide at Yangping Mountain is unlike those in previous years."

"A few days ago, when I went to deliver wine to Manager Wang, I saw someone from Beast Hunter Hall come looking for him. I heard with my own ears that Beast Hunter Hall was short-handed and wanted to transfer a batch of workers from the various halls."

"Beast Hunter Hall! If that's true, then we might be able to successfully escape the slaughterhouse... No wonder Manager Wang said we were in luck."

The old hands of the slaughterhouse were not speaking loudly, but there were quite a few workers in the courtyard, and many of them caught bits and pieces of the conversation.

Lin Sheng was among them.

"Beast Hunter Hall."

Lin Sheng swallowed a mouthful of vegetable soup, his eyes lighting up as he continued chewing.

Although he had only been at Tremor Mountain Tower for two months, he already understood its structure quite clearly.

Among Tremor Mountain Tower's many halls, the slaughterhouse where he worked naturally ranked among the lowest.

Beast Hunter Hall, however, was entirely different. It was Tremor Mountain Tower's elite hall, its genuine front line.

Tremor Mountain Tower—its name contained the words "mountain tower," so naturally it could not be separated from the mountains.

The main reason for its name was that it had nearly monopolized the beast-meat trade throughout Lin'an County.

Aside from the livestock it raised under its own command, most of its beast meat came from Yangping Mountain.

Beast Hunter Hall's duty was to hunt all kinds of ferocious beasts in Yangping Mountain.

In this world, leaving aside everything else, the various ferocious beasts were exceptionally savage and violent.

Neither their size nor their imposing presence could compare to the wild beasts of Blue Star in his previous life.

During Lin Sheng's two months at Tremor Mountain Tower, the things that passed through his hands each day were mostly harmless livestock such as rock sheep and native chickens.

But he had occasionally seen several ferocious beasts from afar.

Even an ordinary mountain wolf was as large as a calf, something no ordinary person could handle.

Thus, Beast Hunter Hall could be said to rank near the top among Tremor Mountain Tower's halls in terms of danger.

But the greater the risk, the greater the reward.

The benefits at Beast Hunter Hall could definitely be considered among the best in all of Tremor Mountain Tower.

It was unknown how much better than the slaughterhouse where he worked.

Besides that, there was an even more important point: if he could successfully join Beast Hunter Hall, he would be able to come into contact with martial arts.

In an ancient world like this, martial arts were the only way out.

The martial arts here were not the flashy tricks used by swindlers in his previous life, but true martial arts.

Splitting tombstones and shattering rocks would be no trouble at all.

Therefore, being able to join Beast Hunter Hall was undoubtedly the best chance for all the skinners to change their fates.

"Martial arts!!"

Lin Sheng murmured inwardly, his gaze growing feverish.

I hope this news is true!

After eating, Lin Sheng left the skinning workshop and headed home.

Lin'an County, western district, Crock Street.

He strolled along the dirt-and-stone road. The street was crowded with people, most of them poor folk dressed in coarse hemp clothes.

As the county town's slum, it was naturally home to the lowest class in the city.

All manner of strange foul smells permeated the air.

Lin Sheng passed through them without changing expression. After more than two months, he had long since grown used to and accepted this place.

Stepping over a dark pile of dog shit on the ground, Lin Sheng turned into a narrow alley off the street. He stopped before a shabby little courtyard and knocked softly on the door.

"Who is it?"

Very soon, a wary voice called out from inside.

"I'm back."

Lin Sheng answered.

At the sound of Lin Sheng's voice, the bolt was drawn back.

With a creak, the crude door opened.

It revealed the smiling face of a rough-looking middle-aged woman.

"A-Sheng, you're back!"

The middle-aged woman before him was none other than the previous owner's mother, Xie Guilan.

"Yes, mother. I bought some coarse rice on the street. Go cook it for dinner."

Lin Sheng smiled as well and handed over the two jin of coarse rice he had bought on the street.

"You child, why are you wasting money again? Two jin of coarse rice costs at least five large coins. You don't need to worry about things at home. You're always spending so freely—how will you save enough money to marry a wife in the future?"

Looking at the bag of coarse rice Lin Sheng handed her, Xie Guilan frowned and scolded him somewhat, though she still reached out and accepted it.

"Forget it. Tomorrow, I'll grind this coarse rice into flour, then dig up some wild vegetables outside the city and make flour cakes. That'll be enough for your father, your brother, and me to eat for another meal or two."

Lin Sheng did not respond. He had long grown accustomed to the poverty of the previous owner's family. In truth, none of the households living on Crock Street were much better off.

Still, at least they lived in the city. Though it was a slum, it was still far better than the little villages outside the county town. At the very least, people here generally would not starve to death.

Passing through the rundown courtyard and entering the room, Lin Sheng saw a gaunt middle-aged man struggling to sit up from the dark bed.

The man's skin was dark. Though he was only middle-aged, his face was already covered in wrinkles.

"A-Sheng, the family doesn't need your support yet. If you have spare money, buy yourself some pork to nourish your body. This old man knows the work in the slaughterhouse is hard. You're still young, so don't wear yourself out."

"I understand, father."

Lin Sheng nodded and stepped forward to help the man up.

The middle-aged man was called Lin Hong, the previous owner's father.

He had originally been a tenant farmer for the wealthy Sun family of Lin'an County and was skilled at farming. But an accident had happened several years ago: he encountered a mountain wolf in the fields. Though he had luckily kept his life, his legs could no longer walk. In daily life, he could only rely on crutches and sell some miscellaneous goods on the street.

But on a poor street like Crock Street, all profitable trades had long been claimed by others. His business selling miscellaneous goods could only be described as dismal.

For a poor family, what it meant to lose a strong laborer needed no explanation.

Fortunately, his two sons had grown up, allowing the Lin family to continue living on Crock Street.

After chatting with the two elders for a while, Lin Sheng went to bed early.

This was not his previous life. There were no entertainment activities, and after a day of hard work, sleepiness naturally came over him the moment he lay down.

The work at the slaughterhouse was grueling. If he did not rest well, the next day would be exceptionally hard to endure.