Chaotic World

The sky was faintly white, cloudless for miles.

Great Yuan. Yunzhou. Feiye City.

Chirp!

A white-feathered, black-beaked bird flapped its wings across the land, then swooped down.

It passed through the thick, ancient city walls and towers. The bird slowed, landing gently on the tallest dark red tower within the city. It preened its feathers while looking down.

Inside the city, clusters of gray buildings stood with varied towers and platforms.

Pale yellow houses and pavilions rose and fell, and large courtyards with upturned eaves were visible everywhere.

In the very center, a vast, square plaza.

The plaza ground was paved with stone bricks over a meter wide, and it bore large, clear patterns of strange, monstrous beasts.

This was the open space usually used for markets and gatherings.

At this moment, it was packed with a sea of people, crowds of citizens who had come to watch and listen.

In the middle of the plaza, on a simple, elevated wooden stage, a Daoist priest in white robes with crane-like white hair held a whisk and spoke loudly.

"Learned scholars, recite it ten times, and the Five Emperors will guard you, the Three Realms will bow their heads."

"You students, your impure energy has not yet vanished, your bodies have not yet penetrated the true essence."

"Oh! They're here, they're here!!" someone whispered excitedly in the crowd.

Soon, a Daoist priest carrying a wooden basin took out handfuls of copper coins. He walked a short distance, stopped, and then tossed handfuls of copper coins down towards the crowd below the wooden stage.

He didn't throw many, but it still caused the crowd below to bend down and scramble to pick them up.

Wei He squeezed through the crowd, looking from afar at the old Daoist on the high stage preaching scriptures.

He was about 1.7 meters tall, with a faint darkness on his upper lip. His face was young and ordinary. He wore a simple gray linen shirt and black cloth shoes that were still in decent condition.

He gazed at the old Daoist on the wooden stage.

After a brief pause, he turned and headed home, carrying the oil pancake he had just bought.

As he pushed through the crowd, he had to endure various unpleasant smells emanating from his surroundings.

The stench of sweat, the stink of feet, the reek of saliva, and even the faint odor of excrement and urine.

Wei He glanced down at a crushed pile of dog feces on the ground to his right and quickened his pace.

He crossed the plaza, turned into a side street, and then passed through several alleys filled with dust and garbage.

Wei He soon returned to his only home in this city.

His home was in a small alley, one unit in a row of dilapidated single-story houses.

Outside the door hung worn clothes, drying, with subtle color differences indicating they belonged to both men and women.

Wei He moved a rotten wooden stool that was blocking the door slightly and stepped into the dim room.

"Second Sister, I'm back," he called out loudly.

In the corner of the room, a thin woman stood up.

The woman was washing clothes with her sleeves rolled up. Her hands were wet. She pushed her hair back with her forearm and smiled at Wei He.

"Why are you back so early today? Little He."

"My work finished early, so I came back," Wei He explained.

"Is the work of repairing the main house for the Mu family also finished?" She walked to the window, where the faint light fell on her, revealing a slightly delicate face. Although her skin was rough and not in great condition, her figure was shapely and quite beautiful.

Her name was Wei Ying, Wei He's second sister.

Wei He also had an elder sister, Wei Chun, who was currently the pillar of the household, working with the Blackwater Gang in the city.

This was also the key to the Wei family maintaining relative stability in the area.

"It finished a long time ago. Afterward, I helped repair a few guest rooms next door," Wei He replied.

He had been in this world for several months. From initial confusion to calm acceptance.

And then to struggling for a living, it had only taken him three months.

Three months, truly very fast.

The Wei family parents were alive, and he had two sisters.

His eldest sister, Wei Chun, treated him extremely well. His second sister, Wei Ying, also treated him very well. And his parents saved all the good things for him.

Due to the preference for sons over daughters and the family's poverty, which prevented them from practicing birth control, the Wei parents had two daughters before finally giving birth to Wei He, their only son.

This made the entire family place immense importance on Wei He.

"Eldest Sister isn't back yet. Little brother, be careful when you go out recently. When I was out looking for mending work, I heard that someone's home was raided in the middle of the night again," Wei Ying lowered her voice, her eyes showing a hint of nervousness.

"She's not back yet? How much did they take from that family?" Wei He's expression shifted.

"Half of the wages they had just received. The rest wasn't enough for the family to live on afterward. And yesterday, someone was robbed in the Rat Alley across the way. They lost a finger just for resisting a little."

"Another night raid? Weren't those gang members who do the stealing just gone?" Wei He asked.

"I don't know... maybe it's a new group trying to take over territory." Wei Ying sighed, picking up a piece of clothing and starting to mend it with needle and thread.

"No matter what, you're out there, so be patient and careful. If you run into anyone trying to cause trouble, just give them what they want. We'll be here at home, so you won't starve," her second sister, Wei Ying, earnestly instructed.

"I know," Wei He nodded.

His expression was somewhat vacant.

He had arrived in this world, transmigrated and reborn as Wei He, an ordinary and unremarkable young man.

He wasn't completely without a reliance.

It was just that this reliance couldn't be activated at the moment.

It was a bead, or rather, the pattern of a bead, imprinted right in the center of his chest.

From the residual information in his mind, the bead was called the Boundary-Breaking Pearl.

Its ability was also very simple.

It was to break through boundaries.

When it accumulated enough energy, and he himself reached a critical point, it could help him break through a cultivation realm once.

The reason he knew this was because the bead had left a trace of information in his mind during his transmigration, like an implanted memory.

As for whether it was true, that remained to be seen.

After accumulating enough energy, the Boundary-Breaking Pearl would change from a translucent color close to his skin tone to pitch black.

But now, even after more than three months, Wei He still hadn't seen the bead's pattern turn black.

At most, its color had deepened slightly.

That made sense, though. He was barely managing to eat enough to stay full each meal, so there was no way to have any excess energy to accumulate for the bead.

The energy this bead required was mainly obtained through his daily meals, converting excess food into vital energy and absorbing it to slowly accumulate.

Initially, Wei He had held onto hope, but after three months passed, the excitement that hope brought had slowly turned into indifference.

He lay down on the bed with his clothes on for a brief rest. The house only had three beds: one for their parents, one that their eldest and second sisters squeezed into, and one for him.

In a house less than sixty square meters, three beds had to be crammed into one area. The remaining space had to accommodate the stove, table, chairs, and other items, making it extremely cramped.

But this was already considered a middle-income household among the surrounding commoners.

After sleeping for a while, Wei He got up, intending to go out for a stroll.

He had the Boundary-Breaking Pearl and thought he might find some decent martial arts to practice and then use the pearl to break through and improve.

But now, he couldn't find any martial arts at all. His eldest sister, in the Blackwater Gang, could only barely hold her ground by being ruthless, desperate, and vicious in her attacks.

And the Boundary-Breaking Pearl showed no signs of activity either.

Wei He felt helpless, so after finishing work each day, he would wander around the city.

He was small and wore shabby clothes, clearly indicating he had no money. No one bothered him.

When he got up, his second sister Wei Ying was already asleep, slumped over the only table.

Wei He carefully left the house, closing the door behind him. He walked out of the alley to the right of their home.

Cough... cough...

As soon as he exited the alley, he heard a series of coughs coming from the right.

He looked up and saw Sister Zhang, a neighbor who often looked for work with his second sister Wei Ying, covering her mouth with her hand and coughing continuously.

"Xiao He, stand back," someone pulled him aside.

The person pulling him was a short old man holding a pipe.

He wore a sweat-soaked, foul-smelling white jacket. He pulled Wei He out of the alley and a few steps further.

Then, he lowered his voice and said with a grim expression.

"There's a plague in the city recently... I don't know what happened to that Sister Zhang, but she's been coughing since she came back a few days ago. You have to be careful not to catch it. And tell your second sister to be careful too."

"Thank you, Grandpa Wang," Wei He's heart skipped a beat. He had heard about the plague before; it was said to have been spreading in the northern part of the city, but now it had reached his doorstep...

During these three months, he had also tried hard, using his advanced thinking as a transmigrator to help his family solve their economic problems.

Unfortunately, all attempts ended in failure.

No matter what method he tried, in this city, everything inevitably led back to one point.

That was the gangs.

The lower-class districts were divided into territories, with different gangs managing different areas.

Whether it was opening a shop or running a small business, one had to pay money to the gangs. Without a background or backing, if a business did even slightly well, it would be targeted immediately.

The result would be either handing over the business and becoming an employee yourself, or paying a large sum of money each month and only earning a pittance for your labor.

This was a cruel era where commoners were targeted as soon as they had any money.

Wei He didn't linger. He quickly left the alley and, passing through the small streets of the city, soon arrived outside an old, gray courtyard.

The courtyard was filled with the sounds of clear reading. Occasionally, the low voice of an elder scolding could be heard.

At the courtyard's main gate, a plaque hung bearing three large red characters: Scripture Hall.

Wei He followed the wall, found a suitable spot on the ground, and sat down, leaning against the wall to listen quietly.

The Scripture Hall was where families of means in the city sent their children for early education.

It was said that the teachers inside were all scholars who had passed imperial examinations.

"I've basically mastered the characters here. Everywhere, text and knowledge are the most fundamental prerequisites for mastering everything."

Wei He lowered his head and traced characters in the dusty ground with his finger, practicing what he had learned.

"Wei He!" Suddenly, a half-grown child with pigtails tiptoed over and called out to him.

"This is for today." The pigtail child threw a rolled-up paper from their arms into Wei He's embrace.

"Same as always, fifty taels of silver per hundred characters," Wei He said calmly. Silver wasn't worth much these days; if he didn't charge more, he wouldn't be able to save much money.

"Alright, alright! Hurry up, the teacher needs it by tomorrow morning." The pigtail child lowered their voice, fumbled in their arms, and produced a piece of broken silver, tossing it to Wei He before quickly leaving.

This was for writing homework.

Wei He had taken on this task while secretly learning.

The pigtail child was named Li Bian, the only son of a wealthy merchant in Feiye City, and he was quite generous with his spending.

Wei He put away the broken silver and calculated.

"With this, I'll almost have enough for the tuition to learn Huishan Fist from Old Man Zheng."

Since he had a golden finger, he naturally wouldn't give up easily on finding a way to activate it.

The information about the Boundary-Breaking Pearl mentioned it was related to breaking through in cultivation methods. Wei He had tried practicing some ordinary free-fighting techniques under his eldest sister's training, but none of it worked.

Later, he learned from his eldest sister that there were people in this world who mastered a method called Internal Cultivation Method.

These people were the true masters of the world, just like his eldest sister's Blackwater Gang, which had such skilled individuals.

However, Internal Cultivation Method was not easily taught, and it was only through his eldest sister's connections that Wei He, after searching for over a month, found a place nearby that could teach it – Old Man Zheng's place.

But the tuition fee there was not low.