Chaotic Times

The sky had just begun to brighten, and not a cloud stretched across the miles.

Great Yuan · Yun Province · Feiye City.

Chirp!

A white-feathered, black-beaked bird flapped over the earth, then dove downward.

Passing through the thick, ancient city walls and towers, the bird slowed and landed lightly atop the tallest dark-red tower in the city. As it preened its feathers, it looked down below.

Clusters of gray buildings filled the city, with pavilions and towers in every shape.

Pale-yellow houses and lofted buildings rose and fell in succession, while grand courtyards with upturned eaves stood everywhere.

At the very center lay a vast square plaza.

Its ground was paved with stone slabs over a meter wide, etched with enormous, bizarre beast patterns that stood out with startling clarity.

This was the open space where markets and fairs were usually held.

Now it was packed shoulder to shoulder, crammed with townsfolk who had come to watch and listen.

At the center of the square, atop a crude wooden platform, a white-robed Daoist with crane-white hair held a whisk and expounded the Dao in a ringing voice.

"Those devoted to learning who recite it ten times shall have the Five Emperors stand guard, and the Three Realms bow their heads."

"You scholars, your foul vapors have yet to disperse, your bodies have yet to perceive the true."

"Oh! It's here, it's here!" someone murmured in the crowd.

Before long, Daoists carrying wooden basins came forward. They took out handful after handful of copper coins, walked a short distance, stopped, then flung the coins beneath the platform.

They did not throw many, yet the crowd below still bent over in a scramble to pick them up.

Wei He was squeezed among the crowd, looking from afar at the Old Daoist preaching scripture and doctrine atop the platform.

He stood about five feet seven inches tall, with a faint dark shadow above his lip and an ordinary, youthful face. He wore a gray hemp short shirt and fairly intact black cloth shoes.

Looking at the Old Daoist on the wooden platform.

He paused only briefly before carrying the oil cake he had bought and heading home.

As he pushed through the crowd, he had to endure all manner of foul odors wafting from around him.

The stink of sweat, the stink of feet, the stink of saliva, and even faint traces of piss and shit.

Wei He glanced down at a pile of dog shit crushed flat beneath countless feet to his right and quickened his pace.

Crossing the square, turning into the streets and alleys, then passing through several more lanes filled with yellow-gray dust and trash.

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

It stood in a small alley, one room in a row of ramshackle little houses.

Tattered clothes hung drying outside the door, their faintly differing colors marking which belonged to men and which to women.

Wei He moved aside a rotten wooden stool that partially blocked the door and stepped into the dim house.

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

In a corner of the room, a frail woman rose to her feet.

She had rolled up her sleeves and was washing clothes, her hands dripping wet. She brushed back her hair with her forearm and smiled at Wei He.

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

"The work ended early, so I came back first," Wei He explained.

"The job repairing the Mu family's main house was finished already?" She walked to the window, where the faint light fell over her and revealed a somewhat delicate face. Her skin was rough and her complexion poor, but her figure curved in all the right places, making her quite lovely.

Her name was Wei Ying, Wei He's Second Sister.

Wei He also had an eldest sister named Wei Chun, who was currently the pillar holding up the household. She made her way in the city's Blackwater Gang.

That was also the key reason the Wei family could remain relatively secure in this area.

"It was finished long ago. Afterward, I helped repair several guest rooms beside it," Wei He replied.

He had arrived in this world several months ago, going from bewilderment at first to calm acceptance later.

Then to running himself ragged for a living now. It had taken him only three months.

Three months really was fast enough.

Wei He's parents were still alive, and he had two elder sisters.

His eldest sister, Wei Chun, treated him extremely well. His Second Sister, Wei Ying, also treated him very well, while his parents saved every good thing for him.

The preference for sons over daughters, coupled with the family's poverty and inability to practice birth control, had led Wei He's parents to bear two daughters in succession before finally having Wei He, their only son.

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

"Big Sister still isn't back. Little Brother, be more careful when you go out lately. When I went looking for mending work before, I heard that another household was robbed in the middle of the night." Wei Ying lowered her voice, her eyes tense.

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

"They had just received their wages. I heard they lost half. What remained wasn't enough for that family to live on afterward. And in Rat Alley across from us, someone was robbed yesterday too. They resisted a little, and lost a finger just like that."

"Another midnight theft? Didn't those Thief Gang people leave only recently?" Wei He asked.

"I don't know... Maybe it's another wave of newcomers fighting over territory." Wei Ying sighed, picked up a garment, and began mending it with needle and thread.

"Anyway, whenever you're outside, yield in everything and be careful. If you run into someone robbing you, just give it to them. We're still here at home. We won't let you starve." Second Sister Wei Ying gave him a solemn warning.

"I know." Wei He nodded.

His expression was somewhat vacant.

He had crossed into this world and been reborn as Wei He, a perfectly ordinary young man.

It was not as though he had nothing to rely on.

It was simply that this reliance could not be activated at all right now.

It was a pearl—or rather, the image of a pearl—imprinted at the very center of his chest.

According to the information lingering in his mind, the pearl was called the Boundary-Breaking Pearl.

Its ability was also simple.

It broke through realms.

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

He knew this because the pearl had left behind a little information in his mind when he crossed over, like implanted memories.

As for whether it was real, that remained to be verified.

Once the Boundary-Breaking Pearl had accumulated enough energy, it would turn from a translucent shade close to his skin color to jet black.

Yet even after more than three months, Wei He had still not seen the pearl pattern turn black.

At most, its color had deepened a little.

Naturally. He could only barely eat his fill at every meal now. There was no surplus energy to store for the pearl.

The energy the pearl required mainly came from his daily food intake. It converted excess food into vital essence, absorbed it, and accumulated it bit by bit.

At first, Wei He had held hopes for it. But after three months had passed, the excitement brought by hope had gradually turned into calm indifference.

Without changing out of his clothes, he lay down on his bed to rest for a while. There were only three beds in the house: one for his parents, one that his eldest and second sisters barely squeezed onto together, and one for him.

In a house of less than sixty square meters, the three beds could only be crammed into one area. The remaining space had to hold the stove, table, chairs, and the like. It was crowded beyond measure.

Yet this was already a middle-income household among the nearby commoners.

After sleeping for a while, Wei He got up, intending to take a walk outside.

He possessed the Boundary-Breaking Pearl, so he thought he might find some decent martial arts or loose-hand techniques to practice, then use the pearl to break through and improve.

But he could not find any martial arts or loose-hand techniques at all. Even his eldest sister, in the Blackwater Gang, had only barely gained a foothold by being ruthless enough to risk her life and strike without mercy.

And the Boundary-Breaking Pearl showed no reaction whatsoever.

Feeling helpless, Wei He wandered around the city for several rounds every day after work.

He was small, dressed in rags, and looked like he had no money at all, so no one bothered to cause trouble for him.

When he got up, Second Sister Wei Ying had already fallen asleep face-down on the household's only table.

Wei He carefully left the house, pulled the door shut, and walked right from his home toward the mouth of the alley.

Cough, cough...

The moment he stepped out of the alley, bursts of coughing came from the right outside.

He looked up and saw Sister Zhang, a neighbor who often sought work together with Second Sister Wei Ying, covering her mouth with one hand and coughing continuously with her head lowered.

"Little He, stand farther away." Someone beside him tugged him back.

The person who pulled him was a short old man holding a smoking pipe.

His white horse-cloth jacket reeked of sweat. He pulled Wei He out of the alley entrance and walked several more steps before lowering his voice, his face grim.

"There's been a plague in the city lately... No one knows what happened to that Zhang girl. She came back a few days ago and has been coughing ever since. You need to be careful, don't let it spread to you. Tell your Second Sister to be careful too."

"Thank you, Grandpa Wang." Wei He's heart tightened. He had heard about the epidemic before. It was said to have been spreading through the northern part of the city, but now it had suddenly reached his doorstep...

Over the past three months, he had also tried his best to use the advanced thinking of a transmigrator to help his family solve their financial troubles.

Unfortunately, every attempt had ended in failure.

No matter what method he tried, there was one obstacle he could not avoid in this city.

The gangs.

The lower districts were divided into territories, with different gangs controlling different areas.

Whether opening a shop or running a small business, one had to pay the gangs. Without connections or backing, the moment a business did even slightly well, it would be watched.

Then there were only two outcomes: either hand the business over and become a hired worker oneself.

Or pay a huge sum every month and earn nothing more than bitter labor money.

This was a vile age where any commoner with a little money would be targeted.

Wei He did not linger. He swiftly left the alley, passed through the city's winding lanes, and soon arrived outside a somewhat old gray courtyard.

Clear voices reciting books drifted continuously from within. From time to time came the deep voice of an old man reprimanding someone.

Above the courtyard gate hung a plaque bearing three large red characters: Scripture Hall.

Wei He followed the wall, found a suitable patch of ground, and plopped down with his back against it, listening quietly.

The Scripture Hall was where the city's wealthy households sent their children together for early education.

It was said that the teachers inside were all scholars who had once earned literary degrees.

"I've more or less mastered the characters here. No matter where one goes, words and knowledge are the foundation for grasping everything."

Wei He lowered his head and used his finger to draw and write across the dust-covered ground, practicing the characters he had learned before.

"Wei He!" Suddenly, a half-grown child with twin horn braids sneaked up beside him and called out.

"This is today's." The horn-braided child pulled out a roll of paper hidden in his clothes and tossed it into Wei He's arms.

"The usual terms: half a tael of silver per hundred characters," Wei He said calmly. Silver was worthless these days. If he did not charge more, he would never save much money.

"Fine, fine, fine! Hurry it up. Teacher wants it tomorrow morning." The horn-braided child lowered his voice, fished out a piece of broken silver from his clothes, and threw it to Wei He before striding away.

This was ghostwriting homework.

It was a side business Wei He had picked up while secretly learning here.

The horn-braided child was named Li Bian, the only son of a wealthy merchant in Feiye City, and he spent freely.

Wei He put away the broken silver and calculated.

"With this, I should have nearly enough tuition to learn the Huishan Fist from Old Man Zheng."

Since he had a cheat, he naturally would not easily give up on finding a way to activate it.

The Boundary-Breaking Pearl's information mentioned breaking through cultivation methods. Wei He had tried practicing ordinary loose-hand fighting techniques under his eldest sister's training, but none of it worked.

Later, he learned from his eldest sister that some people in this world had mastered a method known as the Internal Cultivation Method.

These people were the true experts of the world. The Blackwater Gang his eldest sister belonged to had such skilled fighters within it.

But the Internal Cultivation Method was not taught to others lightly. Through his eldest sister's connections, Wei He had searched for over a month before finding a place nearby that could teach it: Old Man Zheng's place.

But the tuition required there was not low.