A Difficult Start

Cold and hungry.

Lu Ming struggled to open his eyes. The first thing that met his gaze was a black mass.

"What is this?"

As he wondered what the black thing was and tried to see it clearly, a wave of stench suddenly flooded his nostrils.

He hurriedly covered his nose and mouth, then sprang upright as though springs had been installed beneath him.

Looking again, he realized the black object was a pile of feces.

"How could this be..."

Lu Ming quickly realized something was wrong. Why was there shit where he had been sleeping? And he was not lying in a bed at all, but on a patch of grass.

He hurriedly swept his gaze around.

Sure enough, the surroundings were no longer the familiar room he knew, but a strange stretch of wilderness thick with tangled grass and disorderly trees.

"What is going on? Wasn't I sleeping in my room? Where is this?"

Lu Ming was filled with confusion when a sharp pain suddenly pierced his mind. A flood of unfamiliar memories surged in like the tide.

Only after a long while did Lu Ming understand what had happened. He had transmigrated—into the body of a little beggar who had frozen to death.

To be honest, this was not a very auspicious start.

However, Lu Ming soon stopped dwelling on it and turned his attention elsewhere.

Through those memories, he discovered that this world was far from simple. It was a fantastical world where one could cultivate martial arts.

The strong could shatter a mountain with a blow or sever a river with a slash. Those even stronger could soar through the sky, burrow through the earth, and live forever without dying.

Of course, all of that was information the original owner had heard while begging. He had not witnessed it himself, so no one knew whether it was true.

But one thing was certain: martial arts truly existed in this world, and the original owner had seen them with his own eyes.

For example, he had personally watched a man in a green robe leap lightly before him and fly onto a city wall dozens of feet high, leaving behind only a carefree silhouette.

He had also seen a burly man with iron arms casually smash a huge, solid boulder into pieces with one palm strike, drawing cheers from the surrounding spectators.

Then there was the cold-faced man who stood with his arms folded across his chest and allowed three steel blades to hack into his body. Not only was he completely unscathed, but he also shook all three blades into fragments.

There were countless such scenes in those memories. Martial Artists were everywhere.

This further proved that this was a world ruled by martial arts.

"It truly is wonderful."

Lu Ming continued savoring the scenes in those memories, utterly captivated. As a fan of martial arts stories, who did not harbor a martial arts dream?

Settling grudges with swift delight, righting wrongs and helping the weak.

That had been his childhood dream, and now he had a chance to fulfill it.

But cold reality quickly shattered his fantasies. He was still a rag-clad beggar who could not even keep himself fed and warm, much less practice martial arts.

What was more, even if he wanted to learn, no one would be willing to teach him.

Even from the original owner's limited knowledge, he knew that Martial Artists rarely passed their martial arts down to outsiders.

The only way to learn was to join some faction, but that was easier said than done.

Most factions had extremely stringent requirements for recruiting members.

Of course, there were easier options, but one either had to become a servant or hand over a large sum of money.

And even then, one would basically never receive the true teachings. Learning three moves or two stances would already be like burning incense to high heaven.

"I'm thinking too far ahead..."

Lu Ming hurriedly shook his head, casting aside those impractical thoughts. He felt that the first thing he needed to do was solve the problem of food and warmth. Everything else was secondary.

"But I will definitely practice martial arts!"

Having witnessed those bizarre and dazzling scenes, Lu Ming could no longer let them go. After silently reaffirming his resolve, he began focusing on reality.

After sorting through his thoughts, he decided that his most urgent task was to leave this place.

He now knew that, aside from martial arts, this world was also filled with all kinds of danger.

Especially in the wilderness.

Here, the most obvious danger was the temperature, which ordinary people found difficult to withstand—either biting cold or scorching heat.

Although the sunlight was so bright it hurt his eyes, the temperature was extremely low, and gusts of cold wind blew over from time to time. At night, it would be even worse.

The original owner had frozen to death last night.

Aside from those natural dangers, the wilderness was also filled with poisonous insects and ferocious beasts, some of which even Martial Artists could not defeat.

Among the memories were plenty of scenes of Martial Artists being bitten by venomous insects, then carried away by their companions for emergency treatment.

He had also heard of certain masters being swallowed whole by ferocious beasts because of one careless mistake.

In short, it was exceedingly difficult for an ordinary person to survive in the wilderness.

What was more, there was a warning right in front of him.

Judging from its size, the black pile of feces had clearly been left by a rather large creature, and it was still steaming.

In other words, its owner had not left long ago.

As for why it had not eaten him, perhaps it was a herbivore, or perhaps it simply was not hungry yet. It might have left the feces as a marker, saving him for its next meal.

In any case, this was not a place to linger. Every sign urged him to leave as quickly as possible.

So Lu Ming struggled to his feet, but his vision immediately swam and his legs went weak. He had barely straightened up before collapsing again with a thud.

The original owner had gone without food for a long time and had also been exposed to the cold for far too long. He was now extremely weak, and moving at all would likely be impossible.

"No, I can't just sit here and wait for death."

Although Lu Ming was kneeling on the ground and gasping for breath, he was not despairing.

He himself was an exceptionally strong and calm person. Even if there were only the faintest sliver of hope, he would never give up on himself.

Besides, this little hardship was not enough to defeat him.

After calming his breathing slightly, Lu Ming immediately reached out and grabbed a handful of wild grass by the roots. When he saw its pure white root fibers, a smile appeared on his face.

He recognized this grass. Its roots were faintly sweet and tasted like sugarcane. He had eaten plenty of it as a child in his previous life.

Although he did not know whether this grass had mutated in this other world and developed some kind of toxin.

But he could not afford to care about that now. After shaking off the dirt, he stuffed it into his mouth and chewed hard.

"So sweet..."