Great Green Mountain

"I'm going to Great Green Mountain!" Fang Yuan answered without the slightest hesitation, his tone decisive as steel.

"What?!" Liu Wanwan and her younger sister cried out almost at the same time, the color draining from their faces in an instant.

Great Green Mountain?

That was a perilous place even the village's most seasoned hunters dared not venture deeply into!

Starving wolf packs in winter, leopards lurking in snow hollows, and black bears with hide like armor and flesh like iron, able to smash a man's skull with one swipe of their paw!

Going in at this time of year—how was that any different from courting death?

"Husband, no! Absolutely not!" Liu Wanwan's voice cracked with panic. Forgetting her fear, she rushed two steps forward to stop him. "The mountains are too dangerous! Last winter, Hunter Wang from the end of the village went in and never came back... You can't go!"

Her younger sister's little face had gone pale as well. She clutched her sister-in-law's hem tightly and nodded hard, tears brimming in her eyes.

Seeing their terrified expressions, Fang Yuan knew they were sincerely worried for him.

But his mind was made up.

Going to the front lines meant certain death; braving the deep mountains meant a slim chance of survival. This choice was not difficult.

"I have my ways." His voice was calm and left no room for argument. "Sharpen the axe, then find me some sturdy rope."

Perhaps it was the strange persistence he had shown these past two days, or the sight of him silently swinging his blade that gave them a feeling unlike before.

Or perhaps it was the rare, unshakable resolve in his eyes.

Liu Wanwan opened her mouth, but in the end, she could not bring herself to say another word of persuasion.

She looked at Fang Yuan, her eyes red-rimmed. At last, she lowered her head and said hoarsely:

"...I'll sharpen the axe."

She turned and found the logging axe in the corner, its blade chipped and dull.

Walking to the grindstone in the yard, she scooped up a ladle of icy snow water and began sharpening it stroke by stroke.

The rasping sound of cold stone mixed with her stifled sobs, weighing heavily on the heart.

Her younger sister silently went to find rope, digging out every last section of hemp rope in the house.

While recovering over the past two days, Fang Yuan had endured the soreness in his body and never stopped swinging his chopping knife.

The sound of the chopping knife cutting through the air echoed continuously through the mud-brick house.

Finally, after one all-out swing of the chopping knife, the System Panel in his vision suddenly flickered!

[Name: Fang Yuan]

[Realm: None]

[Cultivation Method: Basic Saber Technique Proficiency: 100/10000]

He had done it!

A surge of heat several times stronger than before erupted from deep within his body, instantly washing through his Limbs and Bones!

The aching exhaustion was driven away by more than half, replaced by an unprecedented sense of fullness and strength.

It felt as if a vigorous life force had been injected into his frail body. Even his breathing became much smoother.

He set down the chopping knife, walked into the yard, and picked up the heavy logging axe Liu Wanwan had just sharpened.

It felt weighty in his hand, yet when he swung it, it seemed even easier than wielding the chopping knife before!

The axe blade ripped through the air, producing a crisp whistle!

Moreover, as he swung it, the strength in his arms, waist, and legs flowed together with uncanny coordination, as though he had practiced the movements thousands upon thousands of times until they were as natural as moving his own arm.

His heart stirred, and he looked at the System Panel.

[Name: Fang Yuan]

[Realm: None]

[Cultivation Method: Basic Saber Technique Proficiency: 101/10000]

Sure enough, the system had classified axe swings under the Basic Saber Technique as well.

After a moment's thought, he understood. Whether it was a chopping knife or an axe, the core method of exerting force through chopping and cleaving—and the way it tempered and mobilized the body's blood, energy, sinews, and bones—

was fundamentally connected.

This Basic Saber Technique improved his most fundamental physical attributes and his basic ability to wield bladed tools.

He slung the axe over his shoulder and picked up the rough lengths of hemp rope.

"I'm heading into the mountains. I'll be back tomorrow at the earliest, the day after tomorrow at the latest."

He spoke to Liu Wanwan and her younger sister, whose eyes were red with tears. "Guard the house. No matter who comes, don't open the door."

He paused, remembering the rural tragedies he had heard his classmates whisper about when the previous owner of this body had studied at the county school.

His voice grew deeper and colder.

"These are troubled times. If there's no man in the house to hold the door, all manner of monsters and demons will dare come sniffing around. Robbing food and money would be the least of it..."

His gaze turned sharp.

"...You should have heard of some filthy things."

He did not spell it out, but Liu Wanwan's body shuddered violently. Her face instantly turned deathly pale, even her lips losing all color.

She clenched her fists hard enough for her nails to dig into her palms.

Though her younger sister was still young, she seemed to vaguely understand the horrifying meaning behind her brother's words. She shrank behind her sister-in-law, her big eyes filled with fear.

How could they not have heard such rumors?

In a neighboring village, a widow had had her door broken down in the middle of the night. Her grain was taken, and she herself was... In the end, she hanged herself from a beam with a single rope.

In this remote, impoverished countryside, the law sometimes counted for less than a strong arm and a vicious heart.

Back when Fang Yuan held a scholarly title, it at least served as a layer of protection. No matter how shameless the villagers were, they still had some scruples.

But now...

Seeing their frightened expressions, Fang Yuan knew he had made his point.

He did not want anyone setting their sights on the house while he was hunting in the mountains. In these times, he could not afford not to think ahead.

He said no more. He gave them one last deep look, as though he wanted to carve the sight of them into his mind.

"Guard the house." With those three words, he spun around and yanked open the creaking wooden door. The biting cold wind immediately poured in.

Without the slightest hesitation, he strode into the gray snow mist outside and slammed the door shut behind him.

Bang!

Inside, Liu Wanwan seemed to awaken at the sound. She lunged for the door and hurriedly shoved the none-too-sturdy bolt firmly into its slot!

After doing all that, she leaned against the cold, trembling door, gasping for breath as though every ounce of strength had been drained from her.

Outside, the footsteps gradually faded away, until they vanished completely into the howling wind.

The mud-brick house fell into dead silence. Only the occasional crackle of unburned firewood in the stove remained,

along with the faint, uncontrollable breathing of the two women.

Fear, like an icy tide, slowly swallowed the little house.

At the village entrance, dawn had only just begun to break, and the cold pierced to the bone.

With the sharpened axe on his shoulder and coils of rough hemp rope on his back, Fang Yuan trudged through the still-sleeping village, one foot deep and one foot shallow in the snow.

The snow crunched beneath his feet, startlingly clear in the quiet morning.

Some villagers who had risen early to gather firewood saw him fully armed and could not help stopping to gossip in surprise.

"Eh? Isn't that the Fang Family boy?"

"With that getup... is he heading into the mountains?"

"He's a scholar—can he even lift an axe? Don't let a wolf carry him off!"

"I heard he lost his scholarly title. He probably has no other choice and wants to try his luck in the mountains... Sigh, what a calamity."

Someone called out to him, "Brother Yuan, where are you off to so early?"