High-Difficulty Start, Beginning as a Beggar

White Mist Country—Snow Deer Prefecture—Black Stone City.

As a nation that had stood firm through wind and rain for three thousand six hundred years since its founding, White Mist Country was generally shrouded in white fog two-thirds of the time. Even Black Stone City, located in a remote region, was no exception.

However.

Compared with the other regions, Black Stone City, situated near the ore mountain range and long renowned for producing black metal ore, was relatively clearer and drier in terms of climate.

Today, on one of the city's bustling streets, the roar of the crowd and the crackle of firecrackers rang out without end.

One of the local five great families, the Pei Family, was holding a birthday banquet for its Patriarch.

A banquet celebrating his exact four-hundredth birthday.

To celebrate the occasion, the entire family had laid on a grand feast in accordance with local custom.

Not only were the Pei Family's ancestral grounds filled with tables and food for people to enjoy.

The areas along both sides of the street were the same.

At a time like this.

Even passersby and commoners with no blood ties to the family could join the Pei Family for a rather decent meal, so long as they were dressed properly.

If they were lucky, receiving a small sum of money akin to a red envelope would not be anything surprising either.

Celebrating both within and without while bestowing a few favors—that was the Pei Family's theme for the day.

For the sake of celebration, the entire banquet would last a full three days and three nights.

Quite a few citizens throughout the city would get to share in the festive cheer and enjoy some benefits as well.

Although the money spent during that time was unimaginable to ordinary people, with the fish and meat consumed alone often measured in hundreds or thousands of tons, it was no problem at all for the Pei Family. Having seized one of Black Stone City's main economic lifelines and quietly amassed wealth for centuries, even slaughtering thousands or tens of thousands of cattle and sheep was, at most, a minor matter to them.

During this process, Ling Wuyuan, the protagonist of this book, was one of the beneficiaries of this lavish banquet.

At this very moment.

On an ordinary residence not far from where the banquet was being held, Ling Wuyuan lay on his side atop the roof, a greasy chicken drumstick in hand, happily gnawing on it.

"Really nice~"

"Another wonderful day~"

As he sighed over the matter, his gaze swept across the banquet tables in the distance, each piled high with food.

Though he was already quite satisfied to have managed to snag such a fragrant chicken drumstick, the delicious dishes of meat and vegetables on those distant tables still made him a little envious.

How should he put it... perhaps seeing those steaming hot delicacies gave him even more motivation to gnaw on his drumstick!

"Wow, a good life with both meat and vegetables really feels a little out of reach..."

As for why he did not go eat at the free banquet, instead holding a drumstick and gazing at it from afar?

The answer was simple.

The basic condition for attending the banquet was to have a proper set of clothes and not disgust the other diners at one's table.

The requirement truly was not high.

But unfortunately, Ling Wuyuan did not meet that standard for the time being.

As a ragged, stinking beggar.

He truly had no right to sit at the table.

Being given a chicken drumstick handed out by a Pei Family servant was already no easy feat.

In fact, if the other beggars had not received food too.

He might not even have been able to keep the drumstick in his hand.

Life was truly a little cruel.

Amid his sighs.

Already lying on his side, his posture became even more languid.

While enjoying his food, he did not forget to enjoy the bright sunlight overhead, which had not appeared for many days.

As the saying went, so long as there was a beach and sunshine in one's heart, everywhere was the Maldives.

After some self-hypnosis.

Ling Wuyuan had successfully managed to quietly enjoy life amid a life filled with bitterness and sorrow.

Of course, it was not that he did not want to change his life.

Rather, after transmigrating to this world, his outward appearance had directly changed into how he looked when he was five or six years old. Even after spending five years in this world, to outsiders he was still only a little brat of around ten, somewhat underdeveloped physically.

In this feudal world with Extraordinary Power.

Without any cheat ability when he transmigrated, simply surviving on his own was already extraordinarily difficult.

Improve his life?

That was somewhat too lofty an ambition.

It was too easy to get himself killed...

Thus, while enjoying both his food and the sterilizing service of sunbathing, Ling Wuyuan's gaze gradually shifted from the delicacies in the distance to the Pei Family's entrance.

In that direction, a magnificent stage had been set up several days ago.

Just as people in Ling Wuyuan's previous life often liked to add some extra performances when holding events, the same was true in this world, though the paths differed, they led to the same destination.

After all, people always liked things to be more lively and festive.

It was a basic instinct of intelligent life.

So, performances were underway on the stage in the distance.

Some operas Ling Wuyuan could not understand, some songs and dances he could understand...

There was no end to the variety.

Though he was not particularly interested in those performances, with the mindset that he might as well watch the excitement since it was free, Ling Wuyuan still watched them contentedly.

Until an hour later.

Once the various performances had more or less finished, the event organizers finally took the stage.

They were several adults dressed in obviously luxurious attire, along with several children dressed just as extravagantly. Any single ornament on their bodies could let an ordinary person eat and drink well for dozens of days.

"Everyone, as the current Patriarch of the Pei Family and the host of this birthday banquet, I, Pei Zhizong, am very pleased that you have come to attend my four-hundredth birthday celebration. Here, I also offer my heartfelt thanks to every one of you..."

The speaker was a man with a little white in his hair, though black remained its overall color.

Although he had already reached the actual age of four hundred.

In this world with Extraordinary Power, where even ordinary people could easily live to a hundred, he looked much like the middle-aged men around fifty from Ling Wuyuan's previous world.

Moreover.

Even without using any sound-amplifying device.

His words still spread with remarkable clarity throughout an area two or three thousand meters around him.

Faintly.

The air around him could even be seen trembling in response.

This directly displayed Pei Zhizong's excellent control over his own power.

As one of the audience members listening to the speech.

Ling Wuyuan had no thoughts whatsoever about Pei Zhizong's polite formalities.

Still, out of longing for Extraordinary Power, he carefully listened to every word the man said and seriously examined the figures in the distance.

"Power, authority, wealth..."

"Truly enviable..."

Unlike him, most of the many commoners present were deeply anticipating what would happen next, especially the young children and their parents...