On Blackwater City's main street, Lin Guanhuo and the others pushed the Corpse Carriage along at an unhurried pace.
When people on the street saw them, their faces filled with disgust.
To ease the oppressive atmosphere,
Xu Dadao looked toward the imposing martial arts school gates in the distance. "Hey, what do you think? Wouldn't it be great if we could learn martial arts? Once we became Martial Artists, we wouldn't have to do this kind of work hauling corpses."
"Keep dreaming." Li Hu gave a self-mocking smile. "Do you know how much tuition the smallest martial arts school in the city charges for a year? Ten taels of silver! And all they teach you is Stance Training! If you want to learn anything real, you can't even get through the door without a few dozen taels. We White Servants are lucky if we save two taels of silver in a whole year."
"A few dozen taels..." Xu Dadao clicked his tongue. "I'd have to work for twenty years without eating or drinking to save that much."
Lin Guanhuo pushed the cart, quietly listening to the two men chat.
For ordinary people, a few dozen taels of silver represented a lifetime's savings.
Without money or resources, an ordinary person had about as much chance of crossing the class divide to become a Martial Artist as climbing to the heavens.
Besides, even if they had the money, they might not have the talent to make it.
Just then,
"Kind sirs... please... spare a bite to eat..."
A tiny figure huddled in a corner by the roadside wall.
It was a little girl of only seven or eight, clutching a broken bowl and shivering in the bitter wind.
Passersby hurried along, mostly turning a blind eye. Some even looked at her with disgust and cursed her.
"Get lost! Don't block the way!"
"Shoo, shoo, shoo! Go somewhere else! You come begging at my door?"
A potbellied merchant passed by and kicked away the broken bowl she held out, his face twisted in revulsion. "Where'd this filthy little beggar come from?"
The little girl didn't make a fuss. She simply walked to one side in silence, picked up her bowl, and went on begging.
"Big brother... I'm hungry... Could you give me something to eat?" The girl came over to Lin Guanhuo and the others.
Xu Dadao and Li Hu felt sorry for her, but their pockets were empty. They could barely feed themselves.
All they could do was sigh, while Lin Guanhuo's footsteps slowed.
He looked at the little girl and saw himself a few months earlier, when he'd first crossed into this world and nearly starved to death.
In this world that devoured people, kindness was the most worthless thing—and the thing most likely to get you killed.
But in the end, he couldn't bring himself to grow numb like the locals.
Lin Guanhuo reached into his clothes and took out the half piece of Coarse Dry Ration he hadn't finished.
While no one was paying attention, he quietly slipped it into the little girl's filthy, broken bowl.
"Eat up," he murmured.
The little girl froze for a moment, then snatched up the ration and stuffed it into her mouth as if afraid someone would take it away. As she ate, she kowtowed, her words muffled. "Thank you, big brother... Thank you, big brother..."
Lin Guanhuo didn't stop. He kept pushing the cart.
"Brother Lin, you're much too kind." Xu Dadao watched and couldn't help sighing. "There are beggars all over this street. You can help one, but you can't help them all."
Lin Guanhuo didn't say much. He wasn't some bodhisattva who saved the suffering; he'd just happened to have food on him.
Li Hu gave him a thumbs-up and said with feeling, "Brother Lin, you've got character! I could tell from what happened to Zhou Kai last time. Everyone else avoided him, but you were the only one willing to collect his body. You're the real deal!"
"This Chaotic World turns people into demons. Those of us working as White Servants have hardened hearts, but you're still treating people like people."
As the three of them spoke, the crowd ahead suddenly stirred.
"Make way! Clear the road!"
"Everyone else, stand aside!"
Urgent hoofbeats rang out, accompanied by shouts.
Several burly men in fitted clothes, long sabers hanging from their waists, rode tall horses and whipped their way through the crowd.
"Crack!"
A whip struck the ground, scattering a spray of snow.
Street vendors, passersby, and beggars scrambled to either side, afraid that if they were too slow, they'd be the ones to get whipped.
The crowd pressed Lin Guanhuo and the others against the wall with their heavy corpse cart.
A luxurious procession rolled slowly down the center of the street, the sort of spectacle only a wealthy family could afford.
Most striking of all, the flags hung from the carriages bore a huge character: Luo.
They drew countless eyes.
"That's..."
"The Luohe Martial Arts School's procession?"
"No wonder they're one of the top powers around here... What a sight."
Exclamations and chatter rippled through the crowd.
The Luohe Martial Arts School was renowned locally. They said that whenever the County Magistrate of Blackwater County faced a difficult problem, he would pay the school a visit.
As the carriage passed in front of Lin Guanhuo, a slender hand gently lifted the corner of its gold-embroidered curtain.
A young woman's profile came into view.
She looked no older than seventeen or eighteen, with skin white as snow and delicate features like a painting.
She glanced out at the scene with cool, haughty eyes. The frozen corpses and beggars by the roadside seemed no more than weeds to her—not enough to stir the slightest feeling.
The Eldest Daughter of Luohe Martial Arts School, Luo Ziyan.
"Good heavens... That girl sure is something!"
Hunkered against the wall, Xu Dadao couldn't tear his eyes away. He swallowed hard. "If I could marry her, I'd gladly shave ten years off my life! Then I'd get the beauty and inherit a martial arts school as big as Luohe. I'd go straight from the gutter to the top!"
"Keep dreaming!" Li Hu smacked him on the back of the head and scoffed. "Why don't you take a piss and look at yourself? She's a Phoenix in the heavens, and we're rats in the gutter. She'd think it was filthy just to look at us!"
Xu Dadao rubbed his head and chuckled foolishly. "So I'm not allowed to dream? What if a blind cat stumbles on a dead rat?"
"What if she's into weird stuff and likes a guy like me?" Xu Dadao said, sounding like he knew exactly what he was talking about. "I've heard rich young masters and young ladies all have pretty unusual tastes!"
Inside the luxurious carriage, Luo Ziyan had only taken a single glance.
Then she lowered the curtain and said coolly, "Hurry up. These medicinal herbs need to be taken back as soon as possible."
At her words, the procession immediately picked up speed.
Lin Guanhuo stood in the shadows, watching without a trace of emotion.
On one side was a wealthy young lady clad in fine silks, riding in a luxurious carriage drawn by Treasure Horses, with vigorous Martial Artists as her bodyguards.
On the other was a beggar who had to kowtow for a bite of stale food and might freeze to death by the roadside at any moment.
This was the Great Yan Dynasty. This was Blackwater City.
When the world prospered, the people suffered.
When it fell, the people suffered all the same!
Lin Guanhuo said nothing, only tightening his grip on the corpse cart's handle.
At that moment, his desire for strength burned more fiercely than ever.
"Let's go."
By the time Lin Guanhuo and the others returned to the Miscellaneous Room Courtyard, dusk was drawing near.
They hadn't even entered when they heard a commotion coming from the Front Courtyard.
It was mixed with the dull thuds of fists and feet and a woman's cries.
"A fight! There's a fight!"
A crowd of White Servants had gathered in the middle of the courtyard, all craning their necks to watch.
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