"Damn it!"
In the lightless mine tunnel, Zhao Han cursed under his breath and swung his shovel, digging furiously.
This was Blackwater County in Northwest Liang Province, Great Zhou Kingdom.
Blackwater County had two major gangs: the Poisonous Snake Gang and the Black Wolf Gang.
Outside County Town, the Poisonous Snake Gang had a Fine Iron Mine where several hundred mine slaves, snatched from all over, were forced to dig.
These slaves weren't paid a single copper. Every one of them had been clubbed over the head and dragged off by Poisonous Snake Gang members to work for free.
They started at four in the morning, before dawn, and worked until nightfall at seven in the evening.
A full fifteen hours, with no breaks except for lunch and dinner. They weren't even allowed to stop for a drink of water.
Only twenty elite members of the Poisonous Snake Gang, armed with weapons, were assigned to oversee several hundred mine slaves.
Twenty men kept hundreds in line through sheer, overwhelming force!
All twenty were Martial Artists!
Martial Artists cultivated their bodies. Their realms were Skin Refining, Muscle Refining, Bone Refining, Organ Refining, and Blood Refining.
Every one of those twenty men was a Skin Refining Realm Martial Artist!
What did Skin Refining mean? It meant training the skin until it was as tough as cowhide, so ordinary fists and kicks could barely hurt you.
The deeper one's Skin Refining, the tougher and more resilient that cowhide became—and the more punishment one could take.
Even ordinary blades and swords barely had any effect on them.
That was how twenty men could manage hundreds of people with nothing but weapons in their hands.
"Work your asses off! As long as you don't drop dead, keep working until you're ready to!"
"Only those who endure hardship can rise above the rest. Keep digging, and one day you'll get your chance!"
"The world's in chaos. Out there, people eat people, and everyone's a two-legged sheep. Only my Poisonous Snake Gang gives you a bowl of rice. Remember to be grateful, united, and loyal!"
"This is the blessing my Poisonous Snake Gang has bestowed upon you. Anyone who manages to work for two and a half years will have a chance to be promoted to an ordinary gang member!"
The overseers kept pacing back and forth, supervising the workers and occasionally spouting words of encouragement.
Once they'd finished, the overseers would wander off to who knew where, slacking on the job.
The mine slaves dug on in a daze. Who would believe that load of crap?
Almost none of the people dragged here to work survived a year.
Most either worked themselves to death or were crushed when the mine tunnel collapsed.
Some were beaten to death for not working hard enough, while others simply died of illness.
Though the mine slaves resented the overseers, there was nothing they could do. They had to keep digging. Life had to go on.
Just as the overseers had said, the realm outside was in chaos. Slogans like "Are kings and nobles born to their station?" were spreading everywhere.
In times of peace, demons lurked in the shadows. In times of chaos, Great Demons and strange monsters stirred up trouble.
At least in this lightless mine, they had a bowl of rice to eat.
Their lives were safe, too—a far better deal than being eaten by people or monsters out there.
When Zhao Han saw the overseers walk away, he took a brief rest and eased up on his work, muttering under his breath:
"A bunch of skinflints. They make it sound so sweet, like they're singing a song."
Zhao Han was a man, eighteen years old!
In his previous life, he'd been an exploited wage slave on Blue Star, unemployed straight out of college.
He'd just interviewed at a crooked factory and planned to work there for a few months, build up some starting capital, then set up a street stall and become his own boss.
On his first day, while crossing an industrial park's zebra crossing on the way to work, he'd been hit by a cargo truck going 114 kilometers per hour and sent flying more than thirty meters.
He'd died beyond any doubt. They'd covered him with a white cloth, and that was that.
When he woke up, he'd found himself a farmer in Liang Prefecture, Great Zhou Kingdom.
Then, to make matters worse, the Rebel army had come searching for grain, forcing him to flee with what little money he had.
On the way, Poisonous Snake Gang members had clubbed him over the head. He'd lost his money and ended up dragged into the mine to dig all day.
This fine iron mine might yield only ten pounds of iron from a ton of ore, and just one pound of that was fine iron.
Even after working himself to the bone all day, he could barely dig up much.
The ten who dug the least each day faced the punishment of getting no food or water from the Poisonous Snake Gang.
"Kill!"
"Brothers, kill the Poisonous Snake Gang bastards!"
"The Poisonous Snake Gang secretly murders miners! Everyone has a right to kill them! Follow me!"
Just as the miners dug on in a daze, shouts of murder came from outside.
Then came the clash of blades and swords, followed by screams.
"Shit, it's those Black Wolf Gang pups! Get out there and stop them!"
"Attacking my Poisonous Snake Gang? They're tired of living!"
The overseers' faces changed dramatically. They snatched up their weapons and rushed out of the mine tunnel.
As soon as the overseers were gone, several burly mine slaves exchanged glances and gave one another a look.
"Everyone, the Poisonous Snake Gang are inhuman! They dragged us here to be mine slaves. What kind of person does that?"
"To tell you the truth, we're all members of the Black Wolf Gang who infiltrated this place. Our mission is to free you from your suffering."
"Seize this chance and fight your way out with us! We'll carve out a world of our own!"
Several Black Wolf Gang spies kept urging the others, hoping the mine slaves would join them and plunge the whole place into chaos.
"Fuck them! I've had it with digging this damn fine iron mine!"
"I'll never share the same sky with the Poisonous Snake Gang!"
Quite a few people answered their call.
"Good! You're all brave men. Once we get out, I'll recommend you for membership in the Black Wolf Gang."
"Follow me and fight your way out!"
The crowd grabbed shovels, picks, and spades and charged toward the mine entrance.
Half of the mine slaves followed them. None of them wanted to spend their whole lives toiling in a lightless mine without earning a single copper, working until they died.
The other half, who stayed put, had long since made peace with death.
Perhaps they knew things were just as bad outside, and figured they were better off clinging to life in the mine.
Zhao Han joined the people fighting their way out, hoping to seize a chance at survival amid the chaos.
But he was sharp. He didn't rush to the front. Instead, he kept to the back.
At the mining ground outside the tunnel, more than fifty ordinary gang members were on guard, cooking, patrolling, and handling odd jobs.
These ordinary gang members had trained in a few farmhand tricks.
They could take on children, old men, and honest folk, but fighting a Martial Artist was a fool's dream.
They were no match for the Black Wolf Gang members.
The Black Wolf Gang had sent fifty men, led by ten elite members, all of them in the Skin Refining Realm.
"Ah..."
"Quick, run! We can't beat the Black Wolf Gang!"
"Hurry and tell the Hall Master in the woods!"
The situation quickly descended into chaos. No one could stop the Black Wolf Gang. They killed many Poisonous Snake Gang members, then charged straight into the mine tunnel, where they ran right into the Poisonous Snake Gang elites.
The two sides went straight to fighting.
"Set the explosives!"
"Collapse the mine tunnel!"
The Black Wolf Gang used vicious tactics, repeatedly sending in dare-to-die squads carrying explosives.
Their goal was to blow up the mine tunnel so the Poisonous Snake Gang couldn't mine or make money.
But the mine slaves surged toward the exit and blocked the passage completely, derailing the Black Wolf Gang's plan to collapse the tunnel.
Neither side had expected the people inside to cooperate with those outside.
Since they couldn't blow up the tunnel from within, they could only blow up the outside.
Seeing the chaos, Zhao Han stopped. He didn't rush out just yet, but hid off to the side and waited.
"Ah..."
Suddenly, an ordinary Black Wolf Gang member charging inward was knocked down by the crowd and trampled repeatedly.
On a narrow path, getting knocked down and trampled like that meant certain death.
By the time the gang member had been trampled, he was barely alive.
A few pages of white paper, covered in writing and diagrams, peeked out from his torn clothes. They were obviously a martial arts manual.
The gang member begged, "Give... give me a quick death..."
It was better to die at once than be captured by the Poisonous Snake Gang and tortured.
Zhao Han's eyes lit up. He rushed over, picked up the pages, and stuffed them into his clothes without even looking.
He glanced at the half-dead gang member, his pupils contracting. Then he grabbed a nearby pickaxe and sent the man to the afterlife.
It was a way to free him from his suffering—and to keep anyone from noticing Zhao Han had taken the manual.
In this world, a man had to be ruthless to survive. That was what Zhao Han had learned after crossing over.
[Martial arts manual discovered. Simplification System activated]
[Scanning...]
Martial Artist: Zhao Han
Realm: None
Martial arts: Black Wolf Fist [Not simplified, unranked]
Simplification: None
"Sy-system... I thought you'd skipped out on me..."
Before you continue