Snake-Style Deft Hand

Crack!

The Wood Shed was peaceful, and nobody rushed Zhao Han while he chopped wood. He could take his time.

Still, after he finished chopping, Zhao Han's arms felt a little sore.

The entry-level, low-tier Black Wolf Fist couldn't make things all that easy for Zhao Han.

He left the Wood Shed and pretended to go to the water vat for a drink of raw water. While he was at it, he glanced at the six men, all of whom were busy preparing dinner in the kitchen.

There was enough firewood in the kitchen for tonight and tomorrow morning. The wood Zhao Han had chopped was for lunch and dinner.

Since they don't have time to keep an eye on me, I'll practice martial arts.

Zhao Han returned to the Wood Shed and began tentatively mimicking a wolf's movements.

Standing, running, gathering strength, pouncing, curling up, leaping...

He practiced for five minutes, stumbling through the motions before he finally completed one set. His Black Wolf Fist proficiency increased a little.

That's still pretty fast. Once I get the hang of it, it'll be easy. Zhao Han smiled and continued.

Zhao Han's guess had been right.

Once he got the hang of it, it was easy!

After he found the rhythm, his proficiency shot up before his eyes!

He only stopped when the kitchen announced that dinner was ready and called him to help carry the rice bucket and vegetable bucket.

He glanced at the Simplification System panel floating beside him.

Martial Artist: Zhao Han

Realm: None

Martial Arts: Black Wolf Fist

Simplification: Black Wolf Fist [Simplified, low-tier, beginner 10/50, imitate a wolf's movements]

Give me a little more time, and going from beginner to proficient will be a piece of cake.

"Xiao Zhao, what are you standing around for? Quit slacking and hurry over to carry the vegetable bucket." A Shun looked at Zhao Han with displeasure.

So you're playing dumb and slacking off, huh? Don't think it's going to be that easy.

"Coming, coming."

He joined A Shun in lifting the hot vegetable bucket.

The aroma of vegetables immediately wafted toward them.

Inside were boiled wild greens with a little salt added, enough to keep the mine slaves from running out of strength while they worked.

The two carried the vegetable bucket to the open ground outside, then went back for the next bucket of food.

It wasn't filled with bowls of gleaming white rice. Instead, it held a mush made from crushed grains mixed with sand, wild greens, wheat bran, rice husks, and other odds and ends.

Mush was the staple food of most ordinary folk and commoners in this world, much like the kind of mush the Indians made—though theirs was more nutritious.

People didn't eat noodles and rice. White flour and white rice were both extremely precious.

Even the rather yellowish coarse flour was too expensive for ordinary people to afford. They only got to eat it once during a holiday.

The mine slaves' dinner consisted of boiled wild greens and mush. That was it.

It was enough to keep the mine slaves alive and working, squeezing every last bit of use out of them for the Poisonous Snake Gang.

Next came the ordinary gang members' meals. Those were still rather plain, but far better than the mine slaves' food.

Their staple was steamed corn buns, with wild greens, tofu, and cabbage on the side. It was just enough to meet their nutritional needs.

Last came the meals for the elite Skin Refining gang members, who practiced martial arts regularly. Their portions were even larger than those of ordinary gang members.

There were fewer of them, but they ate more.

Their food had some fat to it. The staple was yellow-flour steamed buns, accompanied by stir-fried celtuce with two taels of meat, tofu and cabbage, and cucumber and egg soup.

After Zhao Han and A Shun finished carrying the buckets, they didn't have to serve the food. They returned to the kitchen, where Wang Dawei and the other three had already started eating without waiting for them.

There were two dishes and a soup on the table, no different from what the elite gang members ate, but the portions were small, with very little meat.

Clearly, the kitchen staff had fixed themselves a special meal.

It wasn't strange that the kitchen staff ate well. Even cooks often pilfered a little food for themselves.

A Shun wasn't surprised. He hurriedly grabbed a seat, then picked up the last strip of meat and happily nibbled at it.

"I finally get to eat meat. Xiao Zhao, I owe you one."

A Shun nearly burst into tears.

In this kitchen, the newest arrival had to do the hardest work, chopping and splitting wood, and couldn't get any meat at mealtime.

There might have been meat in the dishes, but Wang Dawei had already divided it up. Wang Dawei got the biggest share, the assistant cook got the next biggest, and so on down the line.

Rules were rules.

Zhao Han glanced at the celtuce and meat stir-fry, which had been picked clean of every trace of oil, and shook his head. He sat down obediently and started eating tofu and cabbage.

No dish could beat cabbage and tofu for nutrition, not even celtuce.

Eating too much celtuce could also harm your eyesight and bring on night blindness.

Before transmigrating, Zhao Han had been a wage slave.

His eyes had long since been ruined by his phone, computer, and games, leaving him nearsighted. He hardly ever ate celtuce.

Fortunately, after transmigrating, his vision was 5.0. Even when he saw celtuce, he didn't feel like touching it.

Many people in this world already suffered from night blindness, and his original body had it too. Eating more celtuce would only make it worse.

As he ate, A Shun pointedly picked up a tiny strip of meat, no bigger than his own little brother, and showed it off to Zhao Han with the smug look of a petty man who'd just gotten his way.

The others couldn't stand watching him. It was just one strip of meat. Did he really have to make such a fuss?

Zhao Han hurriedly finished his food. If you're tired of eating tofu and cabbage, then I'll eat every last bite.

And cucumber and egg soup, too. That's delicious.

Once they'd eaten their fill, they had to carry the buckets back and wash the bowls and chopsticks.

That job went to Zhao Han and A Shun as well.

"Washing" the dishes meant wiping them with a filthy rag dipped in water, then rinsing them once. That was it.

Afterward, they basically had nothing to do.

To Zhao Han's surprise, Wang Dawei, A Shun, and the others were all using the light from the torches to pore over the Snake-Style Deft Hand.

They even practiced a few moves, and looked rather convincing.

But they had only learned the outward forms, nothing more than empty posturing.

They were nothing like Skin Refining Martial Artists using the Snake-Style Deft Hand, with its imposing force and real power.

Still, this showed that nobody in this world wanted to fall behind. Everyone had a dream of becoming a Martial Artist.

Only after becoming a Skin Refining Martial Artist could a person leave ordinary life behind and have things go a little easier.

At the very least, Skin Refining Martial Artists didn't have to fret over the cost of marrying and raising children the way ordinary people did.

You could call them lousy, but you couldn't call them lazy, or say they had no ambition or dreams.

Zhao Han didn't practice with them. He had a cheat and was already far ahead; all they could do was practice harder to make up for their lack of talent.

Instead, he put on an exhausted look and went to the communal sleeping hall early.

One room in the communal sleeping hall could house thirty people.

The elite gang members had a separate sleeping hall.

Nearby were familiar faces like Zhao Da and Li Er.

Zhao Da and the others were chatting. They hadn't yet managed to fit in with the older gang members.

The next morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten,

Zhao Han got up early and went with Zhao Da and the others to the mine entrance to find Liu Gang.

Liu Gang gave each of them a handwritten copy of the Snake-Style Deft Hand.

A number of the copies were stained with blood, and the writing and illustrations inside were obscured.

They were clearly the Snake-Style Deft Hand manuals taken from the gang members who had been killed the day before.

Even though some parts were hard to make out, none of the ten dared show any dissatisfaction.

"Practice hard and help build up the Poisonous Snake Gang." Liu Gang offered them a few words of encouragement before hurrying away.

[Scanning...]

As soon as Zhao Han got the Snake-Style Deft Hand, the system began scanning it automatically.

Martial Artist: Zhao Han

Realm: None

Martial Arts: Black Wolf Fist, Snake-Style Deft Hand [Not simplified, low-tier]

Simplification: Black Wolf Fist [Simplified, low-tier, beginner 10/50, imitate a wolf's movements]

He had the Snake-Style Deft Hand now, but simplifying it would cost five taels of silver. Otherwise, there was no point.

Five taels of silver was a huge sum. By this world's purchasing power, it was equivalent to ten thousand yuan on Blue Star, more than Zhao Han could afford right now.

For the time being, he had the Black Wolf Fist to fall back on, so Zhao Han wasn't in a hurry.

Back in the kitchen, he ate a simple breakfast with the others: mush and pickles. Then Wang Dawei urged him to go chop wood.

But the woods around the Fine Iron Mine were dangerous. Wild beasts prowled there, and there might even be more vicious "demons."

If he went chopping wood wherever he pleased, he might end up losing his life.

He'd have to ask A Shun where he usually went to chop wood.