Vajra Stance

"Just take the money, Sister-in-law. When Big Brother was alive, he often helped me..."

"How can I take your money for nothing? No! I can't!"

"The taxes are due soon. This little bit of money... Sigh."

(Sobbing)

Lin Yin felt as though his head were filled with lead, heavy and numb. In a daze, he seemed to hear two unfamiliar voices.

One seemed to be a man, the other a woman.

A woman?

He struggled to open his eyes, only to find an unfamiliar world before him.

Yellow-brown stalks of thatch hung in layers from a rotting wooden frame. The tips of the fresh thatch were still beaded with dew, while the old thatch had faded to grayish brown, exposing the bamboo ribs beneath.

Was this a thatched roof?

Where was he?

Lin Yin remembered that he had clearly been working overtime at the company. How had everything changed in the blink of an eye?

He tried to sit up.

"Gah—"

A stab of pain tore through his head. Then, a flood of inexplicable memories surged into his mind, and Li Yin's eyes flew wide.

"I transmigrated?"

This place was called Langshi Town, a border town in Tiancong Kingdom. In this life, his name was Lin Yin, and even his appearance was exactly the same.

The original owner had been a poor scholar. His family had always relied on his father, who worked hard at a martial arts school, to make ends meet. They weren't well-off, but they weren't destitute, either.

However, a month ago, his father had been ambushed by bandits on his way home from the martial arts school. He'd returned with grave injuries and passed away a few days ago.

With the family's mainstay gone, the original owner had also been "invited" out by his clan. In a fit of rage, he'd worked himself into a fury and collapsed in bed.

That was when Lin Yin had transmigrated into his body.

Before he could sort through his thoughts, a cry of surprise came from beside him.

"Yin'er! You're awake!"

A woman hurried over to him.

Tears welled in her eyes as she carefully lifted a clay bowl from a battered wooden table nearby. It held a milky-white broth.

Up close, he could smell a faint fishy scent.

Lin Yin frowned slightly. He had just finished taking in the memories of this life, and knew it was fish soup. It didn't look appetizing, but right now, it was a rare taste of meat.

Seeing the hope in the woman's eyes, Lin Yin sighed inwardly. She still didn't know that her son was already dead.

Her husband and son had died one after the other, leaving her alone in this troubled world. How cruel.

His resolve set, he took the bowl and spoon in both hands.

"Mother... I can manage."

"..."

Madam Wang nodded. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she watched her son drink the soup, and the worry lodged in her throat finally eased.

The faint aroma of fish soup drifted under her nose. She swallowed unconsciously, but when she noticed her son looking at her, she quickly turned her head away in a fluster.

Though his mother reacted quickly, Lin Yin had still noticed. He remembered how hurriedly the mother and son had moved, and how they'd eaten nothing but a little rice bran for two days.

Rice bran was nothing more than husks mixed with a few grains of rice. Bland and hard to swallow, it was usually fed to poultry, pigs, and dogs.

"Mother, you should have some too. I can't drink all this..."

He instinctively held out the bowl, but Madam Wang suddenly sprang to her feet.

"Soup alone won't fill you up. I'll get you another bowl of rice."

Without giving Lin Yin a chance to say anything more, she hurried off. Before long, she returned with another clay bowl, filled to the brim with white rice mixed with greens.

"Your Third Uncle brought this over especially. Eat it while it's hot."

Madam Wang's face was full of hope. A smile tugged at her weary features.

As long as her son was awake and healthy, that was enough. She no longer dared hope for anything else.

Third Uncle...

At the mention of him, Lin Yin's heart sank. From the original owner's memories, he knew that his so-called Third Uncle had never been the sort of person to care about him.

Thinking of the family's misfortunes, Li Yin—now fully settled into his new identity—couldn't help but suspect something was amiss.

As Lin Yin pondered this, Madam Wang brought over a little wooden stool and sat beside his bed, bowl and chopsticks in hand as she picked at the rice.

A few leaves of greens looked lonely atop the small half-bowl of rice. It was clear the woman didn't want him to worry, so she'd put two leaves on top.

"By the way, Yin'er, I just got two sewing jobs from the cloth shop. We'll have an income now!"

At the thought, Madam Wang exclaimed happily. She muttered that once they'd earned some money, she'd buy more books, and Lin Yin would surely be able to continue his studies.

Study...

Lin Yin kept quiet and slowly ate the food in his bowl.

In this world, which resembled ancient times, ordinary people needed strength or a skill to survive.

The best path was to pass the imperial examinations and earn an official degree. The original owner had hoped to change his fate through studying, but... how easy was it to study?

They said that the poor studied while the rich practiced martial arts. Ha! Without money, you couldn't even get into a school, let alone earn an official degree.

And in Tiancong Kingdom, even if a poor family's child managed to enter school and learn something worthwhile, getting into the court was an even more arduous task. The tangled web of human relations and social customs was hard to describe, even by hearsay.

The original owner had been fixated on passing the examinations. It was nothing but wishful thinking.

As for learning a trade or selling his strength... a blacksmith needed twenty years of "keeping a low profile," while a kiln worker needed a thirty-year apprenticeship before earning a craftsman's registration.

In other lines of work... it was common for poor people's children to be beaten half to death at night when they tried to get ahead and claim a slice of the pie.

In short, for the poor to rise above their station in this world... was as hard as climbing to heaven.

Great. A hellish start!

"..."

As he sifted through the information in his mind, bitterness flickered across Lin Yin's face.

He thought about what he'd learned in his previous life, wondering whether he could build something in this world that resembled ancient times. Even if he couldn't make a success of himself, he at least had to survive.

"Yin'er, it's my fault for being useless. I'll find a way to earn money and keep you in school..."

During his silence, Madam Wang noticed Lin Yin's distant expression. Thinking her son still hadn't recovered from the blow, she hurried to comfort him.

"Mother, is the work you mentioned sewing?"

Lin Yin asked casually.

"Haha, you didn't know your mother could sew, did you? Back when I was making clothes for your father..."

Her prattle rang in his ears as Lin Yin finished the meal. At least the hunger gnawing at his belly had eased a little.

Madam Wang took the bowl and chopsticks and hurried off to wash them.

Lin Yin sat up on the bed. His vision blackened in waves, and the weakness was so intense that he nearly fell to the floor as soon as he got out of bed.

"This... I'm so frail I can't even manage the simplest manual labor."

His expression darkened.

It made sense. His previous self had been unwilling to eat that sort of rice bran, which was usually fed to pigs and dogs.

A frail scholar to begin with, he'd grown weak after several days without proper food. With his mind shaken on top of that, he'd simply died. How could this body possibly be in good shape?

At least Madam Wang had kept busy. If she'd seen him like this, she would've had another thing to worry about.

After taking a moment to adjust, Lin Yin began walking around the room. The thatched cottage was barely thirty square meters, and he could see from one end to the other.

Among the objects in the middle of the room, several stone blocks caught Lin Yin's attention.

They were training tools his father had used while he was alive.

Wait, training?

Lin Yin paused, then strode to the wooden cabinet on the left side of the room. In the bottom drawer, he found a yellowed booklet.

"Vajra Stance..."

The martial arts of this world seemed quite different from the martial arts he remembered.

Images from his memories flashed through his mind: his father practicing. Lin Yin's heart gave a slight leap as he opened the booklet.

"Root yourself on all four sides, steadfast as a cast cauldron; draw in your breath in reverse, let it course through your spine; embrace your essence, gather your qi, and forge a mystic armor..."

As the abstruse incantation ended, a golden light suddenly flashed through Lin Yin's mind:

[Heaven rewards diligence; there is nothing you cannot achieve]

[Vajra Stake Technique: Beginner (1/100)]!