"Silence!"
On a hastily built platform, a burly man with a face full of flesh looked at the chaotic crowd below. Rage immediately surged within him as killing intent rolled off his body. He shouted to those beside him, "Go maintain order!"
"Anyone who refuses to listen, throw them straight out!"
"Eight Great Kings, in his kindness, ordered these wandering orphans and beggars taken in. He did not do it so some useless trash could waste our grain!"
He was deeply puzzled by Eight Great Kings' order.
He knew that Eight Great Kings was cultivating trusted followers from childhood, uncovering talent from within the Rebel Army in preparation for what lay ahead.
But how long would that take to bear fruit?
The imperial court's army could arrive at any moment to surround and suppress them. Where would they find the time and energy for such waste?
"Smack!"
"Ow..."
"Line up by height! Do you hear me?"
"Anyone who doesn't listen gets no food today!"...
As more than a dozen soldiers leaped down from the platform, several zhang high, wielding clubs and delivering a round of blows, they made examples of a few disobedient orphan beggars by grabbing them and throwing them outside the gates of the courtyard. At last, the disorderly scene fell silent.
"This... this is..."
In his daze, Li Dingguo only felt as if his head were splitting apart. A flood of complicated information poured into his mind, and his eyes widened as he stared around in utter shock.
He happened to see more than a dozen burly men leap down from that platform, several zhang high, silently landing on the ground before wildly striking the ragged youths around them with clubs!
Before he could think further, he hurriedly darted to the back of the crowd.
After a while, the several hundred orphan beggars present were finally herded by the clubs of those soldiers into ten crooked lines, arranged by height.
Li Dingguo was one of the tallest youths there, so without drawing attention to himself, he moved to the end of one line and stood there obediently without moving.
Although this body's long-term malnutrition had left it skinny, little more than skin stretched over bones, its frame was large. It did not look like that of a mere ten-year-old at all, and was instead about as tall as those fourteen- or fifteen-year-old youths.
He was rather dumbfounded now.
He had never imagined that after getting thoroughly drunk at a reunion with old classmates, he would wake from one sleep to find both people and things utterly changed!
"Fuck!"
"Most likely, I drank counterfeit liquor, then drank too much on top of that and truly drank myself to death in a drunken dream!"
He had never been much of a drinker, yet he had not expected that one moment of indulgence would be enough to get him killed.
What he saw before him now made his heart tighten, and he dared not stand out from the crowd lest his unusual behavior invite suspicion.
From the memories he had just absorbed, the original owner had wandered and begged since childhood. His movements had been limited to this county town and the surrounding villages, and since he had never gone to school, his knowledge was extremely limited.
Not only had the original owner been young, but the people and events he encountered had also been few. Every day, he had run about endlessly just to secure two meals, knowing only that this was the Great Ming Dynasty and little else.
The fact that those soldiers had leaped down from a platform several zhang high and landed without a sound was enough to prove that the world he had arrived in was absolutely not the Great Ming Empire of his previous life's history.
Even with the original owner's limited knowledge, he knew that this world had demons, monsters, ghosts, and specters. That was also the main reason why he had never dared travel far to beg, instead lying low in this border county town and surviving by begging.
"The original owner was also called Li Dingguo?"
"The rebel band that captured this county town was led by someone called Eight Great Kings?"
Only belatedly did he finally realize what strange detail he had been overlooking all along.
"Gathering orphans and beggars on a grand scale to raise them, then adopting some as foster sons to control the Rebel Army—wasn't that exactly Eight Great Kings' method when he first rose in rebellion?"
"And I am Li Dingguo, the one who later rose above the rest within that Rebel Army?"
This time, Li Dingguo was truly somewhat dumbfounded.
One overlap with events from his previous life's history might be coincidence, but so many coincidences could no longer be called coincidence.
Looking down at his unusually tall body for his age, Li Dingguo would have to be an idiot not to notice that something was wrong with all these coincidences.
The problem was that this world was unimaginably vast and vastly different from the history of his previous life.
Leaving everything else aside, the dozen or so soldiers he had just seen possessed martial strength even more exaggerated than in wuxia novels. It simply overturned everything he thought he knew!
Still reeling from the shock, he was considering whether he should go with the flow and choose to lie flat when his mind suddenly blurred again. A Virtual Panel, like something from a trashy browser game, abruptly appeared in his mind:
Host: Li Dingguo Age: Ten (Status: Weak) Constitution: 3 Spirit: 2 Skills: None Fortune: 1 (If Fortune Value reaches zero, calamity will surely strike) Star Destiny: Army Breaker (Not Activated)
Li Dingguo was both shocked and delighted.
"I knew it. Transmigrators had to have Cheat Systems!"
As a freshly minted transmigrator, having a Cheat System was perfectly normal and nothing strange.
Otherwise, after crossing through time and space, without the protection of a Cheat System, how could either his soul or body withstand the crushing force of time and space and emerge unharmed?
"What should I do?"
Though shocked and delighted, Li Dingguo was panicking like hell inside!
It was impossible for this miraculous world to have no similarities whatsoever to the Great Ming Empire in his previous life's history.
After all, his current circumstances proved as much.
Should he follow the original course of events, acknowledge Eight Great Kings as his foster father, and risk his life working for him?
If he had no Cheat System, Li Dingguo figured he would not have the confidence to object. He could only take one step at a time.
In the history of his previous life, the original owner had lived a tragic and heroic life, one that made people sigh with regret. Now that he had miraculously transmigrated here, was he still supposed to walk the old road laid out by history?
He might even spend this entire life drifting from place to place, only to die in obscurity in the end!
Heh heh!
Having been lucky enough to live another life, and with a Cheat System at his side, there was no way he would work for someone else. He would never work for someone else in this life.
However, having just arrived in this unfamiliar world, the most urgent matter was figuring out how he could survive in this strange and exceedingly dangerous place.
The ups and downs of most of his previous life had shown him many of the cruel, dark truths hidden beneath society's surface. He was not some hot-blooded youngster who would charge forward the moment someone shouted a slogan.
Never mind whether the Rebel Army's rebellion could succeed.
In any era, it was always the common folk at the bottom, who made up the overwhelming majority, who suffered. There were no exceptions.
Once the chaos ended and the dust settled, it would not take many years before everything returned to square one.
Moreover, in this unfamiliar world with such terrifying martial power, he would ultimately have to rely on his own strength.
Lean against a mountain, and the mountain may collapse; lean against water, and the water may flow away.
Without a certain degree of strength, he would not even have the slightest guarantee of keeping his life. One careless misstep, and he would probably be reduced to ashes!
But the question now was: how could he acquire even barely sufficient means to protect himself?
Thus, even with a Cheat System, as a newcomer to this world, he could only first lie low obediently and develop in a wretched, low-profile way before considering anything else.
To stay alive, there was nothing shameful about borrowing a chicken to lay eggs for the time being.
Before you continue