Li Yun

Spring had arrived.

All things came back to life, and it was once again the season for animals to breed.

A male pheasant was showing off its colorful feathers and singing at the top of its lungs.

The female pheasant beside him was utterly entranced, opening the gates wide.

Whoosh~

An arrow shot through the air.

One arrow, two birds.

[Archery: +1]

[Archery (Mastery): ∞/∞]

[Archery Mastery Trait: Pierce the Willow at a Hundred Paces]

A handsome young man stepped out from behind a large tree.

He looked seventeen or eighteen, with a lithe, agile frame and a touch of heroic spirit.

Li Yun.

Two and a half months ago, he had been a middle-aged bachelor, a corporate drone laid off from his job. Then, by some stroke of luck, he had closed his eyes and opened them in another world.

Along with him had come a proficiency panel.

No bottlenecks. Heaven rewards diligence; once proven, a skill remained proven forever.

Li Yun had read countless novels. While feeling out his golden finger, he discovered he was different from everyone else.

Besides the proficiency panel, he had also gained a storage space of ten thousand cubic meters!

Wahoo, he was taking off~

After absorbing his predecessor's memories, he felt excited and full of anticipation, with just a touch of disappointment.

He was disappointed that his predecessor had no child bride, sister-in-law, or wife entrusted to him by a friend...

There was no warm welcome to kick things off.

Of course, there was none of that messy family drama, either—no biased grandfather, no uncle trying to bleed the family dry...

His excitement and anticipation were simple enough: this was a world of martial arts!

What young man had never dreamed of taking up a sword and roaming the world?

Every fallen rapeseed blossom from one end of the village to the other could attest to Li Yun's devotion to the martial path.

Unfortunately, before he even reached the village entrance, his parents had beaten those dreams to pieces with their bamboo-shoot stir-fry.

Once he had learned the general state of this world, Li Yun swore:

He would stand at the summit of martial arts.

He would behold the splendor of the world!

He looked around.

Making sure no one was nearby, Li Yun put the two shameless pheasants into his storage space.

Then he checked his direction and continued hunting.

He hadn't gone far before he spotted some bean-shaped droppings among the bushes.

"Must be an herbivore—something like a rabbit, sheep, or deer."

His predecessor came from a family of hunters. Their bow had been used by several generations; even when its owner passed on, the bow remained.

He knew all the basics of hunting.

Picking up a broken branch, he gently prodded the droppings. They were a little damp and gleamed in the light.

They were fresh!

There were also footprints in the soft earth nearby.

Four clear toe marks, arranged in a star, with the two middle toes narrower and the outer ones broader.

A deer?

This world was both like and unlike the ancient times Li Yun knew.

A catty of grain cost a few copper coins, and ordinary meat went for around thirty or forty. But deer were different; every part of one was valuable.

If he managed to bring one down, he'd have enough to cover the costs of practicing martial arts!

Following the tracks, he pressed on slowly.

After crossing two hills, Li Yun spotted the prey he had come for.

Its body was grayish-brown, with white spots on its back and flanks. It had antlers with six points.

But one of its antlers had snapped, hanging on by only a layer of skin.

A red deer.

From what he could tell, this buck had lost a fight for a mate and been driven out of the herd.

Li Yun crept closer.

He moved carefully, afraid of startling his target.

When he reached the ideal distance, he flipped an arrow into place on the bowstring.

He suddenly brought his strength to bear, drawing the bow into a full moon.

Holding his breath, he focused, his gaze locked on the target like a hawk's.

Tw wang~

The crisp twang of the bowstring shattered the silence. The arrow tore through the air with a sharp whistle and sank precisely into the red deer's neck.

"Yaaah~"

The red deer shuddered violently and reared up, its front hooves high in the air. In agony, it spun around and bolted like a mad thing.

A single arrow had struck the red deer, which stood around three and a half feet at the shoulder and measured four and a half feet from nose to rump.

The shot wasn't fatal, but it had pierced the deer's neck. Given enough time, the blood loss would eventually wear it down.

Li Yun regretted the blood it was losing, but he didn't rush in.

Even a cornered rabbit would bite, let alone a red deer weighing four or five hundred pounds that had just lost a fight for a mate.

All he had to do was stay close behind and wait patiently.

The chase lasted a whole hour.

He lost the trail twice, but fortunately, he followed the drops of blood along the way and eventually found the red deer, long dead in a thicket.

He put the deer into his storage space, rested briefly, then continued searching for prey.

The sun sank in the west.

With his bow and arrows slung over his back and three rabbits in hand, Li Yun emerged from Crow Mountain.

A crowd had gathered on the road at the foot of the mountain.

"The Mountain Gang has decreed that, from now on, everyone must hand over seventy percent in Peace Fees!"

At those words, the villagers around them erupted in angry complaints.

"Seventy percent? They're trying to drive us to our deaths!"

"Prey's hard enough to catch as it is. Sometimes we come home empty-handed after a whole day, and now they want seventy percent? Our wives and kids are waiting for us to bring food home!"

"The Mountain Gang is cutting off our livelihood!"

"..."

The Mountain Gang was a gang that had risen alongside Crow Mountain.

Hunters, herb gatherers, lumberjacks—anyone who came down from Crow Mountain had to pay them a tax.

Just a month ago, the fee had been forty percent. Now it had jumped to seventy.

"Shut up! Are you trying to start a rebellion?"

Seeing the rabble go too far, He Xiuyong slammed his hand down on the table.

Bam.

The solid wooden table snapped in two.

Silence fell at once.

"Come on, then. Anyone who doesn't want to pay, step forward."

The villagers who had been raging moments ago looked displeased, but none dared say another word.

The Mountain Gang's full members were all strong and burly.

Anyone who wanted to become a squad leader had to be at least a Body Tempering martial artist.

He Xiuyong was a squad leader.

As for the Mountain Gang's leader, he was a big shot even in the Inner City of Crow Mountain County. Of course, he wouldn't come in person to collect fees.

"Gone mute, have you?

"If you can't pay, then stop flapping your gums. Get in line, one by one."

When no one spoke up, He Xiuyong couldn't be bothered to argue. He ordered his men, the Qian Brothers, to get to work.

Li Yun also joined the crowd, looking "downcast."

He Xiuyong spotted Li Yun at once, standing head and shoulders above the crowd.

Unlike the villagers around him, Li Yun was rosy-cheeked and sturdy. It was obvious he was living well.

"Hey, Li Yun, that's a pretty poor haul. You only got three rabbits."

"Heh, I had some bad luck today."

"Have you thought about joining the Mountain Gang?"

"Ah, I'm just a hunter. Maybe I'll save up some money, find a wife, and settle down with my wife and kids. That'd be nice!"

These were troubled times, and the Mountain Gang had a golden goose laying eggs right under its nose. That brought no shortage of trouble.

Without strength of his own, joining the Mountain Gang would just make him expendable.

The Mountain Gang did teach people martial arts, but only in exchange for meritorious service.

But Li Yun had no merit. How could he learn martial arts?

And without training, how could he earn merit?

"Hmph, you don't know what's good for you. You're fated to spend your whole life hunting."

"Heh."

Li Yun gave a "simpleminded" grin, handed over two rabbits, then carried the other one and strode toward the village.

Afterward, once they had finished collecting the Peace Fees, He Xiuyong said to the Qian Brothers:

"Since that brat Li Yun doesn't know how to play along, go teach him the difference between having someone to protect him and having no one at all."

"Yes, brother-in-law."