Martial Artist

"Jing'er... Jing'er... how could you be so careless... How did you get yourself mixed up in..."

The voice calling to him came in fits and starts, edged with urgency and a choked sob.

In the murky darkness, Chen Jing's eyes flew open.

A crude ceiling made of scrap wood came into view. The setting sun poured through the gaps, scattering broken patches of light across his face.

"I..."

The moment he opened his mouth, excruciating pain surged through his head, as if knives were churning inside his skull.

Chen Jing felt as though someone were ripping his soul apart with their bare hands. His whole body trembled with pain.

In the next instant, countless jumbled, unfamiliar memories came tumbling down like shattered glass, piecing together and crowding into his mind.

He was Chen Jing.

He was an ordinary rickshaw puller in Red Rock County.

The place he now lived was a rotting country rife with natural disasters, man-made calamities, and foreign invasions. The officials throughout the court could barely look after themselves, while the common folk wailed across the land.

Chaos, upheaval, despair.

And just then—

"Jing'er, how are you? Does your head still hurt?"

The familiar voice sounded again.

Chen Jing looked up. Sitting beside the bed was an old man who looked to be in his fifties or sixties. His temples were grizzled, and deep lines of hardship and toil were etched into his face.

It was his father, Chen Sanwu.

Chen Sanwu's father had been third among his siblings, and he himself was fifth, which was how he had gotten such a plain, simple name.

"My head..."

Chen Jing raised a hand to touch it.

The moment his fingertips brushed the wound, he felt a sudden warmth.

He lifted his palm. Blood was unmistakably running across it.

"It's still bleeding!"

In the light of the setting sun, Chen Sanwu saw the vivid red. His expression instantly turned frantic, and he hurried to his feet. "Jing'er, don't move. I'll go find you some clean cloth!"

As he spoke, he anxiously rummaged through the battered cabinet nearby.

Chen Jing, meanwhile, sat frozen in place.

The warmth of the blood, the smell of the air—everything felt so real. And now, the memories in his mind had fully fused together...

At last, he remembered why he had ended up like this.

He was a rickshaw puller in Red Rock County, making a hard living by ferrying passengers in this troubled world.

The passenger he had taken that day had been a martial artist.

At a narrow street corner, he hadn't been able to dodge in time, and his rickshaw had brushed against the man's leather shoe.

It had only scuffed off a little dust.

But the martial artist had flown into a rage. Without saying a word, he had slammed a fist into Chen Jing's head.

The blow had been so powerful that it split Chen Jing's skull open at once. Blood sprayed everywhere, and he passed out on the spot.

After throwing that punch, the martial artist hadn't even spared Chen Jing a glance. He merely snorted, straightened his shoe, and strode away.

If the other rickshaw pullers nearby hadn't known him and hurried to notify Chen Sanwu, if Chen Sanwu hadn't desperately carried him home and kept watch over him day and night—

He would likely have died by the roadside, just another nameless corpse forgotten by the chaos of the age.

At the thought, Chen Jing's chest heaved, and his fists clenched until his knuckles turned white.

If his constitution weren't special, and this grievous injury hadn't broken open the so-called mystery of the womb, allowing him to remember his past life—

He would probably be dead.

No!

In other words, that martial artist had already killed him once!

"Martial artists... can just kill people whenever they want? And no one even holds them accountable?"

"The Black Crow Sect. Yan Peng!"

Chen Jing gritted his teeth under his breath. Without realizing it, he had clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

Rage, humiliation, and resentment churned in his chest, like a trapped beast roaring wildly through his veins.

But in the next moment, he thought of Yan Peng's status as a martial artist, and the anger in his chest sank helplessly.

The times were far too cruel to ordinary people.

Martial artists tempered their qi and blood. One could take on ten men, while the strongest could shatter mountains with a punch and stride across an army.

Anyone with the qi and blood of a martial artist stood above the common folk, high in the clouds.

A martial artist's status could practically be called transcendent.

As for ordinary people, they were like livestock penned for slaughter, no better than pigs or dogs—beaten and killed at will!

Kill a few people?

Ha. If a martial artist said, "I'm in a bad mood," the authorities would silence the matter on the spot for him.

At that thought, Chen Jing's throat tightened. An unrealistic yet unshakable idea rose in his heart. If I could become a martial artist too... perhaps I could get revenge.

But the moment the thought surfaced, Chen Jing's brow furrowed, and the light in his eyes dimmed.

Find a master and learn martial arts?

He had no chance.

Although Red Rock County had quite a few martial arts schools, their internal cultivation methods were always kept under lock and key. Even learning a few basic external moves would cost a hefty tuition fee.

He and his father were nothing more than rickshaw pullers, scraping by.

After a full day of hard work, a third of what they earned went toward renting the rickshaw. The rest had to cover food and clothing.

By the end of the month, there were often only a few copper coins left in their pockets.

As for his two older sisters—

His eldest sister played minor roles in an opera troupe. After years of hard work, she still hadn't landed a proper role.

His second sister was an apprentice at an apothecary. It was already a struggle for her to cover her own food and studies each month. How could anyone expect her to send money home?

With a family like his...

Chen Jing's eyes brimmed with helplessness and frustration.

A chipped bowl, a broken kang, a dilapidated house—the family was so poor that even firewood for winter was a problem.

Forget the extravagant hope of finding a master and practicing martial arts. Whether they could even survive the coming winter depended on the heavens.

"Could it be... that I'll spend this whole life just like Xiangzi, bullied and crushed by others, until my family is torn apart and I'm driven into a dead end?"

At the thought of Xiangzi's wretched fate, Chen Jing felt as if something had stabbed him deep in the heart.

"No!"

He suddenly clutched the quilt, his gaze turning sharp.

"Since I've lived two lives, I absolutely cannot go on being a cow or sheep waiting to be slaughtered!"

"I, Chen Jing, will not die a second time!"

The thought had barely formed when a ripping pain exploded in his mind. It was as if something were gathering and taking shape.

The next instant—

In the sea of consciousness, Chen Jing saw a faintly translucent little bead floating quietly.

Then a flood of information poured into his mind.

It was an Exemption Bead.

Its function was to exempt him from the costs of any cultivation method.

If a method let someone cultivate ten times faster but cost them an arm, the Exemption Bead could exempt them from losing the arm, leaving only the tenfold cultivation speed!

The Exemption Bead was completely transparent at the moment, which clearly meant it hadn't accumulated enough energy.

The energy it needed came from extracting excess nourishment from everyday food or medicinal tonics, converting it into vital essence for absorption and gradual accumulation.

Once its energy was full, the Exemption Bead would turn blood-red, allowing it to exempt him from the cost of one cultivation method.

The instant his consciousness withdrew from the sea of consciousness, Chen Jing's eyes snapped open.

Fervor, greed, and ambition burst into his chest like blazing flames.

"Martial artists... I'm going to become one!"

"In this chaotic age, only fists make the rules!"

"If I don't want to be a cow or sheep, I have to rise above the rest!"

"Only by becoming a martial artist can I make Yan Peng pay the price he deserves!"