A World That Devours People

After seeing off that great Buddha, Lu Zhen did not dare rest.

He pulled his rickshaw and plunged headfirst into the cold wind again.

But this time, he no longer ran around like a headless fly.

Whenever he stopped at a tea stall or ran into a chatty regular customer, he deliberately, or seemingly casually, steered the conversation toward martial arts halls.

Ocean City had a thriving martial culture, with martial arts halls as numerous as cow hairs, but finding one with genuine skill required knowing the ropes.

By the time the sun leaned westward, Lu Zhen had more or less figured things out.

After narrowing them down, there were only three martial arts halls suitable for him.

The first was Zhenwei Martial Arts Hall in the city.

It was the one advertised in the morning paper.

Its master, Lu Ziye, had friends in both the underworld and the respectable world. He taught Xingyi Fist mixed with Western boxing.

It had the greatest reputation and the most apprentices.

But its price was equally sky-high.

The apprenticeship fee alone cost fifty silver dollars, and there was another ten-dollar monthly tuition fee.

Lu Zhen skipped it the moment he heard the price.

That was a place for young masters of wealthy families to gild themselves, not a door a poor wretch like him could enter.

The second was called Flying Crane Sect.

Its master was an old boxing master from Fujian, famous for this very style.

It emphasized agile footwork and borrowing force to strike with force.

The apprenticeship fee was twenty silver dollars, with five dollars due each month.

He could scrape together that amount if he gritted his teeth, but after considering it, Lu Zhen still shook his head.

He had pulled rickshaws for over a decade and had trained up nothing but brute strength. Though his stance was steady, his body had long since settled into its shape and was not agile enough.

Learning such light and nimble kung fu would mean twice the effort for half the result.

The third was on South City Old Street, called Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall.

The master's surname was Yan—Yan Tieqiao.

The place did not have much of a storefront; it even looked somewhat run-down.

What it taught was also simple and brutal: Coiling Dragon Stake and Iron Wire Fist.

Every day was spent tempering strength—lifting stone locks, thrusting hands into iron sand, and using medicinal liquid to slap and beat the body.

Those who trained there ended up thick-skinned and tough-fleshed, with strength enough to uproot mountains.

He had heard that most apprentices who left there became foremen at the docks or guards for wealthy households.

Most crucially, there was the price.

The apprenticeship fee was only eight silver dollars.

But that was not the end of it.

Training hard kung fu wore down the body. One needed medicinal baths and meat to replenish oneself.

The martial arts hall provided one meat meal a day, and together with the medicinal soup fees, it cost four silver dollars a month.

Lu Zhen sat on the roadside steps and began calculating in his heart.

"Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall is the best fit for me."

He was now in the Early Force Refining Realm. His legs, feet, and waist strength had been built through pulling rickshaws in the first place.

This kind of solid, forceful martial art would be perfect for linking together all that dead strength and forging it into unified force.

Once he mastered it and had some real skill, the paths to making money would broaden.

With his destination decided, the next matter was money.

Lu Zhen reached into his clothes. After running day and night these past few days, together with the little he had saved before, he had roughly seven silver dollars on hand.

His luck had been good today. He had gotten two dollars in tips from that lucrative trip with Xiao Yuqing.

That made nine dollars.

The eight-dollar apprenticeship fee was covered.

But upon entering, he would have to pay that month's food and medicine fees: four dollars.

That came to twelve dollars altogether.

And that did not include money set aside to buy coal and rice for his little sister.

But Lu Zhen was not worried.

"As long as tonight's settlement passes, I'll have enough money."

Lu Zhen swallowed the last mouthful of cold water and patted the dust from his backside.

"Tomorrow morning, I'll go become an apprentice."

He returned the rickshaw and settled the accounts.

When Lu Zhen walked out of the rickshaw depot, his back sagged slightly, and his right leg—which had clearly already healed—habitually began to limp again.

The cold wind swept through the streets, rolling up fallen leaves from the ground.

When he returned to the entrance of Pig Cage Alley, something felt wrong.

At this hour on ordinary days, there would always be old women mending shoe soles at the alley entrance, or bare-bottomed children running about.

Today, it was terrifyingly quiet.

Every household had its doors and windows tightly shut. Only thin black cracks showed between the doors, with pairs of frightened eyes hiding behind them and staring fixedly at the open space in the middle of the alley.

Two rolls of tattered straw mats lay across the open ground.

Dark-red blood seeped from beneath the mats, quickly freezing into blackish-purple ice chips in the cold wind.

Several men in black short jackets were cursing as they spat into their palms. They were the Black Snake Gang's lot.

Lu Zhen's heart skipped a beat. He lowered his head, deliberately dragged his injured leg, and slowly edged along the base of the wall.

The wind carried over the neighbors' hushed whispers.

"Tragic... Wu Laoliu was too stubborn."

"Debts must be repaid—it's only right and proper—but where does interest upon interest ever end? The Black Snake Gang insisted on taking his little granddaughter to pay the debt."

"Wu Laoliu refused. He clung desperately to those men's legs, knocking his head on the ground and begging for mercy. In the end, they beat him to death right on his doorstep."

"That girl was fierce too. The moment she saw her grandpa breathe his last, she smashed her head against the wall and killed herself..."

"Two lives in one go. In this world, there's no road left for people to live."

Listening, Lu Zhen lowered his eyelids even further.

In Pig Cage Alley, there were no fewer than a hundred laboring men like Lu Zhen and Wu Laoliu who had a bit of strength.

In terms of realm, after doing heavy labor year-round, quite a few young men had actually reached the Early Force Refining Realm. They had one or two hundred jin of brute strength in a single arm.

These Black Snake Gang thugs before him were only at that level as well.

If everyone united and rushed them together, even with nothing but a flurry of fists, they could beat these man-eating vicious dogs to death.

But no one dared move.

No one was stupid.

After dealing with the young ones, the old ones would come.

The Black Snake Gang's leader was a genuine late-stage Force Refining Realm expert. He had trained his body to be as tough as iron; ordinary blades and clubs could scarcely hurt him.

Below him were the Four Hall Masters, every one of them in the middle-stage Force Refining Realm, with five hundred jin of force in a single arm.

Though none of them had cultivated that strand of force and could not be considered true ranked martial artists.

In ordinary people's eyes, however, they were the sky itself.

In the Force Refining Realm, every level was a whole new heaven.

Middle stage against early stage was like a grown man fighting a child. At the late stage, one person could sweep an entire street clean.

That was intimidation.

At this moment, those thugs seemed to have vented enough.

The leader, Triangular Eyes, spat out a thick gob of phlegm. Looking at the straw mats on the ground, he wore an expression of utter bad luck.

"Fucking rotten luck! The people died, we didn't get the money, and now we've got to waste effort disposing of the bodies."

"Come on, come on. Let's hurry and find somewhere to have a few drinks and wash off this corpse stink."

The men turned to leave, but Triangular Eyes suddenly swept his gaze around and spotted Lu Zhen walking along the wall.

"Well, if it isn't Cripple Lu?"

Triangular Eyes grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, and beckoned. "Come here."

Lu Zhen paused, then slowly hobbled over.

"Gentlemen." He lowered his head.

Triangular Eyes looked him up and down, extended a palm, and waved it. "I'm in a bad mood today. Seen blood. Need to get rid of the bad luck. Hand over next week's interest early."

Lu Zhen's hand, hidden in his sleeve, clenched fiercely.

This was his money for becoming an apprentice tomorrow.

Even one dollar short could keep him from entering that door.

Lu Zhen forced a humble, bitter smile onto his face and reached into the inner pocket against his chest, fumbling around for a long while.

"I'm truly sorry."

Lu Zhen held the four silver dollars in both hands and offered them over.

"This is all I have—four dollars. The snow's been heavy these past two days, the roads are hard to travel, and there are fewer customers."

"Could you let me delay the missing dollar for two days? Even one day's grace would do."

Triangular Eyes snatched the four silver dollars and weighed them in his hand.

He glanced sideways at Lu Zhen's poverty-stricken face, then at the corpses on the ground nearby. Perhaps he felt there was no more oil to squeeze from him.

"Four dollars?"

Triangular Eyes snorted, stuffed the money into his pocket, and forcefully patted Lu Zhen's cheeks, each slap ringing out with a smack.

"Fine. Since you've been fairly obedient, I'll put that one dollar on the tab for now."

"The day after tomorrow! If I don't see the money by then, we'll prepare a straw mat for you too!"

With that, the men crossed over the corpses laughing and joking, then swaggered away.

Lu Zhen stood in the cold wind as an icy killing intent churned wildly in his chest.

He said nothing. He merely cast a deep look at the two blood-soaked rolls of straw mat on the ground.

Then he lowered his head, turned around, and continued limping deeper into the alley.

At his door, Lu Zhen raised his hand and knocked softly three times.

The door opened with a creak.

Lu Wan stood behind it.

By the faint light reflected from the snow outside, Lu Zhen saw that his little sister's face was white as paper and her body was trembling uncontrollably.

The plank houses in Pig Cage Alley had thin walls that did not block sound.

The commotion outside just now had been too great.

The curses, Wu Laoliu's screams, and that final muffled sound of a head striking the wall.

She had heard them all.

"Brother..."

Lu Wan clutched desperately at Lu Zhen's sleeve. "Grandpa Wu... is he...?"

Lu Zhen shut the door behind him and slid the bolt into place.

"Don't be afraid. It's all over."

"As long as I'm here, no one can touch you."

Lu Wan sniffled, nodded hard, and raised her sleeve to wipe the tears from her face haphazardly.

"Brother, you've been running all day. You must be hungry, right? I'll make dinner. I bought cornmeal today, and there are still some cracklings left from yesterday."

With that, she turned and went to the stove in the corner.

Lu Zhen sat on the edge of the bed, watching his little sister's busy figure as his gaze gradually deepened.

[Daily Settlement Panel Activated]

[Today's Settlement: Pulled rickshaw for ten shichen, traveled one hundred and forty li]

[Obtained: Silver Dollars +4, Profession Experience +10, Physique Experience +5, General Experience +5]

[Current Daily Settlement level: LV1. Daily rewards receive an additional x1 multiplier]

Today's run had been worth it.

Especially that trip to the concession. That Eldest Miss Xiao had been lavish with her money, giving him two silver dollars in tips alone.

Together with a full day without stopping, all the scattered copper coins and small change added up to a full four silver dollars in income.

It was the most he had ever earned since he began pulling rickshaws.

Lu Zhen (30 years old)

Wealth: 9 silver dollars

Current Profession: Rickshaw Puller

Level: Daily Settlement Lv.1 (0/50)

Skill: Pulling Rickshaw Lv.1 (30/50)

Physique: Strong and Healthy Lv.2 (0/200)

General Experience: 5 points

Lu Zhen's gaze swept across the Panel. He did not linger on the wealth column, instead letting his eyes settle on the "General Experience" at the bottom.

Five experience points.

Since his leg ailment had healed and his Physique had reached the second level of "Strong and Healthy," there was no urgent need to add points there for now.

His gaze moved upward and fixed on "Level: Daily Settlement Lv.1."

Its current effect was "Daily rewards receive an additional x1 multiplier."

If he could raise this level and turn it into two times, three times, then the experience and wealth he gained every day in the future would become a terrifying figure.

This was the long-term plan.

Lu Zhen made up his mind.

With a thought, the 5 points of universal experience turned into streams of light and poured into the first line.

[Daily Settlement Lv.1 (5/50)]

Watching the progress bar jump forward a small notch, Lu Zhen closed the Panel.

After dinner, the room sank back into darkness.

He touched the empty fold of his robes. It should have been a little fuller there.

Tomorrow, he would go to Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall to take a master.

Lu Zhen waited quietly in the dark.

Time trickled away.

The wind outside quieted somewhat, and the night watchman struck the clapper for the third watch.

The moon climbed to the center of the sky. His little sister in the next room was already fast asleep.

Lu Zhen pulled out a piece of black cloth hidden beneath his bed, cut two holes into it, and pulled it over his face, leaving only his eyes exposed.

In this chaotic age where human lives were worth less than grass, yielding would not buy even a shred of peace. It would only make those wolves and jackals push their luck further.

"My money isn't so easy to take."

Lu Zhen sprang to his feet, yanked open the main hall door, and strode outside.

A bitter wind rushed through the hall and poured into the room.

"Creak—"

By the base of the wall, the old yellow almanac from yesterday was torn down by the wind, revealing a fresh new page.

The fifteenth year of the Republic, ninth day of early midwinter.

Year of Bingyin, month of Gengzi, day of Guisi.

Avoid: Praying for blessings, marriage.

Auspicious: Burial, killing!