Awakening

Mottled brick walls, a dilapidated roof of dark gray tiles.

A hemp mosquito net, and a quilt that smelled faintly musty draped over him.

Li Chuan was a little dazed.

He remembered staying up late to work overtime, so exhausted that he could barely keep his eyes open.

He had only meant to take a short nap.

He never expected that when he opened and closed his eyes, he would find himself in another world.

"Chuan'er, you're awake!"

A voice tinged with delight came from nearby.

Li Chuan looked up and saw a woman in coarse clothes, her hair half white, approaching with a clay bowl in her hands.

"Mother."

Li Chuan called out instinctively.

His mother, Wang Xiumei, looked at him with concern and fed him a spoonful of medicine.

"How many times have I told you? Even when you're training at the Martial Hall by yourself, you have to take care of your health. Wear more clothes, and don't push yourself."

"Look at you—you caught a chill this time and scared your grandparents half to death. They hurried over to see you."

Li Chuan lowered his head and drank the bitter medicine as memories surged through his mind.

His family was considered well-off in the villages and towns within a ten-mile radius.

They owned two shops in the Outer City. One sold breakfast, and the other was rented out.

Ever since they'd discovered that the protagonist had the bone constitution for martial arts and might earn an official title through the martial arts examinations, his whole family had treated him as their only hope.

His grandfather had resolutely sold one of the shops and sent the original owner to the Martial Hall.

But instead of working hard and devoting himself to martial arts, the original owner had fallen for Jiang Ting, a female disciple at the Martial Hall!

He kept coming up with excuses to ask his family for money, then lavishly spent it on rouge and powder for Jiang Ting, trying to win her favor.

And this time, he hadn't caught a chill the way his mother thought!

The original owner had invited Jiang Ting and several senior fellow disciples to dinner, gotten dead drunk, then slipped and fallen into a pond on his way home.

Jiang Ting, who had gotten a free meal out of him, hadn't cared in the slightest. She'd been too busy flirting with another disciple.

The double blow to his body and spirit had killed the original owner.

Li Chuan cursed the pathetic simp under his breath.

A simp usually ended up with nothing!

The original owner really was stupid beyond belief. Couldn't he see that Jiang Ting treated him as nothing more than a walking money bag?

His whole family had lifted him up and gotten him into the Martial Hall. He'd had a chance to change his fate against all odds, yet he hadn't known how to cherish it.

Li Chuan was at a loss for words.

Once he mastered martial arts, what kind of woman couldn't he find?

His poor grandparents and mother were still in the dark, thinking that he was doing well at the Martial Hall and beloved by his teachers.

They dreamed that one day Li Chuan would earn an official position, reducing the taxes on the whole family and exempting them from conscripted labor.

"Chuan'er, stay in bed and rest. I'll go make your favorite braised pork."

Looking at his mother's weary face, Li Chuan sighed inwardly.

A year ago, his father and uncle had been taken away for conscripted labor.

The burden of supporting the family had fallen on his mother all at once.

Running a breakfast stall was no easy task.

Every day, she had to get up before the rooster crowed to prepare the ingredients, and the few coins she earned through hard work were skimmed several times by the patrolling constables.

In just a year, his mother seemed to have aged by ten.

Her once-black hair had turned half white, and she looked like a woman in her fifties or sixties.

No matter how hard or exhausting it was, his mother had never complained once about earning money to cover Li Chuan's martial arts training.

It seemed mothers everywhere were the same, laboring tirelessly for their children.

Li Chuan continued searching through his memories and found that the original owner hadn't given up from the very beginning.

It was only after being crushed by one failure after another, his spirit worn down to despair, that he had become this way.

In martial arts, bone constitution was paramount.

It was like "talent" in his previous life.

People without talent were fated to find it difficult to reach the pinnacle of any field.

Li Chuan had a Low-Grade Bone Constitution. It was neither good nor bad, just mediocre.

His chances of breaking through the Gate and becoming a martial artist were one or two in ten.

His family's eager hopes were most likely doomed to come to nothing.

But... he was a little different.

Li Chuan narrowed his eyes. A panel flickered before him.

[Primordial Jade Record]

[Effect: Record a skill; train diligently, and you will surely achieve mastery!]

[Li Chuan]

[Mountain-Holding Stance (Initiation)]

[Proficiency: 100/500]

He had obtained the Primordial Jade Record from Dragon-Tiger Mountain in his previous life, and it had crossed over with him.

Li Chuan quickly realized how terrifying this panel was.

"With the Primordial Jade Record, as long as I diligently practice the Mountain-Holding Stance, I can break through and ignore the limitations of my bone constitution!"

If he started taking martial arts seriously now, there was still time!

Li Chuan had just gotten out of bed and was about to stretch when he heard a commotion outside.

Wang Xiumei looked flustered, but when she saw Li Chuan, she still put on a calm front and said,

"Chuan'er, this has nothing to do with you. Your grandparents and I will handle it."

Knowing there was trouble outside, Li Chuan couldn't just sit back.

He followed Wang Xiumei out and saw several burly men standing with their arms crossed, their expressions cold.

"Our family depends on that shop to make a living. We absolutely won't sell it to you!"

Li Chuan's grandfather, Li Nian, said, his face flushed red.

Liu Hu had a scar at the corner of his mouth. He grinned.

"Li Nian, why are you so angry? It's not as if I'm refusing to pay you."

Li Nian was so enraged by that remark that he could barely speak.

"A shop in the Outer City is worth at least thirty taels. You're offering five. How can you call that money? That's robbery!"

Liu Hu's smile vanished. He narrowed his eyes.

"Li Nian, I don't like the way you put that."

"It's not me who wants the shop. Cao Yan, the gang leader of the Black Bear Gang, wants it."

"The gang leader wants to open a restaurant in the city. He's bought several shops and joined them together. Yours is the only one left!"

"You can refuse to sell it to me, but if you hold up the gang leader's business, can you afford the consequences?"

Cao Yan was the leader of the Black Bear Gang. He was a major figure even in Anning County's Outer City.

Liu Hu was a member of the Black Bear Gang. Now that he'd invoked Gang Leader Cao's name, his words were full of threats.

Li Nian's face turned pale.

If Liu Hu alone were trying to seize the shop by force, he could simply refuse.

But behind him stood Gang Leader Cao...

Still, if he sold the shop for a mere five taels, how would the whole family make a living?

Li Nian glanced at Li Chuan and sighed again.

Even if he went back to farming, how could he afford Chuan'er's martial arts training?

Chuan'er had said he might be able to break through the Gate after a little more time...

For a moment, Li Nian's thoughts were in a tangled mess.

Seeing the hesitation on Li Nian's face, Liu Hu knew he'd achieved his goal.

He didn't expect a single show of pressure to make Li Nian give in.

Changing someone's mind took time and patience.

At worst, he could raise the offer to ten taels. After all, Gang Leader Cao had given him thirty taels of silver...

The more he could force the price down, the more silver he could pocket himself.

With that thought, Liu Hu returned to his earlier grinning manner.

"Li Nian, I'll give you a month to think it over. Once you've made up your mind, I'll come back."

"Just make sure my brothers don't come away empty-handed. They won't be happy."

Liu Hu's words were laden with meaning.

Before leaving, he glanced at Li Chuan.

At first, when he'd heard Li Chuan had joined Pine Wind Martial Hall, he hadn't dared to offend Li Nian.

After all, though Li Chuan had a Low-Grade Bone Constitution, he still had a chance to break through the Gate.

If he truly became a martial artist, Liu Hu couldn't afford to provoke him.

It was only after hearing rumors that Li Chuan was wasting his time at the Martial Hall and would be leaving within a month, with no hope of breaking through the Gate, that Liu Hu had dared to entertain such crooked ideas.