No Way I'm Taking Out a Loan This Lifetime

"Kid, want a loan?"

A hoarse caw came from outside, as though some old woman were speaking at the door.

Lu Li's bleary eyes snapped wide open. He jerked upright, climbed down from the kang bed, and nervously approached the door. Through the crack in the middle of the door panels, he vaguely saw a wooden crow standing outside his home.

The debt collectors had come knocking?!

"Go away. I won't sell my kidneys, but I'll definitely pay the money back."

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That was what Lu Li said. He intended to send the wooden crow away first, then pack his things and flee while it was gone.

"Kid, I've got a fine business deal here. Don't be in such a hurry to refuse. Hear this old woman out first."

Lu Li was certain that even if there truly were something good, it would never fall into his lap. This thing wanted his kidneys, his five viscera and six bowels, his spirit roots.

"I'll install a mechanical puppet device for you right now. If you can refine an identical puppet device within the allotted time, this thing will be yours."

"A mechanical puppet device?"

Lu Li had heard of puppet devices. In this world, cultivators relied on mechanist arts for cultivation, and all had modified their bodies.

The suffering of flesh and blood; ascension through machinery. How could the frail flesh one was born with possibly compare to mechanisms forged by craftsmen?

Mechanical puppet devices were the source of cultivators' power. With these mechanisms, cultivators could surpass the limits of mortals, soar into the sky and burrow into the earth, move mountains and fill seas.

Cultivators squandered their fortunes and racked their brains to deduce ever more powerful puppet devices, all so that one day they might use them to ascend and become immortals.

How could there possibly be such a good deal in this world? Lu Li did not believe such fortune would land on his head. Two lifetimes of struggling through the mud had taught him that when a pie fell from the sky, his first reaction should be suspicion.

There was definitely a trick to this.

"What's the price? What's the price I have to pay?"

"The price is your original organs as collateral. If you fail to forge the corresponding mechanical organs within one month, then as the price of default, I will keep your organs and reclaim the mechanism."

"Fuck off. I knew there was no such thing as a free lunch."

What a joke—have him forge a puppet device?

Only puppet masters could forge puppet devices. A puppet master needed to be proficient in both soldering arts and clamping arts. Soldering arts were responsible for welding formation arrays, while clamping arts were responsible for shaping components.

In terms from his previous life, the former was like soldering circuit boards in an electronics factory, while the latter was like forging iron and screwing bolts in a machine-tool factory.

Only by mastering both soldering arts and clamping arts, bringing both techniques to the heavenly grade, could one be called a puppet master. Only then could one independently forge puppet devices. In terms from his previous life, that was called an all-rounder.

The stamping workshop where Lu Li worked only produced some mechanical components. The various stamping workshops worked together, assembling the parts before putting them through further processing, until they could finally be made into puppet devices.

Wasn't this still after his kidneys?

It seemed better to simply flee to some faraway place and dodge the debt. Even if he had a puppet device, so what? It was not as though he could use it to rob a bank.

"Every last one of you wants me dead. I'll never take out a loan for the rest of my life. Give up on that idea."

"Alas, this old woman will guide you in how to forge it."

"I believe you about as far as I can throw you. You'd kindly help me?"

"Hehehe. You'll come looking for me. Very soon. Oh, they should be here already."

"What should be here?"

The wooden crow did not answer. Instead, it suddenly flew into the woods. Lu Li had no idea what it meant, but an inexplicable panic rose in his heart. He had slept all the way from morning to dusk.

Since he was doomed to be unable to repay the money, he could not stay here any longer. People from Azure Sun Hall could come at any time. Rather than wait for the debt collectors to knock on his door, he might as well run now.

Lu Li rapidly packed his belongings. After rummaging through boxes and cabinets, he found a string of copper coins—fifteen coins in all. That was his entire fortune.

Then there was one change of clothes and a pair of straw sandals. Lu Li did not know where he would go or how far he would have to travel, so he did not dare bring too much.

After that came the five green pears left in the house. They would be his food until he reached the next town. Afterward, he planned to look for wild fruit along the road, or take on odd jobs to keep himself alive.

Lu Li bundled everything up and slung it over his back. Just as he was about to leave, he turned back, took the woodcutter's knife from the wall and the kitchen knife beside the chopping board, and hung one at each side of his waist.

If he encountered danger, these two knives would be his final means of fighting for his life.

Lu Li was somewhat confused. Although the mechanist arts of this world were highly advanced, in no way inferior to the technology of his previous life, the lives of ordinary people had not improved at all. They still used kitchen knives to chop vegetables, firewood to cook, heated kang beds for warmth. People still worked themselves half to death yet could not afford enough food or clothes, poor as church mice.

Cultivators used spiritual power to light lamps and turn night as bright as day, only so ordinary people could work night shifts and continue laboring after dark, stealing the next day's hours from midnight onward. Yet they did not earn much more money for it.

Why exactly was that?

Who the hell was making all the money?!

Unable to figure it out, Lu Li stopped dwelling on it. By then, night had deepened. He stepped out of his front door and looked back at his thatched cottage. Its roof sagged inward on the western side, as if it might collapse at any moment.

"I probably won't be coming back. Maybe I should sell this house to someone in the village and get some travel money for the road."

Lu Li shook his head and dismissed the thought, because he did not trust those neighbors.

They might seem amicable enough in everyday life, but behind the scenes they were all scheming against one another and could not stand seeing anyone else prosper. Unless he told no one, he might be reported to Azure Sun Hall.

Walking around to the back of the thatched cottage, Lu Li looked at the willow tree. His parents were buried beneath it. His family had originally included a sickly younger sister, but his mother had sold her three years ago. Thinking about it now, she was probably indeed dead.

Seeing this, Lu Li tried to summon some emotion, only to find that he still could not cry.

Lu Li felt that being unable to cry, yet not hiring someone to cry in his stead, was truly the height of filial impiety.

That wooden crow was right—he was not suited to playing the dutiful son, weeping at graves in place of an employer.

After leaving the village, on this night that no one cared about, Lu Li headed west and began his long trek.

Limited by his strength, he moved painfully slowly. This body simply could not endure a long journey; it could only keep plodding along the road.

After walking through the night, he had not encountered any danger for the time being. It was only that rain began to fall outside, forcing Lu Li to take shelter in a ruined temple. He took out a green pear and began gnawing on it by himself.

The green pear was only a little larger than an egg, its skin shriveled and dry, with very little juice. Just as Lu Li was chewing it carefully, a burst of footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door, accompanied faintly by the fluttering of birds' wings.

Caw!

The wooden crow let out a harsh cry. Lu Li inwardly cried that this was bad—he already had an answer as to the identity of the newcomers. He glanced around, then hid by the entrance to a side hall of the ruined temple, holding his breath and focusing his mind, a firewood cleaver in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other.

Tap~ tap~ tap~

There were two people approaching. Their footsteps came one before the other, one hurried and one slow, drawing ever closer. Lu Li could hear their unhidden panting. At the sound, his heart rose to his throat. He breathed as quietly as he could, terrified that they would notice him.