"Mo Chen, get up and chop wood!"
The fourth quarter of the Hour of the Tiger, before dawn.
In Yunyi County, at the Landowner Lu Estate, inside the servants' quarters.
Mo Chen had been dreaming about beautiful women and luxury cars when someone suddenly kicked him awake.
He opened his eyes to find a young boy with a worried expression standing in front of him, shaking him repeatedly.
"Brother Mo, get up! Steward Liu's furious..."
Mo Chen's brain stalled for a moment.
Then he saw the boy's threadbare hemp clothes, patched all over, and his expression changed sharply.
"Damn, I overslept!"
Without another word, he rolled out of bed, grabbed the axe from the corner, and rushed out the door.
The courtyard was already bustling with servants.
Some were carrying water, some chopping wood, some cutting vegetables, and others tending the fire and cooking...
The sky was still dark, yet the entire back courtyard was already in a frantic rush.
However.
In the middle of the courtyard stood a middle-aged man with a hooked nose, cursing as he lashed the passing servants with a whip.
"What are you lot doing, moving so slowly? If you delay the masters' and madams' meals, can you afford to take responsibility?"
"Damn it! Move faster! Have you started stewing the chicken soup for the young ladies yet? At this rate, do you expect them to eat breakfast at noon?"
The whip cracked over and over, accompanied by cries of pain. Mo Chen and Little Five shuddered, then sneaked into the group heading for the woodshed.
Clang!
Mo Chen brought his axe down hard, splitting the log in front of him in two.
But before he could swing a second time, a sharp whistle cut through the air beside his ear.
Crack!
A two-meter-long whip slammed into Mo Chen's back.
A fierce, burning pain nearly made him pass out. He let out a muffled groan, his face turning deathly pale.
"Mo Chen, don't think I didn't see you. If you oversleep again tomorrow, don't blame me for showing you no mercy!"
Steward Liu's face darkened as he gave a cold snort.
He turned around.
Another whip cracked.
"Ah!" Little Five cried out beside him, tumbling to the ground.
"Wang Xiaowu! You too. Oversleep again, and I'll break your legs!"
Steward Liu gripped the long whip and cursed in a cold, harsh voice.
Little Five curled up, his face twisted with pain as he wailed. His forehead and body were drenched in an instant, and he rolled on the ground, begging for mercy.
"I won't do it again, I won't... I'll never do it again..."
"That son of a bitch..." Mo Chen seethed inwardly, but could only grit his teeth and curse under his breath. He didn't dare stand up to fight back or defend Little Five.
That was because the body he'd transmigrated into belonged to one of the lowest-ranking slaves in the Landowner Lu Estate.
His contract of sale was still in their hands.
Under Great Mystic law, even if a master beat a slave to death, the authorities wouldn't give it a second glance.
"Damn it! Once I figure out how to get out of here, I'll kill that Liu bastard sooner or later!"
He brought his axe down again.
Mo Chen vented all his fury on the log before him.
It was as though the log were Steward Liu himself. One swing split it clean in two.
Just then.
[ Ding! Congratulations, you have activated the "Martial Arts Master" system. ]
[ Name: Mo Chen ]
[ System Level: First Tier ]
[ Martial Arts: None ]
[ Wealth: One tael ]
[ Martial Arts Training Progress Available for Exchange: One month ]
[ Number of Equippable Items: One ]
Mo Chen waved his hand, but the transparent panel floating in the air didn't disappear.
He rubbed his eyes, but the transparent panel was still hovering in front of him.
Now Mo Chen was stunned. "Holy crap... it's not a hallucination?"
In an instant.
Mo Chen understood what the system could do.
Silver could be used to upgrade the system or exchanged for martial arts training progress.
Upgrading the system to the second tier required ten taels of silver and one tael of gold. After upgrading, he could equip two items at once.
Exchanging for martial arts training progress cost twelve taels of silver for one year, which worked out to one tael of silver per month.
He hadn't learned any martial arts yet, so he couldn't make an exchange.
Equipped items could directly boost his attributes, improving his strength. The more items he equipped, the more their attributes stacked.
Mo Chen looked at the axe in his hand, and detailed information immediately appeared before his eyes.
[ Common Iron Axe ]
[ Level: Unranked ]
[ Equipping Requirements: None ]
[ Attribute: Strength increased by 20% ]
"Strength increased..."
Mo Chen's heart stirred. He turned to look at the other people's axes.
There were four servants chopping wood. Aside from Mo Chen and Little Five, who were still young and hadn't come of age, the other two, Li Dazhuang and Shi Yong, were seasoned men in their mid-thirties.
They'd had their axes for more than ten years, too.
[ Common Iron Axe ]
[ Level: Unranked ]
[ Equipping Requirements: None ]
[ Attribute: Strength increased by 50% ]
[ Common Iron Axe ]
[ Level: Unranked ]
[ Equipping Requirements: None ]
[ Attribute: Strength increased by 90%; Special Attribute: Lightweight ]
"Hmm?" Mo Chen's eyes lit up, and he immediately fixed his gaze on Li Dazhuang's axe.
He'd actually discovered another attribute on Li Dazhuang's axe: lightweight.
"Lightweight. Does that mean the axe is lighter and takes less effort to use?"
Mo Chen eyed the second axe with envy.
As a servant assigned to chop wood, he definitely couldn't leave the woodshed anytime soon.
If he could get his hands on that axe...
Not only would he gain a 90% strength boost, but he'd also get the lightweight attribute, which would save him a lot of effort. And with that energy saved, he'd have time to do something else.
Like practice martial arts!
"Every day I have to get up at the Hour of the Tiger to chop wood. By the time I've chopped all the wood needed for the day, it's practically noon."
"After eating, there's no time to rest. I have to go up the mountain to gather more wood. If I don't think of another way, I'll never get the chance to practice martial arts."
Thinking of this.
Mo Chen glanced back at Steward Liu, who was still scolding and beating people. He temporarily put his idea aside and continued chopping the wood in his hands at an unhurried pace.
"Move your asses! If the food isn't ready before dawn, don't blame me for showing you no mercy!"
Steward Liu's shouts rang throughout the back courtyard. All the servants looked tense and picked up the pace.
At last.
The roosters crowed, and all the food was ready.
The masters hadn't gotten up yet.
The servants were so hungry their stomachs were growling, but not one of them was allowed to eat.
Only when the sky grew bright and the sun appeared in the east did the maids help the landowner's wife, sons, and daughters get dressed and washed.
By the time Mo Chen and the other servants were about to eat, it was already the fourth quarter of the Hour of the Snake.
The sun was nearly overhead.
"Damn it. We get up at four in the morning, and it's almost ten, but we still haven't eaten..."
Although he'd been in this world for three months, Mo Chen still couldn't get used to eating breakfast so late.
If he'd slept in until ten, that would've been one thing. But damn it, they weren't even allowed to sleep in.
They got up earlier than cattle and still had to do five or six hours of hard labor before they could eat.
Who could take that?
Clang!
Sweat pouring down his face, Mo Chen gritted his teeth and brought his axe down.
His stomach was so empty that he had no strength left, and the axe only left a small notch in the log.
"Grrrr..."
Just then, the sound of protesting stomachs came from beside him.
Mo Chen turned to look.
Little Five, who was three years younger than him, was sallow and thin, his lips pale.
He gripped his axe with both hands, but they'd been trembling for ages, and he still couldn't even lift it.
Seeing Mo Chen look over, Little Five forced a smile. "Brother Mo, I-I really don't have any strength left. Could you chop this last bundle of wood for me? I'll owe you one."
Mo Chen had wanted to say that he didn't have any strength left, either.
But when he saw Little Five's pallid face and cracked lips, he remembered how Little Five had often helped him.
That morning, he'd even taken a whip lash just for waking Mo Chen. Mo Chen couldn't help feeling reluctant to turn him down.
"Fine. I'll take care of this wood. Go get some rest."
After saying that, Mo Chen glanced in Li Dazhuang's direction. His eyes flickered, and he walked over.
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