Courtyard Guard Tournament, Chopping Firewood to Improve

After passing through the rear courtyard, they reached the front courtyard.

Before Mo Chen and the others had even reached the side gate, they heard the dignified, booming voice of Wu Baoyin, the commander of the courtyard guards, lecturing in the neighboring yard.

"As guards of the Lu Residence, it is our duty to protect our masters' safety."

"You all have some hard-body training under your belts, so I won't waste words on the obvious."

"In one month, the Second Young Master will travel to the Prefectural City to take the Martial Suppression Academy's martial examination. Whoever places in the top three of the residence tournament may become the Second Young Master's attendant and accompany him to the Prefectural City."

"Complete this assignment, and not only might you win the Second Young Master's favor, you will also receive a personal reward of fifty taels of silver from the First Madam!"

The moment those words fell, they stirred up a tremendous uproar.

The guards' excited cheers rose one after another.

"Good! We will surely give it everything we have!"

"That's right! Brothers, let's risk it all! Martial Suppression Academy—even seeing it would broaden our horizons!"

"Hiss—fifty taels of silver! That's worth four years of my labor!"

"Haha, in one month, first place will be mine! None of you better fight me for it!"

Hearing this, all four of Mo Chen's group widened their eyes and stopped in their tracks.

"My heavens, fifty taels of silver? That much?" Little Five cried out.

The Martial Suppression Academy's examination did not attract them.

But the reward of fifty taels of silver left all four of them stunned.

At the Landowner Lu Estate, rough laborers and servants like them earned only six hundred copper coins a month.

That averaged out to only twenty copper coins a day. Even so, it was already enough to support a family.

Yet the guards in the neighboring yard not only earned higher wages in their daily work, but also had extra income.

"These guards earn ten taels of silver a year. If they place in the top three in the residence tournament and follow the Second Young Master to the Prefectural City for the martial examination, they can receive another fifty-tael reward. That's enough to buy one hundred and twenty shi of rice."

Li Dazhuang clicked his tongue enviously.

In Great Mystic, one tael of gold equaled ten taels of silver, while one tael of silver equaled one thousand copper coins.

Ten taels of silver, plus a reward of fifty taels, made sixty taels of silver altogether.

Converted into copper coins, that was sixty thousand coins. Li Dazhuang had never seen that much money in his entire life.

Yet the guards only had to place in the top three and accompany the Second Young Master on one trip to receive it.

There was no way he could feel no sense of disparity.

"We shouldn't think too much about it. Didn't you hear? That money isn't easy to earn either."

"First, you need martial skills to become a guard. Second, you need to place in the top three of the residence tournament. Third, you need to protect the Second Young Master on his trip to the Prefectural City for the martial examination. As for rough laborers like us... sigh!"

Shi Yong shook his head, sighed helplessly, and pushed his wheelbarrow onward.

Behind them.

Listening to the two discuss it, Mo Chen clenched his fist.

He glanced at the courtyard wall next door, his eyes blazing with a surging, overwhelming flame of desire.

"As long as I become a guard, I can earn one tael of silver every month. If there are extra assignments, I can earn huge rewards too!"

Upgrading the system to Tier Two required ten taels of silver and one tael of gold.

At present, it would be difficult for Mo Chen to achieve that goal.

Besides, learning martial arts was no easy matter.

As the saying went, the poor pursued literature, while the rich practiced martial arts.

Without money to support them, martial artists could injure their bodies from hunger alone.

Not to mention weapons, potent medicinal treasures, and healing pills.

In other words, practicing martial arts required silver—vast amounts of silver.

At the Landowner Lu Estate, Mo Chen was a servant who had sold himself into bondage. Under normal circumstances, learning martial arts would have been impossible for him in this lifetime.

However, after hearing what the guards said, he felt that he had found a sliver of opportunity.

"The residence tournament will be held in one month. That means over the next month, the guards will certainly train diligently to prepare for it."

As Mo Chen walked forward, he secretly pondered to himself.

It was certainly impossible for him to learn martial arts openly.

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Fortunately, he had the Martial Arts Master System. He could secretly watch the guards practice martial arts, then use silver to exchange for martial arts training progress.

That way, he would neither delay his sleep nor his firewood-chopping duties, while quietly increasing his own strength.

The only flaw was that he earned far too little silver, nowhere near enough to sustain the Martial Arts Master System's consumption.

"I need to make money! I still need to make money!"

Mo Chen felt a headache coming on.

With his contract of sale binding him to the Lu Residence, it was nearly impossible for him to leave and seek opportunities elsewhere.

If he secretly fled the Lu Residence on his own, the authorities would likely post notices and hunt him down that very day. At best, he would be caught and beaten half to death, then made to continue serving as a slave after recovering.

At worst, he would be beaten to death with random clubs, his corpse abandoned in the wilderness to become food for wild dogs.

Of course, he might get lucky, avoid capture, and escape the city.

But what awaited him would be endless wild beasts and mountain bandits.

All along the way, Mo Chen's thoughts churned wildly as he considered it again and again.

To play it safe, he felt that keeping himself alive was what mattered most. With the Martial Arts Master System, his future was destined to be anything but ordinary.

For now, he only needed to endure loneliness and poverty. One day, he would escape his slave status at the Lu Residence.

Rumble, rumble.

The wheelbarrows jolted constantly along the yellow dirt road.

"Cloud Deer Mountain is just ahead. Let's walk a little faster and rest once we reach the foot of the mountain."

As the leader of the woodshed workers, Li Dazhuang turned back and urged them on.

"Okay!" Mo Chen and the other two answered in unison, pushing their wheelbarrows faster.

By noon, the sun was blazing.

The Beginning of Summer had passed a few days ago, and the stifling heat was growing stronger.

By the time Mo Chen and the others arrived at the foot of Cloud Deer Mountain, they were soaked through with sweat. Mo Chen could even smell the foul odor coming off his own body.

"I really want to take a cold bath!"

Mo Chen could not help sighing.

Little Five tipped back his head and gulped down a few mouthfuls of water. Panting heavily, he said, "A cold bath is far too extravagant. I only want the heavens to send us a rainstorm."

Li Dazhuang turned around and cursed, "Say something auspicious! If it really rains, we won't be able to get back!"

There were no paved roads in these times. After rain, the roads would be full of mud and water. Every step left a pit; when you pulled your foot out, you could not even find your shoe. It was hellishly difficult to walk.

"Don't worry, Brother Li. It won't rain today!"

Mo Chen said with a smile, raising his head to look at the sky.

Not a cloud stretched across the sky for thousands of miles. Forget today—there would not be rain for the next several days either.

Laughing and chatting, they picked up their axes and gradually spread out to chop firewood.

Clang!

With one swing of his axe, Mo Chen severed an arm-thick branch. He had barely used any strength, yet he had cut through a branch that normally took four or five strikes to chop down.

Looking at the thick branch that had fallen to the ground, Mo Chen's eyes shone with delight.

"This improvement... is incredibly obvious!"

At that moment, the hand gripping his axe seemed to possess inexhaustible strength.

Meanwhile, the iron axe in his hand felt light as air, as though it weighed nothing at all.

"Li Dazhuang's old axe really is a good thing!"

The strength bonus gave Mo Chen tremendous power.

The lightness bonus allowed him to wield heavy things as lightly as if they were nothing.

Mo Chen could not resist chopping down several more large trees to test it. He discovered that the effects of wearing equipment were astonishingly stable.

"Does this mean that even without practicing martial arts, I can rival some martial artists through the effects of equipped gear alone?"

He felt it was very likely.

Li Dazhuang's axe was merely an unranked Common Iron Axe. What astonishing effects would ranked weapons possess?

Mo Chen's gaze gleamed as anticipation filled him.

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