Three Months of Preparation, All for This Moment

Xu Jin had been transported to the Great Yin Dynasty for three months.

He was nearly broke to death.

A standard transmigration opening: both parents dead, four bare walls at home. The original owner had been one of the city's lowest-ranking commoners, and a bout of wind-cold had taken him down, benefiting Xu Jin, a first-year modern history major.

Someone else might have first wailed over missing Wi-Fi and air conditioning, but Xu Jin had no time for that, because he had his golden finger—the "Compendium of Divine Powers."

It had bound to him on the very day he transmigrated. Four words, written like iron strokes and silver hooks, adorned its cover. Opening it revealed a single sentence: Slay demons and monsters to activate divine powers.

To activate his golden finger smoothly, Xu Jin had spent the past three months barely scraping by on the original owner's meager possessions while chewing over the chaotic memories in his head seven or eight times. From ancient myths to folk spirits, he repeatedly worked through what countermeasures to use against what kinds of monsters, waiting for the day he stumbled into a supernatural incident and could test whether this golden finger actually worked.

Unfortunately, before he could run into a monster, the crisis of survival came knocking first.

He had owed rent for half a month, and the rice jar was empty. If he could not scrape together the money by tomorrow, the landlord could toss him and his tattered quilt out onto the street to drink the northwest wind.

"I can't starve to death in my third month after transmigrating, can I? That'd be far too humiliating for a transmigrator."

Xu Jin squatted before the notice wall by the city gate, his gaze sweeping across a pile of ragged papers recruiting odd-job workers and apprentices before finally fixing on a notice at the very edge, its ink still fresh.

Blackstone Slope Quarry west of the city was hiring night watchmen who could also quarry stone. Food and lodging provided, thirty copper coins a day. Those unafraid of strange evils preferred. Upon hiring, five days' wages would be advanced.

Thirty copper coins!

An ordinary laborer only earned ten copper coins a day. This was three times that, with wages advanced besides.

Several idle men nearby were huddled together and muttering that Blackstone Slope was exceedingly sinister. Last month, of the two workers on night watch, one had gone mad and the other had fainted. Once awake, they had screamed that the stones were bleeding and cried that they would never dare return.

This money was earned with one's life. No one dared touch it even if it were given away for free.

Xu Jin's eyes lit up.

Sinister? Then this was exactly right.

How was this life-threatening work? This was practically a beginner's dungeon tailored just for him!

He squeezed through the crowd, tore down the notice, and headed west without another word.

The quarry's steward was surnamed Wang. His face was full of tough flesh, and at a glance, he was clearly an old hand who had spent years rolling and scrambling around construction sites.

Seeing that Xu Jin was young and not particularly sturdy, he frowned and was about to wave him off. "Kid, this isn't work for someone as tender-skinned as you. Don't throw your life away for a few coins."

"Steward Wang," Xu Jin said bluntly, "that stretch of Blackstone Mountain deep in the quarry—does it start giving off a chill in the latter half of the night? Can you hear a woman crying? Does getting close cause headaches and make your body stiff?"

The flesh on Steward Wang's face froze on the spot.

Only a few old workers knew about this. How had this kid hit the mark the moment he opened his mouth?

"How did you know?"

"I guessed." Xu Jin casually made something up. "It isn't a ghost. It's a spirit that grew inside the stone, yin in nature, feeding on the life force of living people. Ordinary people who get close suffer dizziness at best and lose their souls at worst. It isn't some mountain god's wrath."

He paused, then added as he watched Steward Wang's expression abruptly change, "If it really were a mountain god, after digging stone for so long, you'd have all died out already."

Steward Wang's heart skipped a beat.

They had previously invited two Daoist priests over. They drew talismans and chanted scriptures, but it had been utterly useless. The trouble came as it always had.

This young man was not old, so how could he be so accurate?

He hurriedly pulled Xu Jin aside, his tone becoming much more polite. "Does this little brother have a way to deal with it?"

"I can handle it." Xu Jin spoke plainly. "Iron tools and yang fire can restrain it. Just don't let it touch human blood. If you truly encounter it, don't run. The more you run, the more it pursues."

These were all Stone Spirit habits recorded in What Confucius Didn't Discuss. In the modern world, they would have been miscellaneous tales; here, they were life-saving knowledge.

Steward Wang nodded again and again. The more he looked at Xu Jin, the more he felt this was an expert hiding among the common folk. He made the decision on the spot. "Fine! You're hired! You won't need to do the hard quarrying work. Just handle the night patrols. I'll count your pay at forty copper coins a day and advance you ten days' wages!"

Xu Jin accepted the heavy string of copper coins, feeling greatly reassured.

The rent problem was solved, he had food to eat, and he had even found the doorstep of a monster. A bloody fortune.

For the next five days, everything was calm.

The quarry bustled with stonework during the day, while at night Xu Jin patrolled with two workers. Let alone a Stone Spirit, they did not even see a rat.

The workers gradually relaxed, saying they had only frightened themselves before. Those who had gone mad had probably been faking illness to slack off.

The change came in the latter half of the sixth night, just after the third watch.

The previously stifling night wind suddenly turned cold.

Then a faint, fragmented crying sound drifted from the direction of Blackstone Cliff. It sounded like a woman weeping, yet also like stones grinding together, carried by the wind into everyone's ears.

"Crying—crying! There really is crying!"

The workers in the shacks instantly erupted into chaos. One after another, they scrambled and crawled outside, their faces white as paper.

Someone dropped to his knees with a thud and kowtowed toward Blackstone Cliff. "Lord Mountain God, forgive us! Lord Mountain God, forgive us!"

Others shouted, "A female ghost has come to claim lives!" and turned to rush down the mountain, plunging the entire worksite into chaos.

When Steward Wang ran out, his face was white as well. Looking over by moonlight, he saw dark-red liquid slowly seeping from the pitch-black cliff face, trickling down the stones like blood.

"Retreat! Everyone retreat!" Steward Wang shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking. "Tomorrow, we'll go into the city and invite people from the Demon Suppression Bureau! We can't stay in this place!"

That was what he shouted, but inwardly, he was more anxious than anyone.

This quarry was an official government assignment, and the deadline was fixed tighter than death itself. Delaying even one day was a crime punishable by beheading.

If they truly withdrew, forget wages—even whether he could keep his head was uncertain.

Just then, a figure carrying a quarry hammer walked straight toward Blackstone Cliff against the fleeing crowd.

It was Xu Jin.

Not only was he unafraid, his eyes shone with a frightening brightness, and the corners of his mouth even held excitement he could barely suppress.

After waiting five days, it had finally appeared.

"Xu! What are you doing? Come back! Do you have a death wish?!" Steward Wang shouted, so terrified his soul nearly flew away.

Xu Jin turned back and waved at him. "Steward Wang, if we retreat now, the deadline is completely finished. When that happens, neither you nor I will have anything good waiting for us. I'll go take a look. My fate is tough—I restrain things like this."

"Even so, you can't gamble with your life!"

"If I win, add two months of wages." Xu Jin smiled, revealing a row of white teeth. "If I lose, then call my life worthless."

Steward Wang looked into his eyes, gritted his teeth, and stomped his foot. "Fine! If you can settle it, I'll add three months of wages! If you can't hold out, shout for us! We... we'll back you up from behind!"

The surrounding workers were dumbfounded, thinking, Has this young fellow gone mad? That's an evil thing that claims lives!

Everyone shrank far back, watching Xu Jin carry that heavy quarry hammer step by step toward the bleeding Blackstone Cliff.

The crying drew closer. The stench of blood mixed with the raw smell of stone and rushed at him.

More and more beads of blood seeped from the cliff face, flowing downward along its veins. Faintly, the outline of a human face could be seen protruding from within the stone. Where its eyes should have been were two black hollows, facing Xu Jin directly.

An ordinary person's legs would have gone weak long ago, but Xu Jin only felt the blood throughout his body burning hot.

Three months of preparation, all for this moment.

He hesitated no longer. Gripping the hammer's handle with both hands, he turned sideways and lowered his stance, pouring all his strength into his arms. He swung the quarry hammer in a full arc and smashed it solidly into that protruding human face!

"Clang—!!"

The tremendous crash made everyone's ears go numb.

Stone fragments flew in every direction, and dark-red fluid sprayed across the ground.

A sharp, ear-piercing shriek came from within the stone, and the entire cliff face split open with a thunderous crack.

A monster clad head to toe in stone armor crawled out from the rubble. It was taller than a person, with a gaping bloody maw. Two blood-hole eyes in its head stared fixedly at Xu Jin as strange, rasping sounds emerged from its mouth.

"Monster! It really is a monster!!"

The distant workers were terrified out of their wits. With a howl, they scattered and fled, tumbling and crawling down the mountain until they vanished in an instant.

Steward Wang's calves cramped as well. He staggered back more than ten steps and only avoided collapsing to the ground by clutching a tree trunk tightly.

Only Xu Jin remained in the clearing, facing the Stone Spirit that had just broken free from the rock.