Fate in Troubled Times

Yellow Snake County, Snakehead Ravine.

Shattered snow on the low slope swept up dirt like broken blades, flaying toward the high slope.

The wind was trapped within the snake-like ravine, unable to rush out, hissing and flicking its tongue like a mad serpent.

Several children in coarse hemp-and-hide robes riddled with holes trudged forward against the face-smashing snow.

Their faces were covered in frostbite. Though the snow was sharp, no one felt the slightest pain as it scraped across their skin.

They merely drew their rough hemp robes closer, curling themselves up tighter.

"Damn it, these mountain bandits really won't let us live. It was bad enough that we had to pay tribute to the Mountain Lord every month, but lately they've come up with some mountain god ritual too.

We have to pay once every half month.

Pay money month after month, year after year. The prey have all hidden deep in the mountains—how are we supposed to hunt? How are we supposed to live like this?" Zhao Rui cursed.

"My father went into the mountains two days ago and broke his leg. Now my family depends on my mother sewing and mending to earn a little money.

If... if those bandits come knocking for money again, I really don't know what to do." Liu Chunmei shrank her neck, her eyes darting around in a daze, terrified someone might overhear.

In this martial world, exploitation piled atop exploitation. Other than brutally suppressing the common folk with force, the imperial court's taxes from every direction left people too busy struggling to survive to even think of resisting.

And in places beyond the reach of the authorities, the gangs formed by mountain bandits were the true "officials."

Throughout Snakehead Ravine, the gangs controlled not only the markets for prey, animal pelts, and the like.

To exploit people more fiercely and seize power, they imitated the imperial court and devised countless utterly unreasonable rules.

Such as tribute to the Mountain Lord and offerings to the mountain god.

In the end, they simply wanted to squeeze the people of Snakehead Ravine dry, keeping their heads bowed for all eternity while sending them wealth for all eternity.

And if they did not pay, heh.

Then they had better be careful when they went up the mountain to hunt.

Who knew whether there would be wild beasts, but "wild ghosts" would certainly attack.

At best, they would lose hands or feet. At worst, their families would be destroyed and their lives snuffed out.

Houses set ablaze, the people inside roasted alive into dried meat—such things were all too common.

To intimidate everyone, they even sold skins right in the streets.

Except these skins were not animal hides!

Of course, if one obediently handed over the money, a family could continue to cling to life.

"They won't let us die, but they won't let us live well either. They just keep the common people hanging there...

Paying money over and over, barely surviving over and over—again and again. If this keeps going, it'll be a dead cycle!" Duan Xuan followed behind his two childhood friends, glancing at the foul-mouthed Zhao Rui.

Then he looked at Liu Chunmei, the dark little girl with her neck tucked in.

He sank into deep thought for a long while.

He had transmigrated into this world three years ago.

Because his father had been a decent hunter, the family of three had lived frugally, but not too harshly.

Yet before father and son had even had time to grow close, officials came to the village.

They forcibly conscripted a group of young, able-bodied hunters to collect beast cores for nobles.

Duan Xuan's father had been among them.

He had gone away for years without a single word. Those constables refused to speak of it, and Duan Xuan knew his father would not be coming back.

His father had been the pillar of the household, while the original owner of this body had been lazy and gluttonous.

Duan Xuan had found none of his hunting skills in the man's memories.

In other words, the family's pillar had fallen, while he, at the time, could not become a pillar himself!

His mother's hands and feet were not nimble. While searching for his father, she had even broken a leg.

She was still bedridden, able only to sew and mend things for Duan Xuan to sell.

There were at least one or two hundred thousand families in Yellow Snake County as poor and hardship-stricken as his.

Without money, one could not take a single step.

Trying to rise through knowledge? Impossible.

Trying to learn a trade? How could that lead to greatness?

As for martial arts, that required hard gold and silver.

Though martial academies stood everywhere, no one dared entertain such thoughts.

That was the era of martial supremacy: the poor did not even have the right to resist.

Without exceptional talent, family support, or financial backing, those at the very bottom could struggle through lifetime after lifetime and still find it difficult to escape.

"Brother Duan, a rabbit! The little trap you made caught a rabbit!"

Liu Chunmei's mosquito-soft cry broke Duan Xuan from his thoughts.

Zhao Rui rushed over in a whirlwind, tore apart the trap, and pulled out a gray-furred rabbit that still had the faintest trace of breath left.

[Human effort is rewarded; Heaven makes up what is lacking]

[Trap: Minor Mastery (5+2/100)]

[Hunting: Beginner (12/50)]

This was what set Duan Xuan apart from everyone else. From the day he transmigrated, eight great words had surfaced in his mind: Human effort is rewarded; Heaven makes up what is lacking.

He knew then that this was his cheat, and those eight words were his fate.

No matter what he learned, he would surely gain something. So long as he gained something, no matter how difficult it was to learn, he would eventually succeed!

But during his first two years here, the original owner's body had simply been too young.

And at fifteen or sixteen, when one was growing, his family could not provide enough nourishment. Duan Xuan was extremely short and slight.

Forget hunting—even making a tiny trap took him a long time and a great deal of strength.

Still, there had been some gains.

Seeing the trap skill on the panel increase by two points, Duan Xuan smiled knowingly.

Then he let out a long sigh. In this man-eating world, what would it change even if he caught rabbits every day?

At most, it would solve the problem of food for himself and his mother.

They still would not be able to survive. They would still be exploited by mountain bandits, still be exploited by the cold and merciless taxes of the imperial court.

"A hunter's tax—utterly ridiculous!"

If he wanted to defy fate and change his destiny, if he wanted to live well in these troubled times, then he had to learn martial arts.

And with a system panel like this, he could succeed simply by learning. Duan Xuan became even more determined to train in martial arts.

Duan Xuan pulled a small knife from behind his hide and neatly cut the rabbit into three portions.

"Brother Zhao, Sister Liu, what are you two planning to do? Are you really going to barely survive in Snakehead Ravine for the rest of your lives?"

Zhao Rui was blunt by nature. "I don't want to spend a whole day happily grinning like an idiot just because of one wild rabbit, or some other prey.

My relative in the county seat, an official gentleman, came to my house last night. He wants to take me there to copy texts.

Copying is tiring, but it's better than eating one meal and not knowing where the next will come from."

Zhao Rui's family had always been better off than Duan Xuan's and Liu Chunmei's. Both his parents were alive, and they owned a large tract of land.

Moreover, he had a relative in the county seat who worked as a minor clerk in the government.

As he spoke now, even his voice rose several notches.

Liu Chunmei shrank her neck and said softly, "My father and mother are sending me to the Wang family as a maid.

I... I... I don't want to go... but there's nothing left in the pot at home, and my second sister and little brother still need to eat..."

Liu Chunmei's family circumstances were far worse than Duan Xuan's and Zhao Rui's.

There were three children in her family, and she was the eldest. Worse still, she had a younger brother.

Duan Xuan looked at the two of them. Zhao Rui went without saying—his family was well-off, he was bold, and he knew quite a few characters.

If his official relative in the county seat was willing to help him along,

then starting from the bottom would still count as living with some dignity.

And the Wang family was one of Yellow Snake County's foremost households. Ordinary people could not even get through the door no matter how hard they tried to curry favor.

If she could truly get in, it might be a lowly life, but what did that matter if she could survive?

"What about you, Brother Duan?" Zhao Rui patted Duan Xuan on the shoulder.

Liu Chunmei also looked over curiously.

"I want to learn martial arts!"

"Huh? Learn martial arts?" Zhao Rui and Liu Chunmei both froze. Zhao Rui's voice boomed, "Brother Duan, did you get up too fiercely or something?

Why are you talking nonsense? Martial arts training is a bottomless money pit!"

Liu Chunmei nodded timidly. Though she did not understand, she could tell from Zhao Rui's tone that learning martial arts had to be terribly difficult.

Duan Xuan was even skinnier than she was. How could he possibly go around chopping this and cutting that?

The three carried the rabbit and checked the other traps. Unfortunately, no more prey had taken the bait.

The sun quickly crashed behind the mountains, and they did not dare linger any longer.

Braving the wind and snow from their journey in, they headed home, stumbling deep and shallow through the drifts.

When it was time to part, Zhao Rui tore off another piece from his share of the rabbit and stuffed it into Duan Xuan's hand.

"Brother Zhao, you..."

"Quit your damn nonsense. Sister Liu, let's go!"

Liu Chunmei answered and bid Duan Xuan farewell before leaving for the other end of the village.

Duan Xuan shook his head and walked toward home.

The sky was bitterly cold and the ground was frozen hard.

His shoes woven from broken grass creaked as he walked.

But as he went on, Duan Xuan immediately grew alert.

It should have been time to cook supper, yet none of the neighbors had lit a fire.

Instead, wails came from the street in front of his home.

Realizing something was wrong, Duan Xuan stuffed the rabbit into his clothes, leaving only the small piece Zhao Rui had given him in his hand.

"You old bastard, have you gone senile? You actually dared hunt on the mountains within Wolf Stronghold's territory.

And you even killed a sika deer. Do you know that thing is a powerful tonic?"

The instant Duan Xuan arrived, he saw Old Li, who lived at the edge of the street, being brutally beaten by two vicious Wolf Stronghold thugs.

Who knew how long they had been hitting him? His nose no longer looked like a nose, his face no longer looked like a face.

Blood covered the ground. His eyes were vacant, and all he could do was howl.

Old Li's wife and two children sat on the ground, weeping and crying to Heaven and earth, while the neighbors hid in their homes, too frightened to come out.

They feared being dragged into disaster for no reason.

And standing before Old Li with his arms folded was none other than Two-Scar of Wolf Stronghold.

With two knife scars on his face and a mouthful of thick yellow teeth, he looked especially terrifying.

"Five taels of silver. I'll give you one incense stick's time. If you can't produce it, hands and feet will be broken!"

"F-five taels? Master Scar, we haven't even sold the sika deer yet. Where could we get five taels? Master Scar, please show mercy and spare my husband, Master Scar!"

Slap!

Two-Scar slapped Auntie Li flying. Her already swollen face became even more bloated.

"These two little ones aren't bad..."

"Master Scar, you can't! You can't!"

Fear was written across Duan Xuan's face, but his heart was full of disgust.

Two-Scar was Wolf Stronghold's Fourth Chief. He ran rampant every day, and he personally led men door to door to collect tribute for the Mountain Lord.

Almost every time, villagers suffered. Either daughters were violated, or people were extorted and blackmailed on one pretext or another.

And what made the people of Snakehead Ravine grind their teeth most was the mountain god ritual collected once every half month.

All those tricks for collecting money under different names had been devised by Two-Scar.

As Old Li's family was being beaten, Duan Xuan silently walked past. Just as he was about to run for home—

"Well now, Brother Duan! Been hunting?" Two-Scar called out to Duan Xuan, then walked up behind him with a chuckle.

"Why are you still such trash? You went out all afternoon and only brought back this little?

Look at your father. He went hunting for some noble in the palace and never came back. I'd say he won that noble's favor and went off to enjoy himself!

Ah, Old Li crossed the line, but you mustn't cross it. If the rules are broken, you know the consequences!"

Duan Xuan nodded repeatedly. "Master Scar is right. I can barely keep my mother fed. I definitely wouldn't dare overstep the rules. If there's nothing else, Master Scar, I'll be going now."

"Wait, Brother Duan. Your family's grain must be running low, right? The mountain god ritual is coming soon. Have you prepared your offering? Want to borrow a little from me?

Don't worry. Master Scar knows common folk have it hard. My interest isn't high, and every price is clearly marked. I certainly wouldn't let you lose out, would I?

Once this village is passed, there'll be no such shop. Shall we sign it now?"

In Duan Xuan's era, this kind of interest was called usury—interest rolling upon interest, rolling upon interest.

The twists and turns within could never be explained clearly in a few words or a single sheet of paper.

If he got tangled up in it, then when repayment day came, he would discover it was a bottomless pit!

Duan Xuan understood perfectly. Seeing that Two-Scar meant business, he hurriedly offered up the half rabbit leg in his hand. "For now, my mother and I can still barely scrape by, so I won't trouble Master Scar.

When I'm short on money in a few days, I'll come find you, won't I? Here, this rabbit leg is for Master Scar."

A flash of displeasure crossed Two-Scar's face. He took the rabbit leg and cursed, "Get lost, get lost, get lost!"

Duan Xuan gave Old Li's family one deep look before slinking away...