Anything Can Be Equipped

"Brother Hao, you're awake!"

Shi Kang stood beside the bed, his thick beard bristling. Seeing Lu Hao slowly open his eyes, he shouted out.

"Brother Hao, you were really too bold! You actually dared to withhold the protection money you collected from the gang and spend it all on Lin Qiniang. With so many tender-skinned girls in Spring Breeze Pavilion, why did you have to set your sights on that slutty old hag?"

"Though I suppose I can't entirely blame Brother Hao. Lin Qiniang asked you to buy her freedom," Shi Kang's Adam's apple bobbed as he licked his lips. "Those alluring eyes of hers, along with her water-snake waist and wide hips, do have a rather unique flavor. If it were me, I'd want to help Lin Qiniang buy her freedom too!"

With that, Shi Kang shook his head and looked back at Lu Hao.

"But Lin Qiniang was only tricking you out of your silver. How could she ever live a proper life with a bottom-feeder from the Black Tiger Gang!"

"If you succeeded in your gate-breaking and became a martial apprentice, Lin Qiniang might actually deign to look at you." Shi Kang let out a heavy sigh.

"With the Black Tiger Gang, a martial apprentice can become a minor boss."

"Once you become a minor boss, the monthly stipend is five taels. Unlike the likes of us, who only get one tael of silver a month—just barely enough to keep from starving. If a minor boss misappropriates ten taels of protection money, he won't even face family discipline, as long as he pays it back."

Shi Kang gently rolled Lu Hao's body over and lifted his clothes, revealing the lacerated flesh across Lu Hao's back.

"It's a miracle you're tough enough to survive twenty strikes of family discipline without being beaten to death. The brothers carrying out the punishment must have gone easy on you! Once you recover, you'll have to treat them to a drink and properly thank them!"

At that moment, a splitting, excruciating pain erupted inside Lu Hao's skull as a flood of memories that did not belong to him surged in.

He was originally a corporate workhorse from Blue Star who never grazed on fodder. Exhausted from overtime, he had rested his head on his desk for a moment, and when he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying right here.

Lu Hao reached out and pinched the root of his own thigh, then gave it a vicious half-twist, wincing and baring his teeth from the pain.

He was certain he had transmigrated—transmigrated into the body of someone who also happened to be named Lu Hao.

He now found himself in an era resembling ancient China, an era called the Great Jin Dynasty, yet it was different from the history he knew. The county town where he currently resided was Bluestone County.

This was a chaotic world where the martial path was supreme, and demons and evil spirits ran amok.

If you wanted to get ahead and stand out, you had to practice martial arts.

In the Great Jin Dynasty, ordinary people who wanted to practice martial arts basically had only two methods.

One was to pay tuition to a martial arts hall and apprentice under them to learn martial arts.

The other method was to join a gang, signing a life-and-death indenture with them, upon which the gang would impart some martial skills. If you wanted to leave the gang, you either had to pay a massive sum of silver or die.

The original owner was a destitute wretch. At the beginning of the year, his parents had fallen gravely ill and died without money for medical treatment.

The original owner wanted to practice martial arts to change his fate, but he had no money to pay the martial arts hall's tuition. So, along with his childhood friend Shi Kang, he joined the Black Tiger Gang.

Upon joining, the gang issued him a manual for the Black Tiger Art.

Regrettably, the original owner lacked any talent for martial arts, possessing only lower-tier bone structure. Combined with his dire poverty—having no money to buy meat and medicinal decoctions to replenish his qi-blood—his qi-blood grew at a snail's pace.

To make matters worse, the original owner happened to pass by Spring Breeze Pavilion one day when the procuress dragged him inside. Among all the maidens barely turning sixteen inside Spring Breeze Pavilion, the original owner didn't take a fancy to a single one, ultimately setting his sights on a woman of twenty-six or seven. That woman was none other than Lin Qiniang.

Lin Qiniang had grown up in Spring Breeze Pavilion since she was a child. A woman raised in such a pleasure house was full of schemes and wound the original owner around her little finger.

Wishing to display his might before her, the original owner had forcibly attempted gate-breaking twice while suffering from insufficient qi-blood, only to fail both times.

Yet every person only had a total of three chances for gate-breaking. If all three attempts failed, the qi-blood pathways would become blocked, cutting them off from the martial path forever. The first gate-breaking was the easiest; the further along one went, the slimmer the odds of success became.

Seduced by Lin Qiniang, the original owner had misappropriated ten taels of protection money he had collected on Joyful Street. When the gang discovered this transgression, twenty staff strikes later, he was dead.

Shi Kang had assumed the original owner had merely passed out from the beating, so he carried him back. In truth, it was never a matter of the punishing gang members showing mercy; the reality was that the original owner had been beaten to death, and Lu Hao had transmigrated into his place.

"Brother Hao." Shi Kang interrupted Lu Hao's train of thought. "The gang gave you ten days to return those ten taels of protection money!"

"What if I don't return it?" Lu Hao looked at Shi Kang.

"You won't return it?" Shi Kang looked at Lu Hao in disbelief. "If you don't return it, they'll drag you off to the gambling den."

"Drag me off to the gambling den?"

"Right! They'll take you to the gambling den to gamble your life against someone."

"Gamble my life?"

"They'll arrange an opponent for you and lock the two of you inside a cage one zhang wide and long.

Sometimes your opponent might even be a martial apprentice at the second gate-knocking stage, and you'll fight to the death inside that cage.

If you manage to win, you can earn back the silver you owe the gang and keep your life.

But most people who go there basically end up dying in the gambling den's deathmatch cage."

Hearing Shi Kang finish, Lu Hao indeed searched out related memories within the original owner's mind. Those who owed money to the Black Tiger Gang and could not pay it back would see their women sold to brothels, while the men were sent to the gambling den's deathmatch cages.

Shi Kang patted Lu Hao on the shoulder.

"Brother Hao! I have half a tael of silver here; take it first. But I don't have any more than this. As for the remaining nine and a half taels of silver, I don't know if you'll be able to scrape it together."

"The remaining nine and a half taels of silver..." Lu Hao murmured.

Looking at the half-tael of fragmented silver Shi Kang handed over, a wave of emotion stirred in his heart. The original owner truly had made a good friend. In this chaotic world, Shi Kang was actually willing to part with the money he needed to survive and elevate his own strength just to help him.

Lu Hao took Shi Kang's silver. "Didn't Lin Qiniang also hold onto some silver for me? I'll go find her and demand it back..."

Hearing him finish, Shi Kang widened his eyes and raised his voice.

"Brother Hao! Why are you still so muddle-headed? Do you really think Lin Qiniang will give you that silver? How could money that's reached her hands ever be spit back out?"

With that, he glanced at the silver in Lu Hao's hand. "Don't go over there only to hand this half-tael of silver over to her as well!"

Lu Hao smiled faintly, his expression turning gloomy. "However Lin Qiniang took my silver, she'll have to spit it back out the exact same way!"

Hearing this, Shi Kang let out a soft sigh.

"I'm just afraid that if you play hardball with Lin Qiniang, she'll call her estate guards. When that happens, not only will you fail to get the silver back, but you might end up getting beaten up all over again."

"Guards?" Lu Hao looked toward Uncle Zhao.

"The guards of Spring Breeze Pavilion are specially responsible for dealing with unruly guests. Those guards are all first-stage gate-breaking martial apprentices, and the captain of the guards is even a second-layer gate-breaking martial apprentice. Stop overthinking things and focus on recovering your body first!"

With that, Shi Kang pulled an oiled paper parcel from his bosom, inside of which was wrapped a chicken leg.

"Brother Hao, I still have a chicken leg here. You can make do with this to pad your stomach for now."

Shi Kang had yet to cross the threshold of gate-breaking himself, and he had bought this chicken leg specifically to replenish his qi-blood. Yet seeing Lu Hao in such a pitiful state, his heart could not bear it, so he took it out to help Lu Hao replenish his qi-blood.

Lu Hao fell silent for a moment, engraving Shi Kang's kindness in lending him half a tael of silver and giving him the chicken leg deep into his heart.

His top priority was to recover his qi-blood first, figure out a way to raise his strength, and then go find Lin Qiniang to get his silver back.

Lu Hao reached out and took the chicken leg from Shi Kang's hand.

Shi Kang chatted with Lu Hao for a few more moments. "Brother Hao, I need to head back to the gang now. If you need anything, just call out for me!"

After Shi Kang left, a dark blue status panel visible only to Lu Hao suddenly floated before his eyes.

[The "Anything Can Be Equipped" System has been activated]
[System has bound to host]
[Condition for equippable items: Any item the host can lift with their own physical strength]
[Current equippable item: Chicken leg]
[Equip item?]

Seeing the golden finger arrive in his account, Lu Hao did not hesitate in the slightest, immediately choosing to equip it.

Upon successful equipment, the chicken leg in front of his eyes vanished directly. An equipment slot appeared within the status panel, where the chicken leg rested quietly.

[Equipped item: Chicken leg]
[Effect: Completely absorbs the qi-blood within the chicken leg, increases qi-blood recovery speed by 50%, lasting for half a chiming of tea]
[Durability: 100%]
[Upon completely absorbing the chicken leg, this skill effect can be permanently solidified]
[Note: If the item is forcibly unequipped before its durability is fully consumed, a new item can only be equipped after 7 days]