Each Month, One Moment of Enlightenment

Blackwater City, Top Scholar Street, Hometown Inn.

"Mrs. Liu, last month, you let me sleep here for fifteen nights."

Lu Li wiped the sweat from his forehead with the coarse cloth draped over his shoulder. Holding a handful of copper coins, he counted out eighteen and set them on the counter.

Liu Rushuang, behind the counter, accepted the money and counted it. "A-Li, you gave me three coins too many."

"Mrs. Liu, these three coins are to thank you for taking me in and introducing me to work. Please have some tea. Don't think it's too little."

"I heard from Old Li that you want to learn martial arts and are saving money. Forget the tea. We're all from the same hometown."

Lu Li did not stand on ceremony any longer. He took back the copper coins and tucked them into his clothes.

"Thank you, Mrs. Liu. Is there still work carrying sedan chairs today?"

Liu Rushuang nodded. "After you eat, go wait at the entrance of Heji Shunhe Palanquin Shop."

Lu Li smiled and thanked Liu Rushuang. Just as he turned to leave, Liu Rushuang called after him.

"A-Li, you need money urgently. I happen to know a way."

"Mrs. Liu, what way?"

"You've heard of Baldy Jiao, right? He's from the neighboring town, so he counts as one of us. If you're in a hurry to find a master, I can build you a bridge and draw the threads."

Borrow from Baldy Jiao?

Nine out, fifteen back.

Once he borrowed, the interest would breed interest. Wouldn't that mean he had yet to crawl out of one quagmire only to step into an even deeper one?

"Mrs. Liu, thank you for looking after me, but it's safer for me to save up slowly." Lu Li grinned, putting on an honest, guileless look.

"A-Li, at this rate, when will you ever be able to become a disciple at Golden Gate Martial Academy?"

"Mrs. Liu, in another two years, I'll be able to become a disciple. Carrying sedan chairs is unstable work. I truly don't dare borrow usury money to learn martial arts."

The smile on Lu Li's face did not fade, but a chill rose sharply in his heart.

There was no shortage of people who indulged in wishful thinking.

Many borrowed money to find a master, only to learn nothing worthwhile. In the end, they owed enormous debts and met with ruined families and death.

Even the lucky ones who learned something had to spend their whole lives guarding the gates and courtyards of wealthy households to repay their debts.

Liu Rushuang nodded and did not try to persuade him further, but she could not help looking down on Lu Li a little. With such little courage, what martial arts was he supposed to learn?

Lu Li still accompanied her words with a smile. "Mrs. Liu, if there's nothing else, I'll be off."

"Go on."

The instant Lu Li turned around, the smile vanished from his face. In truth, he needed at most three more months to gather the ten taels of silver required to become a disciple.

Why did he want to learn martial arts?

Half a month ago, he had broken through the mystery of the womb and awakened the wisdom of a past life.

After the memories of his two lives fused, aside from feeling lost and then deeply disappointed in this other world, he had also gained a measure of expectation.

"Once martial artists here reach a certain realm, they can truly become impervious to blades and spears, soar through the skies, and burrow through the earth."

In the chaotic age of Great Yong, martial strength reigned supreme. Human lives were cheaper than ants, and every privilege of the upper classes was open only to martial artists.

For the poor to turn their lives around, learning martial arts was their only path.

Yet for him to learn martial arts was as difficult as climbing to the heavens.

In this life, he had transmigrated into the body of a hunter's son from Ox Family Village. His father had died during a mountain hunt, his mother had died of serious illness, and afterward he had grown up eating from a hundred households...

Later, government taxes grew heavier by the day, while mountain bandits came to forcibly collect protection silver. He could no longer get food in the village and struggled on the brink of starvation.

As if the rampant bandits were not enough, wandering bandits also raided Ox Family Village from time to time. Even his own safety could not be guaranteed.

If bad luck got him killed, he could only blame his fate for being poor.

He had muddled through until the age of thirteen before coming to Blackwater City. At first, all he wanted was a full meal.

Later, the fire in a young man's heart gave him the thought of learning martial arts.

So he began saving money. He feared neither filthy work nor exhausting labor. His body grew thinner and thinner, yet over those three years, his will slowly matured.

His determination to learn martial arts became ever firmer.

Over three years, he had saved eight thousand two hundred coins. In Great Yong, one tael of silver could be exchanged for a thousand copper coins, so ten taels of silver meant ten thousand coins.

He only needed to endure another three bitter months before he could go to a martial academy and become a disciple.

Though he knew it well.

The ten taels of silver for becoming a disciple were merely the threshold. The medicinal baths afterward, along with the endless dietary supplements, were an even more bottomless pit.

Poor scholars, rich martial artists—it was no empty saying.

For a poor family's child to spend money learning martial arts was gambling with their life.

But Lu Li was different.

In his mind hung an ancient Qingyun Glazed Lamp.

[Lamplighter: Lu Li]

[Martial arts: None]

[Realm: None]

[Lamp wick: 0]

[Celebratory Cloud Lamp: At the beginning of each month, it absorbs the power of moonlight and refines it into lamp oil. On the night of the full moon, lighting the wick allows one to enter a state of martial enlightenment.]

The Qingyun Lamp's function was simple. Whenever he learned a martial art, the Qingyun Lamp would project a phantom of a burning lamp.

With diligent study and bitter practice, the phantom of the burning lamp could turn from illusion into substance.

Once the wick of the phantom burning lamp lit up, that martial art would be complete.

Simply put, once certified, always certified. There would be no bottlenecks blocking his path of martial arts.

Furthermore, he could gain one opportunity for enlightenment each month, and a single enlightenment could grant him a year's worth of martial achievement.

At the beginning of August, the sun had only just risen, yet the heat was already somewhat stifling.

Lu Li stepped out of the inn.

Outside stood a large courtyard. Along both sides of it lay many fellow townspeople sleeping directly on the ground.

Three years ago, like many fellow townspeople who had just arrived in Blackwater City, Lu Li had slept beside the city gates, at bridgeheads, and in abandoned houses by the docks.

Because they cost nothing, but they were also the filthiest places...

A penny saved was a penny earned.

Only after awakening the wisdom of his past life last month did he realize that safety was the most important thing in this world.

It was through the introduction of a fellow townsman that he came to this Hometown Inn.

One large shared bed could sleep more than ten people.

It cost only one copper coin a night.

And the courtyard outside the inn was where the rest would spread out straw mats and make do for the night once the inn was full.

Sleeping in the courtyard cost one copper coin for two days.

"Yo, A-Li, off to carry sedan chairs again? You carry people every day, so how did you end up carrying yourself into such a miserable state?"

"Isn't that so? His father used to be a respectable hunter. What a pity..."

Lu Li had long grown used to such teasing. He did not respond, but someone else did.

"What's there to pity? He chose this himself. Sedan-chair carrying is work where people press down on you all your life. What ambitious youngster would do it?"

"His parents died early. If they were alive, they'd probably be angered to death all over again. Useless thing."

Someone spoke without restraint.

The courtyard fell silent for a moment, but before long, someone else picked up the thread.

"Ai... he's doomed to carry people for the rest of his life."

Most of those saying these things were Lu Li's fellow townspeople. There was no malice in their tone; there was even the familiarity of concern.

"Who says otherwise? No matter how strong his body is, carrying sedan chairs all his life will cripple him sooner or later. He's so young—why do this of all things..."

When they said these things, their voices were neither too loud nor too soft, just enough for Lu Li to hear.

"Hey, A-Li, when you reincarnate in your next life, don't be born into this kind of fate."

Yet this kind of regret without malice made Lu Li feel worse than being cursed at.

He could not argue back, either. Some of the elders here had fed him from their own bowls when he was young.

Once, Old Li asked him, "Do you hate these people?"

Lu Li thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't."

"Why not?"

"They're telling the truth. I really am just a sedan-chair carrier."

Old Li fell silent, because when Lu Li said that, his tone had been as calm as if he were talking about someone else.

That kind of calm hurt more than weeping.

Lu Li went through this sort of teasing every morning. Every day, they came up with new ways to amuse themselves at his expense.

Finding joy amid bitterness.

At first, Lu Li had smiled and explained himself. Later, he discovered that the more he explained, the more spirited his fellow townspeople became.

After that, Lu Li stopped responding.

Lu Li thought.

Perhaps they were merely venting. The orphan they had once helped was now a sedan-chair carrier—didn't that mean he would never be able to repay their kindness in this lifetime?

They looked down on Lu Li because in this world, martial strength reigned supreme. Only martial artists could make them see someone in a different light.

Because whenever they saw a martial master, they smiled sweeter than anyone.

In their minds, only learning martial arts counted as living with dignity, having face, and truly standing above others.

And in truth, in the chaotic age of Great Yong where human lives were cheaper than grass, learning martial arts truly was the only path for the poor to rise above the masses.