Epiphany Once a Month
Blackwater City, Top Scholar Street, Hometown Inn.
"Sister-in-law Liu, last month you let me sleep here for fifteen nights."
Lu Li used the coarse cloth hanging from his shoulder to wipe the sweat from his forehead, pinched a string of copper coins in his hand, counted out 18 cash, and placed them on the counter.
Liu Rushuang on the counter took the money, counted it, and said, "A-Li, you gave three extra cash."
"Sister-in-law Liu, these three cash are to thank you for taking me in and introducing me to work. Treat yourself to some tea, don't mind the small amount."
"Old Li said you want to martial, and you're saving money. We can skip the tea, we're all fellow villagers after all."
Lu Li didn't stand on ceremony either, taking the copper coins back and tucking them into his bosom.
"Many thanks, Sister-in-law Liu. Are there any sedan-chair lifting jobs today?"
Liu Rushuang nodded. "After you eat, go wait at the entrance of Heji Shunhe Palanquin Shop."
Lu Li smiled to thank Liu Rushuang, but just as he turned his head to leave, Liu Rushuang called out to him:
"A-Li, you're in a rush for money, but I do know a way."
"Sister-in-law Liu, what way?"
"You must've heard of Baldy Jiao. He's from the neighboring town, practically a fellow village too. If you're in a rush to take a master, I can bridge the gap and pull strings for you."
Borrow from Baldy Jiao?
Nine out, fifteen back.
Once borrowed, the interest would roll over and snowball. Wouldn't that mean plunging from one mud pit he hadn't yet crawled out of into an even deeper one?
"Sister-in-law Liu, thank you for your care, but I'd still rather save money slowly—that's much safer." Lu Li split his mouth in a grin, putting on an honest, simple-minded look.
"A-Li, if you keep saving like this, when on earth will you be able to go to Golden Gate Martial Academy and take a master?"
"Sister-in-law Liu, in another two years I'll be able to go take a master. This sedan-lifting work isn't steady, and I really wouldn't dare think about borrowing high-interest money to martial."
The smile on Lu Li's face didn't fade, but a chill suddenly rose in his heart.
There was no shortage of wishful thinkers.
Plenty of people borrowed money to take a master without learning anything substantial, only to end up saddled with immense debts and ruined families.
Even the lucky ones who actually managed to learn something had to spend their entire lives guarding gates and keeping house for wealthy households to pay off their debts.
Liu Rushuang nodded and didn't urge him further, though inwardly she couldn't help looking down on Lu Li a bit. With such a cowardly streak, what was the point of learning any martial arts?
Lu Li still accompanied her with a smile. "Sister-in-law Liu, if there's nothing else, I'll be off."
"Go on."
The moment Lu Li turned away, the smile on his face vanished completely. In reality, it would take him at most three months to scrape together the ten taels of silver needed for the master-initiation fee.
Why did he want to martial?
Half a month ago, he shattered the veil of the womb and awakened past-life wisdom.
After the memories of his two lives merged, aside from feeling dazed and deeply disappointed by this otherworldly realm, he also harbored a sliver of anticipation.
In this place, once martial artists reach a certain realm, they truly become impervious to blades and spears, able to soar through the skies and burrow through the earth.
In the turbulent times of Great Yong, martial prowess was supreme, and human life was as cheap as dust. Here, all privileged classes were open exclusively to martial artists.
If a poor person wanted to turn their life around, learning martial arts was the only way out.
Yet for him to martial was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
In this life, he was reincarnated as the son of a hunter in Ox Family Village. His father had died in a mountain hunting drive, his mother had died of a severe illness, and after that he grew up eating from a hundred families...
Later on, government taxes grew increasingly heavy, and mountain bandits came knocking to forcibly collect protection silver. He couldn't even get enough to eat in the village, struggling on the brink of starvation.
As if rampaging bandits weren't enough, Ox Family Village was also periodically harassed by roving outlaws, leaving him unable to even secure his own personal safety.
If bad luck got him killed, he could only blame his bad fate.
Having muddled through to the age of thirteen, he came to Blackwater City. At first, he only wanted to eat a full meal.
Later, the youthful spirit within him gave birth to the idea of learning martial arts.
Thus he began saving money. He feared neither dirty nor exhausting work, and though his body grew increasingly thin, his willpower slowly forged itself over the course of these three years.
His resolve to martial grew ever firmer.
Over three years, he had saved eight thousand two hundred cash. In Great Yong, one tael of silver could be exchanged for a thousand copper coins, so ten taels of silver amounted to ten thousand cash.
He only needed to suffer through three more months, and he could go to the martial academy to take a master.
Even though he knew.
The ten-tael initiation fee was merely the threshold, and the subsequent medicinal baths and endless dietary nourishment would be a bottomless pit.
Poor scholars and rich fighters—these were no empty words.
For a child of a poor family to scrape together money for martial arts was nothing less than a gamble with their life.
Yet Lu Li was different.
Suspended in the depths of his mind was an antique Qingyun Glazed Lamp.
[Lamp Master: Lu Li] [Martial Arts: None] [Realm: None] [Lamp Wick: 0] [Celebratory Cloud Lamp: On the first of every month, absorbs the power of moonlight to melt and refine into lamp oil. On the night of the full moon, lighting the lamp wick allows entry into a state of martial arts epiphany.]
The function of the Celebratory Cloud Lamp was very simple. Every time he learned a martial art, the Celebratory Cloud Lamp would project a pillar of burning lamp phantom.
Diligent study and hard practice could cause the burning lamp phantom to transform from illusory to solid.
When the lamp wick of the burning lamp phantom shone brightly, the martial art reached perfection.
Put simply, it was a one-time and permanent realization, meaning the path of martial arts had no bottlenecks or barriers.
Additionally, he could obtain an opportunity for epiphany every month, and a single epiphany could grant one year of martial arts achievement.
In early August, the sun had just risen and was already somewhat scorching.
Lu Li walked out of the inn door.
Outside the door was a large courtyard. On both sides of the courtyard lay many fellow villagers sleeping directly on the ground.
Three years ago, Lu Li, like many fellow villagers who had just arrived in Blackwater City, slept by the city gates, bridgeheads, and abandoned dock houses.
Because it didn't cost money, but it was also the dirtiest...
Every single copper coin that could be saved had to be saved.
It wasn't until he awakened the memories of his past life last month that he knew safety was the most important thing in this world.
Through the introduction of a fellow villager, he came to this Hometown Inn.
A large kang platform that could sleep more than a dozen people.
It cost only a single copper coin per night.
As for the courtyard outside the inn, once the inn was at full capacity, the remaining people would spread straw mats in the courtyard to make do for the night.
Sleeping in the courtyard cost one copper coin every two days.
"Yo, A-Li, going to carry sedans for people again? How is it that you carry people every day, yet you carry yourself looking so scruffy?"
"Ain't that the truth? His old man used to be quite a respectable man when he was a hunter. What a pity..."
Lu Li had long since grown accustomed to these bantering remarks. He didn't pick up the conversation, but someone else did.
"What a pity? It was his own choice. The job of a sedan bearer means being stepped on by others for a lifetime. Which kid with ambition would do such a thing?"
"His parents died early. If they were alive, they'd probably be angered to death all over again. What a useless thing."
Someone spoke without filtering their words.
The large courtyard fell silent for a moment, but soon someone else picked up the conversation.
"Sigh... A lifetime's destined with the fate of carrying people for others."
Most of the people who said these words were Lu Li's fellow villagers. There was no malice in their tone, and it even carried a familiar concern.
"Who's to say otherwise? No matter how good your physique is, if you carry sedans for a lifetime, you'll sooner or later be worn out. At such a young age, what else wouldn't be better to do..."
When they spoke these words, 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 it was precisely this kind of non-malicious pity that Lu Li felt was even harder to bear than being cursed at.
Neither could he talk back, for there were some elders here whose hundred-family rice he had eaten.
On one occasion, Old Li asked him, "Do you hate these people?"
Lu Li thought for a moment and shook his head: "I don't hate them."
"Why?"
"What they said is all the truth. I really am just a sedan bearer."
Old Li fell silent, because when Lu Li said these words, his tone was as calm as if he were talking about someone else's affairs.
That kind of calm was even harder to endure than crying.
Banter like this was something Lu Li experienced every morning, as they thought of various ways to make fun of him day after day.
Finding joy in suffering.
At the very beginning, Lu Li smiled and argued back, but later he discovered that the more he explained, the more spirited those fellow villagers became in their talking.
A bit later, Lu Li simply stopped responding.
Lu Li thought.
Perhaps they were merely venting. The orphan whom they had once given charity to had now become a sedan bearer, which meant he would never be able to repay their kindness in this lifetime.
They looked down on Lu Li precisely because in this world, martial power was supreme, and only martial artists could make them look at someone in a different light.
Because when they saw martial artist masters, they would smile sweeter than anyone else.
In their cognition, only by practicing martial arts could one be considered to live with dignity and face, making them truly superior people.
And in truth, in this troubled world of Great Yong where human life was as cheap as grass, if poor people wanted to get ahead and stand out, practicing martial arts was indeed the only way out.