Chaotic Times

"Brother Changsheng, wake up..."

In a daze, Lu Changsheng heard a crisp call by his ear.

A sensation of weightlessness, as though he were trapped in a dream, lingered in his heart.

Just then.

An extremely bitter liquid flowed straight into his mouth, making him shudder several times.

A moment later.

Lu Changsheng forced his eyes open.

"Where is this?"

A completely unfamiliar environment came into view.

It was a thatched hut no more than a few meters across, its roof covered in some unknown wild grass.

Strands of sunlight streamed through the gaps beneath the eaves and fell into the room.

The entire room was rather dilapidated, with only an old wooden bed placed in the western corner.

A faint, strange smell of mildew hung in the air, somewhat pungent.

A delicate-looking youth stood beside the bed, concern written across his brow.

The youth looked around thirteen years old. He wore coarse hemp clothes, was thin and undernourished, and his face had a sickly pallor.

Yet his bright eyes shone with spirit.

He was the one who had called out just now.

"Brother Changsheng, you scared me to death. I thought you wouldn't pull through. Those bastards deserve to die, hitting you that hard..."

Seeing that Lu Changsheng had remained motionless for so long, Fang Tao cursed through gritted teeth.

After a while.

Seeing that Lu Changsheng still looked utterly confused, his expression tightened.

"I'm Taozi, don't you remember? Did you hurt your head..."

"It was me who carried you back from the street corner the day before yesterday. A month ago, you even promised to take me to Mandarin Duck Pavilion to broaden my horizons..."

Fang Tao began chattering away, trying to "awaken" Lu Changsheng.

Having grown up in Changping County, he had heard of strange tales of people losing their souls.

Lu Changsheng's condition resembled them closely, so he tried recounting things from the past in hopes of waking him.

At the mention of his head, Lu Changsheng seemed to react. A piercing pain surged from the back of his skull.

"Hiss... it hurts."

The pain tore through his heart.

He could not help crying out. Reflexively, he touched the back of his head and found it damp.

When he brought his hand before his eyes, a streak of bright red stained his fingers.

His skull had been cracked open!

Just then, a massive flood of memories rushed into the depths of his mind.

"Ah..."

With a miserable scream, Lu Changsheng fainted from the agony.

When Lu Changsheng woke again, it was already evening.

The setting sun spilled through the doorway into the room, casting a faint blood-red glow that looked somewhat eerie.

Lu Changsheng leaned quietly against the mud-brick wall, lost in thought.

Only now did he realize that he had transmigrated.

From an ordinary young man in his twenties on Blue Star, a single drunken night had brought him to this bizarre world.

The body he now occupied was also named Lu Changsheng, and had just turned twenty this year.

Having been tempered by the internet explosion of his previous life, he grasped the situation in an instant.

Then he began carefully sorting through the memories in his mind.

A moment later, Lu Changsheng had gained a preliminary understanding of his circumstances.

This place lay within Changping County, Qingning Prefecture, of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Several centuries had passed since Qin Muyun had swept across the world with absolute martial might and founded the dynasty six hundred years ago.

Yet Qin Muyun had grown old and frail, and had not attended court for the past three years.

Some shadowy forces throughout Great Zhou had begun to stir restlessly as well.

Since Changping County lay on the dynasty's frontier, near the territory of the southern barbarian tribes, the changes here were even more obvious.

Bandits ran rampant, evil cults flourished, and the place was exceedingly dangerous.

"Martial arts? The Great Zhou Emperor?"

Lu Changsheng's gaze flickered. A mere tip of the iceberg from those memories shattered his understanding.

There were actually martial artists who could live for centuries. It was truly terrifying.

"Brother Changsheng, get some proper rest first. We can slowly investigate Uncle Lu's matter later."

At that moment, a voice interrupted Lu Changsheng's thoughts.

It was Fang Tao. Seeing that Lu Changsheng had improved somewhat, he prepared to leave.

Lu Li came back to his senses and smiled faintly. "Thank you for these past few days."

He and Fang Tao's older sister and younger brother lived next door to each other. Their families had ancestral ties, and their relationship had always been good.

After his former self had his head cracked open and collapsed in a filthy ditch, it was the two of them who had carried him home.

As for the Uncle Lu the other had mentioned, that was this body's father.

He had been an ordinary hired escort, usually taking on hard labor for escort agencies. Yet he had left half a month ago and never returned.

Even the escort agency's compensation had been paid out, so he was likely already doomed.

In these troubled times, a human life was worth only ten taels of silver.

Yet before those ten taels of blood money had even had time to warm in his hands, he had been struck unconscious while going out, which was what led to his transmigration.

It seemed someone had long had their eyes on the money in his possession.

Thinking of this, Lu Changsheng's heart turned icy.

He was not only injured at the moment, but also extremely weak. He could only choose to lie low for now.

"What are you saying, Brother Changsheng? I'm still waiting for you to recover so you can take me out into the world."

Fang Tao gave a sly grin, then turned and walked away.

Watching him depart, Lu Changsheng said nothing. He leaned against the wall, quietly recovering his strength.

The air was utterly silent, and his breathing was clearly audible.

Only after night had fallen did he feel that sense of dizziness ease somewhat.

Lu Changsheng pushed himself up and slowly walked outside.

He soon arrived beyond the hut.

The surroundings consisted of a small courtyard enclosed by dead wood, only a little over twenty meters across.

Four thatched huts stood to the south: two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a storage room.

He headed straight for the storage room.

He intended to search for anything useful inside.

From his memories, he knew that it contained quite a few little things his cheap old man had collected over the years.

Though his former self had always looked down on such "junk."

As an unofficial employee of an escort agency, his father had traveled far and wide for years. Perhaps he had stumbled upon some unexpected gains.

Before long, Lu Changsheng arrived outside the storage room.

The wooden door ahead was half-open and damaged. It had clearly been kicked in by force before.

His expression turned cold.

There was no need to think about it. That gang of hoodlums had already ransacked the entire courtyard clean.

"Creak..."

Lu Changsheng pushed open the wooden door and walked inside.

The room was not large, and everything within was in complete disarray.

Several tattered animal pelts and some useless books lay scattered across the floor.

There were also some bottles and jars of unknown purpose.

At a glance, none looked valuable.

He slowly walked to the northwest corner, crouched down, and picked up a book from the ground.

"Travels of Shuofang."

Four large characters met his eyes on the cover. Fortunately, his former self had learned to read, or he would have been completely in the dark.

Books were the first channel through which he could understand this world, so they naturally became his first choice.

He opened the book and began reading carefully.

The book had only a little over twenty pages. It told of a martial artist named Zhao Shuo, who had traveled across the land several centuries ago.

It recorded many local customs from throughout Great Zhou, as well as some bandits and gallant heroes he had encountered.

Lu Changsheng gradually became engrossed.

Time swiftly passed. The moon rose above the branches, and night quietly descended.

The surroundings were silent, save for the soft rustle of turning pages.

"In the 350th year of the Great Zhou calendar, every villager in Xitou Village, Qingyun County, vanished mysteriously. The county yamen searched without result and eventually let the matter drop..."

"In the 363rd year of the Great Zhou calendar, the villagers of Caoping Village, Nanqiong County, were frightened to death alive..."

Half an hour later.

Lu Changsheng slowly closed the book, his face grim.

This world was far more terrifying than he had imagined.

The most frightening things were not the bandits, but the mysterious existences hidden in the shadows.

By the faint light from outside, he then read through every book on the ground.

The more he learned, the more vigilant Lu Changsheng became.

Before he possessed sufficient strength, outside the county seat was unquestionably the most dangerous place of all.

The night had gradually deepened.

Clusters of twisted tree shadows intertwined outside, like a pack of demons waiting to choose someone to devour.

The surroundings were deathly quiet.

"Whew..."

Lu Changsheng let out a breath and was about to rise and leave.

Then something suddenly seemed to occur to him. He hurried to the far-right corner.

He then tapped the stone bricks on the ground with the back of his hand.

"Thump, thump..."

The crisp knocking echoed through the room.

There was clearly a hidden compartment beneath the ground, or it would not make such a sound.

Only then did he recall what his former self's father had once said: "Changsheng, if you ever encounter difficulties one day, remember beneath the ground in the northwest corner of the storage room..."

Lu Changsheng no longer hesitated and immediately pried up the floor bricks.

A black wooden box lay quietly in the small earthen pit.

He picked up the box and opened it.

Inside lay a yellow book and something resembling a medicinal herb.

A fresh fragrance rushed toward him.

This was...?

Lu Changsheng picked up the herb, his face filled with confusion.

"Detected Solomon's Seal with a medicinal age of one hundred years. Absorb?"

At that moment, an electronic synthesized voice abruptly rang out, startling Lu Changsheng.

"Who's there!"

He gave a low shout, but received no response.

"Could this be my Golden Finger?"

When the other party did not respond for a long while, realization immediately dawned on him, and his expression shifted.

What followed indeed confirmed his guess.

"Energy source detected. Absorb?"

Another cold, emotionless synthesized voice sounded.

"Absorb."

Lu Changsheng answered inwardly.

At that moment, a warm current surged into his body.

Immediately afterward, a blue panel visible only to him appeared in the empty air before him.