Fire Kiln Rent, Treacherous Hearts, Ji Family Boy—You've Crossed the Martial Artist's Threshold?!

However.

Not long after Ji Xiu left the Lin Residence, just as he was about to pass through the narrow street leading to his own low, yellowed, dilapidated home, where filthy water ran everywhere—

He saw a figure rushing toward him, covering several steps in one:

"Ji Xiu! Ji Xiu!"

Hearing the commotion, Ji Xiu stopped and looked at the short-haired youth before him, who was panting hard, his hair scorched yellow.

The newcomer was called Zhang Qing. He ranked sixth in his family, with five older sisters who had all married away, so he was also called "Little Six" or "Liu Zi."

He was one of the few people Ji Xiu, a destitute man from a ruined household, knew in the slum alleys.

Before awakening his past-life wisdom, they had been childhood playmates.

After Ji Xiu lost his parents this past year, Zhang Qing's family had also helped his household quite a bit.

So even though he had entered Sinew Tempering and become a martial artist, Ji Xiu did not forget himself in his surging excitement. Instead, he smiled and said:

"Liu Zi, eaten yet?"

He had been in a good mood and wanted to tease him a little, but the next instant, Zhang Liu Zi's words froze Ji Xiu's smile. His grip around the hilt of his Wooden Saber suddenly tightened.

"Eat what? Damn it, hurry up and come with me!"

Liu Zi scratched his scorched-yellow scalp and stamped his foot anxiously.

"One of the Fire Kiln stewards has gone mad or something. He insists on making trouble for your family, demanding an 'Autumn Rent.' No one can stop him. He says that if we can't pay, he'll take our little sister away as payment."

"You sold yourself into the Lin Residence, and Ji Wei is the only one left in your whole family. Isn't this deliberately picking a fight, trying to wipe out your household?"

Collecting rent!

Ji Xiu's eyes turned faintly cold as he instantly remembered this matter.

The Fire Kiln was a collective term for a trade encompassing many industries, including the Coal Mine, Iron Forging, and smelting.

It was the epitome of an enormous industry.

It provided a way to live for countless ordinary households.

Together with the Firewood Market, the Cattle and Sheep Market, and those gang-run establishments and shops operating in the shadows, it made up the livelihood of the entire five hundred li of Anning County.

But this was no charitable business.

For example, the shabby street where Ji Xiu lived was "property" the Fire Kiln had bought from the authorities. It was merely rented out to poor households like theirs for shelter. If they did not work, they had to pay rent.

Otherwise, they would not even have a place to live.

But rent had always been paid once a year. Since when was there any logic in collecting an additional "Autumn Rent" in autumn?

Did they really think this was the Spring and Autumn Double Tax decreed by the authorities?

Without slowing, Ji Xiu ran all the way to the gate of his own fenced courtyard.

There, he saw a crowd gathered outside, watching the drafty thatched-roof house, heads packed tightly together.

"Little Ji has truly met with disaster. Her brother sold himself into the Lin Residence, so he needn't worry about food or clothes, but she's left suffering all alone."

"Rent is rent, but putting on such a display makes it obvious that someone wants to wipe out their household. Otherwise, her brother must have offended some Fire Kiln steward!"

"A few nights ago, I heard strange noises coming from her brother's place. Sounded like he was sharpening a Wooden Saber? What can anyone make of a broken wooden saber? He made such a racket that no one could sleep!"

"They're already poor enough, yet they're still dreaming restless dreams."

"And Lao Shuanzi too. He's been kind for so long that he insists on throwing himself against the muzzle of a gun."

Amid the whispers—

Two cold laughs rang out in succession.

"Old uncle, you're already at your age, and you've worked at the Fire Kiln for so many years. I won't make things difficult for you. Hurry up and leave."

"If I say I'm collecting three taels of silver in Autumn Rent from Ji Wei, can you pay it for her?"

Qiao Jin, a red-clothed man with tattoos on his face and a rather intimidating appearance, stood with his arms folded.

The dull-looking man clutching his sleeve, who appeared honest and proper but had been stunned speechless by the words "three taels of silver," spoke awkwardly.

"B-but wasn't the rent usually only two or three hundred copper coins? How did it—"

Hearing this, Qiao Jin impatiently raised his foot and kicked him over into the muddy yellow earth. The man rolled several times before Qiao Jin spat.

"Too damn noisy. Whatever I say it is, that's what it is!"

"Do it!"

The three to five ruffians following behind him heard the order.

With ill intent, they closed in on the trembling little girl clutching the broken wooden door.

"Little girl, your fate is bad."

Qiao Jin gave a dark chuckle.

"Someone wants to put your family in its place."

"Your brother doesn't know how to behave, so you'll have to suffer a little in his place."

"Y-you people..."

The setting sun cast its lingering glow. Ji Wei's little face had gone deathly pale with fright. She looked at Uncle Shuanzi, covered in mud on the ground, wanting to go help him up.

But these men terrified her too much, and she could only clutch her clothes and retreat.

However.

At that moment!

Splurt!

The sound of mud and sand spraying suddenly rang out.

"How come I didn't know I'd offended someone?"

Pushing through the gathered villagers, Ji Xiu kicked open the fence and leaped in with great strides. His gaze was like cold dew in early spring, heavy with frost.

Those who met his eyes could not help but shudder!

"Why does this Ji Xiu seem like a completely different person?"

Those who had known him for years could not help but feel shocked.

This—

Was this really the Ji Xiu who had once been sallow-faced and skinny as a bag of bones?!

And Liu Zi, who had followed behind Ji Xiu and whose face had flushed red when he saw his father kicked away, was even more stunned as he watched Ji Xiu charge in without the slightest hesitation, Wooden Saber in hand.

As childhood companions for many years—

He had never seen Ji Xiu like this!

"Brother!"

Tears glimmered at the corners of Ji Wei's eyes. The moment she saw Ji Xiu, joy suddenly blossomed across her face.

Qiao Jin, meanwhile, felt a chill run down his back, followed by a sudden heaviness. He immediately clenched the saber at his waist and spun around.

Only to discover that behind him stood nothing more than a "paper tiger" clad in rough cloth and holding a wooden saber.

His entire body relaxed, and he laughed.

"You put on quite the impressive air."

"But it's only a broken wooden saber—"

His gaze abruptly sharpened.

"I've trained with a saber for so many years, and I've only barely reached Entering Force. Do you think you're some martial artist who's reached Entering Force?"

"No wonder that old brother in the residence asked me to teach you a proper lesson."

"You truly don't know the rules."

"Originally, I only meant to collect three taels of rent from you and give you a beating. Then we could let it go and not make things difficult for this little girl. But now—"

"Without five taels, this matter isn't over!"

The residence?

Ji Xiu frowned. In an instant, his thoughts raced, and he quickly settled on one person.

The inner-residence steward in charge of the stables, dressed in a blue brocade long robe!

His repeated probing, coupled with his deliberate targeting—

Made Ji Xiu connect the two matters for no reason at all when he recalled Lin Ruyue's startled horse incident upon entering the residence.

He's coming for me!

His expression darkened further. He helped Uncle Shuanzi, Liu Zi's father, up from the mud, apology in his eyes.

"Sorry, old uncle."

Handing him over to the anxious-looking Liu Zi behind him, Ji Xiu turned without hesitation and advanced, dragging his saber.

When granaries were full, people understood propriety; when clothed and fed, they understood honor and shame.

If his saber had not yet been forged—

He would have endured.

After all—

Above the character for endurance hung a blade. What were a few humiliations? Compared to one's life, they were not worth mentioning.

But—

Today was not the same as before!

"Why aren't you stopping your Brother Ji? He has a young man's temper. How could he know that only martial artists can serve as Fire Kiln stewards?"

"He... he..."

Covered head to toe in yellow mud, Uncle Shuanzi's waist bent in misery, anxiously shoved his son Zhang Liu Zi.

"Brother Ji, stop! He's a Fire Kiln steward—we can't afford to provoke him!"

Liu Zi tried to reach out and grab him, but failed to catch Ji Xiu's sleeve.

And Ji Xiu's Wooden Saber had already struck out.

For a moment—

The three to five ruffians behind Qiao Jin burst into roaring laughter.

"A broken wooden saber, and he wants to clash with a real blade?"

"This kid must've trained with a saber until he went mad!"

"Brother Qiao, teach him a lesson!"

The crowd jeered.

Outside the fence, the villagers all shook their heads.

But Qiao Jin, who had been smiling and thought the boy was simply out of his mind, paid him no heed. He raised his broad palm, intending to catch the Wooden Saber head-on.

Yet the instant he caught it, his expression changed.

"No, you...?"

When the blunt Wooden Saber, a saber blank using force as its edge, smashed into his arm—

Qiao Jin felt something that could not possibly have been born within a Ji Family boy.

That thing was called saber force!

In that instant, by instinct—

His muscles drove his blood and qi, and upon sensing danger, Qiao Jin wanted to strike out with his palm and meet it with force.

But it was already too late.

Splurt!

Saber force drove into his arm.

His strong sinews, bones, skin, and flesh were like a deflated leather ball. Before the naked eye, they rapidly went limp!

The pain forced the imposing Fire Kiln steward—

To drop hard to one knee!

At the same time—

He held up the other half of his body, where one arm hung limp and useless. Cold sweat streamed down his face as he endured the pain.

Under the stunned gazes of everyone present, the veins on his forehead throbbed as he forcibly raised his head, his lips trembling.

"Ji Family boy..."

"You, you..."

"You've gained saber force and become a martial artist?!"

One sentence!

In an instant—

Silence fell inside and outside the fenced courtyard.

In these mud-legged alleys, three generations might not produce a single martial artist.

And today—

You were saying this Ji Family boy had truly trained himself into one?!