Chapter 1

The sky was faintly white, with not a cloud for miles.

Datuang · Yunzhou · Feiye City.

Chirp!

A bird with white feathers and a black beak flapped its wings, piercing through the clouds and diving downward.

It passed over the thick, ancient city walls and towers, slowed down, and gently landed on the highest dark red tower within the city. It began to preen its feathers while looking down.

Inside the city, gray buildings clustered together, with various pavilions and terraces.

Yellowish houses and pavilions rose and fell, and grand courtyards with upturned eaves were visible everywhere.

In the center, a vast square spread out.

The square's ground was paved with stone bricks over a meter wide, and there were large, strange beast patterns, clearly visible.

This was the usual place for market fairs.

At this moment, it was crowded with people, filled with a large number of spectators.

In the center of the square, on a simple wooden platform, an old Taoist with white hair and a white robe held a duster and spoke loudly.

"To those who study, recite it ten times, and the Five Emperors will serve as guards, the Three Realms will bow..."

"You, a scholar, have not yet eliminated impurities, and your body has not yet reached the realm of truth..."

"Oh! Here it comes, here it comes!!" someone called out in the crowd.

Soon, a Taoist carrying a wooden basin took out handfuls of copper coins, walked a bit, and then threw them down to the wooden platform.

He didn't throw many, but it still drew the crowd to bend down and pick them up.

Wei He squeezed through the crowd, looking at the old Taoist on the high platform from a distance.

He was 1.7 meters tall, with a slightly dark upper lip, a young and ordinary face, wearing a set of gray linen short-sleeved shirt, and black cloth shoes that were still in decent condition.

Looking at the old Taoist on the wooden platform.

He paused for a moment, then walked home with the oil cakes he had bought.

While pushing through the crowd, he had to endure various unpleasant odors coming from around him.

Sweat, foot odor, saliva, and even a faint smell of feces and urine.

Wei He saw a clump of dog feces on the right side of the ground and quickened his pace.

He passed through the square, turned into a street, and then through several alleys filled with yellow dust and garbage.

Wei He soon returned to his only home in this city.

The home was in a small alley, one of a row of dilapidated small houses.

Outside the door, there were old clothes hanging to dry, with slight differences in color between men's and women's clothes.

Wei He moved a broken wooden stool that was blocking the door and walked into the dark house.

"Second sister, I'm back," he said loudly.

In the corner of the room, a frail woman stood up.

She was washing clothes with wet hands, using her forearm to push back her hair, and smiled at Wei He.

"How did you come back so early today, Xiao He?"

"The work ended early, so I came back," Wei He explained.

"Has the job of repairing the main house for the Mu family finished?" She walked to the window, where the light shone on her, revealing a slightly delicate face. Although her skin was rough and her complexion was not good, her figure was well-proportioned and quite beautiful.

Her name was Wei Ying, Wei He's second sister.

Wei He also had an older sister named Wei Chun, who was the mainstay of the family, working in the Black Water Gang in the city.

This was the key to the Wei family maintaining relative stability in the area.

"It finished a long time ago. I also helped repair a few guest rooms afterward," Wei He replied.

He had been in this world for a few months, from initial confusion to later calm acceptance.

And now, he was working hard for a living, which only took him three months.

Three months, it was really fast.

The Wei family's parents were still alive, and they had two sisters.

His older sister Wei Chun was very good to him, and his second sister Wei Ying was also very good to him. His parents always kept the best things for him.

The idea of favoring boys over girls, combined with the family's poverty and inability to control the number of children, led to the Wei family having two daughters before finally having Wei He, a boy.

This made the whole family extremely important to Wei He.

"Older sister hasn't come back yet. Little brother, be careful when you go out. When I went out to find sewing work, I heard that someone was robbed in the middle of the night," Wei Ying said in a low voice, her eyes somewhat tense.

"Hasn't she come back yet? How much did they take?" Wei He's face changed.

"Just their wages, I heard they took half. The rest isn't enough for the family to live on... And the Rat Alley across the street, someone was robbed yesterday. A finger was cut off for a little resistance."

"Another night theft? Didn't the thieves leave recently?" Wei He asked.

"I don't know... Maybe it's a new group trying to take over the territory." Wei Ying sighed, picked up a piece of clothing, and started to sew.

"Anyway, be careful. If you encounter robbers, just give them what they want. We're still here, and we won't let you starve." Wei Ying earnestly instructed.

"I know," Wei He nodded.

His expression was somewhat wooden.

Coming to this world, reincarnated as Wei He, an ordinary and unremarkable young man.

He wasn't completely without resources.

But this resource was currently unable to activate.

It was a bead, or rather, a bead pattern, imprinted on the center of his chest.

From the residual information in his mind, the bead was called the Boundary-Breaking Bead.

And its ability was simple.

It was to break through boundaries.

When it accumulated enough energy, it could help him break through a cultivation level.

He knew this because the bead left a bit of information in his mind when he crossed over, like implanted memories.

As for whether it was real, that needed to be verified.

When the Boundary-Breaking Bead accumulated enough energy, it would change from a translucent color close to skin to black.

But now, even after more than three months, Wei He still hadn't seen the bead pattern turn black.

At most, it had slightly darkened.

After all, he could barely eat enough to be full, and there was no extra energy to accumulate for the bead.

The bead needed energy, mainly from his daily meals, converting excess food into essence, which it absorbed and accumulated over time.

At first, Wei He had hope, but after three months, the excitement brought by hope had gradually turned into indifference.

He lay down on the bed for a short rest. There were only three beds in the house: one for his parents, one for his older and second sisters, and one for him.

In the less than 60 square meter house, the three beds were squeezed into one place, and the rest of the area was filled with a stove, tables, and chairs, making it very crowded.

But this was already a middle-income household among the surrounding commoners.

After sleeping for a while, Wei He got up, planning to go out for a walk.

He had the Boundary-Breaking Bead and wanted to find some decent martial arts to practice, then use the bead to break through and improve.

But now, he couldn't find any martial arts at all. His older sister in the Black Water Gang only managed to stand her ground by being ruthless and vicious.

And the Boundary-Breaking Bead showed no signs of activity.

Wei He felt helpless and would walk around the city after work every day.

He was small, dressed in rags, and clearly had no money, so no one bothered him.

When he got up, his second sister Wei Ying was already asleep on the only table.

Wei He carefully left the house, closed the door, and walked out of the alley to the right.

Cough, cough...

As soon as he left the alley, a series of coughs came from the right side.

He looked up and saw his neighbor Zhang Aunt, who often found work with his second sister Wei Ying, covering her mouth and coughing continuously.

"Xiao He, stand back," someone pulled him aside.

The person who pulled him was a short old man with a smoking pipe.

He was wearing a white robe that smelled of sweat, pulled Wei He out of the alley, and walked a few more steps.

Then he lowered his voice and said with a grim expression.

"There's an epidemic in the city... I don't know what happened to Zhang's daughter. She has been coughing since she came back a few days ago. You have to be careful, don't get infected. Also, tell your second sister to be careful."

"Thank you, Grandpa Wang." Wei He was startled. He had heard about the epidemic before, but it was said to be spreading in the northern part of the city. Now it had suddenly reached his neighborhood...

In the past three months, he had also tried to use his advanced thinking as a穿越者 to help solve the family's economic problems.

Unfortunately, all attempts ended in failure.

No matter what method he tried, in this city, it always came down to one point.

That was the gangs.

The lower districts were divided into territories, each managed by different gangs.

Whether opening a store or doing small business, one had to pay money to the gang. Without a background, if the business did well, it would be targeted immediately.

The result would be either giving the business to someone else and becoming an employee.

Or paying a large sum of money every month, earning only a little.

This was a time when any commoner with a bit of money would be targeted.

Wei He did not linger, quickly left the alley, and passed through the city's narrow streets. He soon arrived outside a somewhat old gray courtyard.

The courtyard was filled with the sound of reading. Occasionally, the low, stern voice of an old man could be heard.

At the entrance of the courtyard, a sign read: "Scripture Hall" in large red characters.

Wei He found a suitable spot along the wall, sat down, and leaned against the wall to listen quietly.

The Scripture Hall was where the children of wealthy families in the city were sent for enlightenment.

It was said that the teachers inside were all former scholars who had passed the imperial exams.

"The characters here are basically mastered. In any place, words and knowledge are the most fundamental prerequisites for everything."

Wei He lowered his head and used his fingers to write on the dusty ground, practicing the characters he had learned before.

"Wei He!" Suddenly, a half-grown child with pigtails ran to his side and whispered.

"Here's today's." The pigtail threw a scroll of paper from her chest into Wei He's arms.

"The usual price, half a tael of silver," Wei He said calmly.

"Okay, okay! Hurry up, the teacher needs it tomorrow morning." The pigtail lowered her voice, took out a piece of silver from her chest, and threw it to Wei He. Then she left.

This was a job of writing homework.

A side business Wei He took on while secretly learning.

The pigtail was named Li Bian, the only son of a wealthy family in Feiye City, who was generous.

Wei He put away the silver, did some calculations.

"With this, the tuition for learning Mountain Fist from Old Zheng is almost enough."

Since he had a golden finger, he naturally wouldn't easily give up on finding a way to activate it.

The information about the Boundary-Breaking Bead mentioned breaking through cultivation levels. Wei He had tried practicing some ordinary hand-to-hand combat techniques under his older sister's training, but it didn't work.

Later, he learned from his older sister that there were people in the world who mastered a method called internal cultivation.

These were the true experts in the world, like the ones in the Black Water Gang.

But internal cultivation techniques were not easily passed on. Wei He had to rely on his older sister's connections and searched for over a month before finding a place to learn internal cultivation, which was Old Zheng's place.

But the tuition there was not cheap.