CRACK!
With a crisp crack, the log split in two.
[Technique: Firewood Splitting Saber Technique (Small Success) (Trait: None)]
[Firewood Splitting Saber Technique Experience Points +1]
[Progress: (0/300)]
'I've broken through from Entry-Level to Small Success...'
In that instant, the final point of experience seemed to trigger a qualitative leap in his Firewood Splitting Saber Technique.
His chopping speed increased significantly, and he felt much stronger. Every strike landed with perfect accuracy.
Chu Fan gripped the Firewood Splitter, a strange sense of familiarity washing over him.
Though heavy, the Firewood Splitter felt like an extension of his own arm.
His Firewood Splitting Saber Technique had only just reached Small Success, but he already understood how to exert force for more powerful swings and how to channel that Force to conserve stamina!
Suddenly, a wave of weakness washed over him...
Chu Fan wanted to keep going, but he had no choice but to stop chopping.
At this rate, gathering 300 Experience Points wouldn't be too difficult or take much time.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much wood left in the courtyard. The pieces he had already split were far too fine to be chopped again, so there was no way for him to grind to 300 points.
Besides, his stomach was already growling with hunger. After all that chopping, his entire body was trembling, his right hand shaking violently.
'With a body this frail, it's no wonder those Martial Artists from the Seven Stars Gang look down on me.'
Chu Fan carried the firewood into the kitchen, gulped down a ladle of cold water, and started a fire to cook fish.
Before long, the water in the pot was boiling. The pieces of wheat cake gradually dissolved, mixing with the chunks of fish to form a thick mush.
The fish porridge had a strong, fishy smell, but Chu Fan wasn't picky. As long as it filled his stomach, that was all that mattered.
Once the fish porridge cooled slightly, he wolfed it down until not a scrap was left.
After he finished eating, Chu Fan strolled back into the courtyard.
With hot porridge in his belly, the cold wind on his face no longer felt bone-chilling.
However, with almost no wood left in the corner of the yard, he would have to find another way to earn those three hundred Experience Points.
Chu Fan sat on a small stool, lost in thought.
When you're young, one of the hardest things is deciding what you want to do with your life.
The Chu Fan from before he crossed over had been just like that.
But now, he didn't have that problem.
Because he knew what he had to do with his life...
With the Map of Mountains and Rivers, he had to practice the Martial Arts!
He had to practice the Martial Arts!
He would do whatever it took, risk everything, to practice the Martial Arts!
Though Chu Fan had never practiced Martial Arts, he understood that when it came to saber techniques, chopping wood wasn't all that different from cutting a person down.
The more he mastered the Firewood Splitting Saber Technique, the easier it would be to take a human life.
He casually stood a log upright. With a quick glance, his blade flashed...
CRACK! The log split apart.
His Firewood Splitting Saber Technique Experience Points increased by another point.
Since his Saber Technique reached Small Success, the power, speed, and accuracy of his strikes were on a completely different level.
'If I can master this Saber Technique, I wonder if I could take down Liu Da and his thugs?'
'Then again, maybe not...'
Liu Da and his men had studied at a Martial Arts Hall for six months. Although they were expelled for their lack of talent and poor character, they were still far beyond what an ordinary person could handle.
Chu Fan had personally seen Liu Da shatter a bluestone slab with a single punch. Against that kind of skill, his rudimentary wood-splitting technique would be no match.
The Firewood Splitting Saber Technique made his strikes faster, fiercer, and more accurate, but it couldn't be considered True Martial Arts.
Chu Fan had once heard a storyteller in a tavern mention that Martial Artists could circulate their qi and blood, using Qi Blood Power to shatter monuments and crack boulders.
Only by learning to wield Qi Blood Power could he possibly stand a chance against Liu Da and his men.
At this thought, Chu Fan became even more certain: he had to learn True Martial Arts.
Chopping wood could increase the Experience Points of his Firewood Splitting Saber Technique.
'If I learn other Martial Arts in the future, I can probably master them the same way!'
But the path of the Martial Arts Hall was a dead end—even if he sold his ancestral home, he couldn't afford the exorbitant tuition.
The Outer City grew more desolate and chaotic by the day. If this large estate were in the Inner City, its value would more than double.
But stuck in the Outer City, he couldn't even scrape together the initiation fee for a Martial Arts Hall.
Besides, learning martial arts wasn't a one-time affair. He'd have to pay tuition again in six months, and the subsequent costs were a bottomless pit.
'But where am I supposed to get the silver coins?'
After thinking it over and over, Chu Fan still felt that joining the Seven Stars Gang was his best option.
Eight hundred li of Cyan Yang County, a land of overlapping peaks.
Three thousand li of the Black Water River, its waves vast and boundless.
Upon this land were entrenched three major gangs and the Four Great Clans, their power and influence deeply intertwined.
The livelihoods of the common people were all lived under their shadow.
Though the Four Great Clans were not as powerful as the three major gangs, they were deeply rooted in Cyan Yang Ancient City and represented a path to survival for the children of many poor families and displaced people.
For a full belly, countless children and vagrants scrambled to sell themselves into servitude to the Four Great Clans, but even then, there was no guarantee they would be taken in.
But Chu Fan would rather be a beggar than a slave, so he had long ago abandoned any thought of selling himself into servitude.
As for the three major gangs of Cyan Yang County...
The Blood Saber Sect, the Seven Stars Gang, and the Iron Armor Sect.
Chu Fan considered them for a moment. The very name "Blood Saber Sect" was like a thorn in his side, and he immediately ruled it out.
This was because, in his memories, he had suffered endless bullying at their hands. The pain was etched into his very soul.
Two years ago, his parents had passed away one after another, leaving Chu Fan all alone. He had to move heaven and earth just to scrape together a few meager silver taels, which he used to pay an old fisherman to teach him his craft so he could make a living on the Black Water River.
But the fishermen of the Black Water River could not escape the grip of the Fishery.
Want to rent a fishing boat and gear?
As far as the eye could see, the Fishery was the only place to go.
But the rent was exorbitant, practically sucking the marrow from their bones.
Countless desperate fishermen had rented a boat, only to find themselves shackled invisibly for life. They became indentured laborers to the Fishery, exploited to a point where they could neither truly live nor die.