Cheng Zongyang didn't refuse. When two people hunted together, their coordination, harvest, and safety were all far superior to going it alone.
Besides, he had learned his Archery from his father. And while the student may have surpassed the master, it was always good to have an extra person along for the hunt.
Furthermore, when it came to experience, he was still far from matching his old man.
As for the Martial Artists his mother had mentioned... Cheng Zongyang was well aware that they existed in this world.
But becoming one wasn't something he could do. Although he had been in this world for nine years, there were too many restrictions.
First, when he was younger, he had no money. No money to find a master, no money to buy a Cultivation Technique, and no money to purchase Martial Arts.
Second, now that he was older and could help earn a living, they had a little more money, but then the drought came. Their income shrank, while their expenses grew. The family needed money more than ever.
In short, they didn't have enough money!
His father, however, often urged him to study and learn to read, to find a comfortable job in the county. Anything was better than scrabbling for food in the dirt.
But he never really listened. Learning to read and write was necessary, and over the past few years, he had intermittently learned this world's script in the County Town. But find a job there? 'Forget it.'
If he wanted to, he would have no problem finding a shop in the county and becoming a bookkeeper.
The main reason was that he'd had more than enough of the nine-to-five grind in his past life—no freedom and low pay. Besides, the fixed salary from such a job couldn't even compare to what he made from hunting.
As the food on the table was nearly gone, Cheng Zongyang, being the one with the biggest appetite, polished off the leftovers. Afterward, everyone went out into the courtyard to enjoy the cool evening air.
Because the water level in the well was gradually dropping, Cheng Zongyang had endured three days of his own stench without bathing. Today, he finally couldn't stand the smell any longer. It took him several tries to draw half a bucket of murky water.
After letting the sediment settle, he poured the clearer water into another wooden bucket and went behind the house to the vegetable patch. A sponge bath was the most he could afford himself. The leftover water could be used for laundry, and that laundry water would, in turn, be saved to water the small patch of vegetables in the corner of the yard.
The Cheng Family were outsiders in Golden Bridge Village.
Twenty-five years ago, the now-deceased Elder Cheng had led his family here alone, fleeing a famine.
They had traveled south from Beiding Prefecture in the north, entered Xiangyang Prefecture, and finally settled down in Golden Bridge Village, within Jade Peak County of Qianye Prefecture.
It was the only village that had reluctantly accepted them.
Golden Bridge Village was a small community of four surnames—the native Jin family, and the outsider families of Chen, Li, and Cheng—totaling 56 households and 231 people.
Only the Cheng family consisted of two households, totaling eleven people.
However, only Cheng Guanghai's family of five remained now.
Cheng Zongyang's second uncle, Cheng Guangshan, had apprenticed with a master in the county as a child and had now become a Doctor. After getting married, he moved to the County Town.
On the surface, the villagers got along relatively peacefully, or at least they weren't openly hostile. But because of the drought these past two years, even that superficial harmony was starting to crack.
Since they were latecomers, the Cheng Family had settled on the eastern edge of the village, near the foot of Tianduan Mountain.
They cleared five acres of paddy fields and five acres of dry fields and had lived there ever since.
Elder Cheng had been a wise man. He knew that for a family to have a long future, they couldn't remain scattered. It meant a new beginning, forming their own branch of the family. So, he spent ten cents to hire a scholar and establish a twelve-character generational naming order, which applied to both men and women.
Cheng Zongyang was of the second generation, the "Zong" generation.
But back to the matter at hand. Because their house was somewhat remote, no one saw Cheng Zongyang bathing naked in the fields under the cover of night.
After finishing his bath and returning, he set down the bucket—which still contained a good amount of water left over from washing clothes—in the corner of the yard to be saved for the vegetables. Just then, his little sister came pestering him for malt candy.
Cheng Zongliang trailed behind his little sister without a word, but his eyes betrayed his intentions.
"You can have some, but..."
"Rinse your mouth with water before bed. Otherwise, your teeth will rot." The clever little girl finished his sentence for him, adding proudly, "See, Big Brother? I know what to say."
Cheng Zongliang nodded vigorously behind her.
Cheng Zongyang shot a glare at his younger brother.
A moment later, each of them was holding a piece of malt candy as they scurried out of the room.
The little girl licked her candy bit by bit, her eyes crinkling into a smile.
Cheng Zongliang was much cruder, popping the thumb-sized piece of candy directly into his mouth to suck on.
Seeing them go outside to gloat to each other, Cheng Zongyang could only shake his head with a small smile.
'That's just how children are.'
He then picked up the Stone Ring, examining it by the faint candlelight.
'It's a bit of a long shot, but I hope it's real.'
He murmured to himself, then took a small knife from an old wooden cabinet.
He had bought it for self-defense after hunting a wild boar and selling it for money in the County Town.
He carefully pricked his arm, just enough to draw a little blood.
Unlike his palm or fingers, a cut in this spot wouldn't affect his ability to work.
Seeing a bead of blood form, he pressed the Stone Ring, which he had sterilized in boiling water, against it.
He couldn't help it. The ring was far too exquisite, and it made his mind race with possibilities.
This was, after all, an obsession he'd held for years.
'In my past life, I read so many novels. Now that it's my turn, how could I transmigrate without a cheat system? I just can't accept it!'
His Innate Divine Power was already a pretty good Ability to have, of course.
The next moment, as soon as the Stone Ring touched the blood, it dissolved into a ray of gray light and merged into his bloodstream.
Immediately after, he watched as the bleeding stopped and the wound healed completely.
This sight almost made Cheng Zongyang shout out in excitement!
Just then, a voice echoed in his mind:
[New target detected as a valid intelligent lifeform. Host binding successful. Fusing data... Fusion successful. Insufficient Origin. Please have the host conduct their own research.]
At this, Cheng Zongyang's eyes widened until they were as round as saucers.
'It's a fucking system!'
'And I discovered it and tested it out by accident!'
'A system I found myself... Who could I even tell about this kind of luck!'
At that moment, information about the Stone Ring slowly began to surface in his memory.
Cheng Zongyang remained silent for a long time as he absorbed the basic details about the Stone Ring.
It was a "key" that granted entry to a Wilderness World.
It had fallen into the mountains of this world three years ago and had been swallowed by countless creatures since. But since they were all non-sentient animals, it had been unable to bind with a host.
The fact that he had stumbled upon it, and then performed the blood-binding ritual, was something only a person from another world like him would even think to do.
Suppressing his excitement, he tried to enter the Wilderness World.
The next second, with a mere thought, he vanished from his room.
The environment around him changed in a flash, and he found himself in a small, dilapidated thatched hut.
Looking at his surroundings, Cheng Zongyang frowned and, with another thought, left the Wilderness World.
'If my family comes looking for me, or if my younger brother comes in to sleep and finds me gone, it'll be a disaster.'
So, he told his family he was going for a walk, stopping his little sister who wanted to tag along. Before heading out, he didn't forget to grab the Firewood Knife for protection.
He went behind the house alone, waited a few moments, and then entered the Wilderness World once more.