Free Web NovelChapter 1: Chapter 1: Woodcutter, Divine Lot
A bone-chilling autumn wind blew past. Xie Yuan, lying in the drafty wooden hut, shivered and woke from his daze.
’Hiss... it’s so cold. Where’s my blanket...’
He squinted, reaching down to feel around. He didn’t find the down comforter he’d bought online; there was nothing on him at all.
’Did I kick the blanket off the bed?’
Xie Yuan thought groggily. Just as he was about to roll over and pick it up, he suddenly felt something was wrong.
’This place... doesn’t look like my dorm room, does it?’
His eyes snapped open. He shot up from the dirt floor and looked around, completely stunned.
’This...’
’What’s with this run-down wooden shack that looks like it’s from a 1980s rural village?’
’No, it’s worse than the 80s. At least the walls of my old family home I visited as a kid didn’t have holes this big.’
It was small and dilapidated, with nothing but four bare walls.
Other than the straw bed and a cabinet to the side, there wasn’t even a table.
The floor was just bare yellow earth, with nothing covering it. He was currently sleeping right on the ground.
The only other thing was a short-handled axe in the corner, identical to the ones used for chopping wood in the countryside.
A hemp rope served as a lock on the crooked door, and it was already broken.
A cross-breeze blew through the holes in the wall and the open door, making Xie Yuan shiver again from the chill.
’Where am I?’
’Yesterday... yesterday I was...’
Xie Yuan tried to recall, but his head suddenly swam as a flood of memories rushed in.
He was preparing for his grad school entrance exams and had gone to Celestial Gate Mountain to draw a fortune slip and make a wish, praying that he’d understand everything he studied and that the exam would cover everything he knew, making for a smooth process.
The line was long, but he ended up drawing the best possible fortune. So he happily took the last cable car down the mountain.
Night had fallen, and the fog was thick. The cable car drifted slowly through the mist, passing through the "Gate of Heaven."
Looking around, he thought it looked like both a fairyland and a ghostly realm, and it felt rather strange.
’And then... and then...’
Xie Yuan’s pupils constricted.
And then there was this life!
He had been born into a mountain village. His parents died young, leaving him to depend on his older brother, a woodcutter. Though they were poor, they could still get by.
A few days ago, his big brother had gone into the mountains to chop wood and never returned. The villagers helped search, but they only found an axe, tattered clothes, and a patch of blood-soaked ground covered in beast tracks...
Young and frail, he was left with no one to rely on, surviving only with the help of his next-door neighbors.
But the village ruffians still came knocking every few days. One day they’d "borrow" a basin, the next a pot. His already bare home was quickly emptied out.
Finally, last night, the weather had turned cold. The thug Li Mazi came to his door, wanting to "borrow" the only thick cotton coat his brother had left behind.
Leaving aside the fact that it was a memento from his brother—the prized possession they shared, worn by whichever of them was going out—it held immense sentimental value.
To be more practical, with winter fast approaching, wouldn’t he freeze to death without that coat?
Xie Yuan, of course, refused to lend it, even if it killed him. But he was too weak to fight Li Mazi.
During the scuffle, Li Mazi slapped him, stunning him, then gave him a hard shove.
And so he landed on the back of his head...
When he woke up again, he had suddenly remembered his past and present lives.
The memories of two lifetimes mingled, leaving Xie Yuan in a daze.
’How did this happen?’
’Yesterday I was a university student with no worries about food or clothing, and suddenly I’m a poor woodcutter in a mountain village?’
’I don’t even have a thick coat... No, forget a thick coat, I don’t even know where my next meal is coming from!’
’Before, my biggest worry was not finding a job. The pressure felt immense.’
’Now?’
’Now I have to worry about how to stay alive!’
Xie Yuan gritted his teeth and shivered again.
’This weather is freezing.’
’It’s one thing not to have a down jacket, but even my cotton coat was stolen...’
’This body is already frail. How am I supposed to get through the winter without warm clothes?’
’That motherfucking Li Mazi.’
Rage flared in Xie Yuan’s heart. He subconsciously touched the back of his head, feeling a large lump.
’Did I... actually die yesterday?’
’Is that why the veil was lifted, allowing me to remember my past and present lives and be reborn?’
He gritted his teeth and silently repeated Li Mazi’s name a few times, but he couldn’t settle the score with him just yet.
He was just an orphan, the poorest woodcutter in the village. He couldn’t afford to provoke a gang-leading village tyrant.
This world was like an ancient feudal dynasty. There were no police in a mountain village; no one could help him.
An orphan like him with no support was fated to be bullied.
This was especially true with the group of hooligans like Li Mazi, who followed Zhang the Second around. They were a mob, ganging up to bully the weak and take advantage of others. Even the village elders could only turn a blind eye.
It wasn’t just because there were a lot of them. It was also because Zhang the Second’s older brother, Zhang Dalang, had studied martial arts at a dojo. After graduating, he became a bailiff in the county yamen!
The Martial Artists of this world weren’t just for show like in his previous life. It was said that a novice could shatter stone tablets and leap onto rooftops and run along walls.
Those at higher realms could even cause mountains to crumble and rivers to part, move mountains and fill seas!
They were practically gods.
Therefore, Martial Artists held an extremely high status. Even a mere novice was far more powerful than an ordinary person.
And with someone like Zhang Dalang, who had achieved proficiency and held a government post, it was natural that no one dared to control his younger brother, Zhang the Second, as he and his gang terrorized the village. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
"Martial Artists..."
A glint appeared in Xie Yuan’s eyes.
If he had a choice, Xie Yuan truly wanted to go back.
Wasn’t fried chicken and coke delicious? Weren’t smartphones fun?
No matter how much pressure he was under in his past life, at least survival wasn’t an issue. In fact, you could say he lived quite comfortably—compared to now, it was heaven.
But having been inexplicably brought to this world, it seemed he couldn’t go back for the time being.
A mountain village woodcutter like him, with no support and no background, was at the very bottom of this world’s social ladder.
’If I want to turn my life around, or at least get back to a point where I don’t have to worry about food and clothing and won’t be bullied...’
’...my only path is probably to become a Martial Artist?’
’Making glass, producing soap... uh, I don’t know how to do any of that... Even if I managed to figure it out from memory, in a world of cultivation, if I’m not strong enough myself, it’d be like a child carrying Gold through a bustling market.’
’Not unless I was a Martial Artist myself, strong enough to protect my own enterprise.’
But how could training in martial arts be so easy?
Setting aside aptitude and talent, or the need for medicinal baths and dietary supplements, just entering the most ordinary dojo as a registered disciple for a month’s training would cost at least a few taels of silver.
Right now, he didn’t even have money for his next meal.
’Unless...’
Xie Yuan tentatively called out:
"Deep Blue?"
No response.
"Panel?"
"System?"
Other than his own muttering, there was no reaction in the hut.
’A hell of a starting hand!’
Xie Yuan sighed. It seemed he wasn’t so lucky after all.
’I really thought I was getting the typical web novel protagonist treatment.’
’Whatever. Since it’s come to this, I should first eat... oh wait, there’s nothing to eat.’
A gust of wind blew past, and clad only in a single layer of linen, he shivered again. The temperature in the mountain village in late autumn was already extremely low.
Without a way to keep warm, his frail body probably wouldn’t make it.
Looking at the room that was, in the most literal sense, just four bare walls, Xie Yuan hugged his arms.
"Sigh, guess I’ll start a fire first..."
He picked up the axe from the corner of the hut, walked out the door, and into the courtyard.
There were still a few thick logs in the small yard, which he had cut down earlier.
This wood came from what the locals called a "scabby tree." Scabby trees were full of moisture and the wood was rotten, making them easy to chop.
With Xie Yuan’s strength, this was the only kind of tree he could manage to cut.
But this wood was too common and contained too much moisture. The firewood it produced was damp and created a lot of smoke when burned, so it didn’t sell for a good price.
Xie Yuan could barely scrape by with this, and he still had to rely on his neighbors for help.
Back when his big brother was alive, he would often go deep into the mountains to find better types of trees to cut. His brother was naturally tall and strong, and he was skilled with an axe. Few woodcutters in the village were as capable as him.
Sometimes, he’d find a good tree, cut it down, and carry it out, selling it for a good sum of money. The family would even be able to eat meat then.
It was just that the mountains weren’t safe. There were great beasts, and it was said that even demonic beasts lurked deeper in. His brother must have met with some misfortune, as nothing of him was left...
Xie Yuan’s mood sank.
Even though he had recalled his past life’s memories, the experiences and emotions of this life were still very real. If his big brother hadn’t raised him with such care, he probably would have transmigrated again long ago.
He chopped the wood, his mind wandering.
As a result, one swing went wide, nearly hitting his own foot and startling him.
He felt a bit helpless. In truth, before his brother’s death, he was still young and had only watched his brother chop wood. He had never done the work himself and was far from proficient.
’What did my brother used to say? "Plant your feet firmly, tighten your core, draw power from the ground, and let your eyes guide your hands?"’
Xie Yuan focused his mind, settled into a slight horse stance, raised the axe, aimed at the log on the ground, and took a deep breath.
CRACK.
A sizable log split in two at the sound, and Xie Yuan felt like he hadn’t used much effort at all.
"My brother’s instructions are actually really useful!"
A small smile appeared on his face.
"Chopping wood looks simple, but it actually has its own techniques. I suppose everything in the world, no matter how grand or menial, is probably like that."
Just as he was about to continue, his vision suddenly shifted. He saw a wooden slip, and on it, a line of ancient seal script.
Xie Yuan shouldn’t have been able to understand it, yet he strangely knew what it said.
[All paths have laws, all laws have techniques, and all can be learned.]
’Huh?’
’This... isn’t this the fortune slip I drew at Celestial Gate Mountain?’
Xie Yuan’s pupils shrank. Suddenly, his vision flashed again, and several more lines of text appeared.
[There is a Way even in a woodcutter’s Chopping Wood. You have had an epiphany.]
[Chopping Wood: (1/100)]
[Through the axe used for Chopping Wood, comprehend the blade’s edge. Man is like rotten wood, the world like kindling.]
