Chapter 1: Returning Through the Wind and Snow

Winter snow drifted down, silent and still. This year, winter had come earlier than usual to Shouchun County. The snow was about to stop, yet the wind had not ceased. A carriage rolled along the main street, its wheels crunching the frozen snow beneath, as if grinding away both the ice and the tangled thoughts within Ning Xiu’s mind.

He gazed at the scene before him, still somewhat dazed. The carriage was warm and comfortable, the young girl beside him charming and lovely—strangely, everything seemed to have returned to where it all began.

He opened the carriage window, quietly watching the bustling crowds outside, his clear eyes filled with swirling, complicated emotions.

“Young master, the wind is bitterly cold. You’ve only just recovered—you mustn’t let yourself get chilled again.” The young maid, seeing his actions, hurriedly rose, closed the window, and pulled the soft sable cloak closer around Ning Xiu’s shoulders before quietly resuming her seat, obedient and gentle.

Ning Xiu only smiled at her gesture and did not protest.

“Shouchun County… To think I’ve returned to three years ago. What on earth is happening…” His gaze grew distant. He distinctly remembered that he should have been dead.

Not just him—Shouchun County itself should have been reduced to ashes.

Yet since Heaven had granted him a chance to begin anew, this time, he would seize destiny by the throat. He would never again bow to fate.

Recalling those scenes before his rebirth, Ning Xiu slowly closed his eyes, his resolve growing ever firmer.

Ning Xiu did not belong to this world; he hailed from Earth. Simply put, he was a transmigrant. The Shouchun County he now lived in belonged to the Great Qian Dynasty, a realm strikingly similar to ancient China.

Great Qian had its own martial world, but in his previous life, Ning Xiu had never heard of warriors who could defeat a thousand men single-handedly. The most he’d seen were those who could shatter stones with one hand—this was clearly a low-martial world.

Thus, in his previous life, he had chosen to go into business, for which he had considerable talent. Relying on the innate advantages of a transmigrant and the support of his family, in just three years, he nearly took control not just of Shouchun but of the entire commercial sector of Lingnan Prefecture.

A commercial empire was on the verge of rising—then, in an instant, it all turned to dust.

It was all because he had misjudged this world.

This world was far more complex than he’d thought. That day, when he saw a severed head grow anew, when he saw dozens of guards inexplicably explode into blood mist, when he saw revered elders skinned and devoured alive, and when he saw Shouchun awash in a sea of blood, Ning Xiu’s entire worldview collapsed.

He had misunderstood this world, and the price for that mistake was his own life.

Now, Shouchun County was peaceful and prosperous, but who could know what lay beneath that tranquil surface?

Just as with many things in the world, people cannot fathom what currents lurk beneath a quiet facade.

“Hey, look at that fellow over there.”

“Kneeling in the snow in the dead of winter, dressed so thinly—won’t he freeze to death?”

“Don’t worry. He’s been kneeling there for three days. If something were going to happen, it would have happened already. Didn’t you see the sign in front of him? Selling himself to save his mother. Hmph, asking a hundred taels of silver right off—does he think money grows on trees?”

“Exactly. Even the top courtesan in the Flower Pavilion doesn’t fetch that price. Who would buy him? He could kneel there forever for all the good it’ll do.”

…

A commotion rose outside the carriage. Ning Xiu opened his eyes and suddenly spoke: “Stop the carriage!”

The driver, hearing his master’s command, shouted and pulled the horses to a halt.

“Young master?” Xiaocui, the maid, looked up at him, confusion on her face. In her memory, this young master was never one to seek out excitement.

Ning Xiu did not reply. He pushed open the door and jumped down.

Following the sound, he quickly found the person he was looking for.

Amid the crowd knelt a burly man with a thick beard, his face red from the cold, his thin clothing dusted with snow. Yet through it all, his back was as straight as a spear and his gaze as sharp as a hawk’s.

Ning Xiu glanced at the wooden sign before the man, then, without a word, drew two silver ingots from his breast and tossed them onto the snow before him.

“Report to Ning Manor in three days.”

With that, Ning Xiu returned to his carriage and departed.

The bearded man silently picked up the silver, watching Ning Xiu’s retreating figure, then slowly rose to his feet.

“Let’s go.”

The carriage rolled onward, wheels creaking as they crushed the snowy ground beneath.

In the Great Qian Dynasty, a single tael of silver equaled a string of copper coins—about a thousand wen. One copper coin could buy a steamed bun, so Ning Xiu’s gift just now was equivalent to nearly a hundred thousand yuan in his former life.

Though the Ning family ranked among the three great clans of Shouchun and controlled nearly all the inns in the county, Ning Xiu was not the family head. As a leisurely young master, this sum was by no means trivial for him.

Yet in Ning Xiu’s eyes, it was well worth the expense. The man kneeling in the snow was named Zhang Heng—a martial artist, fallen on hard times, but formidable nonetheless.

Business is a perilous sea. In his previous life, Ning Xiu had relied on Zhang Heng to escape many open and hidden threats. Much of what he knew about martial artists in this world came from him.

But when that endless blood-red sky descended upon Shouchun, even Zhang Heng, for all his martial prowess, seemed pitifully weak—so powerless that he could not even provoke those people to lift a hand against him.

According to Zhang Heng, even the highest grandmasters of the martial path would not be so helpless. Clearly, those people—that group of monsters—were no longer within the bounds of humanity.

“But now, what should I do? If martial arts are useless, what will I use to face those monsters three years from now?” Ning Xiu clenched his fists, his face twisted with grim determination.

The atmosphere in the carriage grew heavy.

Ding!

“Activation successful. Welcome to the Martial God System.”

At that moment, a mechanical voice echoed in his mind. Ning Xiu froze, stunned for a long while before he recovered.

A translucent panel appeared before his eyes. He glanced at Xiaocui beside him—she seemed oblivious, only watching him with a puzzled look.

Ning Xiu drew a deep breath and examined the panel’s contents:

Name: Ning Xiu

Martial Arts: None

…

“System notification: As the host has activated the Martial God System for the first time, you are granted a free draw. Your first draw is guaranteed to yield a finished item (equipment, technique, tool, or elixir) of three stars or below.”

Suddenly, a spectral image of a bronze chest appeared before him.

“…Would the host like to draw now?”