1 Zhou You

Zhou You leaned against the cold wall. His eyes widened as he looked at the carvings on the wooden wall. He sighed.

There was no going back.

When he woke up with a hangover, he became another person.

His name was also Zhou You.

He was fourteen years old.

The original host's parents made a living by doing business. Although they were not considered rich, they were still a well-off family. They had accumulated a lot of assets and bought dozens of acres of land in the countryside. They also bought a small courtyard of more than a hundred square meters in the East River.

However, unexpected things could happen.

Seven days ago, when the original host's parents were traveling through Soul Breaking Valley on Longmen Mountain, they were attacked by bandits and died.

Following their death, he was bogged by many problems. This included his parents' funeral, creditors' debt collection, and partnership settlements.

Things went by in a daze for the original owner of the body. The originally well-off family collapsed in the blink of an eye, leaving only this empty courtyard with not even a bed left.

Perhaps he was suffering from depression. After the original host of the body settled his parents' funeral, he closed his eyes and died.

Zhou You from an unknown place took over the body.

After sorting out his memories and recalling his experiences in the past few days, Zhou You was very sure that his original host had been scammed.

He was not the ignorant half-grown child like the original owner of this body. He immediately discovered something fishy.

He went through the accounts and found deficits, and promissory notes. Also, the purchase prices were used as the selling prices… If the original owner of the body's parents lost their goods and died, they would certainly lose a lot of money. However, it was definitely not to the extent of losing almost all their assets.

Just the tens of acres of land in the countryside alone were worth hundreds of taels of silver on the market. In addition to the furniture and furnishings in this courtyard, the shares in the company of traveling merchants and their accumulation of wealth added up to hundreds of taels of silver. If they were invested as capital, it would take many trips before his parents went into the red. How could they lose it all in one trip?

It was obvious that the original owner of the body had been tricked and sucked dry by everyone.

Fortunately, a close family friend helped to handle the matter and left Zhou You a place to shelter him from the sun and rain. He did not have to sleep on the streets.

Recalling the past, Zhou You realized that those people's hands were quite clean. The paperwork was written in black and white, and there did not seem to be any problems on the surface.

However, he still silently made a mental note of those people.

Then, Zhou You calmed down and began to think about his future.

From the memories of the original owner of the body, Zhou You learned that there were cultivators who could fly in the sky and burrow into the ground in this world. There were also strange and unpredictable demons and ghosts.

If possible, Zhou You naturally wanted to cultivate.

However, if there were no accidents, it would never happen in this lifetime.

This was because when the original host was five years old and was still in his hometown in the countryside, an immortal master once descended from the sky on a seven-colored auspicious cloud and took in a disciple in the village.

Unfortunately, it was not him.

The immortal master was in a good mood after taking in a disciple. He checked the spiritual roots of all the children below the age of ten in the village.

In the end, of course, he gained nothing.

There were very few people with spiritual roots. Among 100,000 people, not even one might have a spiritual root.

This time, a person with spiritual roots actually appeared in a remote mountain village. It could be said that auspicious smoke had risen from the graves of eighteen generations of ancestors blessing their offspring with spiritual roots.

People were born with spiritual roots. Without spiritual roots, one could not cultivate.

This iron law in the cultivation world made the original owner of the body give up all hope of ever cultivating.

He had just transmigrated, so it was impossible for him to suddenly have spiritual roots.

Besides, immortal encounters were hard to come by, and immortal cultivators were difficult to find. Zhou You had no idea where to find immortal cultivators.

Since he could not cultivate, he could only practice martial arts.

Practicing martial arts and cultivating seemed to be in two different latitudes. The difference was like the difference between the sky and the earth.

On the path of martial arts, a martial arts Grandmaster who had reached the peak was only equivalent to a Qi Refinement Realm cultivator who had just started cultivating.

Moreover, although practicing martial arts could strengthen one's body, let the practitioner fly over roofs, walk on walls, and possess incomparably powerful strength in the eyes of ordinary people, it could not allow one to live forever.

However, in Zhou You's current situation, it was already good enough that he could practice martial arts. He did not dare to expect more.

In this world where martial arts were flourishing, martial artists could be seen everywhere, and there were many martial artists in Mengyang City.

The City Lord's Manor, two gangs, and four dojos were powerful forces in Mengyang City and had many powerful warriors under them.

Even the leader of the Green Snake Gang, who collected protection fees from a few streets nearby, was said to be a warrior.

There were at least 20 to 30 such unranked powers in the entire Mengyang City.

From this, it could be seen how many martial artists there were in Mengyang City.

Although the threshold for practicing martial arts was much lower than cultivation, not everyone could practice it until they were famous.

When the original host was 12 years old, he had once gone to the Ferocious Tiger Fist Dojo to find a martial artist to get his bones checked.

According to the martial artist, his foundation was alright, but it was weak and his vitality was insufficient. He needed to consolidate his foundation and nurture his essence. It was best to practice martial arts after three years of nourishing his blood.

Otherwise, if one's foundation was unstable, forcefully practicing martial arts would easily result in a loss of Qi and blood. If one's foundation was damaged, not only would it affect one's future martial arts cultivation, but one's lifespan might also be shortened.

The White Crane Fist Dojo said the same thing.

The Ferocious Tiger Fist of the Ferocious Tiger Fist Dojo and the White Crane Fist of the White Crane Fist Dojo were both internal martial arts. They placed more emphasis on the long-term development of their disciples. It was better to have fewer disciples than to have bad ones.

Although the tuition fees were more expensive, the parents of the original owner of the body still liked them.

If nothing unexpected happened, Zhou You would become an apprentice in one of the two dojos after the new year.

As for the other two martial arts schools, the Diamond Dojo and the Iron Skin Dojo, they mainly focused on external martial arts. In addition, various martial arts such as fists, palms, legs, feet, and so on were also offered.

For apprentices, they would not reject anyone. They would teach as long as they got paid.

In any case, as long as people were willing to be diligent, they would be able to train their strength. Even if they could not become a martial artist, they would be much stronger than ordinary people.

At the very least, he could earn a few more bucks by carrying bags at the docks.

Moreover, with martial arts, he would not be bullied by hooligans.

As for the two gangs, the White Sand Gang and the Black Stone Gang, they were basically in the black or gray business. They fought and killed all day long and often went out of the city, into the forest, and into the mountains. The risk factor was higher.

Neither the original host's parents nor Zhou You had considered them.

There was no need to consider the City Lord Manor. Unless one married into the Meng clan or sold their body, they would not be able to enter.

It was the same for the other families.

After making up his mind, Zhou You fumbled around under the blanket and finally confirmed his current net worth.

There were two hundred copper notes.

Four copper notes worth ten copper coins.

Ten copper coins.

A total of 250 copper coins.

Looking at the landscape architectural drawings on the two-finger-wide, five-finger-long, colorful, and slightly bumpy copper notes, Zhou You was a little dazed.

Zhou You's expression turned dark when he recalled some of the memories belonging to the original owner of the body.

Perhaps, someone had come into this world previously and gone through the same story and fate?

Papermaking.

Motion-type printing.

Firearms.

Twenty-four hours a day.

Sixty minutes per hour.

Thirty breaths per minute.

Glass.

...

Many familiar things flooded his mind.

His grand plan to make a fortune in the alternate world would collapse before it even started.

It died before he even did anything about it.

However, this world seemed a little strange.

There were both paper-making and printing techniques, but the literary field did not flourish. There was not much future in studying.

Firearms existed, but martial artists still called the shots.

As for cultivators, there were too few of them. It was difficult to find cultivators, so they had little to do with the general population.

Even though many things were similar, the Dayuan Dynasty was not like a unified dynasty.

He did not know about other places, but in Mengyang City, there was no government. The final decision of all disputes was in the hands of the City Lord Manor.

More accurately, it was in the hands of the Meng family.

Not only did the Meng family have a large number of martial arts experts, but they also had an elite private army of more than a thousand people.

Most of the nearby cities were the same.

In a way, the entire Dayuan Dynasty might be similar.

A feudal dynasty in the truest sense.