Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Jiangzhou.

It was the plum-rain season, and a fine drizzle fell without end.

The night was already deep, but the Immortal’s Rest Pavilion, the largest brothel in Jiangzhou City, remained as lively as ever.

The fragrance of cosmetics mingled with the aroma of wine. Accompanied by the music of strings and woodwinds and the soft murmurs of beautiful women, the place truly lived up to the saying: Even an immortal would drink himself senseless here and forget that he was still in the mortal realm.

On the upper floor of a tavern opposite the Immortal’s Rest Pavilion, a young man sat perfectly still, watching everything that happened at the entrance.

He had a thin build, but his gaze was as sharp as lightning, as though he intended to see through this paradise in the mortal world. He wore simple black robes, and his hair was secured with a wooden hairpin. Everything about him appeared plain and unremarkable.

As the night grew darker, the corners of the young man’s mouth curled upward slightly. He took a sip of the strong tea that had long since gone cold.

In less than an hour, a bloody struggle would begin. Once it was over, another two hundred taels of silver would be his.

“Open the panel.”

The young man focused his consciousness.

Host: Zhao Jiu

Cultivation: Ninth Rank

Martial Arts:

Chasing Stars and Moon (Perfected)

Grand Purity Jade Void Scripture (Second Level)

Secret Arts:

Tang Sect Secret Art: Weapons / Tang Sect Secret Art: Poison

Disguise Technique

Tortoise Breathing Technique

God of Wealth Points: 200

…

After closing the panel, Zhao Jiu rolled his neck from side to side. Once he completed this job, even in the worst-case scenario, he would be able to advance to the Eighth Rank.

That was right. Zhao Jiu was not from this world.

Two years ago, his family home had been demolished for redevelopment. He had received an apartment and nearly five million yuan in compensation, becoming rich overnight.

People tended to indulge themselves after suddenly acquiring a fortune, and Zhao Jiu had been no exception. After drinking through the entire night, he had failed to dodge an oncoming twelve-wheeled truck and had been sent straight to heaven. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in this world.

After awakening, Zhao Jiu quickly discovered that this world was anything but simple.

Although it greatly resembled ancient China, on the third day after his arrival, he personally witnessed someone tap the ground twice with the tips of his toes and fly across a river dozens of meters wide.

As far as Zhao Jiu knew, no such experts had existed throughout China’s five thousand years of history.

The conclusion was obvious: this was a High-Martial World.

It was also on that day that Zhao Jiu awakened the System. Without it, there was no chance that someone with his useless body, which made him vomit twice after running a single kilometer, could have survived in such a world.

He might as well have found another twelve-wheeled truck and let it run him over again.

The System’s rules were simple. One tael of silver could be exchanged for ten God of Wealth Points, which could then be used to purchase various items from the System Shop, including cultivation techniques, weapons, poisons, and many other things.

Five discounted products were refreshed every day. Unfortunately, the shop contained no scientific technology that surpassed the current era, so he could not buy an AK-47.

However, the System possessed a special identification function. Any silver exchanged for God of Wealth Points had to be compensation earned through his own labor.

Theft, robbery, and corruption were all forbidden.

Given this unchangeable condition, Zhao Jiu carefully considered his options and concluded that he had only three possible paths:

Become an official, conduct business, or become a farmer.

Farming was the first option he eliminated. Putting aside the fact that he could work himself to death without earning much money, he did not even own any farmland.

Becoming an official was even less realistic.

The factions within the imperial court were numerous and complicated, and political struggles never ceased. Zhao Jiu could not handle such an impossibly tangled web of relationships. Had he possessed that kind of ability, he would not have needed to rely on demolition compensation to become rich in his previous life.

Most importantly, he could not pass the Imperial Examination.

The Imperial Examination in this world was absurdly difficult. The Four Books and Five Classics might as well have been heavenly scriptures. He recognized every individual character, but once they were placed together, they all became complete strangers.

Therefore, Zhao Jiu could only conduct business.

During his first year after transmigrating, Zhao Jiu had tried running a tavern. Various local officials had demanded benefits from him under every imaginable pretext, while his competitors caused trouble for him almost every day.

He had earned very little and nearly worked himself to death.

After that, Zhao Jiu learned his lesson. A business that required no starting capital was far simpler and brought in money much faster.

Whenever someone encountered a difficulty, required assistance, and was willing to pay, Zhao Jiu considered himself duty-bound to help.

Of course, ninety-nine percent of his clients hired him to kill someone.

The rare exceptions hired him to escort illicit silver into the capital.

Zhao Jiu still remembered the first time he entered this line of work. It had happened entirely by accident.

A young lady from a fallen family had been forced by a butcher to become his concubine. Naturally, she was unwilling, so she sought out Zhao Jiu, who was working as a municipal surveyor at the time—better known as a street loafer.

The sunlight had been warm that day, and a gentle breeze had lifted the hem of the young lady’s skirt.

Those long legs, that ample bosom, and those twenty taels of silver…

So fair, tender, and irresistible.

The young man’s thoughts seemed to drift back to that small room.

“Please say that again~”

He remembered the young lady clutching a box while the man before her wiped the sweat from his brow.

Zhao Jiu had no reason to refuse. The crushing weight of life bore down upon the young man’s tender waist.

That very night, Zhao Jiu followed the drunken butcher. He slipped a rope around the man’s neck from behind and strangled him until he stopped moving.

The following day, Zhao Jiu heard what had happened afterward.

Unexpectedly, the butcher had only been rendered unconscious by the strangulation and had awakened not long afterward. However, because he was drunk, he lost his footing and fell into the river.

As luck would have it, the butcher could not swim at all.

Through one coincidence after another, the butcher somehow drowned in the river.

Fortunately, the young lady did not understand what had truly happened. She assumed Zhao Jiu had killed him and paid the agreed amount in full.

The incident left Zhao Jiu with an overwhelming sense of humiliation. It was like an impotent man watching his wife return home carrying a newborn child.

From that day onward, Zhao Jiu swore that he would master this profession and become an expert in his field.

Something like that could never be allowed to happen again.

Following that incident, the System unlocked a Starter Pack for him. It contained a storage space measuring approximately two hundred square meters and the perfected lightness skill, Chasing Stars and Moon.

He had purchased the Disguise Technique, Tortoise Breathing Technique, and the two Tang Sect Secret Arts from the discounted shop using the God of Wealth Points exchanged from those twenty taels of silver.

From then on, Zhao Jiu devoted himself to studying assassination techniques and continuously corrected his mistakes through practical experience.

He made full use of his personal advantages and the various methods he had read about in books from his previous world. He also tailored his services to suit each individual target, ensuring that his customers could rest assured, his targets could rest in peace, and his fellow professionals knew to remain cautious.

After a year of practical experience, he gradually developed his own complete system.

He accepted commissions through carrier pigeons, changed his appearance before meeting his clients, and obtained information about the target along with a deposit. He then personally observed the target, formulated a service plan, completed the assignment, and collected the remaining payment.

Thanks to this process, Zhao Jiu not only earned enough silver to purchase the Grand Purity Jade Void Scripture, but also used the System Shop to raise the scripture to the Second Level.

With the assistance of medicinal pills purchased from the System, his cultivation had also successfully reached the Ninth Rank. He had finally crossed the threshold of the Martial Dao.

During his year of traveling through the Jianghu, Zhao Jiu had also learned that the martial cultivation system of this world was divided into nine ranks, derived from the Daoist belief that nine represented the ultimate number.

Returning his attention to the present, Zhao Jiu continued staring motionlessly at the entrance of the Immortal’s Rest Pavilion.

Not until after midnight did a short, stout man dressed in luxurious clothing stagger out with his arms around two women. The driver of a nearby carriage immediately jumped down and helped the man into the carriage.

This short, stout man was Zhao Jiu’s current target: Wu Xin, the Fifth Young Master of the Wu family.

The Wu family had five sons, named after loyalty, filial piety, propriety, righteousness, and trustworthiness. Wu Xin was the youngest.

Zhao Jiu felt a surge of contempt.

They possessed no loyalty, no filial piety, no propriety, no righteousness, and no trustworthiness. Not one of the five brothers deserved his name.

When the carriage began moving, Zhao Jiu leaped down from the tavern and followed it through the darkness.

Two hundred taels, here I come.

Heh heh heh…