In the world of martial arts, grind your skill level to become a saint.

The Great Wu Dynasty, Yanshan City, Blackwater Street.

The scorching sun beat down on the earth, sending up waves of heat. The wind whipped up yellow sand that swept across the streets, causing the banners on the mud houses and shops on both sides to flutter loudly.

clang!!!

In the blacksmith shop filled with the smell of charcoal and the metallic tang of iron, Su Hao stood shirtless in front of the anvil, his hammer rising and falling, each strike sending up a shower of sparks.

The roaring fire made the temperature inside the shop even hotter and more unbearable. Su Hao was soaked in sweat, but his movements remained nimble and steady, unaffected in the slightest.

With repeated hammering, the red-hot iron block deforms, stretches, and takes shape under the hammer blows.

"Ah Hao's cooking skills are getting better and better, almost as good as his father's..."

"It's just a pity that this child has such a hard life. He lost his mother when he was young, and now his father has gone out of town and disappeared, leaving him all alone..."

"..."

In front of the blacksmith's shop, several men dressed in coarse linen clothes, looking like farmers, were watching Su Hao working hard at forging iron inside the shop, and whispering among themselves.

His tone contained both admiration and sympathy.

Su Hao focused intently, ignoring the sounds around him, and swung the hammer faster and faster.

Seeing the iron block take shape, Su Hao stopped what he was doing, used pliers to hold the still slightly dark red iron block, and walked to the water tank next to him.

呲!

A scorching hot iron block was immersed in water, and a cloud of white steam rose up.

Quenching, grinding, sharpening... soon, a sharp woodcutter's knife was completed.

"Uncle Fu, the machete is ready."

At the shop entrance, Su Hao handed a brand-new machete to an old man with a yellow face and gray hair.

"Alright!" The sallow-faced old man took the machete, his cloudy eyes scanning it over before he grinned, revealing a set of yellow teeth, and nodded, "Tsk tsk... Ah Hao, your craftsmanship is really good, much better than Old Sun on the street. I'll have your machetes made from now on!"

After saying that, he took out ten copper coins from his pocket and handed them to Su Hao.

"Thank you, Uncle Fu."

Su Hao accepted the copper coin and thanked him.

Next, Su Hao handed over the items he had prepared to the customers waiting in the shop, which were mostly tools such as hoes, sickles, and axes.

After delivering the goods and watching the customer leave, Su Hao turned and returned to the shop.

After confirming that no one was outside the shop, Su Hao moved a wooden stool over, stood on it, and stuffed all the copper coins he had received into the gaps between the roof tiles.

Having done all this, Su Hao clapped his hands and walked to the wooden basin filled with clear water. Looking at the still somewhat unfamiliar young face reflected in the water, he couldn't help but feel a little dazed.

"It's been two months already, it seems like we really can't go back..."

Su Hao sighed softly.

He is not a person of this world.

In my previous life, I was a struggling writer who spent my days fixing screws and my nights writing. Due to my irregular sleep schedule, I woke up here one day.

The body's name is also Su Hao, sixteen years old, a local of Yanshan City. He lost his mother at an early age and has been living with his father, Su Dashan, since childhood. However, a few months ago, Su Dashan was invited to go out to work as a blacksmith and has since disappeared without a trace, his fate unknown.

The original owner of this body was accidentally struck on the head with a stick and died on his way home during a gang fight.

"Fortunately, my books don't have many readers anyway... It's just a pity that I have to continue being a beast of burden after transmigrating..."

Shaking his head, Su Hao pulled himself out of his thoughts, bent down and splashed two handfuls of cold water into the basin to wash his face. After feeling a bit refreshed, he went back to the charcoal stove, took out a red-hot iron block and continued hammering it.

They come, the security.

Su Hao knew that since he couldn't change it, he could only accept it; at least he still had a skill to make a living.

and…

As the clanging sound of forging iron blocks rang out, semi-transparent white numbers, +1...+1...+1, began to appear in front of Su Hao's eyes from time to time.

With a thought, a semi-transparent panel occupying half of his field of vision appeared in Su Hao's eyes.

Name: Su Hao

[Qualifications]: 1

[Martial Arts]: None

[Skill]: Forging Lv2 (985/1000)

"It seems that it won't be long before my forging skills break through to the next level!"

Su Hao was somewhat expectant.

As a time traveler, Su Hao naturally possesses his own cheat-like abilities.

After some time of exploration, he roughly figured out the function of this panel.

That's the liver!

As long as you put in the effort and hard work, you can continuously gain experience and improve your skill level.

Although it's unclear how much it will affect his martial arts skills, Su Hao has clearly felt his progress in forging skills.

However, simply "liver" is not enough; you also need to "liver" the right methods.

In terms of forging, his current skill level is not perfect in every swing of the hammer, forging, polishing and quenching action; in fact, it can be described as rough. Therefore, his proficiency will not increase if his actions are incorrect or not in place.

This requires Su Hao to constantly adjust his movements and details to make them more perfect and avoid wasting effort as much as possible.

Make sure that every time you "work your liver," you gain something!

As for qualifications, Su Hao has not yet discovered their usefulness.

But no matter what, with this proficiency panel, as long as he puts in the effort, he can improve and make progress, so his future is promising!

The iron block was quickly hammered back into shape, gradually becoming a rough knife blank.

The sky outside gradually turned a deep red, and before we knew it, it was dusk.

Su Hao glanced at the sky and was about to stop what he was doing when a commotion came from outside the door, and then five or six people squeezed in from outside the door.

"Ah Hao, are you busy?"

The leader of the group, a burly man with a face full of scars, bare-chested, and with two grotesque crisscross scars on his chest, shouted at Su Hao first.

"Brother Biao".

Upon seeing the newcomer, Su Hao hesitated for a moment before putting down the iron hammer in his hand and quickly going to greet him.

The man who came was named Chen Biao. He was a member of the Fierce Tiger Gang, one of the many gangs in the outer city of Yanshan City. This Blackwater Street was the area they controlled.

"Look at you, running around all day. Have you taken care of everything I asked you to do last time?"

Chen Biao waved his hand, walked over to a chair and sat down, crossed his legs and asked Su Hao while shaking them.

"It's ready, I'll bring it over right away."

Su Hao nodded, then turned around and took a wooden box from the shelf next to him. Inside the box were five or six brand-new, sharp broadswords of the same length.

Seeing this, Chen Biao glanced at the wooden box, and the coldness in his eyes faded slightly. He nodded, "Very good. You are much more sensible than your old man, saving us the trouble of constantly reminding you of the rules."

He stood up, casually picked up a knife from the wooden box, weighed it in his hand, and then stared directly at Su Hao, saying, "I'll take the knife back first. I'll keep the debt. You don't have any objections, do you?"

"It's all arranged by Brother Biao."

Su Hao nodded in agreement.

In my memory, Chen Biao was no kind person. Anyone who dared to disobey him in Blackwater Street would suffer a terrible fate. My father had been taught a lesson once for failing to pay his share of the tax, so the shop had always been under his watchful eye, with him coming to cause trouble every few days.

Su Hao is now all alone, a newcomer to this place, unfamiliar with everyone and everything, without any support, power, or influence, so he can only endure and accept Chen Biao's actions.

As for the promise of settling the bill later, that's just wishful thinking.

"Haha! You're pretty savvy, I like that!"

Chen Biao smiled with satisfaction, patted Su Hao on the shoulder, then glanced at the shop and said to his underlings behind him, "Since Brother Hao is so agreeable, we certainly can't treat him unfairly. You all go and check if there are any hidden dangers in the shop that need to be eliminated. There are too many rats in Blackwater Street lately, so we need to clean it up!"

"Hehe! Okay, Brother Biao!"

Upon hearing this, the group of henchmen behind him let out a strange laugh, and then began to search the shop.

Su Hao took a small step back and stood against the shelf next to him. As he watched the items in the store being ransacked, a cold glint flashed in the depths of his eyes.

But he didn't say anything; instead, he stood silently to the side and watched.

This wasn't the first time Chen Biao and his gang had done this; they had patronized almost every shop on Blackwater Street, except for those without connections.

As for why no one reported it to the authorities?

Although the Fierce Tiger Gang is just a small gang in the outer city of Yanshan City, the fact that it can openly collect protection fees from the entire street means that it must have some official connections.

Moreover, it's highly likely that these are the slush funds used by those behind the scenes to make money.

Reporting to the authorities will not only fail to solve the problem, but will also invite even more frenzied retaliation.

Chen Biao and his men ransacked the place for several minutes, and after finding only a few copper coins, the group of underlings returned with disappointed expressions.

Their gazes began to linger on Su Hao.

"Have you searched the whole place? No rats?"

Chen Biao took the copper coin from his underling, frowning with some dissatisfaction.

"Brother Biao, it must have been hidden too well, that's why we couldn't find it."

The group of underlings quickly shook their heads, looking at Su Hao with ill intent.

Chen Biao glanced at Su Hao, who remained silent, for a while before looking away.

"I'm gone."

Seeing that Su Hao remained silent, he didn't press the matter further, waved his hand dismissively, and turned to walk out.

Seeing this, several of his underlings quickly followed.

Su Hao was the only one left in the entire shop.

Su Hao stared in the direction Chen Biao and the others had left, his fists clenching involuntarily.

"Sooner or later... we'll make them pay!"

Su Hao thought to himself.

After glancing at the already messy shop, Su Hao put his mind at ease and began to tidy up.

By the time everything was completely tidied up, it was already getting dark.

After observing the area from the doorway and confirming that the Fierce Tiger Gang members had left, Su Hao took out the copper coins he had hidden on the roof tiles, locked the shop, glanced at the lingering red sunset on the distant horizon, and strode out of Blackwater Street.

Walking on the cracked and potholed cobblestone street, Su Hao's eyes swept over the shops on both sides of the street.

As night approached, there weren't many people on the streets, and most shops were closed, making it quiet and deserted. Occasionally, a few vendors and hawkers would be seen calling out their wares along the roadside.

Along the walls on both sides of the street, there were many ragged, emaciated figures sitting or lying on the ground, staring blankly at passersby.

Some lay motionless in the shadows, their fate unknown – whether they were alive or dead.

The entire Blackwater Street appeared somewhat desolate and deserted.

Su Hao kept walking and soon arrived at the street corner.

He paused when he saw a crowd gathered in front of a shop ahead, and noticed that he could hear arguing and shouting from the crowd.

Su Hao recognized the shop as Sun's Blacksmith Shop, one of the several blacksmith shops on Blackwater Street. However, he had no intention of joining the crowd. Just as he was about to step away from the crowd, a bald old man with a blood-covered face suddenly rolled out of the shop and lay on the ground howling in pain.

Su Hao's gaze sharpened as he realized that the figure was none other than Old Sun from the Sun family's blacksmith shop.