Becoming a martial arts saint starting with Black Tiger Fist

Before Chen Yuan transmigrated, he played a martial arts game with extremely high freedom of choice. He could learn various skills, including martial arts, and improve his proficiency based on the frequency of using the skills, and even break through limits to increase his level.

If this panel is the same as the one in the game, it means that no matter what profession or skill, each practice session will increase proficiency. You reap what you sow; as long as you put in the effort, you will be rewarded.

There are no qualification requirements or bottlenecks.

Chen Yuan's eyes lit up, and his cold heart instantly became warm.

You will be rewarded if you put in the effort!

These eight characters may seem ordinary, but the meaning behind them is enormous.

In this world, it is the norm to give without receiving anything in return.

The 300,000 impoverished people of Heishui County, even if they spend their entire lives, can only live at the very bottom of the quagmire, living in a daze, with no hope of rising above their circumstances.

Is it because they didn't work hard enough?

For children from poor families, learning even a few characters is an incredibly difficult task, let alone entering officialdom through the imperial examinations.

As for learning martial arts, that's an unattainable dream.

In any martial arts school in the county, the apprenticeship fee is ten taels of silver, which is equivalent to the annual grain income of an ordinary fisherman's family.

This is just the entry threshold; once you actually start learning martial arts, you'll need a continuous influx of money.

Meat, medicine, weapons—each one is a bottomless pit.

Even with sufficient resources, most people will be stuck at a bottleneck due to their inferior aptitude, making it difficult to make any progress in their lives and wasting their energy and money.

But Chen Yuan, who has a panel, is different. No matter what skill he has, as long as he works hard, he will definitely make progress.

It has nothing to do with talent, and there are no bottlenecks.

He stared at the virtual panel in front of him.

This world is rotten to the core, but no matter what you say, in the end, it's all about fists. No matter what kind of monsters or demons there are, they can't withstand the powerful force that can suppress everything!

If this incident happens at the previous martial arts school, going there again will only cause more trouble and make it impossible to practice martial arts in peace.

"After you get out, first improve your fishing skills, save up enough silver by fishing, and then go to a martial arts school to learn martial arts."

"That slut and that sissy, we'll settle the score with them sooner or later!"

Chen Yuan made up his mind.

But how to get out is a big problem.

Soon, the night passed.

The next morning, a familiar sound of footsteps could be heard.

It was the same jailer from yesterday. He went straight to Chen Yuan's cell door, took out the key, and opened the iron gate.

"Chen Yuan, come out. You can go back now!"

Upon hearing the sound, Chen Yuan's eyes lit up, and he quickly walked out of the cell.

Without asking any further questions, he followed the jailer out of the prison along the dark corridor.

As I stepped out the door, the first rays of dawn shone upon me.

Chen Yuan squinted to adjust to the light and greedily took a few deep breaths.

The crisp, cool air, carrying a faint fishy smell from the river, filled his lungs, making him feel refreshed.

He looked towards the area not far from the yamen gate, where a thin woman was waiting.

It was Chen Yuan's mother, Madam Song.

She wore a patched gray cloth dress, her hair was hastily tied up with a wooden hairpin, her face was sallow and haggard, and her eyes were red.

A pair of rough hands, calloused from years of weaving webs, were nervously twisted in front of her as she craned her neck to look in this direction.

When she saw Chen Yuan come out, she rushed forward, her hands trembling as she grabbed his arm, looking him up and down carefully, her voice trembling with tears:

"Ah Yuan, you've finally come out. What happened? You're covered in injuries!"

Her hand touched the bruises on Chen Yuan's face, tears streaming down her face. Her expression was filled with worry and lingering fear, but also with immense relief.

If I hadn't made up my mind last night to sell the house to redeem him, I might not have seen him again any later.

Although Chen Yuan was a transmigrator, he occupied the original owner's body and still felt a natural affinity for the Song family.

"Mother, I'm fine. It's just some minor injuries. I came out completely safe and sound."

He held onto Song's shoulder and forced a smile.

"Mother, why did they let me out? Where did you get the money to bribe them?" Chen Yuan asked in confusion.

When Mr. Song visited his cousin in prison before, he mentioned that his grandfather had placed all his hopes on his cousin, and since he believed that he was the one who had committed the crime and was in prison, he was even less likely to contribute a single penny.

The neighbors... are themselves struggling to make ends meet, and it's almost impossible for them to help.

Seeing Song's shifty eyes, Chen Yuan suddenly remembered something, "Mother, you didn't sell the house, did you?"

Madam Song nodded, her voice filled with helplessness: "I can't just stand by and watch you die in there!"

Song couldn't continue speaking; her thin shoulders trembled violently.

In the better years of his life, Chen Yuan's father spent fifteen taels of silver to buy a mud house near the fish market. Although it was dilapidated, at least he had a place to shelter from the wind and rain.

Compared to the few families who can only live on fishing boats, they are much better off.

Now that we have no house, we have no choice but to go back to the boat.

That old fishing boat, with its low-hanging canopy and drafts everywhere, is already in late autumn and will be as cold as an ice cellar in winter. How will it survive?

A pang of heartache flashed through Chen Yuan's heart. Could he blame the Song family?

If she hadn't made the tough decision to sell her house and redeem herself, she might have died in prison one day.

"Mom, it's alright, let's go home first."

Chen Yuan held his mother's cold hand and walked towards the Blackwater River. "It's fine for us, mother and son, to stay on the boat."

Returning to that familiar riverbank, looking at the dilapidated little boat swaying slightly in the autumn wind, a sense of homelessness and desolation washed over me.

Song forced herself to stay alert, crawled into the boat awning, and found a small half-bag of brown rice mixed with bran, intending to cook porridge for Chen Yuan.

Looking at his meager food reserves, Chen Yuan was figuring out how to use the proficiency panel to quickly improve his fishing skills and catch more fish to earn money.

Suddenly, he heard his mother let out a soft cry.

"Mother, what's wrong?" Chen Yuan's heart skipped a beat.

Song's face was deathly pale. She held a rough piece of yellow paper in her hand and her voice trembled as she said, "Tomorrow is the beginning of the month, and the Green Snake Gang's water rent is due."

Chen Yuan took the yellow paper, on which was written a number—three hundred coins.

Below is a simple drawing of a green snake.

Three hundred coins!

Compared to last month, it has increased by another 20%!

That's equivalent to the income from selling over 100 kilograms of fresh fish!

If the catch is good, even if you work yourself to the bone and scrape together what you can, you might still be able to manage.

But now it is late autumn, the weather is getting colder, the fish population is decreasing, and fishing is becoming increasingly difficult.

They had just lost their only home, and with the little food they had, they could barely feed themselves. Where were they going to get three hundred coins?

This money, which came as a death sentence, was like the noose of the King of Hell, precisely placed around the neck of Chen Yuan, who had just been released from prison and had nothing.

Refuse to pay? Anyone who dares to go out fishing in the river will be feeding the "river monster"!

A suffocating pressure instantly gripped Chen Yuan.

"This is a terrible start, they're not giving us a single chance to survive!"

The initial excitement generated by the cheat system was quickly extinguished by the cold reality.

"Why don't we go ask your grandfather?" Madam Song looked at Chen Yuan with a distressed expression.