Be a proper Taoist priest in The Condor Heroes

The autumn sun over Taiyuan Road's capital was veiled by dust and slanted obscured the view of the Su family's somewhat dilapidated two-courtyard house. The courtyard wall, constructed of the common Shanxi blue bricks, had collapsed in the western corner, exposing the rammed earth core beneath.

Last month, the Mongol army demolished civilian houses to build a city. The Su family did their best to protect this ancestral home, leaving only this shocking gap. The vermilion gate has long since faded and become mottled. A corner of the "Silk Shop" plaque on the lintel has been scraped off, revealing the wood marks blackened by smoke underneath. Several knife marks of varying depths remain on the door knocker, marks left by the Mongol soldiers during previous harassments.

In the courtyard, the boy brandished his iron sword, a sharp, cold light enveloping him.

"Armor-Splitting Spike!"

With a low shout, he slumped down and fell from his horse as if rooted to the ground. He took a shallow breath in his dantian, and the power flowed from his waist and abdomen through his spine and arms. He then raised the tip of his sword at a 45-degree angle, which was the core move for breaking through armor in the army.

The iron sword whistled as it pierced the wooden stake an inch deep. Wood chips flew everywhere, and before he could withdraw the sword, he had already spun around and shifted his stance, his left arm forming a shield as he parried the blow. The long sword then slashed horizontally, delivering a "continuous slash".

The sword blade grazed the wooden stake, making a piercing tearing sound, and actually cleaved a deep trench in the half-dried wood, demonstrating the immense strength of the arm.

The uneven flagstones beneath his feet resembled ravines on a battlefield. He used the stones for leverage, bending low to the ground, his longsword slashing diagonally across the surface.

"Down-to-earth flirting"

The move was as swift as lightning; the sword's spine swept across the blue bricks, sparks flying.

This was a technique for dealing with cavalry. Although he had no warhorses to practice on, he practiced it day and night until he mastered both its form and spirit.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming out of the room. His eyes sharpened, his swordplay intensified, his left arm bent at the elbow to protect his ribs, and his longsword slashed vertically like an axe.

"Shield Breaker"

He chopped straight down on the top of the wooden stake, and with a "crack," half of the stake snapped off, sending dust and mud flying everywhere.

The entire set of sword moves is devoid of any elegance, possessing only the fierce and relentless nature of a battle-hardened army: thrusts strike directly at vital points, slashes deliver immense power, parries are executed with a steady shoulder, and thrusts are swift as thunder.

His every step made the bluestone slabs hum, and his breathing was heavy yet rhythmic.

"Yan-ge'er, take a break and have some water. Lunch will be ready soon."

A child who looked about eight or nine years old walked out of the house. He was thin and small, and he was holding a ceramic bowl with a chipped rim but filled with water. He stood in front of the door.

Her face was covered in black ash, as if she had just rolled in the stove. Only her nose was upturned and her lips were clearly defined. Even covered in thick grime, her features were still exquisite. At first glance, she looked like a handsome young man.

He was wearing an ill-fitting coarse cloth jacket, an old men's garment, patched upon patched, with the cuffs worn so that the seams were showing, revealing his thin but muscular forearms.

Su Yan sheathed his sword and stood there, the iron sword resting on the ground, its blade trembling incessantly, reflecting his resolute brows and eyes.

"it is good"

He placed the iron sword under the eaves, wiped the sweat from his brow, and sat down on the elm stool that had been prepared beforehand. The stool had several deep cracks on its surface, and it creaked when you sat on it, just like the crumbling house.

He drank a bowl of water in one gulp, handed the bowl to Xiao Nianba who was waiting nearby, and then leaned against the wall to slowly recover his strength.

This world is truly unbearable for humans.

Su Yan was not a native of this world. He came from the 21st century Blue Star. He was originally a corporate slave enjoying the "blessing" of 996. He was a liberal arts major working as a designer at a GG company, but he unexpectedly died from overwork while playing games all night. When he woke up again, he was in this chaotic world. In his mind, there were bits and pieces of the first ten years of this body, as well as memories of more than twenty years in the original world.

However, based on what we know so far, he should have transmigrated into the world of Jin Yong's Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes.

Based on the timeline we've gathered, it's currently the fifth year of the Shaoding era of the Southern Song Dynasty.

The Southern Song Dynasty controlled the entire territory of Huainan East Road, Huainan West Road, Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road, Lizhou Road, and Jingnan South Road. It did not expand northward, but only deployed defenses along the Huai River.

The Mongols controlled the entire area north of the Yellow River (most of Hedong Circuit, Hebei Circuit, Shandong East Circuit, Shandong West Circuit, and the prefectures and counties north of the Yellow River in Nanjing Circuit), with their main force stationed around the Jin capital of Nanjing and Kaifeng, besieging the Jin capital. Administratively, they were centered on the "Wanhu Prefecture and Lu Zongguan Prefecture". The Central Plains region mostly followed the Jin Dynasty's Lu and Zhou system, with Mongol Qianhu and Han military Wanhu in charge of administration.

The Jin state only controlled most of the area south of the Yellow River in Nanjing Road, the western part of Jingzhao Prefecture Road, Fengxiang Road, Lintao Road, and a small number of prefectures and counties in the southeast of Shandong East Road. Its main forces were stationed in Nanjing, Kaifeng Prefecture, Tongguan, and Guide Prefecture, and it had become a cornered beast.

The Qinling Mountains and the Huai River formed the border with the Jin Dynasty, while the area north of the Yellow River was entirely controlled by the Mongols. The Jin Dynasty retained only most of Nanjing Road, western Jingzhao Prefecture Road, Fengxiang Road, Lintao Road, and a small number of prefectures and counties in southeastern Shandong Peninsula, encompassing most of present-day Henan, western Shaanxi, and the Shandong Peninsula. The Southern Song Dynasty steadfastly maintained its traditional defensive line, using the Huai River, Qinling Mountains, and Dasanguan Pass as the boundary to confront the Jin Dynasty. The Mongols and the Southern Song Dynasty did not share a direct border, separated by Jin territory, with only minor indirect contact along the Sichuan-Shaanxi border.

After the Battle of Sanfeng Mountain in the first month of this year, the main force of the Jin Dynasty was wiped out. Ögedei Khan of the Mongols personally led a large army to besiege Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng). Taiyuan Road was the core military and political stronghold of the Mongol Hedong Road. After more than ten years of repeated struggle between the Mongols and the Jin Dynasty, it had become a mixed Mongol-Han pattern of "Mongols in charge of the army, Han people in charge of the government, surrendered officials serving as laborers, and high-pressure control during wartime". The city was ruined but not abandoned, and the people's livelihood was devastated. The whole process was shrouded in a grim wartime atmosphere.

The original owner's family, the Su family, was considered moderately wealthy. Although her mother had passed away early, her father, Su Boqian, ran a silk shop and could still make a profit after deducting living expenses and various taxes. Su Boqian's younger brother, Su Bocheng, even expanded his business to several small towns in the south by relying on his father's silk shop.

However, in recent years, the Mongol army has openly looted shops and abducted women. The Su family's silk shop was constantly harassed by the Mongol army for refusing to pay "extra tribute". Some time ago, Su Boqian and Su Yan were seriously injured by the Mongol army when they forcibly requisitioned houses and shops. They not only lost all the goods in the shop, but also their mansion in the inner city was completely demolished by the Mongol army. In the end, they exhausted their savings to preserve this ancestral house, one of the few remaining in the outer city.

This provided the father and son with a temporary place to stay, but not long after, both passed away, leaving behind only two hundred taels of silver. Just then, Su Yan transmigrated, and his injuries, perhaps due to the transmigration, were completely healed.

After collecting and burying his father's body, Su Yan finally began to think of a way out for himself.

Judging from the timeline, it should have been a few years after the events of The Return of the Condor Heroes ended, and before the events of The Return of the Condor Heroes had even begun. However, the hardships of this world were far more difficult than imagined. Of course, it could also be due to the fact that it was located in the Taiyuan Road General Administration. If it were in the territory of the Southern Song Dynasty, things would probably be much better.

Under Mongol rule, the Han people were in dire straits. Half of the houses had been demolished by the Mongol army, and the bricks, stones and timber were used for city defense.

Most of the surviving homes are ruins: few people live in the blue brick courtyards. Ordinary people either live in broken kilns and ancestral halls, or build sheds in the streets and alleys, with thatched roofs and tattered cloths covering the roofs, which cannot keep out the autumn wind and cold rain.

The slums in the outer city were particularly devastating, with dozens of families crammed into a collapsed dyehouse. The ground was covered with moldy hay, and the elderly and children huddled together, wrapped in tattered quilts patched upon patched. Many people suffered from persistent coughs due to the cold, but there was no medicine available.

Even worse, some were driven from their homes by the Mongol army because they could not afford to pay the "city defense tax," and were forced to sleep in the open at the foot of the city walls. Every night, people froze and starved to death. The next morning, the Mongol army ordered the bodies to be dragged to the mass grave outside the city. The corpses were piled up, and the stench of decay permeated the outskirts of the city, attracting crows and sparrows to peck at them. It was a gruesome sight.

As for why they didn't flee to the territory of the Southern Song Dynasty?

In this era, who wouldn't want to escape to a peaceful land and live a life of contentment? Even being a slave or servant is better than being treated like a human being in Mongolia.

The key issue is that the Mongols and the Song Dynasty did not share a direct border, separated by the remnants of the Jin Dynasty. Due to the lessons learned from the Jingkang Incident, the Southern Song court held a "deeply wary and wait-and-see" attitude towards the Mongols. The mainstream opinion in the court was to "defend the Huai River and protect the Yangtze River, not to form an alliance with either the Mongols or the Jin Dynasty, and to strictly prevent northern refugees from migrating south."

Only those with special status are allowed to travel through these territories, and even then, they will be subject to extremely rigorous checks.