Starting with Mingyu Gong, the Soul-Chasing and Life-Stealing Technique

"My name is Zhou Ermin, my sister's name is Zhou Sanni, and I have an older brother. We have about ten acres of poor land, and although life is tough, we manage to make ends meet. This year, I finally managed to find a wife for my older brother, but only three days after the wedding, when my brother and I returned home from the fields, we discovered..."

At this point, Zhou Ermin burst into tears again, saying, "I saw my sister-in-law completely naked, and... she was lying in a pool of blood, and my sister was unconscious."

Hearing this, Lu Chen asked, "Is your sister alright?"

At this moment, Zhou Sanni brought out a bowl of tea and placed it in front of Lu Chen, saying in a low voice, "Please have some tea, my benefactor."

Lu Chen thanked him.

Zhou Sanni said softly, "But I'm fine."

Lu Chen sensed something was amiss. He noticed that Zhou Sanni was quite pretty this week, so why did he let her go?

There's no need to ask that.

Zhou Ermin wiped away his tears and said, "My brother and I were shocked and frightened. Seeing this, we quickly woke up our sister and asked her what happened."

Zhou Sanni said, "My sister-in-law and I were going to do laundry that day when I suddenly felt dizzy and didn't know anything. When I woke up, I saw my older brother crying uncontrollably, and my sister-in-law was already gone." As she spoke, her eyes reddened and she began to sob.

Zhou Ermin continued, "I advised my elder brother to stop his grief and report to the authorities. However, Chief Constable Wang from the county government arrived with his constables, locked me up, and said that my brother and I shared a wife, and that I had killed him to silence him after he failed to rape me."

My brother naturally denied it, but the constable then accused him of protecting the murderer. He said, "If it were a wicked person committing evil, how could they let my sister go? Disregarding marital affection, they're utterly inhuman!" So he arrested both of us brothers and threw us into prison. The county magistrate sentenced us both to death!

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen felt a wave of nausea wash over him, an indescribable discomfort washing over him. Memories of the original owner of this body flashed through his mind, recounting how he had attempted to rape his stepmother during his father's mourning period, a truly inhuman act. He lamented that if it weren't for the intervention of others in the family, the original owner would have been dead. He asked, "Then how did you get out of prison?"

Zhou Ermin said, "When my brother saw this, he said that he and my sister-in-law had a dispute over family matters, and that he accidentally killed her. It had nothing to do with me. The magistrate then released me."

But my elder brother is going to be executed in the autumn. We've been wronged! I'm just a farmer with no power. All I can do is cry at my parents' graves. I don't know what else to do! Waaah…”

Lu Chen frowned slightly and asked, "What happened with those people trying to kidnap your sister?"

Zhou Ermin said, "There is a town called Balizhen near us. There is a wealthy man named Wang. His family is extremely rich. They own land and shops. One of his plots of land is adjacent to my family's land. We have always lived in peace."

But for some reason, that day, his servant said he wanted to combine his land with ours and give us brothers five taels of silver.

We depend entirely on this land for our livelihood. As long as we are willing to work, we won't starve. So naturally we won't comply.

Later, someone else came and gave us another ten taels of silver. We brothers didn't know how to do anything but farming, so naturally we wouldn't sell it.

Another day passed, and a man came and said that if we gave the girl to Steward Wang as a concubine, he would give us fifty taels of silver.

We naturally refused, but they actually robbed us. Luckily, we met our benefactor.

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen sighed deeply. He had heard of such heinous acts of abducting women and disregarding human life from books, but he had never heard it directly from someone. He said, "It is truly unfortunate that you encountered this."

But since they knew the Wang family was powerful, why didn't they take the ten taels of silver earlier to avoid this disaster?

Zhou Ermin said in a hoarse voice, "My benefactor, you may not know this, but the former Master Wang was a kind and generous man with an exceptionally noble character, and was respected by many. But I don't know why the Wang family would act like this and insist on taking my family's land."

Furthermore, once my brother takes these ten taels of silver, he will lose his land and his livelihood. If he wants to set up a stall in town, he will not only need to purchase the necessary equipment, but also have to pay tribute to some thugs. He won't be able to keep these ten taels of silver.

Even if we want to leave here, without a travel permit, we will be arrested as refugees.

But getting a travel permit and making some bribes would cost several taels of silver, leaving us with absolutely no chance of survival.

At this point, Zhou Sanni couldn't help but sob.

Lu Chen listened and remained silent for a long time.

He felt a real tightness in his chest.

He naturally knew about things like annexing land throughout Earth's long history, so this often became the cause of uprisings, and many dynasties were destroyed because of it, allowing peasants to sit on the throne.

However, he had no understanding of the hardships faced by ordinary people.

Now Lu Chen finally understood why the original owner of this body had lived like a wild man in the mountains and forests; there was nothing he could do about it.

Having transmigrated here, if he hadn't forcefully killed Murong Qing to activate the system and receive the rewards, he would have had absolutely no hope of turning his life around.

Because in this era, the notion that "kings and generals are born with a special destiny" simply doesn't hold true.

When ordinary people rebel, the imperial court only needs to send martial arts experts to suppress them with ease.

Thus, the rise and fall of dynasties in this era was always a matter of large families taking turns in power.

A cow or a horse is always a cow or a horse, until it dies.

For ordinary people, it is extremely difficult to transcend social class.

Not to mention reaching the pinnacle of life!

Here, everything is fixed and stagnant; to get ahead, you need connections!

Regardless of whether Zhou Ermin's words were true or false, Lu Chen was certain that this kind of situation would continue to occur in this world.

So, what kind of world is this?

That's fucking awful!

Lu Chen vaguely felt that perhaps his mission in coming here was to change all of this.

The system makes him a god-level assassin. Isn't that also a way of asking him to carve out a bright and just world for himself?

But how can we help the Zhou siblings now?

Give them money?

They can't protect them!

Kill the steward and let them go?

But they're still trapped here by this road guide. Could it be that they're going to kill officials again?

It seems like there's no way out for the brother and sister!

Should I go to the Demon Extermination Bureau tomorrow?

Seeing that Lu Chen was sitting there motionless like a stone statue, the Zhou siblings asked their sister to make some dinner.

It was nothing more than a dish of cucumbers in soy sauce, a dish of cold wild vegetables, a plate of flatbread, and some corn porridge.

Lu Chen was indeed quite hungry, and he ate with relish.

After dinner, it was already dark, and Zhou Sanni led Lu Chen to rest.

Lu Chen lay on the bed and drifted off to sleep.

A moment later, Zhou Sanni came in, took off her clothes, and crawled into the bed, slowly making her way inside.

Lu Chen was sound asleep when he felt a warmth on his body, as if something was moving.

Lu Chen immediately woke up with a start, pulled back the covers, and saw Zhou Sanni immediately wrapped her body in the blankets, too frightened to speak.

Lu Chen finally came to his senses and said, "Hey girl, what are you doing?"

Zhou Sanmei looked aggrieved and whispered, "My second brother told me to stay with you. If you don't want me, I'll be too ashamed to face anyone."

Although Lu Chen wasn't a good person, he wouldn't agree to this. He picked up Zhou Sanmei's clothes and draped them over her shoulders, saying, "Get dressed first, let's go outside and talk!"

He got off the kang (a heated brick bed), took her hand, and walked to the courtyard. He sat on a stone mill and asked, "How old are you this year?"

Zhou Sanni said, "It's fourteen."

Lu Chen's heart tightened. "Have you been with other people before?" he asked.

Zhou Sanni was embarrassed by the question and whispered, "No, I've never been defiled. My second brother said you're a capable person and told me to follow you, even if it's just as a servant girl, it's better than being bullied here."

Lu Chen felt sorry for the woman and sighed, saying, "Sister, a woman's body is very precious and should be reserved for her husband, not for a guest or a so-called benefactor."

Zhou Sanni said, "I don't have a husband yet."

At this point, a glint flashed in Lu Chen's eyes as he thought to himself, "Something's not quite right about what they're doing."

Just as he was pondering this, a rough male voice suddenly rang out from afar: "Damn it, pretty boy, you get out here right now."

Zhou Sanni was startled; it was Wang San who had come to arrest her. Zhou Ermin also ran out of the house.

Lu Chen turned his gaze, a gust of wind swept in, and a white light flashed in the darkness.