Chapter 1: Chen An

Midday, the sun hung high in the sky, casting a bright light all around, bringing a hint of warmth to the earth.Chen An walked on the road, the sun shining on him from above, but his mood was not very good.

Looking ahead, the surroundings were filled with dilapidated houses, and there were beggars along the road.

Faint cries could be heard from all corners, piercing to the ears and making people feel uncomfortable.

If one observed carefully, they could even find several corpses hidden in the corners.

The scene before Chen An made him feel incredibly unfamiliar, but at the same time, somewhat familiar.

Even though he had crossed over for more than half a month, the scenes in front of him still made him feel uneasy, unable to adapt.

Chen An looked around at the scenes, feeling heavy-hearted.

Half a month ago, he was just an ordinary person in a peaceful society, but in a short period of time, he arrived in this world and became someone else.

His current identity was a member of the Sanhe Gang.

To put it bluntly, he was a gangster.

Of course, the background of this world was different from the previous world.

In this world, there existed genuine martial arts, and most of the so-called gangs were martial arts forces, with specialized martial arts traditions.

Similar to the noble families in ancient times in the previous world, this world also had so-called noble families, just that what each side monopolized was no longer the same.

In the previous world, the noble families monopolized mainly knowledge and literature, while in this world, it was martial arts inheritance.

Relatively speaking, the latter was more deadly.

Knowledge and literature were merely knowledge and a path to progress, while martial arts inheritance involved not only knowledge and advancement opportunities, but also the most real and unyielding martial power.

In such a backdrop, gangs like the Sanhe Gang basically replaced the government, completely overshadowing the government.

When the gang was no longer just an ordinary gang, the members of the gang like Chen An naturally couldn't be considered simple gang members either.

In reality, in this era of survival of the fittest, someone like Chen An with this identity was already enviable.

Even ordinary people who wanted to join a gang had no way in. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ɴøvᴇl_Firᴇ.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Natural disasters outside were frequent, and ordinary people could be wiped out at any time, just like the beggars on the roadside who couldn't even afford a hot meal.

Compared to that, Chen An at least didn't have to worry about food and drink, not having to worry about livelihood.

This was the only comfort at the moment.

Chen An sighed to himself, comforting himself in this way.

After a while, he arrived at his workplace, a residence of the Sanhe Gang.

"Master Chen, come and have some fun."

In a somewhat grand building, as soon as Chen An stepped in, he heard bursts of laughter.

A young girl approached, dressed in thin clothes, looking at Chen An and said.

Chen An looked up at the girl's appearance, couldn't help but sigh.

This residence used to be a brothel, with good business on normal days.

However, some time ago, a natural disaster struck, and the wealthy people also tightened their belts, naturally not having the money to spend.

The brothel owner owed a gang leader of the Sanhe Gang, because business was bad, he was short of money, so naturally he couldn't pay it back for a while.

Soon after, his head was chopped off, it was said his whole family was wiped out.

This brothel also became a property of the Sanhe Gang, directly becoming a residence of the Sanhe Gang.

As for the girls inside, it was naturally impossible to return them, directly becoming a property of the Sanhe Gang, responsible for entertaining the gang members of the Sanhe Gang.

Compared to before, these girls' lives became even more difficult.

At least before, if they had generous customers, they might still receive some rewards.

But now, forget about rewards, just having a meal would be good enough.

But for this one meal, they still had to do what they were supposed to do.

Otherwise, they would be beaten to death.

"It's not that bad."

Chen An looked at the girl and sighed.

This girl was actually quite young, only about sixteen or seventeen years old, in the past world, she was about the same age as Chen An's sister.

Thinking of his family in the past world, he felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Searching through himself, he finally found half a steamed bun, handed it to the girl in front of him, and said, "Go rest in my room, just say I asked you to come to accompany, at least today no one should bother you."

"Thank you, thank you."

The girl took the half bun, her eyes reddening, quickly lowered her head to thank Chen An.

Afraid others would notice, she quickly left, being very careful all the way.

"Anzi, you are being compassionate again."

Entering the hall, a young man looked at Chen An, shaking his head at him.

"It's okay, just a small gesture, do it when it needs to be done."

Chen An shook his head, casually saying, "It's not a big deal anyway."

"I'm worried you'll be taken advantage of."

He looked at Chen An and then smiled, "Although you occasionally showed some compassion before, you were never one to willingly suffer losses, why have you been like this recently?"

"People change."

Chen An spoke, not saying much on this topic.

The previous owner of this body occasionally showed some compassion, but in general, he was no different from others around him, all equally fierce.

His so-called compassion was in fact more of a sense of superiority, a satisfaction in seeing the poor bow down to him.

As for Chen An?

It was more of a habitual action.

He hadn't been in this world for too long, at least for now, the environment of this world had not completely assimilated him.

For trivial matters that didn't endanger him, he just helped when he could.

As time passed, habits might change, and he might gradually become the same as others, but for now, half a month was not enough for that change.

Entering the hall, Chen An began his day's work.

The work he did wasn't difficult, just sitting here, occasionally sorting through lists and sometimes going out to collect debts.

Overall, the internal management of the Sanhe Gang was still somewhat chaotic, and the members inside didn't have any specific division of labor, just doing whatever needed to be done.

The problem was quite large, to the point that if someone inside wanted to embezzle some small things, it was simply too easy.

If this was a legitimate company, under such chaotic internal management, it would have probably already gone bankrupt.

But it didn't matter.

As a gang, martial strength and martial arts inheritance were its core competitive strength.

As long as these two areas were fine, then no matter how many other problems there were, they wouldn't be an issue.

Recently, Chen An often had to go out, but today he was lucky enough to just stay here.

It was a rare leisure time.

"Where is Master Mei?"

As he worked, Chen An casually asked.

Master Mei, whose full name was Mei An, was the hall master of the Sanhe Gang in this area, in a certain sense, he was also Chen An and others' immediate boss.

Speaking of which, Chen An's father of this body seemed to have worked for Master Mei, and even died for Master Mei.

In the Sanhe Gang, Chen An was somewhat inheriting his father's legacy.

"It seems there's been some trouble in Qinghe, Master Mei rushed over to deal with it."

Beside him, Liu Sheng spoke up.

"Master Mei went to handle it personally?"

Chen An was surprised, then subconsciously asked, "Is there a troublemaker?"

Unlike them, the hall master Mei An was a legitimate martial artist.

Chen An had witnessed Mei An's hand up close before.

That time, Mei An held a big knife and directly killed more than ten strong men on the spot, seemingly without any effort.

Such a martial strength was no longer something ordinary people could compare to.

Usually, Master Mei, this hall master, presided over in this residence, rarely going out.

The fact that Master Mei had to go out to deal with something hinted that it must be significant.

"I heard that there was an accident over there, seems like a corpse mutation."

Liu Sheng hesitated for a moment, then said.

"Corpse mutation."

Chen An couldn't help but frown.

Since arriving in this world half a month ago, he had heard of many similar incidents.

Frequent natural disasters, it was said many strange happenings occurred in many places.

Some encountered wild beasts that could speak human language in the wilderness, some died and resurrected after three days, and there were also sorcerers using spells to treat illnesses, capable of resurrecting the dead.

All sorts of strange events were not uncommon, and he had heard quite a few during this period.

At first, Chen An thought these were just rumors and superstitions.

In troubled times, there were always strange tales and occurrences, seemingly not all that surprising.

But later on, Chen An personally witnessed a peculiar incident.

It was during an expedition to collect debts, a person whose body had rotted halfway was still able to move freely, and even killed Chen An's companion.

If he hadn't noticed something was wrong beforehand and prepared ahead of time, he might have died there too.

It was said that the strange creature still hadn't been dealt with, and no one dared to go near that area till now.

This incident also sounded an alarm bell to Chen An.

In this world, those so-called strange events, might not necessarily be false superstitions, but actual existences.

As for why this was the case, Chen An attributed it to the differences in the worlds.

Different planets had different conditions, let alone different worlds.

The previous world didn't have martial arts, but this world did, which already indicated the differences between them.

Therefore, creatures that couldn't exist in the previous world might be able to exist in this world, making it a possibility.

"With martial arts families oppressing from above, and demons eating people below, the common people of this world are truly having a hard time."

Looking back at the state of this world, Chen An felt somewhat heavy-hearted, not knowing what to say at the moment.

Before he could recover from this heavy-hearted feeling, there was already a commotion outside.

"Master Mei is back!"

Shouts came from outside.

Chen An subconsciously looked up, then saw outside the door, a middle-aged man with a dark face walking in.

He was burly and tall, wearing a gray robe, but at the moment, it had been stained with colorful marks.

There was a clear claw mark on his chest, with fresh blood still dripping.

He was injured, and his injuries were not light.