In this chaotic world of vying for power, I can become stronger by marrying a wife.

Liu Tao's lips curled into a playful smile. "A smart person should know that good things shouldn't be kept to oneself. Tell me where you found the treasure, and I'll guarantee you a comfortable life in the military camp from now on."

Zhao Hu, emboldened by his master's power, barked arrogantly, "Su Ming, you ungrateful wretch! It's your good fortune that Lord Liu thinks highly of you! He's a ninth-rank martial artist!"

Su Ming clenched his fists inside his sleeves.

He could sense that Liu Tao, the man in front of him, exuded a subtle yet powerful aura of pressure, far surpassing that of a thug like Zhao Hu.

This aura made all his muscles tense up, an instinctive vigilance as if facing a natural enemy.

Is this the aura of a martial artist?

Although it's only the lowest level of martial arts, it's no different for an adult to fight an infant when facing a novice like him who has just stepped into the half-step martial arts realm.

"Lord Liu is joking."

Su Ming forced a smile, but his tone remained neither humble nor arrogant. "I didn't have any luck. I just happened to find a relatively good-looking Solomon's seal plant in the snow. I'm afraid I won't be able to find it again if I go back to that place."

Liu Tao's eyes instantly darkened, and the hand he was patting on Su Ming's shoulder suddenly increased its force.

"Can't find it?"

He chuckled coldly and said in a low voice, "A month from now, the new recruits will arrive at the camp. I'll assign you to the 'Suicide Battalion,' to be in the first charge, so you can get to know the Northern Barbarian cavalry better."

"Then we'll see if your bones are tougher, or if the northern barbarians' sabers are faster."

After saying that, he let go of Su Ming's hand, straightened his collar, and acted as if he had just been chatting casually with Su Ming.

"I'll give you three days to think it through." Liu Tao glanced at Su Ming. "Once you've made up your mind, have Zhao Hu come find me."

He turned around, took the smug-looking Zhao Hu, and swaggered away, leaving Su Ming alone, standing in the swirling snow, a layer of cold sweat seeping from his back.

He clenched his fists secretly, gaining a deeper understanding of this chaotic world.

Without strength, you're just a fish to be slaughtered!

We must become stronger as soon as possible!

……

By the time I got home, it was already getting dark.

Pushing open the door, Li Yueru was already awake, sitting on the edge of the bed, mending the tattered shirt that Su Ming had taken off, using the dim light.

Hearing the door open, she looked up, saw Su Ming, and a relieved smile appeared on her face: "Husband, you're back."

She was mostly recovered from her illness, and her complexion had improved somewhat, but she was still thin.

"Mm." Su Ming responded, took off his suede coat and draped it over Li Yueru, warming her cold little hands in his palms. "It's cold outside, don't wait for me anymore."

Just then.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The dilapidated wooden door was pounded loudly, followed by a chorus of harsh curses.

"Open the door! Open the door now! The government is collecting taxes; if you don't open the door, they'll smash it up!"

Su Ming frowned, shielded Li Yueru behind him, and walked over to unlock the door.

Outside the door stood seven or eight men dressed in military uniforms. The leader was a scarred man with a face full of scars, holding a gleaming waist knife in his hand, and staring at him impatiently.

"What are you dawdling for? Are you deaf?" Scarface poked Su Ming in the chest with his scabbard and shouted triumphantly.

Su Ming looked at him coldly: "Gentlemen, what is it?"

"What is it?" Scarface sneered, waving the document in his hand. "By order of the Jing'an City Garrison, a 'Winter Defense Tax' is to be levied, one thousand coins per household! Pay up now!"

Su Ming's face darkened.

"According to the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the families of those conscripted into the army are exempt from all corvée labor and taxes. I'm going to the battlefield in a month; why should I have to pay taxes?"

"Oh ho? You're talking about the law with me now?" Scarface laughed as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the world, and he and the soldiers behind him burst into laughter.

He slapped Su Ming's face hard with the scabbard, his eyes full of mockery and contempt.

"I am the law! You know Peng Yuan, right? In the eastern district of Jing'an City, Peng Yuan is the one who calls the shots!"

"The adults said every household has to pay! Stop talking nonsense and hand over the money!"

Su Ming's pupils suddenly contracted.

Peng Yuan was the city defense officer in charge of the area, responsible for maintaining order. Relying on his hundred or so soldiers and clerks, he ran rampant in the countryside, oppressing the people.

This is not a tax at all; it's blatant extortion!

Seeing that Su Ming didn't speak, Scarface glanced impatiently into the room. When his gaze fell on Li Yueru, who looked slightly panicked on the bed, his eyes lit up and he revealed a lewd smile.

"Kid, you're broke, huh? Fine, no money is fine too."

He licked his chapped lips, pointed at Li Yueru, and chuckled, "Let your wife... keep us guys entertained, and we'll consider the tax paid, how about that?"

The air seemed to freeze at that moment.

The cold wind howled in from outside, stirring up the dust on the ground, but it couldn't dispel the intense murderous intent inside.

Scarface's fingers were less than three inches from Li Yueru's pale cheek. He could even smell the woman's faint fragrance, and the lust in his eyes was almost overflowing.

The thugs behind him were still laughing and joking, as if this was a cat-and-mouse game that had been destined from the start.

In this world where human life is as cheap as grass, it's as commonplace for a few soldiers to kill a civilian or two and have sex with a woman or two as to step on an ant.

But he shouldn't have touched Su Ming's woman in front of him.

"Snapped!"

A crisp, loud crack abruptly interrupted all the lewd laughter.

Scarface felt a blur before his eyes, and his wrist, which was about to touch the beauty, was suddenly gripped tightly by a large hand like an iron clamp.

He froze for a moment, instinctively trying to break free, but to his horror, he found that the hand remained motionless, as if welded to his bones. Following the arm, he met a pair of eyes.

What kind of eyes were those?

There was no anger, no roar, only an unfathomable coldness, like looking at a completely cold corpse.

"I told you," Su Ming's voice was soft, but every word was like a steel bead cracking from between his teeth, "Don't touch her."

"You..." A chill ran through Scarface's heart, and he was about to open his mouth to curse.

"Snap!"

A sickening cracking sound of bone breaking suddenly rang out.

"ah--!!!"

A piercing scream instantly shattered the silence of the dilapidated house. Scarface's wrist snapped backward at an unnatural angle, the white bone fragments piercing the flesh, blood spurting out.

"My hand! My hand!!"

The change happened so fast that the jeering soldiers at the door hadn't even reacted yet, their smiles still frozen on their lips.

Su Ming didn't give them any time to think.

A half-step martial artist, though not yet truly entering the realm of martial arts, has already undergone a complete transformation in their physical body after being baptized by the spiritual spring. Their strength, speed, and reaction time far surpass those of ordinary people!

He took a sudden step forward, his shoulder slamming into Scarface's arms like a battering ram.