Heroine, don't turn back, I'm just a farmer.

The sun beat down mercilessly, and the rice seedlings in the fields drooped and wilted.

Lu Guo bent over, his hoe rising and falling, digging the ground again and again. Sweat streamed down his face, and his clothes were soaked through and stuck to his body, sticky and uncomfortable.

He had been digging in this field for two whole hours.

"I can't take it anymore..." He straightened up, pounded his aching back, and looked at the ground he had only dug less than a third of, feeling utterly hopeless. "When will this ever end?"

He looked up at the sky—the sun was high overhead, and he estimated it was almost noon.

"It's time to call it a day." He slung the hoe over his shoulder, turned around, and walked towards the edge of the field.

In the nearby field, a dark-skinned, thin middle-aged man was working diligently. Seeing him leave, he looked up and called out, "Young Master Lu, you're leaving already? The sun's still high in the sky!"

"Uncle Jiang, I'm tired, I'm going back to rest for a while." Lu Guo waved his hand without turning his head.

"You kid, you only work sporadically, no wonder you can't farm well!" Uncle Jiang shook his head and continued working.

Lu Guo ignored him and slowly walked into the village, carrying his hoe.

As he walked, he looked around—in the distance were rolling green hills, and nearby were large paddy fields with wild grass growing on the ridges. Several egrets were foraging for food in the fields, and a few mud-brick houses were scattered at the foot of the mountains, with wisps of smoke rising from their chimneys and the sounds of chickens crowing and dogs barking.

A typical scene of ancient rural life.

He, an ordinary office worker in his previous life, inexplicably became a member of this village.

Lu Guo, seventeen years old, is from Jiangjia Village in Dasheng Jiangnan Road. He has no younger sister, his parents are both dead, he owns two acres of poor land, a dilapidated house, and is a bachelor.

This is all the information he figured out after he traveled through time.

There's no system, no cheat code, no powerful backer, not even an old man in a ring. He's just a penniless farm boy, so mediocre that even the village's old farmers shake their heads—"This kid can't even farm properly, what will become of him?"

He has been in this world for three days.

For three days, he did nothing but sleep or daydream, and when he did, he just dawdled in the fields. It wasn't that he was lazy; he simply couldn't muster the energy.

In his past life, he was an ordinary office worker, working from nine to six, with a salary that was neither high nor low. He still had twenty years left on his mortgage. His happiest moments every day were going home after work to play a couple of games and sleeping in until he naturally woke up on weekends.

Although life is tough, at least we have takeout, delivery, and air conditioning.

What now?

They lived in a drafty mud-brick house, ate coarse grain cakes that were hard to swallow, and drank cold water drawn from a well. There were no cell phones, no internet, and no entertainment. Their only pastime was lying in bed staring at the crooked beam—watching when it would fall down.

"Even a dog wouldn't live like this," he muttered.

Lu Guo carried his hoe and continued walking home. He pushed open the fence gate, and several chickens in the yard clucked and came over, thinking he was going to feed them. He rummaged around in the corner of the wall, found half a ladle of grain, and scattered it to them. Then he went inside and collapsed onto the bed.

The bed was made of wooden planks, covered with dry grass and a tattered mat. It was so hard it hurt, but Lu Guo had gotten used to it—when he was extremely tired, he could even fall asleep on a stone slab.

He lay down for a while, then his stomach started growling. He rummaged through the stove and found the half-eaten pancake left over from the morning. He took two bites, but found it too hard to swallow, so he put it down again.

He lay back down on the bed, staring at the crooked beam, and began to contemplate life. Through the original owner's memories, he had learned some information about this world.

The world is in chaos—similar to the mix of the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, with both the martial arts world and the imperial court vying for power.

There is no true path to cultivation – the methods of cultivation are all controlled by powerful families and secluded mountain sects.

"No hope in martial arts"—this was said by the head of the Iron Palm Sect in town himself, "Practicing martial arts will not yield any results."

Farming is no good either—the original owner of this body died from overwork in the fields because she worked too hard at farming.

Farming is indeed tiring, but that's not the main thing. What really wears Lu Guo down is the sense of confusion and uncertainty he feels about not being able to find a way out or see the future.

Realizing he had transmigrated to a chaotic world teeming with individuals possessing extraordinary combat prowess, where the martial world and the imperial court were intertwined and fraught with peril, his first thought wasn't one of "I'm rich now, I'll be invincible," but rather, "This is dangerous, isn't it? Will I even live to see my natural death?"

He's given up on being a trendsetter; given the current situation, he'll have to do everything in his power to survive.

After thinking about it for a while, I still couldn't figure it out, so I simply stopped thinking about it.

He turned over and looked at the beam above his head, his mind blank.

Suddenly, he froze.

On the roof beam, which was originally empty, a pigeon carrying an envelope appeared.

"Um?!"

Jiangjia Village is located by the river, and these past few days he has seen mostly egrets. Where did the pigeons come from?

Looking at the pigeons on the roof beam, their familiar appearance filled Lu Guo with a strange expression.

He remembered that he was playing an open-world martial arts game.

The game is set in a turbulent era that blends the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period with the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The imperial court is in decline, and martial arts sects are vying for power. Players will take on the role of an unknown newcomer to the martial arts world, surviving amidst sectarian conflicts, imperial crackdowns, and the infiltration of demonic cults.

Not only can you join various factions and experience different kinds of martial arts stories, but you can also get different endings with different identities, or even live a long and prosperous life, or be ordained by Heaven.

May your life be long and prosperous, and may you receive the mandate of Heaven.

Which man could resist the temptation of those eight words?

Anyway, Lu Guo couldn't resist.

Not to mention the game has a high degree of freedom, with various beautiful ancient female warriors whose favorability can be gained. Before starting the game, he even used the Steam Workshop to add a series of mod elements such as Taoist nuns, female warriors and fairies, preparing to properly appreciate what an open world is, what an amazing experience is, and what a living character is. But as soon as the game finished loading, he was transported to another world.

This pigeon is a special symbol in the game that is responsible for giving players hints about secrets, adventures, and important information.

"Has the gears of my destiny begun to turn?"

"Did I transmigrate into that martial arts game with all sorts of mods, or is this 'adventure prompt' just my cheat code?"

Just as Lu Guo was wondering, he saw the letter carried by the pigeon fall to the ground, and an interface appeared in his field of vision. There was no screen, no controller, only the space where his mind could reach, and lines of text spread in the air like ink:

In the 731st year of the Great Sheng Calendar, the Imperial Star dimmed, and the Nine Provinces crumbled.

The imperial court has collapsed, demons roam freely, the martial world is stained with blood, and the people are suffering terribly.

In chaotic times, you can be a lone swordsman seeking revenge, or a tomb raider roaming the streets... People from all walks of life, from peddlers and laborers to brothels, government offices, security agencies, and even beggars in the imperial court—regardless of social status, each with their own specialty.

Wielding a sword to vanquish evil and gain fame throughout the land, forming sworn brotherhoods in the martial world, entrusting each other with life and death, or cowering in a squalid alley to survive...

What you want is your own martial arts world.