Walking the Ten Thousand Daos

Chapter 1: Opening the River

Great Lu Kingdom, Li Prefecture Capital.

A great river ran through the prefecture’s capital city, named the Li River.

Li Prefecture took its name from this river. The mighty waterway not only flowed through the city but also split downstream into two branches, one going north into the Song Kingdom, the other heading south into the sea.

It could be called a nexus of routes, an essential artery of water transport in the Great Lu Kingdom. Save for the depths of winter, it bustled with traffic in all other seasons, with hundreds of large and small ships passing through daily.

As an old poem goes:

“Where Li River flows, boats swiftly run;

South to the sea, north to the Song.

Breaking waves send forth rich goods,

One river alone can enrich a nation.”

Though it was only the cusp of winter turning to spring, the river had just thawed, and the cold wind still blew sharply. Yet the docks were hot with life, packed with people. The heat and stench of sweating laborers and boat-haulers rose in a suffocating wave.

Today marked the Beginning of Spring, the day when the frozen Li River would officially be reopened. Even if it hadn’t thawed, laborers and haulers would be rallied to break open the ice and force the boats through. This whole procedure had a name: "Opening the River."

Every year during this event, people whose livelihoods depended on the Li River’s canal shipping would gather here. Laborers would first chip and weaken the ice. Then, the haulers would drag a massive boat forward, smashing the ice apart and clearing the channel.

Boat-haulers bore their ropes, laborers swung their hammers, wind lashed their blood and sweat, sun baked their skin and the work chants never ceased.

“Rope on the shoulder, thirty feet long! Heave-ho!”

The haulers shouted in unison, straining together to drag the massive ship forward. The thick-bottomed vessel raised its sail to catch the wind. Sailors aboard assisted, combining wind-power with manpower to crush the ice.

“Hard life tied to shoulders! Hoo-hah!”

This was no ordinary boat, it was a specially-made vessel, used only for this annual event. Its bottom was forged from iron, its hull built from century-old timber. No ice could resist a single blow from it.

“Feet grind stone, hands claw sand! Hoo-hah!”

The ice cracked and shattered everywhere. Huge chunks flipped and rolled in the water, creating miniature icebergs.

“Don’t say boats can't sail upstream! Hoo-hah!”

The Li River was five li wide, it was a true giant and opening it was a massive undertaking that would last the entire day. Even the Prefect of Li Prefecture came to supervise in person.

The iron-bottomed ship rammed forward with staggering force. Its deafening impact shattered the ice like a battering ram, launching shards high into the air like hailstones falling around the haulers. Fine frost rose into the sunlight, refracting into arcs of rainbow light.

Steam from crushed ice mingled with heat rising from human bodies, creating bursts of white mist as cold and warmth clashed.

As the first team of haulers reached their limit, a second wave immediately took their place, continuing the pull.

The exhausted first group trudged off to rest.

Only one person remained standing.

He had dark bronze skin, glowing with health. Years of hauling boats had forged strong muscles and a well-balanced physique.

But what truly made him stand out was that, unlike the rough-featured, hunched haulers around him, he stood tall and straight, with handsome features. At a glance, he didn’t look like a hauler at all.

His name was Li Qi.

Having just let go of the towrope, Li Qi gazed at the great ship and frozen river before him with quiet awe. Even though this was his third time witnessing it, he still found it breathtaking.

But before he could even finish his sigh, an old hauler beside him grabbed him in a headlock and pulled him away from the scene.

“Come on, Little Li, it’s time for the second round! Let’s go get some hot soup!”

“Uh-ah… alright, Uncle Liu.” Li Qi nodded and followed the shirtless haulers in their loincloths to the riverside.

Li Qi was a hauler, too. But unlike the others, he hadn’t come from generations of boat-hauling ancestry.

By the shore, others had already prepared hot soup and dry clothes to warm the haulers and sailors fresh off the river. After a short rest, they would have to head out again.

The men sat together, changing clothes, clutching bowls of meat soup, slurping it down noisily, eating with little grace.

Only Li Qi crouched alone at the water’s edge. Though he was just as exhausted, drenched in sweat and bearing rope-burn wounds across his body, he simply waited quietly, making no move to compete for the meat broth cooked by the officials.

He waited until the crowd had mostly gotten their share before stepping up to receive his own bowl. Then he returned to his spot by the river, sipping slowly, watching the second group haul the ice-breaking ship.

“Brother Li! I brought you a stool!” A hauler shouted, carrying over a stool from who knows where.

“Thanks, but there’s really no need. No one else has one…” Li Qi had barely started to refuse when another hauler pressed him down into the seat.

“Uncle Liu has one too, so don’t be modest, Brother Li. You and Uncle Liu won us the honor of leading the first wave today. A stool is the least we can offer!”

“Exactly!”

“That first wave was personally assigned by the Prefect! Brother Li got us that position, what’s wrong with letting him sit down?”

“Right, right!”

“Me too, me too!”

Seeing this, Li Qi didn’t refuse further. He sat down, resting while watching the haulers of the second wave tugging the massive boat forward.

Unknowingly, this was his third year watching the River Opening.

It had almost been three years since he arrived in this world.

Yes, he wasn’t from this world. That thought rose up again as he watched the massive ship.

That ship probably displaced several thousand tons. And yet, with just a hundred or two haulers, plus a sail, it could be dragged forward and even break through ice!

He looked down at the corded muscles on his body. Among the haulers, he no longer seemed weak at all. But back when he was an ordinary research assistant, he’d never had a body like this.

But here...

At that thought, he suddenly stood and threw a punch.

The air compressed around his fist with a howling sound. Dust exploded from the ground nearby as though something heavy had landed.

The surrounding haulers cheered:

“Brother Li’s wave-breaking punch is a thing of beauty!”

“I’ve trained ten years and still can’t match Brother Li’s few years of skill!”

“Psh, who do you think you are? Brother Li is someone else entirely!”

They laughed and joked, thinking he’d just felt like stretching. No one found it strange.

After all, what man hadn’t felt the urge to throw a few punches into the air for no reason?

But Li Qi, deep inside, was marveling.

More than three years ago, he had been in a plane crash. When he lost consciousness, he awoke to find himself in this world, his actual body transported here. Even the half-broken handheld game console in his pocket, and his travel backpack, had come with him. Most of it was burned up, just a few scraps of metal left.

He had transmigrated and brought his physical body with him.

Not that he’d never heard of transmigration before… But where was the inherited memory? The new identity?

He had nothing. Not even a household registry.

Others crossed over with smartphones. He got half a game console.

Thankfully, he’d met some local haulers who saved his life. And as a researcher, he had at least some brains. He established himself among them and earned their trust. Later, Uncle Liu even passed down to him a family method of physical cultivation unique to boat-haulers.

In just three short years, he could now carry seven to eight hundred jin (≈400kg) on his back and still walk with ease. Sometimes, he even doubted whether he was still human, could a human being reach this level just through training?

According to Uncle Liu, the training method of boat-haulers was actually very crude. Real advanced techniques were in the hands of the military, the government, and sects, far beyond what boat-haulers could hope to match.

At first, he’d been full of excitement, thinking he could rely on the knowledge in his head to accomplish great things!

Then reality slapped him hard. He realized this place was already incredibly advanced, far beyond anything his petty cleverness could offer.

He was skilled in mathematics, but even that wasn’t unique, there was a sect in Li Prefecture City called the Thousand Mechanisms Sect, famed for their divinations and calculations. Their disciples were whizzes at mental math, data analysis, and probability theory, far more proficient than anything he knew.

True, there were no automobiles here, but people could travel a hundred li on foot in a single day. Wealthy households even owned spirit-horses that could cover a thousand li in a day without trouble.

And that was on mountain roads. If there were highways here, wouldn’t those horses be able to race Formula One cars?

Sure, there weren’t many machines in this world, but who needed them?

The strange laws of this world had taken development down a completely different path. There might be few tools, but nearly every one of them could be replaced by human strength.

Trucks? These haulers could carry 700–800 jin. The real strongmen could work all day while carrying two to three thousand jin.

Precision machinery? Li Qi had once personally witnessed an artisan carve a detailed scene of a hundred warriors locked in battle onto a single grain of rice, all within a quarter of an hour, just to show off his skill.

Scientific research? Don’t be ridiculous. The aforementioned Thousand Mechanisms Sect wasn’t even considered a top sect in Li Prefecture. Yet from what Li Qi heard when they were recruiting disciples, their studies of probability theory and chaotic algorithms far surpassed anything from his previous world, he couldn’t even understand what they were talking about.

In this world, human potential was pushed to the extreme. With something called cultivation techniques, humans had replaced tools entirely, nothing worked better than one’s own body.

Even when it came to weapons, Li Qi was convinced that if a modern army were dropped into this world, they would be utterly annihilated by Li Prefecture’s military squads.

He had once seen the Commander of the Armed Forces during a river-towing job for some dignitaries. As entertainment, the man gave a martial demonstration, by swinging a long blade, he split the entire five-li-wide Li River in half for several seconds.

That scene gave Li Qi nightmares for three nights straight.

And as for productivity? It was anything but lacking.

What happened to the usual cliché of transmigrators arriving in primitive farming societies a thousand years behind?

Sure, this world still farmed. But have you ever seen rice fields producing three to four thousand jin per mu (≈2000–2400kg per acre)? Not to mention it was spirit rice, filled with so much energy that in his early days before cultivating wave-breaking force, even half a bowl would leave him bloated and miserable.

Now? He could eat three jin in one sitting and still feel only half-full.

The only issue was there wasn’t enough meat.

This world lacked animal husbandry, so meat mostly came from hunting. But hunting was expensive and dangerous, so meat was only available during festivals or rare events, like today’s River Opening, where they got a bit of minced meat and broth.

That’s why the haulers ate like starving ghosts.

Li Qi had once thought animal husbandry would be a good business opportunity but after trying it, he gave up.

People in this world were already monstrously strong but the wild beasts were even stronger. A single boar here was like a tank, almost impossible to domesticate on a large scale. Li Qi had never seen a tiger here, but he figured the thing could probably tear apart a Gundam.

So far, the only domesticated livestock he’d seen were spirit horses, occasionally appearing at the docks.

They said there were also demonic beasts and spirit beasts, but those were way out of his league. As a boat-hauler, he was at the very bottom of society. He had no chance of ever seeing such things.

It wasn’t that he lacked ambition. For the first two years, he hadn’t given up on climbing higher, he’d dreamed of becoming the protagonist of his own story.

But in this kind of world, cultivation techniques were the most precious resource of all.

People clustered together around their techniques, forming small factions.

Even in Li Prefecture City, the boat-haulers had three major groups: their own Wave-Breaking Gang, and the Water-Horse Gang and Strong-Force Gang. Combined, the three had seven to eight hundred haulers.

Each gang guarded their techniques jealously. To even be considered for training, you had to pass background checks, offer pledges of loyalty, and be observed for a long time before they’d grant you the right to practice.

After that, you had to swear deadly oaths and sign binding documents never to reveal the techniques. Any traitors would be punished internally and there were even official government laws forbidding the leaking of documented cultivation methods. Penalties were severe, exile of thirty thousand li wasn’t uncommon. He had no idea just how vast this land really was.

Under such conditions, cities across the land were divided by cultivation techniques. Factions and cliques were so entrenched it was almost impossible to cross boundaries. He had no hope of learning other gangs’ techniques.

In the past three years, all he’d achieved was rising to a sort of “strategist” position within the Wave-Breaking Gang, relying on his brains. About a hundred or two haulers respected him but that was all.

“Sigh…” He let out a long breath.

Living an ordinary, mediocre life. He could eat his fill of rice every day, sure, but if he wanted vegetables, he had to budget carefully. As for meat, that depended entirely on the generosity of people above him.

He’d transmigrated, and somehow life had gotten worse… Aside from the fact that his body had become a bit stronger.

Well, not just a little stronger.

Still, a sense of unwillingness stirred inside him.

“Uncle Li, Sixth Master is looking for you!” At that moment, a small child came running over with a man who looked to be in his forties or fifties, calling out to Li Qi.

The child shouted as he ran, drooling uncontrollably.

Seeing the kid’s expression, Li Qi chuckled, then handed over his half-finished bowl of meat soup. “Here, you look like you need it more. Make sure to return the bowl afterward!”

The child squealed in joy, snatched the bowl, and drank it down drool and all, chewing on the bits of meat without even remembering to say thanks.

But the man known as Uncle Liu frowned when he saw the child. He set down a stool beside Li Qi and sat down.

“We only get to eat meat a few times a year, and you gave it away just for being a guide?”

“I’ve been rained on, so I know how to hold an umbrella for someone else. I’ve gone hungry, so I know how precious a bowl of soup can be. If you hadn’t given me a bowl of soup back then, wouldn’t I be dead now?” Li Qi replied with an easy smile.

Then, turning to business: “Alright, enough about that. What’s the matter, Uncle Liu?”

“I gave you vegetable soup back then!”

Uncle Liu grumbled, but didn’t delay the real issue. “Little Li, you’ve got the brains. I need your help, something’s going on.”

(Chapter End)

A mini mass release coming up!