“This young man, I see you have extraordinary bone structure and the bearing of a dragon among men…”
Li Banxian’s words had not even finished when the youth before him had already vanished from sight.
Ah, truly the world was declining and people’s hearts were not what they used to be. He had not even finished speaking; how could the boy just walk away?
Li Banxian had not made a single transaction in over ten days. People nowadays were poor, shrewd, and stingy to a fault, making them harder and harder to swindle.
Having suffered the harsh blows of society, he now deeply realized that this lad Ergouzi was truly a fine child—respectful to his master and easily duped.
Just as he was muttering praises for Ergouzi in his heart, he saw the boy walking straight toward his stall, carrying a cut of pork.
Li Banxian immediately straightened his posture, gazing straight ahead with an air of complete righteousness and unyielding dignity.
“Master!”
“Ah, you’ve arrived.”
Li Banxian expressionlessly received the fatty pork from Ergouzi’s hands, showing neither sorrow nor joy, maintaining an air of detached tranquility.
“How has your cultivation progressed recently?”
“I can sense Qi now!”
Ergouzi beamed with joy, but Li Banxian was momentarily stunned before recalling that the cultivation method did indeed mention Qi Sensing.
Yet he himself had never even cleared the novice threshold and had always suspected the manual was bogus, so he had paid little heed to the later sections.
Now that Ergouzi claimed to have reached Qi Sensing, Li Banxian remained half-doubtful.
Could a fraudulent manual fabricated by some predecessor—one that he had personally practiced for several years and proven useless—actually have been mastered by this foolish boy?
“How did you sense Qi? Tell your master about it.”
“Last night I had a dream about marrying a wife…”
“You can omit such trivial details!”
Li Banxian had no interest in a young man’s daydreams and cut straight to the point.
“Well, when I woke up this morning, I discovered I could perceive the Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth. There were many tiny motes of light floating in the air…”
Ergouzi described everything he had sensed to his master, omitting only the details concerning the Yellow-Skinned Gourd.
Li Banxian tugged at his beard, sinking into profound inner turmoil and self-doubt.
Perhaps due to his overwhelming agitation, he pulled out dozens of hairs from his beard without even noticing.
After a moment, he reined in his emotions and spoke with serene detachment:
“Not bad, not bad!”
“Yet you must still guard against complacency and impatience, never growing proud or arrogant. You must remember that there is always someone better, and there is always a higher heaven!”
Regardless of whether Ergouzi’s words were true or false, Li Banxian resolved to dampen his spirits; otherwise, the boy would become difficult to fool in the future.
“Take this small stone and try to crush it.”
Ergouzi picked up the stone from the table, gripped it tightly with both hands, and exerted all his strength until his face turned crimson, yet the stone remained completely motionless.
“Master, I can’t break it!”
Ergouzi shook his head and gave up.
With that, Li Banxian picked up a fist-sized stone, rubbed it between his palms, and instantly ground it into powder.
Witnessing Li Banxian’s peerless divine strength once again, Ergouzi’s face reflected awe and admiration.
He wondered how many years of cultivation it would take before he could possess such abilities.
“Do not be discouraged either. If you can acquire even a fraction of your master’s skill, passing the examination for Martial Scholar will not be difficult.”
“This disciple understands!”
Filled with mounting reverence for his master’s prowess, Ergouzi listened with absolute obedience.
“Master, I wish to learn saber techniques!”
He recalled that fateful night when the man in black had raised his blade, sending heads rolling and blood spraying.
“Saber techniques are crude and vulgar; how could they ever compare to the sword?”
“Teaching you some sword arts is acceptable.”
Li Banxian produced another tattered, coverless book from somewhere, opened it, and began copying from the pages.
After copying a full page, he handed it to Ergouzi.
“If you wish to study the sword, you must begin with the fundamental forms.”
“Take this back and practice it a thousand times every day.”
Ergouzi took the paper and glanced at it. At the top was written Basic Sword Forms, detailing the execution and key points of the Sword Thrust.
“Thank you, Master!”
“Oh, Master, I happened to acquire something at the market today. The vendor called it Cistanche, and I would ask you to verify it.”
Ergouzi remembered the other purpose of his visit, though to keep the gourd a secret, he claimed to have bought it in the marketplace.
After all, with people constantly coming and going through the market, no one could trace its origins.
“Hah! It truly is Cistanche. Strange!”
Li Banxian possessed some learning and naturally recognized the Cistanche recorded in medical texts.
Yet such a plant grew only in arid deserts and required specific host plants to survive.
Anchang County offered no suitable environment for Cistanche to thrive.
He could only surmise that some traveling merchant had brought it in from distant parts.
“Your master has been studying medicinal properties lately, and this Cistanche happens to be useful. However, we are still missing a jar of wine to serve as a catalyst.”
Using this excuse, Li Banxian calmly pocketed the Cistanche.
According to the texts, this item was an exceptionally potent tonic; in a couple of days, he would test its efficacy with a certain old acquaintance.
After chatting at length, during which Ergouzi sought instruction on various herbs, Li Banxian warned him that such a fiery and potent medicine must not be consumed in excessive amounts at once.
When Ergouzi finally took his leave, both master and disciple felt they had gained what they wanted, departing in high spirits.
Before leaving, Ergouzi promised to bring wine for his master on his next visit.
Watching Ergouzi’s retreating figure, Li Banxian slipped back into self-doubt, suddenly feeling that the pork in his hands had lost its appeal.
Having secured the sword manual, Ergouzi felt as though he had struck gold, and in his elated mood he spent his copper coins far more freely.
Coincidentally, someone in the market was selling geese, so he purchased a pair of large white geese—one male and one female.
With plenty of weeds cleared from the mountain slopes and the surplus leaves from his Little Chicken Leg plants, he had more than enough fodder to feed them. Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
By next year, they should even hatch a clutch of goslings.
Geese ate grass, laid eggs, guarded the homestead, provided meat for the table, supplied feathers for winter bedding, and produced droppings that enriched the soil.
In short, raising geese wasted nothing from head to tail.
He also generously bought a cut of pork to enjoy a proper meal upon his return.
Yet mindful of thrift, he refrained from buying fatty belly meat, opting instead for a cheap, substantial slab of ribs that no one else wanted.
Back on Snake Mouth Mountain, he first settled the geese into their enclosure.
Then he set up a pot, chopped the ribs into large segments, poured in water, added a pinch of black salt, and simmered them over a low fire for an hour.
He had been swallowing saliva in anticipation ever since the meat started cooking. When he finally fished out a rib section, the meat had fallen tenderly off the bone. A single bite released rich juices that filled his mouth with savory fragrance.
“So delicious!”
After stripping the meat, he sucked the rich broth from the bones before crushing them between his teeth and swallowing everything.
Meat bought at such cost could not possibly be allowed to go to waste.
This was precisely why he had bought geese to guard the yard rather than keeping a dog.
Following this meat meal, he noticed he did not grow hungry as quickly.
Where he previously required four meals a day, three sufficed today without leaving him feeling starved.
Looked at that way, eating meat occasionally could actually save on grain.
Perhaps he could afford to indulge once every ten or fifteen days.
It felt somewhat extravagant, but one had to spend capital to make a profit—martial training demanded proper nourishment for rapid progress.
Furthermore, having achieved Qi Sensing, he could now cultivate the first level of the Nameless Cultivation Method, which consumed far greater energy.
After practicing continuously for several days, the vital energy generated within his body through the transformation of tangible nourishment had fully condensed into a slender wisp of True Qi.
Though the total volume of Qi was now a hundredfold smaller than before, its quality was vastly superior, denser, and far more potent.
When he channeled this wisp of True Qi into his arms, he could effortlessly lift boulders weighing two to three hundred jin.
Once one entered the first level of the method, consuming large quantities of food during cultivation allowed the body to generate vital energy, which was then converted into True Qi.
This method of progression was the slowest, barely better than nothing.
Alternatively, one could absorb the scattered Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth, converting it directly into True Qi through the technique.
Yet the ambient Spiritual Qi was sparse; practicing for the better part of a day yielded only a few motes of light, making progress similarly sluggish.
The most efficient path was consuming food and medicinal herbs already rich in Spiritual Qi.
Such items were scarce and exorbitantly expensive, however.
Ginseng, for instance, absorbed roaming Spiritual Qi and stored it within itself, meaning older specimens held greater reserves.
Fortunately, Ergouzi possessed the Yellow-Skinned Gourd, which could elevate the spiritual concentration of anything placed inside it.
Otherwise, even the wealth of Old Moneybags Huang would not sustain such consumption.
Over the following days, Ergouzi practiced the first level of the cultivation method morning and night. Aided by spiritually rich ingredients, his progress was swift, and the wisp of True Qi within his meridians grew steadily stronger.
At noon, he drilled the one thousand repetitions of the Basic Sword Forms prescribed by his master.
Any remaining time was spent farming, clearing wasteland, and tending to the geese.