That night, Yang Jing lay on the bed at home, face turned toward the smoke-blackened roof beams. Beneath him was a hard plank bed padded with two layers of coarse cloth bedding.
Although they had, rare as it was, eaten meat tonight, no one in the family could truly feel happy. At most, they forced smiles onto their faces.
The pressure from Feng Lei and Master Ning behind him was like a great mountain bearing down on the Yang family.
Although his aunt’s husband’s family had some connection to the steward of the Ning residence, that Master Ning was famously a miser. Even with the Ning family’s vast wealth, the chances of making them pay even a few more taels of silver were not great.
Thinking of this, Yang Jing’s brows could not help but knit slightly.
Aside from this matter, during this trip home, Yang Jing had felt the closeness shown by his aunt-in-law and his cousin Yang An.
In truth, his eldest uncle’s family were all honest people.
It was just that the original Yang Jing had thought too highly of himself in the past and rarely interacted with his poorer eldest uncle’s family, so he did not know them well.
After Yang Jing had changed his attitude slightly last time, his aunt-in-law had immediately responded in kind. After Heizi was kicked to death, she had kept the dog meat aside, insisting that they wait until Yang Jing came back before eating it. If Yang Jing did not return, no one was allowed to eat.
In addition, Yang Jing guessed that his cousin Yang An likely also had the aptitude for martial training. In just half a month, Yang An had grown somewhat sturdier than before, which showed that the tempering had been quite effective.
Just like that, as Yang Jing thought over these matters, his eyelids gradually grew heavy, and he slowly fell asleep.
The next morning, early.
Yang Jing took one tael of silver and one hundred and thirty large copper coins from home, then bid farewell to his family and returned to the county town.
He knew very clearly in his heart that the most important thing right now was practicing martial arts.
Whether for the sake of his family or for his own long-term development, martial arts training was the most important thing.
In this world where chaos was gradually rising, only one’s own strength was the foundation of everything.
Only when he possessed powerful ability himself could he protect himself, protect his loved ones, and protect everything he wanted to protect.
This principle held true both in this world and on the Earth of Yang Jing’s previous life.
In order not to delay his martial training, Yang Jing walked very quickly on the road.
This trip home had filled him with a deep sense of urgency because of his family’s circumstances.
Along the way, he looked at the refugees dressed in rags. Some villages had even specially arranged for people to stop these refugees from entering.
The world was now in turmoil, and the harvests were poor as well. Many people could not even fill their own stomachs, much less have spare grain to give these refugees.
As he hurried along, Yang Jing’s mind also rapidly considered possible countermeasures.
The market price for two mu of prime farmland was between twelve and fifteen taels of silver. In the past, prime farmland had even sold for the high price of ten taels per mu.
But even though the price of farmland had now fallen, that Master Ning wanted to buy the Yang family’s two mu of prime farmland for only six taels of silver. That was truly going too far.
Moreover, the Yang family now had only these last two mu of prime farmland left.
If they sold it just like that, they could barely scrape through this year. But if next year’s harvest was still as bad as this year’s, people starving to death would not be merely a turn of phrase.
As far as Yang Jing knew, some villages in Yuhe County were already seeing cases of people starving to death. As for refugees who had died of hunger or illness, there were even more.
“We can’t drag this out.”
Yang Jing’s eyes narrowed slightly, a cold glint flashing through them.
Thinking of what his family had suffered during this period, anger surged and swelled in his chest.
When Yang Jing arrived at the martial hall in Chengping Ward, more than ten disciples were already tempering their qi and blood and practicing moves.
He did not greet anyone. He took off his upper garment, bared his arms, and found a spacious spot in the courtyard to lift stone locks.
The hall master, Sun Yong, had said that before practicing martial arts, tempering one’s qi and blood first and then formally training would make progress faster.
After tempering his qi and blood, Yang Jing began practicing the Mountain-Shattering Fist.
His aptitude was ordinary, so his cultivation speed naturally would not be fast. However, thinking of the powerful effects of the panel, he practiced with great focus, unlike some disciples who had lost confidence in breaking through to Ming Jin and had begun going through the motions or slacking off.
During this time, Fourth Senior Brother Liu Maolin came over to guide Yang Jing for a while, and even personally exchanged hands with him as a sparring partner.
Yang Jing had a very good impression of this senior brother with such a good temper.
After Fourth Senior Brother left, Yang Jing continued practicing the Mountain-Shattering Fist on his own until it was time to eat at noon. Only then did he leave the martial hall.
He went straight to the West Market and spent one hundred and four large copper coins to buy two jin of horse meat from a butcher’s stall. Horse meat at noon was two copper coins more expensive per jin than it was in the evening.
After that, Yang Jing took the two jin of horse meat he had bought back to his residence in Datong Ward.
To a large extent, martial training was training the qi and blood, and dietary nourishment was an important way to nurture them.
There were several wealthy disciples from good families in the martial hall. It was said that the meat they ate was different from ordinary meat and was extremely useful for nourishing qi and blood.
After returning to his room, Yang Jing began stewing the meat, and the aroma soon spread.
Yang Jing ate half of it, leaving the other half of the horse meat in the pot for dinner.
Feeling traces of heat spreading through his body, Yang Jing wasted no time and began practicing the Mountain-Shattering Fist right there in his room.
Taking advantage of a break in the middle, he ran all the way to the martial hall in Chengping Ward in one breath.
Practicing in the martial hall was much better than practicing in a cramped room. First, it was spacious. Second, there was an atmosphere for training. Third, and most importantly, there were people who could offer guidance.
After all, they had all paid money, and once one cultivated force, one could truly enter Sun Yong’s tutelage and become a formal disciple.
According to Hall Master Sun Yong’s instructions, if they encountered something they did not understand while training, they were to ask Eldest Senior Brother Xu Hong first. Only if Eldest Senior Brother did not understand could they ask him.
However, when Yang Jing encountered confusion in his martial training, he usually asked Fourth Senior Brother Liu Maolin. Compared to the unsmiling Eldest Senior Brother Xu Hong, the mild-tempered Liu Maolin was much easier to approach.
During Yang Jing’s afternoon training, he could faintly sense that his progress was a little faster than in the morning. He understood that this was because he had eaten that one jin of horse meat at noon.
He continued practicing like this until three quarters into the shen hour, which was four-thirty in the afternoon on Earth. Only then did Yang Jing slowly end his practice and calm his breathing.
After adjusting himself, Yang Jing walked to the courtyard wall, picked up his upper garment from there, and was about to put it on and leave.
“Junior Brother Yang, why are you leaving so early today?”
At this moment, Fourth Senior Brother Liu Maolin, who was not far away, saw that Yang Jing was about to leave and asked in puzzlement.
During this period, he had seen all the changes that had taken place in Yang Jing.
Although he did not know why Yang Jing had suddenly become so focused on martial training, even to the point of being somewhat frenzied, Liu Maolin was very happy for him because of this change.
Having stayed in the Sun Martial Hall for many years, Liu Maolin had seen too many disciples. Among them were no lack of village farming families’ sons like Yang Jing, whose families had paid who knew what price in order to scrape together a sum for the apprenticeship fee.
Although cultivating force was exceedingly difficult, if one worked hard in cultivation, there would always be a sliver of hope. But if one’s energy was divided by other matters, then even that sliver of hope would be gone.
In Liu Maolin’s eyes, the former Yang Jing had been exactly like that. His energy had been scattered by petty, underhanded trivialities, and he had not devoted all his effort to martial training.
Some days ago, Yang Jing had fallen out with Lü Yang, Zhang Kehan, and Zhou Lin, then thrown himself wholeheartedly into martial training. Liu Maolin had seen it all.
“Fourth Senior Brother, something happened at home. I have to go back,” Yang Jing said as he put on his upper garment.
“I see.” Liu Maolin nodded slightly and said, “There are quite a few refugees outside the city now, and trouble keeps breaking out. Be careful on the road.”
“I understand. Thank you, Fourth Senior Brother.” Yang Jing nodded in reply, then left the Sun Martial Hall.
Yang Jing did not return to his residence in Datong Ward. Instead, he followed Vermilion Bird Avenue all the way south, left the city directly, and headed in the direction of Wazi Township.
The sun hung slanting in the western sky, stretching Yang Jing’s shadow very long and coating the official road in a layer of pale gold.
As Yang Jing walked toward Wazi Township, he summoned the panel and looked at the cultivation progress displayed on it—
[Mountain-Shattering Fist Entry Level (83/200)]
Yang Jing nodded slightly.
Although limited by his aptitude, his martial progress was somewhat slow, it was still advancing steadily.
Most importantly, compared to others, Yang Jing did not have any incomparably dangerous, immensely difficult bottlenecks.
He only needed to cultivate to the limit of the current level, and he would naturally complete the breakthrough.
Thinking as he traveled, he continued on his way.
One hour later, Yang Jing arrived at Fenglou Village in Wazi Township.