Needs

Following Wu Qu, Wu Ming returned to Wu Village.

Although the sky had already begun to darken when they left the city, the journey remained smooth, and they encountered no trouble. Clearly, the dozen-odd li stretch between Wu Village and Jingye City was relatively safe.

But that was only because Wu Qu and Wu Ming were both martial artists, daring to leave the city and return to the village as night approached. By the time they departed, there were scarcely any people entering or leaving through the city gates.

"Ming'er, take this share home."

When they reached the entrance to Wu Village, Wu Qu suddenly stopped and untied the bundle on his back. Inside were strips upon strips of jerky. He casually pulled out one and handed it to Wu Ming.

"This..."

Wu Ming accepted the jerky and weighed it slightly in his hand. He judged it to be a full five jin.

Jerky was meat stripped of moisture and cured through special methods, so it was much more expensive than ordinary fresh meat. Moreover, in this world, meat itself was costly. A jin of the cheapest fresh meat cost four or five hundred copper coins, while a jin of jerky cost well over a thousand copper coins—just over one tael of patterned silver.

This large five-jin piece of jerky was worth roughly six taels of silver.

"Take it."

Wu Qu smiled. "You've only just completed Blood Forging, so you need to nourish your Blood Qi. You can't go without meat. I know you should still have some silver on hand, but it's best to have some meat with all three meals each day."

Since Wu Qu had put it that way, Wu Ming naturally had no reason to refuse. After offering his thanks, he accepted it. In any case, he already owed Wu Qu quite a few favors; one more made little difference. There would always be a chance to repay him in the future.

Carrying the jerky,

Wu Ming and Wu Qu each returned home.

At home, Wu Qi and Liu Shi had already prepared dinner and waited for him. When Wu Ming returned, Wu Qi saw the jerky in his hand but did not ask where it had come from. He merely said that as long as Wu Ming learned something from following Wu Qu, that was enough. If anything came up in the future, he could discuss it with Wu Qu. If there was truly trouble that even Wu Qu could not solve, he could go to his elder sister Wu Yu and seek help from Xu Hao, the eldest brother of the Xu Family.

The night passed without incident.

The next day.

Wu Ming rose early. After eating, he set off for the city.

He remembered the route clearly. This time, without Wu Qu leading him, he still entered the city as easily as a veteran driver on a familiar road. He found the Seven Martial Alliance Outer Hall, exchanged his martial token for a crude weapon blank, and chose a corner of the martial courtyard to train.

By the time noon had passed, Wu Ming sensed another faint strand of Blood Qi being refined within him. After guiding it into his dantian, he finally let out a long breath and headed toward the Dining Courtyard on the south side of the Seven Martial Alliance Outer Hall.

At this moment,

the entire Dining Courtyard was quite lively.

Rows of old wooden long tables stood in the courtyard. Many men wearing training jackets—or simply bare-chested—sat on rough four-legged stools, each holding a bowl as they ate with great gusto.

Wu Ming walked all the way to the inner side of the Dining Courtyard. The food here was all plainly priced and slightly cheaper than the restaurants outside, so unless they came from wealthy households, the martial artists of the Seven Martial Alliance preferred eating here.

"One bowl of rice."

As Wu Ming spoke, he laid out ten large copper coins.

"Coming right up!"

A servant inside immediately called out loudly, took the coins, and quickly handed out a large earthenware bowl heaped with rice.

Rice prices did not fluctuate much these days. A jin of uncooked rice cost around twenty-odd copper coins. The earthenware bowls used in the Seven Martial Alliance Dining Courtyard were large, and ten copper coins for a big bowl of cooked rice was not expensive.

In truth, the staple food here came in several varieties: coarse grain, fine rice, and spirit rice. Ordinary poor families mostly ate coarse grain, but martial artists rarely consumed it because its quality was poor. For martial artists who needed to nourish their Blood Qi, fine rice was the baseline. As for wealthy households, they often ate spirit rice.

Spirit rice.

From what Wu Ming understood, it was a type of grain that had not existed in his previous life. It seemed that it could only be grown in so-called "spirit lands," and its price was extraordinarily high—nearly a hundred times that of fine rice!

The Seven Martial Alliance Dining Courtyard also served spirit rice, but few people bought it. After all, a single bowl cost a full tael of silver. Unless one came from a wealthy household, even martial artists at Second Blood Forging often could not afford it.

"Why has this spirit rice become more expensive again than it was yesterday?"

Wu Ming looked toward the wooden board in the inner room listing the prices and noticed that spirit rice had risen to one thousand and fifty copper coins. When he had come with Wu Qu yesterday, it had still cost one thousand copper coins.

"Because demons have been running rampant lately and have destroyed quite a few spirit fields, causing the price of spirit rice to keep rising."

None of the servants in the inner room answered. Instead, the one who replied to Wu Ming was a young martial artist who had just arrived beside him. Wu Ming recognized him as one of the young men who had joined the Seven Martial Alliance with him yesterday. His name seemed to be Chen Gui.

Judging from his clothing, he appeared to come from a wealthy household.

"Brother Wu, I'm Chen Gui. We met yesterday."

Chen Gui stepped forward, ordered a meal from the inner room as well, and politely greeted Wu Ming.

"Brother Chen."

Wu Ming returned the courtesy. After exchanging a few simple words with Chen Gui, he took out a piece of broken silver and placed it on the counter, then called toward the inner room again, "Cut me two liang of cooked meat as well."

"Coming right up."

The servant inside swiftly took the broken silver, weighed it, returned several dozen copper coins in change, and cut two liang of cooked meat onto an earthenware plate. A small dish was included beside it, containing a shallow dab of sauce.

With perception at the minute level, Wu Ming could clearly judge his own physical condition. After breaking through to become a Blood Forging martial artist, he needed to eat at least four or five liang of meat each day to meet the nourishment demands of martial arts training.

Compared to before his breakthrough, the amount he required had increased greatly.

Of course,

Wu Ming could eat another jin or two of meat if he had it. But on one hand, his ability to absorb it was not strong enough, so eating large amounts of meat would be wasteful if he could not absorb it. On the other hand—and more importantly—he was poor!

Eating nearly half a jin of meat a day would cost two or three hundred copper coins. In four days, he would spend a tael of silver. In a month, it would come to roughly seven or eight taels. Even eating this frugally, the fifteen taels of silver he had would only last two months.

For martial arts training, this little silver was hardly worth mentioning.

Not to mention anything else, there were all sorts of ways within the Seven Martial Alliance to nourish Qi and Blood. As far as food went, there was spirit rice, premium meat, and even more expensive demon meat and medicinal meals!

And that was merely food. Over at the Medicine Hall, there were all kinds of nourishing medicinal powders, with a single dose costing dozens of taels of silver. The most extravagant of all, however, was medicinal baths!

The starting price was several hundred taels of silver.

For now, Wu Ming could only look at such things.