Making plans

That night, Yang Jing lay on the bed at home, facing the smoke-blackened roof beams, with two layers of coarse cloth bedding between him and the hard bed boards.

Although they had enjoyed a rare meal of meat that evening, no one in the family could feel happy. All they could manage were forced smiles.

The pressure from Feng Lei and Master Ning behind him weighed on the Yang Family like a mountain.

His uncle-in-law had some connection with the Ning Mansion's steward, but Master Ning was a notorious iron rooster who would not part with a single feather. Wealthy as the Ning Family was, there was little hope of getting them to pay a few more taels of silver.

At the thought, Yang Jing's brows drew together slightly.

Aside from that matter, Yang Jing had also felt the warmth his aunt and his older cousin Yang An showed him during this visit home.

In truth, his eldest uncle's whole family were honest, decent people.

It was just that the original owner of his body had thought too highly of himself and seldom associated with his eldest uncle's impoverished family, so he had known little about them.

After Yang Jing had softened his attitude a little on his previous visit, his aunt had immediately responded in kind. When Heizi was kicked to death, she had saved the dog meat to eat when Yang Jing returned. Until he came home, no one was allowed to touch it.

Moreover, Yang Jing suspected that his older cousin Yang An also had the root bone for martial arts. In just half a month, Yang An had grown noticeably sturdier, which showed that the conditioning was working very well.

As Yang Jing lay thinking, his eyelids gradually grew heavy, and he slowly drifted off to sleep.

Early the next morning.

Yang Jing took one tael of silver and another hundred and thirty large coins from home, bid his family farewell, and returned to the county seat.

He knew very well that practicing martial arts was his most important task right now.

Whether for his family or his own long-term prospects, martial arts training mattered most.

In a world where disorder was beginning to rear its head, his own strength was the foundation of everything.

Only by gaining powerful abilities could he protect himself, his loved ones, and everything he wanted to protect.

That principle held true both in this world and on Earth in Yang Jing's previous life.

To avoid delaying his training, Yang Jing walked quickly.

The situation at home on this visit had filled him with a deep sense of urgency.

Along the way, he saw refugees dressed in rags. Some villages had even stationed people specifically to stop these refugees from entering.

The times were troubled, and the harvests were poor. Many people could not even fill their own families' bellies, much less spare any food for these refugees.

As he hurried along, Yang Jing also rapidly considered possible solutions.

The market price for two mu of grade-A farmland ranged from twelve to fifteen taels of silver. In the past, such land had even fetched ten taels per mu.

Yet even with land prices falling, Master Ning's offer of just six taels for the Yang Family's two mu of grade-A farmland was going far too far.

Besides, these were the last two mu of grade-A farmland the Yang Family had left.

If they sold it just like that, they might barely scrape through this year. But if next year's harvest was as poor as this year's, starving to death would be far more than an empty phrase.

As far as Yang Jing knew, people had already starved to death in some villages in Yuhe County. As for refugees who died of hunger or illness, there were even more.

"I can't put this off any longer."

Yang Jing's eyes narrowed slightly, a glint of icy menace flashing through them.

As he thought of what his family had suffered lately, anger surged and seethed in his chest.

When Yang Jing reached the martial arts hall in Chengping Ward, more than a dozen disciples were already tempering their blood and qi and practicing their moves.

Without greeting anyone, he took off his shirt and found an open spot in the courtyard to lift a stone lock.

The school's master, Sun Yong, had said that tempering blood and qi before beginning formal martial arts practice would help them progress faster.

Once he finished tempering his blood and qi, Yang Jing began practicing Mountain Collapse Fist.

His root bone was ordinary, so his cultivation naturally would not progress quickly. But thinking of the system panel's powerful effects, he threw himself into his practice rather than going through the motions and slacking off like some disciples who had lost hope of breaking through to bright strength.

During this time, Fourth Senior Brother Liu Maolin came over to instruct Yang Jing for a while and even personally sparred with him.

Yang Jing had a very favorable impression of this good-natured senior brother.

After Fourth Senior Brother left, Yang Jing continued practicing Mountain Collapse Fist alone. He did not leave the martial arts hall until it was time for lunch.

He went straight to the West Market and spent a hundred and four large coins on two jin of horse meat at a butcher's shop. Horse meat cost two more large coins per jin at noon than in the evening.

Then Yang Jing took the two jin of horse meat back to his lodgings in Datong Ward.

To a great extent, martial arts training was about cultivating blood and qi, and nourishing food was one of the most important ways to replenish them.

Several wealthy disciples at the martial arts hall came from well-off families. Supposedly, even the meat they ate differed from ordinary meat and provided tremendous nourishment for their blood and qi.

Back in his room, Yang Jing began stewing the meat, and its aroma soon filled the air.

Yang Jing ate half and left the remaining half in the pot for dinner.

Feeling threads of warmth spreading through his body, Yang Jing wasted no time and began practicing Mountain Collapse Fist right there in his room.

During a break in his practice, he ran all the way to the martial arts hall in Chengping Ward without stopping.

Training at the martial arts hall was much better than practicing in his cramped room. First, there was space; second, there was the atmosphere; and third, most importantly, there were people to guide him.

After all, they had all paid money, and once they developed inner force, they could truly enter Sun Yong's tutelage and become formal disciples.

According to the instructions of the school's master, Sun Yong, if they encountered anything they did not understand during training, they were to ask Senior Brother Xu Hong first. Only if their senior brother did not understand it either could they ask him.

However, whenever Yang Jing ran into difficulties in his training, he often asked Fourth Senior Brother Liu Maolin instead. Compared with the stern, unsmiling Senior Brother Xu Hong, the mild-tempered Liu Maolin was much easier to approach.

During his afternoon practice, Yang Jing could vaguely feel that he was progressing faster than he had that morning. He understood that this was thanks to the jin of horse meat he had eaten at noon.

He kept practicing until a quarter past the third quarter of the shen hour-four thirty in the afternoon by Earth's reckoning-before slowly concluding his practice and steadying his breathing.

Once he had recovered, Yang Jing walked over to the courtyard wall, picked up his shirt, and prepared to put it on and leave.

"Junior Brother Yang, why are you leaving so early today?"

Nearby, Fourth Senior Brother Liu Maolin saw that Yang Jing was about to leave and asked in puzzlement.

He had witnessed all the changes in Yang Jing lately.

Although he did not know why Yang Jing had suddenly become so focused on martial arts training, even to the point of near obsession, Liu Maolin was very happy for him.

Having spent many years at the Sun Clan Martial Arts School, Liu Maolin had seen far too many disciples. Among them were plenty of farmers' sons like Yang Jing, whose families had paid who knew how great a price to scrape together the apprenticeship fee.

Although developing inner force was extraordinarily difficult, diligent training still offered a sliver of hope. But if they divided their energies among other matters, even that sliver would vanish.

In Liu Maolin's eyes, that was exactly how Yang Jing had been before. His energy had been scattered among petty, grubby affairs rather than devoted entirely to martial arts.

A little while ago, Yang Jing had fallen out with Lu Yang, Zhang Kehan, and Zhou Lin, then thrown himself wholeheartedly into training. Liu Maolin had seen it all.

"Fourth Senior Brother, something has come up at home. I need to go back," Yang Jing said as he put on his shirt.

"I see." Liu Maolin nodded slightly. "There are quite a few refugees outside the city now, and trouble keeps breaking out. Be careful on the road."

"I will. Thank you, Fourth Senior Brother." Yang Jing nodded in response, then left the Sun Clan Martial Arts School.

Instead of returning to his lodgings in Datong Ward, Yang Jing followed Vermilion Bird Avenue south, went straight out of the city, and headed toward Wazi Township.

The sun hung low in the western sky, stretching Yang Jing's shadow long and gilding the official road with a pale golden sheen.

As Yang Jing walked toward Wazi Township, he summoned the system panel and looked at his cultivation progress-

[Mountain Collapse Fist Initiation (83/200)]

Yang Jing nodded slightly.

Although his root bone limited him and made his martial arts progress somewhat slow, he was steadily moving forward.

Most importantly, unlike other people, Yang Jing faced no perilous, agonizingly difficult bottleneck.

He only needed to cultivate to the limit, and his breakthrough would come naturally.

He thought as he hurried along.

An hour later, Yang Jing reached Fenglou Village in Wazi Township.