Recaps

After losing his scholarly status, Fang Yuan used the Proficiency System to train, feed his family, and protect them from threats. He left the village with silver and supplies after selling wild boar meat, while Heizi's hunting team began searching for the stranger who had taken their prey.

• After Fang Yuan was framed for cheating and beaten, he woke at home with Liu Wanwan and Little Bean Sprout and resolved to pursue martial strength through the newly appeared Proficiency System.
• Fang Yuan trained with a chopping knife, then went into Great Green Mountain to hunt and trapped five rabbits, bringing them home to feed his family.
• When Hou San threatened the household, Fang Yuan killed him and disguised the death as an accidental fall.
• Fang Yuan found a Purple Sable in the mountains, spared it, and followed it to a decades-old Snow Ginseng and a wounded Black-furred Wild Boar.
• Fang Yuan brought the boar home and secretly sold part of its meat at the rural market, refusing a dishonest buyer before accepting two taels of silver from Hu Lao San.
• Fang Yuan bought salt, chilies, rice, and cloth, learned about Martial Artists and the Black Market, and overheard Heizi investigating who had taken the boar.
• Heizi sent Scarface to investigate nearby villages while his team watched the mountains, and Fang Yuan returned home with supplies for Liu Wanwan and Little Bean Sprout.

Fang Yuan protected Liu Wanwan and Little Bean Sprout from Heizi’s pressure and the village authorities, using his growing strength to reclaim his sister’s bracelet and defeat Wang Meng’s men. After rejecting the Fang Clan’s authority, he resolved to leave Fang Family Village and make more trips into the mountains before winter closed them off.

• Fang Yuan hid the traces of his wild boar and shared the meat with his family, while his training and Snow Ginseng steadily strengthened him.
• Heizi questioned Fang Yuan about the missing wild boar and tried to recruit him, but Fang Yuan refused and rejected San Zhuang’s offer to join a hunting party.
• Village Chief Li and the elders demanded that Fang Yuan leave, while villagers harassed Liu Wanwan and Little Bean Sprout and Er Gouzi stole the girl’s gold bracelet.
• Fang Yuan confronted the Li Family, recovered the bracelet, and forced Village Chief Li to admit that Er Gouzi had stolen it.
• Wang Meng arrived with armed men to avenge his sister and nephew, while the Clan Elder tried to have Fang Yuan beaten under the guise of clan punishment.
• Fang Yuan drove back the attackers, severed the tendons in Wang Meng’s legs and those of his men, then ordered the Fang clansmen to slap the Clan Elder.
• Fang Yuan dismissed the clan’s authority and told Liu Wanwan to prepare food for more mountain trips before the snow sealed the routes.

Fang Yuan hunted for winter provisions, killed Heizi and his men, and explored ways to enter the Martial Dao without surrendering his freedom to the Baimao Merchant Guild. After discovering the value of the Crimson Sun Fruits, he consumed one and prepared to protect his family as bandit attacks spread through the villages.

• Fang Yuan hunted a massive wild boar with the Purple Sable’s help, then returned to the village and refused the villagers’ offers to help him process it.
• Fang Yuan decided to move his family to the county town, but Heizi and his men intercepted him on the way to the Rural Market, so Fang Yuan killed them and hid their bodies.
• Fang Yuan sold boar meat and a second boar to Hu Lao San, bought supplies, and learned about the Baimao Merchant Guild’s Qi Gathering Method and its contract requirements.
• Hu Lao San lent Fang Yuan an illustrated guide, and Fang Yuan identified his four berries as Crimson Sun Fruits worth five hundred taels each.
• Wang Laowu warned Fang Yuan against joining the merchant guild under contract and told him about a Ghost Market where Martial Arts manuals might be sold.
• Fang Yuan stayed home with Liu Wanwan and Little Bean Sprout as the Purple Sable recovered, then fed it jerky and swallowed a Crimson Sun Fruit while training with his chopping knife.
• After absorbing the fruit and continuing his training, Fang Yuan heard from Old Madam Chen that masked robbers had attacked nearby villages and told Liu Wanwan to secure their food.
• Wang Meng learned that his Third Brother could not leave the County yamen and asked whether desperate men and deserters had carried out the village robberies.

As bandits, conscription, and local enemies made Fang Family Village increasingly dangerous, Fang Yuan tried to secure safe passage to the county town for his family. After killing those who threatened him and escaping arrest, he sought a place in Steward Chen’s convoy.

• Wang Meng arranged for Wang Lao Er to tell bandits about Fang Yuan’s wealth, and the bandit leader decided to raid Fang Family Village before disbanding.
• Fang Yuan reinforced his home and sought help from Hu Lao San, but Qin Yue rejected him after warning that his scattered cultivation could make gathering qi dangerous.
• Bandits attacked the village and robbed Village Chief Li’s home, so Fang Yuan killed Village Chief Li and his family, then defended his own courtyard before checking on the battle at the Chen Family estate.
• Fang Yuan learned that the Chen Family planned to move to the county town, but the caravan would not take him and his family.
• Constables came to conscript men, and Wang San accused Fang Yuan of murder, but Fang Yuan disarmed the officers and forced the captain to end the arrest attempt.
• Fang Yuan concluded that San Zhuang had tried to frame him and killed him, while the village faced conscription within seven days.
• Fang Yuan learned that Steward Chen’s family was hiring guards for a trip to the county seat and applied to join the convoy, where Chen Zhiyuan greeted him.