Chaos

After turning the street corner and evading the gazes fixed on him, Chen Mu chuckled.

"Trying to cheat me out of my money? No chance!" He became even more certain that Constable Lu and Sheng Hong were in cahoots.

"I thought that guy was a good person before." Chen Mu sighed.

All smiles on the surface, then he stabbed you in the back.

What a treacherous world!

"Not many pure people like me are left..." Chen Mu lamented.

East Market

"Butcher Zheng, why has the price of meat gone up again?" Chen Mu asked with a frown.

The last time he bought it, it had been twenty-six copper coins per jin. Now it had risen to thirty-two.

"There's nothing I can do about it. The livestock traders got hit by bandits. What I'm selling now is from my own stock."

Though prices had risen, Butcher Zheng showed little joy.

"They got robbed again? Are you sure the livestock traders aren't just raising prices to rip people off?" Chen Mu asked suspiciously.

"I had someone ask around. Things outside really haven't been peaceful lately." Butcher Zheng spoke with deep concern.

Chen Mu's heart stirred. Instead of urging Butcher Zheng to continue, he made small talk and took the opportunity to ask about the world beyond.

He had been in this world for three or four months, yet had remained holed up in Qingshan County the entire time. His understanding of the outside world came only from the vague memories of his predecessor.

"Our area is still all right. It's remote, so it's relatively peaceful. But they say that in some places, people have already rebelled, and bandits run rampant."

"Lately, quite a few refugees from war-torn places have come to our Qingshan County."

"Let's hope things never turn chaotic here."

Butcher Zheng worried as he cut the meat. Only in peaceful times could he do business properly.

"So Qingshan County actually counted as a safe place?"

Even in this so-called safe place, people still dared to wipe out entire families. How chaotic must the outside world be?

It was impossible to imagine!

He had once considered traveling around.

But with the outside world so dangerous, Chen Mu began to hesitate.

"I should just eat meat and train honestly."

Without real ability, he should not be thinking about running all over the place.

With Proficiency as his cheat, Chen Mu had no doubts about the speed of his cultivation.

"It won't be too late to leave the mountain once I become the Ten Mile Slope Sword God."

At first, Chen Mu had thought his life would be full of twists and turns, grand and stirring.

But as time passed, he realized it was not much different from his previous life.

Every day, he got up, washed, ate, trained, and went out every three or four days to paint portraits for money.

It was just like clocking in to work every day in his previous life.

But it was better than Earth in his previous life in one respect.

Whether he was painting portraits or training, every time he put in effort, he gained clear insights.

The tangible feedback of watching his abilities improve bit by bit kept Chen Mu endlessly engaged.

His uneventful life had instead become more and more fulfilling.

Twenty li south of Qingshan County, Chen Family Village Back Mountain.

Five or six hunters carrying bows and holding woodcutting blades walked through the mountain forest.

A narrow trail barely showed through the ground beneath their feet, while lush green vegetation grew thickly around them.

Aside from the calls of unknown birds, the occasional roar of unfamiliar beasts drifted through the woods.

Among the group, a fair-skinned young man seemed entirely out of place. It was Chen Mu, who had come to Chen Family Village.

"Mu Wazi, why didn't you stay comfortably in the city? What made you want to come hunting in the mountains with us?" the middle-aged Burly Man leading the group asked curiously.

"Uncle Erdao, someone in the city wants a landscape painting, so I had to come inspect the place in person. Sorry to trouble you uncles," Chen Mu said with a smile.

"A landscape painting? What would anyone want that for?" the Short Sturdy Man in the group asked curiously.

"Maybe they've never seen it and don't want to suffer by going out themselves, so they buy a painting to look at," someone beside him guessed.

Chen Mu merely smiled and said nothing, letting them speculate.

Chen Family Village was Chen Mu's hometown, surrounded by mountains on three sides.

His predecessor's grandfather had lived here until his death. His predecessor had followed his father into the city mainly because his father taught in Qingshan County.

Most people in the village shared the surname Chen, and there were always some distant family ties between them.

Though his family's old house was run-down, it still remained.

His predecessor returned several times each year to clean the ancestral home and pay respects to the ancestors.

So it had been easy for him to connect with the village hunters.

He had returned to his hometown this time to purchase Thousand Beard Grass.

Pork, grain, and medicinal herbs had all risen in price without exception.

The number of people asking him to paint would surely decrease, so he had no choice but to plan for the future.

Following the hunters into the mountains was also a way to familiarize himself with the forest environment in advance.

The mountain terrain was complicated and vegetation grew wild. He planned to test the Red Falcon Body Tempering Technique here.

"Mu Wazi, the mountain paths are difficult. Watch your footing," Chen Erdao reminded him.

"Okay." Chen Mu obediently agreed.

The Burly Man remained worried and glanced back from time to time to check on him.

But he was surprised to find that Chen Mu's steps were steady and unhurried.

After following them for so long, even he was beginning to pant, yet Chen Mu's breathing remained even, as though he had simply come out for a spring outing. The sight left him greatly astonished.

After wandering the mountain forest for three days, Chen Mu followed the hunters as they checked traps, gathered herbs, and hunted wild rabbits and pheasants.

Only on the fourth day did he return with the hunters, laden with goods.

Along the way, he behaved himself and asked whenever he did not understand something. At last, he gained a general understanding of Chen Family Village Back Mountain.

Two days later, Chen Mu left Chen Family Village with several dozen stalks of Thousand Beard Grass.

In Qingshan County, one stalk cost half a tael of silver, nearly six hundred copper coins.

Yet medicine peddlers bought them from villagers for only sixty copper coins per stalk.

Even selling directly to a Medicine Shop in the city would earn at most seventy copper coins.

Nearly ten times the profit!

"Black-hearted, truly black-hearted!" Chen Mu shook his head and grumbled.

After leaving Chen Family Village, he did not return directly to the city. Instead, he took a detour and entered the mountain forest once more.

He had not forgotten that he had come here not only to buy herbs, but also to test the Body Tempering Technique.

After entering the mountains, Chen Mu tightened the bundle on his back and moved forward carefully.

The mountains held not only fierce beasts, but venomous insects as well. Sometimes, an inconspicuous little bug could take a person's life.

Keeping an eye on his surroundings, Chen Mu gradually picked up speed.

At first, he merely walked quickly, but soon he began to run.

A protruding stone, a broken dead tree—any of them could serve as a point to push off from.

Like a cheetah, Chen Mu darted swiftly through the forest, his clothes flapping loudly in the wind.

He charged up a small hill in one breath. His chest felt unrestrained, and he could not help letting out a roar.

"Ha ha... That felt great!"

His speed, stamina, and reaction time had all surpassed those of ordinary people.

That had been unimaginable in his previous life. How could Chen Mu not be excited?

Just as he wanted to shout a few more times—

"Roar..."

A fierce beast suddenly howled.

Chen Mu could not help shrinking his neck.

"Keep a low profile, keep a low profile. Don't get carried away!"

The deep mountain forest was home to tigers and other fierce beasts!

If he ran into one with his current physique, he might well die on the spot.

He quickly left the hilltop and headed straight for a Wooden Cabin in the forest, a temporary camp the hunters had built in the mountains.

After putting down what he had brought, Chen Mu did not go far. He simply practiced the Red Falcon Body Tempering Technique in the surrounding forest.

Though the complicated environment increased the difficulty, it also increased his gains.

He trained six times in one go and actually gained more than seventy points of Proficiency.

"If I used Secret Medicine with it, I'd gain even more Proficiency!"

Chen Mu nearly wanted to move into the forest directly.

"I can't rush this. I need to think it through for the long term."

He still had to paint portraits to earn money. If he wanted to train in the mountains, he needed to plan carefully.