Bone Strengthening

As soon as Chen Mu finished calling out, a crowd immediately gathered around him.

"Can it be cheaper?"

"Yeah, yeah, your fish already smell..."

"Twenty copper coins at most!"

"Buy it if you want, get lost if you don't!" Chen Mu deliberately shouted in a rough, boorish voice.

"I'll take one!"

"Three! Here's the money!"

"Line up, line up! Buy one at a time! Otherwise, all of you can get lost!" Chen Mu waved his hand and barked loudly.

Thirty copper coins could only buy three jin of White Wheat now.

But this was meat preserved with salt, and each fish weighed nearly two jin.

Thirty copper coins was dirt cheap.

No matter how he shouted, the crowd still noisily pressed around him.

"Trying to steal?!" Chen Mu reached out and seized a hand. With a crack, he yanked the wrist out of its socket.

"Ahh!"

The shriek made the people beside him shudder.

"Line up! Cause trouble again, and don't blame me for being rude!" Chen Mu roared viciously.

The man with the dislocated wrist was a dark, skinny middle-aged man with a slick-looking face.

He clutched his wrist and howled, staring at Chen Mu without even trying to run.

"What, trying to extort me?" Chen Mu had no patience for him.

He grabbed the man's arm. Crack, crack—the shoulder was dislocated as well.

The dark, skinny middle-aged man's face instantly turned white from pain. Meeting Chen Mu's fierce gaze, he hurriedly hunched over, turned, and fled.

The surrounding people no longer dared make a fuss.

They lined up one by one to buy fish.

Half a basket of Smoked Salted Fish quickly sold out.

"Will you be selling again tomorrow?" someone could not help asking.

"Depends on my mood," Chen Mu answered with brazen indifference.

Ignoring everyone's questions, he slung the bamboo basket over his back and strode away.

The moment he ducked into an alley, he broke into a run.

After winding through several turns and making sure no one was following him, he hurried home.

"Half a basket, more than thirty fish, over nine hundred copper coins."

"Heh, that's almost a tael of silver." Chen Mu happily counted the coins.

He had Qingshan County's soaring prices to thank for that.

Fish could not normally sell for such a price.

"From now on, when I catch fish, I'll keep only the live ones. The dead ones can all be sold in East Market." Chen Mu pondered.

With Drunken Bait to catch fish, he would not lack fish to eat for a long time.

"I should buy two more water vats too. Keep more live ones stored up."

With grain and meat, his heart was at ease.

Ignoring the chaos and turmoil outside, Chen Mu once again shut himself in to grind Proficiency.

Calling up the Gray Wall, Chen Mu reviewed his skills.

Writing: 1532/10000/Second Tier;
Drawing: 1402/10000/Second Tier;
Throwing: 4353/10000/Tier 3;
Red Falcon Body Tempering Technique: 8539/10000/Second Tier;
Culinary: 5626/10000/Tier 1;
Medicine Crafting: 1152/10000/Second Tier;
Sleeve Sword: 4059/10000/Tier 1;

"The Body Tempering Technique is short by over fifteen hundred Proficiency. About twenty-odd days."

"Though Sleeve Sword is short by six thousand Proficiency, it's only Tier 1, so it will advance faster."

"Tier 3 Throwing is enough for now. I can suitably reduce the time I spend practicing Flying Locust Stones each day."

"I'll focus on the Body Tempering Technique, with Sleeve Sword second. I'll reduce the effort put into the rest appropriately."

Having made up his mind, Chen Mu buried himself in training.

Nine days later, all the live fish had been eaten.

Chen Mu prepared to go out and catch more.

This time, he chose a different Deep River Bend.

He had already scattered bait there two days earlier to attract more fish.

He changed into old gray-brown clothes and smeared brown pigment over his hands and neck.

He also covered half his face with a special blue-green medicine.

Studying his yin-yang face in a bronze mirror—one side a sun-darkened bronze cheek, the other marked by a blue-green birthmark—Chen Mu smiled in satisfaction.

"Please call me Qing Mian Shou Yang Zhi."

He habitually concealed himself.

He never wanted to draw attention.

"Too bad I'm still missing an unparalleled treasured saber."

"Forget it. This Short Sword will do for now."

With a turn of his wrist, the forearm-length Short Sword vanished into his sleeve.

His Sleeve Sword Proficiency had now passed the halfway mark.

He had become increasingly adept at concealing the sword.

At this moment, even if someone grabbed his arm, they would not be able to find where the sword was hidden.

Once everything was ready, Chen Mu carried the Drunken Bait, balanced two bamboo baskets on a shoulder pole, and quietly left the city.

By evening.

Chen Mu carried two baskets brimming with Catch back home.

He first tossed the live fish into water vats to keep them.

Then he carried the remaining dead fish to East Market.

With one shout, he began selling.

Prices were soaring now, and meat was scarce.

A small basket of fresh fish was snapped up in no time.

"Fisherman, will you be here again tomorrow?"

"Depends on my mood!" Chen Mu grinned with brazen indifference, hoisted his bamboo baskets, and quickly disappeared.

With his source of meat settled.

And with things outside growing unsettled again.

Chen Mu became even less willing to leave home.

Half a month later, amid a series of crackling explosions from his muscles and bones like popping beans, the Body Tempering Technique smoothly broke through to Tier 3 as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

The muscles throughout his body churned and adjusted once more.

His strength increased by at least thirty percent.

His bones became denser, as hard as stone.

His weight increased as well.

By his own estimate, he weighed at least two hundred and thirty jin.

Yet outwardly, he still looked like a lean young man standing one meter seventy-seven tall.

"So this is the Bone Strengthening Realm?"

Chen Mu suddenly swayed, and he vanished from where he stood.

He did not feel as if he had exerted much strength.

His body was like a flywheel carrying immense momentum.

With a whoosh, he shot more than ten meters away.

If he had not reacted in time, he would have nearly slammed headfirst into the wall.

"My speed is at least twice what it was before!"

"At this speed, ordinary people can't see me clearly at all."

He recalled his first encounter with Constable Lu.

The man had covered five or six meters in a single step.

Now, Chen Mu could easily do the same. He could even run faster and for longer.

"Heh! With my physique and speed, I can go to river bends farther away and catch even more fish!"

"Half for myself, half to sell for silver. Perfect!"

Pan-fried fish chunks, stir-fried fish maw, chopped chili fish head, plus a bowl of secret-recipe fish ball soup.

Chen Mu made himself a grand Whole Fish Feast.

He slowly savored lunch until around two in the afternoon.

After cleaning up the pots, bowls, and utensils, he rested briefly.

He had originally intended to continue grinding Proficiency.

Sleeve Sword was also nearing a breakthrough.

After thinking it over, he restrained himself.

Being too obsessed was not good either.

He changed into a clean gray-white outfit and strolled toward Eight Directions Pavilion in Anle Ward.

He had not left the house for seven or eight days.

Passing through East Market, he unexpectedly noticed quite a lot of funeral paper money scattered on the ground.

Two months ago, many of those killed by the disorderly army and bandits had been taken out through the county's east gate for burial. Funeral paper money on the ground was normal.

But after the Defeated Soldiers scattered and turned into mountain bandits, Qingshan County had settled down.

Now that paper money had appeared again on the streets of East Market, Chen Mu had a bad feeling.

Eight Directions Pavilion.

As usual, he bought a pot of tea and a plate of melon seeds, then sat in a corner to listen for news.

"Someone else met with disaster last night?"

"Yes. Their bodies withered and shriveled, just like air-dried salted fish!"

"That's too strange, isn't it?!"

"I heard some even strangled themselves to death!"

"It must be a Malevolent Spirit causing trouble."

"Keep your voice down. What if you attract that thing?"

Chen Mu absentmindedly cracked melon seeds, his brows tightly furrowed. "Malevolent Spirits?!"

These things were simply too impossible to deal with.

In the memories of the previous owner of this body, he had heard more or less about such strange legends ever since childhood.

But he had never encountered one, so he had never paid them much attention.

"No, maybe I encountered one long ago." Chen Mu's face suddenly darkened.

When he underwent Possession Resurrection, the previous owner of this body had already died for no apparent reason!

That had very likely been the work of a Malevolent Spirit.