Ninth Rank

Before long, the fragrance of rice drifted from the room.

Yan Yu stopped feeding firewood into the stove, rose, and served the meal.

Chaff rice, millet, and beans had been mixed together in the iron pot into steaming food.

Before Li Yuan had crossed over, he would never have eaten such things, nor would he ever have imagined eating them. But now, he had no choice.

His mouth was so bland he could hardly taste a thing, but Yan Yu had never eaten lavish feasts of fish and meat, so she was fine with it.

After setting two bowls of rice on the table, she brought over another bowl. Inside were chopped dried radish strips.

"Yuan Ge'er, we traded these from Aunt Wang's family. They're salty, good with rice."

As she spoke, Yan Yu picked out the best-looking piece of dried radish and placed it in her husband's bowl.

Li Yuan drew a breath and began filling his stomach.

The meal was dry and coarse, without the slightest trace of oil.

He quickly finished eating, set down his bowl and chopsticks, and lay back on the bed to continue resting.

Yan Yu ate slowly. Suddenly, she glanced at Li Yuan and asked, "Yuan Ge'er, have you gotten stronger?"

Li Yuan said, "I haven't been working at home. I've been well fed, that's all."

"No, no, you really have gotten stronger. How come your waist still has so much strength?"

The moment she finished speaking, her face suddenly reddened.

Li Yuan asked curiously, "Why are you blushing?"

"I asked Aunt Wang. She said her man was very fierce in bed, but when I compared him to you, Yuan Ge'er, I found he was far behind." Yan Yu's face grew even redder. "I'm not saying any more."

As they ate, a clamor rose outside. Holding her bowl and chopsticks, Yan Yu moved to the doorway, leaned against the doorframe, stepped one embroidered shoe over the threshold, and craned her head out to look.

"Hey, Yuan Ge'er, come look."

"What is it?"

"Come look." Yan Yu beckoned. "The yamen has caught Monk Pan. They're taking him out of the village."

Li Yuan got up, walked over, and looked outside.

On the muddy path through the village, a bald, burly man with a bruised and swollen face wore shackles on both hands as a yamen runner led him forward. Behind them followed a saber-bearing man in plain clothes, who appeared to be with the yamen runner.

A group of people stood some distance away in twos and threes, watching from afar and whispering among themselves. Their voices were low, as though they feared being overheard.

Standing on tiptoe, Yan Yu muttered, "Why didn't Monk Pan run after killing someone? Was he waiting for the yamen runners to arrest him?"

After watching for a while, she added, "The Qian Family must have a good relationship with the authorities. The yamen runners came so quickly. Yuan Ge'er, do you think the Qian Family will cause us trouble again?"

Speaking of it, Yan Yu became uneasy once more.

"Cause what trouble? They won't!"

Li Yuan answered casually and paid her no further mind.

As for why Monk Pan had not run, the answer was obvious after giving it a little thought.

There were still people around the Qian Family. Once any commotion broke out, the neighbors would surely come out, and those people all had good relations with the Qian Family.

Monk Pan was no peerless master. If he made too much of a disturbance, the people who came rushing over would naturally subdue him.

Li Yuan shook his head slightly and sighed inwardly.

But what could he do?

At that moment, he observed the "numbers" beside the yamen runners.

The one holding the shackles had a saber at his waist. That was a killing saber, far better than Li Yuan's firewood chopping knife, and his overall strength was "4~5."

The other man in plain clothes was formidable, with overall strength of "19~20."

How could the gap be so great?

After some thought, Li Yuan more or less understood.

This was probably not an ordinary ancient world, but at least a low-martial-arts wuxia world.

The one with the higher overall strength had probably practiced martial arts.

Before crossing over, Li Yuan had read wuxia novels too. In those novels, martial artists of the jianghu and ordinary people belonged to two entirely different worlds, didn't they?

That day, Li Yuan did not rush out to hunt. Instead, he decided to watch and wait a while longer, heading into the mountains after things had calmed down. After all, there were still two big coins at home that had not been spent. They could hold out.

His stomach would just have to suffer a little.

Enduring for a while was still better than carelessly throwing away his life.

In the darkness, Yan Yu blew out the candle, removed her cloth trousers, curled up her pale long legs, and rustled her way into her husband's arms. Beneath the cotton quilt, they held each other close.

Li Yuan touched her shoulder. She had grown much thinner again. He pulled her tighter into his embrace.

Feeling his movement, Yan Yu thoughtfully pressed herself closer against him. They were as inseparable as glue and lacquer.

Thinking of the number above that saber-bearing man's head during the day, Li Yuan began some pillow talk with his woman.

"Sister Yan, I've never asked. What is your relationship with Brother Yan?"

Brother Yan, whose name was Yan Mu, was his old friend with the air of a gallant hero of the jianghu.

It was this Yan Mu who had settled Yan Yu with him before leaving, never to return.

Yan Yu blushed. "He's my nephew. I'm his maternal aunt. I'm senior in the family."

"Ahem."

Li Yuan was at a loss for words.

How was this seniority supposed to work?

His elder brother's maternal aunt was his woman? Then what was his elder brother supposed to call him—brother, or uncle by marriage?

Yan Yu said with a red face, "We each count it our own way."

Li Yuan asked curiously, "But since you're Brother Yan's maternal aunt, where are his parents? And why did he place you in my home?"

Yan Yu said dejectedly, "Sea bandits attacked our family. I was the only one who survived.

"Yan Mu said he was going to escort a good official to Jade Capital City.

"As for what he was going to do, Yan Mu refused to tell me.

"I knew he was keeping it from me for my own good."

Jade Capital City was the Imperial Capital.

But Li Yuan did not care about that. He only asked, "Then Brother Yan's martial arts must be very good?"

Yan Yu said, "I'm not too sure either. Yan Mu was always away from home. He only came back after sea bandits attacked our family."

As she spoke, Yan Yu suddenly came to a realization. "Right, I heard him mention some things. Something about Martial Dao Divided into Nine Ranks, and Ranked Martial Warriors being impossible to contend against by force;

"Something about the path of Cultivation Method lying in blood—pig blood raises pigs, dragon blood raises dragons;

"Something about the Sixth Rank Life Codex being able to Change Fate."

Martial Dao Divided into Nine Ranks? Ranked Martial Warriors?

Pig blood raises pigs, dragon blood raises dragons? A Life Codex?

Li Yuan had found his answer.

This world not only had martial arts techniques, but they were divided into nine ranks. And perhaps reaching the sixth rank would bring a qualitative transformation.

From now on, he would have to be even more careful.

He fell silent, and Yan Yu said nothing either.

Before long, embarrassing sounds drifted through the night.

Much later, Yan Yu had fallen deeply asleep. Li Yuan turned his head to look at the papered and patched window. After sitting in silence for a while, he slowly closed his eyes as well.

Sleep. What use was there in thinking too much?

Another three days passed.

The food they had bought before was truly running out.

Yan Yu and Aunt Wang decided to go to that black-hearted merchant's grain shop again to buy more.

Uncle Wang had originally worked as a waiter at a restaurant in the county town. Business at the restaurant had been poor these past two days, so he had not gone in. With nothing to do at home, he brought along his son and daughter to buy grain together.

The two families lived beside each other and often helped one another. Besides, the grain shop was nearby, so Li Yuan did not interfere.

The authorities were still there, and basic public order remained.

Buying rice from a grain shop in broad daylight, along official roads no less—unless mountain bandits or sea bandits entered the county, nothing would happen.

Today, he decided to take a look in the mountains.

Five days had passed since Qian San's death.

The dust that ought to have settled had settled.

Outside, Monk Pan had been locked in the county yamen's prison and would be executed after interrogation in a few days.

In Little Ink Village, not all five Qian brothers were hunters. Qian Da, Qian Si, and Qian Wu even spent their usual days traveling outside. Since the murderer had been caught, they stopped bothering with the matter.

Only Qian Er remained in the village.

Qian Er was the leader of a gang of hooligans, with four or five men following him around.

He knew of Qian San's plan to "gather the hunters together, then eat well and drink well while ordering people about."

Qian San was dead, and he intended to carry on with it.

But he had not expected Monk Pan to expose the Qian Family's plans outright while leaving the village that day.

How did Monk Pan know? Who the hell knew.

Perhaps Qian San's wife had been scared witless at the time and blurted everything out.

With that, the village's few hunters refused to stand for it. They joined forces directly.

If Qian Er dared come, they would fight. They were not scared in the least.

For a time, Qian Er had no way around it. He did not know how to hunt himself.

As for Xiao Fei, who had taken Uncle Caihua's Hunter Permit, he was merely a hooligan whose feathers had not fully grown. He could scare people, but when it came to scaring wild beasts, he was useless.

And so, the hunting environment had opened up.

Li Yuan decided to take a look in the mountains.

His mouth had gotten so bland he could taste birds. He needed some meat.