Breakthrough

Breakthrough

Chen Mo picked up two thick, succulent pieces of red-braised pork and tucked them into a freshly steamed bun that was still piping hot.

The juices from the red-braised pork soaked into the fluffy steamed bun. Just looking at it made one swallow, and Chen Mo polished it off in only three or four bites.

"For lunch, let's keep it simple for now. I bought two pork knuckles—I'll stew them both for you later."

Zhao Yu smiled as she brought over a large bowl of clear-braised lamb ribs, along with a small dish of raw garlic shoots tossed with sesame oil and salt.

Chen Mo nodded and first took a bite of the garlic shoots. They were fresh and crisp, with a hint of garlic's spicy flavor bursting across his mouth—perfect for cutting through the grease.

"Stop fussing over everything and eat with me." After swallowing the food in his mouth, Chen Mo beckoned to her.

"There's still a soup on the stove. I need to keep an eye on it." Zhao Yu did not sit down, instead turning and walking back into the kitchen.

Before long, she brought over an earthenware crock. Inside was a bowl of milky-white chicken soup, with a layer of yellow chicken fat floating on top. One glance was enough to tell that the chicken had been a mature hen.

"Someone happened to be selling mature hens on the street today, so I bought one. The soup turned out wonderfully fresh." Zhao Yu looked proud, clearly very confident in her cooking.

First, she used chopsticks to tear apart the mature hen, which had been stewed until thoroughly tender. Then she brought out coarse porcelain bowls and a wooden ladle and filled two bowls with soup.

"Here, you should eat more." She handed Chen Mo a bowl of chicken soup with more meat than broth.

"You eat too." He accepted it with a smile and carefully tasted it. The chicken soup was rich and mellow on the tongue, exceedingly delicious.

Chen Mo loosened his belt and began to feast, first eating the large bowl of red-braised pork with sixteen steamed buns.

He then gnawed an entire small basin of lamb ribs clean and finally washed everything down with several bowls of chicken soup. By the time he finished the meal, he felt as though oil were bubbling from his throat.

Within his dantian, wisps of qi-and-blood power were continuously being transformed and surging into the Mortal Transformation Pearl.

After the meal, Zhao Yu brewed a pot of tea and sprinkled in some white sugar. Both the tea leaves and sugar had just been bought, which suggested that she normally could not bear to use such things herself.

"I've made quite a bit of money from the business lately. This is your share of the profits." Zhao Yu took out the silver money she had prepared long ago from her bosom.

She had not forgotten that when they first started the business, Chen Mo's money had not been a loan to her but an investment in exchange for a share.

Besides, if not for Chen Mo, her business likely would not have gotten off the ground so smoothly.

"That much?" Chen Mo looked slightly surprised. Most of the money in the small bundle Zhao Yu took out consisted of copper coins, but there were also several bits of silver. Added together, it was probably more than a single liang.

She had only been in business for how long? All told, it had been less than two months. During that time, she had even made two sets of clothes for him. Though she had sewn them herself, the fabric alone had cost four qian of silver.

The meals he had eaten during his two later rest days would have cost another three or four qian of silver even just counting the ingredients.

Under such circumstances, she still had this much profit to distribute. By that reckoning, Zhao Yu had earned at least three liang of silver during this period—a truly substantial income.

"Mhm. Your brothers from the same military camp have been looking after me and often come to eat at my stall. And for your sake, no one in town dares to cause me trouble."

Zhao Yu smiled faintly. What she said was indeed true.

Quite a few personal guards in the military camp knew that Chen Mo's wife ran a small food stall in town, so whenever they wanted a meal, they were all willing to patronize her business.

Zhao Yu would also give them some extra side dishes or add a little more oil when stir-frying their food.

But that was not the main reason. Most personal guards rarely went out of camp to eat. Wine shops and gambling dens, with their doors half-shut, were where they went most often.

The most important reason was that she was Chen Mo's wife, while Chen Mo was General Sun's adopted son.

With that connection, whether it was the constables and runners in town or idle ruffians and hooligans, who would dare come and fleece her?

Other people had to spend silver greasing palms at every level before they could run their businesses peacefully. After painstakingly earning one liang of silver, most of it would be stripped away layer by layer.

But whatever she earned, she could keep in her own hands. No one dared set their sights on her.

It was precisely because of this that, as an outsider, she had been able to establish her stall in town. Otherwise, if an outsider tried to do business there without cultivating connections, her stall would probably have been overturned on the very first day.

"You should keep this money for now. When I come home to eat in the future, I'll still need to spend money." Chen Mo smiled.

Having a home truly felt different from before. Previously, whenever he came to town, he had eaten hurriedly and left as soon as he was done.

Now he had a place to stop and rest, and Zhao Yu could even wash and mend his clothes for him, saving him the time he would otherwise waste doing it himself.

Not to mention that now her business had taken off, he did not even need to spend money on meals.

That way, he could accumulate qi and blood more quickly, while the extra silver could be used to purchase medicinal decoctions.

This time, Chen Mo had returned to town intending to find a dispensary and buy some decoctions that replenished qi and blood, speeding up the process of accumulation.

He had quite a bit of money on hand now. After killing the Azure-robed Daoist, Chen Mo had obtained a considerable sum, in addition to the silver his adoptive father had given him when he ransomed Zhao Yu.

He currently had nearly fifty liang of fine silver in hand. That was no small amount—enough to drink nourishing medicinal decoctions for quite some time.

"Fine, I'll keep it for now." Zhao Yu did not refuse. She smiled again and added, "I also made you a new undershirt. Try it on when you get the chance."

"I'll try it later. Do you know which dispensary in town is reliable? I need some medicinal decoctions for my martial arts training."

Compared with him, Zhao Yu had spent more time in town and knew the place better. It would not hurt to ask her.

"Mhm. Go to Physician Liu Sanhe and Physician Liu's dispensary in the west of town. Their family has lived here for generations, so they won't cheat you."

Zhao Yu was quite familiar with this matter, because some medicinal ingredients were not merely medicines—they were also spices used when stewing meat.

After getting the name of the shop, Chen Mo set out at once. A short while later, he walked out of the dispensary chewing on a slice of red ginseng, a pained look on his face.

There was no other reason: the medicinal ingredients were simply too expensive. Chen Mo had prepared three sets of blood-nourishing decoctions with prepared fleeceflower root as the main ingredient, each costing one liang of silver.

He had also bought an entire piece of processed red ginseng. That single piece alone cost a full ten liang.

Used sparingly, these things could probably support his cultivation for a month.

If he used them freely, they would last ten days at most.

From this, it was clear that the saying "poor in letters, rich in martial arts" was not without reason.

As Chen Mo swallowed the slices of ginseng prepared with brown sugar, he could clearly sense the qi-and-blood power transformed from the red ginseng continuously surging into the Mortal Transformation Pearl.

At this rate, even if he could not undergo Mortal Transformation before taking the academician examination, he would certainly be able to do so by the time he sat for the provincial examination.

After returning home with the medicinal decoctions, he handed the three sets over to Zhao Yu. The decoctions needed to simmer for roughly an hour.

Whenever he had a rest day, he would return home to drink the decoctions.

As for the red ginseng slices, they would work whether eaten directly or steeped in water. He could take them to the military camp and eat two slices a day.

Their effect was inferior to that of the decoctions, but they had the advantage of being convenient and inexpensive.

Peaceful days always passed in the blink of an eye. Half a month flew by, and Chen Mo's Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist naturally reached a breakthrough.

Three to five days after his fist technique broke through, Chen Mo finally went to find his adoptive father, preparing to ask the old man for a method of cultivating inner qi.

A considerable amount of inner qi had now accumulated in his dantian. But because he had never had a method for cultivating inner qi, he could only stare helplessly at the power within his dantian.

Only after obtaining a genuine inner-qi cultivation method and studying its explanations in detail could he begin trying to wield this power.

The update was late. I'm truly sorry.