He had only been running it for two days, and already there was who knew how much real silver and gold in his restaurant's account.
Zhou Yang even felt that if Jiang Shu gave up martial arts and went into business instead,
the money of all Pingling County might end up in his pockets!
"Brother Jiang, it's such a shame you practice martial arts."
Unable to stop himself from sighing again, Zhou Yang poured Jiang Shu some tea and said, "Brother Jiang, why don't you come work at our restaurant? We can barely keep up with the work. With you helping us, business at the Zhou Family Restaurant would be several times better!"
"With Elder Qiu backing us, the two of us joining forces would make us the equal of any ordinary county gentry!"
Zhou Yang looked at Jiang Shu, his eyes burning with excitement.
What good was practicing martial arts, anyway?
If you hadn't reached the Bone Forging Realm, an ordinary practitioner of the Skin Grinding Realm was nothing more than an attendant to some gentry family.
And the Bone Forging Realm was so hard to reach.
Who knew how many apprentices in the county had been accepted as formal disciples by martial arts school masters?
They could indeed all reach the Skin Grinding Realm and become true martial artists.
But how many of them had reached the Bone Forging Realm?
Without reaching the Bone Forging Realm, you were nothing but a slightly larger ant in Pingling County's Inner City, before the gentry families.
In his view, rather than practicing martial arts, Jiang Shu would be better off staying by Elder Qiu's side and building a good relationship with him.
With Elder Qiu there, business at the Zhou Family Restaurant would keep thriving.
"Zhou Yang, you're blinded by appearances."
"The martial path is what matters most."
"Do you know that if a martial artist hasn't entered the Viscera Refining Realm, his vital energy starts to decline after he turns forty? In his current condition, how do you think Elder Qiu compares to a genuine Bone Forging Realm martial artist in his thirties or forties?"
Jiang Shu shook his head and said, "The Zhou Family can still rely on Elder Qiu's lingering influence. But what if Elder Qiu is gone? A child carrying gold through a bustling market. What do you think the gentry families will do when they see that?"
"If you want to protect the Zhou Family and keep it standing for the rest of your life, you can only practice martial arts yourself and reach the Bone Forging Realm."
"On the martial path, you can rely on others for a while, but you can't keep depending on them forever."
It was as if a basin of cold water had been thrown straight over Zhou Yang.
He suddenly came to his senses.
The mountains of gold and silver had left him dazed.
He had even neglected the martial path, the very thing that gave him a place in the world.
Seeing that Zhou Yang was still willing to listen, Jiang Shu nodded and said, "Last time, you told me the Yao Family would hold a birthday banquet in a little over half a month. The birthday gifts will surely include Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine from the Luo Family Pharmacy. How much have you found out about that?"
First, the important news: because the book's title wasn't attracting many readers, I've changed the original title to "Two Worlds: From Low Martial Arts to an Immortal Martial Giant." Hopefully, the numbers will look a little better from now on.
Now for the less important stuff:
About the results: My collection growth is very slow compared to other books released around the same time. Here's one statistic: the average reading conversion rate from recommendations for books released at the same time is nine per thousand, while my title only brings in five per thousand—less than half the average.
But! But! The retention rate for this book is still really, really good (at least, that's what the author thinks)!
With two thousand people having added it to their collections, four hundred and thirty are genuinely following it.
What does that mean?
One out of every five people who collected the book is a paying reader keeping up with it!
For that alone,
the author is bowing down to everyone. Thank you for your support.
About the story: Some of the early worldbuilding really could have been better. For example, a reader pointed out that modern silver is too pure. I hadn't thought of that at the time, but since it doesn't affect the overall reading experience, I decided not to revise it.
Then there's the school arc, which a lot of people have been criticizing. I agonized over it for several days and kept wondering whether I should revise it. In the end, I decided to leave it as is.
The main reason is that the whole arc serves as a bridge between what came before and what comes after. If I suddenly changed it, the later story wouldn't connect properly.
Some readers have been criticizing this arc as filler, but you can also look at it another way. This is a book where the protagonist's cheat is a status panel, yet in the hundred thousand words written so far, the panel has appeared very few times, hasn't it? Sometimes, when the protagonist makes a breakthrough, the author just glosses over it instead of bringing out the panel to pad things with a hundred or two hundred words.
If I wanted to pad the story, I wouldn't do it in the middle of the plot, would I?
And I certainly wouldn't do it in a scene that could have been a face-slapping moment, something meant to make readers cheer, right?
This arc turned out badly (though I don't know if any readers actually liked it), and a big reason was that my writing ability wasn't up to the task. I could build the atmosphere at the start, but when it came time to throw the punch, there wasn't enough force behind it. That made the plot feel painfully sluggish, like a night in bed where the foreplay was good but the whole thing lasted only three seconds. It really was frustrating.
I did consider one way to fix it: cut two chapters and wrap things up quickly. But if I did that, I'd have to move the later chapters forward, which would also affect the reading experience.
When faced with two evils, choose the lesser.
If you thought this arc was a real flop but still kept reading,
the author is bowing down to you here. Thank you for your support.
Because of this arc, I actually changed part of the outline for later chapters. For example, when I first wrote the part about the Luo Family Pharmacy, the original plan was to introduce a minor character, the illegitimate son of a gentry family. But I felt I wasn't ready to handle that part properly, so I shelved it and went with a different approach. The school arc was bloated, so I moved the plot forward in Pingling County and picked up the pace a little.
Now, the whole book has reached a hundred thousand words.
The protagonist still hasn't reached the first realm, the Skin Grinding Realm, or Clear Force.
In terms of cultivation, this pace is undeniably slow.
But in terms of plot, I think the story is still pretty full.
The characters and the world are both taking shape at a steady pace.
From the beginning, the author wanted to make this book as long as possible and show the differences between each realm. Faster progress is certainly more satisfying, but it also makes the story more likely to fall apart. Readers should know that.
I'd originally planned to say all this in the author's note when the book went on sale.
But the mood struck today, so I figured I'd say it now.
Before I knew it, I'd written a thousand words.
If any readers have made it this far,
the author is bowing down.
Please add the book to your collections.
Please keep reading.
"When it came to giving Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine as a birthday gift, it was Yao Wenbai, an illegitimate son of the Yao Family's head, who suggested it... Luo Yongcheng also reached the Full Body Vital Energy Circulation these past few days, but Elder Qiu didn't take him on as a formal disciple..."
Zhou Yang lowered his voice and explained what had happened, including everything that had gone on at the Luo Family Pharmacy during this time.
After taking a sip of tea, Jiang Shu sat by the window, quietly listening as he looked out at the Inner City.
Cutting ties with Luo Yongcheng didn't mean he no longer needed to pay attention to this matter.
He wanted to establish himself in Pingling County.
To do that, he had to understand the rules of Pingling County.
The Luo Family Pharmacy was a classic example.
Understand it, get familiar with it, analyze it.
There could be nothing but benefits in doing so.
From what he could see, although the gentry families had Bone Forging Realm experts, Pingling County's government was still the power that ruled the land.
With the County Office keeping things in check, everything the gentry families did stayed within the rules. They could have ruffians surround the Luo Family Pharmacy, but they wouldn't directly smash it up.
"Even the County Office in a remote little county can keep the situation firmly under control. It seems the Great Jing Dynasty has far more control than I imagined."
"The stronger a dynasty's control, the harder it is for commoners to rise in status. In times of chaos, even beggars can become emperors. But in times of peace, when resources are monopolized, even heroes may be left to languish among the weeds."
"But danger lurks in the heart of fortune. Peace also means stability. Just like the County Office in Pingling County, which will maintain order throughout the county. For me right now, stability is worth more than anything else."
"I can obtain resources from the Mystic Star. At the Hungry Tiger Martial Arts School, I've also become a formal disciple and have martial arts that can take me all the way to the Bone Forging Realm. Before the Viscera Refining Realm, all I need to do is keep improving steadily."
"Once I become a Bone Forging Realm expert myself, I'll naturally be able to learn about the world beyond Pingling County."
Jiang Shu gathered his thoughts and asked, "What about my senior brothers?"
On the day Elder Qiu accepted him as a disciple, he had only briefly introduced the twelve senior brothers. Jiang Shu had been busy entertaining the guests at the Hungry Tiger Martial Arts School and hadn't had a chance to speak with them.
Now that he had a little time and money, Jiang Shu planned to visit them one by one.
It was also the proper courtesy for him, their junior brother.
Over the course of three days,
with the information Zhou Yang provided, Jiang Shu prepared gifts to suit each senior brother's preferences. Thanks to his deliberate efforts to befriend them, his relationships with several of his senior brothers had grown much closer.
His twelfth senior brother, Qi Yuan, in particular,
had plenty to talk about with him because they were close in age.
At that moment, they were in Qi Yuan's courtyard.
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