"I've mastered Tiger Subduing Fist!"
After five days of practicing Tiger Subduing Fist, Su Mu had mastered the technique and even smoothly produced his first wisp of force.
Along with his delight, Su Mu felt puzzled. Tiger Subduing Fist was only a Ninth Rank martial art. According to its manual, one had to cultivate it to great proficiency to advance to the Ninth Rank, Qi Refining realm.
Su Mu had thought he would need to reach at least minor mastery, or even great mastery, before he could produce force. He hadn't expected to produce it as soon as he had just mastered the technique.
"It seems the same martial art can yield different results in different hands. This is probably due to my comprehension..."
Su Mu exhaled softly and immediately brought up his current status panel.
[Name: Su Mu (13 years old)] [Lifespan: 43 years] [Skills: Five Animal Frolics (Great Mastery 7%), Forging (Minor Mastery 67%), Tiger Subduing Fist (Mastery 1%)] [Comprehension: 5 (Modest Potential)]
Sure enough, after opening the panel, he saw Tiger Subduing Fist listed among his skills, marked as mastered. This time, however, neither his lifespan nor his comprehension had increased.
"It seems comprehension and lifespan aren't so easy to improve... Even with a Ranked Martial Art, I'll need to reach minor mastery."
After murmuring to himself, Su Mu carefully sensed the wisp of force inside his body.
He soon realized that this force was a little too weak. After a brief moment of thought, he took out the Tiger Subduing Fist manual and looked through it again.
Before long, Su Mu found the answer.
"I can't yet be considered a true Qi Refining Martial Artist. I'm still at the 'Nurturing Force' stage... Only after I continuously nourish and strengthen this force can I count as a Ranked Martial Artist who has refined force."
Refining Strength into Force was the first realm of a Ranked Martial Artist. Once a martial artist cultivated force, he could shatter rocks with his bare hands. Reaching this realm meant he had truly stepped into the world of martial artists.
Qingshui Town was just a small place, and Ranked Martial Artists were rare. Any Qi Refining Martial Artist who wished to could join a gang or serve as a bodyguard for a great lineage. Either way, they would receive excellent treatment and live comfortably.
But Su Mu couldn't do that. He hadn't forgotten that he still had a strange poison in his body, nor had he forgotten his true identity: a death warrior whose life was under someone else's control.
Having lived another life and gained such a comprehension panel, if his only goal was to join a gang or become a lineage's dependent bodyguard, wouldn't that make this life a waste?
"At the very least, I have to escape the role of a pawn first... and take my fate into my own hands."
Su Mu's thoughts returned to the present. After he began practicing Tiger Subduing Fist, his appetite had steadily increased. Now that he had produced his first wisp of force, he felt even hungrier. His body was craving energy.
He turned and went back inside. Su Mu fried three eggs in pork lard, then boiled a pot of water and cooked a huge batch of noodles. After sprinkling on a pinch of chopped scallion, his appetite roared to life.
Slurp—
Standing by the stove, Su Mu held the steaming bowl of noodles in his hands and slurped them down. Three or five mouthfuls were enough to finish a big bowl. Only after polishing off four or five bowls did he pick up the three fried eggs with his chopsticks and eat them.
Huu—
After eating, Su Mu let out a long breath. A full stomach filled one with happiness.
"This is the time for Nurturing Force. Eating meat replenishes energy and blood, and it also greatly helps nourish force. I'll have to buy more meat and eggs from now on..."
With his current monthly wage of three hundred wen, Su Mu couldn't afford to eat much meat. Fortunately, Sun Li had generously given him twenty-six taels of silver.
Eggs cost one wen for two, and flour cost five wen per catty. Ready-made noodles were a little more expensive. Even this one meal tonight had cost around six wen.
These days, Su Mu always ate breakfast at home first. The breakfast at the Iron Shop simply wasn't enough.
Even without meat, he would have to spend ten wen a day. By the end of the month, his three hundred wen would be completely gone, leaving nothing to spare.
Among the meats on the market, chicken was the cheapest. A chicken weighing two or three catties cost around twenty or thirty wen, which worked out to fifteen wen per catty. Next came pork, at thirty wen per catty.
Mutton cost twice as much as pork, at sixty wen per catty. As for beef, the best meat for martial artists among ordinary meats, it cost as much as a hundred wen per catty—over three times the price of pork.
Besides, ordinary people could hardly get their hands on beef, even if they had the money, because the Great Yan Dynasty prohibited the private slaughter of oxen. Of course, that posed no problem for wealthy families and officials.
Su Mu estimated his appetite. If he ate his fill, he could easily put away three to five catties of meat in one sitting. At that rate, two extra meals a day would cost a hundred and twenty wen per day, even if he bought the cheapest chicken.
Over a month, that would add up to an astonishing three thousand six hundred wen—his entire year's wages at present. And that didn't even include the cost of his usual rice and flour.
"Scholars need learning; martial artists need wealth. The ancients weren't lying... I need to forge a Ten Refinements Weapon as soon as possible and find a way to earn more money!"
Su Mu had thought that twenty-six taels of silver was a considerable sum. But after doing the math, he realized Sun Li's gift wouldn't last even a few months. Eating meat would help him "nourish force," and since it concerned reaching the Ranked realm, he had to start thinking about how to earn more.
The night passed uneventfully.
The next day, before the sky had even begun to lighten, Su Mu got up early. He eagerly practiced the newly mastered Tiger Subduing Fist in the courtyard.
After finishing his training, Su Mu stir-fried a catty of meat with green peppers. Once he'd eaten several heaping bowls of rice, he headed into town.
Clang!
Inside the forge, Su Mu skillfully hammered the iron on the forging table. Sparks flew with every blow, followed by the clear ring of metal striking metal.
"That's a fine lad! His progress has been incredible lately!"
Zhou Shan, who had been weighed down by sorrow over Sun Li's disappearance, saw this and couldn't help relaxing his brow, his face full of surprise.
The heavy hammer rose and fell repeatedly in Su Mu's hands. Every strike had a strong rhythm to it. Even an outsider could see how practiced his forging technique had become.
"That lad's called Su Mu, isn't he?"
"Yes, Su Mu. That boy's improving at an astonishing rate. At this pace, by this time next year, his skills might be on par with yours and mine!"
"Zhou Shan's really raised a fine young talent."
Many of the blacksmiths in the forge couldn't help glancing over and voicing their admiration and envy. Zhou Shan was overjoyed to hear them. Su Mu really did have a talent for forging; otherwise, Zhou Shan wouldn't have let him forge weapons on his own after only half a year.
"As long as he doesn't fail this time, and can forge a weapon from start to finish, that'll be more than good enough."
From the very beginning, Zhou Shan hadn't expected Su Mu to forge a decent weapon on his first try. If Su Mu could complete a single blade weapon on his own, that alone would be an astonishing display of talent!
As everyone talked about him, Su Mu himself had fallen into a strange state. Once he had thrown himself heart and soul into the hammering—
He drew inferences from one thing to another and suddenly understood.
"A weapon is an extension of the fist... I can practice Tiger Subduing Fist while smithing, and even draw on that force to help me!"
Clang, clang, clang!
Each blow made the forging table shudder, sending impurities bursting from the iron in showers of sparks.
Force grew stronger the more it was used. As he forged again and again, Su Mu's force gradually grew stronger too.
Before long, Su Mu was surprised to discover that after he blended Tiger Subduing Fist and force into his smithing, he finished hammering the iron that he'd estimated would take until the afternoon in less than an hour that morning.
"Forging is cultivation too!"
After realizing this, Su Mu put even more vigor into his smithing.
Yet after finishing a day's work and returning home, Su Mu sensed that something was wrong. His muscles throbbed with sharp pain whenever he practiced Five Animal Frolics or Tiger Subduing Fist. It was especially bad during Bear Play and Tiger Subduing Fist.
"Maybe I just haven't adapted to this level of intensity yet. It'll get better in a few days."
Su Mu gritted his teeth and kept going.
But three days later, the muscle pain had worsened, and the swelling in both his arms had grown too obvious to hide. Zhou Shan and the other blacksmiths at the Iron Shop all urged him to stop.
"Kid, why don't you go home and get some proper rest today? Too much of a good thing can be harmful."
At the end of the morning, Li Tie gave Su Mu three days off. He didn't have to go to the Iron Shop that afternoon either.
Su Mu didn't argue. He understood his own body better than anyone and had already noticed something was wrong these past few days.
"Five Animal Frolics consists of Tiger, Deer, Bear, Ape, and Bird. I didn't have any problems practicing it before because it includes both the fierce Tiger and Bear Plays and the gentler Deer and Bird Plays, which balance them out."
"But Tiger Subduing Fist uses broad, powerful movements and follows a fierce, domineering path. Now, I've also been using smithing during the day to practice Tiger Subduing Fist. That's thrown things seriously out of balance..."
Su Mu quickly identified the problem, and the solution was simple too.
"If I don't want to slow my training... I'll need to use medicine to support my body."
This world had martial arts, and naturally, it also had medicine made specifically for martial artists. The problems Su Mu was experiencing weren't unusual; he simply didn't have a prescription.
"I've got the afternoon off, so I might as well look around the Medicine Shop in town."
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