Got a Stye

Zhong Lin walked out of the main hall expressionlessly. He glanced at Yun Ye waiting in the courtyard, then turned and walked over to a large copper vat filled with water before plunging his face straight into it.

Yun Ye, standing in the middle of the courtyard, twitched at the sight. He looked at Zhong Lin with a hint of pity, then strode over.

"Second Young Master's tastes are just a little unusual. You..."

"I'm fine."

Zhong Lin shook his head, indicating that he was all right.

"May I leave now?"

Yun Ye took a porcelain bottle from his robes and handed it over. "This is Second Young Master's reward for you."

"Thank you."

Seeing the three words "Bone Strengthening Pill" on the bottle, Zhong Lin's gloomy mood improved somewhat.

Damn it, he had thought the Du Family's young master had summoned him here in the middle of the night for something important. Who the hell would have thought he was here to paint Erotic Pictures for him?

And he had to observe it live while painting. The protagonists in the picture were Second Young Master Du and the two maids beside him.

One picture wasn't enough if he wasn't satisfied; he had to paint several more, each with a different pose.

Zhong Lin felt as though he had already gotten a stye.

Yun Ye said, "I see that your strength is quite good. Are you willing to join the Du Family and become one of its guards?"

"All Du Family guards are Ranked Martial Artists. Ninth-Rank Martial Artists are third-class guards, Eighth-Rank Martial Artists are second-class guards, and Seventh-Rank Martial Artists can become first-class guards. With your martial cultivation, you can serve as a second-class guard, with a monthly salary of twenty taels of silver. And with the Du Family backing you, no one will dare set their sights on you when you buy medicine at the Black Market in the future."

Countless thoughts raced through Zhong Lin's mind. The terms sounded fairly good, but he was deeply unwilling. His goal was to go to Heavenly Sun County to study alchemy; he had no interest in becoming some family's guard and thug.

After drawing a deep breath, he said gravely, "Thank you for your regard, Master Yun, but I fear I must disappoint your good intentions. I am merely a painter. I do not enjoy fighting and killing; I only wish to live a peaceful life."

"Then forget it."

Yun Ye's expression visibly darkened upon hearing Zhong Lin's refusal. He waved a hand, signaling that Zhong Lin could leave.

"Hmph! A shortsighted fool. Does he not know that to cross into the Middle Three Ranks and cultivate qi and blood, one needs a Blood Refining Technique? And such things are possessed only by Noble Families," Yun Ye said coldly.

In his eyes, Zhong Lin was a junior with considerable talent in martial arts, and he had been willing to casually give him a helping hand. He had not expected Zhong Lin to refuse.

So be it if he refused!

The loss was not Yun Ye's, but Zhong Lin's. Having missed this opportunity, he would spend his entire life circling among the Lower Three Ranks, wasting away to the end.

Meanwhile, Zhong Lin had already gone far away and did not hear Yun Ye's words. Even if he had, he likely would not have cared.

"Not bad. As expected of a Noble Family's son—this Calligraphy Fee is actually ten Bone Strengthening Pills."

By the moonlight, Zhong Lin opened the porcelain bottle. Inside lay ten perfectly round Bone Strengthening Pills. At thirty taels each, that was three hundred taels of silver. It could be called the most expensive Calligraphy Fee Zhong Lin had received since becoming a painter.

Dong Yan contributed five Bone Strengthening Pills, I bought five myself, and now there are these ten. Together with the way max-level experience absorbs a pill's medicinal potency, it should be enough for me to advance to the Seventh-Rank Bone Forging Realm.

The max-level Iron Mountain Skill had allowed Zhong Lin to understand the technique to the same degree as its creator. When circulating the technique, he could avoid wasting the pills' medicinal potency to the greatest extent possible. Where ordinary people needed two pills, he needed only one.

His pace quickened as he hurried back to the County Town.

"Second Brother, wow! Such a big rooster! Does that mean we can eat meat tomorrow?"

Little Shi had still been waiting for Zhong Lin to return home. The moment he saw the large rooster in his second brother's hand, all sleepiness vanished. At the thought of eating meat tomorrow, saliva nearly dripped from his mouth.

"You little glutton. Go find a rope and tie it up. If it runs away, you won't have anything to eat tomorrow," Zhong Lin teased.

"Mm-hm!"

Little Shi stuck out his butt and scrambled out of bed. After putting on his shoes, he excitedly found a hemp rope in the corner, tied one end to the rooster's leg and the other to a table leg.

"Are you hungry? I also bought eggs. I'll boil some for you."

"Yes."

Zhong Lin was not sleepy either, so the two went straight to the kitchen, added water to a pot, put in the two eggs, and started a big fire.

Before long, the water boiled. After waiting a while longer, they fished out the eggs and plunged them into cold water.

"Second Brother, I want that one."

Little Shi pointed at an egg that was relatively pointy.

"Sure."

Even after being cooled in cold water, the egg was still hot enough to scald his hands. Little Shi kept passing it back and forth between his left and right hands while blowing on it without pause to cool it down.

Neither of them ate immediately. Instead, they exchanged a look.

"One, two, three—crack!"

"One, two, three—crack!"

With a crisp crack, the eggs in their hands collided. Little Shi's egg remained completely intact, while one corner of Zhong Lin's egg caved in.

"Oh, oh! I won! I won!"

Little Shi shouted in excitement, raising the egg in his hand like a general celebrating a victorious battle.

Zhong Lin watched the scene before him with a smile. This egg... smelled so good!

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye. During those seven days, Zhong Lin continued to sell medicine at the Black Market every night at the hour of the pig. He used part of the silver to buy scarce supplies, while the rest still went toward Bone Strengthening Pills.

During the day, he hid at home and practiced his martial arts. The Bone Strengthening Pill truly deserved to be called a pill prepared specifically for those after the Eighth-Rank Tendons Transformation Realm. Its immense medicinal potency targeted the bones directly.

After swallowing a pill, Zhong Lin swung his fists in the courtyard. With every breath, he could feel the dense medicinal potency acting upon his bones.

The human skeleton appeared hard, but it was actually very fragile and required tempering over long years.

The medicinal potency of the Bone Strengthening Pill accelerated this process, yet every time his bones were tempered, Zhong Lin could feel a piercing pain within them.

The max-level Iron Mountain Skill made Zhong Lin's bone-tempering highly efficient. Even so, completely tempering his skeleton once still required a great deal of time. After all, the human body had many bones, and if he wanted to cover every corner, he had to slowly temper them one by one.

Two hours later, Zhong Lin was beginning to feel tired, so he stopped.

Feeling the strength contained within his body, Zhong Lin nodded in satisfaction.

"Though I have yet to enter the Seventh-Rank Bone Forging Realm, I can clearly feel that my strength, defense, and stamina have all increased greatly, far surpassing the Tendons Transformation Realm. I have also tempered most of the bones in my body once. Only some small areas remain. Within three days at most, I will definitely enter the Seventh Rank."

After washing his face and tidying up a little, he shouted toward the room, "Shi Tou, are you ready? Time to go."

"Ready!"

Today was moving day. Old Man Xu had already rented the house, and it had been ready for several days. If Zhong Lin still refused to move, Old Man Xu's family would probably move in instead.

Things outside were becoming increasingly chaotic. The matter of the rebel Guo Yanhai could no longer be concealed and had long since spread. Who knew how many nearby disaster victims had fled to the County Town for refuge.

With more people, supplies became even more strained. There were also more disaster victims and beggars on the streets and in the alleyways. To Zhong Lin, the entire Black Mountain County felt like a massive powder keg, needing only one final spark.