Fisherman's Village Youth

Great Qi, Kaiyuan Prefecture, Quanzhou, some remote fishing village.

Outside a rundown wooden house, an ornate carriage drawn by fine horses was parked, with several black-clad knights standing by with blades at their hips. Nearby, a crowd of male and female villagers had gathered, their faces brimming with excitement as they whispered among themselves in small groups.

"Is it really the Jin Family? The Jin Family from Feng City?"

"No mistake about it. Look at the golden insignia embroidered on their clothes. Besides the Jin Family of Feng City, there's no second family like that in all of Kaiyuan Prefecture."

"Tsk tsk, who would've thought! When Shi Ting left his wife and child ten years ago with no word, we all figured he'd died somewhere out there. Turns out he latched onto the Jin Family and sent someone back to fetch Shi Mu. Too bad Shi Mu's mother passed away years ago, or else mother and son would've had endless wealth and luxury ahead of them."

"Wealth and luxury? That's not so certain, is it? Didn't you hear what the Jin Family envoy said? Shi Ting's been the Jin Family's son-in-law for a while now. If Shi Mu's mother were still alive, Shi Ting wouldn't dare send anyone to bring Shi Mu over."

"Either way, Shi Mu's finally made it out. Yesterday he was still an orphan, today he's a young master."

"My father is gravely ill in bed, and I have a younger sister?" Shi Mu stared at the blue-robed elder before him and asked slowly.

At just fourteen, his skin was slightly dark and ruddy from years of sea wind, but he had thick brows and large eyes, standing half a head taller than most his age. Beneath his tattered shirt, faint bulges of lean muscle gave him a wild, untamed air.

"Yes, the master is very ill this time and may not pull through. That's why the madam sent this old servant to fetch the young master, so you can see him one last time." The blue-robed elder replied with a smile.

"Madam? Since he abandoned my mother all these years, why bother acknowledging me as his son now? Go back. I won't go to the Jin Family with you." The youth said flatly, his face darkening.

"Ahem! Young master, you may have misunderstood the master. The reason he never returned to the village all these years is that he had his troubles. If you meet him face to face, all misunderstandings will melt away like ice." The elder coughed lightly and continued.

"Hmph, no matter how smoothly you talk, it doesn't change the fact that he abandoned his wife and child. Say no more." The youth snorted coldly.

Hearing this, the blue-robed elder finally furrowed his brow. After studying the youth for a moment longer, he seemed to make up his mind and spoke again:

"In the past few years, young master, haven't the herbs you bought in town been surprisingly cheap? And when Instructor Li at the county martial arts hall taught you fist techniques, didn't he charge you far less than the other disciples? Also, the fish and shrimp you caught at sea—weren't they snapped up the moment you reached town, with hardly anyone haggling?"

"You mean all that was arranged by him?" The youth's expression shifted as he asked.

"Whether the master personally arranged it, I don't know, but the madam did give orders for these things to be done." The blue-robed elder replied with a smile.

Hearing this, the youth's face flickered with uncertainty, and he hesitated.

"Oh, and young master, I hear you've been training in body tempering. It seems you're eager to become a true martial artist. Before this old servant left, the madam instructed me: if you agree to see the master, she'll find a way to get you a chance to enter the Kaiyuan Martial Academy. But whether you're admitted depends on your own ability." The blue-robed elder finally revealed his biggest bargaining chip.

"Kaiyuan Martial Academy?" The youth's expression shifted.

"Young master, as someone who practices martial arts, you must know that the four great academies of our kingdom only recruit once every five years. To qualify for the entrance test, you need two conditions: complete body tempering to the great completion before fifteen, and awaken your sense of Qi. Only those who sense Qi can cultivate true Qi, open their meridians, and become true martial artists. But to awaken Qi, you need a Spirit Qi Pill to guide it, and the price is so high that even the Jin Family can only scrape together about ten at a time. If you rely only on yourself, young master, you may never achieve this in your lifetime." The blue-robed elder continued unhurriedly.

The youth fell silent for a long moment before speaking coldly:

"Come back in three days. I'll give you my answer then."

"Very well. This old servant will await good news in three days." Seeing this, the elder knew the youth had made up his mind and didn't press further. He gave a slight bow and took his leave.

"Steward Cheng, are we really going back like this? Why not just take him by force and save the trouble?" Not far from the fishing village, as the group of riders escorted the carriage, a burly knight couldn't help asking.

"Nonsense! Young master Shi may not be a direct descendant of the Jin Family, but he's the master's own flesh and blood. Our task is to bring him back smoothly, without any hint of disrespect or neglect. If the madam, given her bond with the master, finds out about this, we'll never be able to explain ourselves." The blue-robed elder's face darkened as he scolded.

"Yes, this one's mind was muddled." The burly knight said, somewhat panicked.

Just then, a figure flickered by the roadside. Another black-clad knight emerged, bowed to the elder, and said hurriedly:

"Steward Cheng, the brothers spotted Fifth Master's Biao Brothers nearby. How should we handle this?"

"Hmph, so Fifth Master hasn't given up his original plan. The Biao Brothers are both at the early acquired stage; only I can deal with them. You all wait here. You, lead the way. I'll go personally and take care of them." The blue-robed elder frowned, then said decisively.

"Yes."

The knight moved, turning and sprinting back the way they came.

The blue-robed elder let out a "whoosh" as he floated down from his horse, then shot off after the knight. His movements were so light and airy, as if he weighed nothing at all, and in moments he vanished into the nearby woods.

The burly knight and the others stayed with the carriage, waiting obediently in place.

At dusk, on a nameless mound a mile from the fishing village, under the pale moonlight, Shi Mu knelt alone before a slightly raised grave. In front of it stood a pale yellow stone tablet, inscribed with bold black characters: "Tomb of the Wang Clan of Shi Gate."

"Mother, you never imagined it, did you? Father didn't die. Instead, he remarried and became a son-in-law elsewhere. But don't worry. I'll keep the promise I made you. Father left you, using the excuse of chasing his martial arts dream. Then I, your son, will become a true martial artist—the strongest in this world—so you can rest easy in the underworld!"

The youth murmured a few words before the grave, then stood up, stretched his limbs, and began practicing his fists in front of the tomb.

With cracking sounds from his bones, his movements gradually quickened, his form like a tiger. After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, only a blur of fists rolled through the air, kicking up a yellow dust cloud from the soil that swallowed his figure entirely.

"Whoosh."

A figure burst out from the dust, throwing a punch that slammed into a nearby tree as thick as a bowl.

With a thunderous crash, the tree shook violently, showering leaves and branches down. A fist imprint half an inch deep was clearly stamped into the trunk.

Shi Mu stared at the mark on the trunk, his brow lifting slightly.

This set of fist techniques was the only one he'd learned from the town's martial arts hall, and it was also the most widespread body-tempering martial art in Great Qi.

According to the hall's instructor, leaving such a deep mark on the trunk meant he was now at the seventh layer of body tempering, just two layers shy of the great completion that would allow him to attempt the legendary awakening of Qi sense.

And that had taken him a full four years!

As they said, "poverty studies letters, wealth studies martial arts"—that saying wasn't without reason.

From the moment he decided to take up martial arts, it took him five or six months just to scrape together the thirty silver taels for the hall's entry fee, and even that was far less than what other disciples paid, thanks to his repeated pleading.

The repeated medicinal baths required for body tempering had consumed all his earnings from fishing over the past few years, leaving him often penniless and his home destitute.

Even so, the fact that Shi Mu had managed to reach such a high level of body tempering had already astonished the martial arts school. Several instructors clicked their tongues in amazement, praising his excellent bone structure and natural talent for martial arts.

After all, during this period, although he had occasionally hired the school's apothecary to prepare medicinal decoctions for marrow cleansing, the meager money he could afford in town was nowhere near enough to buy any true spirit herbs. Most were just common medicinal plants, their tempering effects negligible.

Thinking of this, Shi Mu sighed inwardly.

He knew very well that his bone structure was quite ordinary. The reason he had reached his current level of body tempering in just a few years was due to a different stroke of fortune two years ago.

This was also why he had not immediately agreed to the old man in blue robes to go to the Jin Family.

The youth raised his head, glanced at the moonlight in the sky, then turned and dashed swiftly down the mountain.

A quarter of an hour later, Shi Mu appeared at a stretch of rocky seashore. With a "plop," he jumped directly into the seawater, paddling with his arms and twisting his body, diving down silently like a large fish.

In no time at all, he reached a depth of over thirty to forty zhang underwater.

A startling scene unfolded.

Beneath the pitch-black seawater, faint white specks of light began to appear, growing more numerous and brighter, illuminating the surrounding water.

Shi Mu showed no surprise. Holding his breath, he swiftly paddled a few more meters downward, then suddenly flipped his body over and planted both feet firmly on the sandy bottom, arriving at a stretch of seabed covered in fine white sand.

Only then could he see clearly. The faint white light emanating from the seabed came from over a dozen palm-sized shells, arranged around a massive reef seven or eight zhang tall, flickering on and off without pause.

(What's going on, was there a problem with the chapter layout earlier? Rejoice with the world, a new book is released!!!!)