Bottleneck

"Yuan Mulberry Hall mainly handles the Yuan Brocade business."

Wang Jin continued, "The Firewood Gang owns a thousand mu of fertile Origin Mulberry Fields in Emerald Cloud Valley. The Origin Mulberry Trees there are used to raise Origin Silkworms. It's the gang's second most profitable hall after the Beast Hunting Hall. If you join Yuan Mulberry Hall, you'll most likely be assigned to guard a plot of around ten mu."

Shen Mu asked in surprise, "Do the Origin Mulberry Fields really need people to guard them?"

"Heh, Brother Shen, Origin Mulberries aren't as simple as you imagine."

Wang Jin said with a mysterious look, "Origin Mulberry Trees don't just produce Origin Mulberry Leaves. They also bear Origin Mulberry Fruit, which has the effects of nourishing yin and strengthening yang. It's always been sought after by the rich and powerful."

"Every year, the Firewood Gang sends people to harvest the Origin Mulberry Fruit, then processes it by roasting and drying it."

"The dried Origin Mulberry Fruit can be brewed into Origin Mulberry Tea. One jin of the fruit fetches as much as one tael of silver. These thousand mu of Origin Mulberry Trees produce at least tens of thousands of jin of dried fruit every year. Do you still think that's a small sum?"

"The Origin Mulberry Trees cover over a thousand mu of land. It's a vast area. If no one was assigned to guard it, wouldn't people come steal the fruit?"

Shen Mu found his reasoning convincing. In this world, every profitable trade was controlled by the rich and powerful.

A single jin of dried Origin Mulberry Fruit fetched as much as one tael of silver. It was bound to tempt people, so it made sense that the Firewood Gang would assign members to guard the fields.

If the Origin Mulberry Fields went unguarded for even one day, he reckoned every household in Cloud Dragon County could afford to eat Origin Mulberry Fruit.

"Would guarding the Origin Mulberry Fields be dangerous?"

Shen Mu asked.

"There's bound to be some danger."

Wang Jin smiled. "There are four great martial halls in Cloud Dragon County. They train martial artists by charging tuition, but plenty of their students still come from ordinary families."

"After these students have learned enough, they develop unsavory ideas in their desire to advance their cultivation. They don't dare hunt demon beasts in the Dark Night Beast Forest, so they turn their attention to Origin Mulberry Fruit..."

Shen Mu fell into thought. If guarding the Origin Mulberry Fields was completely safe and gave him a chance to train his body, he'd certainly be interested.

But after hearing Wang Jin say that martial hall students might come to steal the fruit, he lost interest at once.

Anyone daring enough to steal Origin Mulberry Fruit was probably confident in their own cultivation.

And if they came in a group, wouldn't he be in trouble?

Seeing the hesitation on Shen Mu's face, Wang Jin smiled. "Still, if you do join Yuan Mulberry Hall, Brother Shen, you don't need to worry too much."

Shen Mu's mouth twitched. He was only at First Stage Boiling Blood, and he had about forty taels of silver on hand. He wouldn't lack cultivation resources for the next two or three months. There was no need to gamble on the odds.

What if he really ran into trouble?

Wang Jin could tell what Shen Mu was thinking. He chuckled. "The people who dare steal the fruit are a minority. And there are a thousand mu of Origin Mulberry Fields. You'd only be responsible for guarding ten mu. If you spot someone trying to steal the fruit, just fire a signal arrow. The other gang members guarding nearby fields will come help..."

Shen Mu's eyes lit up.

Someone else might not have caught the implication in Wang Jin's words, but Shen Mu understood.

Anyone coming to steal Origin Mulberry Fruit would have a guilty conscience.

As long as he spotted someone trying to pick the fruit, he could scare them off by firing a signal arrow. He didn't need to catch them.

If they were brazen enough to keep stealing in plain sight even after seeing him fire the signal arrow, the Firewood Gang members guarding other areas would surely come to his aid.

Then they could surround and overwhelm the thief, making them easy to take down.

Seeing that Shen Mu understood his meaning, Wang Jin nodded to himself.

If someone had explained all this to him back when he joined the Firewood Gang and reached First Stage Boiling Blood, how could he have ended up doing nothing but collecting firewood fees?

But it was too late for him to see the truth now. Once gang members chose a hall to join, they couldn't switch to another.

That left him beating his chest in regret for ages, with nothing he could do about it.

Wang Jin felt a little downhearted. He tipped back his cup and drained it, wiped the wine from the corner of his mouth, then said with a slightly bitter smile, "As for Firewood Hall, you already know plenty about it, Brother Shen. I'm sure I don't need to tell you much more."

Shen Mu nodded.

Joining Firewood Hall would probably mean doing what Wang Jin did: collecting firewood fees from a single street.

There might be some extra money in it, but nowhere near as much as joining Yuan Mulberry Hall. It seemed like a way to coast through life, but it was also the least dangerous. After all, the only people you dealt with were woodcutters.

"Brother Wang, come on. Let me toast you again. What you've said tonight has truly been a great help to me."

Shen Mu raised his cup, his expression sincere.

"Heh."

Wang Jin shook his head and chuckled. "You earned this for yourself."

Just as he'd said before, if Shen Mu had gone straight to the Firewood Gang headquarters to register and choose a hall after reaching First Stage Boiling Blood, then even if Wang Jin had explained how the three halls worked afterward, wouldn't it have been too late?

Shen Mu had gone out of his way to host a dinner and thank him for looking after him. That showed he was a man who repaid kindness.

Wang Jin had only needed a few words to forge a connection with him. If he ever needed something in the future, as long as it wasn't too difficult, Shen Mu probably wouldn't refuse.

His own boy was already sixteen. In two more years, he'd have to start body tempering. If he later reached First Stage Boiling Blood and had to choose a hall, perhaps Shen Mu could look out for him if he joined Yuan Mulberry Hall.

The two raised their cups, clinked them together, and drained them in one go.

"Brother Wang, I have one more question. I'm just not sure whether I should ask..."

Shen Mu seemed to have remembered something, and his expression turned hesitant.

Wang Jin smiled. "Heh, ask whatever you like, Brother Shen. If I know the answer, I'll tell you everything."

"Then I'll ask."

Shen Mu said, "As far as I know, Brother Wang reached First Stage Boiling Blood five years ago. At a normal rate of cultivation, you shouldn't still be at First Stage Boiling Blood after five years."

A trace of gloom crossed Wang Jin's face when Shen Mu brought it up.

Seeing that something was wrong, Shen Mu hurriedly said, "Brother Wang, if I've said anything offensive, please forgive me. If you don't want to—"

"It's all right."

Before Shen Mu could finish, Wang Jin interrupted him with a bitter smile. "You're right, Brother Shen. Under normal circumstances, I shouldn't still be at First Stage Boiling Blood, five years after reaching it."

"To advance from First Stage Boiling Blood to Second Stage Boiling Blood, you need to digest at least twenty jin of ungraded demon beast meat, then use the abundant blood energy you've accumulated to break through the second-stage barrier in one go!"

"After I reached First Stage Boiling Blood, it took me about half a year to digest twenty jin of beast meat. Then I immediately tried to break through to Second Stage Boiling Blood."

"But to my utter surprise, I hit a bottleneck. My accumulated blood energy struck at it several times in succession, but it never broke through the barrier to Second Stage Boiling Blood."

"In the years that followed, I ate demon beast meat several more times and tried to break through, but the barrier to Second Stage Boiling Blood was like a moat in the sky. I could never find my way through..."

A bottleneck?

Shen Mu's expression grew complicated.

He'd suspected as much, but hearing Wang Jin say it out loud left him with a deep sense of kinship.

Once someone hit a bottleneck, they might never advance another step for the rest of their life.

Wang Jin had only just reached First Stage Boiling Blood, yet had already hit a bottleneck at Second Stage Boiling Blood. Wasn't that terrible luck?

I wonder whether I'll hit a bottleneck someday, even with the Martial Dao Tree speeding up my cultivation.

The banquet had begun at noon and lasted until nightfall.

His conversation with Wang Jin had also given Shen Mu a much better understanding of the Firewood Gang.

The banquet finally came to an end when other outer members showed up with the firewood fees they'd collected.

"Brother Shen, you've reached First Stage Boiling Blood, and I don't have much to give you. Take this silver as my congratulatory gift."

As they parted, Wang Jin took out five taels of silver and offered them to him.

Shen Mu hurriedly waved him off. "Brother Wang, I really can't accept this."

"Take it."

Wang Jin said, looking displeased. "You still have a long road ahead of you, but this is as far as I'll ever get. You call me your big brother, so I can't let you do that for nothing. Besides, if my boy joins the Firewood Gang someday, I'll be counting on you to look out for him."

"Then... all right. Thank you, Brother Wang."

Shen Mu hesitated, then accepted the silver.

"I'm heading back."

Wang Jin smiled and waved, then turned to leave with the bag of incense money in hand.

Watching Wang Jin's retreating figure, Shen Mu's expression grew complicated.

Just as Wang Jin had said, if Shen Mu hadn't gone to see him, he wouldn't have learned about the Firewood Gang's three halls.

Wang Jin had probably seen that Shen Mu valued kindness and approved of his character. That was why he was willing to befriend him, even invest money in the relationship.

Still, Shen Mu knew perfectly well that if he hadn't reached First Stage Boiling Blood in just a month, showing Wang Jin his potential, Wang Jin wouldn't have been willing to invest so much.

Whether in his previous life or this one, no one was kind to others for no reason. It was only because you'd shown what you were worth.