At night, Su Li slept in the woodshed behind the blacksmith's shop.
Calling it a woodshed was generous. It was really just three mud walls and a thatched roof that leaked drafts, with a layer of dry straw spread over the ground—barely enough for someone to lie on.
Saina insisted on giving him an extra old mattress, but Martha grabbed her by the ear and dragged her back to the main house.
"Running into a man's room in the middle of the night—have you no shame?"
"Mom! I was just bringing him a mattress!"
"Would bringing a mattress make you blush like that? Go back to bed!"
The mother and daughter's voices carried over from the other side of the yard, and Su Li couldn't help laughing as he listened.
Once the yard had fallen completely quiet, Su Li turned over, lay flat on the straw, and closed his eyes.
A day of smithing had drained much of his strength, and his arms ached too badly to lift. But he had no intention of sleeping yet.
His consciousness sank into his body as Su Li began sensing the aether around him.
It was completely different from the incomplete version in his previous life.
The incomplete version had a sensing range of roughly three meters, and even then everything was hazy, like looking through a sheet of frosted glass.
The complete version—was clear to an absurd degree.
Within a radius of twenty meters, every free aether particle lay within his perception. Their positions, density, and direction of flow were all plain to see.
He could even sense the breathing rhythms of Old Buck and Martha in the main house next door through the faint disturbances their breaths caused in the aether.
Su Li cursed inwardly.
This was far too ridiculous.
In