A Marvelous Idea

The following evening, when Zhou Ye ate a bowl of freshly steamed, fragrant rice, he was so happy he nearly cried.

Carrying such a heavy load and traveling all day had already exhausted Zhou Ye to the limit. Forget it—he would give himself a break today and stop grinding himself to the bone.

On the way back, Zhou Ye had also found quite a bit of wild ginger, wild scallions, and wild garlic. Even better, he had spotted several soapberry trees laden with fruit. He picked a large bagful as well.

Soapberries were not as good as soap, but once the fruits were crushed, they could still be used for bathing. And even without the fruit, the thick leaves of the soapberry tree had a tiny bit of cleansing effect too.

Now that he had discovered this, of course he had to take a bath!

While heating water after dinner, Zhou Ye pulled out his dagger and cut his overgrown hair short. Then he stripped completely naked, rubbed soapberry juice over himself, and scrubbed his whole body hard.

Half an hour later, Zhou Ye had scrubbed himself several times from head to toe. At last, his skin showed its normal color, and he was no longer quite so filthy. He even felt refreshed, as if he had lost several pounds. He must have scrubbed off quite a lot of grime...

He slept until dawn, and Zhou Ye still felt comfortable in both body and mind.

But when it was time for morning practice again, Zhou Ye suddenly had another marvelous idea. Rather than practice Basic Chopping, he took out the bow and arrows.

Since it was a military bow, it required considerable strength. Zhou Ye could only draw it about two-thirds of the way, and its effective range was merely a little over thirty paces.

Even so, Zhou Ye maintained intense concentration. He drew an arrow, aimed at a tree ahead, and with a whoosh... it flew off to who knew where.

Zhou Ye was unmoved. He continued nocking arrows and shooting. Whoosh, whoosh whoosh, whoosh whoosh whoosh...

After firing all the arrows, Zhou Ye picked up every one he could find and continued his archery practice.

Before long, new text finally appeared on the panel—Basic Archery (Unranked): Not Initiated (0/10).

Zhou Ye was overjoyed. His guess had indeed been right. As long as he found the proper training method, he could actively trigger other martial skills.

In that case, once Basic Archery was initiated, would he not receive another 1 free attribute point?

An hour later, Zhou Ye put away the bow and arrows in satisfaction. Like Basic Chopping, it could only be practiced for two hours a day, earning 8 experience points.

But his morning practice was already over. Zhou Ye had gradually formed a routine—practice for an hour in the morning. After breakfast, he would do other chores in the morning, including farming, hunting, and such. In the afternoon, he would build the Little Homestead. After dinner, he would rest for a while, practice for another hour, then go to bed.

As for special circumstances, he would analyze them when the time came.

So his plan for this morning was farming.

Zhou Ye had long since chosen the place for the field, a little over two mu in size.

With a shovel and hoe, he dug up the shrubs in the wasteland, roots and all, then filled the holes with soil from the side. The uprooted shrubs would also be dried, and like the branches and leaves he had trimmed before, could be used as firewood later.

Perhaps firewood and charcoal were expensive in the county city, but in the mountains and forests, they were practically worthless. Zhou Ye did not need to go out and chop wood at all; abandoned, piled-up dead branches were everywhere.

After clearing away all the shrubs, Zhou Ye began cutting the weeds with a sickle. The other weeds were likewise tossed aside, while he deliberately picked out the Black Crow Grass and spread it across level ground to dry.

In fact, Zhou Ye had already piled up two heaps of Black Crow Grass. The earliest batch had dried enough to be used. Today, he would spread it over the bamboo bedframe, and tonight he would no longer have to sleep on hard planks.

Once the morning was over, he began constructing the main gate in the afternoon.

To be honest, it was just an ordinary gate. Structurally, it was much simpler than the back gate, so the workload was actually much lighter...

After practicing Basic Archery for an hour that evening, he smoothly gained 8 experience points.

Inside the tent, Zhou Ye lay on the Black Crow Grass. By the light of the bonfire outside, he was reading the book Ten Military Saber Forms.

Looking at the illustrations and explanations in the book, Zhou Ye quickly understood the contents. Perhaps his comprehension was relatively high, and his spirit stat was high as well—in other words, his mental strength was powerful. He possessed talents such as memory and focused learning.

That made Zhou Ye feel somewhat regretful. It seemed he had transmigrated to the wrong place. This was a world of martial men, where brute force reigned supreme. With such talents, it would have been best to transmigrate into a realm of academic prodigies.

Then that was settled. Once Basic Archery was initiated tomorrow, he would try practicing Ten Military Saber Forms!

As for those two Blood Qi Pills? They sounded like tonics and were probably used to assist cultivation. But since he did not understand the specifics, Zhou Ye did not dare take medicine recklessly.

He would store them away for now and discuss it later.

The next day proceeded as usual. After practicing Basic Archery for half an hour, he was indeed able to initiate it and smoothly gained 1 free attribute point. However, he did not plan to use it this time. He would save it for danger and add it to his Constitution then!

Filled with excitement, Zhou Ye immediately began practicing Ten Military Saber Forms.

However, as he followed the illustrations and explanations, stumbling through and barely familiarizing himself with the first movement, the panel immediately issued a warning: Danger! Termination recommended! The minimum requirement for practicing this martial skill is for all basic stats to reach the average level of an ordinary person, with Strength and Agility reaching +1. Otherwise, you will suffer severe injuries and damage your foundation. Note: It is best practiced in conjunction with a cultivation method!

Zhou Ye was greatly startled when he saw the warning.

If that was the case, then none of his basic stats could be negative. And both Strength and Agility needed to reach +1?

Moreover, that was only the minimum requirement. The requirements were rather high. It would be best for him to learn a cultivation method in the future as well?

Wait! Among the basic stats, could Charm not be negative either? Did one have to be a pretty boy to cultivate? This was far too absurd, wasn't it?

Forget it. He had many negative stats, and there was no way he could meet the requirements anytime soon. He would set it aside for now and deal with it later!

It was a pity. But he could not waste the remaining training time, so he would continue practicing Basic Chopping!

The reason he did not continue with Basic Archery was that, after such a small amount of archery practice, four arrows had already flown off and could not be found, while another three had snapped upon impact. Only fourteen arrows remained. How could he bear to keep using them?

As the saying went, the poor studied literature while the rich pursued martial arts. Practicing martial skills truly was a gold-devouring beast. Archery in particular was an even more ravenous monster.

Fortunately, today's work went rather smoothly. In the morning, he reclaimed two fen of land, planting vegetable seeds in one fen. He also dug a large pit far downwind, which would serve as a place for composting human waste in the future.

That afternoon, he installed the gate as well and tied it securely with straw rope.

It was amusing that the other fence walls had not even been built yet, but the main gate and back gate were already finished?

For now, this stage was complete. He needed to prepare to visit the Old Camp again...