A Clean Break (Please Bookmark and Follow)

"I know that a secret recipe for Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine like this won't be of any help to Junior Brother Jiang. In Pingling County, any medicinal herb with even a little value is monopolized by the powerful families. Pharmacies can only sell tiny quantities, and the silver earned from selling the finished medicinal cuisine is nowhere near what the Hungry Tiger Secret Medicine itself brings in."

"Besides, doing this could easily draw the attention of the powerful families and lead us down the same old road as the Luo Family."

"All I need is for Junior Brother Jiang to agree to one thing. For one year, keep secret the fact that you possess the recipe for Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine. If, within a year, I, Luo Yongcheng, fail to become a martial artist, then the Luo Family Pharmacy will naturally cease to exist. I'll quietly take my family and leave Pingling County."

"By then, you can do whatever you want with the Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine."

Luo Yongcheng picked up the recipe for the Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine and took a deep breath.

His grandfather was old. After such wild swings between joy and grief, he had fallen ill and never recovered.

His father and mother tended to him day and night, while the pharmacy's business worsened with every passing day.

At this rate, within less than a year, the family would be no different from commoners. They would have only a few taels of silver left in savings, scrambling every day just to put three meals on the table.

With things having come to this, he had no other path.

Junior Brother Jiang was right. He was that legless bird, staking everything on a single throw—once it landed, it died.

May the ancestors bless him. After taking enough Hungry Tiger Secret Medicine, perhaps he could successfully advance to the Skin Grinding Realm and become a martial artist within a year.

If that truly happened, not only could he resolve the matter of his family pharmacy, he could also redeem the recipe for Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine from Junior Brother Jiang's hands and minimize their losses.

As for Junior Brother Jiang's Martial Dao progress, it might indeed slow for a while, but he would compensate him with more silver afterward. That should be enough.

Thinking this, Luo Yongcheng looked at Jiang Shu, his eyes filled with hope.

He desperately wished that Jiang Shu's next words would be an immediate agreement—a simple "good."

Yet even after several breaths had passed, Jiang Shu still stood calmly before him, showing no intention whatsoever of taking the recipe from his hand.

"Brother Luo."

After a long while, Jiang Shu shook his head. "If the Hungry Tiger Secret Medicine were merely a resource for my martial arts training, I would definitely help you with this request. Unfortunately, the Hungry Tiger Secret Medicine is far more complicated than it appears on the surface."

"Have you ever considered why Old Man Chou makes us spar with our fists every month? As a Bone Forging expert, does he really find it interesting to watch martial artists like us, who haven't even reached the Skin Grinding Realm, exchange blows? He could simply stay away, prepare the Hungry Tiger Secret Medicine, and let us fight. The winner could take the secret medicine. Why go to all this trouble?"

"I suspect Old Man Chou uses our progress in the Martial Dao to judge our talent for martial arts. The faster one progresses, the better one's chance of becoming an official disciple of the martial hall upon reaching the Whole Body Qi and Blood Great Circulation!"

"From what I've seen during my two months of training at the Hungry Tiger Martial Hall, Old Man Chou values talent first and vision second."

"Take Han Dali, for example. His talent is quite good, but his vision is too narrow. If he hadn't sold himself to the Zhou Family Restaurant, coveting those three jin of meat every day, then with Old Man Chou's appreciation, he might even have achieved the Whole Body Qi and Blood Great Circulation within a year and become Old Man Chou's official disciple. In the future, he could have become a martial artist and reached the Skin Grinding Realm."

"By then, what restaurant would he be unable to visit? What meat would he be unable to eat?"

"But with such a narrow outlook, seeing only what lies before his nose, he has trapped himself in that tiny Zhou Family Restaurant for the rest of his life. No matter how hard he strives, he will never become a martial artist."

Jiang Shu paused there. The meaning behind his words was already crystal clear.

It was only because Luo Yongcheng was the one saying this to him that Jiang Shu still considered their friendship.

If Zhou Yang had come to buy the Hungry Tiger Secret Medicine from him, Jiang Shu turning around and leaving immediately would already have been exceedingly polite.

"Actually, if you want to preserve the pharmacy, I think it would be better for you to give the Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine to Old Man Chou as a gift of respect to a master and ask him to step in. Old Man Chou is the only Bone Forging martial artist in Pingling County who established a martial hall through martial prowess without relying on any powerful family. He would surely have some standing before them."

"As for you and me, so what if we become martial artists? Is a Skin Grinding Realm martial artist really that formidable? A martial artist with Cowhide strength is, at most, a retainer of a powerful family. And how many retainers does a powerful family have?"

"Brother Luo, your family's thinking was wrong from the very beginning. Your family has only ever treated illnesses. You understand neither commerce, nor martial arts, nor monopolies. Would powerful families truly covet your little bit of Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine? What are powerful families? Which of their children hasn't eaten medicinal cuisine or used medicinal baths since childhood? How does the Luo Family's Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine compare with their martial arts resources?"

"What the powerful families have always wanted is not Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine, but to monopolize every path ordinary people might take toward martial arts. If one wants to train in martial arts, one can only bow at the powerful families' docks and obediently let them exploit them."

The words were faint, yet they rang like thunder.

Luo Yongcheng had never considered any of this. He had always believed that the powerful families thought his pharmacy was profitable and coveted their Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine.

His pupils dilated wide within his eyes.

He did not believe it.

Nor was he willing to believe it!

If Jiang Shu's words were true, then what had everything he done this past year amounted to?

Martial arts training?

If all he needed to do was offer the recipe for Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine to Old Man Chou as a gift of respect, then why had he needed to train in martial arts at all?

He could have done so on his very first day after joining the martial hall!

His hands clenched tightly, Luo Yongcheng's breathing already in disarray. He panted heavily, staring fixedly at Jiang Shu. "How do you know Old Man Chou won't simply swallow up my family's Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine, just like the Yao Family did?"

"Brother Luo, how does your family's Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine compare to the Hungry Tiger Secret Medicine? Old Man Chou holds the formula for the Hungry Tiger Secret Medicine in his hands. Does he need your family's Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine to add luster to his martial hall?"

"Only if you catch Old Man Chou's eye, and add this gift on top of that, might there be a sliver of a chance that he would help. You want to give him the recipe outright and still expect him to help you? Do you look down on Old Man Chou, or do you look down on those powerful families?"

He feared that Old Man Chou would swallow the Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine, yet he did not fear that Jiang Shu would swallow it.

He did not even trust the bond between master and disciple formed over a year, yet he would trust a friendship formed over two months?

Jiang Shu frowned slightly, and his tone had already turned cold.

"Jiang Shu! Nonsense! You just don't want to give me the Hungry Tiger Secret Medicine! You're afraid it'll affect your path in the Martial Dao! You're selfish!"

"I'm not wrong! If I become a martial artist, I can easily become a retainer for any powerful family. The Yao Family wants the Blood Nourishing Medicinal Cuisine recipe from my Luo Family Pharmacy? Then I'll go to another family. There will always be a powerful family willing to stand up for me!"

"I only want to protect this recipe! What have I done wrong!"

"You can't protect it."

Looking at Luo Yongcheng, who had already become hysterical—who would not listen at all despite Jiang Shu having given him the most reliable advice, only sinking deeper into his own world—Jiang Shu shook his head, spoke his final words, and turned to leave.