Bluestone Grounds

Xiao Hu chattered nonstop all the way, from the old jujube tree by the western stone houses to Aunt Zhao next door making especially delicious flatbreads, then to the finger-long fat shrimp one could catch in the stream behind the mountain.

Lin Yi listened and responded half-heartedly, but his mind remained fixed on the cultivation method engraved in his head.

The stone house was small, with one main room and one inner room. The ground had been tamped flat and solid. Though simple, it had been swept spotlessly clean.

A stone bed stood against the wall, covered with thick dry grass and a fur-hide mattress.

Before long, Xiao Hu returned from home carrying a set of clothes: a grayish-brown coarse linen shirt and a pair of short fur-hide trousers. The edges had been worn white, but they were freshly washed and carried the faint, austere scent of soapberry.

"These were my dad's clothes when he was young. Wear them for now!" Xiao Hu tossed them onto the stone bed, then ran off in a whirlwind again. "I'll come find you tomorrow morning so we can cultivate together, Brother Lin!"

Before Lin Yi could even thank him, the little fellow had vanished like a wisp of smoke.

He shut the stone house door, walked around the bare room once, then finally sat down beside the stone bed.

The rough linen clothes were nowhere near as soft as modern clothing, but compared to that drafty grass skirt, they were a hundred times better.

Lin Yi sat cross-legged on the stone bed, closed his eyes, and carefully reviewed the contents of the Bluestone Blood-Transporting Method in his mind from beginning to end.

The concepts that had seemed obscure and difficult to understand at first now flowed much more smoothly after he chewed them over again.

He vaguely felt that his mind had grown a little clearer than during the day. The crucial knots that had once blocked his understanding were like clumps of earth soaked soft by water, slowly loosening and crumbling apart.

His comprehension was growing. It was growing every day.

Lin Yi opened his eyes and grinned. Suddenly, he felt a little more confidence in his future.

Early the next morning, when the sky had only just begun to brighten.

"Brother Lin! Brother Lin, get up—!"

The pounding on the door and the boy's excited voice pierced the stone house almost at the same time.

Lin Yi was startled awake from his light sleep by the commotion. He rubbed his eyes, his mind unusually refreshed.

He had already sorted out the general thread of last night's cultivation-method insights during the first half of the night. He had slept deeply and soundly during the latter half, and now that he was awake, his mind felt as though it had ascended another step in clarity.

"Heh, my brain works a little better again," Lin Yi muttered. He jumped off the stone bed, pulled on the coarse linen clothes, and opened the door.

Xiao Hu stood at the entrance, brimming with energy as if he had swallowed a bellyful of springs. Little Flame, following behind him, sat two steps away and lazily licked its paws, looking utterly calm and used to it.

"Come on! Eat at my house! After we eat, we'll go cultivate together!" Xiao Hu seized Lin Yi and dragged him toward his home without allowing any argument.

Biao's house stood on the eastern side of the tribe, a full three times larger than Lin Yi's stone house. Several drying animal hides hung in the courtyard as well.

The moment Lin Yi stepped through the courtyard gate, he saw the man everyone in the village called "the tribe's strongest." Biao sat on a stone stool in the yard, gripping a whetstone as he scraped and sharpened a bone blade.

The instant Lin Yi saw him, his steps halted unconsciously.

Biao was a full size larger and stronger than the other tribespeople.

His shoulders were as broad as door panels, his arms nearly as thick as Lin Yi's waist. His bare upper body was covered in crisscrossing scars, pale in the morning light like battle records carved stroke by stroke into his flesh.

His face was square, and beneath his thick brows were a pair of gentle eyes. When he saw Lin Yi arrive, he bared his teeth in a hearty grin.

"You're here? Don't stand on ceremony. Sit down and eat!" Biao's voice boomed like thunder, making Lin Yi's eardrums hum.

Xiao Hu had already charged into the house like a gust of wind. In the blink of an eye, he came running back out with a stone bowl, holding it out before Lin Yi with both hands.

The stone bowl was as large as a small basin, filled to the brim with chunks of ferocious beast meat steeped in thick broth, a glossy layer of fat floating on top.

Beside it was a stack of thick wheat flatbreads, their golden crusts steaming with heat.

"Brother Lin, eat up!" Xiao Hu tipped his head back, his eyes sparkling brightly.

Lin Yi looked at the "bowl" before him, and the corner of his mouth twitched despite himself.

That single bowlful would have been enough to feed him for three days back on Earth.

But beneath Xiao Hu and Biao's eager gazes, he could only take a deep breath, accept the stone bowl, and start stuffing food into his mouth with grim determination.

The first bite of ferocious beast meat was unexpectedly fragrant. The meat was firm without being tough, while the broth was rich with a unique fresh sweetness.

But no matter how delicious something was, once the quantity exceeded the limits of one's stomach, it became a form of torture.

As Lin Yi ate, he began to slow down. Xiao Hu squatted beside him and watched eagerly, occasionally saying things like, "Brother Lin, you eat so slowly."

Lin Yi struggled to swallow the last mouthful of broth, feeling as though his stomach had been stretched into a bulging leather sack.

He braced himself against the stone table and stood, taking several deep breaths before suppressing the churning fullness in his belly.

"Finished eating! Come on! To the Bluestone Grounds!" Xiao Hu leaped up, grabbed Lin Yi, and ran outside.

Lin Yi staggered after him. As they passed Biao, the tower-like man raised a hand and patted him on the shoulder.

That force landed on Lin Yi's shoulder and made his whole body sink half an inch.

"Train well." Biao grinned, his exposed teeth dazzlingly white in the morning sunlight.

Lin Yi glanced back at him, then lowered his eyes to Little Flame, which sat beside Xiao Hu's feet with its tail slowly swaying.

The Red Fox's amber eyes watched him quietly, still holding that unfathomable gleam that no one could decipher.

Xiao Hu pulled Lin Yi through the tribe's dirt paths and around several stone houses. Then the view suddenly opened up, revealing a broad stretch of flat ground. The surface was covered in rough gravel and sand, trampled smooth and hard.

Several thick wooden posts stood around it, hung with faded animal hides and bone ornaments.

At the center of the clearing, bluish stones of all sizes lay scattered across the ground. The smallest were the size of fists, while the largest stood as tall as a person.

The morning sun slanted across the Bluestone Grounds, stretching the stones' shadows long and blunt.

More than a dozen people were already training there.

Some carried massive boulders on their backs as they walked slowly, the ground trembling faintly beneath every step.

Some sat cross-legged before low stones, holding bluish rocks larger than their own heads in both hands and raising and lowering them slowly, veins bulging across their foreheads. Others repeatedly hammered upright blue stone slabs with their fists, each blow producing a dull thud, thud.

Lin Yi stood at the edge of the field covered in bluish stones. The morning wind brushed his face and made his coarse linen clothes flap loudly.

Lin Yi's gaze swept over the bluish stones scattered across the grounds, large and small, before settling on the smallest one in the corner—a gray stone about the size of two fists.