Year

Deng Qing himself had been quietly keeping count as well.

Steward Liu smiled. "That one or two taels will count as the apothecary's New Year gift to you. Not many are willing to guard the furnace until the very end, and there are even fewer at your level. You deserve it."

Deng Qing put away the silver and cupped his hands in thanks.

Steward Liu waved his hand. "Go wash up first. Afterward, come out and eat."

Next, Deng Qing was led to the bathing room by an odd-job worker. After washing, he threw away his filthy clothes, which had long since lost their original shape, and changed into Celebration Hall's white robe.

By the time he came out, food had already been set on the table.

There were two large bowls of rice, along with a pig's trotter stewed until it was meltingly tender. It gleamed with oil, and the fragrance of meat mingled with the savory scent of sauce as it rushed toward him.

Deng Qing was slightly surprised.

Steward Liu said, "Today is the New Year. Celebration Hall can't possibly let a hero who guarded our furnace for several days leave on an empty stomach."

Deng Qing did not stand on ceremony. He sat down and began to eat.

The trotter had been stewed until extremely tender. With a single pinch of his chopsticks, the fatty meat trembled and fell apart.

After eating the trotter, warmth spread through his entire body.

When Deng Qing left Tianshun Apothecary, the New Year atmosphere on the streets had already grown thick.

People had set up stalls along the roadside to sell couplets, while hawkers shouted themselves hoarse peddling pastries, sugar melons, and other New Year goods.

The weather was bitterly cold, yet it could not stop the stream of people coming and going.

No matter how chaotic the world was, the living still had to celebrate the New Year.

Deng Qing bought a pair of couplets by the roadside and then picked out several boxes of pastries.

When he returned to the alley entrance, he happened to see Aunt Zhang sweeping snow in front of the door.

Deng Qing handed her the pastries and asked her to distribute them among the nearby neighbors as a small token of his goodwill.

Aunt Zhang was so delighted that her mouth would not close.

Deng Qing chatted with Aunt Zhang for a couple of sentences before returning to the small courtyard. After putting up the Spring Festival couplets and setting off a string of firecrackers, he shut the door and poured all the silver on him onto the table.

The twelve taels he had earned guarding the furnace, together with the silver bits and copper coins he had left before, came to a total of sixteen taels and three qian after being gathered bit by bit.

Deng Qing first calculated, one sum at a time, the New Year gifts he needed to give.

His master, Li Dashan, would receive one tael of silver.

Fan Sheng, Zhang Yan, and Tu Wei would each receive five qian.

Wu Yun and Chef Zhao would each receive two qian.

He would keep some loose change to buy salt and firewood and set aside for emergencies.

After deducting each expense, he had only ten taels left to use for breaking through.

That little money obviously was not enough to buy meat and make up for the deficiency in his qi and blood.

But if he bought only offal, things would be different.

Deng Qing put away the silver and mocked himself inwardly. So be it. I'll be the Offal Martial Saint if that's what it takes.

After tidying up the dilapidated house a little, Deng Qing left and headed straight for Five Blessings Butcher Shop.

On New Year's Eve, the butcher shop was much busier than usual.

Wu Yun stood behind the chopping block greeting customers. When he saw Deng Qing enter, he said with a smile, "Junior Brother Deng, you came at just the right time. If you'd arrived any later, the good meat would have been gone."

Deng Qing walked over, offered his New Year greetings first, and then lowered his voice. "Senior Brother Wu, do you still have any offal?"

Wu Yun nodded. "I saved some for you."

As he spoke, he had someone carry out a set of offal.

Deng Qing shook his head. "It's not enough."

Wu Yun's old face reddened. "Junior Brother, I really don't have any more here.

"Although this stuff isn't worth much and no one is fighting over it, times are bad this year, and we only slaughtered three pigs.

"Two sets of offal were taken by wealthy families to feed their dogs, so I could only save one set for you."

Deng Qing waved his hand. "Senior Brother, you misunderstood. I want to buy it—ten taels' worth."

Wu Yun was startled, then immediately understood. "You're planning to use offal to break through in qi and blood? I really can't get that much here.

"However, Miao's Butcher Shop seems to have quite a lot in storage. They stocked up on a huge pile beforehand and froze it into lumps, waiting for prices to rise so they could make a killing. Now that business has gone bust, they're pulling their hair out over it.

"I'll go ask. But it's all frozen into rock-hard lumps. I'm afraid it won't be very fresh."

Deng Qing cupped his hands. "As long as I can buy it, that's enough. I'm not picky."

Wu Yun left the shop at once, and before long, he returned with good news.

For only nine taels of silver, Miao's Butcher Shop was willing to sell all the offal they had accumulated. Even after the filth was removed, the total amount remained considerable.

Deng Qing repeatedly thanked Wu Yun.

Sure enough, as dusk approached, the offal delivered by Miao's Butcher Shop was piled high in the courtyard of Five Blessings Butcher Shop.

Deng Qing prepared to haul it away, but Wu Yun stopped him. "It's the New Year. If you take it home and process it yourself, your neighbors will curse you."

Wu Yun pointed at several laborers. "Have them process it here, sort it, and pack it up. It'll save you trouble when you get home."

"I'll pay their wages," Deng Qing said.

Wu Yun waved his hand. "Save it."

Despite saying that, Deng Qing still gave each of the three laborers thirty copper coins.

The laborers had worked all day, and fatigue showed on every face. Once they received the reward money, their hands and feet immediately sped up.

Deng Qing joined them. The four of them worked until nightfall before the large quantity of cleaned offal was finally loaded onto a cart.

When the cold wind swept through the alley entrance, Deng Qing pushed the last cart of offal frozen into lumps of ice into his own courtyard.

The next day was the first day of the New Year.

Deng Qing left early and hurried to Celebration Hall to pay New Year respects to Li Dashan.

Li Dashan was not there, but Deng Qing still delivered the New Year gifts he was supposed to give.

Following the arrangements he had made earlier, he did not leave any family out.

Deng Qing knew that his ability to establish himself in Celebration Hall now was not due solely to his fists. Human relationships mattered too.

Just as he was preparing to leave, Deng Qing encountered Li Cheng, Wang Wei, and Zhou Tie.

The four exchanged New Year greetings. Li Cheng began arranging a meal, but Deng Qing smiled and politely declined, saying that he still had something to take care of. They agreed to meet after the New Year.

After returning from Celebration Hall, Deng Qing went home and shut himself in.

He had already found out that Celebration Hall's Earthfire would not be rekindled until the seventh day of the first lunar month.

Deng Qing did not dare calculate his time too generously.

The Attendant list would be announced on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month. If he wanted to use the Medicinal Bath to temper his way into the Skin Refining Second Layer, he could not truly drag it out until the final day.

He calculated inwardly that, no matter what, he had to finish eating and refining as much of the offal as possible before the twelfth day of the first lunar month. Only then would it be safe.

From the first day of the New Year onward, only three things remained in Deng Qing's small courtyard.

Eat offal, circulate the Violet Palace Method, and practice Tiger-Subduing Fist.

Pig intestines and pig lungs were ultimately not as rich and substantial as prime cuts of meat.

But they had the advantage of quantity, and they could also replenish qi and blood.

Deng Qing thawed the frozen offal batch by batch, cooked it, and then forcefully swallowed it down while suppressing the stench.

After eating, he immediately circulated the Violet Palace Method.

After the Violet Palace Method reached Minor Mastery, the invisible millstone between his chest and abdomen seemed to have grown larger.

From then on, he ate seven meals a day, with large amounts of offal entering his stomach at every meal.

In the past, an excessive amount of coarse blood-food entering his stomach would have been impossible to digest.

But now, once the Violet Palace Method circulated, the invisible millstone between his chest and abdomen turned and ground all that coarse, mixed blood-food to pieces, transforming it into qi and blood.

The qi and blood were then drawn by Tiger-Subduing Fist and pressed into his skin and flesh.

Every day, Deng Qing repeated these few tasks over and over.

Before he knew it, time slipped quietly away. The New Year atmosphere outside the courtyard gradually faded, yet Deng Qing's courtyard gate remained tightly shut.

On the night of the eleventh day of the first lunar month, the last pot of offal finally entered his stomach.

Deng Qing sat inside the room. His chest and abdomen felt heavy and hot, while the skin and flesh of his limbs faintly swelled.

He slowly exhaled. With a stir of his mind, a clear radiance emerged.

[Heaven Helps Those Who Help Themselves, No Effort Is Wasted]

[Realm: Skin Tempering First Layer]

[Tiger-Subduing Fist: 73% (Greater Mastery)]

[Violet Palace Method: 31% (Minor Mastery)]