Martial Arts?

Su Ye waited a while. Before long, Zhang Erhu came running over, panting for breath.

"Brother Ye, where's the wild boar?" Zhang Erhu asked as soon as he arrived, gasping for air.

"Isn't it lying right there?" Su Ye said, pointing at the clearing behind him.

"Holy crap, Brother Ye, how did you do it?" Zhang Erhu asked Su Ye, staring at the boar's carcass lying on the ground.

"Good lord, it must weigh at least three hundred jin, right?" Zhang Erhu asked, smacking his lips as he looked at the carcass.

"After dinner, I came over to patrol the vegetable patch. Who knew I'd see a few wild boars tearing it up? So I dug a pit and lured them over here, and they fell in," Su Ye explained to Zhang Erhu.

"And then?"

"Then it couldn't get out, so of course I picked up my hoe and beat it as hard as I could."

Zhang Erhu stared at the mess for a long time, unable to speak.

As the saying went, "first the boar, then the bear, then the tiger." It meant that among these wild beasts one might encounter in the wilderness, the boar deserved its place as the most dangerous.

"Brother Ye, you're... a beast." Zhang Erhu couldn't find any other words to praise Su Ye.

Although Su Ye had relied partly on a trick to subdue the boar, it did nothing to diminish Zhang Erhu's admiration for him.

"Oh, right, Brother Ye. What are you going to do with these little boars?" Zhang Erhu asked Su Ye, pointing at the piglets in the pit.

"Let's raise them for now. Tomorrow, we'll find some builders to put up a few pigpens," Su Ye told Zhang Erhu.

"All right, all right. For now, let's figure out how to get this thing back," Su Ye said to Zhang Erhu, pointing at the boar's carcass.

"That's easy. Brother Ye, wait here a bit. I'll go back and bring a little three-wheeler." With that, Zhang Erhu got up and headed for the village.

"I really should get a vehicle," Su Ye murmured.

The next day, Father Su and Mother Su were already up before Su Ye got out of bed.

When Mother Su saw that Su Ye was up, she asked him a question.

"Little Ye, did you bring that boar outside the door back?"

"Yeah, Zhang Erhu and I brought it back," Su Ye said, rubbing his eyes.

"Where did you get it? A big one like that must weigh over three hundred jin, right?" Mother Su asked Su Ye, looking at the massive carcass.

"Right by our vegetable patch. There are a few little ones over there too. Ask Dad to get some people to dress the boar. I'm going over to the vegetable patch to see if the piglets are still alive." With that, Su Ye slipped away.

Su Ye left home and headed toward the vegetable patch, humming a tune all the way.

He was in a good mood today, because the previous night he had seen that the tea trees he'd planted in the space had begun to put out new shoots, and he had successfully advanced to the Qi Refinement Sixth Layer.

When he reached the vegetable patch, Zhang Erhu was already there, weeding with a hoe. Not far away, a few people were discussing how to build the pigpens.

After greeting them, Su Ye went over to Zhang Erhu and said, "Erhu, I'm going into the city for a couple of days to take care of something. Help me look after the vegetable garden while I'm gone. Once the pigpens are finished, pay the workers. Give me your card number, and I'll transfer you some money."

"Okay, Brother Ye. Go on without worrying. I'll take care of things here. You don't need to transfer me any money, though. There's still some left from last time," Zhang Erhu told Su Ye.

"Cut the nonsense and give me your card number. How could what you have be enough?"

After some back-and-forth, Su Ye transferred 500,000 yuan to Zhang Erhu, telling him to hold on to it for now and use it whenever it was needed. He could also make his own decisions about what to build around the vegetable garden.

After making these arrangements, Su Ye set off for the city.

The autumn wind swept over the treetops like a sharp sword, sending half-green, half-yellow leaves rustling to the ground.

Su Ye sat on a park bench, admiring the scenery. Not far away, an elderly man in a black Zhongshan suit was practicing tai chi, with a person standing on either side of him.

The person on the left looked to be in his forties. He had a buzz cut and wore sunglasses, and there was a scar on his expressionless face. Dressed in camouflage and standing ramrod straight, he looked rather like a bodyguard.

On the other side was a girl who appeared to be around twenty. Her long, fine black hair fell over her shoulders, and she wore a blue dress. She was tall and slender.

Su Ye circulated his qi and used the Qi Observation Technique to look at them. After a long while, he withdrew the spell and shook his head.

The girl saw what Su Ye had done and marched angrily over to him.

"Do you even know what martial arts are? My grandpa's practicing, so what are you shaking your head and sighing for?" the girl said to Su Ye, an angry look on her face.

"Miss, I don't know martial arts. As for why I shook my head, I was thinking about something. It had nothing to do with your grandfather." Su Ye was taken aback. He hadn't expected the girl to be so headstrong and fiery. He had merely shaken his head, and she had come over to pick a fight with him.

"You..."

The girl seemed ready to continue arguing, but then the old man's voice came from behind her.

"Xitong, don't be so willful. Come back here."

"Oh, Grandpa, I just couldn't stand how he knew nothing but still looked down on other people, so I only said a couple of things to him," Xiao Xitong argued, turning her head.

"Sorry about that, young man. My girl has a bit of a wild temper," the old man said, cupping one fist in his other hand and raising them in greeting to Su Ye.

"You're too polite, sir," Su Ye said, getting to his feet.

"My name is Xiao Qiujun. May I ask your name, young man?"

Xiao Qiujun sat down on the bench and asked Su Ye.

"You're too polite, Elder Xiao. My name is Su Ye."

When Xiao Qiujun sat down, the expressionless, scar-faced middle-aged man immediately came over and said to him, "Elder Xiao, you..."

Before the scar-faced man could finish, Xiao Qiujun waved a hand and interrupted him. "It's all right."

Then he resumed chatting freely with Su Ye.

"Little Brother Ye, do you know about martial arts?" Xiao Qiujun asked.

"I don't really know much about them. I'm just a farmer," Su Ye replied.

In fact, Su Ye really hadn't known martial arts existed. According to the information recorded in the jade slip, after the spiritual qi of heaven and earth was depleted, many immortal cultivators had left using teleportation arrays. Most of those who remained were weaker, but the majority of them had also gone into seclusion, paying no heed to worldly affairs.

"A farmer? I noticed that you have a certain distinctive bearing, young friend Su, so I thought you knew martial arts," Xiao Qiujun said slowly.

In fact, Su Ye was now quite a handsome man. Ever since he had begun cultivating the Taihe Sixteen Grotto-Heavens, both his appearance and his bearing had undergone subtle changes.

"I don't know martial arts, but if it's convenient, Elder Xiao, perhaps you could tell me a little about them," Su Ye said to Xiao Qiujun with a smile.

"Hmm... all right. It's rare to meet someone I can have a conversation with, so I'll tell you about them, young friend Su."

"Martial arts in this world are divided into five major realms: Houtian, Xiantian, Grandmaster, Great Grandmaster, and Legend. But no martial artist has reached the Legend realm in nearly a hundred years," Xiao Qiujun said calmly.