Chapter 29: I Have a Bold Idea (Please Keep Reading!)

Chen Anquan set the snakeskin bag on the ground, opened its mouth, and slipped another bag inside. Then he hoisted a large stone and placed it in the innermost bag. Grasping the bag’s opening with both hands, he gave it a swing and slung it onto his back, then sprinted toward Ao Bei Mountain.

The twenty-kilogram weighted run had officially begun!

It was said that after a meteor shower, some places might have remnants of meteorites. If he could find one, perhaps it could fetch a good price—much more profitable than digging for medicinal herbs!

He ran at full speed, drenched in sweat, as if cold water were being poured over him beneath the blazing sun. Yet, at this moment, Chen Anquan no longer felt the heat.

When he reached the foot of Ao Bei Mountain, he gazed up at the towering peak.

It seemed... Ao Bei Mountain had grown just a little taller...

Of course, Chen Anquan didn’t believe that this unremarkable mountain could suddenly rise higher just because of a meteor shower.

Perhaps his impression of Ao Bei Mountain had been elevated in his mind and now projected onto reality.

He placed the snakeskin bag on the ground and emptied out the large stone. Chen Anquan was ready to begin harvesting herbs.

His attribute panel now showed his strength had increased to 1.6, constitution to 1.69, with 0.02 unused attribute points. He planned to allocate them all to his Taiji Sword skill when he returned.

He’d long heard from his second uncle that there were wild boars and rabbits in these mountains, but when he came yesterday to dig for herbs, he hadn’t seen any wild animals.

Wild boars in the countryside were nothing like the domesticated white pigs; they were robust black boars, and the males grew long tusks, making them formidable attackers.

A saying was popular in the south: “One pig, two bears, three tigers.” In short, for rural folk, wild boars posed the greatest threat.

“I wouldn’t mind finding a wild boar and testing my combat skills!”

As Chen Anquan’s attributes gradually increased, his confidence in his abilities grew. Though he wouldn’t claim he could fight a tiger like Wu Song, he believed he could certainly take on a wild boar bare-handed.

He advanced along the hillside thick with shrubs. Yesterday, he’d used a sickle to hack his way through, opening up a relatively easier path.

He moved forward, pausing here and there to dig for herbs, and it took nearly an hour to reach his destination.

Ahead, on a relatively open and flat slope, stood a peach tree whose leaves had long since turned yellow, with a few withered leaves still trembling on its branches.

“You’re the one!” he declared.

Chen Anquan gripped his sickle and struck the trunk of the peach tree.

This time, he was using a large sickle made for chopping wood, not the thin sickle meant for harvesting rice, so he had no fear of breaking the blade.

Whoosh!

With one stroke, he severed a trunk as thick as two fists, and the entire peach tree toppled.

He kept a piece of trunk about one point two meters long, placed it in the snakeskin bag, and continued harvesting herbs.

This peach wood was perfect for crafting a peach wood sword.

In traditional customs, a peach wood sword was believed to ward off evil, bring good fortune, protect the home, and attract wealth. It was usually made from natural peach wood and carved entirely by hand.

Otherwise, Chen Anquan wouldn’t have gone into the mountains to handpick a wild peach tree for his first weapon.

Time flew by, and before he realized it, it was already three in the afternoon.

This time, he’d found several valuable herbs. When he returned home again, dusk had already fallen.

Chen Anquan carried two large bags stuffed with herbs, feeling thoroughly satisfied.

With the herbs from both trips, he could earn six or seven hundred, according to current market prices.

Of course, if he deducted those herbs he planned to use himself, the price would be cut in half.

Chen Anquan planned to dig for medicinal herbs for a few more days and then sell them at the market in town to supplement the household expenses.

“Huh?”

He was pleasantly surprised to find the water pipes at home had already been installed!

Trust second uncle to be so efficient!

After an hour spent washing and processing the herbs, Chen Anquan ate a bowl of noodles, then headed out to the basketball court.

He allocated the 0.02 unused attribute points all to his Taiji Sword skill. Instantly, he felt dizzy, but soon recovered. When he checked his attribute panel again, his Taiji Sword proficiency had increased to 55.

He found a stone weighing twenty-five kilograms, hugged it and did frog jumps for an hour, then placed it on his back and did push-ups for two hours. His attribute panel numbers shifted once more:

Name: Chen Anquan
Age: 24
Strength: 1.64
Agility: 1.40
Spirit: 2
Constitution: 1.73
Unused Attribute Points: 0.04
Skills: [Taiji Fist LV1 (0/500)] [Wudang Forty-Nine Taiji Sword LV0 (55/100)]

The rate of improvement was steady; agility rose slightly, while strength and constitution showed obvious gains.

The fastest way to boost attributes was still rice harvesting. “Too bad the busy farming season is over and there’s no rice to cut now...”

Chen Anquan couldn’t help but feel regret.

Harvesting rice worked most of the body’s muscles; achieving the feat of cutting three acres in a day required exceptional strength, endurance, and skill—all to the extreme.

No wonder rice harvesting improved attributes so quickly!

*

*

*

The next morning.

After practicing Taiji Fist for over an hour, Chen Anquan added the 0.04 unused attribute points all to his Taiji Sword skill:

Skills: [Taiji Fist LV1 (10/500)] [Wudang Forty-Nine Taiji Sword LV0 (95/100)]

Chen Anquan walked to his second uncle’s house and saw his aunt cooking breakfast in the kitchen. “Auntie, it smells so good!”

His slender aunt, stirring noodles in the hot pot with chopsticks, paused for a moment and then blushed shyly. “You rascal. Rural folks like us never use perfume—how could anything smell good?”

Chen Anquan was perplexed; he’d meant to say the noodles smelled delicious, but his aunt misunderstood him.

He smiled awkwardly. “Your soap smells nice.”

His aunt lowered her head, carefully transferring noodles into large white bowls with her chopsticks. “Since you’re here, you might as well eat with us.”

Chen Anquan agreed.

It wasn’t the weekend, so Chen Xinwu and her siblings were still at school. Only Chen Anquan, his aunt, and his uncle were eating noodles in the hall.

The reason he came wasn’t really to get closer to his aunt, nor was it for a free meal—he had a bold idea.

He’d seen more than one rural uncle with a perfectly sculpted upper body, easily surpassing professional bodybuilders.

Since they could improve their health and strength through labor, why couldn’t he learn from them?