Starting from a peasant family, he mastered the profound art of martial arts.

Chapter 44 The Zhang Family

After bidding farewell to Du Ren, Meng Chen went to do some more shopping before heading home.

Now that Meng Chen has money in his hands, a sword at his waist, and is no longer threatened by Gao Yuan, his martial arts progress is decent, and he can barely be considered to be in a state of great success.

Of course, it was today that Yan Zhao disgusted me.

With light steps, they were out of the city in the blink of an eye. The place where they had ambushed Gao Yuan earlier was now covered with green wheat sprouts, and birds could be seen turning over the soil and pecking at the wheat.

Upon arriving at Laolongtan, the water level had dropped considerably.

After passing Laolongtan, you can see the persimmon tree in Old Chen's yard covered with red persimmons in the distance, with magpies chirping and circling around stealing the food.

Meng Chen didn't go back to his own home; he went straight to Old Chen's house.

The donkeys in the pen brayed when they saw Meng Chen.

Meng Chen entered the courtyard and saw a fire in the kitchen. He put down the things he had bought and went to the kitchen door to look. He saw that the pot on the stove was bubbling with steam, and Qingyu was sitting on a small stool, weaving a raincoat with his hands and seemingly humming a fisherman's song.

"Bluefish!" Meng Chen shouted.

"Huh?" Qingyu was startled and almost fell on her bottom.

"Why are you scaring me?" Qingyu quickly stood up, her face full of smiles. But when she saw Meng Chen wearing new clothes and a knife at his waist, he no longer looked like a peasant boy at all, but rather quite imposing. For a moment, she was a little scared.

"Where is your grandfather?" Meng Chen asked.

"We went to visit the graves," Qingyu said.

Old Chen lost his wife early in life, and over the years, rain or shine, he would visit her grave every day to say a few words.

"What kind of food did you make? Let me try it!"

"It's not for human consumption. It's wheat bran and soybean flour for donkeys, mixed with bean leaves and dried vegetable leaves. It's going to be used for breeding tomorrow to earn money. Grandpa said it needs to breed with three to five donkeys, so we have to give it a good meal first. If you really want some, you can try it."

"..." Meng Chen smiled and said, "I bought you something, come out and see it."

"What did you buy?" Qingyu quickly came out to see and saw a pile of things on the broken table under the walnut tree.

"I bought two bolts of cloth, so you and your grandfather can have two new outfits made for you. I also bought you some snacks, and this jar of wine is specially for your grandfather," Meng Chen said with a smile.

"Brother, you've struck it rich!" Qingyu stepped forward to take a look and clicked his tongue in amazement.

"It's not exactly developed, but we can barely make a little money," Meng Chen laughed.

"That's great!" Qingyu touched the new fabric she had bought. "The blue color is nice. How did you know I liked blue?"

Meng Chen didn't actually know, but he just felt that indigo was more pleasing to the eye than the gray linen clothes that the villagers usually wore.

"Why did you buy pastries again? You haven't finished the brown sugar you bought last time." Qingyu picked up a piece of red date cake and ate it. "How's life in the city? Last time, the young master of the Gao family came to see you. He was very fierce. You could tell he didn't have good intentions. I heard he died on the way here a while ago."

"Don't talk nonsense," Meng Chen admonished. "Young Master Gao is a good person. He and I used to study at the same martial arts school and we're friends."

The bluefish nodded, clearly not quite believing it.

The two chatted for a while, and then Old Chen returned.

"How's your learning going?" Old Chen asked curiously when he saw the knife at Meng Chen's waist.

"So-so," Meng Chen replied.

"Can you beat Yan Long?" That was the same question Old Chen asked when Meng Chen came back last time.

"We can't beat them," Meng Chen said honestly.

"Can he defeat Yan Long's son?" Old Chen asked again.

"We can't beat them," Meng Chen replied.

"Grandpa!" Qingyu couldn't help but chime in, "Yan Long has been practicing for twenty or thirty years, and my brother has only been learning for a few days?"

"It's not a short time," Old Chen counted on his fingers, "four or five months, right? Enough for a season's harvest!"

"We have to take it one step at a time!" The bluefish made a good point.

"That's true." Old Chen looked at the knife at Meng Chen's waist and said, "Show us your skills."

Qingyu also looked at Meng Chen with great curiosity.

Meng Chen hadn't practiced the Gale Blade Technique today, and his hands were itching to get started, so he immediately drew his blade.

"You two, move aside!" Meng Chen said.

Qingyu quickly pulled Old Chen to stand at the kitchen doorway.

Meng Chen didn't hesitate and immediately started, then used the Seventeen Forms of Gale faster and faster, truly a sight to behold.

"He's not slow at all, but it looks like a fake show," Old Chen said in a low voice.

"Grandpa, this knife is a bit long. I wonder if it will be easy to use to cut donkey hooves?" Qingyu was a complete novice and was just watching for the fun.

After Meng Chen finished performing the Seventeen Forms of Gale, he immediately sheathed his sword without breaking a sweat.

"Looks alright." Old Chen stepped forward, pointed to the donkey pen, and said, "We can take this opportunity to trim the donkey's hooves."

I've learned the art of killing, and now I have to chop off donkey hooves! Meng Chen felt like his talent had been wasted, so he said, "Then teach me a bit. I've never done it before, and I don't want to get hurt."

The bluefish led the donkey out, tied it to the walnut tree, and then brought out a stool.

Old Chen was an experienced man, and he immediately pointed out to Meng Chen to lift the donkey's hoof upside down, not forgetting to remind him, "Don't kick his groin."

"..." Meng Chen drew his sword, thinking that his senior brother's sword was a bit of a waste.

After working for a long time, I finally finished trimming the four donkey hooves.

Old Chen led the donkey around the yard and commented, "His knife skills are still a bit lacking, but at least he didn't cut any meat."

Qingyu ladled out the cooked donkey feed to feed the donkey, while Mengchen carefully washed his hands and knife.

It was already evening, and Qingyu quickly cooked dinner. Meng Chen then opened the newly bought jar of wine.

Old Chen tasted the wine, casually offered a compliment, and then asked Meng Chen when he was leaving.

"Stay home for two or three days." Meng Chen has now passed the three trials and is only one step away from breaking through to the next realm.

Previously, both the second and third stages of the breakthrough required passing through three stages, so Meng Chen thought that breaking through the realm would probably also require three stages, or even more.

Ideally, I should reach the second realm within the year.

After the three finished their meal, Meng Chen chatted idly about the sights and sounds of the city.

It was already dark when Meng Chen went home, and Qing Yu followed him. The two of them cleaned the house and the yard.

Seeing that Qingyu still had no intention of going back, Meng Chen remembered Bu Shengyan, whom he had met today, so he taught Qingyu a set of Bahequan (Eight Harmonies Fist). She had a good memory and learned it quite well.

"You have to practice this every day, every single day. It can strengthen your body and prolong your life," Meng Chen said.

"Won't that interfere with farming?" Qingyu asked.

"Practice when you're not farming."

"I'm hungry after training so much, so I need to eat more food."

The next day, after having a bowl of soup in the morning, Old Chen led the donkey out to breed, while Qingyu called Meng Chen to pick walnuts.

By now, the walnut shells had already cracked open. Meng Chen poked at them with a bamboo pole for a while, and the village children and adults all came to join in the fun.

After collecting two large baskets of walnuts, Meng Chen climbed the tree to pick persimmons.

The persimmons are too soft, so we need to prepare a wooden bucket with wheat chaff at the bottom and pick them off one by one.

"Those who've learned martial arts are truly extraordinary." The village head, who had also arrived with his grandson, was arguing with Old Chen, who had just returned from tending the donkey. "Look how agile he is! Climbing up and down is like child's play for him!"

It took until the afternoon to finish picking all the persimmons.

After resting for another night, Old Chen harnessed the donkey to the cart, sprinkled it with wheat chaff, and took the persimmons to the market to sell.

Upon arriving in town, Meng Chen initially intended to sell the bluefish for two coins each, based on past market prices, but suggested selling them for five coins each.

Qingyu listened to Meng Chen's advice, but after shouting for a long time, not many people bought her. So she went around the market and found out that the harvest was good this year and people were selling them for one coin each.

"Two money-grubbing fools!" Old Chen commented on their behavior.

After working until the afternoon, I earned more than two hundred coins and finally went home happily.

Seeing that nothing else happened, Meng Chen wanted to go to Blind Man's Gorge to take a look.

When I went to Blind Man's Gorge to look for Gong Ziming last time, I didn't see him, but his mother said that Gong Ziming had seen an immortal and wanted to learn immortal magic.

After learning from the monk Bujie that there were still methods of mystical cultivation in the world, Meng Chen became even more curious about them.