Chương 10: The Effect of the Blood Toad's Shed Skin

It was already late autumn, and the weather gradually grew colder. This day, Jiang Huanyu drove the ox cart as usual to Cloudwater Town's martial arts school to pick up his eldest son and bring him home. On the road, Jiang Wenfeng, whose body had clearly grown much sturdier, sat on the ox cart and said hesitantly, "Father, Elder Uncle said I need to add some extra food…" The whip rope in Jiang Huanyu's hand stiffened slightly. He turned his head to look at him and said, "Have you not been eating enough recently?"

Huang Qingzhou's martial arts school provided free white rice every day, but if one wanted vegetables and meat, the disciples had to pay for it themselves. Jiang Wenfeng's living expenses for ten days were five hundred copper coins. Calculated like this, he had fifty copper coins each day to eat side dishes. Fifty copper coins could ensure that each meal had one meat dish and two vegetable dishes, but the portions would not be too large.

"Elder Uncle said that if I want to become an Acquired Realm martial artist, I need to supplement a large amount of qi and blood now and eat more meat." There was a trace of guilt in his words. The family's living conditions were decent, but in this era, eating meat was absolutely an extremely luxurious matter. In ordinary times, the rice was produced from their own fields, and five hundred copper coins was almost the monthly expense of a family of four.

Now, he alone needed to spend five hundred copper coins in ten days. Not only that, every month there was also ten taels of silver for medicinal meals. Although the little fellow was not old, he was very sensible. He knew this money had all been saved by his parents through hard work and was not easy to come by.

"Mm. After we go back, tell your mother. From now on, we'll give you one tael of silver every ten days." Jiang Huanyu spoke in a deep voice, and the pressure in his heart somehow grew heavier again. Three taels of silver a month for food expenses, ten taels of silver for medicinal meals. Calculated like this, one year would cost more than one hundred and fifty taels of silver. Adding the twenty taels of initiation gift, Jiang Wenfeng's martial arts study for one year was one hundred and seventy taels of silver.

After calculating it carefully, he could not help giving a bitter smile. The literary path was poor, while the martial path was rich. It was truly terrifying to this extent. He had to think of a way as soon as possible. Otherwise, the family's small savings would not even last until next year. Furthermore, according to the time, his wife should give birth in another eight months. At that time, when the third child was born, there would be another expense… The ox cart slowly drove toward Golden Willow Village.

When the father and son returned home, Hu Yufen was busy chopping grain stalks. The family's old ox and seven little piglets all had to be taken care of. Seeing this, Jiang Wenfeng hurriedly jumped down from the ox cart.

"Mother, I'll do it!"

"You rest for a while." The little fellow grabbed the chopping knife and busied himself chopping grass. Hu Yufen stood up and smiled with relief.

"Be careful. Don't hurt your hand."

"Stone said he needs extra food. He has to eat more meat…" Jiang Huanyu came before his wife and spoke softly.

"I'm preparing to give him one tael of silver every ten days so he can eat better."

"The weather is getting colder and colder. The price of firewood is about to rise too. Starting tomorrow, I'll enter the mountain to chop firewood." This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Hearing this, Hu Yufen's expression changed slightly, and she looked at him with some heartache.

In the past few years, when the family did not have this much pressure, they would hire some short-term workers in winter to cut the firewood from their roughly 1 hectare of mountain forest all at once. They would use some of the firewood to pay the short-term workers' wages, store some for themselves, and sell the rest. Now, he did not plan to hire short-term workers anymore. He would go up the mountain himself to cut firewood. Although this would be more tiring, it could save quite a bit of money.

Hu Yufen knew she could not help much with these matters. After hesitating for a while, she said, "The day before yesterday, Sister-in-law Zhao came to visit and said she was helping a cloth workshop in town with embroidery work."

"One two-chi embroidered piece pays ten copper coins. After winter comes, there won't be much major work at home. How about I also take some to embroider?" In her early years, she had been a young lady from a wealthy family and had some knowledge of women's work and embroidery. This time, she was thinking of relying on her skill to ease Jiang Huanyu's pressure a little. Jiang Huanyu did not speak. His wife was pregnant.

Although he did not want her to work hard, having one more source of income for the family was ultimately good. In the evening, after they brought Jiang Wenyan back from Lu Zhiyuan's house, the two brothers, who had not seen each other for ten days, were rarely close. In the open space of the courtyard, the eldest, Jiang Wenfeng, showed his younger brother the stance training he had learned. Anu tried to learn for a while, but after becoming covered in sweat from exhaustion, he gave up.

Instead, Jiang Huanyu watched from the side and found it very novel. He tried following his son and learning for a while.

"Father, Elder Uncle said stance training can strengthen the body. When you have nothing to do, you can practice it." Jiang Huanyu, panting, ended the exercise and shook his head slightly.

"Forget it for Father."

"This stance training was taught to you by the martial arts school's teachers. Without the permission of the teacher and your elder uncle, you must not display it in front of Father and your younger brother in the future." In the novels and films of his previous life, sect cultivation methods all belonged to secrets. Spreading them privately would be punished. Jiang Huanyu felt that he was already twenty-five or twenty-six now, long past the age for practicing martial arts.

For the rest of his life, working hard and raising his two children into talents would already be very good. He could not implicate him.

"It's fine. Elder Uncle said this stance training was originally a basic method practiced by soldiers in the army. Our family should also have had it in the early years, but it just wasn't passed down." Hearing this, Jiang Huanyu frowned and recalled for a moment. When he was a child, his grandfather had once said that his great-grandfather seemed to have passed down some army fighting techniques. But because he lost a leg when he retired from the army, he had no way to teach Jiang Huanyu's grandfather and father.

"Stone, come here." Calling Jiang Wenfeng before him, Jiang Huanyu said, "Father will test you. After learning from Elder Uncle for more than a month, what is a martial artist?" The little fellow did not hesitate at all and directly answered, "Elder Uncle said that the foundation of a martial artist is qi and blood. Only by successfully sensing one's own qi and blood and being able to use it simply can one be considered a true martial artist, also called an Acquired Realm martial artist."

"Powerful martial artists can carry a plowing ox with their strength and kill a person with one punch!" Jiang Wenfeng raised his little fist, appearing somewhat excited. At this moment, Hu Yufen came out of the kitchen house carrying a large bowl of stewed meat. Hearing his words, she immediately scolded, "Stone, your father and mother let you learn martial arts not so you can act fierce and fight others." Jiang Huanyu also echoed from the side, "Your mother is right."

"In the future, even if you become a martial artist, you must not rely on your power to bully others. You must have a bottom line in your heart."

"You must understand that learning martial arts is for protecting your family, for earning noble rank and achievements, and for protecting home and country." Jiang Wenfeng nodded seriously.

"Father, Mother, don't worry." Seeing that he had listened to her words, Hu Yufen smiled with relief.

"Hurry and wash your hands. Let's eat." It was rare for the family of four to gather together, and they happily ate dinner. Night fell. Hu Yufen was busy in the kitchen house stewing medicinal meal for Jiang Wenfeng, while Jiang Huanyu came into the room and took out that hundred-year-old Blood Toad's shed skin from a wooden box. Looking at the Blood Toad's shed skin, he hesitated for a moment. In the end, he still found a small knife and carefully cut off a piece the size of a thumb.

After putting away the remaining Blood Toad's shed skin, Jiang Huanyu went to the kitchen house, lifted the lid of the medicinal meal that was being stewed, and placed that piece of Blood Toad's shed skin inside. The village physician, Sun Fuchun, had once said that Blood Toad shed skin had no side effects. Taking it directly would have the effect of strengthening the foundation and nourishing the origin.

Now, ordinary rice clearly could no longer satisfy Stone's needs for practicing martial arts, so he thought of adding this Blood Toad's shed skin into the medicinal meal. If the effect was good, then in the future, this entire piece of Blood Toad's shed skin would slowly be eaten by him. That could be considered making the best use of it. After the medicinal meal finished stewing, Jiang Wenfeng began eating it.

"Eh?"

"Mother, this medicinal meal seems a little wrong this time…" After only eating the first mouthful, the little fellow sensed that something was wrong. Hu Yufen did not pay it much mind either.

"It was stewed the same as usual. What is different?" Jiang Wenfeng also could not say. He only wolfed down all the medicinal meal. Before long, he sensed a wave of heat surging up within his body, as if he had endless strength. His little face flushed red as he ran into the courtyard and began standing in stances and practicing punches. Inside the room, Hu Yufen heard the movement. After standing by the window and watching for a while, she said with relief,"Our Stone has become much more sensible.

Even this late at night, he is still practicing hard…" Jiang Huanyu's expression was strange, and he did not reply. In his heart, he secretly thought that he probably put too much Blood Toad shed skin in. Next time, he would put less…