Chapter 24 Gravel

It was another New Year's Eve. Er Gouzi sat alone in front of the earthen stove, cooking a large pot of pork, which was bubbling with fragrance.

On this day last year, his life was hanging by a thread. He barely survived by roasting a handful of rice in the snow.

Now, he can finally eat a big piece of meat.

Er Gouzi, who has always been stingy and calculating, bought half a pig for the New Year for the first time.

After tonight, he will be 15 years old.

At the age of 15, he owns Shekou Mountain and 50 acres of good farmland at the foot of the mountain.

Huang Laocai has sold all 50 acres of good farmland at the foot of Shekou Mountain to Er Gouzi.

This kind of good farmland near the water source cannot be bought at a price of 30 taels of silver at ordinary times. Huang Laocai only sold it to him at 28 taels per acre.

50 acres, a total of 1,400 taels of silver, still requires repayment in 20 years, 70 taels per year, and cannot be repaid in advance.

In addition to the previous 40 taels per year, Er Gouzi will have to pay Huang Laocai 110 taels of silver every year for the next 20 years.

Huang Laocai took this year's 70 taels of silver to the county government to make connections, and he lost all of it, but still had no way to rescue the man.

It is said that in the end Huang Laocai had to beg Zhang Youliang to come forward.

Zhang Youliang was familiar with the officials in the county government, and he really got Huang Fugui out of the prison.

But Huang Laocai paid a huge price to ask Zhang Youliang.

That is, he sold all the remaining fields of the Huang family to Zhang Youliang at a low price.

From then on, most of the fields in Shexi Village belonged to Zhang Youliang.

Now all the tenants in the village run to Dabo's house, saying good things and giving gifts, one after another, the threshold is broken, just to rent better fields.

After Er Gouzi witnessed what happened to Huang Laocai, he always felt a sense of crisis.

If he didn't have enough strength to protect himself, he couldn't keep the money no matter how much he earned.

He decided to devote his main energy and financial resources to martial arts in the future, and then take the exam for martial arts scholar.

Only with the title of martial arts scholar can he be on an equal footing with the officials in the county yamen. Even if the county magistrate wants to punish him and kill him, he has to report to the state government.

However, if he wants to learn martial arts well, in addition to daily hard practice, he must be willing to invest a lot of money.

A few years ago, he went to sell the powerful pills again and got more than 200 taels of silver, so he was not short of money for the time being.

Because eating meat is helpful for martial arts practice, he has decided to eat meat every day in the future.

If he eats one pound of fat meat a day, it will cost more than 20 taels of silver a month. For Er Gouzi at present, it is a bit too extravagant to be able to afford it.

But in order to improve his strength and pass the exam for martial arts scholar, Er Gouzi decided to compromise a little.

Fatty meat is too expensive, but lean meat and bones are much cheaper because they don't have oil or water.

You can buy some leftover ribs, bones and the like to eat, and save a few taels of silver every month.

He thinks ribs are actually pretty good, and there is no need to eat fatty meat.

More than a dozen people died in Shexi Village this winter, and it's good enough that he can still eat meat.

Er Gouzi opened the lid of the pot at this time, poked it with chopsticks, and felt that it was almost done.

He took out a rib, blew on the hot air and started to bite it.

The meat had been stewed so that the bones and meat were separated, and a light bite could tear off a large piece of meat.

Although the rib meat did not have a lot of oil, it tasted soft and sticky, and was particularly fragrant.

Before stewing, he put the meat in a gourd and stored it for a few days, and the taste became better than ordinary pork.

In particular, ordinary pork has a smell of fishy smell, which has now disappeared, replaced by the aroma of meat mixed with the aroma of medicine.

After eating the meat, he chewed the remaining bones and then swallowed them all with the broth.

The bones were also bought with money, so it was impossible to throw them away.

After eating the ribs, there was still a ginseng and a little bone and meat residue left in the pot.

Take all of these out and eat them.

The ginseng grown on the mountain is not very big now, and it may be equivalent to five or six years of medicinal age.

But after the gourd improves the spiritual energy, it is still helpful to practice with pork.

After eating and drinking, he began to meditate and practice according to the first level of the exercises.

The food he just ate was gradually refined, producing a little bit of fine true qi.

After these true qi circulated in the twelve meridians for 7749 weeks, they all flowed into the Ren meridian.

The Ren and Du meridians are also called the sea of ​​yin and yang meridians, which can store the true qi he cultivated.

These two large meridians are located on the front and back midline, which are much wider than the twelve meridians and can accommodate a large amount of true qi.

It has been several months since he felt the Qi, and he has been eating the food in the gourd every day, and his cultivation progress is quite fast.

At present, the Ren and Du meridians are not open, and only about one-third of the Ren meridian is filled by him.

According to the book, he needs to use the true Qi to fill the Ren meridian, and then open up the Ren and Du meridians, so that he can practice the second level of the technique.

As for the third level, he needs to use the true Qi to completely open up and fill the Ren and Du meridians, and then open up the lower Dantian, so that he can practice the third level.

After two hours of meditation and cultivation, the food he just ate has been refined into true Qi and merged into the Ren meridian.

Then he stood up, picked up the sword beside him, and began to practice basic sword styles.

With the improvement of his cultivation during this period, his physical strength has increased a lot. The eleven-jin heavy sword he bought at the beginning now seems a little lighter.

The next time he goes to the county town, he should change to a heavier sword.

The next morning is the first day of the new year, and relatives and friends will greet each other.

Er Gouzi had no relatives to visit, only a master.

He brought a piece of pork, a bag of preserved fruit, and a jar of wine, and wished Li Banxian a happy new year.

Li Banxian was also a bachelor, and it was the first time in so many years that someone wished him a happy new year, so he was very happy.

He also specially stewed pork and invited this apprentice to have a meal.

By the way, he performed the unique skill of crushing stones into powder again.

Although Er Gouzi had seen it many times, he was still shocked. He secretly vowed to work harder and learn 10% or 20% of his master's skills as soon as possible, which would be enough to pass the examination for martial arts.

Before leaving, Li Banxian also gave Er Gouzi a bag of red dates, which were exactly the ones from the date tree in his yard.

On the way home, Er Gouzi stopped by Huang Laocai's house to wish him a happy new year.

At this time of year in previous years, all the tenants in the village would come to wish Huang Laocai a happy new year, and Er Gouzi would not be able to squeeze in.

This year, however, the house was deserted and there was not a single guest.

Huang Fugui had a broken leg bone. Although he asked a county doctor to reconnect it and apply medicine, he still couldn't get out of bed and walk.

Er Gouzi took a pack of Dali Pills and gave it to Huang Fugui, which should help him recover from his injury.

Before leaving, Huang Laocai asked his second daughter to take a large pack of persimmon cakes from the inner room and give it to Er Gouzi as a return gift.

When the second daughter handed the persimmon cakes to Er Gouzi, she stammered and seemed to want to say something, but in the end she didn't say anything.

Er Gouzi didn't say anything either, and left with the persimmon cakes in his arms.

Back on Shekou Mountain, he dug out the seeds from the red dates and persimmon cakes and planted them between some cracks in the rocks on the mountain that couldn't be cultivated.

After the Chinese New Year, everyone was busy with spring plowing and planning for a year's livelihood.

Er Gouzi rented out all 50 acres of land at the foot of Shekou Mountain, and according to the old rules, he collected 50% of the rent.

In the future, 30% of the 50% rent collected will be sent to the county government for taxation, and 20% of the grain will be left.

However, during this period, something happened in the village.

Now most of the land in Shexi Village is in the hands of Zhang Youliang, and the tenants in the village can only rent land from him for cultivation.

But in the first year that Zhang Youliang took over, he raised the rent from 50% to 60%.

The tenants were of course not happy, but they could only complain a little when they talked behind their backs. If you don't plant, there are many people rushing to plant.

Er Gouzi never thought of making a fortune by squeezing tenants. He now focuses on cultivation.

Recently, he stewed a pound of pork with ginseng every day, and his cultivation progress was good, and his strength increased a lot.

Now he tied a stone to the sword, at least adding more than 20 pounds.

But he still couldn't crush the stone.

Er Gouzi felt that his cultivation progress was still too slow.

So after the beginning of spring, he went to the county town again.

He sold a stone of Dali Pills and got more than 200 taels of silver.

What surprised him a little was that the two enhanced versions of Dali Pills were very popular.

Sima Yi of Huichun Hall offered 80 wen per pill and ordered one stone from him.

Er Gouzi took the more than 200 taels of silver and went directly to Hong'an Hall.

Unfortunately, Hong'an Hall only had eight Peiyuan Guben Pills.

Er Gouzi spent 80 taels of silver and bought all the remaining eight pills.

Then he went to the sword shop and made a 30-jin heavy sword.

At the same time, 140 long iron sheets were made to match this heavy sword. Each iron sheet weighed five jin and could be tied to the sword to increase the weight of the sword.

This time, because a large amount of iron was used and it was custom-made, the cost was very high, and 100 taels of silver were spent.

The silver he just got was only a few dozen taels left.

The road to martial arts is really not something that ordinary people can afford.

Moreover, he only bought 8 Peiyuan Guben Pills. If he took one a day, he would finish them in eight days.

After returning to Shekou Mountain, he took out a Peiyuan Guben Pill from the gourd and took it three days later.

He took this Peiyuan Guben Pill in his hand and carefully sensed it.

Indeed, judging from the richness of spiritual energy, it was far better than his Dali Pills and the five or six-year-old ginseng in his hand.

When the pill entered his mouth, a medicinal fragrance blended with the fragrance of honey, which was quite delicious and not bitter at all.

After swallowing the Peiyuan Guben Pill, he began to practice Qigong to refine it.

After about four hours, the spiritual energy in one pill had been completely refined by him.

There was another wisp of true Qi in the Ren Meridian.

Er Gouzi compared it and found that the amount of true Qi increased by refining this pill was equivalent to his continuous consumption of pork stewed with ginseng for half a month.

Of course, this was also the effect that could be achieved after using the gourd to increase the spiritual energy.

Next, he took a pill of Peiyuan Guben Pill every day, and his cultivation progressed by leaps and bounds, one day after another.

The true qi in the Ren Meridian became more and more full, and finally after he refined the seventh Peiyuan Guben Pill.

A stream of air flowed through Tiantu, Lianquan, Magpie Bridge, Chonglou, and went up to the top of the head, then went down along the Du Meridian along the spine, passed Mingmen, passed Changqiang, and entered Huiyin...

At this moment, his Ren and Du Meridians were completely unobstructed, and he broke through to the second level of the nameless technique.

The true qi went up from Huiyin, connected to the Du Meridian on the head, and went down along the Du Meridian and returned to Huiyin, and so on.

Every time it cycled, the true qi increased a little, and the body felt stronger.

After practicing for a long time, Er Gouzi jumped up and easily jumped more than ten feet high.

He felt that he had entered a new realm, and at this moment he was stronger than ever.

Picked up a stone from the ground, held it in his hand and squeezed it hard...

Push...

His face turned red, but the stone still didn't break. It didn't move at all.

Still not working?

Er Gouzi was so stubborn that he poured all the Qi in his Ren and Du meridians into his fingers, and suddenly he had a strong explosive force.

"Bang"

The stone broke into pieces in his hand.

Although he didn't crush it into powder as easily as his master, it was a huge improvement for Er Gouzi.

"Hahaha..."

"I finally succeeded!"