Chapter 9

Half a year passed quietly.

It was the end of the month again.

After Han Zhao finished practicing in the evening, he did not go home directly. Instead, he went to the Xu family’s rice store in the Changfeng District in the outer city. Today was the day to collect his allowance.

Now, he had ten taels of silver and eight copper coins. If he received another tael of silver, he could exchange them for one tael of gold.

Martial Arts: Mountain Splitting Saber Technique (First Level Small Mastery 77%), Life Nurturing Technique (First Level Small Mastery 56%)

Looking at his attributes, Han Zhao sighed in his mind.

The Life Nurturing Technique was still the same. On average, its progress increased by 1% every month.

As for the Mountain Splitting Saber Technique, when he was at the Entry Level, he could increase his progress by 1% per day on average.

However, from the Small Mastery stage onwards, it became an average of two days to increase the progress by 1%.

It was not because the difficulty had increased, but because after reaching the Skin Tempering Realm, although Han Zhao’s strength had increased greatly, the stamina consumption when practicing the saber technique had increased.

The Life Nurturing Technique could accelerate stamina recovery, but it required nutrition. Three meals a day was no longer enough to satisfy Han Zhao’s appetite.

When he reached the Skin Tempering Realm, his income increased, but his appetite also increased greatly. He had already done his best to save so much money in five months.

It was mainly because his foundation was too poor.

[Sword and Saber Duo] could increase his saber technique aptitude, allowing his cultivation proficiency to increase very quickly. However, after training every day, the speed at which his body’s strength increased would decrease.

He had to consume a large amount of meat to make his body stronger and break through to the Bone Tempering Realm as soon as possible.

Therefore, since saving could not be done, he could only open up new sources of income.

The earlier he increased his points and broke through, the sooner he could earn more money.

Soon, Han Zhao arrived at Changfeng District, which was next to the Tianhe District.

The front door of the Xu family’s rice store was on the most prosperous East Street in Changfeng District. Behind the rice store was Xinqiao Beach, which was close to the river.

At this moment, large ships and small boats came and went, transporting rice from the ship to the back of the rice store.

The price of unshelled grains would be lower because the workers in the rice store still needed to process the rice.

It was used to put grains into a mortar and use a pestle to remove the shell or crush it. The shell produced by the pestle was bran. The tool used was a little like a medicine pot. It had a club and a container, and they used the club to smash the grain and break the shell of the grain.

Typically, poor families would pound the rice before selling it. This way, they could earn more money.

However, milling rice was a very heavy labor. An ordinary farming family of three to five people had to mill three to four times a month. To mill one mortar of rice, it would take at least two to three hundred hits. It would take nearly an hour.

Who knew how long this bag of rice would take?

The Xu rice store’s business was very big. After the rice was processed, many sacks of rice would be carried back to the ship and then transported to the inner city.

On the other hand, the bran left behind after molting would be carried to a tavern or a large family as fuel for the stove or sent to a farmer’s house as rations for livestock.

Many people in the slums would buy bran to satisfy their hunger.

A group of tanned men wearing straw hats passed by Han Zhao and walked excitedly toward the rice.

Han Zhao came back to his senses.

‘Today is the day of the rice harvest.’

It was already the autumn of the second year.

It had been almost ten months since he came to this world.

A group of men surrounded the counter of the rice store and asked about the price of the rice.

Seeing this, Han Zhao waited at the door.

The sharp-eyed Shopkeeper Sun of the rice store saw Han Zhao at the door. The expression he had when he rolled his eyes at the men instantly disappeared, and he went up to him with a smile.

“Young Master Han, you’re here to collect your allowance, right? Please wait a moment.”

“Thank you, Shopkeeper Sun.” Han Zhao cupped his hands.

Shopkeeper Sun returned to the counter and opened the cabinet. He took out a thumb-sized silver ingot and handed it over with both hands.

The men who came to the shop were eagerly looking at the silver in the shopkeeper’s hand. However, when they noticed Han Zhao’s training clothes, they hurriedly retracted their gazes.

“Many thanks, Shopkeeper Sun.” Han Zhao took the silver and stuffed it into the money bag.

“Young Master Han, don’t be so polite with me.”

“Then I won’t disturb you any longer. Goodbye.”

“Take care, Young Master Han!” Shopkeeper Sun waved at Han Zhao’s back.

At this moment, the new shop assistant could not help but step forward and whisper, “I’m so envious. He doesn’t have to do anything and can get one tael of silver a month. I really don’t know why Third Miss recruited him. She might as well…”

Slap!

The shopkeeper slapped the back of the shop assistant’s head and interrupted him. He said fiercely, “Shut up. If you weren’t my nephew, I would have kicked you out immediately!”

The shop assistant shrank his head.

The shopkeeper looked at Han Zhao’s back and saw that he didn’t stop. He knew that he didn’t hear him. He heaved a sigh of relief and explained to his nephew in a low voice, “This Young Master Han might be the third son-in-law of the Xu family in the future. If you offend him, you’re courting death!”

When the shop assistant heard this, he was finally afraid. He turned around and saw that the men were watching the commotion. He flew into a rage out of humiliation and said, “What are you looking at?!”

[Change is the only constant! Don’t bully the poor while they’re down! As long as you spend money, you can immediately become stronger. Then, you can slap this snobbish fellow in the face!]

The notification in his vision made Han Zhao speechless.

With his hearing and true qi cultivation, although the shop assistant’s voice was very soft, he could still hear him clearly. However, he did not want to pay attention to such a guy.

He felt that if copper coins could be charged, this system might squeeze the last copper coin out of his pocket.

It could only be said that it was indeed a product of the capitalist world.

“What?! How can you fall so badly?!”

Before Han Zhao could walk far, she heard a raised voice from behind. It was filled with disappointment and shock.

“Even if you don’t want to sell it, there are plenty of people who will!” Shopkeeper Sun’s impolite voice rang out. “Our Xu family’s rice store has always been the highest price. You won’t be able to find another one!”

Han Zhao frowned slightly.

When he passed by the river and looked at the boats coming and going on the river, he suddenly recalled the article written in his middle school class in his previous life.

There was a line at the beginning: The port of the Wansheng Rice Line was moored with open boats coming out of the countryside. The boats were loaded with new rice, keeping the hull low.

He couldn’t remember the rest of the original text, but it left a deep impression.

Han Zhao quickened his pace, and the sounds from the rice store completely disappeared from his ears.

…

After exchanging for gold, Han Zhao returned home.

“System, charge.”

The 1 tael of gold in his hand instantly disappeared.

[Current Balance: 2 taels of gold.]

[25 Notification Fragments have been collected. Do you want to synthesize the Trait?]

At this point, there was not much Yin energy left in Han Zhao’s chest.

[Synthesized once. Consumed 15 Notification Fragments and 2 taels of gold. You will definitely obtain a one-time Basic Trait, Life Simulation. The probability of obtaining a White Trait will increase by 1%.]

“Yes.”

[You have obtained the Basic Trait ‘Life Simulation’. Do you want to start the simulation?]

“Yes.”

[16 years old. You joined the Mountain Shaking Fist Academy to cultivate the Mountain Splitting Saber Technique. You used three months to break through to the Skin Tempering Realm.]

[22 years old. You relied on the Mountain Splitting Saber Technique to break through to the Bone Tempering Realm. You cultivated the Life Nurturing Technique to the Perfection Stage of the First Level and were about to break through.]

[You were roped in by the gangs and families in the city. You were listed in the ‘Xu family’s rice store’, ‘Heavenly Moon Gang’, and ‘Edge Sharpening Manor’. You earned 35 silver taels a year.]

[At the end of the year, Xu Ling failed in the competition for the family business and lost control of the Xu family’s rice store. Your nominal income has decreased by two-thirds. In order to earn more money, you chose to become a Saber Hunter in the government.]

[23 years old. You caught three fugitives in a row in half a year and earned dozens of taels of silver. You became slightly famous in the vicinity.]

[24 years old. You relied on your income as a Saber Hunter to reach the perfected Bone Tempering Realm.]

[Three months later, you failed to break through to the Blood Tempering Realm, and your blood qi was damaged.]

[25 years old. Your Life Nurturing Technique broke through to the second level. Your damaged blood qi recovered to its peak state.]

[In order to increase the success rate of your breakthrough, you decided to save money to buy precious medicinal herbs.]

[In one mission, you chased after two fugitives. The other party lured you into a trap. Their accomplice was a martial artist at the perfected Bone Tempering Realm. The other party cultivated fist, palm, and leg martial arts. You resisted for a long time, but the three of them exhausted you to death.]

Han Zhao looked at the information in the simulation and thought to himself, “It took one less year to enter the Bone Tempering Realm. For now, there are still six years before Xu Ling loses the Xu family’s rice store.”

He had to cultivate harder. If he could, he could not let the rich lady go bankrupt.

His failure to break through to the Blood Tempering Realm had a lot to do with the loss of the Xu family’s rice store.