Chapter 3: Heaven Grants Just after midnight, Li Yuan opened his eyes. Light was faintly visible outside the paper-covered window. There were only seven people on the eight-person bunk bed. "Niu Gui got up so early?" It was already a bit chilly in late autumn. Li Yuan was used to sleeping with his clothes on, so he put on his straw sandals and went to the door. The sky was getting brighter and the four big moons had all gone. Under the dim light, Niu Gui stood in the White Ape Stance. It was quite chilly in the early morning of late autumn, but he was sweating all over. "This kid is really hardworking!" Li Yuan rubbed his wrists and felt sore in his shoulders, arms, wrists, waist and legs. Yesterday's amount of exercise was much greater than usual, and Niu Gui, he remembered that he was still exercising while he was sleeping last night? Why are you getting up so early again? Aren't you afraid of ruining yourself? Li Yuan was shocked but didn't say anything. He waited for Fatty Sun to get up, informed him and left the middle courtyard. ……
The Forging Shop occupies a large area in the outer city. Outside the central courtyard are several warehouses for storing iron materials and charcoal. Further ahead, there is an open space made of yellow mud, where the blacksmiths and guards usually build up their physical strength. Across this open space is a series of forging rooms, where furnaces burn day and night and smoke lingers in the air. Li Yuan glanced a few times, but saw nothing except the clanging sound. He was still quite curious about blacksmithing. However, even after being an apprentice for more than a month, his impression of blacksmithing still remained on the "Sword Forging Competition" in his previous life. The utility room is right next to it. Li Yuanxiao waited for a while before he collected his monthly salary and a day's leave from Manager Lin who came slowly towards him. Although the rituals in the half-volume Taoist book are simple, they do not require nothing. "Come back before the sun sets. If you stay overnight, it counts as two days off!" Manager Lin, who had a small moustache, said something from the back. "……Um!" With a gloomy face, he put the thirty copper coins into his arms. More than a month after arriving in this world, Li Yuan walked out of the weapon forging shop for the first time. “This is the ‘ancient city’.” The street paved with bluestone slabs as big as washbasins extends in both directions, separating various shops, restaurants and inns on both sides. Gaoliu County consists of two cities, the inner and outer cities, divided into sixteen districts by eight main streets. The Rongsheng District, where the Blacksmith Shop is located, is the most lively district in the outer city. Looking around, I saw neat houses, various vendors shouting their wares, and pedestrians in all kinds of clothes that seemed to be endless. In the real ancient city, there are no endless stream of young ladies and gentlemen, but only common people who are busy making a living. Dangdang~ There were government officials patrolling the streets beating gongs, causing people to give in wherever they passed. A tall yamen runner with a mole on the corner of his eye held up a portrait and shouted: "This is the lone thief Nian Jiu. Anyone who finds his whereabouts will be rewarded with five taels of silver, and anyone who captures him will be rewarded with fifty taels of silver. However, anyone who conceals his whereabouts and does not report it will be punished with the same crime once he is caught!"
"Fifty taels?!" Many people in the crowd gasped and looked over. When the yamen runners passed by, Li Yuan glanced at the vicious thief in the portrait, ignored him, and lowered his head to think about his own affairs. "The 'receiving ceremony' recorded in the half-volume Taoist book requires five animals. In my previous life, I used the meat of five animals. Now..." In front of the butcher's shop, the butcher with the knife quoted the price without waiting for questions: "Twenty-eight copper coins for a pound of pork..." Glancing at the wooden sign inside the butcher shop, Li Yuan couldn't help but twitch his eyelids. He had expected that his family could only afford one pound of pork a month. After all, other apprentices could not even see a penny in three years. "Little brother, do you have any pig blood?" "Pig blood? If you want it, I'll give you eight copper coins for a pound..." “Is pig blood so expensive?” Li Yuan felt a little pain in his heart, after all, he only had thirty copper coins in total. "How many pounds of blood does a pig have? Eight copper coins is still expensive? Go away, why are you making trouble if you don't have money?" "Maybe cheaper..." After some bargaining, Li Yuan bought half a pound of pork, and half a pound each of pig's blood, sheep's blood, chicken's blood, and dog's blood, and only had four copper coins left. "The meat of five animals is fine, but the blood of five animals should be fine too, right? After all, in the ancient times, many sacrifices used blood..." Walking among the crowd, Li Yuan felt a little heavy in his heart. I was worried about whether the blood would be obtained and whether the ritual would really work. …… "We still need some cattle... The court stipulates that those who slaughter cattle shall be beaten with a stick 100 times, sentenced to one and a half years in prison, and exiled a thousand miles..." After more than an hour, Li Yuan, who had walked all over Rongsheng Street, still couldn't find a single cow hair and had to give up. "I remember that elk, deer, roe deer, wolf and rabbit are also among the five animals in another saying?" It was not until the sun was high in the sky that Li Yuan found a place selling wild rabbits. He waited for more than an hour and finally took advantage of the time when someone was slaughtering rabbits. He spent his last four copper coins to buy less than two taels of blood. "Now, I've lost everything!" Carrying a few bottles and cans and half a pound of pork out of Rongsheng Street, Li Yuan could hardly contain his emotions. But of course he couldn't hold the ceremony on the main street, so he suppressed his excitement, walked through the alleys and streets, and came to another more remote urban area. Chaiyufang is different from Rongsheng District. It got its name because it sells firewood and fish. From a distance, Li Yuan heard someone exclaim. "The kid from Liangshan family caught the magical fish 'Ox-horned Pomfret' in 'Bishui Lake'!" "Liang Ah Shui? Does this guy have this skill? Wasn't his boat taken away by Liu Lai Li?" "Spirit fish! I haven't heard of anyone catching a spirit fish in at least a year or two, right?"
With an exclamation, almost everyone nearby gathered around the young man carrying the fish basket in the distance. "Spirit fish?" Li Yuan was slightly startled, and only found out what it was from the discussions of people nearby. Gaoliu County is located near mountains and rivers. The mountain is Fajiu Mountain and the river is Bishui Lake. The firewood gang and fishing gang in the city were established because of this. The so-called spiritual fish is said to be a very nutritious food. Catching one is enough for an ordinary family to eat for two or three years. "Everyone!" The young man was strong and had a dark complexion. He stared fiercely at the group of people who had gathered around him: "This 'ox-horn pomfret' of mine weighs 12 kilograms. If you can't afford it, don't come over here!" "Twelve pounds of ox-horn pomfret?!" The crowd was even more in uproarious, but most of them stopped walking. Only a few people who looked unusual walked over. "Those seem to be people from the Chai Gang and the Fishing Gang?" Li Yuan took a few glances. Although he was somewhat curious about the so-called spirit fish, he had no intention of watching the fun. As I was walking away quickly, I heard someone behind me quote "12 taels of silver"... "Thirty cents a month, three years of apprenticeship only earns one tael of silver, twelve taels a fish..." Li Yuan was a little surprised, but he didn't stop. He walked quickly through several streets and came to an alley. There are more than ten households in the alley, and the well-repaired two-story courtyard at the entrance of the alley is his home in this life. Of course, there were three families living in the courtyard, and his family, or his second brother's family, was just one of them. "Old Three? You, you're back?" Before Li Yuan knocked on the door, the courtyard gate opened. A man less than seven feet tall with a weather-beaten face came out with excitement and guilt, and held his hand. "Second brother..." Li Yuan opened his mouth, not knowing what to say, and let the man pull him into the house. Memories of my previous life came flooding back. The Li family, a small impoverished family, was considered a middle-class family in Chaiyufang in the early years. Three generations worked diligently and saved up some wealth. They had fields and boats, and their life was pretty good. But the family fortune, which had been built for three generations, fell into ruin in one day. His cheap father somehow got addicted to gambling and lost all the family fortune in just half a year. After angering his old father to death, he also died of illness on his bed. Only three brothers were left to depend on each other. A few years later, the eldest brother Li Yue disappeared. It was the second brother Li Lin who raised him single-handedly... "You haven't eaten yet? Take a rest first. Your second brother will cook for you. Your sister-in-law has gone to work..." Li Lin rubbed his eyes and quickly walked out of the house. In the small room, Li Yuan sighed softly. It was his predecessor's own idea to join the weapon forging shop. His second elder brother was nearly thirty years old, and it would be inconvenient for him to live with his brothers after he got married.
After that, the second brother Li Lin felt guilty and always felt ashamed of his brothers and parents. But for poor families, sending them to a weapon forging shop is a great way out... "call!" After digesting the surging emotions in his heart, Li Yuan walked out the door, took a few steps, and turned into the backyard where sundries and firewood were stored. "Four directions and five animals..." Li Yuan muttered to himself that he had performed the "ordination ceremony" countless times in his dreams last night. It was very familiar, but he was still extremely nervous. It's like a drowning person grabbing the last straw... With himself as the center, Li Yuan sprinkled the blood of five animals according to the ritual directions until his mouth and nose were filled with the smell of blood. He took a deep breath, bowed, and said in his heart and mouth: "My disciple Li Yuan has read all the classics and gained wisdom. He has carefully observed all the precepts and enlightened his mind. He has the desire to save the world and is willing to pass on the classics to the sages..." "..." "Disciple Li Yuan, please pray to heaven for blessings!" (End of this chapter)