As soon as Chen Mu’s call rang out, a crowd immediately surrounded him.
“Can you make it cheaper?”
“Right, right, right, your fish are starting to smell…”
“Twenty copper coins at most!”
“Take it or leave it, if not, scram!” Chen Mu deliberately bellowed in a rough voice.
“I’ll take one!”
“Three! Here’s the money!”
“Line up, line up, one by one! Otherwise, all of you can scram!” Chen Mu waved his hands and shouted loudly.
Thirty copper coins could only buy you three jin of white wheat.
This was meat that had been preserved with salt, each one weighing nearly two jin.
Thirty copper coins were a real bargain.
Despite his shouting, the crowd still bustled around him.
“Dare to steal!” Chen Mu reached out and grabbed a hand. With a snap, he dislocated the wrist.
Ow!
A cry of pain startled the people nearby, sending a shiver through them!
“Get in line! Cause any more trouble, and don’t blame me for being impolite!” Chen Mu roared fiercely.
The man with the dislocated wrist was a skinny middle-aged man with a greasy face.
Now, clutching his wrist and howling in pain, his eyes fixed on Chen Mu, he surprisingly didn’t run away?!
“What, trying to swindle me?” Chen Mu wouldn’t indulge him.
Grabbing his arm, snap, crack, Chen Mu also dislocated his shoulder.
The skinny middle-aged man immediately turned pale with pain. Meeting Chen Mu’s fierce gaze, he quickly ducked and bowed, turning to run away.
This calmed the surrounding crowd right down.
They lined up obediently to buy fish.
The half-basket of smoked, salted fish sold out quickly.
“Will you sell more tomorrow?” someone couldn’t help but ask.
“Depends on my mood,” Chen Mu replied nonchalantly.
Ignoring everyone’s inquiries, he hoisted the bamboo basket onto his back and strode away.
Slipping into an alley, he immediately started running.
After zigzagging to ensure no one was following, he quickly headed home.
“Half a basket, over thirty fish, more than nine hundred copper coins.”
“Hey, that’s almost one liang of silver,” Chen Mu counted the copper coins with a chuckle.
This was also thanks to the soaring prices in Qingshan County.
Normally, fish wouldn’t sell for this price.
“In the future, when catching fish, only keep the live ones; the dead ones can be sold in East Market,” Chen Mu pondered.
With the fish-drugging bait, he wouldn’t be short of fish to eat for a long time to come.
“Need to buy two more water tanks. Store more live ones.”
…
With grain and meat available, his heart was at ease.
Ignoring the chaos of the outside world.
Chen Mu once again shut his door to grind proficiency.
Calling up the grey wall, Chen Mu reviewed his skills.
Writing: 1532/10000/Second Rank;
Drawing: 1402/10000/Second Rank;
Throwing: 4353/10000/Third Rank;
Red Falcon Shape Cultivation Technique: 8539/10000/Second Rank;
Culinary: 5626/10000/First Rank;
Pharmaceutical Technique: 1152/10000/Second Rank;
Sleeve Sword Technique: 4059/10000/First Rank;
“The Shape Cultivation Technique is short by just over fifteen hundred proficiency points. About twenty days more.”
“The Sleeve Sword Technique is short by six thousand proficiency points, but it’s only First Rank, so it levels up faster.”
“Third Rank in Throwing is currently sufficient, so I can afford to cut down on the daily Flying Locust Stone practice time.”
“Focus on Shape Cultivation, then Sleeve Sword Technique, and gradually lessen the effort on the others.”
Having made up his mind, Chen Mu began to practice fervently.
…
Nine days later, all the live fish had been eaten.
Chen Mu was getting ready to go out fishing.
This time, he chose a deep river bend.
He had already put down bait two days in advance to attract more fish.
He changed into old, grey-brown clothes and applied brown paint to his hands and neck.
Half of his face was also covered with a special blue medicinal liquid.
Looking at his half-bronze, sun-kissed cheek and half-blue birthmarked face in the copper mirror, Chen Mu smiled with satisfaction.
“Just call me the Green-faced Beast, Yang Zhi.”
He habitually concealed his identity.
He always preferred not to draw attention to himself.
“Pity I’m missing a peerless sword.”
“Oh well, this dagger will have to do.”
With a flick of his wrist, the short dagger disappeared into his sleeve.
Now the Sleeve Sword Technique was over half-proficient.
He became increasingly proficient in concealing his sword.
Even if someone were to grab his arm now, they wouldn’t be able to find where the sword was hidden.
With all preparations complete, Chen Mu picked up the drugged bait, shouldered the carrying pole with two bamboo baskets, and quietly left town.
…
At dusk,
Chen Mu adjusted the two baskets brimming with fish and headed home.
He first threw the live fish into the tank to keep them.
The rest, the dead fish, he took to East Market.
With a loud shout, he started selling.
Nowadays, with prices soaring and meat scarcity,
a small basket of fresh fish was snatched up in no time.
“Fisherman, will you come tomorrow?”
“Depends on my mood!” Chen Mu replied casually with a laugh, picked up the basket, and quickly disappeared.
…
He had secured his source of meat.
And since things weren’t peaceful outside,
Chen Mu increasingly didn’t want to go out.
Half a month later, accompanied by a sound like frying beans, his Shape Cultivation Technique smoothly broke through to Third Rank.
His muscles once again rolled and adjusted.
His strength had increased by at least thirty percent.
The density of his bones had enhanced, becoming as hard as stone.
His body weight had also increased.
By his own estimate, he weighed at least over two hundred thirty pounds.
But on the outside, he still appeared to be a slim youth of 177 centimeters.
“Is this the Bone Transformation Realm?”
With a sudden shake, Chen Mu disappeared from his spot.
He didn’t feel like he exerted much effort.
He was like a flywheel carrying immense inertia.
With a whoosh, he was flung more than ten meters away.
Hastily reacting, he nearly crashed headlong into a wall.
“I’m at least twice as fast as before!”
“At this speed, ordinary people can’t even see me.”
He recalled his first meeting with Officer Lu.
The man moved five to six meters in one step.
Now, he could easily do the same and even run faster and longer.
“Hey! With my speed and build, I can go to more distant river bends and catch even more fish!”
“Half for myself, half to exchange for silver, life’s good!”
Fried fish pieces, spicy fried fish maw, chopped chili fish head, plus a special secret fish ball soup.
Chen Mu prepared for himself a grand feast of fishes.
He savored his lunch slowly until about two in the afternoon.
After cleaning up the pots and dishes and resting for a moment,
he intended to continue improving his Proficiency.
The Sleeve Sword Technique was also on the verge of a breakthrough.
Thinking it over, he decided to restrain himself.
It wasn’t good to be too obsessed.
He changed into clean, gray-white clothes and strolled leisurely towards Anle Square’s Bāfāng Building.
It had been seven or eight days since he last left the house.
…
Passing East Market, he unexpectedly found many funeral joss papers scattered on the ground.
Two months earlier, people killed by the marauding soldiers had to be taken out of town through the eastern gate for burial, so encountering funeral joss papers was normal.
However, with the defeated soldiers turning into bandits scattered throughout the area, Qingshan County Town had settled down.
Seeing joss papers on the streets of East Market again, Chen Mu had an ominous premonition.
Bāfāng Building.
As usual, he bought a pot of tea and a plate of sunflower seeds, sat in a corner, and listened for news.
“Another disaster last night?”
“Yes, their bodies were shriveled and thin, just like dried salted fish!”
“Isn’t that too strange?!”
“I heard some even strangled themselves!”
“It must be the work of evil spirits.”
“Keep your voice down, what if you bring that thing here?”
Chen Mu listlessly cracked sunflower seeds, his eyebrows furrowed tightly, “Evil spirits?!”
This matter was truly incomprehensible.
From his previous memories dating back to his childhood, he’d heard more or less about such bizarre tales.
But he had never encountered them before and thus didn’t pay much attention.
“Wrong, maybe I’ve encountered it before.” Chen Mu’s expression suddenly turned grave.
When he was reborn, his predecessor had already died a mysterious death!
That could very well have been the work of evil spirits.