Chapter 73: Chapter 52: Third-rate
Translator: 549690339
In the blink of an eye, it was New Year’s Eve.
Perhaps thinking of the separation after the New Year, Lu Yuan and Sun Siwen still spent the New Year’s Eve together this year.
The two of them drank wine, exchanged blessings, but unlike last year, they didn’t get drunk this time.
They only had a few cups.
When it came time for the New Year’s Eve, they set off firecrackers with the residents of the town, happily ushering in the New Year together.
Finally, Sun Siwen took out the fireworks he had bought from Fu City through someone else, and set off the brilliant fireworks under the quiet night sky.
As the fireworks bloomed, the excited cheers of the children outside were heard. The children in the countryside had never seen such a dazzling sight, and they couldn’t help but shout excitedly.
Their parents, perhaps also stunned by this scene, just watched the fireworks and didn’t even try to stop them.
So the small town, which had quieted down during the crackle of firecrackers, became lively again.
After the several boxes of fireworks had been set off, and ten or so silver tales had been spent, the night did not quiet down immediately, but became noisy for a while, and then quietened as the parents scolded the children.
And so the night fell into silence.
On the second day, after Lu Yuan and Sun Siwen had a meal together and exchanged New Year greetings, they returned to their respective homes.
Everyone stayed at home on the first day of the new year. On the second and third days, they began to visit relatives and friends.
By the fourth day, after visiting several important people, Sun Siwen came to see Lu Yuan and began to say goodbye.
There was less than a month left before he would become a xueyu (education official) far away in another county, so he had to leave early.
Lu Yuan accompanied Sun Siwen out of town for five miles before turning back.
Although they had said before that they would visit each other on a later day, Lu Yuan knew that the so-called future day would be at least five or six years away.
Given the current terrible social environment, they didn’t know if they would ever see each other again after saying goodbye today.
After sending his only friend to his post, Lu Yuan returned to his previous solitary state, with no outside distractions, all his thoughts were focused on his martial arts training.
Every day, his schedule was arranged like this:
Wake up in the morning, practice Cloud Palm for one hour, eat breakfast, then spend one hour drinking tea and reading.
At noon, go to the tavern to listen to news, come back and nap for half an hour, wake up and practice Inner Strength for two hours, practice Cloud Palm for one hour, and then have dinner.
In the evening, practice Inner Strength for another hour, read for a while, then go to bed.
In this way, Lu Yuan’s daily schedule was strictly followed.
As for his old hunting trade?
After spending a year of the thousand silver tales he had made last year, there were still more than eight hundred tales left. According to his current spending rate, it would take three or four years to spend it all. So, with no financial crisis, he had no motivation to hunt.
As for money, it was enough for now.
Although Lu Yuan also wanted to live a luxurious life, that would have to wait until he achieved great success in martial arts and made a name for himself.
At present, he was in the struggling stage, and he could still bear a little hardship.
As the saying goes,
Suffer first, enjoy later.
Now was the time for suffering, and once it passed, it would be time to enjoy the sweetness.
Lu Yuan had the determination to endure.
Spring turned to autumn, winter turned to summer.
Lu Yuan was still living in Yangmei Town, and apart from going to the county to buy medicine every few months, he spent his days as a homebody.
He occasionally received letters sent by Sun Siwen from across the country letters containing greetings as well as the new Xueyu’s complaints.
Dongting Prefecture was a mountainous area, and it had always been known as Seven Mountains, Two Rivers, One Field.
From this, one could tell that it was not a prosperous place.
And indeed, it wasn’t.
After taking up his post, our Grand Tutor Sun discovered the true state of Changning County for himself.
As the popular saying goes, the more you lack something, the more you emphasize it.
Changning, Changning, it’s said to be for long-lasting peace and stability.
But in reality, this place is full of barbarians and ethnic groups, with troublemakers causing disturbances from time to time, and the local customs are extremely fierce.
One can only imagine the difficulties Sun Siwen faced working in such a place.
When he arrived at the County Academy, he counted all the registered students, and found that there were less than a hundred literate people in the whole county. Among them, there were more than a dozen scholars, but not a single juren.
What does this mean?
Let’s take Dayu County as an example.
Dayu County, already considered a remote and poverty-stricken county in Yuzhang Prefecture, still has four to five hundred students and three to four jurens, although few in number.
Compared to Changning County, it’s much stronger.
In such a place where the literary atmosphere is in decline, Sun Siwen serves as a Teaching Assistant in charge of education, and it’s not hard to see how difficult it is to advance his work.
Anyway, judging by the complaints in the letters he sent, one can tell that his good friend is living a miserable life.
In response, all Lu Yuan could do was to tease him and comfort him in his replies.
Reading letters every few months was just a diversion in his life.
Lu Yuan’s daily life was quite uninteresting, but he was used to it and couldn’t accept anything else.
Two years passed in the blink of an eye in such a bland life.
Today, it’s early summer again.
Thunder and rain roar in the night sky outside the window.
The first muffled thunder of the summer comes with an extraordinary shock.
The candlelight in the room flickers, and the wind outside blows through the gaps in doors and windows, causing the flame to sway, making one worry that it might go out any moment.
Lu Yuan sits cross-legged on the bed, eyes slightly closed, both hands resting on his abdomen, his inner strength fluctuates within his body, and the Cloud Palm’s mental technique is pushed to the extreme, as if wave-like raging against the unmovable meridians before him.
Time slowly flows.
In a blink of an eye, the thunder outside has stopped, but the heavy rain continues to pour, making a sound as it patters on the roof tiles.
Lu Yuan is still practicing.
To him, time seems to have no meaning.
Finally,
At around midnight, after practicing for two hours, his arms tremble slightly, and the surging inner strength in his body faces no further obstruction, flowing into his dantian from his arms, converging in one place.
“I’ve finally broken through.”
Opening his tightly closed eyes, Lu Yuan feels the increased inner strength in his body, unable to suppress a smile on his face.
His divine sense sinks into his mind, and the content on the Attribute Panel has changed.
[Name: Lu Yuan] [Talent: Immortality]
[Age: 20]
[Realm: Post-celestial (Third-class)]
[Martial Arts: Cloud Palm (Second Layer)]
[Skills: Hunting Traps (Perfect), Crude Knife Technique (Perfect), Crude Archery (Perfect), Medical Skill (Minor Success) …J
After practicing for three years, today, at last, he has broken through the second layer of the Cloud Palm, reaching the third-class realm in the Jianghu world.
“This is great news, worth celebrating.”
Unable to help himself, Lu Yuan laughs and gets out of bed, feeling extremely pleased.
Who could understand the joy of finally advancing from a nameless, low-level martial artist to a third-class martial artist after three years of hard training and hardship?
That sense of accomplishment is truly intoxicating.
However, it’s already late at night, and outside it’s still raining heavily. Even if he feels restless, there’s nothing else to do.
In the end, he takes out his homemade fine wine, cooks a small dish for himself, and starts eating happily.
“When the rain stops tomorrow… Well, once the rain stops tomorrow, I’ll go to Fu City again. It’s been two years since I’ve been to the Red Sleeves Pavilion to see Miss Xiaoyu, I wonder if she’s still there?”
Taking a bite of the small dish, sipping the fine wine, Lu Yuan squints at the storm outside, his heart wandering far away..