Chapter 3
Jade Coin
Cultivation was anything but pleasure. It was not only boring, but also painful when collecting and gathering spiritual energy and then concentrating on the Immortal Spiritual Holes. The spiritual energy seeped into the body as if the body was stabbed by a cone over and over again.
However, Yang Junshan quickly figured out one thing that made him overjoyed. Originally, he wanted to replace the Earth Covering Spiritual Formula with the Fifth Earth Spiritual Formula. The first thing he needed to do was to convert Earth Covering Spiritual energy accumulated in the last year into the Fifth Earth Spiritual energy.
However, in the process of cultivation, Yang Junshan discovered that he was absorbing the weak spiritual energy from the well when he gathered himself together to convert Earth Covering Spiritual energy, and condensed all of them into the Fifth Earth Spiritual energy. That meant he could actually do two things during his cultivation!
After thinking for a while, Yang Junshan attributed all of this to his previous incarnation. In that world, although Yang Junshan’s talent was mediocre, he still managed to push his cultivation to the fourth stage of the Warrior Realm.
Perhaps it was because of his previous incarnation that Yang Junshan could feel and comprehend much better than his age, and was easy to cultivate with multitasking.
Sometimes, Yang Junshan couldn’t tell whether he was being reborn with the previous incarnation or just prediction of a dream. However, there was one thing that Yang Junshan could confirm. That dream-like experience did have an extremely effect on him.
Such as the mature mind far surpassing the level of his peers, and the completed Fifth Earth Treasure Formula, and the mind sense that could take multitask.
This night, Yang Junshan had been cultivating for a long time until moon was overhead. It wasn’t that he was tired, but his body had reached the limit to holding the spiritual energy.
His body was still not strong enough. Otherwise, with Yang Junshan’s strong will that surpassed that of his peers, he would have been able to hold on longer. However, Yang Junshan was only 12 years old, and he was good enough to pull a stone mulberry bow.
Early the next morning, Yang Junshan woke up early and saw his second brother Yang Junming and his little sister Yang Junxin, who had already posed and practiced a set of fist technique.
This fist technique was called Wild Bull Fist. It was a boxing technique passed down by the Yang family’s juniors. It was mainly used to train the strength of the body. All of Yang family members had to learn this technique to toughen their bodies, including seven-years-old Yang Junxin.
When Yang Junshan came out of the house, Yang Junxin, who was panting from playing Wild Bull Fist, stopped and shouted, “Alright, my big brother is lazy again, and he’s lazy every time!”
Han Xiumei was cooking breakfast and stuck her head out of the kitchen. “Little girl, don’t be lazy. Your big brother has tested his Immortal Spiritual Holes. He cultivated too hard last night, so he was late in the morning. When your second brother and you are ten years old, and have tested your Immortal Spiritual Holes, you two would also go to cultivate by the spiritual well in the backyard at night.”
Yang Junshan wiped his face with cold water and made a face at his little sister. Then, he posed to practice the Wild Bull Fist with his younger brother and sister.
Yang Junshan’s Wild Bull Fist was different from his brother and sister. Every time he punched, he let out a roar, that was like a newborn calf. His legs were tightened and his waist was full of strength. His arms were pressing down, and his neck was full of vigor. Even his eyes were wide open because of the roar. There really was a spirit that wasn’t afraid of tigers.
In contrast, Yang Junping was much more like a skinny cow, and his strength was far weak. Yang Junxin was simply a newborn calf, stumbling and toddling, only to show a posture.
However, although Yang Junshan’s Wild Bull Fist was far better than his brother and sister, his practice today was quite different. Perhaps it was because he had experienced a lifetime of experience, or because he had practiced the Fifth Earth Treasure Formula. Yang Junshan felt that the power of his fist was increasing greatly, and his moves were perfectly smooth and sophisticated, as if he had practiced for a long time.
Not only did Yang Junshan’s progress quickly attract Han Xiumei’s attention, even Yang Junping and Yang Junxin felt the difference of Yang Junshan. They couldn’t help stopping their punches to watch Yang Junshan’s every moves of the Wild Bull Fist.
“Hey — —, Ha!!!”
Every punch was followed by a roar from Yang Junshan. He could feel that every muscle on his body had been moved, and his major tendons bulged under his skin when he was practicing the Wild Bull Fist. He could clearly feel his own strength got more strengthening and toughness.
In fact, the Wild Bull Fist was no great fist technique. It could only be used to strengthen the skin and flesh. At best, it was only good enough in the low-grade body refining techniques.
In his previous life, Yang Junshan had learned a medium-grade body refining technique, called Ground Rolling Fist. It was enough to exercise his muscles and bones, and was much better than the Wild Bull Fist. However, when practicing this fist technique, he needed to lie on the ground and do different rolling motions. No matter how to see it, he still seemed quite embarrassed.
When he was done with the Wild Bull Fist, he broke out in a hot sweat. He washed himself with cold water, and heard Han Xiumei saying: ” The Wild Bull Fist practiced by Shan’er is really good.”
Yang Junshan definitely knew what level he had accomplished. He smiled and said, “Your son is a bit enlightened. After all, I have to go to the Hundred Sparrows Mountain. If I didn’t make any progress, how can I do that!”
Han Xiumei was clearly unhappy when hearing the words of Hundred Sparrows Mountain. However, she was reluctant to rain on his parade as her son was happy. She forced a smile and said, “Take a break and wait for your father to come back for breakfast. Today, we have more than enough spiritual rice water and spiritual wheat cakes.”
His second brother and little sister jumped up happily. Although Yang Junshan’s family was kind of rich, they couldn’t afford to eat the spiritual rice and and spiritual wheat three times a day. It might be for Yang Junshan who was going to the Hundred Sparrows Mountain the day after tomorrow.
Spiritual rice and spiritual wheat was some kind of low-grade spiritual plant. It was easy to grow, and had a large yield. It contained a small amount of spirit energy and was easily absorbed, so cultivators liked eating them as main food.
However, the so-called “large” yield was just relative to other spiritual plants. Spirit farmers cultivated spiritual rice, but compared to the ordinary grain, spiritual grain needed rather harsh condition to grow. Therefore, so even the spirit farmers were difficult to build self-sufficiency in spiritual grain. Most of them still majored on ordinary grain, with spiritual grain as a supplementary.
Although Yang Junshan’s family was considered wealthy in the village, Han Xiumei who did housework, only cooked spiritual rice and spiritual dishes once a day, for lunch. For supper, there was mostly mixed rice of spiritual rice and ordinary rice, while in the morning, it could be only ordinary food. Busy seasons were different.
Yang Junshan didn’t see Yang Tiangang after he finished practicing the Wild Bull Fist, so he asked, “Mother, where’s Dad?”
Han Xiumei pointed at the back of the house and said, “In the backyard. It is the fair of Huang Tu town today. Your father is planning to go to the town and right now he’s feeding the horse-carry beast.”
“It is the town fair today?” Yang Junshan was glad, “I’m going with Father!”
Han Xiumei revealed a “I know you will” expression on her face. “Our little horse-carry beast is as tall as a man, so it should be fine to carry you. As long as your father agrees.”
Yang Junshan laughed, and took the mulberry bow that Yang Tiangang gave him a few days ago from the shelf. The strength of the bow was as much as that of ten buckets. When his father had just bought the bow, Yang Junshan could only draw it by 70%, but now he could easily draw it to full.
After picking up a pot of bamboo & feather arrows, Yang Junshan came to the threshing floor beyond the courtyard, on which a grass target was fifty steps away. He begun to practice with bows and arrows.
As soon as he drew the bow, Yang Junshan felt that his archery might have improved a lot, just as his Wild Bull Fist technique. Following the familiar and long lost feeling, Yang Junshan shot out seven arrows in succession, and each of them was a bull’s eye.
In his previous shootings, he could at most hit three or fives bull’s eyes out of ten arrows, even though he had trained for more than a year.
Yang Junshan’s heart was stirred. The sudden improvement in his Wild Bull Fist was already astonishing to Mother this morning. In addition, the fact that he had been cultivating by the spiritual well until midnight could not be unseen by his parents. If his archery suddenly got a lot of improvement too, even his parents would suspect whether he still was their son.
Yang Junshan couldn’t help but smile bitterly. He intentionally shot a few partial arrows, and eighteen arrows of thirty finally hit the bull’s eyes. The remaining ones all hit the target’s surroundings. Even so, this was still an extremely good result since Yang Junshan had begun to practice archery.
“Significant improvements!”
Yang Junshan retrieved his arrows from the grass target and saw Yang Tiangang standing in front of the gate. He had obviously been watching him practice.
Yang Tiangang had just raised his foot to knock the ash from the tobacco pot. He casually grabbed a handful of grass under the yard fence, and wiped the big pot for a bit, joking, “I was still a bit worried about your safety in the Hundred Sparrows Mountain. It seems that you indeed have some confidence!”
Yang Junshan smiled complacently and said, “That’s right. If I’m not sure, how can I dare to venture into the Hundred Sparrows Mountain?”
Yang Tiangang stretched out his hand and tapped on Yang Junshan’s head with the tobacco rod. Yang Junshan had already prepared and was trying his best to dodge it, but in the end, he could still not dodge it. It hurt Yang Junshan a lot that he bared his teeth and shouted in pain.
Yang Tiangang just smiled and said, “Don’t be complacent. If you go to the Hundred Sparrows Mountain, how can a target be standing there just still. This is different from a live target to a death target.”
Yang Junshan did know it. In fact, as long as he could practice for a day or two, he would be able to recover some of his previous life’s standards, and it would be good enough to handle with paddock in Hundred Sparrows Mountain.
Yang Tiangang flicked his thumb in his palm, and a shiny item was thrown at Yang Junshan.
Yang Junshan quickly took it in his hand and looked at it. A round item with a square hole in center appeared in his palm. Yang Junshan’s face immediately lit up, “Jade coin!”
Yang Tiangang turned around and walked into the courtyard. He said, “Have some breakfast and go to the fair with me. This jade coin is a gift for you. Buy what you want.”