Chapter 108: Martial Arts Hall

August 16th.

Morning.

Seeing Pei Ye opened his eyes on the bed, and what came into view were the gray and old wooden beams built horizontally and vertically on the roof.

Too familiar scenes can bring people a feeling of comfort, as if nothing had happened, and that heavy rain was just yesterday.

But thinking carefully, too many complex things were indeed stuffed into these ten days.

Seeing Pei Ye turned over and got out of bed. No matter how desperate the situation is, it will eventually pass, and when everything returns to peace, the remaining people still have to continue to walk their own paths.

The Jin Qiu Wu Bi in Bowang Prefecture will start on the 7th of September, only twenty days away. He has to start preparing for this matter seriously.

He is actually not unfamiliar with the name of this grand event. On the first day he entered the martial arts hall, he knew from the masters: being able to participate in the "Three Competitions" of the prefecture city is the highest honor of the small city martial arts hall.

Because the Divine Capital Martial Examination is held in early summer, Bowang Prefecture will hold three grand martial competitions covering the whole prefecture in autumn, winter, and spring, confirming three quotas to go to the capital.

However, although Seeing Pei Ye is familiar with this name, he doesn't know much about this grand event, because it has always had nothing to do with him.

Of course, now it has.

Yesterday he greeted Master Huang, saying that he would go to the martial arts hall to ask for advice today, and decided to practice in the martial arts hall these days before departure.

Master Huang has taught students for more than twenty years in the martial arts hall and has brought more than ten students to participate in the Three Competitions. He is truly clear about this set of things.

After breakfast, he originally planned to leave the black cat at home to let it practice quietly, but the black cat jumped onto his shoulder. So Seeing Pei Ye brought it, took his sword, thought about it, and picked up Heart-Slicing Glaze.

As long as he has a little time these days, he will remove dragon blood for this sword.

And after this dragon blood condensed into a cold edge, the energy contained is much richer. In itself, the salary absorbing Mystic Qi to grow is already extremely fast, and now it occasionally goes down a few "supplements", and after a few days, the two small buds in the Dantian have grown a circle, and Seeing Pei Ye feels that after two more days, it may turn into two lives.

Seeing Pei Ye used his sword box to pack Heart-Slicing Glaze and carried it on his back, kicked the crooked old broken courtyard gate straight and locked it, and strode toward the north of the city.

Turning through a few alleys and entering the main street in the north of the city, the four words "Old Lu Wine Shop" hung steadily on the side of the street, as if it hadn't been affected by this disaster at all—in fact, as soon as the rain stopped, it reopened.

Seeing Pei Ye lifted the cloth curtain. The wine guests inside were indeed much sparser, and the noisy and lively atmosphere of that day was gone.

The familiar figure was still busy at the counter.

Seeing Pei Ye walked closer: "Uncle Lu, get two gourds of wine."

"Yo! Little Pei! You are also fine, really good!" Lu Youcai raised his head. Although those two knife-like brows stood up in an instant, Seeing Pei Ye still captured their original appearance of drooping heavily.

"I am fine, what's wrong with you Uncle Lu, did that rain hurt you?"

"Fortunately, the family is safe." Lu Youcai sighed lightly, "It's just the wine I piled in the courtyard... sigh, forty-odd barrels, it's the stock for the next year, all destroyed."

"Ah..." Seeing Pei Ye called out regretfully.

He probably knew Lu Youcai's family situation. Although it couldn't be counted as poor, it couldn't be counted as wealthy either. He relied on the small wine shop passed down by his father to live steadily. A few days ago, Old Zhang Wine Shop closed, and it should have been a time for Old Lu's shop to grow, but now the stock was all destroyed. Not to mention growing, even the capital couldn't be recovered.

For the next whole year, Lu Youcai had to find ways to scrape together to support the family's living, and also borrow money to brew new wine. But the disaster had just passed, and how many families were well-off?

"No way..." Lu Youcai sighed, reached out, "Where is the wine gourd?"

"Lost, get me two new ones."

"Yo, looks like life is not tight." Lu Youcai smiled.

"No matter how tight, you have to spend and drink."

"This talk makes sense—the outside is still crying and mourning, do you know why I opened the shop immediately?" Lu Youcai took two gourds from under the counter, rinsed them, turned to pick up the wine, and chattered, "Since I was a child running errands and helping in the shop, the neighbors in the north of the city have been drinking here. For more than thirty years, everyone is used to it."

"So no matter what happens, I should open the shop, and when others see it, they know that life is still the same, so they won't be so panicked."

Lu Youcai turned his head and put the two full gourds on the counter, sighed: "However, it won't be open for many days. After these two barrels are sold, I will find a way to make a living."

"It's okay, it's not a year of starving to death now." Seeing Pei Ye comforted, "No matter what, you can survive this year. When the new wine comes out, it will be fine."

"Yes, it is like this." Lu Youcai sighed long.

"It's already fine Uncle Lu, the whole family is safe! How does that saying go? Fortune hurts wealth, no fortune hurts oneself, right." Seeing Pei Ye smiled.

"Damn! Stinky boy!" Lu Youcai laughed and scolded, "Turned back to me!"

"Hehe." Seeing Pei Ye counted money from his pocket, "This time it's eight coins—oh right, and the gourd, how much for the gourd Uncle Lu?"

"Why, last time you said you were a poor ghost and didn't dare to owe, now you are a great hero of Fenghuai, still poor?"

"Poor Uncle Lu." Seeing Pei Ye smiled. In fact, he could be considered to have a bright future, but now Lu Youcai was in distress, so he naturally wouldn't take this advantage.

Lu Youcai rolled his eyes: "Poor your father, your Uncle Lu can't afford to treat you to this little thing? Get out!"

Seeing Pei Ye smiled helplessly, took back the money, lifted the two gourds and said goodbye.

Then it was another walk through streets and alleys, arriving at the North Bridge. This was just the boundary eroded by the frost, and the martial arts hall inside was lucky not to be disturbed.

Seeing Pei Ye arrived at the gate of the martial arts hall, only to see the gate wide open. Looking up, he saw Master Huang sitting under the eaves flipping through two pages of official documents.

"Master Huang!" Seeing Pei Ye called, "Why is there no one today?"

"These days, parents are not at ease with children going out. But it is also agreed that it will be restored tomorrow." Master Huang stared at him and lowered his head to continue flipping, "I just asked Magistrate Chang for the official document issued by the prefecture—speaking of which, no one from our martial arts hall has gone up in these years."

"Then I count as reviving the prestige." Seeing Pei Ye walked over with a smile and handed a gourd of wine to Master Huang.

"This talk is not empty—only wine? Get some side dishes."

"It's not drinking now, isn't it to talk about the Jin Qiu Wu Bi?"

"Talking doesn't delay drinking either." Master Huang ran back to the room with the wine, and after a while, brought out a basin of peanuts.

"Boiled in the morning." Master Huang put down the official document, peeled two peanuts and poured them into his mouth, vaguely said, "Let me think about where to start."

Seeing Pei Ye sat next to him, opened the sword box, and put his hand on Heart-Slicing Glaze to absorb dragon blood.

"Oh! What is this?!" Master Huang's body leaned over at once.

"Small toy... oh, you talk first, I'll show you after you finish."

"Fine..." Master Huang retracted his eyes that were staring round, and couldn't help but peek again, "Really good to look at..."

Thank you to Boss kakteen for the reward!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 109 =====