Chapter 46: Breakthrough

Chen Mo picked up two thick, fatty pieces of red-braised pork and tucked them into a steamed bun that had just come out of the pot and was still steaming.

The juices from the red-braised pork soaked into the leavened bun, making one salivate just by looking at it; Chen Mo finished it in just two or three bites.

"Let's just have a simple lunch for now; I bought two hind hocks, I'll stew them all for you in a bit."

Zhao Yu smiled and brought over a large bowl of clear-stewed lamb chops, along with a small dish of raw garlic sprouts tossed with sesame oil and salt.

Chen Mo nodded and took a bite of the garlic sprouts first; they were fresh and crisp, releasing a slight spicy garlic flavor in his mouth, perfect for cutting through the grease.

"Don't busy yourself, come eat together," Chen Mo said, swallowing the food in his mouth.

"There's still a soup in the pot, I need to go watch it," Zhao Yu said, not sitting down, turning back toward the kitchen.

Before long, she brought out an earthenware pot containing a milky-white chicken soup, with a layer of yellow chicken fat floating on top; one look told him it was an old hen.

"Someone happened to be selling an old hen on the street today, so I bought one; this soup is incredibly savory." Zhao Yu looked proud, clearly very confident in her cooking.

She first used chopsticks to tear apart the thoroughly stewed old hen, then took two coarse ceramic bowls and wooden spoons to serve two bowls of soup.

"Here, eat more," she said, handing the bowl with more meat than soup to Chen Mo.

"You eat too," he said with a smile, taking it and carefully tasting the flavor; the chicken soup was mellow and quite delicious.

Chen Mo loosened his belt and tucked in, eating the large bowl of red-braised pork first, followed by sixteen steamed buns.

He then polished off a small basin of lamb chops and finally drank a few bowls of chicken soup to fill the gaps; after finishing the meal, he felt as if his throat was oozing oil.

Inside his dantian, wisps of Qi and Blood power were continuously transforming and surging into the Transformation Pearl.

After the meal, Zhao Yu brewed a pot of tea and sprinkled in some white sugar; both the tea leaves and sugar had just been bought, and it seemed she was usually reluctant to use them herself.

"I've earned quite a bit from the business during this time; this is your share of the dividends." Zhao Yu took the money she had prepared from her Huai.

She hadn't forgotten that when she started the business, Chen Mo's money wasn't a loan, but an investment.

Besides, if not for Chen Mo, her business likely wouldn't have been so easy to start.

"This much?" Chen Mo was slightly surprised; the small pouch of money Zhao Yu produced contained mostly copper coins, but there were also a few pieces of broken silver, totaling perhaps over one tael.

One had to consider how long she had been in business; it hadn't even been two months yet, and during that time she had made two sets of clothes for him—even if she made them herself, the fabric alone cost four mace of silver.

The meals he had eaten during his two subsequent leaves cost three or four mace of silver in ingredients alone.

To have such dividends under these circumstances meant that Zhao Yu had earned at least three taels of silver during this period; this income could be considered quite substantial.

"Yes, the brothers from your military camp take care of me, often coming to my stall to eat, and out of respect for you, no one in town dares to come and bother me."

Zhao Yu smiled slightly; she was right about that.

Many Personal Soldiers in the camp knew that Chen Mo's wife ran a small food stall in town, so whenever they wanted to eat, they were willing to support the business.

Zhao Yu would also give them extra side dishes or add more oil when stir-frying.

But that wasn't the main reason; most Personal Soldiers rarely went out to eat, with taverns and gambling dens being their most frequent destinations.

The most important reason was that she was Chen Mo's wife, and Chen Mo was the foster son of Sun Jiangjun.

With this connection, whether it was the town constables or local loafers and ruffians, who would dare come to extort her?

Others had to spend silver to grease palms just to do business peacefully, and of the one tael of silver they worked hard to earn, most would be stripped away layer by layer.

But she could keep whatever she earned, and no one dared to target her.

It was precisely because of this that she, as an outsider, could sustain her stall in town; otherwise, an outsider trying to do business without greasing palms would likely have their stall overturned on the first day.

"You keep this money for now; I'll still have to pay when I come back to eat in the future," Chen Mo said with a smile.

The feeling of having a home was indeed different from before; previously, when he came to town, he would eat in a rush and leave immediately.

Now, not only was there a place to stop and rest, but Zhao Yu could also help him wash his clothes, saving him time.

Not to mention that as her business grew, he didn't even have to spend money on food.

This way, he could accumulate Qi and Blood faster, and any extra silver could be used to purchase medicinal decoctions.

Chen Mo's return to town this time was also with the intention of finding a raw medicine shop to buy some decoctions for nourishing Qi and Blood to accelerate his progress.

He still had some money; after killing that Qingyi Daoren, Chen Mo had obtained a fair amount of silver, plus the silver his foster father had given him when he redeemed Zhao Yu.

He now had nearly fifty taels of pure silver on hand; this was not a small sum and was enough to afford nourishing decoctions for a while.

"Alright, then I'll keep it for now." Zhao Yu did not decline, adding with a smile, "I also made you a new set of undergarments; you can try them on later."

"I'll try them later. Do you know which raw medicine shop in town is reliable? I need to use some decoctions for my martial arts training."

Compared to himself, Zhao Yu had spent more time in town and was more familiar with it; asking her about this wouldn't be wrong.

"Yes. You should go to the medicine shop of Liu San and Doctor Liu in the west of town; they are long-time residents and won't cheat you."

Zhao Yu was quite familiar with this because some medicinal herbs were not just medicine, but also spices used for stewing meat.

Having obtained the shop's name, Chen Mo set off immediately; a moment later, he walked out of the medicine shop chewing on a slice of Red Ginseng, looking slightly pained.

There was no other reason; the herbs were simply too expensive. Chen Mo had prepared three doses of Blood Nourishing Decoction with Fleeceflower Root as the main ingredient, each dose costing one tael of silver.

He also bought a whole piece of processed Red Ginseng; this single piece of Red Ginseng alone cost a full ten taels.

If he used these things sparingly, they could support his cultivation for about a month.

If he used them freely, they would last at most ten days.

From this, it was clear that the saying "scholars are poor, martial artists are rich" was not without reason.

As he swallowed the ginseng slice processed with white sugar, Chen Mo could clearly sense the Qi and Blood power transformed by the Red Ginseng continuously surging into the Transformation Pearl.

At this rate, even if he couldn't undergo a complete transformation before the scholar exam, he certainly would be able to by the time of the provincial exam.

He brought the purchased decoctions home and gave the three doses to Zhao Yu; these decoctions needed to be simmered for about an hour.

He would come home to drink the decoctions every time he had leave.

As for the Red Ginseng slices, they were effective whether eaten directly or steeped in water, so he could take them to the military camp and eat two slices every day.

Although the effect was not as good as the decoction, it had the advantage of being convenient and cheap.

Peaceful days always passed extremely quickly; half a month flew by, and Chen Mo's Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist logically ushered in a breakthrough.

Three or five days after the fist technique broke through, Chen Mo went to find his foster father, intending to ask the old man for an Inner Qi Cultivation Method.

His Dantian Internal Qi had now accumulated quite a bit, but because he had never possessed an Inner Qi Cultivation Method, he could only watch the Inner Qi within his dantian helplessly.

Only by obtaining a true Inner Qi Cultivation Method to study and understand in detail could he begin to attempt to utilize this power.

The update is late, I am truly sorry.

(End of this chapter)