Chapter 56: Re-entering the Jianghu

As the saying goes, after Laba is the New Year.

After Laba, the New Year’s Eve arrived quickly.

On New Year’s Eve, Shi Feizhe made a big batch of dumplings and even brought out some aged vinegar.

Fuel, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea—the price of vinegar before large-scale industrial production was surprisingly not cheap.

“Old Man, time for dumplings! You have to eat these dumplings with vinegar!” Shi Feizhe carried two large bowls of dumplings and a small bowl of aged vinegar, saying, “Eat one bowl first, there’s more in the pot.”

On the mountain, Old Man was responsible for growing vegetables, and Shi Feizhe was responsible for cooking.

It wasn’t that Shi Feizhe didn’t want to grow vegetables, but Old Man found his farm work clumsy. Especially tasks like plowing and watering, which Old Man did quickly and skillfully.

There was no helping it, Shi Feizhe had truly never done farm work before.

“Dumplings! Another year!” Seeing the dumplings, Old Man said, “I wonder if I’ll still be able to eat dumplings next year.”

“Ah? I think you can still hang on for a couple more years!” Shi Feizhe took a bite of a dumpling, pork and cabbage filling, so delicious!

“It’s New Year’s Eve, why don’t you say something auspicious! Like…” he continued.

“Like living to a hundred, right?” Old Man also took a bite of a dumpling, hearing Shi Feizhe talking nonsense again, he sneered.

“Heh…” Shi Feizhe, his thoughts exposed, said while eating his dumplings, “This vinegar is really sour!”

“For someone like me to be able to peacefully await death in the Jianghu is truly not easy!” Old Man said with pride.

“Ah, yes, yes, yes!” Shi Feizhe was too lazy to argue with him, not understanding what was so prideful about waiting to die. He said,

“After the New Year, I’m going down the mountain.”

“Oh? Starting your so-called rectification of the Jianghu?” Old Man didn’t even lift his eyelids, just took a sip of dumpling soup.

“Of course! I’ve seen the decline of the Jianghu’s atmosphere in recent years, now that my divine skill has reached a small level of mastery, it’s time to rectify the Jianghu!” Shi Feizhe said with a grin.

He wanted to go to Kongtong Mountain Market first, then find a place to open a martial arts academy!

On the one hand, he would improve his own cultivation, and on the other hand, he would begin his ideal of spreading martial arts throughout the land. He believed that in this process, he would definitely meet many like-minded people! That’s what would make the Jianghu interesting.

“Youth is good, even stupidity is different!” Old Man thought, there were actually such fools in the world.

He had experienced over a hundred years in this Jianghu.

Over a hundred years had passed, generations of Jianghu people had come and gone, but it was still the same Jianghu.

Filled with various sects, controlling various interests, behind every event, there were dirty deals and rules. The big sects ate the meat, the small sects drank the soup, together they tacitly formed the Jianghu order.

And a newcomer to the Jianghu like Shi Feizhe, without a sect or backing, was just a dish on the menu, a consumable for those sects.

Even someone invincible in the world could not withstand the combined forces of these sects, the combined forces of these interests.

Although every year there were famous newcomers in the Jianghu, even more died in unnoticed corners, swallowed whole without a trace.

Therefore, he really didn’t have much hope for Shi Feizhe.

He thought Shi Feizhe would probably be sold off as soon as he went down the mountain. He might even thank the person who sold him.

Passing on his skills to such a person seemed like a waste.

Forget it, let him take 《Ultimate》 to the grave with him.

“Heh… what do you know, old man! When you want to do something, you’re already halfway to success!”

“And the other half?”

“If you don’t succeed, you die trying! Do you want me to be like you, waiting to die somewhere when I’m old?”

“You still want to live to old age? That’s laughable! Who knows, you might be sold off after going down the mountain, toiling like an ox or a horse!”

“Nonsense, I’ve been toiling like an ox or a horse for so many years, how could I not know if I was being sold!”

“Heh… with your naivety, you never know!”

Late at night, the old and the young bickered as they ate dumplings. They had grown accustomed to this kind of life.

Day after day, time flew by, until the ice and snow melted, and it was the third month of spring.

One day, while Shi Feizhe was practicing his sword stance, he suddenly felt the “True Origin Sword Qi” in his dantian churning violently, then the sword Qi surged, filling his eight extraordinary meridians, flowing endlessly, forming a grand circulation.

✿✿✿

This was the small success stage of the 《True Origin Sword Finger Formula》, where true Qi flowed endlessly, roughly equivalent to the Qi Sea Realm, but also different from it.

Shi Feizhe felt neither joy nor sorrow, because he knew this day would come sooner or later, and it also meant that he had to go down the mountain and re-enter the Jianghu.

It had also been exactly three years since he came to this world.

So, he prepared a very sumptuous meal and bid farewell to Old Man.

After all, he was living in Old Man’s house, even though he had repaired it himself. He was eating the vegetables grown by Old Man, even though he cooked the meals himself.

“Yo! Such a feast, looks like you’re about to run away.” Old Man glanced at the four dishes and said.

“Indeed, my divine skill has reached a small level of mastery, I plan to descend the mountain soon.” Shi Feizhe said while carrying the dishes.

“Good, good, good, you’re leaving, I can finally have some peace!” Old Man said with great joy, “I was so afraid that I would die before you left, and even being buried in the backyard wouldn’t let me rest in peace!”

“…”

The old man had been bickering with Shi Feizhe for two years, using this tactic of hurting one thousand enemies and eight hundred of himself, leaving Shi Feizhe with no way to respond.

“Old Man, are you really dying?” Seeing Old Man say this, Shi Feizhe couldn’t help but ask.

A few years ago, when Shi Feizhe had just hidden in the mountains to practice martial arts, Old Man said he was about to die.

A few years later, Shi Feizhe’s sword finger had reached a small level of mastery, and Old Man was still saying he was about to die.

It felt like his martial arts hadn’t improved and time hadn’t passed!

“Really, I’m going to die this year!” Old Man said seriously.

“How about I bury you before I leave?” Shi Feizhe thought for a moment and said.

“No need! There’s a cave in the back mountain. I’ll go into the cave before I die and collapse it!” Old Man glanced at Shi Feizhe after hearing he wanted to bury him.

“There’s a cave in the back mountain, how come I didn’t know?”

“This is where I grew up as a child, it’s normal that you wouldn’t know!”

“That’s true, let’s eat.”

The next day, Shi Feizhe packed his belongings, bid farewell to Old Man, and prepared to descend the mountain.

“Hmm! Stone boy, who knows if we’ll ever meet again! I have a mnemonic for you, remember it.” Old Man said to Shi Feizhe from his rocking chair in the courtyard.

“Is it a powerful mnemonic?”

“When one day, you find your cultivation no longer increasing, think about this mnemonic, and you’ll know whether it’s powerful or not!”

“Are you kidding, if my cultivation doesn’t increase, wouldn’t that be when I’m invincible in the world?”

“Listen carefully. Heaven and man clash, heaven is above, man can be in heaven…” Old Man quickly finished reciting a thousand-word mnemonic, briefly explained it, and then said, “Go!”

Shi Feizhe bowed to him again, then turned and stepped into the Jianghu beyond the door.

Old Man looked at Shi Feizhe’s back, thought about the past few years in the wilderness, and all the strange people who had passed by, and sighed, “The freak, finally gone!”

He watched Shi Feizhe practice every day, thinking it was all wrong, but Shi Feizhe was getting stronger.

All the strange things he had encountered in decades were not as many as he had encountered in the past two years.

The Jianghu was truly unpredictable!

It was a pity that it had nothing to do with him anymore.

“I can finally have some peace!”

Once you enter the Jianghu, it’s as deep as the sea… and I am the sea!