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Chapter 33: 33

“No, wait . There’s no way the farm could produce fakes, right?”

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Jian He took out another qi pellet and studied it carefully . In appearance, the qi pellet resembled one of those Hawthorn Pills—appetite supplements—and was dark maroon in color, like red dates .

“Eh? Maroon?”

Jiang He fished out another qi pellet from his pocket—the one he found on Cordo’s body . The shape of that pellet was deformed, but both its color and scent was no different from the qi pellet in his hands .

“Well, turns out that this was a qi pellet as well . What a waste… I wouldn’t have spent a million bucks buying qi pellets from Mu Wanqiu if I knew what it was…” complained Jiang He .

But that was fine, since he would start growing them eventually . Nonetheless, what he grew could not be recycled as seeds, which was why the six normal qi pellets that remained had to be used as seeds .

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Returning to his room, Jiang He gulped down another one of the qi pellets he grew . But even before he could assume a meditative pose to cultivate his Strengthened Nine Yang Techniques, he had already digested the qi pellet .

Still, Jiang He monitored his internal organs this time . Noticing that faint vapors of True Qi were added to his already-abundant stores, he understood something right then .

“It seems that the qi pellets aren’t fake, but the ones I’ve grown are a little special . ”

After all, the qi pellets he grew melted away as soon as he put them in his mouth, directly converting to True Qi cultivation . Normal qi pellets, on the other hand, would require quiet meditation, and would take up to four days for a rank-four martial-artist to fully digest .

“Argh…” Jiang He breathed a long sigh, downing another qi pellet as he lay down on his bed and mumbled, “Though I’m spared the effort of cultivation, downing pills like this is soulless…”

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Whipping out his phone to browse the Internet, he continued to eat a qi pellet every three to five minutes . Since it also had a nice sweet and sour taste, it was a much better snack than chocolate .

Then, after around twenty qi pellets…

Boom!

The qi in Jiang He’s body suddenly surged .

“Rank-four Advanced, just like that?”

Putting his phone down, Jiang He took out a cucumber . The golden cucumber was palpating a faint sweet scent, and yet when he smelled it, he felt like… vomiting .

How many cucumbers had he eaten recently? Even exotic delicacies got boring if one were to eat them every day . Nonetheless, scowling and steeling himself, Jiang He took a bite .

“Damn it, I’ll have one before I sleep every night . Everything can wait until after I’ve awakened!”

There was immeasurable resolve in Jiang He’s eyes . He was a man after all, so he should be hard on himself . Since when was everything smooth sailing on the path of cultivation anyway?

2

Only after he finished the cucumber did Jiang He go to sleep, and he slept all the way until noon . He then headed to a small diner at the entrance to the village, had some spicy soup to cleanse his palate, and bought a bag of carrot seeds before leisurely heading home .

When he returned to the village, he saw Wang Zhong coming towards him . That head of his was quite reflective under the sun .

“Where are you going, Chief Wang?” asked Jiang He .

Wang Zhong was wearing a suit and had a briefcase squeezed beneath his armpit . He was also walking quite fast, but paused when he heard Jiang He calling out to him .

“I have a meeting in the city . By the way, I’ve told the higher-ups about your house’s condition . After my meeting, I’ll head over to the civil department and see if I can bring forward your old house renovation funding . ”

Jiang He quickly waved him off . “Don’t trouble yourself . ”

Though Jiang He enjoyed teasing Wang Zhong, he had actually done much for the village since he took the post as village chief . And while he may be rich, he wouldn’t try to embezzle from the village for some spare change .

Not to mention, he used the connections he gained through his previous work as a contractor to help the village . For example, the village only gained a proper tarred road after he became chief . As a matter of fact, that road extended from the eastern end down to every house in the village .

After musing to himself for a moment, Jiang He said, “Chief Wang, I heard from Siyu that your son’s construction team is returning tomorrow, right? Incidentally, I have some spare cash on hand, and I could use them building me a mansion . ”

“What airs are you putting on, brat? Do you think I don’t know how much money your family has?” scolded Wang Zhong . “And don’t Siyu here, Siyu there—my daughter has a name!”

“Alright, Chief Wang . I’ll discuss that with Siyu,” replied Jiang He in a chipper tone . With that, he strutted away .

“That brat…”

Wang Zhong stroked his bald spot while watching Jiang He from behind, breaking into a smile despite his insult . They were from the same village after all, and Wang Zhong knew Jiang He down to his roots .

“He has quite the mouth on him, but he’s a good lad, I guess . Since he is all that’s left of his family, Wang Siyu won’t have to worry about a grandmother-in-law’s cold shoulder or a mother-in-law’s bullying if she does get together with him…

4

***

Back home, Jiang He planted the carrot seeds over the ashes of the qi pellet tree . After he was done, he whipped out his phone and started to once again search online for more martial art manuals .

“I can plant one more manual before the farm reaches level three… I’ll have to think carefully about what to plant… I guess I don’t need anymore defensive arts . ”

“My Indestructible Diamond is not weak in the first place, and the True Qi cultivated from the Nine Yang Technique provides a strong protection to my body too . Cordo’s blade didn’t really work against me, and he was a rank-four pinnacle . Perhaps only individuals who are rank-five pinnacle or above can hurt me . ”

“As for offensive martial arts… I have over a thousand farm points now, so I can learn two more styles out of the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms . Blade? Sword? Spear? I am quite keen on blades, but I don’t have any blade weapons…”

3

Jiang He eventually decided to learn a martial art based on posture or movement .

“What a pity that my farm level is too low to grow some sage techniques, or I would have planted some Six Path of Reincarnation Fists or Heaven Devouring Mastery to pluck stars and bring down moons . ”

4

After all, this was a world of martial arts .

It was not too good to plant those stuff . Jiang He would have to wait until he reached a higher martial arts ranks before learning those martial arts that would overturn world views and petrify others .

As a matter of fact, Jiang He did try to plant the Scripture of Ethics (1), but that did not work . Still, there was no need to think too much when it comes to posture martial arts .

“Throughout the history of Wuxia, the most famous posture martial art would probably be Treading Over Ripples . That said, the most one awesome would still be Wei Yixiao’s Qinggong…”

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However, after scrounging through the web for half a day, Jiang He realized that…

Wei Yixiao’s Qinggong didn’t have a name .

Awkward .

“Forget it then, I’ll just make up a name . Baidu says that his Qinggong moves are like a bat or a phantom, coming and going without leaving a trail as if he were merely a breeze or smoke . Well, then, it shall be named…”

Lifting his pen, Jiang He wrote down the name of the cultivation manual: Breezing Smoke Flight .

5

“Okay, that’s a good name, and now comes the mnemonic rhyming… eh?”

Jiang He ran into another problem . If the name of the marital art was not even available on the Internet, how was he supposed to get any mnemonic chants?

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“Whatever! I’ll just have to make something up . Worst case scenario, it’ll just be a failed attempt at planting!”

Groaning, Jiang He was about to start writing again when a red Porsche stopped outside his gates, and out stepped Mu Wanqiu . She was still wearing leather spandex, but unlike before, she had grown…

Though she was not yet a D cup, she was at least a C cup now, which was a far cry from before when she was flat enough to be a writing board . Now, she walked tall with a confidence-filled stride .

***

Translator’s note:

1 . Scripture of Ethics, also known as the Tao Te Ching or the Daodejing, is a fundamental text for religious or philosophical Taoism .

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