Ten days passed in a flash, and Zhao Lin's body developed at a visible rate.
First, his height. He had shot up nearly three centimeters. The rapid growth spurt left him feeling a bit awkward, and he would occasionally bump into things while walking.
His body had also grown much sturdier, especially his torso—his waist, abdomen, chest, back, and neck. Muscles began to layer and define themselves, and he was no longer as scrawny as he used to be.
He often got cramps while sleeping and would even wake up from the pain in the middle of the night. Zhao Lin knew this was caused by a calcium deficiency due to his rapid growth.
'I have to load up on meat, eggs, and dairy.'
He was relatively frugal with his money but was willing to spend a little more on food.
Every time he finished a meal, the Spirit Beast Scroll would absorb the Primordial Qi from the food and release a warm current that pushed his body to evolve.
'A good physique should be a huge advantage for practicing martial arts.'
Knowing that the martial path existed in this world, Zhao Lin had started to consider it himself.
'As a transmigrator, who didn't dream of becoming a martial hero or an immortal cultivator?'
Especially in a place like this, where the rule of law was weak and might made right, martial skill was the foundation for one's survival and security.
The Spirit Beast Scroll still had eight empty slots, and Zhao Lin had no plans to absorb new beast Essence Souls for the time being.
For one, his current knowledge was limited, so any choice he made might not be the right one.
If he absorbed an unsuitable Wild Beast Essence Soul, he would have wasted a slot for nothing.
Secondly, he worried that two Essence Souls might be too much for his body to handle. It would be counterproductive, making it better to just focus on his strength for now.
...
"Excuse me, is this the Six Harmonies Courtyard?"
In West City, Qinghe County, a plainly dressed young man stood before the main gate of a large residence. A whole pig was slung over his shoulder as he rapped on the door with the bronze knocker.
The youth was none other than Zhao Lin. To make money as quickly as possible, he specifically chose jobs with heavy cargo and long routes, as one trip could earn him a few extra coins.
Because he was hardworking and didn't quibble over details, he quickly won the foreman's trust. They no longer sent someone to supervise him, allowing him to make deliveries alone.
"What is it?" The main gate opened, and a sallow-faced young man walked out.
"The delivery slip says to deliver to the Six Harmonies Courtyard on Qingchun Street. This is the place, right?"
Zhao Lin took a slip from inside his shirt and handed it over.
The sallow-faced youth took it, glanced at it, and nodded. "This is the place. Put it in the courtyard."
Zhao Lin walked in, still carrying the pig, and looked around curiously.
"HUP! HAH! HEY..."
Winter wasn't over yet, but a dozen or so young men were dressed only in thin training clothes, some even bare-chested, practicing their horse stance, lifting stone locks, and tempering their strength in the courtyard.
That in itself wasn't too surprising; he'd seen martial artists in his previous life train like this. But when Zhao Lin looked toward a few men on the east side with black belts tied around their waists, his eyes lit up.
Some were thrusting their palms into steaming hot iron sand and rubbing them; others were striking their entire bodies with melon-sized iron hammers...
Two others were sparring with fists and feet. Every blow landed solidly, their movements stirring the air with such force that Zhao Lin found it slightly difficult to breathe as he passed by.
'Seeing is believing. This was the real deal!'
"Excuse me, how much is the tuition to train here?"
Zhao Lin put down the pig, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and asked.
When the sallow-faced youth saw someone so young doing such back-breaking labor, he didn't look down on him. In fact, he thought more highly of him. His tone was mild as he said, "Our Liuhe Sect is quite strict when it comes to accepting disciples. We consider aptitude and character."
"Those are apprentices. They pay two taels of silver per month, and the fee is paid three months at a time."
Zhao Lin gasped, stunned by the figure.
'Six thousand coins!'
He thought the saying "scholars are poor and warriors are rich" needed an update. 'It's more like scholars are rich, and warriors are absurdly wealthy.'
"So, you want to learn?"
The sallow-faced youth asked with a smile.
Zhao Lin admitted openly, "I do."
The sallow-faced youth nodded. "You have a very good build. Your aptitude shouldn't be a problem."
He left it at that.
Zhao Lin thanked him and walked out of the courtyard, letting out a soft sigh.
'The tuition was so high it was prohibitive.'
Around noon, Zhao Lin sat on an embankment, watching the boats moored by the shore and slowly eating two steamed buns.
'Life was getting better, little by little. The initial crisis of just surviving was over, and I'd even fulfilled my wish of eating steamed buns.'
'The next step is to get my older brother out, make sure the whole family is fed and clothed, and then in a year or two, once I've saved enough money, find a place to learn martial arts...'
"Brother Zhao! Taking a break, I see!"
Zhao Lin snapped out of his thoughts and looked up to see Zhou Pao walking over.
"It's nothing. Just spacing out."
"Come on, let's go grab a couple of drinks at the restaurant."
The laborers didn't have it easy, and most of them pinched every coin. Only Zhou Pao was a big spender, with all his money going toward filling his belly.
But the old fellow was a bachelor; if he ate his fill, his whole family was fed. So, no one said anything about it.
"Maybe ask someone else, Brother Pao. I just ate."
Zhao Lin politely declined. 'I'd rather use the time to take another job,' he thought. 'And if someone buys you a meal, you have to find a way to pay them back.'
Zhou Pao squatted down, lowering his voice. "Humor me, brother. There's something I need to talk to you about."
Seeing how serious he was, Zhao Lin was taken aback, wondering what he wanted with him.
But since he had put it that way, it was hard to refuse again. He followed him into a roadside restaurant, where they found a quiet corner to sit down.
"Brother, we've known each other for a while now. Aren't you curious about how I got this scar on my face?"
Zhou Pao ordered a pot of wine, a plate of pig's head meat, and a plate of peanuts. When the food and wine arrived, he took a sip of wine before asking Zhao Lin with a smile.
Zhao Lin picked at the food with his chopsticks for a moment, then stopped. He replied, "The saying goes that one shouldn't pick at old scars. If you hadn't brought it up, I wouldn't have asked."
"It's no secret. A bear licked me," Zhou Pao said, stroking the scar.
"What kind of bear?"
"You could say that. But this kind of bear isn't like your ordinary black bear. It can walk upright on two legs and is far more ferocious. We colloquially call it a 'man-bear'."
As he spoke, Zhou Pao raised his cup and drained it in one gulp.
Zhao Lin didn't speak, just refilled his wine cup.
Zhou Pao continued, "My family were Hunters for generations. I started going into the mountains to hunt with my old man when I was ten. The year I turned seventeen, my dad and I accidentally got lost in what we call a 'soul-numbing maze'."
"You know what a 'soul-numbing maze' is, right?"
"I don't," Zhao Lin said, shaking his head.
Zhou Pao explained, "Deep in the old mountain forests, everywhere looks the same, and there are no landmarks to get your bearings. It's easy to get lost in an unfamiliar place. We Hunters call that a 'soul-numbing maze'."
"But my dad was a veteran Hunter. He told me that you just have to observe how the trees grow. The side facing the sun has denser leaves—that's south. The side with sparser leaves is north."
"We found our direction and started heading out of the mountains, but we unexpectedly stumbled into a man-bear's territory. Now, normally, bears are actually afraid of people. They'll usually hide when they see you."
"But a man-bear is different. The moment it saw us, it charged."
"My dad and I ran for our lives, but we couldn't outrun it. Seeing that he wasn't going to make it, my dad gave me a hard shove and yelled at me to play dead. Then the man-bear snapped his spine with a single swipe of its paw..."
Zhao Lin said sympathetically, "Your dad saved your life."
"He did."
Zhou Pao pointed to the scar on his left cheek and said, "I lay on the ground playing dead. The bear didn't know if I was really dead or just faking it, so it came over and gave my face a lick."
"At that moment, I felt like a steel brush was scraping across my face. The pain was excruciating, but to stay alive, I gritted my teeth and endured it. And my face ended up like this."
Zhao Lin couldn't help but feel a surge of solemn respect. 'This is a hard man, to have endured that,' he thought. But then another thought occurred to him, 'Why is he telling me this story?'
Zhou Pao raised his wine cup, tilted his head back, and drained it. A bone-deep hatred shot from his eyes as he said, word by word, "That bear killed my father and left me not quite human, not quite a ghost. I swear I will kill it and have my revenge!"