Chapter 2: Learning the Art

  "Mmm, this soup smells so good! Tongtong, you've really grown up!"

  Grandma Li held a bowl of mushroom chicken soup, feeling emotional. Since her grandson told her he could practice martial arts seven days ago, these past few days have been like a dream come true. Her grandson's body has improved day by day, and in just a few days, his face is rosy and his spirit is refreshed. Moreover, he is more sensible than before and helps with household chores. He pulls weeds, cultivates the land, raises chickens, and feeds ducks, busying himself with joy. Every time it's mealtime, he actively lends a hand, from initially asking questions to helping with cooking, and in just a few days, his cooking skills have surpassed Grandma Li's decades of experience. Then, Yuan Futong naturally took over the cooking duties, serving three meals a day, making Grandma Li feel relieved and happy.

  In these seven days, Yuan Futong sat in meditation every night to cultivate the Three Yang Decree. During the day, he exercised his body, helped Grandma Li with chores, and read books to gain a deeper understanding of the world. More importantly, he picked up the culinary skills of his past life again. Through these few days of pondering new seasonings and ingredients, experimenting, and adapting, he was able to cook dishes that were as good as those in his memories from his past life. These dishes were all new styles for Grandma Li, so she couldn't help but praise Yuan Futong's culinary skills.

  Yuan Futong finally cleared all the cold poison from his body in these seven days, and his body felt better than ever before. He was full of energy, agile, and had finally shaken off his sickly state. In these seven days, he also became familiar with village life and rethought his next move.

  Yuan Futong now only has the San Yang Quan he memorized as a child, which is an internal skill, although its effect is very magical, but to make a name for himself, he still needs external skills to match. As for how to temper his bones and muscles, it's not in his original memory at all, and his past experiences are limited to running, push-ups, single bars, etc. To live well in this world, it's far from enough. He must find a master for himself, who can bring out his internal skills, and increase some income for his family.

  Under the current conditions, there are only two ways to increase income: hunting and gathering medicinal herbs. Both of these require professional skills. A small child who has never been in the mountains, never hunted, and doesn't know about medicine can't make money yet.

  Yuan Futong discussed his idea with his grandmother, and Grandma Li thought that Yuan Futong was still young and not ready to learn hunting yet. Instead, she suggested he study herbal medicine with Village Doctor Li Ke. Li Ke's father, Li Ming, had some connections with Yuan Futong's grandfather, Yuan Liren, and had learned many things from him. In his lifetime, Yuan Liren was in charge of purchasing medicinal herbs in the mountains and took care of many people in the village, showing great kindness to the Li family. This was also why Grandma Li returned to the village to live, as the villagers were kind and warm-hearted, taking good care of both her and her grandson, which was much better than their life in the city where they often suffered from mistreatment.

  Yuan Futong didn't learn the orthodox knowledge of medicinal herbs in the Yuan family because he left home early. In the past, it wasn't a big deal because he didn't have martial arts skills, and having knowledge but not being able to go into the mountains to pick herbs was useless. Now that he can cultivate, he naturally wants to learn these things. Fortunately, Li Ming had almost learned all of Yuan Liren's skills back then, and Li Ke also learned from Li Ming very well. In the village, picking and identifying herbs were his strong suits, and learning from him was almost as good as learning in the Yuan family's school. With the friendship between the older generation, Li Ke would definitely accept Yuan Futong as a disciple.

  After making up their minds, the old man and his grandson made some preparations, prepared a few gifts, and headed to Li Ke's home.

  When the two entered, Li Ke was drying medicine in the yard. Li Ke was over 30 years old, tall and handsome with a somewhat literary air. Seeing Grandma Li arrive, he hurried to welcome her: "Auntie's here! Fu Tong's also arrived, come on in quickly!"

  After entering the house and sitting down, Grandma Li said to Li Ke: "Little Ke, we've been friends for several lifetimes, so I won't be polite with you. Now that Fu Tong's body is fine, he wants to learn a skill from you, so he can have a bowl of rice to eat in the future."

  Li Ke took a look at Yuan Futong, seeing his rosy complexion and robust spirit. Grandma Li was also very calm when she mentioned this matter, without the usual tension of children. She just nodded her head.

  "There's nothing much to say, since Fu Tong wants to learn, I'll teach him well. This disciple is accepted."

  Grandma Li saw that Li Ke had readily agreed and quickly put down the gift, saying to Yuan Fu:

  "Hurry up and pay respects to Uncle Li."

  Yuan Futong had no choice, although he didn't want to perform this courtesy in his heart, the situation couldn't be helped. He could only kneel down honestly and kowtowed three times to Li Ke. The ceremony was over. Old Lady Li smiled and said: "Little Ke, I'm entrusting Futong to you, take good care of him."

  Li Ke nodded: Auntie, rest assured. If it weren't for Uncle Yuan back then, our family wouldn't be where we are today. I'll definitely teach him well and have him start learning about medicinal herbs from me tomorrow.

  Like this, Yuan Futong began his life of learning about herbs. After finishing breakfast and accompanying his grandmother to eat, he would go to Master Li Ke's house to learn how to identify medicine, help with drying the medicine, and process medicinal materials. At first, it was really hard for this "old child" who was already 30 years old psychologically, fearing that his memory wouldn't be good enough. But after doing it for a few days, Yuan Futong discovered that his memory was surprisingly good, although he still couldn't reach the level of remembering everything at a glance, many things were learned really quickly, which also secretly amazed Master Li.

  Every day after learning from Li Ke, he would record what he learned that day on paper and organize it into categories. After three months of hard work, Yuan Futong was able to recognize hundreds of common medicinal herbs in the mountains, and he recorded them according to their flowers, leaves, stems, and roots. He even compiled a book, which earned Li Ke's praise. Li Ke thought that Yuan Futong had great potential and was a good student, so he taught him with extra care. He also shared his experiences with using medicinal herbs, including the growing conditions, identification methods, and prices of rare and expensive herbs. After half a year, Yuan Futong had learned most of Li Ke's theoretical knowledge, but he still lacked practical experience in collecting medicinal herbs in the mountains. In theory, Yuan Futong was already a qualified student.

  "It seems that I haven't let the country down after all, with over a decade of rote education. Learning theory is really quick." Yuan Futong thought resentfully.

  After half a year of studying and living, Yuan Futong's heart gradually calmed down. The restlessness in his past memories also dissipated. Life in the mountain village was simple and peaceful. There was no noise from the city in his past life, nor was there such great pressure. Every day, he chatted with his grandmother, enjoying the joy of family, a happiness he had never experienced in his previous life. Yuan Futong slowly fell in love with this life.

  Here is the translation:

  Over the past six months, Yuan Futong's cultivation has not fallen behind. With Huo Yu's help, his daily cultivation has made significant progress. In just half a year, Yuan Futong's internal strength has reached the second layer of the Three Yang Decision. His increased power has also improved his physical body, making it much stronger than before. At less than twelve years old, his physical strength is already greater than that of an adult. He can easily handle many heavy tasks in Li Ke's household, even lifting 300 jin stones with ease. In Li Ke's household, Yuan Futong had secretly pulled the original bow that Li Ke used for hunting, which was a strong 3-stone bow. Therefore, Yuan Futong is now very confident, and if he continues like this, he will soon be able to start earning money to support his grandmother.

  After Li Ke went out, Li Ke recommended him to the village headman Li Li, who was also the hunting instructor of the village. There is a good tradition in Lijia Village, that is, the best hunter in each generation should be responsible for teaching the next generation children how to hunt. From the tricks and skills of endurance, to the experience and feeling of shooting arrows with a bow, various traps and precautions, and the precautions for living in the mountains, all need to be taught comprehensively. When someone's child is about to learn these things, they will report a rooster to the home of this generation's instructor, and the instructor will teach them comprehensively. This is also one of the reasons why Lijia Village has been getting more and more prosperous over the years. In fact, since Yuan Liren taught the knowledge of medicinal herbs to Li Ming decades ago, the knowledge of medicinal herbs has also been slowly spreading in the village, giving everyone a way to make a living other than hunting, which is also one of the reasons why the villagers sincerely accepted Yuan's ancestors and grandchildren.

  In the last month of Li Ke's family, Yuan Futong sorted out the graphic characteristics of dozens of medicinal herbs commonly found in the mountains and handed them over to Li Ke to post at the village entrance for explanation. This move made everyone look at this rare "talented" young man in the village with new eyes.

  After buying the village head Li Ri with a rooster, Yuan Futong began training in hunting courses. Village head Li Ri was the best hunter of this generation in the village. At the age of 40, he had been out for a few years when he was young and learned a lot of skills back home. It is said that on the rivers and lakes, he was also a second-rate master, usually chopping wood, he alone could beat a dozen people. He was also a kind-hearted person, just a bit lazy. Yuan Futong first learned a set of Changping Quan from Li Ri, which was said to be the most basic external family skill. After practicing, it can relax muscles and bones, increase energy, and is the martial art that Li Ri brought back from outside. Generally, children in the village start practicing this at the age of 8 or 9, and they are all strong like a cow. Yuan Futong practiced for two days and scared Li Ri away. With his internal strength foundation, Yuan Futong learned the fist method in half a day and practiced it skillfully, and after two days, he had a stronger momentum than the average adult in the village. Li Ri was shocked and asked Yuan Futong to try his strength, only to find that this kid's strength was already greater than most people in the village. Knowing that this was the effect of the Yuan family's internal strength method, on the one hand, he sighed that with good internal strength foundation, it is good to lay a solid foundation, and on the other hand, he wanted to teach some new skills that could calm down the scene.

  Here is the translation:

  And so, one taught and the other learned. The teaching was quick, and the learning was also quick. After all, Yuan Futong had been a martial arts enthusiast before, yearning for magical kung fu skills for a long time. Now that he had the opportunity to learn, he studied with great diligence and practiced with great rigor. With internal strength as his foundation, Yuan Futong made rapid progress in learning these external kung fu skills, forcing Li Ri to bring out many of his hidden tricks. While learning, Li Ri also told Yuan Futong about his youthful adventures on the Jianghu, the customs and people he had encountered before. Yuan Futong listened with great relish, often asking questions and encouraging Li Ri to continue. Sometimes when Li Ri boasted excessively, Yuan Futong would intentionally poke holes in his boasts, provoking Li Ri into a fit of laughter and scolding.

  Half a year later, Li Ri began to teach Yuan Fotong archery, which is the main tool for hunters to make a living. In the half-year period of teaching external family kung fu, Li Ri hastened to make a hunting bow as a teaching tool and started letting Yuan Fotong practice his eyesight and hand movements. Open the hunting bow, aim at the target, then maintain the posture until you can't hold on, then put it down and repeat. The hand movement is easy to learn, but this exercise is very dull. However, without repeating the opening of the bow and aiming, one will not be able to react when seeing prey. This course is very dull, but Yuan Fotong persisted. Because this relates to whether he can enter the mountain to hunt and gather medicine, and whether he can support his family.

  After practicing for a while, Yuan Futong found that this practice was still beneficial, his spirit was much more concentrated than before, and his reflection was also faster. Moreover, when meditating at night, after concentrating his spirit and guiding the flow of internal energy, it was faster than before, with signs of advancing to the third layer. This made Yuan Futong even more delighted in his heart, and he threw himself into training with even greater enthusiasm.