Chapter 3: Heaven Grants

Li Yuan opened his eyes just after midnight. Light could be seen through the paper-covered window.

On the eight-person bunk bed, only seven people were sleeping.

"Niu Gui got up so early?"

It was a bit chilly in late autumn. Li Yuan was used to sleeping with clothes on. He put on straw sandals and went to the door.

The sky was getting brighter. The four big moons were gone. Under the thin light, Niu Gui stood in the White Ape Stance. It was quite chilly in the early morning of late autumn, but he was sweating all over.

"This kid is really fighting!"

Li Yuan rubbed his wrists and felt that his shoulders, arms, wrists, waist and legs were all sore.

This was a much larger amount of exercise than usual yesterday. As for Niu Gui, he remembered that he was still practicing when he slept last night?

He got up so early again?

Are you really not afraid of training yourself to death?

Li Yuan was shocked, but he didn't say anything. After Fatty Sun got up, he informed him and left the middle courtyard.

…

The forging shop in the outer city occupies a large area. Outside the central courtyard, there are several warehouses for storing iron materials and charcoal.

Further ahead, there is an open space made of yellow mud, where a group of blacksmiths and guards usually train their physical strength.

Through this open space, there are forging rooms connected together, where the furnaces are burning day and night, and the smoke is lingering.

Li Yuan glanced at it a few times, but saw nothing except the clanging sound. He was still very curious about blacksmithing.

However, even though he had been an apprentice for more than a month, his impression of blacksmithing still remained in the "forging sword competition" in his previous life.

The general affairs room is right next to it.

Li Yuan waited for a while before withdrawing his monthly salary and a day off from the manager Lin who was walking slowly.

Although the rituals in the half-volume Taoist book were simple, they did not require nothing.

"Come back before the sun sets, and you will get two days off if you stay out overnight!"

Manager Lin, who had a mustache, said behind him.

"...... Yeah!"

With a dark face, he put thirty copper coins into his arms. More than a month after coming to this world, Li Yuan walked out of the door of the forging shop for the first time.

"This is the 'ancient city'."

The streets paved with bluestone slabs as big as washbasins extend in both directions, separating various shops, restaurants, and inns on both sides.

Gaoliu County has two inner and outer cities, and eight streets are divided into 16 urban areas. The 'Rongsheng District' where the forging shop is located is the most lively urban area in the outer city.

Looking left and right, you can see the houses in a neat shape. In the hawking of various vendors, pedestrians wearing various clothes seem to be endless.

In the real ancient city, there are no young ladies and young masters in an endless stream, but only people who are busy with daily necessities.

Ding ding~

The patrolling yamen beat the gong, and the crowds gave way wherever they passed.

A tall yamen runner with a mole on the corner of his eye held up a portrait and shouted:

"This is the lone thief Nian Jiu. Anyone who finds his whereabouts will be rewarded with five taels of silver, and anyone who captures him will be rewarded with fifty taels of silver. However, anyone who conceals and fails to report will be punished with the same crime once caught!"

"Fifty taels?!"

Many people in the crowd gasped and leaned over to look.

When the yamen runners passed by, Li Yuan glanced at the vicious thief in the portrait, but didn't pay attention. He lowered his head and thought about his own business.

"The 'receiving ceremony' recorded in the half-volume Taoist book requires five animals. In my previous life, I used the meat of five animals. Now..."

In front of the butcher shop, the guy who was chopping meat with a knife quoted the price without waiting for questions:

"Twenty-eight copper coins for a pound of pork..."

Glancing at the wooden sign in the butcher shop, Li Yuan couldn't help but twitch his eyelids.

He had expected that his family could only afford one pound of pork a month. After all, other apprentices could not even see a copper coin in three years.

"Young man, do you have pig blood?"

"Pig blood? If you want, I'll give you eight copper coins for one pound..."

"Is pig blood so expensive?"

Li Yuan felt a little pained, after all, he only had thirty copper coins in total.

"How many pounds of blood does a pig have? Eight copper coins are expensive? Go away, why do you have no money?"

"Make it cheaper..."

After bargaining, Li Yuan bought half a pound of pork, half a pound of pig blood, half a pound of sheep blood, half a pound of chicken blood, and half a pound of dog blood, and only had four copper coins left.

"Five animals are fine, but five animals' blood should be fine too, right? After all, in the ancient times, many sacrifices used blood..."

Walking through the crowd, Li Yuan felt a little heavy in his heart.

He was worried about whether the blood could be made, and whether the ritual was really useful.

...

"We still need a cow... The court stipulated that those who slaughtered cows would be beaten with a stick 100 times, sentenced to one and a half years, and exiled a thousand miles..."

After more than an hour, Li Yuan, who had walked all over Rongsheng Street, could not find a single cow hair, so he had to give up helplessly.

"I remember that elk, deer, roe deer, wolf, and rabbit are also considered as the five animals in another way?"

It was not until the sun was high in the sky that Li Yuan found a place selling wild rabbits. He waited for more than an hour and took advantage of the time when someone was slaughtering rabbits to buy less than two taels of blood with his last four copper coins.

"This time, I've lost everything!"

Carrying a few bottles and cans and half a pound of pork out of Rongsheng Street, Li Yuan could hardly contain his emotions.

But of course he couldn't hold the ceremony on the street. He suppressed his excitement and walked through alleys and streets to another more remote urban area.

Chaiyufang is not like Rongsheng District. It is named because it sells firewood and fish. From a distance, Li Yuan heard someone exclaim.

"The kid from Liangshan caught the spiritual fish 'Niujiao Pomfret' in the 'Bishui Lake'!"

"Liang Ashui? This kid has this skill? Didn't his boat get taken away by Liu Laili?"

"Spirit fish! I haven't heard of anyone catching a spiritual fish for at least a year or two?"

With an exclamation, almost all the people nearby surrounded the young man holding a fish basket in the distance.

"Spirit fish?"

Li Yuan was slightly startled, and only knew what it was from the discussions of the people nearby.

Gaoliu County is surrounded by mountains and rivers. The mountain is Fajiu Mountain and the water is Bishui Lake. The firewood gang and the fishing gang in the city were established because of this.

The so-called spiritual fish is said to be a tonic. Catching one is enough for ordinary people to eat for two or three years.

"Everyone!"

The young man was strong and had a dark complexion. He stared at the group of people who had gathered around him with a sharp look in his eyes:

"My 'ox-horn pomfret' weighs twelve pounds. If you can't afford it, don't come over!"

"Twelve pounds of ox-horn pomfret?!"

The crowd was even more in an uproar, but most of them stopped walking. Only a few people who looked like they were not ordinary people walked over.

"That seems to be someone from the Chai Gang or the Fishing Gang?"

Li Yuan took a few glances. Although he was a little curious about the so-called spiritual fish, he didn't want to watch the fun.

As he was leaving quickly, he heard someone behind him quoting 'twelve taels of silver'...

"Thirty cents a month, only one tael of silver for three years of apprenticeship, twelve taels of fish..."

Li Yuan was a little shocked, but he didn't stop. He walked quickly through several streets and came to an alley.

There were more than ten households in the alley. The well-renovated two-story courtyard at the entrance of the alley was his home in this life.

Of course, there were three families living in the courtyard, and his family, or his second brother's family, was just one of them.

"Third brother? You, you're back?"

Before Li Yuan knocked on the door, the courtyard door opened, and a man who was less than seven feet tall and had a rather frosted face came out excitedly and guiltily, holding his hand.

"Second brother..."

Li Yuan opened his mouth and didn't know what to say, and let the man pull him into the house.

The memories of his previous life came to his mind.

The Li family, a small poor family, was considered a middle-class family in Chaiyufang in the early years. Three generations worked diligently and saved some money. The family had fields and boats, and their lives were not bad.

But after three generations of starting a family, they lost their family for a while. His cheap father got addicted to gambling and lost all his family in half a year. After angering his father to death, he also died of illness on his bed.

Only three brothers were left to depend on each other. A few years later, the eldest brother Li Yue disappeared. It was the second brother Li Lin who raised him up...

"Haven't you eaten yet? Take a rest first. The second brother will cook for you. Your sister-in-law has gone to work..."

Li Lin rubbed his eyes and walked out of the house quickly. In the small house, Li Yuan sighed softly.

It was his predecessor's idea to join the forging shop. His second brother was nearly 30 years old. After getting married, it was not easy for him to live with his brothers.

After that, the second brother Li Lin felt guilty and always felt guilty towards his brothers and parents.

But for a poor family, being sent to the forging shop was already a great way out...

"Huh!"

Digesting the surging emotions in his heart, Li Yuan walked out the door, walked around a few steps, and turned into the backyard where sundries and firewood were piled.

"Four directions and five animals..."

Li Yuan muttered in his heart. He didn't know how many times he had done the "receiving ceremony" in his dream last night. It was very familiar, but still extremely nervous.

Just like a drowning man grasping at the last straw...

With himself as the center, Li Yuan sprinkled the blood of five animals according to the ritual position until his mouth and nose were filled with the smell of blood.

He took a deep breath, bowed, and chanted in his heart and mouth at the same time:

"Disciple Li Yuan, read the hundred scriptures and gain wisdom, observe the precepts and enlighten the mind, and have the thought of saving the world. I am willing to pass on the classics for the sages..."

"..."

"Disciple Li Yuan, pray to the heavens to grant me the talisman!"