Turning around the street corner and dodging the gazes fixed on him, Chen Mu chuckled to himself.
"Still trying to cheat me out of my money, no chance!" he became even more convinced that Constable Lu and Sheng Hong were in cahoots.
"I used to think this guy was a good person." Chen Mu lamented.
Smiling to your face, but stabbing you in the back behind it.
The world is a treacherous place!
"Not many simple folks like me left in this world…" Chen Mu sighed.
...
East Market
"Zheng Tu, why has the price of meat gone up again?" Chen Mu asked with a frown.
Last time he had come to buy, it had been twenty-six copper coins per jin, but now it had risen to thirty-two.
"There's nothing I can do; the animal traders were attacked by bandits, now I'm selling the ones I raised myself."
Despite the higher prices, Zheng Tu didn't seem too happy.
"Robbed again? Are you sure the animal traders aren't just raising prices to scam people?" Chen Mu was suspicious.
"I've asked around; things are indeed not very peaceful outside lately," said Zheng Tu with a worried tone.
Chen Mu's curiosity was piqued, and he didn't rush Zheng Tu, instead chatting and taking the opportunity to find out more about the outside world.
He had been in this world for three or four months, cooped up in Qingshan County, and his knowledge of the outside world was limited to his predecessor's vague memories.
"We're still okay here, being in a remote location, relatively peaceful. I heard that some places are already in revolt, with bandits rampant."
"Recently, quite a few refugees from war-torn areas have come to our Qingshan County."
"I hope our place doesn't start to get chaotic."
Zheng Tu worried as he cut the meat, he could only do business well in peaceful times.
"By that reckoning, is Qingshan County actually one of the safe places?"
Even in this so-called place of safety, people dared to massacre entire families; how chaotic must the outside world be?
Unimaginable!
Before, he had thought of wandering around different places.
But with the outside world being so dangerous, Chen Mu started to hesitate.
"Better to just eat meat and train in peace."
Without formidable skills, he shouldn't think about running around everywhere.
With his proficiency cheats, Chen Mu had no doubt about his training speed.
"It won't be too late to make my mark once I've mastered the Red Falcon Shape Cultivation Technique."
...
At first, Chen Mu thought his life would be full of ups and downs, magnificent and spectacular.
After some time, he realized that it wasn't that different from his previous life.
Every day, he would wake up, wash up, eat, train, and every three or four days, he would go out to paint portraits to earn money.
Just like going to work and punching the clock every day in his past life.
But better than Earth in his past life was.
Whether it was painting or training, every time he focused, he would gain clear insights.
This kind of solid feedback, seeing his abilities improve bit by bit, motivated Chen Mu endlessly.
The tranquil life turned out to be more and more enjoyable.
...
Twenty li south of Qingshan County, in the back mountains of Chen Family Village.
Five or six hunters, carrying bows and arrows and woodcutting knives, walked through the forest.
The barely visible trails under their feet, surrounded by lush green vegetation.
Beside the unknown birdsong, occasional roars of unidentified beasts could also be heard.
Among this group, there was a fair-skinned young man who stood out, it was Chen Mu, who had come to Chen Family Village.
"Mu boy, why do you leave the comfort of town to join us for hunting in the mountains?" asked the middle-aged, brawny leader curiously.
"Uncle Erdao, someone in town wants a landscape painting, so I had to come out for some field research. Thanks for the trouble, uncles," Chen Mu replied with a smile.
"A landscape painting? What do they want that for?" a short, stout hunter in the group wondered.
"Perhaps they've never seen it, and don't want to endure the hardship of traveling, so they buy a painting to enjoy," another person speculated.
Chen Mu simply smiled and kept quiet, letting them guess on.
Chen Family Village was Chen Mu's ancestral home, surrounded by mountains on three sides.
His predecessor's grandfather had lived there until his death. The predecessor had moved to the city with his father primarily because his father was going to teach in Qingshan County Town.
The village mostly consisted of the Chen surname, always with distant and tangential familial ties.
Despite its dilapidation, his ancestral house was still standing.
His predecessor used to return several times each year, to clean the ancestral home and offer sacrifices to forebears.
As such, it was easy for him to build relationships with the village's hunting teams.
This time, he had returned to his hometown to purchase qianxu grass.
The prices of pork, grain, and medicinal herbs had all soared simultaneously.
Since the number of people commissioning his paintings was bound to decrease, he had to think about the future.
To follow the hunters into the mountains was to familiarize himself with the forest in advance.
The terrain within the mountains was complex, overgrown with various plants, and he planned to experiment with the Red Falcon Shape Cultivation Technique here.
"Be careful on the mountain roads, Mu," Chen Erdao cautioned.
"Okay," Chen Mu answered honestly.
The burly man was not at ease and looked back to check on him time and again.
But to his surprise, he discovered that Chen Mu's steps were steady and unerring.
After following them for so long, he was somewhat out of breath, yet Chen Mu still breathed evenly, as if he were simply out for a spring walk. He watched in amazement.
For three days in the woods, Chen Mu followed the hunters checking traps, gathering herbs, and hunting hares and pheasants.
It wasn't until the fourth day that he returned with the hunters, carrying a full load.
He behaved honestly throughout, asking when he encountered something unfamiliar, and eventually gained a general understanding of the mountains behind Chen Family Village.
...
Two days later, Chen Mu left Chen Family Village with dozens of qianxu grass stems.
In Qingshan County Town, one plant cost half a tael of silver, close to six hundred copper coins.
The herbalists bought from villagers, giving only sixty copper coins per plant.
Even selling directly to the town's medicine shops, the most he could get was seventy copper coins.
Nearly tenfold profit!
"That's so dark!" Chen Mu shook his head and complained.
After leaving Chen Family Village, he didn't head straight back to town; instead, he took a detour, venturing once more into the forest.
He hadn't forgotten that he came here not only to collect herbs but also to test the Shape Cultivation Technique.
Burrowing into the mountains, Chen Mu tightened the bundle on his back and moved forward cautiously.
In the mountain, there were not only fierce beasts but also poisonous insects; sometimes a seemingly insignificant bug could take a person's life.
While being mindful of his surroundings, Chen Mu gradually picked up the pace.
At first, he merely walked briskly, but soon he was running.
A jutting rock, a broken, withered tree trunk—anything could serve as a leverage point for him.
Chen Mu was like a cheetah, darting rapidly through the woods, his clothes flapping loudly in the wind.
He charged up to the top of a small hill in one breath, feeling exhilarated, and couldn't help but let out a loud roar.
"Haha... exhilarating!"
His speed, strength, and reaction time had all surpassed that of an ordinary person.
This would have been unimaginable in his previous life, and he couldn't help but feel excited.
He was just thinking about roaring again.
"Ao..."
A fierce beast's howl suddenly filled the air.
Chen Mu involuntarily ducked his head.
"Stay low-key, low-key, can't get carried away!"
The deep forests were home to tigers and other fierce beasts!
If he were to encounter one with his physique, he might meet his end right there and then.
He quickly left the hillock and raced towards a wooden cabin nestled in the forest, where hunters had built a temporary camp.
After placing his belongings inside, Chen Mu didn't wander far but stayed nearby in the woods to practice the Red Falcon Shape Cultivation Technique.
The complex environment increased the difficulty but also added to his gains.
After six continuous rounds of practice, he had increased his proficiency by more than seventy points.
"If combined with the Secret Medicine, my proficiency would increase even more!"
Chen Mu was almost tempted to live in the woods permanently.
"Can't rush this, need to plan for the long term," he thought to himself.
He still needed to earn money from painting, and if he wanted to practice in the mountains, he needed careful planning.