From a country cook to a master chef

Jing'anfang, Yucheng.

Dongning Street.

"Pea flour cake, pea flour cake, fresh pea flour cake, don't miss it!"

"Young man, would you like a piece of rice cake? It's freshly made, have a piece to try."

As a commercial area outside the city, Dongning Street is filled with various hawking sounds.

On the streets paved with bluestone slabs, neatly dressed people from Yucheng come and go. There are even wealthy people in carriages, wrapped in fur coats, just to have a bite of donkey roll.

Lin Jue pushed his rooster cart, and the shops along the road were lined up one after another, with upturned eaves and flying corners, showing their prosperity, which was in stark contrast to the desolation of Jiming Lane in Xiayuanfang.

"By the way, Lin Jue, where are you living now?"

Just as Lin Jue was lost in thought at the bustling scene before him, Liu Ruyan asked him curiously about his current address, her face beaming with smiles: "There is a dormitory for disciples inside the martial arts school. Although you are not a disciple of the martial arts school, you still work for the school. If you are not used to living outside, you can move into the martial arts school. There are more people, so you can take care of each other."

"Xiayuanfang, Pingjie, Jimingxiang, those places are relatively quiet."

"Oh? There? That's the most chaotic area in the entire outer city."

Liu Ruyan widened her eyes and said, "Xiayuanfang is the territory of the Black Bamboo Gang. Those guys specialize in bullying ordinary people. You need to stay away from them."

"Thank you for the reminder, Miss Ruyan. I know a little about the Black Bamboo Gang."

The Black Bamboo Gang runs the entire Xiayuanfang lottery business. The gang leader is named Qin Chi, an orphan who was born into a tenant farmer family. He built the gang by relying on his leg skills and is said to be a martial artist who can rival Liu Yue, the Fast Fist.

Born an orphan and having worked his way up, Qin Chi is arrogant, cold-blooded, and vengeful.

Mentioning the name Qinchi is enough to strike fear into the hearts of almost everyone in Yucheng.

As Lin Jue pondered, the two of them unknowingly arrived at their destination, the Rice Village.

At this time, there were many people buying rice in the shop. The shopkeeper and the shop assistants were busy serving customers and did not notice the arrival of the distinguished guests from the Four Symbols Martial Arts School.

At the entrance of the rice shop, two disciples from the Qingshan Martial Arts School were loading packed rice bags onto a cart; there were a full twenty large bags.

"Hey, isn't this Junior Sister Ruyan from the Four Symbols Martial Arts School? It's rare to see her come to buy rice in person today!"

The moment the leader of the Qingshan Martial Arts School, dressed in black, saw Liu Ruyan, he immediately jumped up from his chair, a fiery glint in his eyes, and began to sized her up with ill intent.

"Hey, this junior brother looks unfamiliar. Could he be Junior Sister Ruyan's new lover?"

Upon hearing this, the three disciples of Qingshan Martial Arts School burst into laughter.

Liu Ruyan's pretty face turned cold, and she said in a clear voice, "Li Weitong, last time you led people to rob my Four Symbols Martial Arts School, today I will take it back."

"Junior Sister Ruyan, don't make false accusations. Those eight bags of rice and flour last time were clearly abandoned items left on the road. As a thrifty senior brother, what's wrong with me dragging them back to the martial arts school?"

Li Weitong explained with an innocent look, and said with a faint smile, "If the Four Symbols Martial Arts School is struggling to make ends meet, as long as Junior Sister Ruyan is willing to keep me company, I'll be happy to give her two bags of rice and flour."

Enraged, Liu Ruyan gritted her teeth, stood up, and took a step forward to fight Li Weitong.

Lin Jue frowned, not expecting this old lady to have such a fiery temper, quite like a Sichuan-Chongqing tyrannosaurus.

Seeing that the two had already started fighting, two disciples from Qingshan Martial Arts School dropped what they were doing, rubbed their hands together, and approached Lin Jue, saying that they wanted to learn from him and have a friendly spar.

Just when Lin Jue thought a fight was inevitable, a small figure quickly passed between him and two disciples of the Qingshan Martial Arts School.

"My purse!"

"Hey kid, stop right there!"

Two disciples from the Qingshan Martial Arts School reacted quickly and chased after the figure.

Seeing this, Lin Jue breathed a slight sigh of relief, but then his expression changed drastically. He reached into his pocket and found that his spirit beast pouch had vanished.

"Damn, that was fast!"

The spirit beast pouch contains a mutated black snake; if it were released, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Without any hesitation, Lin Jue chased after the backs of the two disciples from Qingshan Martial Arts School.

"Lin Jue, well done! Give them a good beating for me."

Liu Ruyan and Li Weitong exchanged blows to create distance, and suddenly saw Lin Jue chasing after two disciples of Qingshan Martial Arts School. She couldn't help but give him an approving look.

"What a pair of good-for-nothings!" Li Weitong's expression was extremely ugly. He had not expected things to turn out this way. He shouted and the two clashed again.

Lin Jue followed two disciples from the Qingshan Martial Arts School and soon caught up with them outside Jing'anfang. Before he knew it, he had arrived near Pingjie Street in Xiayuanfang.

Using the connection between the Spirit Seal and the mutated black snake, he suddenly stopped and blocked a dead-end alley full of garbage.

"Come out! I know you're here."

Lin Jue stood at the entrance of the alley and shouted calmly into the alley.

The alleyway reeked of a foul stench. A boy who looked only seven or eight years old slowly rose from a dark corner.

The boy was incredibly fast, darting past him and leaving Lin Jue bewildered in the wind.

Fortunately, the connection between the mutated black snake and the Spirit Seal was still intact, and Lin Jue quickly found the boy hiding behind the corner of the wall again.

Seeing that he couldn't escape, the boy simply dropped the spirit beast pouch and fled again without a trace.

Lin Jue carefully picked up the spirit beast pouch and was about to return to Jing'anfang when he saw the refugees in the alley carrying a hemp rope and a machete, heading towards Nanpingmen with blank expressions.

After making a few inquiries, it turned out that they were the same group of people who had received tax slips and entered the city earlier. Unable to make a living in the city, they had to go out of the city every day to chop firewood. A bundle of firewood weighing a hundred catties could be sold to the yamen for ten copper coins.

When Lin Jue returned to the rice shop entrance on Dongning Street in Jing'anfang, he neither saw Liu Ruyan nor Li Weitong from Qingshan Martial Arts School.

"Shopkeeper, do you know who won and who lost the duel between the man and woman who were sparring in front of your shop earlier?"

Lin Jue walked into the rice shop directly from the door and, taking advantage of the few people around, inquired about the news from the shopkeeper sitting behind the counter.

The shopkeeper, wearing reading glasses, was checking the income details. After fiddling with the abacus, he picked up a brush and started sketching on the ledger.

I heard someone ask a question, but I didn't hear what they were asking. I just glanced at them quickly.

Seeing that the visitor was poorly dressed and not a customer, he continued to lower his head and calculate his bill, saying impatiently:

"Asking for directions costs one tael, inquiring about information costs two taels."

"..."

Lin Jue was displeased, but he didn't lash out directly. Instead, he calmly left the rice shop and went straight to the pork shop across the street.

Before Lin Jue even arrived, the butcher had already come out to greet him with a smile.

"Cut me fifty catties of lean minced meat, not a single bit of fat, and deliver it to the Four Symbols Martial Arts School."

Upon hearing this, the butcher knew that a big business had come his way, and he quickly asked his assistant, who was processing pig offal, to come over and help chop the meat.

Lin Jue then went to the grain shop next to the rice shop and ordered 100 catties of fine flour, also requesting that it be delivered to the Four Symbols Martial Arts School.

After doing all this, he made sure to deliberately pass by the entrance of the rice shop.

The rice shop owner, now aware of his identity, was filled with remorse.

Having vented his anger, Lin Jue walked towards the Four Symbols Martial Arts School with satisfaction.

It wasn't that he wanted to argue with the rice shop owner, but rather that by doing so, he thought more and more people would know that he was from the Four Symbols Martial Arts School, thanks to the owner's influence.

Yucheng is neither small nor large. Next to Jing'anfang is Xiayuanfang. Businessmen like the rice shop owner have some connections with various forces in the city.

By having the businessman speak to him, Lin Jue believed he could make Huang Niu Pan Mang aware of his current identity.

In this way, the other party should not make any rash moves in the short term.

Lin Jue thus had time to practice some martial arts, especially the Zhao Family Blood Saber he obtained from Old Master Zhao.

Back then, with just the Blood Blade move he stole from Master Xu, he was able to single-handedly kill four bandits, empowered by the wisp of internal energy within him.

The power of the Blood Blade is well-deserved.