The Martial Saint Started from Scavenging

At the same time, a new change finally appeared on the semi-transparent panel in front of Ye Sheng:

[Unlock Skill: Standing Posture]

Current progress: 0/100 (Beginner)

[Effects: Slightly strengthens lower limb stability, and provides a very small amount of stimulation to Qi and blood (the effect is greatly affected by the integrity of the posture, the training environment, and individual aptitude)]

Become!

Ye Sheng's spirits lifted, and he almost lost his balance.

He suppressed his excitement and carefully considered the situation.

He felt that after the heat disappeared, the soreness and numbness in his legs seemed to lessen a little, and an indescribable feeling of being rooted to the ground vaguely emerged.

This standing meditation technique is really effective!

Ye Sheng maintained his posture, enduring the increasingly intense soreness in his body. At this moment, he seemed to see a vague direction for the future.

Musha!

If one can master the basics, even as a low-level martial artist, their strength will greatly increase, allowing them to do more jobs. At that point, they might be able to take on more lucrative short-term work.

There is even a chance to obtain a "temporary household registration" guarantee from the Naval Base Warriors Guild?

In this world, martial artists have a very high social status! Even unregistered martial artists are a level above ordinary registered commoners.

In that case, there will be new possibilities for my brother's medicine money, his food and clothing in winter, and the difficulties at the end of the year.

Of course, the premise is that you can make a name for yourself in the training, and you can't ruin yourself by training.

After a long while, Ye Sheng slowly exhaled and finished his stance. The next second, his legs went weak, and he almost collapsed to the ground. He leaned against the wall and slowly moved his stiff joints.

At this moment, on the skill panel, the progress bar for [Standing Posture] jumped from "0/100" to "1/100".

It was just a small amount, yet it was as heavy as a thousand pounds.

......

For the next few days, Ye Sheng got up before dawn.

He first went to the riverbank and, using his innate perception of the [Scavenging (Skilled)] technique, carefully searched through the damp, cold sand, rotten driftwood, and piles of debris washed down from upstream.

The harvest was meager: a rusty woodcutter's knife, a few scrap iron pieces, and a broken ceramic bowl, with the occasional white copper coin soaked in water.

As for that strange lingering feeling of "spiritual essence," it never reappeared.

It seems that his previous discovery of the gray stone and sandpaper was merely a stroke of extremely lucky chance.

Fortunately, the scavenging progress bar is slowly increasing.

Sharpening the axe won't delay the woodcutting work. Every afternoon, Ye Sheng would sharpen his rusty woodcutting axe several times before carrying his firewood basket into the mountains.

Chopping wood is physically demanding, but it's also Ye Sheng's most stable source of income.

In fact, he also wanted to work as a day laborer for the boatmen at the dock, but the number of day laborers was limited each day, and the boatmen would give priority to hiring those who donated money.

During breaks from chopping wood, Ye Sheng would find a relatively flat spot and set up his stance for standing meditation.

Without any guidance, Ye Sheng relied entirely on the incomplete text on the paper and his own exploration.

At first, his standing posture was awkward, his blood and qi stagnated, and he would tremble and feel dizzy after standing for a short time.

Although the progress on the skill panel increases slowly, it often takes half an hour for it to jump by only one or two points.

The advantage is that after each time Ye Sheng finishes practicing the stance, even if his body is exhausted, his lower body will become more stable when chopping wood, and the strength of his swinging knife will seem to be a little longer.

Perhaps it was psychological, or perhaps it was the truest manifestation of his innate ability to "stimulate blood and qi with minute amounts"—Ye Sheng couldn't be sure.

Every night, after Ye Kai falls asleep, Ye Sheng will read the few old books his father left behind by the firelight.

As the progress bar for literacy gradually climbed, Ye Sheng's understanding of this world also became more fragmented.

In this world, the Eastern Region has dynasties, sects, sacred mountains inhabited by demonic beasts, and desolate ruins haunted by ghosts.

Liu Hu is nothing more than the most insignificant speck of dust at the bottom of this vast world.

For the next period of time, Ye Kai's illness remained the same, with his cough sometimes mild and sometimes severe.

Ye Sheng used the copper coins he earned from chopping firewood to buy the cheapest medicine at the only small pharmacy at the ferry crossing.

The pharmacy owner was a thin old man surnamed Hu. His gaze towards Ye Sheng always carried a mixture of pity and indifference, as well as a hint of complexity.

"Your brother's illness is due to a special constitution from birth; it's a deficiency syndrome he was born with. It's difficult to cure him by just relying on these few cheap medicines."

Manager Hu slowly said, fiddling with the medicinal herbs, "They need to be nourished slowly with warm and tonifying herbs like ginseng and astragalus, and they also need to eat well and avoid exposure to wind and cold."

Ye Sheng remained silent, simply counting out the coins to pay.

Ginseng root? That's something only wealthy families in town could afford occasionally; for a vagrant like him, it was something unattainable.

That evening, Ye Sheng carried a large basket of firewood on his back and went to the small firewood market at the west end of the ferry to sell it.

The firewood market was small, with a few migrant workers squatting on the ground, each with their own bundles of firewood in front of them.

The buyers who come here are mostly cooks from the boats that cross the ferry, or servants from the town who occasionally come to buy firewood. They are picky and extremely demanding when it comes to price.

Ye Sheng had just put down the firewood basket when a familiar voice rang out.

"Hey, kid Ye, this basket of firewood you have today is of pretty good quality."

The newcomer was a burly, rough man named Wang Laizi, who was also a homeless vagrant.

However, he was born with brute strength. It is said that when he was young, he worked as a handyman at a martial arts school in the city for a few months and learned some rudimentary kung fu. He was considered a "tough guy" among the vagrants.

So, in this ferry area, he was considered a small-time gang leader, with two or three henchmen under him. They usually did shady things like bullying the weak and forcing people to buy and sell.

At this moment, Wang Laizi arrived in front of Ye Sheng. He kicked the bundle of firewood and grinned, "I'll take this basket of firewood. Five copper coins."

Seeing this, the migrant workers nearby lowered their heads and dared not utter a sound. Usually, a basket of such dry firewood could sell for at least eight copper coins.

Ye Sheng looked up and calmly said, "Brother Wang, the market price is eight."

"Eight?"

Wang Laizi's eyes widened, and he slapped Ye Sheng's shoulder with his fan-like hand, the force considerable. He coldly shouted, "You little brat, you dare to talk to your brother Wang about market prices. At this ferry crossing, what I say is the market price."

"Five copper coins. Take it or leave it. If you don't want to sell, get out of here. And don't even think about selling your firewood here again!"

At this moment, Wang Laizi's two lackeys also surrounded him, arms crossed, smiling maliciously.

Ye Sheng felt the pressure on his shoulders, and the calluses on Wang Laizi's hands were digging into him painfully.

His gaze swept around, and the other firewood sellers all avoided his eyes.

At the end of the market, two men, presumably from a boatmen's guild, glanced in this direction before turning away indifferently.

As long as no one dies in the fights between the migrant households, no one will interfere.

At this moment, Ye Sheng's heart pounded, and he thought to himself: only five copper coins, three less than expected. Although three coins is not much, it might mean less medicine for his younger brother, or less half a liter of coarse rice.

Thinking of this, he clenched his fist, but then slowly relaxed it.

Although he had practiced standing meditation for a few days and his legs and feet had become more stable and his strength had increased, he still had no chance of winning against Wang Laizi, who was obviously skilled in boxing and kicking and had a burly build, along with his two henchmen.

Acting impulsively without thinking will only lead to worse consequences.

"Brother Wang, you're joking," Ye Sheng lowered his eyes, his voice flat. "Five it is then, I'll sell you this firewood."

After saying that, he bent down and pushed the firewood basket toward Wang Laizi.

"Haha, you're quite sensible, kid!"

Wang Laizi laughed triumphantly, then tossed down five copper coins, gestured to one of his henchmen to pick up the firewood basket, and strode away.

Ye Sheng put away the copper coins, slung his empty basket over his shoulder, and left the firewood market. Behind him, he could faintly hear the low sighs of other migrant workers and the arrogant laughter of Wang Laizi and his gang.

Reaching the pier, the setting sun bathed the entire Duanlong River in a dark red hue. Ye Sheng stopped, gazing at the surging river before him, lost in thought.

Wang Laizi won't just force people to buy this once. He's tasted success this time, and next time, and the time after that, he'll only become more and more brazen.

I must become stronger faster, or find another way to sell firewood.

Over the next few days, Ye Sheng began to inquire about the news.

Finally, he learned from a migrant worker who often did odd jobs at the dock that there was a small fishing village three miles away from the ferry crossing, where a few families needed firewood and the price was reasonable.

However, this means a longer journey, more time spent, and less firewood to be chopped each day.

Most importantly, he was an unregistered vagrant without a travel permit. If he went to other villages on his own, he would be violating the Great Yuan Dynasty's ban on vagrants. If he was discovered by the patrolmen, he would be arrested and flogged.

But right now, forced by the need to make a living, Ye Sheng can't worry about much else.

Early that morning, Ye Sheng, carrying a firewood basket, secretly bypassed the ferry crossing and walked downstream along the riverbank.

The morning mist had not yet dissipated, and the river surface was shrouded in a gray haze. He walked quickly, avoiding the wood market area where Wang Laizi often lurked.

Three miles away, there is a small fishing village called Huoshiwan, named after the stones that occasionally appear there that can be ignited.

The village is small, with only seven or eight households. They make a living by fishing, and occasionally they find a few flints, which they will sell at the market.

The villagers here also need firewood, though not in large quantities, but at least they don't suffer from the exploitation of local bullies like Wang Laizi.

Today, Ye Sheng sold firewood to a fisherman's family surnamed Sun, in exchange for seven copper coins and two small fish the size of a palm.

Old Man Sun took the firewood and looked him up and down: "Are you a migrant worker from Shuilongdu?"

"Yes."

"Be careful from now on," the old man said in a low voice. "Yesterday, a patrolman came by and said that they were checking for migrant workers who were secretly visiting other villages, and that if they were caught, they would be flogged."

Ye Sheng's heart tightened, and he nodded and thanked him.

On the way back, to avoid arousing suspicion, he did not put the fish in the firewood basket, but put it directly into his clothes. He also deliberately chose a more secluded path and walked along the pile of rocks on the riverbank.

This place is sparsely populated and has deep silt, but it is relatively safe.

The innate perception granted by the [Scavenging (Proficient)] skill made Ye Sheng extra careful with his footing when walking among the rocks.

He occasionally turned over a few stones and found some rusty nails and broken fishhooks.

In a short while, the progress bar for scavenging on the panel jumped from "37/500" to "41/500".

As Ye Sheng approached the entrance to the pier at Shuilongdu, two figures blocked his path.

It was the tall, thin guy named Er Gou, one of Wang Laizi's henchmen, and another short, fat guy with a pockmarked face.