Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 125 The Unlucky Junior Sister

"Junior Sister, do you have any other martial arts techniques here? I mean, techniques outside of the martial arts school. I'd like to buy a set."

"Why?" Du Juan asked, cracking open a pine nut, glancing sideways with a puzzled look.

"Isn't it just that someone from outside invited me to teach disciples? I'm thinking that using our martial arts school's techniques and skills wouldn't be very effective. After all, those are the true teachings of your Du family, and it's best not to pass them on to outsiders."

Having been a private instructor for so long, Zhou Ye had discovered that in the initial stage of internal strength cultivation, regardless of the stance training method, they were all essentially the same. At most, like himself, one would have to wait until breaking through to the Ming Jin stage before switching to a higher-level technique.

Although he could secretly teach the young maids the Little Wind and Thunder Stance, Old Deng and his junior sister would usually not find out. But why bother? Things that can be bought with money aren't really a problem.

Du Juan rolled her eyes. Spitting out pine nut shells, she said, "Can't you teach them the Little Wind and Thunder Stance? I'll give you a certificate of instruction signed by the martial arts school later, and from now on you'll be the school's master instructor. How about we split the tuition fees 50/50?"

"Of course." Sure enough, the old man had already made all the arrangements for himself, even preparing the petition.

A master's certificate is somewhat similar to a formally recognized teaching qualification certificate issued by a martial arts school. Generally, once you have a master's certificate, you can represent the martial arts school in teaching students.

"By the way, Senior Brother A-Ye, how much are you planning to accept?"

"Uh—30 taels!" Zhou Ye explained, "It also includes the cost of mastering the technique. Otherwise, I can only charge 30% of the tuition."

""

"Wow! That's great."

"Yes! There are six in total. Should I pay you now?"

"Wow! So many? Let them register at the martial arts gym."

Du Juan didn't really care about Zhou Ye's martial arts instruction to outsiders.

Even if someone were to break through to the Ming Jin stage, they wouldn't continue practicing martial arts under Zhou Ye, their "Master of Entering the Jin Stage." They would still need the visualization diagram of the Feng Lei Gong, and would definitely transfer to the Feng Lei Martial Arts School.

Furthermore, Zhou Ye's main source of income actually comes from private tutoring his failed disciples. To put it bluntly, even if Zhou Ye obtains a master's certificate, how many people would actually seek to learn martial arts from someone like him who has only reached the initial stage of mastery?

"This doesn't seem very convenient. They are all women confined to their homes, so they asked me to come and teach them."

"Wow! Senior Brother Aye, I didn't expect you to be this kind of person? You even hooked up with the women in the inner quarters?" Dujuan and Xiaocui, the mistress and servant, burst into laughter.

"Junior sister, don't ruin my reputation! I still want to find a wife in the future."

"That's easy! As long as you behave well, I might agree to let you marry Xiao Cui!"

"Huh?" Xiao Cui looked completely bewildered. She quickly hugged Du Juan and pleaded, "Miss, I want to stay with you forever!"

Zhou Ye quickly said, "Junior Sister, we can't joke about this. Miss Xiao Cui and I are definitely not meant to be."

As Du Juan's personal maid, Xiao Cui will inevitably become Song Zhongqi's concubine in the future. That is, she will also become Song Zhongqi's woman. Therefore, it's fine for the senior and junior disciples to joke around, but it wouldn't be good if it affected Song Zhongqi's reputation.

At this point, Du Juan realized her slip of the tongue and knew the joke was inappropriate. She giggled and changed the subject: "Alright! My Xiao Cui won't get married. Later, you can ask Zhong Qi if the Song family has any maids who have been released to marry."

"Hehe. We'll see about that later!"

"Oh, right!" Xiao Cui suddenly exclaimed excitedly, "Senior Brother A Ye, did you know? My young lady has already broken through to the mid-stage of Ming Jin!"

The cuckoo looked around smugly. If she had a fluffy tail, it would surely be wagging its tail right now, leaving afterimages—right?

Holy crap! So what if she's a genius? But then I thought, it seems my natural talent has already caught up with Du Juan's, so it's alright.

"Junior Sister, doesn't that mean your cultivation level has surpassed Senior Brother Song's?"

"No! Two months ago, Zhongqi also broke through to the mid-stage of Ming Jin."

"Understood. In a few years, you'll be able to surpass him. You'll be able to bully and lord it over Senior Brother Song."

"Ugh! I'm not that kind of spoiled woman. Hehehe—"

"————"

Amidst laughter and conversation, Du Juan handed Zhou Ye the teacher's petition. Zhou Ye also purchased five additional bottles of low-grade Qi and Blood Pills. He decided against using inferior Qi and Blood Powder; a certain transmigrated overpowered character like him couldn't afford the embarrassment.

With the 90 taels of tuition fee share given by Zhou Ye, the martial arts school earned another 420 taels. Du Juan seemed very happy. She complained affectionately, almost like she was being coquettish, "Senior Brother Ye, thank goodness for this money. The martial arts school has been almost running out of money lately."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"It's just that we can't buy food, right? Many grain shops are unwilling to sell to us. Even with a big client like our martial arts school, they're unwilling to sell more. If this continues, we won't even be able to continue offering our school's meals. Sigh!"

"Really? Don't you have the Song family supplying you? They have so many farms, how could they not have food?"

"Isn't it because of the high grain prices that the Song family wants to make more money? Besides, your senior brother Song is in the Song family—"

Ok.

""

I understand. Song Zhongqi doesn't have much say in the Song family. He's fairly reliable when it comes to doing business. But when it comes to huge sums of money? Song Zhongqi and Fenglei Martial Arts School lose all their influence.

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Ye said, "How about this? I still have some grain here. I'll send a few cartloads to the martial arts school tomorrow."

Anyway, the bandits had seized a lot of grain. Zhou Ye and his maids couldn't possibly eat it all.

"Really? Senior Brother Aye, where did you come from?"

"Huh? You're allowed to have Zhongqi as your brother? But I'm not allowed to have a few friends?"

"Oh, you're so mean! Senior Brother A-Ye, you're the worst! Hehehe—"

Du Juan didn't doubt Zhou Ye's explanation much. After all, having been a private tutor for so long, he must have built up a network of contacts.

In the end, the two agreed that Zhou Ye would provide 2000 jin of grain, and Du Juan would pay with Qi Xue San (a traditional Chinese medicine formula).

Due to the recent surge in prices, the martial arts school's Qi and Blood Powder and low-grade Qi and Blood Pills have been selling poorly. This opportunity will allow them to clear out some of the inventory.

Zhou Ye, however, didn't care either. So what if it's inferior? He'd need it sooner or later anyway, right?

Just then, an inner court senior brother rushed in: "Junior Sister, Master Du wants you to go quickly. The Song family just sent people to the martial arts school looking for you. They are—coming to deliver a death notice."

(—)(—)(—)·————

The next day, when several carts of grain arrived at the Fenglei Martial Arts School and Zhou Ye met Du Juan and Xiao Cui, he finally learned that Song Zhongqi had been in trouble.

Just like Song Zhongqi gained fame, he kept challenging those famous masters, and eventually gained considerable fame among the younger generation.

But others can easily imitate this kind of fame-seeking, right? That's why many young masters try to challenge Song Zhongqi.

However, if you walk the dark path too often, you'll eventually encounter a ghost. In a challenge over a month ago, Song Zhongqi was unfortunately defeated, and succumbed to his injuries; his sword broke, and he died.

Zhou Ye couldn't help but sigh: I never imagined that trying to grab attention could be so risky; this path isn't easy to navigate. In this martial arts world, it seems that risks are everywhere.

It's better to be like me, living a life of quiet deceit! Don't I have the power and the money? I even have a whole bunch of maids. Okay! Let's not talk about those maids who lust after me. Boys really have a hard time protecting themselves! Sigh—!

Interestingly, when Zhou Ye was comforting Du Juan, he was surprised to find that his junior sister didn't seem to be very sad; instead, she seemed rather lost.

That's understandable. To say they had much affection for each other? Not necessarily. In the past few years, Song Zhongqi has been constantly traveling and working, and the two have barely seen each other more than a few times. Not to mention, they were only engaged, not married.

So she's suddenly become a widow-to-be? Du Juan must be a little bewildered, right?

But no matter what, the two are already engaged, so they still have to consider the Song family's reputation.

Although it's impossible for Du Juan to remain a widow for Song Zhongqi for life, she will eventually remarry. However, it's best for her to avoid public appearances in the near future, at least to give outsiders an indication that she will observe mourning for Song Zhongqi for a period of time.

Since that's the case, Zhou Ye and Du Juan agreed to temporarily suspend their private coaching business and discuss it again after six months to a year.

Putting aside the mess at the martial arts school for now, Zhou Ye immediately got busy upon returning home to the city wall.

First, a manager was hired with a monthly salary of three and a half shi and two shi (or an equivalent value in currency).

An accountant.

Sure enough, with a large number of unemployed people in the county town, such talents were easy to find.

Zhou Ye then went to the slave market and bought a family to serve as slaves.

The family's surname was He, and they had originally been servants of other wealthy households. Unexpectedly, even that wealthy household could no longer sustain their livelihood, so they were sold to Zhou Ye.

That household of servants consisted of a family of four. The man's name was He Laoguan. He used to be a groom, and now he worked as both groom and gatekeeper.

The woman was Aunt He, who used to be a cook and could still be one. They had two sons, He Dazhu, 16, and He Erzhu, 14. The two brothers used to be low-ranking servants doing odd jobs. Now they could work as shop assistants.

The reason this family was chosen was simply because they had three men. This made it more convenient for them to run errands.

As for their original status as servants of other wealthy households? Were they too old to be properly trained? Could they be considered unloyal? What does it matter?

Zhou Ye only believed in his own strength. This kind of insignificant weakling? He could crush him with a flick of his wrist.

Now that the staff had been recruited, the shop was ready to open. So, just after the Lantern Festival, amidst a deafening burst of firecrackers, Tianxing Grocery Store grandly opened its doors—

Well, in such a terrible location, we didn't get many customers after opening.

But in any case, Zhou Ye finally owned his own business. He then began teaching the six maids and the two brothers, Zhu Zi, martial arts.

Whether you're herding one sheep or several, it's all the same. If the two brothers can get into the swing of things, they'll have two more guards for the family later.

Unexpectedly, when the shopkeeper and accountant saw that Zhou Ye was willing to teach martial arts, they were very interested. For ordinary people, the opportunity to learn martial arts was extremely rare, so they ended up seeking help from their employer, Zhou Ye.

Zhou Ye was indifferent, and then accepted the son and daughter of Manager Li, as well as the son and nephew of the accountant.

However, for these outsiders training in martial arts, both parties signed a contract—tuition fees were fully covered, and room and board were included. But after reaching the advanced level, they needed to serve the employer for a full 10 years.

So he paid another 90 taels of silver to Fenglei Martial Arts School, and Zhou Ye somehow ended up with 12 "disciples".

Good heavens! The family-based system is about to turn into a faction-based system.

However, what no one knew was that this wasn't Zhou Ye being overly compassionate. Compared to his previous private tutors, these disciples were actually far more useful.

Since private tutors are not one's actual students, one needs to be careful about the boundaries.

But these disciples are completely different. Zhou Ye can do whatever he wants with them, directly injecting his qi and blood into their bodies, and carefully observe the details of their meridians and dantian.

This can assist in one's external vision training, because such "guinea pigs" are quite rare.

Just like in the previous world, for those famous doctors, giving them a cadaver would be more attractive than giving them a room full of beautiful women, right?

That's roughly the gist of it.

Before we knew it, a month had passed.

You know what, as Zhou Ye became more and more proficient in his external vision, his success rate became astonishingly high.

All 12 people have entered the Qi Realm, and all of them succeeded on their first attempt. Among them, the best performers were Wenxiu and Li Wenwen, the daughter of Manager Li. Both girls entered the Qi Realm in two days and twelve days. Their innate talent should be around +4, making them almost geniuses.

This outcome was a win-win situation. The disciples had even greater faith in "Master Tian." Thus, Zhou Ye could do as he pleased with them—

That day, Zhou Ye arrived at the Mountain and Sea Pavilion. He was running low on high-grade Qi and Blood Pills, so he wanted to buy a new batch. He also needed to purchase new battle swords and steel spears.

The same shopkeeper, Hu, greeted Zhou Ye again. After the transaction was completed, Shopkeeper Hu inquired, "Young friend Tian, ​​it's been a long time. Actually, I was looking for you before; do you still have any cloth or silk?"

"Hmm—how much do you want?"

"How about 5000 bolts? Cotton is three taels of silver. Silk will be sold at market price. I guarantee you won't lose out."

Zhou Ye hesitated for a moment. Yes, there were indeed nearly 2 horses in the warehouse. But would there be any risks involved in going back to the warehouse to pick them up again?

"How about this? I'll give you an answer within three days?"

"Very well! Then this old man awaits good news."

After leaving the Mountain and Sea Pavilion, Zhou Ye first went to the Gu family's shop to pick up his newly ordered crocodile skin armor. He then disguised himself and activated his full concealment technique, quickly arriving near his home and warehouse at the docks, where he began a careful observation.

Observe.

Before long, Zhou Ye noticed something unusual—