Start your cultivation journey by allocating points to your Destiny.

The lunch they had was enough to keep them full.

I haven't eaten meat in a long time.

The two children were tired in the morning, so Lu Chen told them to take a nap while he chopped wood in the yard with a wood-chopping knife.

He wondered if he could gain the throwing skill by throwing stones, could he also gain the knife skill by chopping wood?

There wasn't much firewood at home, and after he chopped it all up, he still didn't hear the notification sound.

"Could it be that my posture is wrong?"

Lu Chen thought for a moment, took his machete, and went to the small hill behind the mountain. He found a bamboo forest, searched for a while, and found a straight, dark green bamboo, about the thickness of an egg. He chopped it several times before he could cut it down.

He planned to make a bamboo spear from this bamboo that had grown for five or six years, to see if he could obtain the skill attribute for spear fighting.

Also, try out the slashing skill.

They found several large trees, cut off their side branches, and tied them together with vines.

After cutting off many side branches, Lu Chen was about to give up. He simply found a nearly dead tree about the thickness of an arm and chopped at it more than twenty times before finally felling it.

Only then did he hear the belated notification sound.

[Host's slashing skill detected; entry generated]

Chopping (Beginner)

His eyes lit up instantly.

"It seems it takes time to reach a certain stage. Before, I succeeded by throwing a few stones, perhaps because I hit a bird and that's why the entry was generated so quickly. This time, it was because I chopped a lot of wood that the entry was generated?"

Without much thought, Lu Chen cut the felled tree into several sections, dragged them down the mountain in several trips, and then carried the side branches down the mountain and piled them in a corner of the yard.

After trimming the cut bamboo into pieces that were more than a meter tall and about two meters long, Lu Chen chopped off the top at an angle, creating a sharp bevel.

Then, using a machete, the bamboo joints were carefully scraped smooth to ensure there were no burrs. After polishing it smooth, the bamboo was placed in a shady place indoors, ready to be dried and straightened in the evening.

By the time he finished doing all that, Lu Ming and Lu Tang had already woken up.

"Brother, did you chop all this firewood?"

Lu Tang spotted the firewood in the yard at a glance.

"Yes, as I said, I'm all better now. I had nothing to do this afternoon, so I went up the mountain and cut some."

Lu Chen could tell from Lu Tang's expression that she was worried about her health again.

However, the previous entry was changed to minor injury, and now that a day has passed, he feels that it doesn't hurt that much anymore.

Perhaps from the system's perspective, a minor injury is just a superficial wound that will heal in a few days.

Perhaps in a few more days, the minor injury will be completely healed.

"By the way, if you're free this afternoon, could you help me collect some stones, something this big?"

Lu Chen took out a pebble the size of a plum.

"Brother, what do you need the stone for? There are lots of stones by the river, I'll go find some for you!"

Lu Ming spoke up.

"I'm going too!"

After seeing the two off, Lu Chen picked up his machete and began chopping and stacking the damp firewood in the corner.

After finishing, he opened the entry panel.

[Chopping Basics (2%)]

"2%! Sure enough, practicing on your own can improve your progress!"

A smile appeared on Lu Chen's lips.

I checked the results of the entry.

[Reducing obstruction when chopping objects allows for smoother splitting, increasing chopping efficiency by 10%.]

He was a little surprised.

This is chopping wood.

What if it's chopping something else?

No, no, that's too bloody.

"Brother, come help me, it's too heavy!"

At the door, Lu Tang shouted loudly.

She was covered in sweat, struggling to lift a bag with both hands, panting heavily.

Lu Chen quickly stood up and took the bag.

"We picked up so many stones. My second brother was still picking them up on the riverbank. There were still so many that I couldn't carry them."

Lu Tang took a breath.

"Thank you, Xiaotang, you're amazing!" Lu Chen praised.

Lu Tang's eyes crinkled with laughter: "Hehe, you're amazing too, brother!"

"You rest at home, I'll go find Xiaoming."

When they arrived at the riverbank, besides Lu Ming, there were several other children playing on the bank. One child was swimming in the river, showing off his swimming skills to the children on the shore, and shouting for them to come down, saying that the water was comfortable.

Lu Chen came to Lu Ming's side and glanced at a pile of stones next to him, all about the size of plums, which looked like they had been collected along the way.

"Brother, are these okay with you?" Lu Ming looked at Lu Chen with bright eyes.

He was happy to be able to help his older brother.

"Sure!" Lu Chen smiled and whispered to Lu Ming, "Want to learn how to throw stones with me? You could even use it to shoot birds!"

Lu Ming's eyes instantly lit up like light bulbs as he looked at Lu Chen: "Yes! Brother, teach me, I want to learn!"

"Okay, we'll wait until we get back..."

Before Lu Chen could finish speaking, the children by the river suddenly cried out in surprise.

Lu Chen turned his head and saw that something seemed to have happened to the child in the river. The child was flailing his hands in fear and was calling for help.

His expression changed, and he looked around but didn't find any long wooden sticks.

The child in the river was about to sink.

The children on the shore were terrified, and one of the more timid ones even started crying.

"Go quickly and call my uncle!"

"Chengzong, hang in there, we'll go get help!"

"Brother, someone help! I'm in danger!"

Several children shouted.

Lu Chen didn't have time to think it through and opened the panel.

"System, modify the entry 'Weak Constitution'."

While silently chanting in his mind, he quickly took off his clothes and shoes and rushed into the river.

Soon, the description of his "weak constitution" was changed to "normal constitution." He could also feel a surge of heat flowing rapidly throughout his body, as if his body was being replenished with qi and blood, making him more powerful.

Lu Ming looked worried.

"Brother, no! Your injuries haven't healed yet!"

He tried to grab Lu Chen, but failed. He could only watch helplessly as Lu Chen rushed into the water and quickly swam towards the child who had already drunk his fill of water and was slowly sinking.

After swimming up behind the child, Lu Chen took a breath.

Fortunately, the "weak constitution" status was changed to "normal constitution," otherwise there would be no way to save the person now.

After all, he was the successor, wore the red scarf for six years, and swore an oath twice; his heart was still red.

Moreover, he wasn't acting impulsively; he had considered the situation carefully. He knew he had the ability to save others and protect himself, so he naturally couldn't stand by and watch someone die.

Lu Chen grabbed the person from behind and quickly swam towards the shore.

An adult was already running this way quickly, followed by a child.

"Where is he?" he shouted, his voice filled with anxiety.

Lu Chen slowly approached the shore. The child in his arms, who was coughing incessantly, was pale and trembling all over.

The children on the shore watched with delight as Lu Chen and the child climbed ashore.

They've been rescued!

Only Lu Ming looked worried and afraid.

"Brother, are you alright?"

He grabbed Lu Chen, almost bursting into tears.

Lu Chen wiped his face and patted Lu Ming's shoulder: "It's okay! Give me the clothes."

The adult who had been called over breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the person had been rescued and the child seemed to be alright. He wanted to thank him, but when he saw Lu Chen, he paused for a moment.

"Xiao Chen? Weren't you injured? Why did you go into the water to save this brat?"

He quickly pulled Lu Chen to his side, wanting to check if he was alright.

"Uncle Huaiyi, I'm fine. Let me put on my clothes."

"Oh right, don't catch a cold!"

Lu Huaiyi glared at his son, then helped Lu Chen put on his clothes.

"Xiao Chen, thank you so much for today! If it weren't for you, that little bastard would probably be a drowned ghost by now!"

At this point, he glared at Lu Chengzong again, still a little angry, and simply slapped him across the face.

Lu Chengzong was his son, and also the child who drowned in the river.

He was sitting on the ground, trembling and at a loss, when he was suddenly slapped and burst into tears.

He is fine.

But something big is about to happen!

Lu Huaiyi instructed the children to take Lu Chengzong home, while he himself wanted to go back with Lu Chen and Lu Ming.

"Uncle Huaiyi, it's really alright now. We're all family, you don't need to come with me. Go check on Chengzong first, he looks really frightened. The child is still young, we can't let anything happen to him!"

Lu Huaiyi could only thank Lu Chen repeatedly before leaving.

Lu Chen told Lu Ming to take the pebbles they had picked up and hurried home.

He had already heard the system notification sound.

"Host has been detected to have altered Lu Chengzong's fate trajectory. Life points gained: 30."

Lu Chen was somewhat excited.

He suddenly realized how he could obtain his life points.

If changing one's destiny can grant one a certain fate value, then what about studying?

As the saying goes, reading can change your destiny.

There are quite a few children in the village now, and many of them are like the child who just drowned. They either help with chores at home or play. What if they used this time to go to school?

Can teaching them to read, write, and do arithmetic change their destiny?

There used to be a private school in the village, but the scholar Teng Chuan, who taught there, was too old to even speak properly, so the village hadn't had a private school for several years.

So none of the eight- or nine-year-old children in the village have ever been to school.

However, his mother personally taught him to read.

In addition, he himself is a college graduate from a 211 university. Although he has been working for several years and has forgotten most of his knowledge, he still has no problem with simple arithmetic.

"In the village, who has the money to hire someone to teach?"

Lu Chen only thought about it for a moment before deciding on a person.

Lu Xiande, the grandfather of the Lu family's eldest branch.

He and his grandfather Lu Chong were cousins. Lu Chong was also the village chief of Qingshan Village and the head of the Lu family clan. His family was quite wealthy, and his grandchildren were about the same age as Xiao Tang, and it was time for them to start their formal education.

His son was Lu Huaiyi.

Lu Chengzong is his grandson.

"Perhaps there really is a chance!"

Lu Chen decided to ask later.