Chapter 守岁人 3

The Shou Sui Ren’s (Year Watcher) methods were treasures, not easily taught.

And these notes, recorded through personal experimentation, were undoubtedly treasures among treasures. How could they be stolen casually?

It wasn’t like selling self-help books from his previous life!

Hearing this junior sister's words, Hu Ma didn't feel any good fortune coming his way. He only felt more vigilant.

He pursed his lips slightly, suppressed the suspicion in his heart, and said calmly, "Don't joke around, Junior Sister. I'll just learn slowly from the shopkeeper."

"Brother Hu Ma is a truly honest man…"

But that He junior sister, seeing Hu Ma's refusal, covered her mouth and smiled, then left the room.

The stench in the room was blown away by the wind, and Hu Ma muttered to himself, vaguely thinking, was this some kind of loyalty test? Giving it to him on the surface, but if he took it, it would prove his bad character?

A little childish, wasn't it?

The old shopkeeper had already promised to teach him the methods, so why bother with this?

Unable to guess the reason, he could only put the matter aside for the moment. At night, he continued to circulate his power silently.

Now, inside his Natal Spirit Temple, he could see that his left hand was already glowing golden, which meant that the fire had reached its peak and the Lian Huo (Refining Live) was successful.

Of course, the cloth wrapped around it hadn't been taken off yet, for fear of being seen by the shopkeeper.

And not only his left hand, but his right leg was also faintly showing traces of golden lines, which were the results of his experiments.

After refining his left hand, he would refine his right leg. The old shopkeeper had only given him these two methods for now, and he hoped that he could refine these two parts before the next spring.

This made Hu Ma realize a problem. It seemed that he would soon have nothing to refine?

According to his current progress, his right leg would also be refined quickly. What would he do then? Just stop and wait?

After all, the shopkeeper hadn't taught him any other methods!

In this way, his advantage of refining quickly would be gone.

The old shopkeeper said to refine it in four months, and he refined it in forty days, but it was useless, because he would have no methods and could only wait until four months later to learn others.

But Hu Ma quickly discovered that the Shou Sui Ren's (Year Watcher) path, refining different parts, had some things in common, and some things were completely different.

The slightest differences were worlds apart.

He had learned the method of refining his left hand, and he could use it on his right hand, slowly experimenting, and it was roughly the same.

With the Natal Divine Statue illuminating him, Hu Ma could make his own adjustments.

Having learned the method of refining the left hand, it was equivalent to having learned the method of refining the right hand, and the same was true for the left and right legs.

But it wouldn't work for refining muscles, membranes, and internal organs.

Then there was the ever-present problem of blood food. The faster he cultivated, the faster the consumption of his furnace fire was also astonishingly fast.

He watched as his original three pillars of Dao practice had been consumed to two and a half pillars. If this continued, he was afraid that it would soon become two pillars, or even one pillar?

Although in theory, as he refined more parts, his consumption of furnace fire should become slower and slower.

But in the end, he still needed to get a batch of blood food…

…Thinking like this, that suggestion from Brother Erguotou (second pot liquor) was probably very necessary?

"Brother Hu Ma…"

Just as he was pondering, a gust of yin wind suddenly blew in his face, and Hu Ma woke up with a start from his sleep.

If it had been before, this gust of yin wind would have startled him, but now, with his deepened Dao practice and greater courage, he could sense that there was no malice in this yin wind.

He opened his eyes and saw Xiao Hongtang squatting at the head of his bed. She looked warily out the window, slowly placed the red wooden sword in her hand beside him, and then hid behind him, quietly, without making a sound.

"Someone's coming?"

Hu Ma understood, and knew that it shouldn't be Zhou Datong who was coming.

Xiao Hongtang was very clever!

She put down the wooden sword in order not to let anyone notice her existence. If it was Zhou Datong, she wouldn't bother to care.

Slowly sitting up, Hu Ma slowly approached the window. The room was dark, but there was some starlight outside, but it was also dark and gloomy. After approaching the papered window, he smelled a faint stench. Hu Ma suddenly heard a "chih" giggle.

The sound was extremely close to him, only separated by a layer of window paper.

If there was no layer of window paper, it would be like nose to nose, face to face.

"Is it that woman?"

Hu Ma was slightly startled. Before he could say anything, he heard the laughter fade away, and Wu He junior sister's voice came softly:

"Don't be afraid, Brother Hu Ma, take a closer look…"

"…"

Hu Ma breathed a sigh of relief, opened the window, and saw two dark things placed on the windowsill.

He wasn't in a hurry to touch them. He first turned back to fumble for the fire starter, lit the oil lamp, brought it over, and saw a thin booklet placed on the windowsill.

It didn't look very old, and there was no text written on the cover. Next to the booklet, there was a bowl of dark things.

Hu Ma took a look and recognized it. It was actually a bowl of Tai Sui (meat fungus)… still fried in oil!

"What exactly is she up to?"

Hu Ma had a strange feeling in his heart.

He put down the oil lamp, stood in silence for a while, made sure he couldn't smell anything, and then turned to look at Xiao Hongtang.

Xiao Hongtang squatted blankly in the bedding and said, "They're gone!"

Hu Ma breathed a sigh of relief, used a cloth to pad his hand, picked up the booklet, and flipped through it, feeling shocked.

Inside this booklet, it was impressively recorded the methods for the Shou Sui Ren (Year Watcher) to cultivate various parts of the body, from hands to feet, without any omissions. Not only were there cultivation methods, but there were also some personal techniques.

And looking at the notes, they were strong and powerful. Hu Ma had seen the cargo contract written by Shopkeeper Wu, and it was in the same style as these notes, but not entirely.

Roughly looking at it, there were some delicate and graceful parts.

"Weird…"

The more he looked, the more shocked he became. Was this woman playing for real?

She actually stole the shopkeeper's cultivation notes for him, asking him to quickly succeed in cultivation?

In fact, some places seemed to have been supplemented by her.

Most importantly, besides these notes, there was also that bowl of stewed meat. Hu Ma had eaten a lot of it from Second Master. It was Qing Tai Sui (green meat fungus).

Although Hu Ma didn't really care about this half bowl of Qing Tai Sui (green meat fungus).

But he had to understand that for any clerk, this was a treasure, nearly a month's rations.

Why was she being so good to him?

Because he was handsome?

…Let's rule out this most likely option first!

Hu Ma didn't think he was stupid, and he had the experience of his previous life as a foundation, but he couldn't figure out what she was plotting.

It was just that the night was dark and quiet, and he looked at these notes, and a strange idea arose in his heart. Now was the time when he lacked cultivation methods, but these methods were placed in front of him, so should he look at them or not?

Look!

Hu Ma's heart sank slightly, and he opened the notes, browsing through them quickly.

Xiao Hongtang was chased out to keep watch on the roof.

Hu Ma didn't know at all whether what was recorded in these notes was true or false, or how much was true and how much was false.

But he decided to quickly write them down, remembering as much as possible.

Anyway, when it came to cultivation, he could illuminate them one by one through the Natal Divine Statue, couldn't he?

As for that bowl of Qing Tai Sui (green meat fungus), he wasn't in a hurry to eat it.

…

He read in one breath until the sky turned white in the east, then Hu Ma put away the booklet, washed his face early, arranged for the clerks in the outer courtyard to do all the work, and then, when they were all busy, he took advantage of the unprepared to enter the inner courtyard.

He saw that the old shopkeeper was already up, slowly practicing his moves in the courtyard. He wasn't worried about Hu Ma watching, nor did he greet him, just slowly finished a set of moves.

Then he took the towel handed over by the old servant next to him, and while wiping his face, he said, "What's the matter?"

"Yesterday, Junior Sister played a joke on me."

Hu Ma took out the booklet wrapped in cloth and handed it to the old shopkeeper, smiling bitterly, "She sent me this, and a bowl of Qing Shi (green food)…"

The old shopkeeper looked at the booklet and wasn't surprised at all, saying, "Did you look at it?"

"I flipped through it."

Hu Ma said, "I thought it wasn't very proper, so I closed it again."

The old shopkeeper smiled when he heard this, and said, "What about the bowl of Qing Shi (green food)?"

Hu Ma said, "I ate it."

"Truly, girls can't be kept at home when they grow up…"

The old shopkeeper laughed when he heard this, and said, "That was what I kept to eat in the morning to replenish my body, but she stole it to give it to you, and this booklet too. But you don't need to panic, since she gave it to you, just take a look at it."

"Logically speaking, I should be watching your cultivation all the time, guiding you, but we are busy here, and I don't have the energy, so I'll just let you look at it…"

"As for the Qing Shi (green food)…"

He paused, smiling and said to the old servant next to him, "From now on, stew a bowl for him every three days."

"So he doesn't steal mine."

"…"

The old servant agreed and left, but Hu Ma was surprised in his heart.

Listening to the old shopkeeper's meaning, he completely knew and approved of it?

Not only was he not happy in his heart, but he was more alarmed.

What did the old shopkeeper mean by saying that girls can't be kept at home when they grow up?

If anyone in this village heard this, they would be happy to go to the roof, but only Hu Ma wouldn't.

Where are there pies in the sky, and where are there such good things?

But although his heart was full of alarms, Hu Ma pretended to be surprised and delighted on the surface, and said repeatedly:

"Thank you, Shopkeeper…"

"…"

Fortunately, he had been in the reserve team of the school drama club in his previous life, otherwise he wouldn't be able to perform so meticulously.

Taking this booklet out, Hu Ma was officially allowed to read it.

Even, according to the shopkeeper's meaning, he let go and let Hu Ma try to cultivate more, and there was Qing Shi (green food) to supplement him.

But Hu Ma didn't dare to relax, and couldn't say anything, so he could only keep this vigilance in his eyes. None of the clerks in the village didn't want to take a few more glances at that junior sister, but Hu Ma subconsciously wanted to avoid her.

Of course, he just wanted to avoid her in his heart, but he couldn't show it too obviously. Whenever he saw this junior sister, he still had to greet her with a smile.

Even if he met her and she mentioned something she wanted to eat, he had to think about bringing it to her…

…Is this what life with a woman is like?

My heart is really tired! It's still more fun to be with Second Master and the clerks.