Water Ink Panel: Starting with Bow Technique to Hunt the Sun and Patrol the Skies

Chapter 14: Chapter 14 Strengthening Qi-Blood, Learning to Read and Understand Text

After practicing for a while, Shen Qing stopped and sat in the chair to rest for a brief moment, combining work and relaxation.

In this moment, utilizing the faint light coming through the jar-shaped window, Shen Qing picked up a small blue booklet containing the Nine Skills Brocade Technique, burying himself in flipping through it.

He wanted to ponder the hidden meanings within it and understand the content related to Martial Arts.

Their place was too remote and information was extremely blocked, to the extent that they didn't even know whether the saint of today was a man or a woman.

Shen Qing was unwilling to let go of any channels that might allow him to grasp information.

Unfortunately...

"The characters I recognize are still too few; the content recorded inside is barely understood, indecipherable."

Having gone through the entire book, he could only recognize the illustrations of the figures within.

As it was a "genuine" book, every figure was drawn vividly with exceedingly standard poses.

Thanks to his knowledge from his previous life, he was able to grasp some essentials.

If it were the Chen Family Brothers, without a Martial Arts Hall master's guidance, merely relying on these would be but wishful thinking to master this Martial Arts skill.

Seeing that he could not comprehend the written content of the booklet, and unable to figure it out, Shen Qing chose to give up and continued to ponder the drawings' movements several times more, imprinting them in his mind to continue his progress.

Time trickled by, and after half a day had passed, Shen Qing watched as the ink numbers in his vision jumped continuously, his heart growing fervent.

Until a certain moment.

[Skill: Nine Skills Brocade (Entry Level)]

[Progress: 101/100 points]

[Status: Can be promoted]

[Note: A Cultivation Technique to refine Qi-Blood; continual cultivation can increase progress, achieve Great Perfection of Qi and Blood, and have the strength of an ox.]

Shen Qing's face brightened with joy. A day's hard practice finally brought about a qualitative change.

The Nine Skills Brocade, a Health Cultivation Martial Arts technique, had reached a breakthrough stage for Shen Qing.

With a face calm as water and surrounded by an indescribable authority, Shen Qing decisively chose to upgrade.

Just as he broke through, the muscles in Shen Qing's body suddenly tensed, as if every fiber was infused with endless strength at this moment.

The originally fine thread-like warmth inside Shen Qing's body, at this moment, burst into flames like a spark hitting kindling, expanding from hair-thin to the thickness of a little finger.

This warmth was not just the flow of blood, but represented the surging of Qi-Blood in his body and the accumulation of strength.

As the warmth expanded, Shen Qing's Qi-Blood clearly grew much stronger, his complexion changing from pallid to healthy, as if an invisible power was bursting forth from within him.

Shen Qing's breathing rhythm gradually accelerated, each intake of breath seeming to expel impurities from within his body.

After one deep breath, the restless anomaly finally settled down.

[Skill: Nine Skills Brocade (Skilled)]

[Progress: 1/200 points]

[Status: Cannot be promoted]

[Note: Continuous cultivation can increase progress. Once Qi-Blood reaches Great Perfection, one can have the strength of an ox and draw Qi as smoothly as silk.]

Gazing at the ink-written text in his vision, Shen Qing's eyes sparkled with sharpness.

Chen Tai and Chen An racked their brains but couldn't find the way; Chen Yuan exhausted great effort just to grasp a hint of the Nine Skills Brocade. In his hands, it was merely a technique that had already broken through another realm at the start of practice.

He was clearly a "Martial Arts Genius".

After breaking through the Martial Arts realm, his strength receded like the tide, and Shen Qing felt a sense of deficiency, followed by extreme exhaustion.

The Qi-Blood cultivated by martial masters does not arise from nothing; it also requires the nourishment of external substances.

Shen Qing caught a glimpse of a portion of roe deer meat sorted by Shen Fang beneath the bed today.

He leaned over to take the meat out and immediately started a fire.

As the flames grilled the meat, it gradually emitted a tempting aroma, with the dripping fat causing sparks and smoke to burst forth from the fire pit.

When the roe deer meat was roasted to a golden brown and the skin turned crispy, Shen Qing called Shen Fang to eat together.

Eagerly tearing off a piece, the steaming roe deer meat burst with rich flavor in his mouth.

The siblings thoroughly enjoyed themselves for a while.

After eating most of the meat and filling their empty stomachs, he finally stopped.

"Little brother, lately people in the village have been saying that a fierce creature has appeared in the mountains. The Chen Family Brothers were just unlucky to have met with disaster. For the near future, don't go to the back mountain.

I've learned some needlework from auntie these past two days, so I can mend things for others and earn a bit for the household."

Shen Fang's face was full of concern, her almond eyes fixed on Shen Qing, almost as if she feared he wouldn't agree, "Auntie is not a bad person, her words just aren't pleasant to hear."

"I know."

Shen Qing squatted by the fire, carefully picked up a handful of dry plant ash, and sprinkled it evenly over the embers, which were faintly red.

As the ash covered the embers, the light of the fire gradually weakened, leaving only strands of blue smoke drifting into the night sky.

Shen Qing stood up, gently clapped his hands, and after a moment's gaze at the fire, said, "I've basically been wandering around familiar areas in the back mountain, trapping some hunting crossbows. As for places deeper in, I don't have the skills for that. Don't worry about it."

"Okay."

Seeing her younger brother so decisive, Shen Fang did not try to persuade him further.

"I'm going out for a bit, to bookworm Zhang's house, I'll be back soon."

After some thought, Shen Qing felt that he needed to learn to recognize more characters.

It wasn't just to understand the content on the Nine Skills Brocade.

As far as he knew, in the schools and gangs in the city, there was a complete difference in treatment between martial masters who could read and those who couldn't.

If he could learn to read, he would undoubtedly be more valued and have better prospects.

Not to mention the officials at the government office, if you couldn't read at all, you couldn't even enter the door.

In this world, despite the emphasis on martial arts, the tradition of literacy had not been severed.

As he spoke, Shen Qing took the wild fatty rabbit he had caught the day before by the hand and strode out.

Zhang Shu Chi's house was not very far from his, roughly only fifty steps away.

Shen Qing arrived at the door of an earth house and knocked lightly.

A moment later, the wooden door opened.

Greeting him was a man in his late forties or fifties, with graying hair.

Carrying the wild rabbit, Shen Qing said with a smile, "I caught a wild rabbit yesterday and thought I couldn't finish it myself, so I brought it to the teacher. I need to ask a favor."

"Come in."

Zhang Shu Chi, seeing Shen Qing bring something, let him in without any hesitation, stepping aside to let him pass.

Once inside, looking around, Zhang Shu Chi's home was starkly bare, described perfectly as 'walls unadorned', save for the shelves of books that seemed somewhat out of place in this village, filling the air with a musty smell of damp pages.

Zhang Shu Chi's real name was Zhang Shuyuan, a native of Hongshan Village.

It was said that when he was young, he was frail and sickly, not fond of hunting. But since his family had some wealth at that time, he was able to attend a private school in the county for a few years, which endowed him with some talent.

Later, looking down on the livelihoods in the village, he wanted to settle in the county.

But it wasn't so easy to gain a foothold in the county city.

After about ten years of struggle, he achieved nothing, ended up poor and destitute, and had no choice but to return to his hometown.

By recognizing characters, he managed to make a living writing couplets, letters, and keeping accounts for others in his hometown.

Because he was always seen with a book in hand, never going out the front door or stepping out the back, villagers called him bookworm.

"What do you need me for? To write a letter or to do accounting?" After letting Shen Qing in, Zhang Shuyuan sat back in his chair, picking up a book as usual and asking.

Shen Qing stepped forward, looked Zhang Shuyuan in the eyes, and said seriously, "I want to ask the teacher to teach me to recognize characters and read."