Chapter 26 Prepare for a rainy day
Chapter 26 Prepare for a rainy day
Zhang Jue stood up and took out two medium-sized medicine gourds and two iron skewers from the box, with a hemp rope tied to the two iron skewers.
"Starting today, you will take the medicine twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. I estimate that you will enter the barrier-breaking state for two hours every morning. It doesn't matter whether you practice martial arts or not, but you must seize the opportunity of these two hours."
Xiao Xia nodded repeatedly, and Zhang Jue handed him two more iron sticks. "Nail the two iron sticks to the wood, anywhere is fine, but the hemp rope must be taut. Then you chop the hemp rope with the dagger. When you can chop the hemp rope into ten strands, come to me and we'll move on to the next step!"
Xiao Xia scratched his head, "What if I accidentally cut the rope?"
"Idiot! Can't you just tie it again?"
Xiao Xia smiled sheepishly, and then asked, "The little nun asked me to go find her after practicing sword for two months."
"Just go ahead!"
Xiao Xia took advantage of the situation and made another unreasonable request, "Can I learn to throw knives?"
Zhang Jue understood his thoughts. He was just a young boy! Who doesn’t like flying knives?
He chuckled, "I told you, that's just a trivial skill. As long as you complete the solidification, you can become a master of any weapon as long as you practice for a month. Go! Practice splitting the rope well."
Xiao Xia walked out of Zhang Jue's residence carrying the bag, and he seemed to have seen a new world.
…………
Xiao Xia returned to the dormitory and nailed two iron sticks to the window frame. The hemp rope was stretched straight. The hemp rope was of medium thickness, about the same as a ballpoint pen refill. It was made of more than a hundred fibers as thin as silk. Zhang Jue asked to split it into ten strands, which was definitely impossible now, but it would be possible in the state of breaking the barrier.
His current state of breaking through obstacles only occurs occasionally and is beyond his control, so he needs to practice the second step, consolidating his essence.
Turn the obstacle-breaking state into a state that can be controlled at will, come when you want, retreat when you want.
In fact, Xiao Xia has already understood that strengthening his Yuan has nothing to do with practicing martial arts, but only with taking medicine. The longer he takes the medicine, the longer he will be able to enter the barrier-breaking state, and slowly he will be able to control it.
So why do we need to practice rope splitting? This is actually to train control ability. Breaking obstacles is like getting a piece of high-quality iron, but high-quality iron alone is useless. It must be made into a weapon.
An ordinary craftsman can only forge a sharp sword, but if he is a master craftsman, he can give full play to the excellent properties of iron and forge it into a peerless sword.
Control ability is the level of the craftsman. The higher the control ability, the better the obstacle-breaking ability can be utilized.
Xiao Xia took the medicine twice that day and waited quietly for the barrier-breaking state to come.
The next morning, the extrasensory perception ability arrived as expected again.
Xiao Xia saw so carefully and heard so clearly, the sound of the wind, the chirping of insects, and even the faint sound of the couple next door to the next door making love.
Xiao Xia shook off the unclean thoughts in his mind, turned over and sat up, drew out his dagger and went straight for the thin hemp rope.
Sure enough, the thin hemp rope was clearly visible, but splitting the fibers as thin as a hair was no easy task. The sword had to be ruthless, accurate, and steady, and the strength had to be controlled like a spear embroidering.
Xiao Xia took a deep breath and slashed with his sword. The high-quality imitation Frost Sword was indeed not easy to use. The feel was completely different. No wonder Zhang Jue only spent less than ten strings of money. Xiao Xia directly split the hemp rope into two pieces with one sword, but he used his strength very well and the two iron sticks did not move.
Helplessly, Xiao Xia had to tie another hemp rope, and then chopped it down decisively with the sword, splitting the hemp rope into two pieces again.
..........
Xiao Xia practiced until noon, changing more than thirty hemp ropes, but he didn't split even a single fiber.
At this time, the barrier-breaking state gradually disappeared, and lasted much longer than yesterday.
His stomach growled, so he went out to eat.
The incident at the dock did not seem to cause any waves, and no one came to look for him. Xiao Zhurong went to escort the goods yesterday afternoon, and he had not been seen in the past two days. However, during dinner, many people looked at him with strange eyes, pointed at him and whispered behind his back, but Xiao Xia turned a blind eye and turned a deaf ear to them.
After lunch, he went out to the street.
Xiao Xia wanted to buy a jade pendant. Last time, the patriarch rewarded him with three hundred tiger and leopard pills. He asked Xiao Zhurong to sell twenty of them and got one hundred strings of money, of which fifty strings were exchanged for silver.
Ever since he knew his identity, Xiao Xia began to attach great importance to the jade pendant. He believed it must be some kind of proof of his identity, so he had to protect it well.
Xiao Xia’s thinking is different from others. Others just need to hide the jade pendant.
Xiao Xia was not like that. He was a soft-spoken person with a sharp tongue. He knew that ordinary people would not steal the jade pendant. The ones who stole the jade pendant must be the gang in Beijing. It would be meaningless to let the thieves in Beijing get away with nothing. It would be better to let the thieves steal a fake jade pendant. This fake jade pendant would definitely become a thorn.
The largest jewelry store in Jiangdu is called Jubao Pavilion, located in the most prosperous old street in Jiangdu City.
When I walked into the jewelry store, a sharp-nosed and monkey-faced clerk came out to greet me, "Welcome to our store, sir."
Xiao Xia nodded, "I want to see the jade pendant!"
The waiter was stunned for a moment. He looked Xiao Xia up and down. He was wearing a blue linen warrior suit and a warrior hat. It was obviously the warrior suit of the Xiao family. He also had a leather bag on his back.
The clerk curled his lips and said, "I'm sorry, but our shop can't sell jade to you, young master!"
Xiao Xia was a little annoyed, "If you don't want to sell it, I'll go to another store!"
"We can't find it anywhere else. We're the only one that sells it in the entire Jiangdu City!"
Xiao Xia turned and walked away, and suddenly there was a roar from behind, "Monkey, how do you do business?"
The waiter was frightened and stepped forward quickly to say with a smile: "I said something rude, I apologize to you, sir. Actually, I am doing this for your own good. If I am caught by the government, it will be a disaster for you."
Xiao Xia stopped and said coldly: "Tell me the reason!"
"My lord, you don't know that there are rules for jade pendants. The common people are not allowed to wear them. Two years ago, the son of a wealthy businessman bought a jade pendant from us and took it out to show off. As a result, he was reported and arrested by the government. His father spent three thousand strings of cash to redeem him.
Moreover, jade pendants are very expensive, the cheapest one costs five hundred strings of cash, and you can't wear it, and you have to keep so much money, why bother?"
"Five hundred strings of cash?" Xiao Xia was also shocked.
The waiter nodded and said, "Five hundred strings of cash is the cheapest. It's very small, only the size of a finger. If it were the size of a palm, it would cost at least several thousand strings of cash."
So that's how it is. Xiao Xia was really disappointed and nodded, "Okay! Thank you very much."
Xiao Xia turned and left. Not long after he walked away, he suddenly felt someone poking his arm. When he turned around, it turned out to be the guy from Jubao Pavilion.
The guy pointed to the alley next to him, and Xiao Xia followed him over. "Don't go in. Just tell me what you want to say!"
The waiter quickly turned around and whispered, "Sir, do you really want to buy a jade pendant?"
"nonsense!"
Xiao Xia said unhappily: "Of course I want to buy it, but it's too expensive and I can't afford it!"
Seeing that no one was around, the waiter whispered, "Sir, go to Rongbaozhai near the Third Bridge. There are some cheap ones there. Just say that Monkey brought them here, otherwise the owner won't give them to you."
(End of this chapter)