Fang Jie was the most peculiar person in the Martial Arts Academy; he almost never appeared in the classroom where he was supposed to be. Professor Mo Wanwu was already used to this. He knew Fang Jie hadn't forgiven him; after all, the incident on Half-Moon Mountain was indeed because of him.
So what could he do but shake his head and smile bitterly when he saw Fang Jie head straight for the library instead of the classroom? He was a professor at the Martial Arts Academy; he couldn't expect him to endlessly chase after a student to repent. Mo Wanwu harbored resentment about what happened on Half-Moon Mountain, but he didn't particularly regret it. If the students of the Martial Arts Academy couldn't even handle this kind of setback, how could they lead troops into battle in the future?
Experiencing death sooner might not necessarily be a bad thing for the students.
Of course, it was extremely unfair to the dead.
After entering the library, Fang Jie sat down in his usual spot by the window, where he could see the scenery and the people coming and going. It was a quiet, secluded corner. He could read calmly or meditate with his eyes closed. Since Marilyn saw him vomit dozens of worms, Fang Jie hadn't encountered her in the library.
Fang Jie didn't care about Marilyn's change at all. He and that girl would never have any interaction, and she had never entered his heart.
He had finished reading the Wan Jian Tang Sword Records. The book's contents were fragmented and incomplete. However, Fang Jie summarized several saber techniques from the sharp sword moves within, which he felt should be quite effective when practicing them privately. Fang Jie came from a border army background and had witnessed countless battles since childhood. Therefore, his requirements for techniques were extremely simple: direct and swift. Simple and clear, killing the enemy with a single strike.
Xie Fuyao had demonstrated the Wudang Mountain Two-Element Sword Technique to him, but Fang Jie didn't like this ethereal and otherworldly style. Such graceful and elegant sword moves were indeed effective in duels between martial artists. But on the battlefield, this sword technique was meaningless. Even the greatest swordsmen of the era couldn't dance gracefully amidst a vast army.
Fang Jie had been reading books on cultivation for the past few days, all in the basic cultivation texts of several major sects. They were basically all the same, with no variation on the fundamental principles. Fang Jie tried to utilize the spiritual energy of heaven and earth that he could sense. Although he had made some progress in the past few days, it was still ineffective in actual combat. After closing his eyes and pondering for a while, Fang Jie suddenly realized that his initial approach was wrong.
Ever since he could sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, he had wanted to be able to kill enemies from a distance like cultivators. However, the spiritual energy he could sense was pitifully thin, practically useless. After racking his brains without finding a solution, he suddenly realized that at his current level, if he could even mobilize the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, it would already be a great success. After all, he was still most skilled in close combat, and that was what he should be focusing on now.
Understanding this, Fang Jie began to try to channel the spiritual energy of heaven and earth he sensed into his fist. He didn't have a Qi Sea, so he couldn't store the spiritual energy in his dantian. However, concentrating one's vital energy into a single point, though weak, should offer some assistance in offense.
His physical body was already extremely strong; if he could further mobilize the vital energy of heaven and earth, his attack power would undoubtedly increase. This was a very bold attempt. He wasn't drawing the vital energy into his dantian and transforming it into internal strength to flow through his limbs and bones. Instead, he was condensing the vital energy outside his body, like adding an iron shield around his fist.
In an instant, Fang Jie conceived of this method and tried to implement it. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he sensed the vital energy circulating outside his body, trying to gather it around his fist. However, this attempt was inherently somewhat absurd. So, after more than an hour, Fang Jie still hadn't made any progress.
He looked at the sun outside, knowing it was nearly noon. So he got up and left, saying goodbye to the old man before heading straight to the horse farm to feed the crimson horse. Just as he was about to leave for the canteen for lunch, he suddenly saw a groom carrying a water bucket wink at him. This blinking wasn't because his eyes were uncomfortable; it was clearly an attempt to get Fang Jie's attention.
Fang Jie looked around and, realizing the blink was indeed directed at him, said to the groom, "Shouldn't I take this crimson horse out for a run more often? It looks so fat it can barely run anymore."
The groom smiled and said loudly, "It's alright. This is a famous breed from Northern Liao. Even when it's fat, it can still run like the wind. Just take it out for a run, and it'll recover."
He went to Fang Jie's side and added water to the crimson horse's bowl. "You can't go to that courtyard on East Twenty-Sixth Street anymore. There's an ambush there. The eunuch already knows about that place and has sent people to secretly scout it. Now there's something..." "There are few skilled men. Also, when you get back, go to the market and buy two servants, and a young man who looks quite conspicuous who's willing to sell himself; buy him too and make him your page. As for who to buy, you'll find out when you get there; they're all good men that the eunuch has assigned to you."
The groom finished speaking in a low voice, then laughed loudly, "Young Master Fang, you're very lucky! Even the generals of the court find it extremely difficult to obtain a good horse from Northern Liao."
Fang Jie also laughed, "Yes, my luck has always been good."
"Does His Majesty have any decrees?"
He asked in a low voice.
The groom shook his head slightly and whispered, "His Majesty has no decree, but the eunuch asked me to tell Lord Fang not to be greedy for credit and not to be impatient."
Fang Jie was taken aback, then smiled and said, "Since the eunuch is so concerned, may I make another request?"
"Please speak, Lord Fang."
"Don't you pay for servants and pageboys? If the eunuch were willing to give me tens of thousands of taels of silver to spend, I would be even more grateful."
The groom was stunned, looking at Fang Jie as if he were a monster.
"This... I will certainly pass on the message."
He said this, then picked up his bucket and left.
After the man disappeared, Fang Jie couldn't help but frown, thinking. Even meeting at the Martial Arts Academy has to be so mysterious; could it be that there are people in the Martial Arts Academy whom the Emperor doesn't trust?
...
...
The sun was just beginning to set when Fang Jie left the Martial Arts Academy and found the place the groom had mentioned. It was a huge market, completely opposite to the market where Fang Jie had gone to find Butcher Chun Gu and the others. This market was run by the government, and it was frequented by wealthy merchants. At the far end of the market, in a corner, was the place for the sale of slaves.
The slaves sold here included, in part, the families of officials convicted of crimes, demoted to slavery and sent to the market to be sold; in part, people facing insurmountable difficulties who had no choice but to sell themselves; and in part, captives from the border regions by the Sui Dynasty's border troops—mostly barbarians whose appearance was vastly different from that of the people of the Central Plains.
In this slave market, the highest prices were for the families of officials. These servants, implicated because their masters had committed crimes, weren't particularly worried about finding work. Wealthy families preferred to buy servants and maids from these women because they knew etiquette and were far better than buying barbarians. Moreover, the concubines and daughters of convicted officials usually sold for extremely high prices. Merchants, though wealthy but of low social status, could only find women from the officials' households here if they wanted to sleep with them. Buying a convicted official's daughter or concubine to take as a second wife was a matter of great prestige.
Barbarians were generally bought by merchants to work as laborers, and they didn't need to be paid wages, just fed. These barbarians were usually rough but very strong. Merchants preferred to buy such people, saving a lot of money on hiring laborers.
However, in recent years, the Sui Dynasty had not been at war, so the number of barbarian slaves was small, making them highly sought after but difficult to sell. Whenever a batch arrived, they were usually snapped up, just as easily as the families of convicted officials.
In contrast, those who had to sell themselves due to personal difficulties rarely attracted attention. The Sui people were inherently proud, and no one would demean themselves unless faced with insurmountable obstacles. These people were not easy to manage and often carried a certain arrogance.
It took Fang Jie a full half hour to find this place. He deliberately walked slowly, but no one spoke to him. This surprised him; the coachman had said he would recognize the people Su Buwei had arranged as soon as he arrived, but he hadn't found anyone halfway there. While searching, he encountered a vendor selling candied hawthorns, and Fang Jie bought two skewers. He ate one skewer himself and wrapped the other to take back to Chen Qingshan.
Just then, he saw the people he was looking for.
Three people stood side by side.
One was a burly man with a sign in front of him that read "One Hundred Taels of Silver," not a penny less. Another was a scholar, his robe filthy, unwashed for days. Despite the cold weather, he held a worn-out folding fan with five characters written on it: "Seeking a destined person." Standing next to the scholar was the boy the coachman had mentioned, but seeing the boy made Fang Jie want to curse.
It was a thin, dark-skinned boy, instantly reminding Fang Jie of Africa. The boy, who looked about fourteen or fifteen years old and wore a tattered fur coat, winked at Fang Jie. Two strands of snot hung from his nose, seemingly about to drip into his mouth, but he always managed to miraculously suck them back in.
His dry, yellow hair resembled a hen's burrow made of weeds. And this boy was so thin it was unbearable to look at him a second time; his body was small, his head large—clearly the offspring of an alien and an African native.
Where did Su Buwei find these three guys?
The burly man was priced at one hundred taels of silver. Even if he had the physique for hard labor, who would spend one hundred taels to buy him? Ten barbarian slaves would cost that much, and they did far more work. The scholar was the epitome of someone who couldn't even kill a chicken. Despite being filthy, he had an air of purity about him. The dark-skinned boy, besides being useful for disgusting himself and achieving his weight loss goal, would be utterly useless.
Fang Jie, though a hundred times unwilling, still had to go over.
He first looked at the burly man, frowning as he asked, "Why do you think you're worth a hundred taels of silver?"
The burly man, with a thick beard and a patch of black chest hair exposed, looked shy and awkward, staring at his toes as he whispered, "I'm strong, and I'm skillful... I bet all the young women and wives in Chang'an can't do my needlework as well."
To prove it, he pulled a cloth bag from his clothes and opened it. Fang Jie found various embroidery needles inside, the shortest only about three or four centimeters long, the longest nearly a foot.
Fang Jie felt nauseous at the burly man's awkwardness, and the dark-skinned boy seemed much more pleasing to the eye now.
He then asked the scholar, "What constitutes a destined person?"
The scholar, chin held high, replied in an affected tone, "I am a scholar. Though I've been reduced to selling myself, I still seek to serve a scholarly family. I possess profound knowledge and wisdom; ordinary people naturally look down on me. Judging from your attire, sir, you are also a scholar, and you understand the integrity of scholars."
"Just say it," Fang Jie interrupted the scholar's sour tone.
"Every meal must include meat!"
The scholar said decisively.
Fang Jie sighed, looking at the dark-skinned youth, about to ask a question. The youth raised his fists and pounded his chest like a gorilla, saying with great pride, "I am very strong! Stronger than you can believe, sir!"
He spat out blood as he spoke, so Fang Jie nodded vigorously, saying, "I believe you..."
On an evening when the setting sun cast long shadows, Fang Jie led three strange men, fleeing quickly amidst the utterly astonished gazes of everyone in the slave market. When he returned to the shop, he found himself even more troubled, because a pretty young girl was standing at the door—it was Zhuang Die.