Chapter 23

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Chapter 23: Approaching Major Achievement

Making money has always been the hardest part at the start.

Although Yun Ye has a small method for earning wealth, he cannot go all out to show it.

These days, with Yang Shu taking charge, not only have the earnings increased significantly, but Yang Shu also knows how to find a strong backing due to his experience.

Having been through the Academy, Yang Shu knows some people, but those people only care about money, not about individuals, so approaching them in the past was meaningless.

Now that Yun Ye has a way to make money, Yang Shu can utilize it to expand the business.

Although there are still some hidden dangers, once they heard that Yang Shu’s son entered the Awakening Hall and has a great chance of awakening his Spiritual Roots to become a practitioner, these small amounts of money no longer caught the attention of Yang Shu’s old friends.

They treat it as an investment; having one more acquaintance in Baishi Town is far more important than earning a little more money.

With the money in hand, Yun Ye began to accelerate his training, quickly increasing his proficiency in the awakening technique.

In the blink of an eye, another year went by.

Eleven-year-old Yun Ye sat cross-legged in his room, concentrating the abundant life energy in his body towards his chest, continuously spinning and compressing to form a closed sphere.

After a year, Yun Ye had mastered the awakening technique quite well and had made progress beyond the proficient level; he just didn’t know when he could achieve a Minor Achievement.

"Bang!"

A muffled sound resonated in his mind, scattering the life energy, and Yun Ye once again failed to awaken.

Underneath his pale face, his bright but weary eyes opened.

"I feel like I have reached the final step. It’s just that my Qi Cultivation Technique’s level isn’t sufficient, so I need to work on it carefully…"

Yun Ye realized that the Minor Achievement stage seemed very imperfect; if he awakened his Spiritual Roots at this stage, he would likely suffer a backlash and lose a significant amount of lifespan.

After all, if he could awaken his Spiritual Roots at the Minor Achievement level, his Qi Cultivation Technique should easily awaken it in the later stages; how could he crumble at the last step?

He could completely force his way through this last step, but doing so would require him to squeeze out his life energy.

This would result in a huge foundational defect in his body and cost him at least a decade of lifespan.

"Every year at the Academy, more than twenty people awaken their Spiritual Roots, but the vast majority are Minor Achievements; only about one-fifth achieve Major Achievements… Only those who reach Major Achievement in Qi Cultivation Technique can join the Black Armored Army!"

The rest would join ordinary Spiritual Law teams to undertake more dangerous tasks, leaving them almost no time for training.

In other words, only by joining the Black Armored Army can one gain more information and have the possibility of further advancement.

Although Yun Ye doesn’t care about his lifespan being affected, joining the Black Armored Army is essential.

This year, Yun Ye has repeatedly felt that he could break through, but he hasn’t wasted his life force to force it; instead, he is waiting for his Qi Cultivation Technique to reach Major Achievement.

Currently, his life energy has filled his chest, arms, and most of his legs, placing him in the later stage of Minor Achievement.

As long as he completely covers his legs, Yun Ye will achieve Major Achievement in Qi Cultivation Technique, which shouldn’t take too long.

However, at the Major Achievement level, even Superior Food becomes less effective, making it difficult for him to progress.

Yun Ye currently eats B-level Superior Food every day, costing three hundred dark copper daily, and he feels that money has become worthless.

It’s no wonder there aren’t many revival of Spiritual Roots practitioners in Baishi Town; they simply can’t afford it.

Even though large families and the military eat at cost price and have plenty of money, food won’t increase out of thin air; how much they can sustain entirely depends on productivity.

The productivity of the feudal era was indeed too low; even if they drained the common people’s blood, maintaining a scale of just a few hundred would be the limit.

…

“Soy cakes! Fresh soy cakes for sale, delicious and fragrant!”

“Fresh grilled fish, if it’s not tasty, come hit me! Just one piece of dark copper, a great deal!”

“Big buns, lots of meat and little dough, one is enough to fill you up! Come take a look!”

Various hot foods were being loudly sold.

In the noisy small street, a long line formed in front of a stall, where Yang Shu and his wife wiped sweat from their brows as they quickly served fragrant noodles to hungry customers waiting eagerly.

Many vendors watching this scene wore ugly expressions.

Eating customers know what they want; once they’ve eaten here, they naturally won’t return to others.

There was one stall attracting many customers, and it felt like it was taking their lives away; they wished they could find someone to smash the stall.

But sadly, before setting up, they had been warned that the owner paid a Protection Fee, so they couldn’t do anything.

However, they could comfort themselves by knowing… that there were others who could also compete with this couple. In recent years, a few other stalls had also made delicious food, though their sales weren’t as high as Yang Shu and his wife’s, they were certainly much better than the rest.

Thanks to them, Yang Shu and his wife couldn’t monopolize the market.

One might wonder why they find comfort in this, even though they weren’t the ones profiting.

The reason is simple: if one person monopolizes, everyone feels hopeless, and any resentment is directed at that one person.

But if the situation is more balanced, then it’s not about luck; it’s about real strength. Otherwise, why could so many stalls flourish while others fail?

So hope exists; everyone thinks they have a chance, which reduces their resentment.

Unfortunately, no one knew that the source of these successful vendors was all from one family.

Just to prevent being recognized, they used different flavored sauces.

In total, there were four stalls, consistently providing over five hundred dark copper each day, with sales rapidly increasing, causing all four to hire extra help to handle the workload.

Yun Ye came to take a look and quickly left.

In his eyes, this was merely small-time business, with growth already peaked.

If he could become the ruler of Baishi Town, without any hindrances, Yun Ye could directly promote technological development and fundamentally enhance productivity instead of cautiously earning money while being unable to buy anything.

…

Yun Ye and Wang Yao stood in a corner of the Academy where no one else was present, discussing the future.

As an outlier in the Academy, Yun Ye had instilled quite a few radical ideas into Wang Yao.

Over these three years, thirteen-year-old Wang Yao’s thinking had formed, and he could keep up with Yun Ye’s ideas.

From time to time, the two would discuss possible futures, feeling very much like young people preparing for entrepreneurship.

This experience was one Yun Ye never had in modern times; there, he just aimlessly studied, worked dull jobs, and had no personal ambitions, making it impossible to fight alongside like-minded people.

One could say that discovering a path and helping Wang Yao create a future had become his second motivation alongside seeking revenge.

“Speaking of which, Stone, why did your family give you the name Yang Shi? Is there a big stone under the willow trees at your home?”

“No, they just hoped I would be steady, so they named me that. But you, the name Yao is quite rare, unlike names ordinary farmers would choose.”

“My family all starved to death a long time ago; the village chief took me in and named me, hoping I would become a noble person who helps the village like he does, so my full name became Yao.”

“Oh, do you want to become a noble person?”

“I used to be unsure, but after hearing everything you said, I guess my anger will drive me forward. I am an ordinary person; I know to repay kindness with kindness and grudge with grudge. Since these people have exploited us for generations, then they should repay us with interest for generations too!”

Wang Yao’s words were firm and resolute.

Yun Ye suddenly realized that he seemed to have unintentionally created a supportive atmosphere.

To gain Wang Yao’s cooperation, he needed to complicate his conversion, so he had poured out a lot of hatred towards the gentry class.

Without a doubt, the hatred for the landowners and gentry was deeply rooted in everyone’s heart in this world; Yun Ye didn’t need to fabricate anything.

Only fear and reality kept this hatred strong yet unable to challenge or shake the gentry’s rule.

Amidst the strong emotions Yun Ye instilled in Wang Yao, he also subconsciously learned some of Yun Ye’s revealed thoughts, which awoke him and turned him into an idealist.

Interesting…

Very interesting.

Yun Ye suddenly decided not to hide the Dragon-Slaying Technique anymore.

The perfect moment to start was now, as he had had enough of the gentry.

No matter what he did, he first needed to consider the factors determined by the gentry.

Even if Yun Ye possessed a wealth of knowledge, he couldn’t unlock it; the world’s wickedness was absurd, far beyond modern financial tycoons or internet giants.

With this thought in mind, Yun Ye decided to teach Wang Yao the Imagining Method to accelerate his growth!