Chapter 232

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Not to mention Zhang Xiaohua’s daydreaming about the future inheritance of his martial arts, nor Mr. Liu and Zhang Xiaolong’s admiration for martial skills, incessantly pestering Zhang Xiaohu with endless questions. Let’s focus on Guo Sufei. She had always greatly favored Liu Qian as her daughter-in-law. Since entering the family, Liu Qian has been nothing but a blessing in every way. However, her inability to conceive for so long had left Guo Sufei somewhat disheartened.

If it were any other household, the mother-in-law might have long resorted to harsh words, but Guo Sufei was not an unreasonable person. Besides, Liu Qian handled everything impeccably, which made Guo Sufei suppress her thoughts and not reveal them to anyone. Today, when the conversation turned to Zhang Xiaohu, she couldn’t help but unintentionally hint at it in her words.

She had thought she was still far from becoming a grandmother, yet it turned out someone had long since conceived. Because of this, Guo Sufei had already cursed the doctor from the clinic in her heart thousands of times. In her eyes, Liu Qian had become the ideal daughter-in-law. The more she looked, the more she liked her, and the more beautiful she felt in her heart.

After a period equivalent to the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Guo Sufei could no longer hold back and said: “Qianqian, you’ve been sitting for quite a while now. You must be tired. Why don’t you go back to your room and lie down?”

Liu Qian blushed and replied: “Mother, I’m not tired. Xiaohua has just returned; I’d like to sit a bit longer and chat with him.”

Guo Sufei said: “He’s just a child who only knows how to fool around. Practicing martial arts without even informing us! It’s not like he’s leaving anytime soon; he’ll be home for a long while. But you’re not the same as before. You need to be more careful, rest more, and watch your diet. Oh, by the way, is there anything you feel like eating? Tell Mother, and I’ll make it for you.”

Blushing even more, Liu Qian said shyly: “Mother, really, there’s no need. I… I don’t feel anything yet. Perhaps Xiaohua might have been mistaken.”

Guo Sufei, however, insisted: “Xiaohua has never lied since he was a child. I believe him. You should still go rest in the inner room.”

Hearing his mother praise him, Zhang Xiaohua couldn’t help but feel his face heat up. He hadn’t expected that in his mother’s heart, he still had such an honest image. However, this didn’t seem to have much to do with honesty, did it? And besides, over the past few years, he had indeed been honest quite often, hadn’t he?

Zhang Xiaohua rubbed his nose and said: “Mother, it’s still early. Didn’t Sister-in-law just find out about her pregnancy? Why make her rest so soon? Isn’t more activity supposed to be good for the baby?”

Guo Sufei replied: “What do you know? When I was pregnant with the three of you, I spent most of my time resting in bed. That’s how I raised three excellent children like you. My experience must be passed down. By the way, Xiaohua, now that you’re literate, how about this: I’ll tell you, and you write it down, turning my experience into a booklet. Keep it as a family treasure, just like your fist technique manual. When our Zhang family becomes a prominent clan in the future, this can be passed down as an heirloom. What do you think?”

Zhang Xiaohua showed no reaction, glanced at the sky outside, and said: “Mother, it looks like it’s about to rain. I’ll go bring in the clothes.”

Without waiting for a response, he quickly left the room.

Seeing him leave, Guo Sufei turned to Liu Qian and asked: “Qianqian, what do you think of my idea?”

Liu Qian smiled and said: “Mother, I’ll listen to you. I’ll go rest now.”

With that, she also went into the inner room.

When Guo Sufei’s gaze landed on Zhang Xiaohu, he quickly said: “Mother, the two horses outside need some feed. I’d better go give them some grass before they go hungry.”

Zhang Xiaolong also added hurriedly: “Mother, I’ll go check on Qianqian and, while I’m at it, try to communicate with the baby. I’ve heard that if the child hears the father’s voice early on, they’ll grow up to be smarter.”

Before long, everyone in the room had found an excuse and made their escape. Guo Sufei looked at the now-empty main hall. She didn’t get angry but simply smiled, went into the east room, and took out an unfinished child’s jacket to work on it slowly.

Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaohua, having used the excuse to slip away, went behind the house. While he certainly wanted to avoid his mother’s nagging, the real reason was the fluctuation of Yuan Qi he had sensed from the money pouch earlier. Naturally, he wanted to check it out in private, as it wasn’t something he could examine in front of others.

Zhang Xiaohua found a bamboo pole near the pond, sat down, and casually pulled out the money pouch he had discovered in the mountain cave. Instead of using his divine sense to inspect it, he dumped out its contents: a worn jade pendant, a faded small stone, a beaded flower ornament, and a few miscellaneous items.

When his eyes fell on the beaded flower, a charming face appeared in his mind. A smile unconsciously spread across his face, but it was quickly replaced by melancholy. He thought to himself: “I wonder what Little Meng is doing now. Maybe we’ll never meet again in this life.”

Having emptied the pouch, Zhang Xiaohua turned it inside out, but nothing unusual stood out. Could it be the items themselves?

He first picked up the jade pendant, examining it closely from all angles but finding nothing remarkable. Then he picked up the small stone. It looked peculiar but revealed no discernible clues.

Just as he was about to move on to another item, Zhang Xiaohua suddenly chuckled to himself. I only discovered the pouch’s peculiarity earlier by using my divine sense. Why am I just relying on my eyes now? It seemed he still wasn’t fully accustomed to having divine sense. With this thought, he released his divine sense and directed it toward the small stone in his hand.

Sure enough, the stone emitted a faint Yuan Qi fluctuation. Recalling the uses of divine sense described in the [Carefree Heart Sutra], Zhang Xiaohua attempted to immerse his divine sense into the stone, following the method outlined in the sutra. However, the stone didn’t react at all. After half a moment, Zhang Xiaohua frowned slightly, feeling at a loss. Just as he was about to give up, the stone suddenly emitted a faint white light. Zhang Xiaohua immediately intensified the output of his divine sense. Instantly, he felt as if his vision brightened, and he could see numerous characters within the stone, as though they were floating in the air before him, like reading from a book.

When Zhang Xiaohua focused his divine sense even further, the characters became even clearer. Once he discerned them, he couldn’t help but gasp. The script wasn’t the common writing of the current era but was identical to the characters on the Piaomiao Sect’s waist token and the words inscribed on their archway.

Fortunately, who was Zhang Xiaohua? A “genius” youth who had been enlightened using the [Showen Jiezi]! These ancient characters, though now rarely used and almost unrecognizable to most, were thoroughly documented in [Showen Jiezi]. While others dismissed these characters as obsolete and unworthy of serious study, Zhang Xiaohua had memorized the entire text during his early education.

So, even if Zhang Xiaohua wanted to avoid recognizing these characters, it was simply impossible.

Moreover, during his time recovering at the Lotus Escort Agency, Zhang Xiaohua’s days were filled not only with reading fist techniques but also with perusing various old and miscellaneous books that Li Jinfeng, the scholar, often provided. Among these were two books written in the very same ancient script.

However, encountering a situation where words could be seen within a stone, as though reading from a book, was entirely unprecedented for Zhang Xiaohua. He couldn’t help but be astonished.

When he focused intently on reading, the first thing he saw was a prominent title: [Elementary Pill Refining Techniques]!

He froze in surprise. Pill? What’s that? Pill refining techniques? Elementary ones?

Zhang Xiaohua was thoroughly puzzled.

As he continued reading, it appeared to be an introduction or a preface of some sort. But as Zhang Xiaohua read further, he grew even more bewildered. The concepts described were entirely foreign to him, and the language was dense and archaic. Unlike the ancient books he had previously read, the wording here was obscure, making it even harder to comprehend. After a while, Zhang Xiaohua gave up, though he did catch sight of the term “herbs” within the text. This piqued his interest, and he resolved to study it more thoroughly when he had time.

After carefully stowing the small stone, Zhang Xiaohua used his divine sense to scan the beaded flower but found no trace of Yuan Qi fluctuation.

Finally, Zhang Xiaohua turned his attention to the broken jade pendant. When his divine sense swept across it, he detected an extremely faint Yuan Qi fluctuation. This surprised him greatly. In this world where Yuan Qi was so scarce, he had noticed nothing before acquiring divine sense. Yet now, it seemed one strange thing after another kept appearing.

Picking up the jade pendant, Zhang Xiaohua, already experienced from before, directly immersed his divine sense into it. After some time, the jade pendant similarly emitted a faint light, revealing its contents.

The jade pendant differed from the small stone. While the information in the small stone was complete, with not a single character missing, the jade pendant contained heavily fragmented records. The front displayed only half of a blurry diagram. No matter how Zhang Xiaohua examined it, he couldn’t discern what it depicted. Further down, there were scattered words and phrases, vague and perplexing, making them difficult to understand. At the end, however, there was a passage of roughly three to four hundred characters, relatively intact. Upon careful reading, Zhang Xiaohua realized it described a technique called [Earth Escape Method].

The character “遁” (escape) in this ancient form was written in an extremely complicated manner. Zhang Xiaohua pondered for a long time before he could remember its meaning. However, even though he knew how to read it and understood the word itself, he still didn’t understand what “Earth Escape” was all about.

Furthermore, although Zhang Xiaohua could recognize the three to four hundred characters of the formula, which seemed to explain how to perform the technique, Zhang Xiaohua still didn’t comprehend its application.

After contemplating for a while, Zhang Xiaohua withdrew his divine sense from the jade pendant, carefully placing it back into his robes to study later when he had more time.

He then used his divine sense to scan the remaining scattered objects. None of them emitted any Yuan Qi fluctuation. Just as he was about to store them back into the pouch, he casually swept his divine sense over the pouch itself.

To his surprise, he found that the pouch was still emitting Yuan Qi fluctuations. Zhang Xiaohua froze for a moment. He distinctly remembered emptying the pouch earlier, even turning it upside down. How could there still be fluctuations of Yuan Qi?

After a brief moment of thought, Zhang Xiaohua realized: Could it be the pouch itself that was emitting the fluctuations?

He then picked up the pouch and immersed his divine sense into it. At first, there was no noticeable reaction. However, as he expanded his divine sense further, suddenly, a bright light flashed before his eyes. In his mind, he saw a space that was about half the size of his little room!