Chapter 39 Age Suppressing Book

Chapter 39: Chapter 39 Age Suppressing Book He grabbed a handful of coarse, cold pond ash, put it into a rough cloth pouch, tied it tightly, and carried it with him. Hu Ma thus had his first Amulet since coming into this world. With this Amulet, he also gained the right to sleep soundly through an entire night... According to the village’s rules, when Granny passed away, it was better to have someone living in the home to show that the family was still inhabited. Therefore, Second Master didn’t rush Hu Ma back to the Manor, allowing him to stay for a few days. Hu Ma wasn’t in a hurry either. He too needed time and space to properly consider his own affairs and understand certain things. Before going to see Second Master at the Manor, Hu Ma had hardly slept well in the village. At night, he even had to rely on Granny’s chanting to avoid being disturbed by evil spirits. But this time, upon his return, with a furnace stoked within him and the Amulet in his possession, the problem of being constantly troubled by evil spirits was resolved. He stayed alone in the grass hut Granny had left behind and slept for a night without incident. However, there was no one to help make breakfast anymore. But Hu Ma, who had always been eager to work and make a good impression, wasn’t the delicate sort. He knew where to fetch water, where to grind flour, which jar in the house contained coarse salt, and which held pickled vegetables. Feeding himself wasn’t a problem. In the first few days after Granny’s passing, the villagers, seeing Hu Ma suddenly all alone, showed him considerable care, giving him a few flatbreads and carrying two pails of water for him. Of course, this wasn’t for Hu Ma’s sake, but out of gratitude for Granny’s kindness, or perhaps because they pitied Hu Ma, who, at only fifteen or sixteen, was left all alone. But after a few days, everyone gradually grew accustomed to the situation, as if nothing remarkable had happened. Hu Ma settled into Granny’s small house and quietly took stock of the things she had left behind. He wasn’t sure if Granny had long been prepared to perish along with the ghost from the Meng family. It seemed she had arranged everything for Hu Ma in advance. Little Hongtang was entrusted to Hu Ma; with the Bazi Tie left by his side, Little Hongtang was then bound to follow Hu Ma. This little girl was usually playful and often vanished without a trace, but as long as Hu Ma burned a stick of incense, she would know to come home. According to Granny, did this mean Little Hongtang had become my little ghost? What exactly was the use of a ghost? But a little girl invisible to others should be able to do a lot, right? At least, if she went to the Cui Family to steal a piece of cured meat, no one would notice, right? The second item Granny left behind was that black porcelain jar. Hu Ma was well aware of his own problems, and Granny must have been too, which was why she had left him this jar. Inside, it was packed tightly with pills. The pills were a vivid red, and when pinched, traces of blood would seep out. Each was about the size of a longan fruit. "Are these all Blood Tai Sui?" He sniffed them and found the scent familiar; it should be them. Having not eaten any Tai Sui for three or four days since he left to find Granny, Hu Ma consumed one pill after her funeral rites were completed. He immediately felt his body warm up. The stove fire within him, which had been significantly depleted, was gradually replenished with the ingestion of this Blood Medicine Pill. These are life-saving things Granny specifically left for me! However, this single pill wasn’t enough to provide the same substantial benefit as when he had feasted on large mouthfuls of meat before. But taking one every two days was sufficient to keep his body free of problems, and his stove fire maintained a steady, positive growth. He recalled that his cultivation had reached one and a half incense sticks, and he wondered if finishing all the Blood Food Pills in this jar would allow him to reach the level of three incense sticks. Of course, Hu Ma couldn’t help but think, Before Granny left, she didn’t tell me where this Blood Tai Sui came from, only that she had almost harvested all the Blood Tai Sui in Old Yin Mountain... What if, after I finish this jar of Blood Tai Sui, my skill is still insufficient? What will I do then? Unfortunately, these were questions Hu Ma could no longer ask. When he later tried to ask Little Hongtang, she just bit her finger and said, "Granny could just find it." "Even in places where others said there was none, Granny could still find it." ... Is this Granny’s special ability then? Hu Ma couldn’t expect Granny to appear in his dreams to tell him. He could only cling to hope as he opened the booklet Granny had left behind. ’Qingyuan Hu’s Age Suppressing Book’... it sounds like a family inheritance, doesn’t it? He had long suspected that Granny, or rather, the origin of his original body, was extraordinary. One could gauge their family’s standing merely by looking at their enemies; they were, after all, on a level capable of making foes of the Huaiyin Meng family. Moreover, Granny would harvest the Blood Tai Sui, precious as gold, and bring it to him daily to eat like pork—this itself wasn’t something an ordinary person could do. Hu Ma knew well that this secret technique should contain many valuable things, but upon opening it, his feelings became a mixture of surprise, joy, and helplessness. The surprise was that the book seemed to contain practical knowledge, a whole volume of it, dazzling and overwhelming. Things like how to cure disease, find herbs, perform burning bones, engage in Asking Ghosts, and practice examining the pulse... But the helplessness stemmed from the fact that while he recognized every word in the booklet, he couldn’t understand its meaning. To put it precisely, it was like a sixth-grader holding a manual on nuclear bomb manufacturing. Recognizing words was one thing; understanding them was another. The booklet was filled with jargon, obscure word meanings, and incantations, leaving him completely bewildered. Looks like I need to start with addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and even quadratic equations... Hu Ma sighed in resignation, looking at the pages full of characters he recognized but whose meanings eluded him, and let his imagination roam. Some of this content seems related to Tai Sui... Could it be that it records the path to exploring the meat mountain for Blood Food, or searching for rare Tai Sui? Surely Granny didn’t rely on the skills recorded here to harvest all the Blood Food from the entire Old Yin Mountain for me, did she? ... He couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe, thinking that if this were true, it must be a truly remarkable field of knowledge. Of course, all this was merely speculation and conjecture. To truly comprehend these things, he first needed to master some fundamental knowledge of this world before he could tackle this secret technique. But who should he learn from? Second Master? Second Master had already grown impatient. "I understand the customs and practices of the brothels in Mingzhou Prefecture well enough. You want to learn that?" This made Hu Ma blush and feel a little awkward. All he had wanted was to use this time to earnestly ask Second Master about his genuine skills, as well as the experiences and knowledge he’d gained from his adventures in his youth. Initially, Second Master had eagerly shared with Hu Ma, but gradually, he began to run out of material. With Hu Ma constantly asking, he started to lose his composure. Whenever Hu Ma stumped him with a question, he’d get flustered and resort to his trump card. This piqued Hu Ma’s curiosity. "Second Master, you’ve maintained your child body for sixty years; what use is there in understanding that scene?" Second Master looked even more embarrassed. "Can’t I just get some vicarious thrills?" "Alright, alright..." Realizing Second Master was displeased, Hu Ma quickly put on a smile. "I just wanted to ask, these skills you’ve taught us, is that everything? How do we learn what comes next?" "That’s the peak. Anyway, the few tricks I know, that’s their peak." Second Master could only reply to Hu Ma helplessly, "Beyond that, I truly don’t understand..." "You said your Granny had such great abilities. Why didn’t you learn from her when she was alive? Why insist on banging your head against a wall in our profession now? What’s the sense in that?" ... Understanding Second Master’s words, Hu Ma got the picture. Second Master genuinely didn’t know any more. Second Master didn’t even quite understand why Hu Ma wanted to continue learning. After all, with the skills Hu Ma had already acquired, he could already be a very good Meat Cutting worker... But Hu Ma knew in his heart that he absolutely had to learn these kinds of skills. Before Granny passed, she had repeatedly urged him to continue learning even more formidable skills within Second Master’s trade. However, Hu Ma also wondered in retrospect: since Granny was sure this trade could save his life, and knew Second Master didn’t know any higher-level dharma methods, why hadn’t she told him? Was it that she herself didn’t actually know them, or was it to test me? "Our skill in stoking the furnace," Second Master explained to Hu Ma, "if you want to advance further, you’d have to seek out those Mr. Worships from the Blood Food Gang. They truly have trump cards. Even I, Second Master, know that our skills belong to their lineage. But such foundational skills for survival—how could they be taught so easily? You should just give up on that idea. Go down the mines with me a few times, and finding a wife—that’s what’s most important..." ... I also think getting a wife and living a stable, quiet life would be nice, but I have to learn... I just have to! Hu Ma needed to learn those skills to save his life, but he couldn’t say this directly to Second Master and could only mull it over. The weather gradually grew colder, marking the village’s slack season. But no one in the village dared to relax. They were preparing to till the land, sow seeds, and give the livestock extra feed, all in readiness for the busy work of the next spring harvest. The young boys learning skills from Second Master also redoubled their efforts. Some families even steeled themselves and bought a few extra pieces of White Tai Sui meat to supplement their boys’ training. This was out of fear that their stove fire wouldn’t be vigorous enough, and the people from the Blood Food Gang wouldn’t deem them worthy. If they weren’t chosen, they would have to wait another year, which meant wasting a year’s worth of provisions. That night, he read for a while by the light of the oil lamp, as usual. Even though he couldn’t understand the contents of this Hu Family’s Age Suppressing Book, he did his best to commit it to memory, word by word, thinking it might be useful someday. After lying down, while drifting in and out of sleep, he suddenly heard a voice: "Brother of Old White, can you hear me?"