Capítulo 9: Stone Village
Jiang Yue examined his body and couldn't help but feel a little excited and a little worried. Using his consciousness, he could see all nine of his extraordinary meridians and among the nine, five were already glowing with a black lustre which meant that they had already been awakened.
Just like acupoints, there were three types of meridians: earth meridians, heaven meridians and divine meridians.
Earth meridians were awakened by unblocking seven earth acupoints, heaven meridians were those awakened by unblocking all earth acupoints and some or all heaven acupoints while divine meridians were those which had all earth acupoints, all heaven acupoints, and some or all divine acupoints.
In Jiang Yue's case, all his five awakened meridians were divine meridians of the highest grade, meaning that all twelve acupoints had been unblocked for each meridian.
This situation was completely unprecedented and contrary to what old man Cang had told them about divine acupoints.
It was also because of this that Jiang Yue was worried since he knew that opening divine acupoints was a matter of fate yet neither he nor Yu Nianzhen had encountered any problems when unblocking any of their divine acupoints.
Jiang Yue was still thinking about this issue when he heard a knock from the front of the wooden cart and he immediately stopped his thought process to join Yu Nianzhen at the driver's seat.
He flopped to Yu Nianzhen's left on the wooden seat and cast his sight to the front.
"Stone village is right ahead." Yu Nianzhen stated as he continued to drive the cart.
Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue had been on the road for three months and in that time, they had stopped at four villages and Stone village would be the fifth and final village before arriving at Fengying city.
A small bell tinkled from around the bullock's neck as it moved along, but to the surprise of the two boys, the tinkling bell didn't attract any attention and no one had come to greet them even after they had been at the village gate for more than sixty breaths.
"Something seems to be going on." Yu Nianzhen said as he pointed to a place about one hundred metres from their location.
"It's probably a village meeting." Jiang Yue suggested as he looked at the group of gathered villagers and Yu Nianzhen nodded in agreement.
It wasn't unusual for small villages to frequently hold meetings so the two boys could only wait until the meeting was over to begin selling their wares.
Yu Nianzhen drove the bullock cart to a remote place that was within sight of the meeting area and after securing the cart to a large tree, the two boys sat to the side of the cart to wait.
Although they were both curious about what was going on, they didn't dare to go and see what was happening for two reasons.
One of the reasons was that they weren't part of the village and if they recklessly joined the gathering, they would likely offend the villagers which would complicate their business later on.
The other reason was that they didn't dare to leave their cart unattended.
The Cangxing world respected the strong and looked down on the weak and this concept applied even in the smallest villages.
Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue had only been at the third level of the meridian awakening realm when they arrived at the first village after beginning their journey.
This level was a lot lower than most of the adults in the village who were between the fifth level and ninth level of the meridian awakening realm; and when the villagers realised that the two boys were not accompanied by a stronger cultivator, they had tried to steal the bullock cart.
Luckily, old man Cang had secured the cart with a protective array and Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue had barely managed to escape without losing either their goods or their lives.
However, after that incident, the two had learned their lesson and no longer took chances.
At every village afterwards, they would lie that their master was an origin forging realm cultivator who was retreating within the cart which prevented any cultivators from recklessly trying to rob them and luckily, they hadn't encountered any origin forging realm experts otherwise their lie couldn't be maintained.
Still, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue couldn't rest assured and didn't dare to be complacent, they had even gotten into the habit of trading during the day and rarely spent the night in a village to prevent their lies from being exposed.
"Someone is coming." Yu Nianzhen said as he nudged Jiang Yue, who seemed to be lost in his thoughts.
"May I ask who the young sirs are?" A middle-aged man asked as soon as he was within talking distance of the two boys.
The old man could see that the two were cultivators of the fifth level of the meridian awakening realm and considering their age, he was sure that they must be the young masters of a certain clan who were out to experience the world while posing as travelling merchants.
"We are travelling traders who noticed your Stone village while passing by." Jiang Yue said as he looked at the little village in admiration.
In other villages, only the chief's house was made with stone while all others were made with wood, grass, or mud. However, all the houses in Stone village were built with stone and Jiang Yue could see one or two houses that had more than one storey.
It was clear that the village was richer than the others which was one of the reasons that the two boys chose to wait for the meeting to end.
"Unfortunately, our village is about to start our stone breaking ceremony and are unable to entertain the young sirs." The middle-aged man said and there was no doubt that he wanted them to leave.
The two boys understood the man's words, but how could they be willing to leave after sighting such a fat goose?
After travelling for so long, they had made less than a hundred gold coins and it was becoming increasingly clear that they really couldn't rely on trading for their future cultivation needs.
Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue planned to find alternatives after arriving in Fengying city, but there was no reason why they shouldn't take advantage of the rich Stone village to make a few more gold coins before leaving for the city.
"We have heard that the Sea Cloud sect's tri-annual recruitment will be in another three months and all the other villages were very eager to do an origin test for their young ones, to prepare for the recruitment. The Wu village a few kilometres back even tested a young lad with a grade two aptitude." Jiang Yue enticed and almost smiled in delight when he saw a change on the man's face.
"This young sir…'The man started, but Jiang Yue interrupted him before he could finish.
"We will not delay you any longer." Jiang Yue said and cupped his fist towards the other man before grabbing Yu Nianzhen to get back on the bullock cart.
The middle-aged man knew what they were doing, but what could he do?
It was impossible to let them leave if they had an origin test stone, especially now that the Sea Cloud sect was about to hold a recruitment.
The Sea Cloud sect was the hegemon sect closest to their Stone village and once every three years, it would hold a large-scale recruitment in all cities in the region.
However, entering the Sea Cloud wasn't easy.
The first requirement was an age of less than sixteen while the second was a grade two aptitude, but that was easier said than done.
For Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue who had a grade ten aptitude, a grade two aptitude was nothing but more than ninety per cent of the Cangxing world's population had no cultivation aptitude or an inferior grade one aptitude.
It was very rare to find people with high-grade aptitudes especially among the common folk which was why the previous village had gone as far as to hold a feast when a child was discovered to have a grade two aptitude.
That child would have a chance of joining the Sea Cloud sect and if they did well, the extra resources that they would gain from the sect would trickle down to the village. It was the classic example of one person ascending and bringing along their chicken and dogs.
"These young sirs, where is the hurry?" The middle-aged man asked as he looked at them with a smile on his face.
If he allowed the two to leave, their Stone village would need to commission several carts to bring several people to Fengying city for an origin test.
Although Stone village was the last stop before Fengying city, it would take close to a month to travel to the city by cart and if they were lucky to have even one child with a grade two aptitude, the village would have to incur the additional cost of staying in the city until the sect's recruitment.
Thinking of all the costs that could be avoided by having the travelling merchants conduct the test at the village, the man clenched his fists as he looked at the two boys.
"If these young sirs aren't in too much of a hurry, why don't you join our stone breaking ceremony and wait for tomorrow to do business?"
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Muthoni_Murira
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