Liu Mang: "I just knew I couldn’t hide it... Last month, it happened unintentionally!"
Yang Ge was not surprised. Liu Mang had been stuck at the Qi Sea stage for a very long time, and considering how he had used his own Inner Qi to help Liu Mang sense the Dantian several times, it would have been odd if he hadn’t succeeded in Qi Cultivation!
He nodded, "With your Qi Sea cultivated, your Iron Fist Martial Arts Gym is indeed established!"
Liu Mang scratched his head, "What about you? I’ve already cultivated Inner Qi, but you seem even more confused than before?"
Yang Ge held up two fingers and pinched them together, "I’m only a tiny bit ahead of you!"
Liu Mang was skeptical, "Just a little bit, and there’s such a big gap?"
Yang Ge replied, "That’s why we need to keep a low profile from now on. There are so many masters in the Jianghu, and without fighting, who knows whether the one standing in front of you is at the Qi Sea or the Returning-to-Truth stage?"
Liu Mang was somewhat skeptical about life, "Really? But back when I roamed the Jianghu, Qi Sea masters were rare great masters, and many sect leaders were just at Qi Sea..."
Yang Ge shrugged, "That’s normal. Back then, you were only at the Nurturing Origin Realm, so of course, you encountered and dealt with experts at the Nurturing Origin Realm. Now that you are out and about in the Jianghu again, I guarantee you’ll meet Qi Sea masters!"
Liu Mang felt his point made a lot of sense, "That makes sense. Just recently, I heard that the Lianhuan Fort master, the Bright Left Emissary of Ming Sect, and Zhang Mazi, united and killed three True Masters in Jiangnan, including a big-name figure from the List of Heroes!"
"Those were True Masters, yet they said they died just like that, and three of them at once!"
"If I could become a True Master, every day I’d just lie there doing nothing, and mountains of gold, silver and beautiful women would crash into my arms. What a joyous life that would be..."
Just as he finished talking, there was a roar from the kitchen: "Liu, what are you muttering? Speak up; I can’t hear you!"
Liu Mang and Yang Ge simultaneously shrank their necks.
Liu Mang: "Wife, I didn’t say anything!"
Yang Ge: "Sister-in-law, I was the one talking just now."
Then from the kitchen, there came the heavy thuds of a knife chopping on a cutting board: "Both of you better behave, dare to stir up trouble, and be careful of your own skins!"
Liu Mang, Yang Ge: "Yes!"
After responding in unison, the two brothers intuitively stepped back further from the kitchen and simultaneously wiped their pretend sweat away.
Liu Mang: "Good brother!"
Yang Ge: "That’s loyalty!"
Liu Mang: "Hey, didn’t you just say you went to Jiangnan?"
Yang Ge: "Yeah, when those three Returning-to-Truth great masters died, I was there on the scene, watching Zhang swing his hand."
"Tsk tsk tsk, you should have seen it. Those three Returning-to-Truth great masters died so miserably; their disciples barely took a breath before following them. The scene was like a river of blood, I just took one look and had nightmares for several days."
"This is like the saying, ’extreme arrogance invites disaster.’ For us, it’s better to live our modest lives, earn the money we are due, not meddle in troubles, and not provoke wicked people. Maybe then we, brothers, can live out our lives peacefully."
Liu Mang glanced towards the kitchen, his emotions mixed, and said, "Indeed, what’s more important than a stable life?"
Yang Ge, looking joyful, said, "Right, what could be more important than a stable life?"
After a moment of reflection, Liu Mang whispered, "Now that both of us have reached Qi Sea, why don’t you take the position of deputy master at the martial arts gym? With two Qi Sea experts in charge, whoever thinks about touching our gym had better think twice!"
Yang Ge replied, "It can’t be said like that; in a sect, someone has to be the face and someone has to work behind the scenes. If we really encounter some insurmountable obstacle, I could handle things privately, and no one would suspect you or me, right? As long as you keep it a secret, who would think that an innkeeper like me is actually at the Qi Sea level?"
"It’s said like that..."
Liu Mang furrowed his thick eyebrows, "But that’s not fair to you. Why do we martial artists train intensively through cold winters and hot summers? Isn’t it to stand out and bring honor to our ancestors? You’ve reached Qi Sea; how can you keep enduring being just a runner in an inn!"
Yang Ge waved his hands, "You know I don’t care about that..."
Liu Mang insisted, "You don’t understand, and should I also be ignorant?"
Seeing his stubborn look, Yang Ge thought about it and replied, "How about this? Let’s increase my salary a bit at the gym and sell me that courtyard I live in at a discount, alright?"
"If you like that broken courtyard, I’d give it to you!"
Liu Mang decisively waved his hand, "But that’s something else entirely!"
The Iron Fist Martial Arts Gym was looking up, and he was spending more extravagantly than ever.
Yang Ge concluded, "It’s exactly the same thing. As the saying goes: ’Clear accounts make good brothers.’ If I’m taking money, there’s no grievance."
Seeing his resolute expression, Liu Mang exclaimed, "Don’t take me for an idiot. With your martial skills, why bother about money? You could easily rob some travelers or steal some sheep, and earn more than ten years of income at the inn!"
Yang Ge chuckled, turned, and walked towards the kitchen, "Sister-in-law, Fuyu just said he wants to go out and rob people and snatch some beauties!"
"Clang."
The knife slammed onto the chopping board as a tall figure rolled up her sleeves and walked out of the kitchen, not smiling genuinely while she waved at Liu, "Master Liu, come over here, let’s have a chat!"
Liu Mang’s muscular body shuddered as he roared in frustration, "What happened to our sworn brotherhood, to our loyalty?"
At that moment, laughter of schadenfreude came from the shopkeeper inside the house.
...
Yang Ge finally started living the life he had always dreamt of.
He read books and practiced martial arts every day, clocking in and out on time.
In his spare time, he tended to his garden and fed the chickens.
Once a month, he would visit the old man in the fishing village one or two times.
This was his entire life.
As for the job on the right side, he had scheduled the days; on the tenth of each month, he would go there to cook a big pot meal for the guards.
Although many people didn’t believe he would actually go and cook for his former subordinates, waiting in the shadows for him to capitulate...
But when he went, he truly took to the stove, personally washed and chopped the vegetables, handled the wok, and managed meals for four to five hundred people by himself.
Yang Ge didn’t have any psychological barriers, especially since he was still drawing a guardsman’s salary from the right side office, and taking the money meant he ought to work.
As to why he only went for three days a month...
Which worker doesn’t slack off?
"I slack off, but I don’t draw pay for nothing."
This was Yang Ge’s attitude towards his new job as a cook at the right side office.
If anyone was dissatisfied, they could fire him; he was always waiting for the dismissal notice from the right side office.
After all, he wasn’t short of money.
The several thousand taels of silver he had squeezed from the three major food merchants were still buried in the vegetable garden behind his house, molding away.
And of course, nobody in the right side office dared to mess with him.
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Even Qin, who essentially managed the right side office’s affairs, avoided Yang Ge.
He neither wished to salute Yang Ge nor dared wait for Yang Ge to salute him.
An official?
Of the fifth rank?
The number of fifth rank officials’ heads Yang Ge had chopped off in Jiangzhe could be counted in baskets. What was Qin Feng compared to them?
And like Fang Ke, the scores of centurions and banner leaders were completely without such worries.
They even specifically adjusted the timing of their outings to coincide with Yang Ge’s visits to the right side office, so they could go to the kitchen to greet him, respecting him with the title "my lord" regardless of how Yang Ge addressed them.
Being able to reach the status of a centurion or banner leader within the imperial guards, who wasn’t shrewd?
How could they not see that the continuously vacant position of the centurion in the right side office was being held open for someone?
It was entirely possible that any day a major case could arise, and Yang Ge could be reinstated... perhaps even promoted further!
Why would they want to offend Yang Ge now and suffer repercussions later?
Moreover, the matters Yang Ge had handled, and his martial skills.
They all respected him wholeheartedly!
Yang Ge naturally didn’t care what they thought. When they came to him to report, seeking directions, he simply drove them out.
He was just a cook, doing only what a cook should do.
As for the rest, he preferred not to inquire or care about it.
In short, there were no longer any messy people or matters to trouble Yang Ge.
However, there was a letter from an old acquaintance...
It was from Jiang Kui in distant Liaodong, who, after hearing about Yang Ge’s actions in Jiangzhe, sent a secret manual to Yang Ge through the imperial guard’s logistics channel.
The manual was titled "Five Elements Returning to the Origin Qi."
By the time the manual reached Yang Ge’s hands, it was already the 4th day of the first month in the fourteenth year of Xiping.