Olivia Smith broke out in a cold sweat inside; he knew this would arouse suspicion. In this era, there were no highly compressed nutritional supplements—his only source of nutrition was food. At first, Olivia Smith restrained himself and didn’t dare to eat too much, but in recent days, the reserves of energy and nutrients in his body simply couldn’t hold out any longer, so he gradually began to increase his food intake.

He had been anxious about this for days, only now finally letting out a sigh of relief. Still, Olivia Smith instinctively felt that his unease didn’t really stem from this matter.

“These past couple of days, you really do seem to have grown taller—and thinner!”

The Smith-Bolton Family glanced at Olivia Smith’s head, then her expression dimmed. “Today at the training grounds, you only stayed for a little over an hour again? Then you ran off to the pharmacy, and got scolded by your Uncle Brooks, didn’t you?”

“Mother—”

Olivia Smith was at a loss for words. For some reason, whenever he saw the look on the woman’s face across from him, a huge sense of guilt welled up inside.

“Forget it! I was thinking too much. I knew you weren’t interested in martial arts, but I still tried to force you.”

The Smith-Bolton Family shook her head, her words tinged with a kind of despair that comes from a broken heart. “Yu’er, you must be tired of all the ridicule at the training grounds, right? If you really don’t want to practice martial arts, then do as you wish from now on—just be careful not to break the clan rules. As for the pharmacy, I’ll talk to your Uncle Brooks for you, so you can go there and learn a bit when you have time.”

Olivia Smith smiled bitterly inside. Who said he wasn’t interested in martial arts? Whether it was ending practice early or going to the pharmacy, he had his own reasons. But these reasons couldn’t be explained to The Smith-Bolton Family.

In fact, what The Smith-Bolton Family said at this moment was exactly what Olivia Smith wanted. But the tightly knit brows and the worried look in her eyes made it impossible for him to feel at ease.

Olivia Smith understood The Smith-Bolton Family’s expectations for him, and he also knew how important those fields and this house were to the family.

“Mother, are you worried about the future?”

“My Yu’er actually knows how to care for others now.”

The Smith-Bolton Family was startled at first, then, realizing it was inappropriate to show such an expression in front of her child, quickly put away her worries and patted Olivia Smith’s head with a smile as usual. “But you don’t need to worry about this yet. Your mother has her own ways!”

Olivia Smith frowned. He could tell that The Smith-Bolton Family’s words weren’t all for comfort—there was a hint of resolve in them. But as a grown man, how could he bear to let a frail woman shield him from the wind and rain?

At this moment, William Parker also looked up from the bowl as big as a washbasin, a strange light flashing in his eyes.

Chapter 0008: The Great Primordial Art

After lunch, the first thing Olivia Smith did was take the private savings that little Olivia Smith had stashed away and head to the south city gate, where he bought medicinal herbs at high prices from hunters and professional herbalists. Among them were a large number of winged mouse bones, as well as some of the medicines he had previously selected. As a cover, he also bought a lot of other useless materials, mostly medicines for bruises and bone injuries. Then, together with William Parker, he hurried out of the city with large and small bags. Of course, it wasn’t to the southern foothills of the Yue family city, where the connected rice paddies lay, but to the northern back mountain.

The Yue clan claimed to rule over a thousand square miles, but in reality, their actual control only extended to a large valley surrounded by mountains, just a few dozen miles across. About 700,000 mu of land had to support more than 200,000 people, or even more, so every bit of arable land in each area was used to the utmost.

Fortunately, the environment in this world was excellent and the land fertile. An acre could easily yield twelve or thirteen shi of grain, and terrace farming didn’t even exist yet. That’s why, even on the not-so-steep mountainside, he could see clear streams and lush, beautiful scenery.

As the family’s backyard, this small mountain called Tiger Ridge, about 1,400 meters high, was cleared every few years by the Yue clan’s martial experts, who wiped out all the monsters that could threaten humans.

At the highest point, there were clusters of ballistae—made from extremely tough yellow to wood and soft silver steel for the body, with bowstrings crafted from the tendons of lion eagles and wild-horned rhinos—giving them a range of up to 1,000 to 1,400 meters. Not only could they defend against fierce birds of prey from the sky, but they also provided enough deterrence against threats from the foot of the mountain.

This was the result of the Yue family’s accumulation over hundreds of years, making this area, though technically wild, much safer than the small towns and villages under the Yue clan’s control. Many children in the city treated this place as their playground.

Of course, Olivia Smith and William Parker didn’t come out to play, but to head to a spot on the eastern side of the back mountain.

—It was a patch of grass hidden in the dense forest, beside a mountain stream. Ever since Olivia Smith discovered it over a month ago, he had brought William Parker here almost every day, and together they had built a wooden fence around it.