“There’s everything at home, there’s no need for you to bring anything back.”

Uncle Franklin Bolton loosened the bundle on his shoulder and complained to Andrew Warren.

Andrew Warren hurriedly said, “These are all things I specially bought in the city, food and daily necessities, to bring back and show my filial respect to you and Aunt.

Please don’t refuse—I also have some good news to tell you.”

“Good news?”

When Franklin Bolton heard this, he stopped blaming Andrew Warren for spending money, as if he had guessed something, and grinned. “Last time your Uncle Zheng sent a message back, saying you were about to take the official constable exam.

Did you do well on the test?”

“That’s right, I’ve now become an official constable.

I even made it into the top ten, so I can stay at the Nanping Prefecture office from now on.”

Andrew Warren nodded in response, seeing his uncle’s face bloom with joy, and felt a bit happy himself. “The yamen even rewarded me with fifty taels of silver, so I bought these things to let you and Aunt enjoy some good fortune too!”

“Fifty taels of silver?!

”

Franklin Bolton was taken aback, becoming even more satisfied with his nephew. “I knew it, you’re definitely someone who’ll make something of yourself.

An’er, do your job well at the yamen—the Wang family will be counting on you in the future.”

He patted Andrew Warren on the shoulder, no longer mentioning the fifty taels, and said cheerfully, “Come on, let’s tell your aunt the good news too, and have her stew a chicken for you at lunch!”

The old and the young chatted and laughed as they walked toward Zhangshui Village, which had several hundred households.

……

At dusk, after dinner.

In the woodshed, a newly made cast iron stove had a medicine pot squatting on top, with bubbling steam spurting from the spout, and a rich medicinal aroma filling the room.

The old woman keeping watch by the stove saw this, lifted the lid to take a look, and seeing the decoction had turned pitch black, smiled and called toward the door, “An’er, An’er, your health tonic is ready!”

As soon as she finished speaking, footsteps approached from afar.

Andrew Warren appeared at the woodshed door, grinning as he spoke to his aunt Mrs. Thompson, “It’s ready, Aunt?”

“It’s ready, it’s ready!”

Mrs. Thompson stopped Andrew Warren from reaching for the medicine pot, giving him a glare. “It’s so hot and you’re trying to carry it with bare hands—be careful not to burn yourself!

Let me do it.”

As she spoke, she grabbed two rags, picked up the medicine pot, took it off the stove, and poured the decoction into a large bowl, filling it to the brim.

Andrew Warren joked at her side, “Aunt, this iron stove works well, doesn’t it?

Isn’t it faster than the old clay stove?”

“Mm, and it doesn’t use much firewood.”

Aunt nodded in satisfaction, carried the medicine out of the woodshed, set it on a low table, and said to Andrew Warren, “You just ate, so go move around a bit.

Wait for the medicine to cool before drinking it.

This really is a health tonic, right?

Don’t go messing around!”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t take random medicine!”

Andrew Warren replied with a smile, then took a small bowl and ladled some of the decoction into it.

Mrs. Thompson saw this and assumed he just wanted to drink from a small bowl, so she didn’t pay it any mind, simply gave him a few reminders, and went off to the side room.

It was already getting dark, and she and Uncle should rest.

In ancient times, farming households always lived like this—rising at dawn, resting at dusk.

Andrew Warren stayed up a bit later, stretching his body in the courtyard, then began practicing the Great Spear Fist.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

His martial progress was almost changing by the day.

Now, when he performed this fist technique, his figure became a blur, leaving only the sound of fists breaking through the air.

In a single breath, he could throw three consecutive Great Spear Fist strikes.

Each punch could mobilize over a hundred muscles to contract at once.

Each punch contained the power to shatter stone.

After a quarter of an hour, Andrew Warren stopped and stood tall.

He frowned slightly, reflecting on the gains from his practice.

“At this point, the Great Spear Fist doesn’t do much for my own training anymore.

Generally, when you reach my level, most martial artists start to consolidate their ‘obvious strength’ and integrate it into the major tendons, training to develop ‘hidden strength.’”

“But according to the tonic recipe, the three stages of strength training are the foundation of a martial artist, the most important of all.

How far you cultivate these three stages determines your potential for growth.

If you start the next stage before perfecting the previous one, you’re cutting off your own future.

Once you develop hidden strength, it’s nearly impossible to go back and temper the other muscles and retrain obvious strength.”

“So, for now, it’s best if I practice a few more fist techniques, and try to develop obvious strength in all six hundred-plus muscles of my body!

Once I return to Nanping, I’ll immediately visit the martial arts school.

I need to learn Nanping Martial School’s ‘Thirteen Thunder-Hand Forms’ as soon as possible!”

Andrew Warren calmed his mind, and the sharp, fierce aura around him vanished without a trace, leaving only a relaxed, easygoing youth.

He took away the small bowl of ‘Sanyuan Health Tonic’ and headed straight south out the gate.

Not far away, he saw a doghouse in front of a farmhouse.

A large black-and-white dog was squatting in its kennel, its dark eyes fixed on the approaching Andrew Warren.

“Woo—” it let out a warning growl.

Andrew Warren didn’t mind, pouring the medicine into its dog bowl. “Dahua, come on, time for your medicine.”