That night, Mother Zhang exhausted her culinary skills to prepare a sumptuous dinner.
Though called sumptuous, it was actually just four dishes and a soup.
But with vegetables, meat, and egg drop soup on the table, it was akin to a New Year's Eve dinner for an ordinary family!
Zhang Yuan ate every last bit of food on the table.
Although his mother's cooking was mediocre, it was still the most familiar taste to him.
The taste of home.
After dinner, Zhang Yuan went to his room and took out a cloth bag from his bosom.
He began to assess the day's haul.
Three silver notes, with denominations of fifty, fifty, and twenty, totaling one hundred and twenty silver taels.
The usurious loan from the broker could be paid off!
Add to that the scattered silver taels, which added up to more than a dozen taels, and Zhang Yuan planned to give them to his mother for daily expenses.
With this unexpected wealth, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief, albeit temporarily.
Only temporarily.
Because the costs of martial arts training were a bottomless pit, it was unknown how many silver taels would be consumed to fill it.
Now, Zhang Yuan was taking things one step at a time.
Finally, he fished out a purse from the cloth bag.
This purse was seized from Chen Deping, the Great Landlord Chen, and due to the urgent situation at the time, Zhang Yuan had no chance to open it and inspect its contents.
He untied the purse's string and poured out its contents.
To Zhang Yuan's disappointment, the purse that Chen Deping had treasured contained only a Tianhuang seal and a folded yellow paper.
The seal was exquisitely made, with Chen Deping's name engraved at the base, clearly the private seal of this master landlord.
The material of the item itself was quite valuable.
But unless Zhang Yuan had been kicked in the head by a donkey, there was absolutely no way he would sell it!
He tossed the private seal aside and unfolded the yellow paper.
A simple map unfolded before his eyes.
"Hmm?"
Immediately familiar with the image, Zhang Yuan spread it fully on the table for a closer look.
He recognized this map had at least seventy to eighty percent similarity with the Treasure Map on his chest, yet it was not very complete; the former seemed like a poor imitation of the latter.
And the route indicated by this map perfectly matched the road previously constructed by the Chen Family.
This matched up.
Just as Zhang Yuan speculated, the Chen Family's unusual behavior was closely linked to the treasure of Qianfeng Mountain.
But Great Landlord Chen probably went to his death without knowing the true reason.
Celestial Being!
He recalled the words uttered by Chen Deping before his death; a larger question arose in his mind.
What kind of existence was this "Celestial Being" that could prompt the Linhe Chen Clan to go to such lengths to curry favor?
Doing something so inexplicable, resulting in a mysterious calamity, even implicating the whole county!
Zhang Yuan rubbed his temples, brought the map to the oil lamp, and burnt it clean.
Then he shattered Chen Deping's Tianhuang seal, ground it into fine powder, and disposed of it in the latrine.
In fact, such private seals were usually tied to their owner's wealth, serving as proof to claim certain possessions.
Chen Deping hadn't carried much silver on him. His womenfolk and property shops were in the city.
With the master landlord vanishing from the world, this seal might very well play a substantial role.
But Zhang Yuan felt no greed; he destroyed it completely!
He opened the Divine Nest panel.
[Host: Zhang Yuan]
[Realm: Tier One (Light Force)]
[Divine Nest: Level 1 (45%)]
[Host: Level 2 Black Giant Ant (18%)/4x Strength]
[Host: Level 2 Jade Mantis (5%)/Intermediate Sword Mastery]
[Host: Level 1 Golden Grasshopper (1%)/2x Agility]
[Qi Blood: 46/112]
[Source Material: 15.9]
There wasn't much change in the data on the panel, except the Source Material Points surged to nearly 16.
This was the result of sacrificing over a dozen members of the Chen family, including a Martial Artist.
Suddenly he became wealthy!
Zhang Yuan thought it over and first invested 5.9 points of Source Material into the third host, the Golden Grasshopper.
The remaining 10 points were all invested into the Divine Nest itself.
5.9 Source Material points should be enough for the Golden Grasshopper to evolve to Level 2.
By then, the ability boost of 4x agility should match his current cultivation strength.
Now that all three chambers of the Divine Nest were filled, upgrading and expanding it was imperative, so this too had to be managed.
If his gaming experience from past lives still applied, the Source Material needed to upgrade the Divine Nest itself should be far more than what's required to upgrade a host—10 Source Material points might not be sufficient.
The current Divine Nest already had 45% Evolution Level.
This Evolution Level was actually acquired from accommodating three extraordinary Genetic Bodies; otherwise, even more Source Material would be needed!
The problem now was, whether or not he could still venture into Qianfeng Mountain to hunt after such a significant event remained uncertain.
The conditions for obtaining Source Material were quite stringent. It had to be Zhang Yuan's own hand-won spoils.
The big beasts counted, and so did enemies, but buying domestic animals to slaughter for sacrifice was not recognized by the Divine Nest.
On this point, Zhang Yuan had already tested it!
Such rules undoubtedly greatly restricted his ways of acquiring Source Material, with no shortcuts available.
It could only proceed slowly.
The following morning, Zhang Yuan left his home and headed to the city's broker.
To repay his debt.
He had borrowed fifty silver taels from the broker, with a daily interest rate of 2%.
It was surprisingly reasonable.
But such reasonableness was still something Zhang Yuan couldn't afford.
He had been left with no choice at that time.
Having paid the principal and interest, Zhang Yuan successfully retrieved the house deed that had been mortgaged to the broker.
The brokerage shopkeeper was a skinny middle-aged man, who was a bit surprised that Zhang Yuan had repaid the debt so quickly. His eyes darted around, and he asked with a smile, "Honored guest, does your family need any maids or servants?"
"As an old customer, I can give you a discounted price!"
Maids and servants?
Zhang Yuan laughed wryly: "Not needed for now, thank you."
Literature is poor, martial arts are rich. Right now, his martial arts expenses were enormous, and he still had to support himself and his mother.
Where would he find the extra resources to purchase servants?
Note that maids and servants required the head of the house to pay a personal tax, a fixed expense of three taels per person per year, plus daily living costs and monthly allowances, which were far beyond the reach of an ordinary family.
This broker sure knew how to do business!
The brokerage shopkeeper said with a cheerful smile, "You're too kind. If you ever need them in the future, feel free to come to us."
Zhang Yuan nodded.
He then went to the pharmacy to purchase the herbs needed for his martial arts training.
What he didn't expect was that the commonly purchased herbs had increased in price significantly, and the increase was quite steep!
Moreover, the pharmacy owner acted as if he didn't care whether Zhang Yuan bought the herbs or not.
Zhang Yuan held back for a moment but still took out some silver taels to buy a batch.
He couldn't stop taking his medicine!
He clearly understood that the surge in medicine prices had a great deal to do with the current closure of the county town.
As Zhang Yuan walked along, most of the shops lining the street were open.
But those involving the sale of grain, salt, and oil were all swarmed with people.
Many were frantically buying survival necessities.
These items had also seen a significant price increase, causing dissatisfaction among the people.
He couldn't help but look toward Qianfeng Mountain, only to have his view blocked by the tall city wall.
The future remained unknown and unpredictable!