My experience of grinding in another world

Chapter 43 Baby
"Still no good." Chen Mu held up a brown dumpling the size of a duck egg and examined it.

It contains fish, white rice, nuts, oil, salt, honey, and medicines to nourish the body and prevent decay.

Chen Mu wanted to create a high-calorie, nutritious, and long-lasting dry food to prepare for his upcoming long journey.

Inspired by compressed biscuits from a past life.

Unfortunately, despite multiple attempts, it still failed.

It's edible, but the taste is a bit off, the preservation isn't very good, and the medicinal benefits are minimal.

"Fortunately, I can still increase my proficiency."

Developing a new recipe can improve one's proficiency by fifty or sixty points, comparable to reading medical books.

After working hard for more than half a month, my medicine-making skill has reached over 9,000, and I'm about to break through to the third tier.

"Take a break tomorrow." Chen Mu turned to look at a bamboo basket full of failed attempts.

"We need to get rid of these things."

……

Market in the Dongshanxia gathering area.

Chen Mu wore a bamboo hat, covered his face with a veil, and put on Yang Zhi's vest again.

I walked to the familiar spot, set up my stall, and put out the failed rice ball attempts.

Then he plopped down on the ground and quietly waited for customers to come in.

"Brother Yang, you're selling rice balls again. Two coins each, right? Give me ten."

As soon as I sat down, a skinny old man with a goatee came over to me.

The other person's surname was Liu, and everyone called him Old Liu. He was a quack doctor, an itinerant physician.

He sold traditional Chinese medicine for bruises and injuries at the market, and often went into the mountains to collect herbs, which he also bought from laborers.

Chen Mu set up his stall here, probably because of his medicinal herbs.

"Hmm." Chen Mu nodded silently, appearing taciturn.

The outfit, complete with a birthmark on her face, gives her a rather cool vibe.

Old Liu, having already become familiar with them, didn't take it seriously and handed Chen Mu an oil paper package: "Take a look, is this the medicinal herb you mentioned?"

Chen Mu glanced at it and raised an eyebrow slightly.

He put down the oil paper package, quickly wrapped ten rice balls, paused for a moment, and then gave two extra ones as gifts.

He took out thirty copper coins and handed them to the other person along with the rice ball.

Old Liu nodded in satisfaction.

Just then, a commotion suddenly broke out at one end of the street.

Several yamen runners quickly carried away a stretcher.

The crowd gathered at the street corner, chattering amongst themselves.

"What happened?" Chen Mu nodded towards the stretcher and asked.

"It's from wild animals attacking people," Old Liu said, as if it were commonplace. "It's just a bit tragic; they say the animals rip out your heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and all that stuff."

"It's normal to encounter wild beasts when reclaiming land in the deep mountains and wilderness. Fortunately, there's Qingfeng Temple, otherwise it would be bad luck to run into evil spirits."

Chen Mu nodded.

Qingfeng Temple certainly has effective methods.

In the desolate wilderness, thousands of laborers gathered, and several months passed without a single incident of evil occurring.

The two of them chatted one after another.

Chen Mu searched the streets out of the corner of his eye.

With thousands of people clearing the mountains, wild game, herbs, minerals, and all sorts of natural ingredients were continuously discovered.

The rare ingredients are not available here, but there are many common ones, making it convenient for him to find the ingredients for the recipe.

"Are there any wild boars today?" Chen Mu asked suddenly after looking around for a while.

"They're all gone now. Old Zhang sold them all early this morning." Old Liu was a shrewd old man, well-informed: "You want some?"

"Mm." Chen Mu nodded.

"Those Zhang brothers used wine lees mixed with sleeping potion to wipe out a wild boar's den. There will definitely be more tomorrow."

"Where does he live?" Chen Mu asked after thinking for a moment.

"Go to his house? That makes sense, a butcher has to keep some for himself." Old Liu suddenly realized, then shook his head: "It will definitely cost more money."

Chen Mu calmly shook his head: "It's alright."

He needs to do a test, and that costs money.

“Go east, his house is at the easternmost edge of the shantytown.”

"It's close to the Xiaobailang River, which makes it convenient for slaughtering and cleaning livestock."

"Just ask around there and you'll find out."

Chen Mu nodded his thanks. Then he quietly continued selling rice balls.

These rice balls are packed with ingredients, sweet and filling; once you buy them, you'll know they're a good product.

With many regular customers, it sold out in no time.

Chen Mu greeted Old Liu, packed up his stall, stuffed it into a bamboo basket, and carried it eastward.

……

East of the gathering area.

Following directions from passersby, Chen Mu found the home of butcher Zhang Laoliu.

A wooden hut, surrounded by a fence made of logs as thick as a forearm.

A pigsty was isolated on the east side of the yard, the ground was covered with black mud, and the stench was overwhelming.

Several black wild boars were grunting and rooting around inside. To the west was a stone platform, where three tall, thin men were eating pig ears and peanuts and drinking alcohol.

"Zhang Laoliu?" Chen Mu, disguised as Yang Zhi, said in a seemingly indifferent tone.

"Who are you?" The three men put down their wine glasses, stood up, and looked at Chen Mu with unfriendly expressions.

"Will you sell the pigs?" Chen Mu asked calmly.

The three people's expressions immediately softened.

"We're sold out today. There are only these ears left, not enough for the three of us brothers. We'll try again tomorrow."

“I want live pigs,” Chen Mu said, pointing to the pigpen.

The three were surprised, but didn't ask any further questions: "You choose."

Chen Mu pondered for a moment and said, "The biggest one."

"That weighs over three hundred jin, and it'll fetch ten taels of silver," said Zhang Laoliu.

"Sure," Chen Mu replied readily.

Then he strode over to the pigpen and looked it over.

The wild boars were not only unafraid of strangers, but they also glared angrily at Chen Mu. If they could jump out, they might have even given Chen Mu a couple of blows.

When Zhang Laoliu saw Chen Mu agree so readily, he was taken aback and felt annoyed.

You didn't shout enough!

After thinking about it, I felt too embarrassed to raise the price.

He divided it up and sold it, and it came to about seven or eight taels.

Now I've saved myself the effort and even earned an extra two ounces. Thinking about it this way, I feel much better.

Zhang Laoliu put his mind at ease and was about to call his brothers to get ropes to help tie up the pig.

boom!
Chen Mu punched the wild boar in the forehead.

The wild boar, which had been squealing loudly just moments before, suddenly tumbled to the ground.

Then he reached out and grabbed a wild boar by the front leg, lifting it like a chick, and pulled the 300-pound wild boar out of the pigpen.

He casually tossed it into the large bamboo basket on his back.

He tossed sixty taels of silver to Old Zhang and left without a word.

Zhang Laoliu and the other two stared wide-eyed.

Holy crap! That's some serious strength?!

……

West side of Xiaodong Mountain.

Chen Mu deliberately stayed away from the eastern altar construction area and chose a pit that was neither too far nor too close to Qingfeng Temple.

They lifted the wild boar out and pulled a broken wooden basin from under the bamboo basket.

With a flash of his hidden dagger, he ripped a bloody hole in the pig's neck.

The wild boar, in pain, woke up abruptly and tried to struggle.

laugh!
Chen Mu waved calmly.

The hidden dagger slid down the back and neck, piercing through the hard spine like tofu, and instantly severing the spinal nerves.

He grabbed the wild boar by its hind leg and lifted it up with one hand to bleed it.

Once the wooden basin was full, Chen Mu put the wild boar down and retreated ten meters with the bamboo basket in his hand.

Wearing sheepskin gloves, he carefully pulled a wooden box from the bottom of the basket and took out a bright red leather bag from it.

This is a strange object I got from the round-faced Taoist priest.

Chen Mu guessed it was a magical artifact.

The little paper figure was eerie, and he dared not try it lightly.

As for the blood oath ceremony, forget it, he doesn't think he's destined to be the protagonist.

After a month of research and testing using different methods, it was confirmed that the bag would absorb blood.

This time, Chen Mu planned to feed her a full meal and see how she reacted.

Ten meters away, he threw the bag into the pig's blood basin.

Gulu gulu...

The bag sank to the bottom and bubbled.

The blood drained away at a visible rate, and in no time it was completely gone. Not even a drop remained in the cracks of the wooden basin.

Chen Mu leaned closer to examine it, then picked up a stick and poked the leather bag.

The bag didn't react at all, and the paper figure he was worried about didn't jump out either.

He pried open the bag with a few sticks.

He dared not reach in with his hands.

Find another wooden stick, use it like chopsticks to hold the leather bag and turn it over to tip it over.

Wow...

A large amount of stuff fell out of the small bag, filling a wooden basin with a diameter of half a meter to almost halfway.

Chen Mu: “…”

My darling!
Before he could react, the black rope on the bag tightened, and the bag closed tightly again.

Chen Mu put the leather bag into the wooden box from before.

They threw the wooden basin and wild boar into the bamboo basket, hoisted it on their backs, and sped away.

(End of this chapter)