In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

"The Zheng family runs the largest trading company in the entire Taicang Prefecture, the Zheng Family Trading Company. Its business covers all the counties in Taicang Prefecture and even the entire Qingzhou. It is the richest family in the entire Taicang Prefecture. The family possesses the mid-grade martial art Cloud Shadow Palm. The patriarch, Zheng Qing, is a master of Cloud Shadow Palm and has the strength of the peak of the sixth grade."

"The Wang family was once the most powerful clan in Taicang County. Long before the establishment of the Xia Kingdom, the Wang family had already taken root in this land. Now, hundreds of years later, the Wang family's influence has permeated every corner of Taicang County, and there are countless powerful martial artists in the clan. It is said that there are no fewer than five mid-level third-grade martial artists in the entire Wang family."

"Shattered Mountain Martial Arts School, the largest martial arts school in the county town. The school master is proficient in the mid-grade martial art, Shattered Mountain Fist. The school has countless martial arts students, but unfortunately..."

Xu Zhiwen sighed, "Most people who practice martial arts at the Shattered Mountain Martial Arts School cannot access the Shattered Mountain Fist. They can only learn low-grade martial arts. Only those with exceptional talent who are valued by the school master and taken in as his personal disciples can learn the Shattered Mountain Fist."

Chen Dao frowned. From Xu Zhiwen's description, it was clear that these three forces possessing mid-grade martial arts were behemoths in Taicang County, which meant...

It is almost impossible to forcibly obtain a mid-grade martial arts technique.

This is a bit tricky. We can't demand it by force, nor can we obtain a mid-grade martial arts technique through monetary transactions...

Chen Dao was at a loss for what to do.

"Brother Xu."

Li Hu suddenly spoke up: "I wonder if we can exchange money?"

Xu Zhiwen shook his head: "Whether it's the Zheng family, the Wang family, or the Suiyue Martial Arts School, they all value their own mid-grade martial arts extremely highly, and it's almost impossible for them to sell them for money, let alone..."

Xu Zhiwen sighed inwardly. Even if he were to sell it, the price would undoubtedly be astronomical.

Don't be fooled by the fact that he and Li Hu have made a lot of money in business recently. Compared to these behemoth families, their earnings are nothing, let alone the martial arts techniques passed down by the three major families.

"This……"

Li Hu was speechless, completely at a loss.

Chen Dao temporarily set aside this question and asked, "Have either of you heard of the herbs cedar seeds, snow lotus, pine resin leaves, blood pine wood, and albizia bark?"

“Never.”

Li Hu shook his head.

"I know what mimosa bark is!"

Li Ying, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up: "Among the medicinal herbs we obtained from the Yuan family, there was quite a bit of Albizia bark."

Chen Dao's eyes lit up, and he asked, "What about the other medicinal herbs?"

"No other medicinal herbs are available."

Li Ying shook her head.

Xu Zhiwen pondered and said, "I do know a little about these medicinal herbs! The herbs you mentioned are all used by mid-level martial artists, and they can only be sold in large cities like Taicang County."

Small counties like Taiping County do not have mid-level martial artists, therefore... naturally there are no medicinal herbs available for mid-level martial artists to cultivate with.

The medicinal herbs Chen Dao mentioned, apart from the Albizia bark, were all of the kind used by mid-level martial artists and could only be sold in larger cities like Taicang County.

"I see."

Chen Dao suddenly realized that although these medicinal herbs could only be sold in Taicang County, at least there were traces of them, so he wouldn't have to search aimlessly.

It seems I'll have to go to the county town sometime!

Chen Dao pondered to himself that both the cultivation techniques he needed for his own breakthrough and the medicinal herbs needed for the animals at home to advance could only be obtained in the county town, so he naturally had to consider making a trip to the county town.

…………

…………

After chatting with Xu Zhiwen and the others at the Fuhu Boxing Gym, Chen Dao left the gym with Chen Cheng, carrying a small bag of Albizia bark medicinal herbs, and went to the East Market of the county town.

Besides inquiring about cultivation techniques and advanced medicinal herbs, Chen Dao also had another purpose for coming to the city: to purchase new livestock.

Previously, due to insufficient grain reserves in the village, Chen Dao only raised chickens and ducks at home. Now that Chenjia Village has enough grain, he naturally wants to raise more varieties.

At that moment, Chen Dao was standing in front of a stall, pointing to the pigs on the stall and asking, "Boss, how much do you want to sell these piglets?"

Upon seeing a customer enter, the shop owner replied enthusiastically, "500 coins for a piglet."

500 coins?

Chen Dao frowned. The piglets were obviously newborn piglets, weighing less than three catties, yet they were priced at 500 wen each, which was equivalent to more than 160 wen per catty of pork, which was obviously a bit expensive.

You should know that a yellow-feathered chicken weighing 6 to 7 jin in Chenjia Village only sells for 400 wen. In comparison, this pig is much more expensive!

Seemingly noticing Chen Dao's unusual behavior, the stall owner quickly said, "Sir, these piglets of mine are rare and excellent. If you buy them, you can definitely raise them into a fat pig weighing 100 catties. 500 coins is a very cheap price!"

Chen Dao twitched the corner of his mouth. In his previous life, every pig he had seen ready for slaughter weighed at least three or four hundred jin. A pig weighing only one hundred jin... didn't deserve the title of fat pig at all.

However, Chen Dao also knew that in a feudal society like Xia Kingdom, which had no breeding capabilities, a pig weighing 100 jin was not bad.

Therefore, he did not refute the stall owner's words, but simply said, "450 coins each, how about I take all the pigs on your stall?"

"Uh……"

The stall owner hesitated for a moment, but then agreed.

Soon, the two parties began the transaction. Chen Dao had Chen Cheng give the stall owner 4 taels of silver and 500 copper coins to buy all 10 piglets on the stall.

Summer Land Pigs

[Characteristics: Slow growth, higher lean meat ratio, and better pork taste.]

[Summer Pig Advancement Path 1: Feeding it pitcher plants for three days will advance it to a white-skinned pig.]

[Characteristics of white-skinned pigs: They grow relatively quickly, have a higher proportion of fat, and the pork has a poorer taste.]

[Summer Land Pig Advancement Route Two: Feeding it with Cold Jade Flower Stems for three days will advance it to a Black-haired Pig.]

[Characteristics of Iberian Black Pigs: They grow relatively quickly, have a high lean meat ratio, and produce pork with a good texture.]

The moment Chen Dao bought the 10 piglets, their progression paths also came into view. The first progression path was to raise white-skinned pigs with a higher fat content, while the second path was to raise black-haired pigs with a better taste and a higher lean content.

Both advanced varieties have their advantages, but after careful consideration, Chen Dao decided to choose the first advanced variety.

For the Chinese people of Earth in their previous life, pigs with a lot of fat were obviously considered a inferior breed, because the Chinese had no shortage of meat, and even the younger generation couldn't eat any fat at all.

But for the people of Xia, fatty meat was the best thing.

Putting aside everything else, just take the villagers of Chenjia Village as an example. Whenever they buy chicken to eat, they usually prefer to eat the oily chicken skin, and then eat the chicken meat after eating the skin.