Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age-Chapter 53: Time to Find a Wife

For the past two years, he’d been training in martial arts under Li Fei’s wing. Thanks to his decent root bone, he’d nearly reached the entry level of the Feiyu Martial Arts Hall’s "Immovable Stake."

As for Wang Heihou, Li Nangua, Zhao Hu, and the others, their progress each varied.

Among them, Li Nangua was moving fastest, followed by Wang Heihou, with Zhao Hu bringing up the rear.

Lu Chang’sheng himself had already been working on the Flood Stake, so he wasn’t very interested in the Immovable Stake.

It’s not that the Immovable Stake was worse than the Flood Stake, but he just didn’t have much silver left to spend on training the Immovable Stake, and his root bone talent wasn’t up to snuff yet, so he decided to put the stake skill on hold for now.

"Cultivation methods and fighting techniques are a whole other league in difficulty. For now, it’s smarter to use techniques to build up resources—reach a certain level first, then settle down and focus on cultivation methods!"

"By then, once I’m a little older and my root bone value goes up, getting twice the result with half the effort might actually come true!"

Lu Chang’sheng knew he was playing the long game and couldn’t afford to rush it.

That’s also why he was dead set on passing the official exams.

Tonight was their agreed-upon annual gathering—and it was Lu Chang’sheng’s idea to begin with.

Once a year.

Everyone would sit together, catch up and bond, loosen up the atmosphere, fill in each other’s gaps, and map out new plans for the coming year.

As time went by, the number of people showing up kept growing.

A lot of them were key members at the Archery Practice Ground.

After more than two years, the Archery Practice Ground had grown bigger and bigger.

The development of regular students had basically hit a plateau. In the Four Gates area of Black Mountain Prefecture, those who could afford to learn already had, and those who couldn’t could only slowly save their money.

Profits from this crowd had reached a steady, flat phase.

But since the Archery Practice Ground spread to the Four Gates area, its fame had only grown, turning many ordinary students into diehard regulars.

Just over a year ago, after some discussion between Liang Yun, Zhao Hu, Wang Heihou, Lu Chang’sheng, and the others, they handpicked the core of both the Three Red Gang and the Archery Practice Ground and founded a new gang—the "Martial Artist Council"—meaning five together, united as one.

When it came time to pick a leader, everyone chose Lu Chang’sheng without hesitation.

But given that Lu Chang’sheng was on the path of officialdom and usually couldn’t get too involved in gang affairs, they set up two vice gang leaders—Wang Heihou and Liang Yun—to handle daily matters, with Four Directions Helmsmen Zhao Hu, Niu Dazhuang, Zhao Fan, and Chen Jin below them.

Below them were the official members of the gang.

Adhering to the principle of "better few and elite than many and useless," a large chunk of the original Three Red Gang wasn’t brought into the Martial Artist Council and continued operating under the old name instead.

Same for the Archery Practice Ground.

Every core member of the Martial Artist Council was carefully screened; not just good character, but loyalty was also a must and evaluated closely.

By dusk, the yard was covered with food from end to end.

Everyone took their seats in order.

Noticing that the gang big shots at the main table hadn’t touched their chopsticks, everyone else kept quiet and waited.

About half an hour later, a man walked up outside, knocked and came in; seeing the whole yard packed with people, he couldn’t help but be startled inside.

He thought to himself, "These Three Red Gang folks are really cautious—so many get together and even the Black Mountain Army hasn’t noticed."

This was none other than Wu Da, a soldier serving under Head Guard Peak at the South Gate Black Mountain Army barracks, showing up now with a message from Wei Feng. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Oh! It’s Lord Wu. Please, come in!" Lu Chang’sheng stood up to greet him.

The others all stood too.

Wu Da gave a polite smile and said, "Don’t mind me, please—enjoy your food!"

Then, turning to Lu Chang’sheng, he said, "Sorry, Lu Tongsheng, Wei has some urgent matters to handle tonight and can’t make it."

Lu Chang’sheng felt a tremor in his heart, said a few words inviting him to stay, then ordered up a dozen or so roast chickens, packed them in a big sack.

"Really, you’re too kind, way too generous!" Wu Da’s face flushed red. He thought, Lu Tongsheng sure knows how to treat people. After a bit of polite refusal, he accepted them.

Lu Chang’sheng said, "We wanted to send some wine to the brothers too, but since you’re busy on that side, let’s hold off. Once things calm down, I’ll reserve a few tables at Huixiang Building for everyone to enjoy some holiday cheer!"

Wu Da felt his whole body tingle at those words—as if every pore popped open.

"I’ll have to thank you for your good fortune, then!"

The two of them headed out. Before Lu Chang’sheng could ask anything, Wu Da spoke softly, "Red Water County lost a battle over there—every official in town is panicking. At the year’s end, Lord Wei has to ramp up security, and maybe right after the new year, some Black Mountain Army troops will be sent out for reinforcement."

Lu Chang’sheng was shocked. "How is that possible? I thought things were going fine over there?"

The rebels in Red Water County were just ordinary folk—nothing compared to disciplined Black Mountain Army soldiers. That’s why the bigwigs in Black Mountain Prefecture never worried much.

"Nanming, Luozhe, and Guyuan prefectures got hammered with floods; refugees are all over the place. The local officials are all useless, leeching off their positions and doing nothing. Not only did they fail to solve the refugee crisis, but their incompetence pissed everyone off and sparked the rebellion! The worst part? These guys have mastered the art of covering things up. It was only last month that even the prefects got word of this mess!"

"In Jinghua Prefecture, they’re still discussing how to send relief and settle the refugees. By then, the rebels from all three prefectures had already spilled into surrounding regions—including ours. The rebels in Red Water County must’ve heard about it, and went wild like they’d popped some crazy pills. Totally blindsided us! And get this—Jinghua Prefecture sent disaster relief envoys to gather tons of grain across the region. The moment they got into Longyang Prefecture, rebel forces hijacked the lot!"

After hearing Wu Da’s story, Lu Chang’sheng was completely stunned.

At this rate, if someone jumped up yelling "The Great Yuan is doomed!" he’d half believe it. How much more desperate would those refugees be?

The Thirty-Six Mansions of Great Yuan were all garrisoned with heavy troops and were key hubs for the state, as long as the Prefecture Cities held, no matter how big the rebel hordes got, they’d run short of grain soon enough and pose little threat.

But now, at least for the rebels in Longyang Prefecture and the three bordering prefectures—Luozhe and Guyuan as well—they had enough grain to last them quite a while.

Remember, these were funds and food collected from prefectures everywhere, originally meant to help the disaster area alone.

"Why does it feel like the whole house of cards is about to collapse?"

Lu Chang’sheng gave a bitter chuckle inside, feeling an added sense of urgency.

He knew all too well: wartime crushes the common folk hardest.

Plus, passing the official exams would mean he could protect his family—even if they forced conscription, there’d be no fear of ending up on the draft list.

Since none of the heads of the Four Gates showed, everyone went straight to eating.

Plenty of toasting and laughter made for a lively scene.

In just a couple of hours, most of the core members had left, leaving just Lu Chang’sheng, Liang Yun, Zhao Hu, and a few more behind.

This year, Zhao Hu’s wife Yun had also joined them for the end of the year.

He’d hoped to bring their daughter too, but it didn’t work out in the end.

"That old man’s stubborn as a mule. Don’t bother trying to talk me down—when Chang’sheng passes the Advanced Scholar exam, we’ll all go over there. I want to see what kind of face he pulls then!"

While Yun helped clean up, Zhao Hu grumbled, clearly fed up.

The whole group knew his situation well and all sympathized.

He could scrape together a hundred silver coins if he had to, but that might get in the way of Lu Chang’sheng’s exam plans, so he resisted the urge.

Besides, Zhao Hu figured, only if they made a big move would he finally get some peace inside.

"You know, the way I see it, I’ve watched you boys grow up. You call me Mr. Zhao, and I can’t just stand by and do nothing. At your age, folks in the village already got kids. Really, it’s time to find a wife and settle down!"

Zhao Hu suddenly said out of the blue.

In an instant, the group of men, just joking and laughing a moment ago, all went silent.

This... really caught them completely off guard!