Dummy

"Time to see how I should take care of them." He opened the book and started searching. He had to turn only a few pages to find information about one herb.

"Blood Rose — Tier 1 herb

Occurrence: Blooms at places where the large-scale battle happened. Absorbs blood of the fallen soldiers, which acts as nutrition.

Harvesting: Pluck the flower.

Acquiring a seedling: Behind the flower, you can find a hip. Don't pluck the flower. When it dies and is pollinated, the hip will grow. Wait until it's dried out, and then extract the seeds.

Cultivation: Can grow everywhere. The only requirement to grow it is to water it with blood, instead of water. Pigs' blood was proven to be most effective.

Known uses: Used as the main ingredient in Tier 1 Blood cleansing pill."

"Hmm, so there won't be any problems with it. I will just have to spend some money." He mumbled to himself. Time to check out Misty Lotus. It didn't take him long because he already somewhat remembered where every herb was.

"Misty Lotus — Tier 1 herb

Occurrence: Grows in lakes, where the temperature is low and there is an abundant amount of Yin Qi. Thanks to low temperatures, when water evaporates, it creates an icy mist. Hence its name.

Harvesting: Pluck the flower.

Acquiring a seedling: Wait until a bulb that contains seeds is created. Then you can just extract them from it. Usually, one bulb contains from nine to fourteen seeds.

Cultivation: Carefully cut a small part of the seed to allow water inside. Place in a small container filled with water. Wait until it starts budding and the stem is at least ten centimeters (four inches) long. Then transplant it to a much bigger container. It has to have soil at the bottom where you plant the seed to root itself in place and water for it to grow.

Known uses: May be directly consumed to slightly enrich Yin Qi. Not recommended due to possible drawbacks. Used as the supplementary ingredient in the Tier 1 Blood cleansing pill."

"No, I will have to spend more money to build a stupid pond." He began grumbling as if he didn't know beforehand what Lotus was.

He walked into the kitchen and went through all the cabinets to find a rarely used pot. When he finally found one, he opened the drawer and also took a knife, and a chopping board.

Xing filled the pot with water and placed everything on the table. He withdrew lotus seeds from the pouch and placed them on the chopping board. Then proceed to carefully cut out one end of each seed and put them in the water. When he was done, he brought the pot to his room and placed it under his bed.

"One thing is done, they should be safe there." Xing, like every intelligent person, was talking to himself a lot. "Now, I should take care of Blood Roses." And walked out of the house.

He took a handcart with him and began walking towards the village gate, which was close to the industrial zone.

When he was able to see the gate, he didn't walk towards it, instead, he turned left, where the butcher was located.

It didn't take him long. When he walked in, he was greeted with the smell of blood. "Good afternoon, I would like to purchase half a litter of pig's blood." He told the salesman. "That will be five bronze coins." Xing gave him the money and walked out. 'Phew, that was quick.' He was glad it didn't take him long. 'Maybe I should buy wood for the pond, while I'm here. And so he did. That way, he could just build it because he would already have the materials.

At the sawmill, he ordered a sufficient supply of planks, resin, and nails. Which in total cost him three silver coins. But when he wanted to walk away, he saw a log. It was long but thin. "Maybe I should make myself a dummy? That way, I can train my swordsmanship more efficiently." He pondered. "Excuse me, how much for that log?" The shopkeeper looked at it and said. "Fifty bronze coins." "I will take it."

He loaded everything onto a cart and walked towards the field. But before that, he bought a big sack full of hay. He only had to spend ten bronze coins for that.

When he arrived, Xing unloaded the handcart. Now there was only a sack of hay and one log. Things needed for pond construction were left near the shed. While he took pig's blood with him.

After finding suitable places, he began digging. He planted all the seeds and watered them with blood. When he was done, he decided to do his chores that weren't done already.

It was evening when he finished. He took a cart and returned with his family home. They ate dinner, and it was time for him to start working on a dummy. So he walked outside.

He took out the shovel and began digging. After thirty minutes he was satisfied. The hole was small but was fifty centimeters (one foot and eight inches) deep.

He placed a log inside and filed up the hole. Then Xing untied the sack, imposed it on top of it, and tied it again.

"That should be good enough." He walked inside the shed and took out the sword. "I don't want to waste money, so I will have to do something with it. Otherwise, I will cut right through the sack." And so he did. He grabbed a random stone. Placed his arm behind him and swung.

*Kling*

His arm, which was holding a stone, collided with his other arm, which was holding a sword. His objective? To dull a sword, obviously. He had to do it at least a hundred times. Then he ran his finger along the edge. But he didn't cut himself. Xing was satisfied.

"Well, time to try this out" He took a stance. His right leg in front of him, his knees bent, and a sword above him.

*Swoosh*

He swung his sword and hit the dummy. Fortunately, as he expected nothing happened to it. Hay absorbed the impact, and it looked as good as new. "Nice, it's working as intended. I didn't cut through the material." Now he could train as long as he wanted.

"Okay, let's leave it for now. I shouldn't waste the evening on swordsmanship training. I can do that during the day. Time for some cultivation session." And he walked inside the shed with the sword.

He placed it in the corner. Sat cross-legged and began cultivating.

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Vote with power stones and leave a comment. It will help me a lot. So today, I wanted to leave it short, maybe someone will read it. Sorry for all my mistakes, and have a nice day.