“Mom!” Ye Kong walked to the entrance of his small courtyard, his heart warming. Who would have thought he’d experience the warmth of family in another world? Before transmigrating, he used to get envious watching other parents dote on their children. Now he had a mom too.

Although she was a bit ugly, Ye Kong believed he’d find a way to remove the black scar on his mother’s face someday. This was Ye Kong’s greatest wish.

Chen Jiuniang didn’t hear the call from outside. She was busy with her embroidery work – something Second Wife urgently needed. She didn’t dare delay. Ye Kong hadn’t returned for over half a month, so she hadn’t expected him back today.

“Mom! I’m home.” Ye Kong pushed open the door and called out with a smile.

“Oh my!” Chen Jiuniang heard her son’s voice and turned around in delighted surprise, smiling. “Now that you’re back, quickly wash up and change clothes. Get a good night’s sleep – tomorrow you’ll have to suffer again.”

Ye Kong laughed heartily, dragged over a wooden stool to sit down, and said, “I have good news and bad news. Mom, which do you want to hear first?”

Chen Jiuniang smiled, her hands still busily working as she said, “Let’s hear the good news first. Your mother is afraid of hearing bad news.”

Ye Kong said, “Alright, the good news is… I’m liberated! I never have to go look at the ancestors’ spirit tablets again.”

“Really!” Chen Jiuniang’s head shot up, equally excited. She didn’t know that Ye Kong was completely unbothered by the cold in the ancestral hall. She’d been worried the whole time that her son would develop health problems there. Now hearing he didn’t have to go anymore, she was naturally happy.

“And the bad news?” Chen Jiuniang had just started feeling happy when her brow furrowed again. This kid didn’t get into trouble again as soon as he came out, did he?

Fortunately, it wasn’t what she thought. Ye Kong said, “The bad news is you have to open your purse. Your son needs to buy some good stuff. Hand over the silver!”

“Look at you, scaring me like that!” Chen Jiuniang scolded affectionately and swatted noodles his palm. “Tell me what you’re buying and how much silver you need.”

The monthly allowance Ye Kong had gotten from Ye Haoran – since he hadn’t hired a martial arts instructor – was all stored with Chen Jiuniang. Over the past year, they’d saved up nearly two hundred taels of silver. In Cangnan Continent, this was quite a substantial sum. Chen Jiuniang was hoping to save it for Ye Kong to marry a wife later.

“Mm… buying yellow paper and cinnabar shouldn’t cost much silver, right?” Ye Kong had been in Cangnan Continent for over a year but had never been out on the streets, so naturally he didn’t know the prices. After thinking, he added, “How about Mom comes shopping with me? You haven’t been out in a long time either, right?”

“Ah? Go out?” Chen Jiuniang’s delicate brows knitted as she lowered her head and said quietly, “I… I’m rushing to finish this work. Just tell me how much silver you need.”

Ye Kong didn’t notice her expression and muttered, “Whose work are you rushing for again? They should be grateful you’re embroidering for them for free. Do they think I’m here to work for them?”

“You always act like such a hooligan.” Chen Jiuniang smiled and scolded gently, then lowered her head and said, “Actually, Mom… doesn’t like going out.”

Ye Kong immediately understood. Looking at his mother’s lowered head and self-consciousness, he said solemnly, “Mom, don’t worry. Sooner or later I’ll find a way to heal your face. It’s just melanin deposits. Your son is about to become a miracle doctor.”

Chen Jiuniang didn’t understand what melanin deposits were. She only knew that the black scar on her face would never heal. Back when it happened, the best physicians in Southern Capital City all said there was no cure. Her son was just comforting her.

“Good, then Mom will wait for you to cure it.” Although she knew her son was just comforting her, Chen Jiuniang still acted very happy.

She truly was happy. Even though her face wouldn’t heal, compared to over a year ago, her foolish son had become a genius and even knew how to care for people. What reason was there not to be happy?

“Don’t worry, there will be a way.” Ye Kong nodded.

Actually, he wasn’t bragging. He really was about to become a miracle doctor. More precisely, a talisman doctor.

To explain it properly, he had to talk about that Complete [visit our site]Collection of Talismans. This book hidden in his soul – he’d opened it, but only a small portion.

The Complete Collection of Talismans was divided into two types: spirit talismans and paper talismans. Spirit talismans required spiritual energy to inscribe and released with great power, possessing spiritual energy.

Paper talismans were much inferior. They had no spiritual energy, didn’t have many functions, and were yellow paper talismans that could even be used on Earth. Ye Kong’s spiritual consciousness wasn’t yet strong enough to read the spirit talisman sections. The few pages of scrolls he’d currently opened were all paper talismans, and these paper talismans were all for treating illnesses or exorcising ghosts.

There were calming talismans, vision-clearing talismans, mind-purifying talismans, and so on. They weren’t very useful to Ye Kong at the moment. He didn’t want to become a doctor. What he truly looked forward to was using spirit talismans in the future – ones with immense power, for combat, that could kill masses of people with one blow. Those kinds of spirit talismans.

Of course, whether there were such talismans later in the Complete Collection of Talismans, he wasn’t sure. But he was fully confident!

Although he didn’t want to be a doctor, he’d already seen quite a few paper talismans. So he really wanted to draw a few to experiment, which was why he was eager to go out and buy materials for drawing talismans.

“Come back early.” Chen Jiuniang gave him twenty taels of silver, not forgetting to nag, “Don’t cause any trouble out there. And don’t swagger when you walk, keep your arms in. You look like a hooligan.”

“Mom, you’re wrong. Not a hooligan – a street thug. A street thug is the sum total of rogue, hooligan, gangster, plus lecher.” Ye Kong tucked the silver into his sleeve and walked out laughing.

Chen Jiuniang muttered irritably, “None of them are good people anyway.” Then she lowered her head and got busy with her embroidery again.

“Good people? Good people can’t even get out the front door!” Ye Kong grumbled as he reached the entrance. Today, sitting in the gatehouse was Li Laosi, whom he’d beaten before.

“Eighth Young Master, where are you going?” Li Laosi came forward bowing and scraping.

Ye Kong found it amusing. This type of person just needed to be dealt with harshly. If you were polite to them, they’d think you had no temper. Beat them up, and they’d treat you like their ancestor.

“I’m going out to buy some things.” Ye Kong didn’t even look at him.

“When the master left, he instructed that the Ye family children should be prudent in speech and action, not cause trouble, and usually…”

“I’m going out to buy some things!” This time Ye Kong raised his voice, his sharp gaze fixing on Li Laosi.

“Then Eighth Young Master… please take your time.” Li Laosi was startled into a shiver, thinking to himself that this Eighth Young Master was even more formidable than a year ago. Better stay away from such a vicious person – those bricks he throws don’t show mercy.

Walking out the Ye Manor’s main gate, Ye Kong stood in the sunlight and looked back at the manor’s entrance. The high gate and large plaque, the imposing stone lions, layers of broad stone steps – it all had an ancient and magnificent aura. In front of the gate stood several Ye Family Army soldiers with sabers at their waists, full of intimidating presence. Most eye-catching were the vigorous, powerful characters for “Manor of the General Who Pacifies the South,” personally inscribed by the current Emperor An Rushan himself.

“Though the Ye Manor is fine, it’s not a place for me, Ye Kong, to stay long.” Ye Kong had long since decided to leave. He gathered the front of his robe and headed toward the bustling main street.

Walking the streets of Cangnan Continent for the first time, Ye Kong found everything especially novel. Like a country bumpkin entering the city, he looked left and right, everything catching his interest.

“Wow, there’s even a shop specially for repairing broken bowls. Over there with all those people – are they fighting crickets? Ah, not crickets. They look really fierce. Kind of like praying mantises.”

Ye Kong wandered through the bustling commercial district. There were novel things everywhere. For instance, there were also sugar and dough figurine vendors here, but the shapes they made were all three-headed, six-armed monster images holding various weapons.

What was most different from ancient cities on Earth was that at the center of every busy intersection, there was a square platform built of blue bricks, about a meter high.

This wasn’t for traffic police. This was an arena platform. Cangnan Continent valued martial prowess over literature. An Kingdom’s southern region bordered the barbarian tribes, so the people here practiced martial arts even more fervently. The local culture was uncommonly fierce. After a few words, people couldn’t help wanting to spar.

But they couldn’t always fight in the streets, right? What if they injured innocent people? Smashed up shops and stores? So these arena platforms appeared at intersections. Privately operated, but required official approval. Those who wanted to spar could – just pay fifty copper coins for a match.

In Cangnan Continent, one hundred copper coins equaled one tael of silver. Fifty copper coins wasn’t cheap, but if someone died, the owner would handle the burial. If injured, special effective medicine was provided for internal and external use. So it wasn’t too expensive.

Ye Kong happened to see at one intersection two burly men with bare, muscular arms about to compete. Ye Kong wasn’t in a hurry. Watching was free anyway, so he crossed his arms and mixed into the crowd to watch.

“I am Lu Fei of Cloud Terrace Mountain. Let me show you my Cloud Terrace Falling Leaf Palm, junior brother.”

The other also cupped his fists. “I am Sun Sanli of the Azure Leaf Sect. Let me show you my Azure Leaf Sect’s light-body technique – Ten Thousand Li Flight!”

Then the two men began fighting. One focused on swift palm techniques, while the other specialized in agile, unpredictable movements. For a time, they fought evenly matched.

This was the first time Ye Kong watched people of Cangnan Continent sparring. For a moment he watched intently. Ever since cultivating the Five Elements Ascension Scripture, his vision had become incredibly sharp and his memory extraordinarily good. After watching for a while, he grasped the essence of both men’s fighting styles.

“Practice is the best learning. From now on I don’t need to hire a martial arts instructor. When I have time, I’ll just come watch and steal some techniques. Combined with my reactions and movements, it should be enough to deal with ordinary people.” Having made up his mind, Ye Kong saw the match on the platform was still undecided, so he stopped watching and squeezed out of the crowd.

Ye Kong didn’t notice that as he squeezed out of the crowd, a tall, burly bald man also came out. The bald man gave a meaningful look toward Ye Kong’s back, and immediately several people of varying heights and builds began following.

After walking a few steps, there was a paper, brush, calligraphy and painting shop. Ye Kong nodded, gathered the front of his robe, stepped over the threshold, and walked into the store.

“Young master, are you buying books or paintings? We have the newest printed literary collections, and also works by the famous Tang Boniu.” A thin shopkeeper in his twenties came forward.

“Mm, let me just look around first.” Ye Kong didn’t know if this world sold yellow mounting paper, so he ignored the shopkeeper and looked around.

The thin shopkeeper was quite enthusiastic though. “Young master, we also have the finest brushes from Huangzhou and inkstones from White Stone Mountain. The prices are all fair.”

Ye Kong continued waving his hand. “I’m not buying brushes or inkstones.”

The scrawny shopkeeper suddenly seemed to understand something. He gave a lecherous smile and pulled Ye Kong to a corner of the shop, taking out a stack of thin books from his sleeve.

“Young master, the newest edition of Spring Palace Collection. Twenty copper coins each. Every one is stimulating, absolutely worth more than the price. Look at these exquisite illustrations, these enticing scenes…”

Ye Kong almost fainted. “Hey, hey, hey, buddy, I’m only thirteen years old. Don’t you know this is corrupting minors?”

“What does thirteen matter? I started reading at ten. Cheapest price, fifteen copper coins per book. Cost price to make a friend. How about it?” The beanpole continued enthusiastically hawking his wares.

“But this is too crude. And it’s black and white. If you had Playboy, then I might consider it.” Ye Kong casually flipped through them.

The scrawny shopkeeper apparently really liked these kinds of books. He immediately asked, “Playboy? Better looking than these? Young master, how about we… exchange notes?”

“Enough, enough. Let’s talk business. Do you have the yellow paper like the covers of these spring palace books?” After speaking, Ye Kong muttered, “No wonder they’re called yellow books. Turns out the front and back covers are both yellow.”