Chapter 11: Striving for a Dream
"Hah!"
The heavy water vat lifted off the ground, held steady in Ye Xing’s arms.
"Holy shit, holy shit! It really improves my body! This is amazing! I feel so much stronger than before!" Ye Xing was incredibly excited.
To put it in perspective, although the large water vat was less than half full, it was incredibly heavy, weighing at least a hundred pounds. Ye Xing, however, was just a recent college graduate, a weak scholar who couldn’t even truss a chicken. Previously, forget lifting it with water inside—he would have struggled to lift the vat even if it were empty, even if he used every ounce of his strength.
Yet now, he could hold the heavy vat steady. The transformation had taken only about an hour.
’No wonder the Martial Arts Continent is crawling with Martial Artists. This Demon Beast Meat has such an incredible effect! My strength has increased by at least thirty percent!’ Ye Xing’s eyes shone with excitement, his heart pounding in his chest.
He couldn’t run along rooftops or walk on water like those Martial Artists yet, but at least his strength was now beyond that of an ordinary person. He could be considered a strongman. And this was only the first day. In the future—
Suddenly, Ye Xing’s expression changed. A very serious problem had occurred to him.
’Oh no, I’m not the only one who ate the Demon Beast Meat! How could I be so stupid? That fat couple from the Jinsheng Hotel ate some too. Could they...?’ Ye Xing’s brow furrowed in deep thought. ’Probably not. Out of three pounds of Demon Beast Meat, I ate over two pounds myself and only gained this much strength. The amount they ate wasn’t even a tenth of what I had. Any increase in their strength would be minuscule, probably unnoticeable. Even if there was a slight effect, they’d likely assume it was from some special herbal medicine formula!’
At this thought, Ye Xing breathed a small sigh of relief. He had, after all, mentioned adding a special herbal formula to the bamboo shoots with shredded pork. With that preconceived notion planted, they were unlikely to grow suspicious. And so, the secret of the old well wouldn’t be so easily exposed.
’Good thing there was only a small amount of Demon Beast Meat in the bamboo shoots dish, so it shouldn’t be a big problem. But this means, just to be safe, I can’t sell the Demon Beast Meat anymore. How am I supposed to make money now?’ Ye Xing’s worries returned.
As he fretted, staring blankly at the large water vat, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck him, and his eyes lit up.
’That’s it! I can’t sell the Demon Beast Meat directly, so I’ll just sell it indirectly! I’ll raise some fish in this big water vat and feed them a tiny bit of Demon Beast Meat. Maybe the fish will become as delicious as the Demon Beast Meat itself! Even if the taste isn’t quite as good, they’ll still sell like hotcakes!’
At the thought of this new business opportunity, Ye Xing was overjoyed. He couldn’t wait, immediately leaving his ancestral home and running toward the village shop that sold fish and seafood.
Come to think of it, the method had a high chance of success. Even bamboo shoots became incredibly delicious just by being cooked with the Demon Beast Meat. Who was to say fish wouldn’t change after eating it?
Driven by the prospect of making money, Ye Xing moved fast. A short while later, he returned with a dozen fresh, live grass carp.
Grass carp are a very common type of freshwater fish. They are omnivorous, eating not only grass but also things like earthworms and insects.
Ye Xing immediately turned on the tap, filled the large water vat, and placed the dozen or so fresh grass carp inside.
Perhaps from being out of the water for a time, the grass carp seemed to have very little Life Force. They swam listlessly in the vat, and a few were even starting to go belly-up.
Ye Xing quickly opened the refrigerator, minced the last small piece of Demon Beast Meat into a paste, and then tossed a small pinch of it into the water vat.
The moment the Demon Beast Meat paste hit the water, an astonishing scene unfolded. The grass carp suddenly burst into motion.
SPLASH! SPLASH!
Water splashed everywhere as the grass carp thrashed their tails frantically, fighting over the meat paste. Even the few that had been on the verge of death were now desperately vying for a piece.
In the blink of an eye, the meat paste was devoured completely.
After they finished eating, Ye Xing could clearly sense that the Life Force of the grass carp had grown much stronger. They swam back and forth, a complete reversal of their earlier listless state.
’It worked!’ Ye Xing’s eyes shone.
’It should take a few hours for the Energy from the Demon Beast Meat to be fully digested and absorbed. If the taste is even half as good as the original, I’ll be rich. Hmm, I’ll check on them in the morning.’
He had only used a tiny pinch of the paste to feed the fish. He would need to experiment multiple times to find the optimal feeding ratio—one that would preserve the fish’s taste while conserving the Demon Beast Meat, and at the same time, not cause any noticeable side effects. After all, if the Demon Beast Meat was diluted by a factor of several hundred or a thousand, the effect would be truly minuscule. It might be beneficial to a person’s health, but their strength wouldn’t increase, and they certainly wouldn’t feel anything out of the ordinary.
He put the rest of the Demon Beast Meat paste in the refrigerator to keep it fresh. After a busy day, Ye Xing was starting to feel tired and got ready to head to his room to sleep.
"Ring-ring-ring, you are my little-bitty apple..."
His phone suddenly rang. Ye Xing pulled it from his pocket and glanced at the screen, a wry smile touching his lips. It was his mom. He didn’t even have to answer to guess why she was calling.
"Hello? Mom, why are you still up so late?"
"How could I sleep? Axing, is it true what your second aunt said? Jinsheng Restaurant wants to hire you for a monthly salary of two hundred thousand?"
"It’s true, but there was a bit of a misunderstanding," Ye Xing said. "Mom, you know my cooking. Do you think the food I make is any good?"
"You... it’s barely edible, I suppose. It’s not like you’ve cooked that many times."
"Exactly," Ye Xing said with a smile. "Mom, don’t worry. I have my own plans. We won’t be poor for long. It won’t be long before you and Dad can quit your jobs and just relax at home."
Ye Xing’s mother, He Lanfang, currently ran a fruit stand in Luoxian County, while his father worked as a mover. They both worked very hard, all to earn a little more for Ye Xing’s marriage fund.
"Haha, you brat, keep on dreaming. By the way, your aunt already told me what happened with the blind date. Don’t be discouraged, Xiaoxing. Our family’s situation isn’t great, but it’s not terrible either. Your dad and I aren’t old yet; we can keep working for a long time. Next time, we’ll have your second aunt find you another good match. And you, don’t just chase after pretty faces. Find someone sensible and decent-looking; that’s good enough. Your father and I are both hoping to be holding a grandchild soon."
"Sigh, I know, Mom," Ye Xing said with a wry smile. "Please stop pressuring me. I only graduated a few months ago. We don’t have to be in such a rush."
"What do you mean, ’only a few months’? You’re already twenty-three! After the new year, you’ll be twenty-four in the blink of an eye. The years just fly by..." His mother, He Lanfang, launched into another one of her long, earnest lectures.
"Yeah, okay, sure. Okay, okay, okay, I get it. M-hm, right." Ye Xing just kept nodding and agreeing. He’d say whatever it took to get her off his back for now.
After nearly thirty minutes of this, the conversation with his mother finally ended. A helpless look filled Ye Xing’s eyes.
’Before, I might have just accepted my fate. Living an ordinary life would have been... passable. But now I have the passage through the old well. This is my golden ticket to success, so why should I be content with mediocrity? To stand by and watch helplessly as the strong take whatever they want? That’s what a coward does. And I, Ye Xing, refuse to be a coward who trembles under the might of the powerful.’ His gaze grew more and more resolute. ’Since I wasn’t born a rich heir, I’ll just have to become a self-made man! Whether it’s on Earth or the Martial Arts Continent, I’m going to become a tycoon so rich that everyone will have to respect me.’
At that moment, a seed of ambition quietly sprouted in Ye Xing’s heart and began to grow with ferocious speed.