Chapter 6

Xiaohuang Village is situated on a large midstream island of the Yangtze River. Surrounded by water on all sides, the villagers rely on fishing for their livelihood. Apart from tax collectors and river bandits who frequently visit, no one else comes to trouble the villagers. In the morning, the sound of children reading aloud can be heard from a few mud houses outside the village. However, the content they read is unique in this world.

In one house, the sound is like this:

"One times one is one, one times two is two, two times two is four—"

In another house, it sounds like this:

"A, o, e, ai, ei, ao, ou, an, en, ang—"

Cheng Pan patrols between the two houses, using his super senses to monitor the children inside (such a teacher is practically a bug).

To the villagers, this scene began a year ago. A young scholar with the air of a wealthy young master settled in the west of the village with a dozen children not much younger than him. He immediately started building a school to teach the children to read and write. The village children, curious, listened for a while and were praised by the scholar, who then fed them a full meal. The scholar said that as long as the children studied diligently and answered questions, the school would provide their daily meals and lodging. As the saying goes, a half-grown boy can eat his father poor. All the village children were forced to attend classes. The scholar was a bit strange. First, according to the children, the teacher had a third eye and could know everyone's movements in the room even through walls.

Second, he required all the children to form a square and march or run, lifting their left and right legs in unison. Any deviation would result in a beating with a bamboo stick.

Third, although he did not transport grain to the granary, he could produce food every day to feed the forty or so children.

The elderly villagers privately said that the scholar was a man of magic.

One day, Cheng Pan was stopped by the village chief.

"Scholar Cheng, I heard that the imperial court will no longer hold the imperial examinations, is that true?"

Cheng Pan smiled and said, "Yes."

The village chief said, "The court, if it doesn't hold the examinations, won't hold them. There's nothing anyone can do about it. Don't be disheartened. Disband the school and change your profession. The village has received so much from you, and we feel uneasy."

Cheng Pan smiled and said, "Old Huang, don't worry. I will find a way to make a living. There's no need to disband the school. I can still afford to feed the children. Although the court has abolished the examinations, it's still good for the children to learn more and not be cheated when they go out."

After a brief chat, Cheng Pan bid farewell to the village chief.

He came to the school and called out, "First group, step forward."

Twelve children stood up and walked out of the house, automatically lining up by height.

These twelve children were the ones Cheng Pan had taken in a year ago. For the past year, Cheng Pan has lived and eaten with ten boys, training them and himself to be highly disciplined.

After a year of training and good living, the ten boys have grown taller and stronger.

Especially in the past month, Cheng Pan has been training them with bamboo spears in the back mountain.

"Follow me."

The twelve children followed Cheng Pan into the third room, where he waved his hand and threw out a large amount of grain from his mental space.

The twelve children had seen Cheng Pan create things out of thin air multiple times and were no longer surprised, but they still looked at him with reverence.

Zhang Xue and Zhao Yu, two ordinary-looking girls with healthy red cheeks, stepped forward (this book is not a romance novel; there are beautiful female characters, but they are few).

"I'm going on a long trip. You two will manage the cooking as usual. There are some math problems in the cabinet. Teach the village children the four basic arithmetic operations and review the characters I taught them."

"Yes, Master," the two girls replied firmly.

"Pack up and come with me. Meet me here in ten minutes," Cheng Pan said to the other ten boys.

"Yes, Master," they replied loudly and in unison.

"Dismissed."

---

Twenty minutes later, Cheng Pan and the ten boys were walking in a secluded forest. After a while, they stopped, and Cheng Pan took out five poles and five baskets of salt from his mental space. The ten boys lifted them in pairs. Three minutes later, they entered a hidden small harbor. A boat was waiting there, and three fishermen were dressed and waiting. The leader said, "Mr. Cheng, you are indeed trustworthy. May I inspect the goods?"

Cheng Pan replied confidently, "Please do."

The leader carefully opened each basket and examined the salt. After a while, he looked up and said, "Mr. Cheng, you have great skills to obtain such a large amount of fine salt."

Cheng Pan said, "A friend occasionally obtained these goods. Such business is rare, so there's no need to investigate further."

Sun smiled and said, "If Mr. Cheng's friend is inconvenient to meet, that's fine. But what about these?" Sun looked at the ten half-grown boys behind Cheng Pan with distrust. Cheng Pan smiled and said, "I want to take my disciples to see the world, as I mentioned before." Sun frowned and said, "Mr. Cheng, our business is dangerous. It's not a game for children. It would be better if your disciples stayed behind."

Cheng Pan was prepared for this. "The silver from this shipment, you get seven, I get three. As for my disciples, I will discipline them. If any accidents happen on the way, Mr. Sun, you don't need to worry about us. You can leave us behind."

Sun, hearing Cheng Pan's generous offer and his assurance, smiled and said, "Since Mr. Cheng has decided, I won't say more. Let's board the boat." The group quickly loaded the baskets into the boat's hold and covered them with fish baskets. Ten minutes later, the three small boats left the harbor and sailed north along the Yangtze River toward Jiangling.

It is now 1339 AD, a year after Zhou Ziwen's rebellion with 5,000 Buddhist soldiers failed. After thoroughly suppressing the Han Chinese peasant uprisings, Yuan Dynasty Prime Minister Boyan abolished the imperial examinations in triumph. The situation in the Yuan Dynasty seemed to calm down. In Cheng Pan's memory, the Red Turban Rebellion, which was sparked by the Yellow River's flooding, had not even begun. Cheng Pan inquired about the Yellow River, but to his disappointment, it had been relatively calm in recent years.

Cheng Pan began to doubt whether the history in "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" matched the history of his original world. Although he analyzed that in ten years, Zhang Wuji would grow up and the Yuan Dynasty would be in turmoil, the current lack of rebellion made him restless. In fact, the Yellow River began to flood severely in 1344, and it was not until four years later that the Yuan Dynasty appointed officials to manage the river. The Red Turban Rebellion did not begin until 1352. This meant that Cheng Pan would have to wait another ten years to see the chaos he was looking for.

Under the oppressive power of the Yuan Dynasty, Cheng Pan had no choice but to play the role of a recluse. Although his career was not going well, his internal cultivation progressed rapidly. A year ago, his true qi, the size of a soybean, had grown to hundreds of strands, spreading throughout his body. Now, Cheng Pan's physical strength far exceeded his appearance. He could easily lift a 500-kilogram water buffalo, jump over a three-meter-high wall, and run at 20 meters per second for ten minutes. His nerve reaction speed had also become much faster. Cheng Pan's physical abilities far exceeded the physiological limits of humans in his original world, making him a small superhuman.

A month ago, Cheng Pan confidently visited the nearby river bandits. In the bandit's den, he demonstrated his skills by disarming six men of their axes in three seconds and then presented a gift. This made the local martial artists aware of the scholar Cheng in Xiaohuang Village.