The water surged, pressed together, and buoyed him upward.
Liang Qu wobbled as he "stood" atop the river.
Calling it standing was not entirely accurate. He was not treading on the surface with the soles of his feet; rather, once the water reached his thighs, he sank no further, his entire upper body held clear of the surface.
Even so, it was more than enough to delight him.
His marsh spirit had not even advanced, yet he could already manage a crude form of wave riding.
Adjusting his control over the currents bit by bit, he soon held his balance steadily above the water, gliding forward, backward, left, and right.
The river wind blew grand and sweeping, plastering Liang Qu's robes against his frame. Truly: *A single breath of noble spirit, a thousand li of joyous wind!*
"Woohoo! Liftoff!"
Surfing without a board!
Liang Qu had never experienced flight, but he imagined soaring through the sky felt much like this.
Were not both air and water fluids anyway? Completely unbound.
Aside from the heavy physical toll of compressing and controlling the water, there was not a single flaw!
As his underwater abilities continued to grow, complemented by the mobility of Water Leap and the power of the spiritual weapon Wave-Subduing Spear, he would have no reason to fear ordinary spirit creatures. Even if he could not defeat one, he could easily flee.
Besides, his two beasts were only a few essence points away from evolving. Once they did, he could head out to the fringes of the deep-water zone to investigate. That was where the real treasures lay.
Ancient battlefield ruins, sunken vessels, all manner of spiritual plants, treasure fish, minerals—undoubtedly worth a fortune.
That would mark the true beginning of his underwater exploration!
His current dabbling in the shallows was mere child's play.
*Splooosh!*
A large grass carp weighing well over ten jin suddenly leaped from the water, slamming violently into Liang Qu's stomach.
Liang Qu grunted, clutching his belly as he toppled into the river.
*What the hell? Where did a flying grass carp come from?!*
Grass carp were built like torpedoes; he had heard fishermen say a twenty-jin carp could snap a man's ribs. Liang Qu was not injured, but taking a direct hit to the stomach off guard felt like getting punched, knocking the wind right out of him.
Breaking the surface again, he looked around to catch the culprit, only to find the fish long gone.
*Slid away fast, didn't it?*
After receiving the divine favor, his rough sensing range had expanded to twenty meters, and his detailed perception radius reached ten meters. He had only been down for three or four seconds, yet a grass carp had managed to slip away!
Dammit!
Rubbing his belly, Liang Qu climbed back onto his boat in foul humor. Seeing that he could not catch it, he gave up and rowed toward Shangrao Landing.
Strictly speaking, he had not lied to his senior brothers. He genuinely wanted to see what the house construction Chen Zhao'an had mentioned turned out to be.
At Shangrao Landing.
Lin Songbao lounged on a recliner, eyes half-shut as he soaked in the winter sun out of sheer boredom, chasing away the cold.
Every afternoon, the fishermen were either still out on the river or sleeping ahead of a night run. It was the quietest, most leisurely hour of the day.
"Songbao!"
A shout jolted Lin Songbao from his drowsiness. Sitting up, he spotted Liang Qu rowing in from a distance.
"Brother Shui?! Were you out fishing?"
"No, just came back from the martial hall. All that trouble with the mountain ghosts made me wary of taking the overland road."
Liang Qu moored his boat at the shore, gathered his belongings, slung the long wooden box over his back, and stepped onto dry land.
Ever since word spread that he had become Master Yang's disciple, he no longer had to pay a mooring fee at Shangrao Landing.
He ought to show off at Pingyang Landing sometime; maybe he could save four wen a day there too.
"Anything happen the past couple days?"
"What could happen? Two martial practitioners showed up the morning after you left—one third hurdle, one second hurdle, carrying bows on their backs and sabers at their waists. They're staying in a compound the village arranged. Those village elders sing your praises every single day, saying how capable you are and how you never forget your folk. Anyone who didn't know better would think you were their own grandson! If I went and told them right now, they'd definitely bring out gongs and drums to welcome you."
"Better skip that."
"What's that on your back? So long."
Liang Qu's eyes twinkled. Casually setting down the long wooden box, he said, "Nothing much. Just a spear my senior brother gave me."
"Holy mother, what a gorgeous spear!"
Lin Songbao's eyes went wide with awe and envy. In all his years, he had never seen such a magnificent weapon. It looked every bit as beautiful and imposing as the ones described by storytellers!
Liang Qu's lips curved upward. Raising an eyebrow, he said, "Right? I thought so too. I call it the Wave-Subduing Spear."
"Wave-Subduing Spear? Great name! It's so gorgeous—can I touch it?"
"Why not? Go ahead and feel it."
A whole quarter of an hour vanished into thin air just like that, for reasons Liang Qu could not quite fathom.
"Alright, I've got to get going. I came back today to check on the house."
"I went over to take a look. They hired skilled hands, so progress is fast. The timber framework is already up, and elders go by every day to oversee the work. There shouldn't be any problems."
Liang Qu felt a prickle of excitement.
After trading up from a crude rowboat to a proper canopied vessel, was his dwelling finally getting an upgrade too?
Life was truly getting better by the day.
Liang Qu headed straight toward his earthen hut, taking side alleys halfway through to dodge the villagers who kept greeting him.
Yet the moment he arrived home, he froze in shock.
Before him stood a half-built boundary wall of blue brick. Through the open sections, he could clearly see the interior of the compound.
Paved flagstones covered a cross-shaped walkway, replacing the old yellow dirt. To the left and right, it led to east and west wing rooms, where pillars and beams were already erected, outlining the structures.
At the far end of the walkway lay the main hall; purlin slots connecting the main tie beams and anchoring the gable walls were already in place. The main framing was about to begin, with the ridge beam soon to be raised.
*Where the hell is this?*
*Why is there a grand courtyard compound here?*
*Is this my place?*
Liang Qu looked left and right, only confirming his bearings once he spotted Uncle Chen's yard nearby.
It really was his home!
Looking at the half-built shadow wall just inside the entrance, Liang Qu could not help wondering if the craftsmen were building a two-entry courtyard compound.
A "single-entry courtyard" opened straight into the main yard upon passing the gate, the most common type of siheyuan.
A "two-entry courtyard" featured a small outer courtyard first upon entering; walking a few steps further brought one to a second gate, beyond which lay the principal courtyard. It was on a grander scale, typical of well-off households.
The old saying about "not leaving the outer gate, not stepping past the inner gate" referred precisely to this arrangement.
Shadow walls were usually found only in compounds of two entries or more, standing as a standalone screen wall in the outer court to block the view of passersby and preserve privacy.
As for a "three-entry courtyard," it naturally had three gates and three courtyards, with an additional rear court reserved mainly for female family members. Wealthier still were four-entry and five-entry layouts.
The Yang Manor was a four-entry compound, complete with an expansive garden featuring a pavilion in the middle of a lake; without a guide, anyone could easily lose their way inside.
This was too extravagant.
Liang Qu had thought they were merely expanding his hut a little. He never imagined they would put up a whole siheyuan, let alone a damn two-entry compound!
By a rough count, over twenty sturdy laborers were hard at work on his behalf, sawing timber, laying blue bricks, and fitting mortise-and-tenon joints.
Inside, a craftsman holding a ladder steady spotted Liang Qu's arrival and hurriedly called to several burly men around him, hurrying forward to greet him.
"Master Liang! Come take a look and see if it's to your liking, or if anything needs changing! Rest assured, we haven't touched a bit of your old earthen hut—it's completely intact! It's just that over the past couple days, folks from the village brought bags of rice and flour to thank you for saving their lives. I was worried leaving them outside in the rain would ruin them, so I stepped inside once to store them away!"
Chapter 81