Thunderclap Fist, Beginner!

After this incident, the superficial harmony in the dormitory was torn apart, and it once again split into several small circles.

After Gao Yuan cursed Chen Sanli out, he went on to snap at Wang Huan and swept Qin Yang into it as well. Their relationship naturally dropped to freezing point.

Li Shan often spent time with Chen Sanli and Wang Huan, so he too became somewhat distant from Gao Yuan.

On the other side was the hard-training group of Xu Yuan, Tian Yang, Xiao Sheng, and the others. After this incident, Gao Yuan instead gradually grew closer to them, occasionally practicing alongside them.

In such an environment,

time hurried by, reaching December 18.

The kettle incident had long passed, and the dormitory atmosphere had eased considerably. When Gao Yuan, Chen Sanli, and the others involved ran into each other, they would still exchange greetings.

But it was difficult for them to be as warm and friendly as before.

That evening,

after washing up, everyone lay on their own beds and chatted idly.

At that moment, Wang Huan swept his gaze over them, cleared his throat, and suddenly asked, "I wonder how everyone's doing now?"

"I've barely touched the bottleneck of the Second Meridian Realm. I'll probably break through by the end of this month."

He said this partly to see how the others were progressing, and partly because the dormitory had been so stiflingly gloomy that he wanted to liven up the atmosphere.

"Brother Wang is still the best!" Chen Sanli was the first to congratulate him. Then, with a bitter face, he said, "I've nurtured a thread of inner force, but it'll still be a long time before I can control it and use it to bolster my fist technique."

Wang Huan nodded. Chen Sanli's talent had always been mediocre; now it seemed his comprehension was ordinary as well. He continued, "What about Shan?"

"Nothing special. My comprehension isn't very good either. I don't know if I can get started by the end of the month... If I'd known, I would've chosen to break through my cultivation back then." Li Shan shook his head, not very optimistic.

"What about Yang?"

"I don't have much confidence for now either." Qin Yang's expression was rather grim. He had thought Thunderclap Fist would not be difficult to learn, yet he had suffered setback after setback lately and had not even gone to listen to opera for several days.

"Yuan?" Seeing that the atmosphere had eased, Wang Huan continued along the line of questioning.

"I feel pretty good about it," Gao Yuan said lightly. He had never been particularly lazy, and after training bitterly with Xu Yuan these past few days, he could already control some inner force. He would probably be able to get started by the end of the month.

"What about Brother Xu?"

"Not bad." Xu Yuan answered casually on the surface, then looked at the System Panel in his mind.

[Skill: Tai Chi Exercise (Major Accomplishment 3%) Stone Platform Stance Practice (Minor Accomplishment 32%) Thunderclap Fist (Beginner 61%)]

[Talent: 8 (Exceptional Bone Structure)]

He planned to focus wholeheartedly on practicing Thunderclap Fist from now on. Once he had mastered the martial skill, he could in turn feed it back into the tempering of his vitality and blood, using that to break through to the Second Meridian Realm. It probably would not take much longer.

However, this was far too unusual. The others had yet to achieve even one, while he already had two within sight. Naturally, it was not something he could say openly.

Hearing that rather casual answer, Wang Huan was quite dissatisfied. "What do you mean, not bad? Why are you always so vague?"

"Who would dare say they can definitely succeed at something like this?" Xu Yuan shrugged.

His progress was naturally considered fast, but there was no need to reveal it now and needlessly invite everyone's jealousy.

After all, every time he broke through a skill in the future, his talent would improve. If he also had sufficient cultivation resources, he would soon surpass them, causing no small commotion.

These ambiguous words left others unable to gauge his true depth. Even if they became suspicious of his talent in the future, there would be a reasonable explanation to follow.

Wang Huan shook his head, then asked Xiao Sheng, "What about you, Xiao?"

"Hard to say." Xiao Sheng did not have much confidence either. Though he trained diligently without pause, his comprehension was only average.

"Little Tian?"

Hearing that familiar question, Tian Yang's body trembled. He hurriedly said, "I... I feel average."

In truth, both his talent and comprehension were good, and he had been training bitterly alongside Xu Yuan all along. By now, he had already gained some feeling for it.

But he had suffered greatly from showing off his progress before, so he no longer dared to speak carelessly.

After Wang Huan had asked everyone, their progress was largely as expected. A moment later, he began talking about some amusing things, hoping to warm the dormitory atmosphere again.

But when he saw that everyone lacked interest after discussing their progress and responded coldly, he too lost all enthusiasm and ended this conversation that began like a tiger but ended like a snake.

Time flew by, and soon it was December 22.

Inside a quiet room at the martial arts training ground,

Xu Yuan lowered his waist into a horse stance, his upper arm drawn taut like a bow. He suddenly threw a punch, its descending force fierce and its lingering might impressive.

The hot breath he exhaled mingled with the cold air, turning into a visible white mist. Xu Yuan's knuckles grew hot, while the vitality and blood within his body circulated as support.

All at once, Xu Yuan's body shuddered. His movements became more natural and fluid as he punched, every fist and stance carrying a crisp tearing whistle. His punching speed also grew faster and faster, sudden as lightning!

The weak thread of inner force within his body was also drawn out by the momentum of his fists. Like an extension of his palm, it struck the ground through the air, leaving behind a faint white mark.

"Thunderclap Fist has reached Beginner."

Xu Yuan let out a long breath of turbid air. He knew that the Thunderclap Fist he had cultivated bitterly for so many days had finally reached Beginner.

He opened the System Panel in his mind and looked.

[Skill: Tai Chi Exercise (Major Accomplishment 3%) Stone Platform Stance Practice (Minor Accomplishment 33%) Thunderclap Fist (Minor Accomplishment 1%)]

[Talent: 9 (Exceptional Bone Structure)]

The changes above were just as expected. Thunderclap Fist had reached Beginner.

"It's just that this talent... it only increased by one point? This fist technique was far harder than the previous exercise."

Xu Yuan looked at the talent section that concerned him most. The increase was negligible.

"It seems that 8 points of talent is a hurdle. Every point after this will be even harder to raise, but I can accept that. It's nothing more than quantitative change causing qualitative change."

Improving talent was like stacking boxes: the higher one stacked them, the harder it became. This also cut off Xu Yuan's path of using other simple skills to 'farm' talent.

"Now that Thunderclap Fist has reached Beginner, I can barely control the inner force nurtured within my body. It's just that this inner force is somewhat weak. It'll probably still need to be 'raised' through increased vitality and blood."

Xu Yuan sensed the changes after the fist technique reached Beginner, secretly delighted.

Only after nurturing inner force could a martial artist truly pull away from ordinary people, smashing rocks with strength, snapping sturdy wood, and stepping across the threshold of the Martial Path.

If he broke through to the Second Meridian Realm as well, he would be able to live quite comfortably even elsewhere in the prefectural city.

"Next, it's time to break through to the Second Meridian Realm. I imagine only then will this inner force begin to pose a threat."

Xu Yuan recalled Zhao Qiusheng's earlier move. Comparing it with his own, he found that the gap was not merely a star and a half.

The other man's accumulation of vitality and blood far exceeded his own.

"So I can't grow proud and complacent. I'm still far from enough."