The Heart of a Petty Man

He glanced again at the light screen; the changes were significant.

Name: Lu Wangchuan. Cultivation: Tendons and Membranes Realm. Blood Qi: 179. Techniques: Mountain Splitting Fist (Fifth Layer), Eight Section Brocade (Sixth Layer).

In two months, he had successfully broken through to the second stage of the Physical Body Realm—the Tendons and Membranes Realm.

With tendons and membranes refined, one's strength became immense; a single punch carried several hundred jin of force.

A vague sense of security welled up in his heart.

The stronger his strength, the more safety he had in this world.

After adding more Blood Qi to the Eight Section Brocade, pushing it to the seventh layer, Lu Wangchuan went to the martial hall for his daily lessons.

After class, Lu Wangchuan was cultivating the Eight Section Brocade in a corner when several martial disciples approached with sly grins.

"Wangchuan, not bad training there."

Lu Wangchuan stopped his practice and replied calmly.

"It's alright. Is there something you need?"

"Nothing much. We brothers were thinking of buying some Body Strengthening Soup, but our families didn't give us enough money. We wanted to borrow some from you."

"Sorry, but I don't have any money either."

Lu Wangchuan refused without hesitation.

Borrowing money was out of the question—once lent, getting it back was harder than reaching the sky.

"Wangchuan, saying that isn't very friendly. We're all classmates here; at least give us some face."

"I really don't have money."

Lu Wangchuan refused again, and the sly grins on their faces turned into cold sneers.

"What's the matter? Looking down on us? Not giving face?"

The air gradually filled with a tense, explosive atmosphere. The other classmates dared not step forward, afraid of getting caught in the crossfire.

But just then, a sharp rebuke froze the smiles on their faces.

"Don't you know that causing trouble inside the martial hall is forbidden?"

"Lu Lu Instructor. We weren't causing trouble, just messing around with Wangchuan. Right, Wangchuan?"

As he spoke, he winked and shot a threatening glare at Lu Wangchuan. Lu Xianyuan glanced at Lu Wangchuan.

"Is that so?"

Lu Wangchuan stood his ground, neither servile nor arrogant.

"They wanted to borrow money from me. I said I had none, and they tried to start a fight."

The group shuddered and shot vicious glares at Lu Wangchuan. If looks could kill, his body would already be riddled with holes.

Lu Xianyuan said coldly, "You bastards, trying to break the martial hall's rules?"

The group quickly begged for mercy.

"Instructor Lu, we wouldn't dare."

"All of you, get lost and practice the Mountain Splitting Fist three hundred times. Don't leave the hall until you're done."

Their faces immediately fell bitter, but they dared not disobey.

"Yes."

Lu Wangchuan immediately cupped his hands and thanked Lu Xianyuan.

"Thank you, Instructor Lu."

But Lu Xianyuan said nothing, turned, and walked away, as aloof as ever.

Lu Wangchuan wasn't offended. A master had his pride—it was only natural.

As long as he'd helped, that was good. It seemed those three hundred taels of silver last time hadn't been wasted.

Glancing at the group bitterly practicing their punches, Lu Wangchuan turned and left.

Those men gnashed their teeth in hatred.

"Damn it, look at that brat showing off. Isn't he just riding on his sister selling herself to get ahead? What's so great about that?"

"Exactly. Without his sister, he couldn't even afford the monthly silver for martial training!"

"That kid only has himself and two servants at home. His cultivation is nothing to write home about—trained for two and a half years and still hasn't broken through to Blood Solidification Realm. How about tonight?"

They exchanged glances, a sinister grin spreading across their faces.

Leaving the martial hall, Lu Wangchuan went to the trade association to buy more ingredients for the Body Strengthening Soup.

"Young Master Lu is here."

After nearly two months of cooperation, Lu Wangchuan had become a regular at the Longtai Merchant Guild in Jianghai City. Every time he came, the shopkeeper, Lao Tan—who looked just like Liu Neng—would personally receive him.

"Shopkeeper Tan, give me another two hundred taels' worth of the same materials as before."

"No problem. I'll have the lads load it onto your carriage right away."

Shopkeeper Tan gave the order, and Lu Wangchuan paid the money.

"Count it."

"Young Master Lu, you jest. With your status, how could you shortchange our humble shop? I trust you!"

He smiled as he tucked the banknotes into his robe, then spoke.

"Young Master Lu, three months from now, our Jianghai City will be hosting a large auction at the Moon Gazing Pavilion. There will be plenty of good things on offer. Would you like to take a look?"

"An auction?"

"That's right. Everything up for auction is related to cultivation—techniques, mental methods, elixirs."

"Alright, I'll go take a look."

"Then I'll reserve a seat for you."

Lu Wangchuan thanked him, hurried home, brewed the Body Strengthening Soup, and continued his training.

A day passed. Lu Wangchuan's blood and qi had increased by a full twenty points. Only when the moon hung past the western window did he stop cultivating and prepare for bed.

This was the one good thing about external body-tempering techniques: aside from the fact that your spirit couldn't hold out for too long, your body suffered no harm at all—in fact, it kept growing stronger. If not for the need to sleep when his spirit gave out, Lu Wangchuan felt he could train nonstop around the clock.

As for a domineering martial art like the Mountain Splitting Fist, it required training in bursts and resting in between; otherwise, the body couldn't withstand the technique's ferocity!

It might be that two hours of practicing the Mountain Splitting Fist could bring as much cultivation progress as ten hours of the Eight Section Brocade, but the Eight Section Brocade could be trained continuously as long as you weren't sleepy, while the Mountain Splitting Fist couldn't.

In a sense, training an external body-tempering technique could actually increase cultivation speed faster than training external combat arts like the Mountain Splitting Fist!

The only drawback—and the most fatal one—was that it couldn't be used in battle, and long hours of training it would delay progress on combat techniques. That was why martial artists looked down on it. But for Lu Wangchuan, it was the ultimate divine skill!

Just then, however, his eyes suddenly sharpened.

After breaking through to the Tendons and Membranes Realm, his five senses had also strengthened considerably. Even the faintest sounds in the courtyard reached his ears in time.

Right now, there were clearly several heavy footsteps in the yard.

Xiao Wu and Xiao Yue hadn't trained in martial arts; they couldn't produce footsteps like that.

Thieves? Or... those men from earlier?

But whoever they were, sneaking into his home in the dead of night couldn't mean anything good.

Lu Wangchuan slipped silently out the window. Using the darkness and his familiarity with the yard, he stealthily circled around behind them.

"Shh, be careful. Don't alert the neighbors."

"Damn it, a courtyard this big for this kid to live in—what a waste."

"Wasn't it because his sister spread her legs for someone that he got this big yard?"

"I heard her husband's family is loaded. Who knows how slutty his sister had to be to make that guy lose his mind and give him all this good stuff?"

"If you ask me, we should just break his arms and legs right now, make him a cripple for life. Let's see if this little bastard dares to act cocky again."

"Heh heh, let's break his third leg too, make sure he never has kids... After all, no one will know it was us."

The moment the words fell, two forces of several hundred jin each suddenly struck from behind.

Lu Wangchuan had made his move!

The terrifying power of the Tendons and Membranes Realm, combined with the fifth-layer Mountain Splitting Fist and fueled by Lu Wangchuan's rage, sent two of them flying.

"Boom—!"

Both men were blasted ten meters away. When they hit the ground, their bodies folded backward at a ninety-degree angle, their spines shattered completely, and their internal organs were pulverized by the single punch.

"Shit, someone's here."

The remaining three broke out in a cold sweat. Just as they tried to counterattack, Lu Wangchuan's whip kick snapped the neck of the man on the left. He pushed off the ground, his body shooting forward, and used the momentum to land another Mountain Splitting Fist—this one driving the fourth man's head into a large red wooden pillar. His fist sank deep into the man's face, and with a crisp crack, all the bones in his face shattered instantly, scrambling his brain!