Sun Ningxiang

[Mountain Collapse Fist initiation (195/200)]

A line of information appeared before Yang Jing's eyes, visible to him alone.

I've almost pushed Mountain Collapse Fist initiation to its limit.

Excitement welled up in Yang Jing's heart.

After all his tireless efforts lately, he was finally close to maxing out his progress in the initiation stage of Mountain Collapse Fist.

According to the System Panel's effects, as long as I train a martial art to its limit, I'll naturally break through, without the difficult and dangerous bottlenecks everyone else faces.

At that thought, a deep sense of anticipation welled up in Yang Jing's heart.

Without taking a break, Yang Jing wiped away his sweat and resumed practicing his fist technique.

Although he possessed the root bone needed to practice martial arts, it was truly poor.

Even though he was already one of the hardest-working disciples in the entire Martial Arts Hall, his rate of progress still ranked below average.

Some disciples who had joined the Martial Arts Hall around the same time as him had already made their first breakthrough attempt.

Yet despite his much slower progress, Yang Jing was not anxious.

Being faster for a while meant little. What mattered most was breaking through the bottleneck and succeeding in the breakthrough attempt.

And that was precisely what Yang Jing now looked forward to most.

If the System Panel's effects proved true, then although his journey along the Martial Path would be slower, he would surely advance step by step to the highest point within his sights.

Half an hour later.

Several figures strolled out of the inner courtyard, instantly drawing the attention of many disciples in the yard.

Yang Jing happened to be taking a short break. Standing beside Liu Maolin, he also looked toward the handsome men and beautiful women emerging from the inner courtyard.

He had to admit, they were certainly a feast for the eyes.

Leading them was Third Senior Brother Zhao Wenzheng, dressed in a moon-white martial outfit with a silver-thread sash around his waist. His steps were steady, and his expression carried a gravity beyond his years.

Second Senior Sister Qi Yun walked beside him, dressed in an ornate black robe, her long hair pinned up with a silver hairpin.

On the other side was Sun Ningxiang, the daughter of School Master Sun Yong. She wore a pale-yellow dress whose hem swayed gently with her steps. A radiant smile lit her face as she turned her head to say something to the young man beside her.

The young man was around fifteen or sixteen, with a face as fine as polished jade and an arrogant gaze. His ink-black martial outfit accentuated his straight, tall figure. He was Lin Yue, the gifted disciple who had joined the Sun Clan Martial Arts School two months earlier.

A month ago, after only a single month of training, Lin Yue had successfully brought Mountain Collapse Fist to minor achievement and entered the bright strength realm.

It was said that over the past month, Lin Yue had made leaps and bounds in his Mountain Collapse Fist training. He was already nearing the limit of minor achievement, and in a little while, he might begin another breakthrough attempt.

Lin Yue's astonishing progress had earned him special regard from School Master Sun Yong. All his fees had long since been waived, and Sun Yong had even taken the initiative to provide him with plenty of premium meat and Treasure Medicine to support his training.

The four chatted and laughed, their voices mild, yet an invisible aura around them shut everyone else out. They formed a little circle all their own.

Whenever Lin Yue glanced up and swept his gaze across the disciples sweating like rain, there was a trace of barely perceptible disdain in his eyes.

Many disciples' gazes settled on Sun Ningxiang.

Qi Yun was beautiful too, but she never showed ordinary disciples a kind face. Yang Jing had once followed Lu Yang and the others in running around at her beck and call, yet she had never spared him an extra glance. The slightest disrespect brought a scolding, her words dripping with spite.

Compared with Qi Yun, Sun Ningxiang had an entirely different temperament.

Her brows and eyes curved gently, and when she smiled, it was as though starlight had fallen into her eyes. She looked somewhat like Mao Xiaotong, the actress Yang Jing had seen on television in his previous life.

She never put on airs as the school master's daughter and treated everyone courteously.

Whenever someone got stuck on a fist sequence, she would patiently offer a few pointers.

Even when a disciple's family fell on hard times, she would quietly inform the school master and ask him to provide some relief.

Over time, she had become the white moonlight in the Martial Arts Hall disciples' hearts.

Watching Sun Ningxiang, Yang Jing also recalled how he had twisted his ankle while training a while ago. Senior Sister Sun had brought him medicine and even made a point of explaining how to care for the injury.

He withdrew his gaze, only to catch sight of Lu Yang and his two companions trying to crowd around Senior Sister Qi, who ignored them. The three rubbed their hands awkwardly, then wandered over to a corner of the wall, chatting and laughing.

If the original owner of this body were still here, he might have been acting just like those three.

But now, he was Yang Jing.

Lu Yang and his companions fawned over Qi Yun simply because they wanted to cling to her thigh. One major reason was that they themselves would struggle to break through to the bright strength realm.

Yang Jing, however, was different. He had the System Panel.

For him, no cultivation method or martial art had a bottleneck.

He only needed to train it step by step to its limit, and he would naturally break through without any danger.

No matter when it was or whom he faced, his own strength was the foundation of everything.

Lin Yue was a perfect example.

His background was ordinary, about the same as Zhang Kehan's and far humbler than either Lu Yang's or Zhou Lin's.

But the school master had judged his martial root bone to be superior. His future was bound to be limitless, and Qi Yun had tried to draw him to her side as soon as he joined the Martial Arts Hall.

As for Lu Yang and the others, no matter how devotedly they knelt and licked Qi Yun's boots, in her eyes they were merely beasts of burden to summon and dismiss at will.

Lu Yang, Zhou Lin, and Zhang Kehan might well have understood this. They simply had no way around it. Even if they poured a lifetime of blood, sweat, and effort into training, they would probably never truly achieve entering strength.

Even Yang Jing would have struggled to develop inner force and enter the bright strength realm in this lifetime without the System Panel.

Yang Jing shook his head and gathered his thoughts. He stopped diverting his energy elsewhere and focused on martial training once more.

Practicing martial arts was like rowing against the current: fail to advance, and you would fall back.

To travel far along the Martial Path, he had to make training an indispensable daily habit, like eating and drinking-and devote far more energy to it than either.

His most urgent task now was to develop inner force as soon as possible and become an expert who possessed it.

Yang Jing knew very well that, at first glance, the Yang Family might seem to be out of danger following Feng Lei's death, but the threat had never truly been removed. It had been there all along.

Feng Lei had merely been an enforcer. The Ning Family behind him was the true enemy.

For some reason, the Ning Family had stopped pressuring the Yang Family for now. But as far as Yang Jing knew, the head of the Ning Family, Ning Xuezhi, was notoriously tightfisted and stingy.

Once Ning Xuezhi had his hands free, he would strike at the Yang Family sooner or later.

Yang Jing had been able to ambush and kill Feng Lei, but Ning Xuezhi stayed within the Ning Family Mansion. Killing him would be far more difficult.

In Yang Jing's view, the best-perhaps even the only-way out was to break through himself and become a bright strength expert who had developed inner force.

Once he reached that level, Ning Xuezhi would never dare provoke him lightly.

Break through to bright strength!

Yang Jing clenched his fists.

He was already close to maxing out his progress in Mountain Collapse Fist Initiation.

It'll be within the next few days.

Yang Jing narrowed his eyes slightly, a surge of excitement flashing within them.

He had been waiting a long time for this day.