Potential Exhausted?

The night air was cold as water, and the biting spring wind carried the lingering chill of late winter.

In Yuhe County, Datong Ward.

Yang Jing sat on a chair in his room, a clay pot simmering horse meat in the corner.

He took out a letter, smoothed it flat on the table, and read it by the oil lamp.

The letter had been brought by the village peddler Yang Lao San, delivered to the martial arts school. Yang Jing only now had time to read it after returning to his rented room.

Soon, Yang Jing finished reading the letter, a faint look of surprise on his face.

"The Ning Family sent someone to the house?"

The letter said that that morning, the Ning Family had sent their steward to his home, even gifting a plow ox, and their attitude was extremely courteous.

It also mentioned that the steward of the Ning Mansion had repeatedly brought up Yang Jing.

So his family had written to ask if he knew what had happened to make the Ning Family's attitude change so drastically.

"The Ning Family's information network is fast."

Yang Jing had already guessed why the Ning Family had changed so much.

Naturally, it was because he had broken through to Bright Strength and become an Entering Strength martial artist.

Though even across all of Yuhe County, an Entering Strength martial artist wasn't much, to the countryside—to those local wealthy landowners who only bullied their neighbors—the weight of an Entering Strength martial artist was far greater.

With the Ning Family's influence, they wouldn't fear a newly broken-through Bright Strength martial artist like Yang Jing, but they would certainly be wary. Given Master Ning's temperament, he would naturally follow the rule of avoiding conflict whenever possible.

Yang Jing had long considered the possibility of clashing with the Ning Family, so he had investigated them as thoroughly as he could, gaining a fair understanding of the Ning Family head, Ning Xuezhi.

Ning Xuezhi appeared domineering in his actions, but a closer look revealed he was quite cautious and careful.

Those who had conflicts with the Ning Family were mostly ordinary farmers without strength, background, or potential. As for those with real skill or influence, Ning Xuezhi did his best to befriend them.

The reason Yang Jing had struck at Feng Lei two months ago instead of killing Ning Xuezhi wasn't just because the well-established Ning Family was harder to deal with than the lone Feng Lei, but also because Yang Jing had analyzed Ning Xuezhi's character.

If he killed Feng Lei, Ning Xuezhi might not be willing to go to great lengths to avenge him.

Moreover, once he broke through to Bright Strength, given Ning Xuezhi's style, he would surely dare not continue pressuring his family.

Still, Yang Jing hadn't expected Ning Xuezhi to be so generous. To smooth things over, he had directly gifted a plow ox to the Yang Family.

Yang Jing pondered for a moment, then took out paper and brush to write a reply.

His grandfather and grandmother were honest folk. The tone of this letter carried considerable unease.

In his reply, Yang Jing straightforwardly stated that he had broken through to Bright Strength, letting his family share in the joy and set their minds at ease.

Though he was still far from having the strength to stand out in the Martial Arts Examination, for a farming household to produce an Entering Strength martial artist was already a major event that could change the family's fate in the eyes of ordinary people.

After a moment, Yang Jing put down his brush, folded the letter, and stuffed it into an envelope, planning to have the same village uncle deliver it tomorrow.

With that done, Yang Jing stood up, walked to the corner of the room, and fished the cooked horse meat out of the clay pot.

As he ate the horse meat, Yang Jing thought about bear meat.

Bear meat was Fierce Beast Meat, far more nourishing than the horse meat he was eating now, but its price was also incomparable. Yang Jing currently didn't have enough money to buy Fierce Beast Meat.

"If I could consume Fierce Beast Meat daily, my martial arts progress would leap forward, and the time to break through to Hidden Strength would be greatly shortened," Yang Jing thought to himself. "So the most critical thing now is still silver."

In this chaotic world, without silver, there were no resources. For an ordinary martial artist like him, the path of martial arts without resources was like walking an inch at a time.

"Now that I've broken through to Bright Strength, I'm qualified to take a patronage position, but..."

Yang Jing let out a soft sigh.

Since his breakthrough, over the past two days, several families had come to invite him to take a patronage position.

But the terms they offered weren't generous—mostly seven or eight taels of silver per month.

For ordinary people, seven or eight taels a month was a huge sum. In the countryside, even when land prices were high in past years, seven or eight taels was more than enough to buy an acre of top-grade farmland.

Before breaking through to Bright Strength, his family had sold everything they had to support his martial arts training, and his monthly living expenses were barely over two taels.

If he told his family that someone was offering seven or eight taels a month just to have him on standby, and only occasionally needing his effort, they'd probably find it unbelievable.

But that was only for ordinary people. Yang Jing had successfully Entered Strength, stepping beyond the bounds of common folk and truly becoming a martial artist.

From what Yang Jing had learned, a typical Bright Strength martial artist's monthly patronage compensation should be around ten taels. Those with higher innate talent were a different matter.

Yang Jing hadn't set his target too high—just reaching the average level would be fine.

But so far, no family had offered him a price reaching ten taels.

Yang Jing sighed helplessly.

He guessed that in others' eyes, his potential was truly exhausted, making him worth less than an ordinary Bright Strength martial artist, so his monthly stipend was set lower.

"Tsk, looked down on for patronage positions. As for sponsorship, no one's even bothered with me yet. It's been two days—seems hopeless."

Yang Jing shook his head, but wasn't discouraged. He had expected this.

After breaking through to Bright Strength, besides taking a patronage position, there was also the hope of receiving sponsorship from some major families or large shops.

Take the Sun Clan Martial Arts School, for example.

When a disciple broke through to Bright Strength, if they showed some potential, they might catch the eye of a major family, who would sponsor them to build a good relationship. If the disciple later achieved success in martial arts, they would repay the sponsor's support.

The greater the potential one displayed, the more likely they were to be valued and sponsored by the major clans.

For example, Lin Yue, the most brilliant genius disciple of the Sun Clan Martial Arts School, had already received sponsorship from the Zhao and Qi clans before he even broke through to Bright Strength.

Second Senior Brother Zhao Wenzheng and Third Senior Sister Qi Yun were members of the Zhao and Qi clans, respectively.

Generally speaking, due to proximity and speed, if a genius disciple appeared or broke through in the martial arts school, the clan disciples within the same school would be the first to contact and sponsor them, leaving no chance for outsiders.

Under normal circumstances, a disciple would only have one clan backing them, after all, these major clans had complex relationships and even rifts among themselves.

It was just that Lin Yue's displayed potential was so immense that two clans ended up sponsoring him.

"Though no one is willing to sponsor me, I never held any hope from the start. Without hope, naturally there's no disappointment." Yang Jing wolfed down the horse meat, his thoughts churning quietly.

Others had no idea he had a System Panel; they only saw his potential as exhausted, believing his breakthrough to Bright Strength was pure luck.