Difficulty

Inside the carriage.

Yang Jing looked out through the carriage curtain. The night in the outer city was far dimmer than in the Inner City; only scattered lanterns swayed at alley entrances, casting light over the curled-up figures of refugees.

Growing stronger was not only for himself, but also so he could grasp more initiative in these troubled times.

"Alright," Yang Jing nodded. "I'll go give it a try when the time comes."

Seeing him agree, Liu Maolin smiled. "That's more like it! With your skills, you'll pass sooner or later. I'll find you the rules and procedures for the Parade Ground Trial from previous years later. Study them first."

The carriage stopped at the entrance to Tongyi Ward. After bidding Liu Maolin farewell, Yang Jing climbed down.

Chengping Ward and Tongyi Ward bordered the Inner City. Public order was usually decent there, but tonight was somewhat different.

He had only just turned into an alley leading toward his home when he saw two groups gathered in the open space ahead. Both gripped clubs, blades, and other weapons, glaring viciously at one another. From the look of it, a fight could break out at any moment.

Yang Jing glanced over, his brows knitting slightly. He shifted aside, unwilling to wade into this muddy water. Just as he was about to detour around them, a bearded man among them roared at him, "What are you looking at? Tired of living?"

The rebuke was rough and overbearing, brimming with hostility. Yang Jing halted and swept a cold gaze toward him.

At that moment, a slightly plump leader beside the man narrowed his eyes. Dressed in a short jacket, he carefully sized Yang Jing up in the lantern light at the alley entrance. The longer he looked, the more familiar Yang Jing seemed.

When he made out Yang Jing's build and silhouette, something suddenly came to mind. His face changed with a swish, and his heart jolted violently. Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, his whole body gave a shudder.

Smack!

Without another word, he backhanded the bearded man across the face, leaving him dazed and disoriented.

"You blind fool!"

The slightly plump leader cursed under his breath, then immediately put on a fawning smile. He hurried over to Yang Jing, bowing at the waist, his tone as respectful as could be. "I-it's Brother Yang! I'm terribly sorry. My men don't know any better and disturbed you. Please, don't take it to heart!"

As he spoke, he swiftly pulled a heavy money pouch from his robes. After weighing it in his hand, a pained look flashed across his face. Then he gritted his teeth and forcefully stuffed it into Yang Jing's hand. "Just a small token of apology for Brother Yang. Please don't think poorly of it."

Yang Jing squeezed the pouch and estimated that it held seven or eight taels of silver.

Before he could react, the leader bowed repeatedly again. "Then we won't disturb Brother Yang's rest any longer. We'll leave now, right away!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he waved a hand and led his group out of the alley in a rush, like dogs fleeing a ruined home, without even looking back.

The other group saw this, and their scar-faced leader froze. Then, as if he had recalled some rumor, his expression changed drastically. How could he dare remain? He hastily summoned his men and slipped away without a sound.

In the blink of an eye, the alley that had been bristling with drawn swords was completely empty, leaving only Yang Jing standing there.

He looked down at the money pouch in his hand, then toward the direction in which the two groups had vanished. His brows drew together even more tightly. Why did these gang members seem... so afraid of him?

Had news of his breakthrough into Hidden Strength already spread?

What Yang Jing did not know was that Yuhe County's gang forces had always kept a close eye on the movements of every martial arts school, especially major schools like the Sun Clan Martial Arts School, which had managed to gain a firm foothold in West City District.

Any martial arts school capable of operating on such a scale was bound to have a Transforming Strength martial artist behind it.

That was the pinnacle of combat power in Yuhe County. What gang would dare provoke one lightly?

Though martial arts schools had many disciples, the ones gangs truly feared were those experts who had Entered Strength.

These Entering Strength disciples of the martial arts schools rarely involved themselves in gang disputes, but no one dared take the initiative to provoke them. After all, Bright Strength could shatter wood and stone, while Hidden Strength could split metal and rock. If they truly came to blows, ordinary gangs simply could not withstand them.

The Sun Clan Martial Arts School enjoyed considerable prestige in West City District, and the nearby gangs had always kept a clear grasp of the movements of its disciples.

News of Yang Jing's breakthrough into Hidden Strength spread through the martial arts school on the first day, then flowed through various channels into the ears of gangs large and small throughout West City District the day after.

To prevent their men from blindly offending this newly advanced Hidden Strength expert, the various gangs had even specially commissioned portraits of Yang Jing. These were distributed among their mid- and upper-ranking members, along with repeated warnings: "This man is a newly advanced Hidden Strength expert from the Sun Clan Martial Arts School. Under no circumstances are you to provoke him."

What further alarmed these gangs was the matter of the Righteousness Gang.

After Zhao Meng and Qian Bao died, rumors quietly began to spread that, before the two met with disaster, they had once taken men to block Yang Jing's path.

Though there was no solid proof that Yang Jing had killed Zhao Meng and Qian Bao, the mere possibility was enough to make the overwhelming majority of West City gangs carefully weigh Yang Jing's importance.

To silently deal with the Righteousness Gang's two gang leaders—such strength, coupled with such decisive ruthlessness, meant he was no harmless character.

And so, without Yang Jing even knowing it, he had already become someone not to be provoked within West City District's gang circles.

The leader from that group just now had happened to see Yang Jing's portrait and hear the rumors about the Righteousness Gang. Upon seeing him in person, how could he dare act recklessly?

Apologizing, handing over money, and leaving at once had been the safest choice.

The other gang had not clearly seen Yang Jing's face, but when they saw their rivals so terrified of him, a moment's thought let them guess most of the truth. Naturally, they did not dare linger either.

Yang Jing still knew nothing of these twists and turns. Weighing the money pouch in his hand, he headed home and soon arrived at the gate of his small courtyard.

He took out his key and unlocked it, then pushed open the courtyard gate. Yang Jing slid the bolt shut behind him, entered the main room, sat at the table, and poured out the silver from the pouch.

Moonlight streamed through the window lattice onto the tabletop, illuminating eight heavy little silver ingots, each worth one tael.

"Not bad. Enough to buy eight or nine catties of Fierce Beast Meat."

Yang Jing smiled and put away the small silver ingots.

After tidying up, he moved his body a little. The Fierce Beast Meat in his stomach was still continuously giving off warm energy, flowing along his blood vessels through all four limbs and every bone, filling his entire body with inexhaustible strength.

"Perfect. I'll use this energy to practice Hidden Strength some more." Yang Jing muttered to himself as he walked into the open space in the courtyard.

He lowered his waist and settled into a horse stance, slowly assuming the opening posture of the Mountain Collapse Fist.

The moment his fist extended, he felt the Hidden Strength within him become more active than usual, as though echoing the heat in his abdomen, surging and circulating through his meridians.

"Ha!"

With a low shout, he unleashed Split Stone. His fist wind swept past, actually raising a faint whistle as it tore through the air.

This punch no longer pursued sheer ferocity. Instead, Hidden Strength gathered over the surface of his fist and erupted the instant it struck the air, as though an invisible pebble had exploded before him.

As he continued through the forms, the energy in his abdomen was rapidly mobilized, turning into wisps of warm currents that continuously nourished the circulating Hidden Strength.

The Internal Energy that normally required deliberate guidance to flow now moved as smoothly as a boat traveling with the current. With every punch he threw, it became a little more rounded and harmonious than the last.

Under the moonlight, his figure leaped, shifted, and spun through the courtyard. The moves of Mountain Collapse Fist came in an unbroken stream—at times like a sledgehammer smashing stone, at times like an undercurrent quietly surging.

Sweat soon soaked through his clothes, yet he felt no fatigue whatsoever. Instead, a thoroughly satisfying sense of ease filled him. The energy from over two jin of Fierce Beast Meat was being efficiently converted and absorbed into his muscles, bones, and Internal Energy.

Who knew how long had passed? When he drew the final move, Return to Mountain, to a close, Yang Jing slowly exhaled a breath of stale air. A faint white vapor even trailed within it.

He lowered his head and looked at his fist. He could clearly feel that his Hidden Strength was more condensed than it had been that evening, and its circulation had become increasingly effortless.

With a thought from Yang Jing, the next moment, the System Panel appeared before his eyes—

[Mountain Collapse Fist, Mastery (11/1000)]

[Surging Wave Leg, Minor Mastery (7/500)]

After breaking through to Hidden Strength, the value for Mountain Collapse Fist had changed as well. Its upper limit had risen from five hundred to one thousand.

"To break through to Transforming Strength, I still have a stretch of road ahead."

Yang Jing thought to himself.

But at that moment, his fighting spirit was blazing.

Many martial artists, after straining with all their might to break through to Hidden Strength, would lose their drive and slacken their efforts.

The reason was that they found breaking through to Hidden Strength immensely difficult. As for breaking through further to Transforming Strength, the hope could be called vanishingly slim—or even nonexistent.

Under such circumstances, they naturally no longer had the same spirit for martial practice as before. Instead, they relied on the strength and status of a Hidden Strength expert to seek profit and benefits.

Afterward, Yang Jing practiced Surging Wave Leg for another half hour. Then he took a cold shower and returned to his room to sleep.

The next day.

The sky had only just begun to brighten, and the old locust tree in the courtyard was still steeped in morning mist when Yang Jing got up.

He did not touch that Aged Ginseng. He planned to first visit the Liu Family Medical Hall and select some herbs to pair with it. Using the ginseng's potency alone would be like throwing away a priceless treasure; it was far too wasteful. Only the right combination could bring out its greatest effect.

In the kitchen pot, the leftover Bear Meat from last night had been stewed until soft and tender, its fragrance drifting out through the crack in the door.

Yang Jing filled a huge basin and devoured it like a whirlwind sweeping away fallen leaves. Only after nearly another two jin of Fierce Beast Meat had gone into his stomach did he finally feel full.

After breaking through to Hidden Strength, his appetite had increased by another measure. A single meal now required nearly two jin of Fierce Beast Meat, and sometimes he ate even more. Fortunately, he had become somewhat better off lately.

Once he had finished getting ready, Yang Jing locked the courtyard gate and headed for the Sun Clan Martial Arts School in Chengping Ward.

He had just turned past two street corners when he saw several men in short jackets, sabers tucked at their waists, gathered beneath a wall. From their appearance, they seemed to be members of some gang.

The men had originally been chatting and laughing, but the instant they glimpsed Yang Jing approaching, their laughter stopped abruptly. Nervousness immediately appeared on their faces, their gazes darting away as they instinctively shrank back behind the wall.

Two of them had been squatting on the ground smoking dry tobacco. When they saw him draw near, they sprang to their feet and, without saying a word, turned and burrowed into the depths of the alley. They moved as swiftly as mice that had seen a cat.

Yang Jing rubbed his nose, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

It seemed news of his breakthrough to Hidden Strength had truly spread.

But did these people really need to be this afraid? It was not as though he were a Tiger that ate people.

Recalling the reaction of that group in the alley last night, then looking at the scene before him, Yang Jing roughly understood. This was the weight carried by a Hidden Strength expert—enough to make these low-level gang members recoil in fear. What was more, breaking through to Hidden Strength also represented his status within the martial arts school. The school stood behind him, along with a Transforming Strength martial arts master.

He shook his head and stopped dwelling on it.

It was always better to be feared than looked down upon.

At the very least, there would be far fewer needless troubles when he walked the streets from now on.

The sunlight gradually dispersed the morning mist and shone across the bluestone-paved road. Yang Jing's shadow stretched long behind him as he walked steadily toward the martial arts school.

Besides practicing his fists today, he also needed to find time to visit the Liu Family Medical Hall and settle the matter of the medicinal herbs.

The path of martial arts was not just about practicing one's fists. One also had to learn how to make use of the resources at hand.

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Yang Jing arrived at the martial arts school.

He took off his shirt, tossed it onto a wooden bench by the wall, and began practicing his fists.

Time slowly passed. Yang Jing was gradually making the Hidden Strength of Mountain Collapse Fist flow with greater harmony when he suddenly heard someone call from behind him. Turning around, he saw Liu Maolin walking over with a small booklet bound in blue cloth.

"Senior Brother," Yang Jing called.

"Here, intelligence on the Parade Ground Trial." Liu Maolin handed him the booklet. "It records the circumstances of the Parade Ground Trials over the past five years, as well as assessments of the strength of those who passed in previous years. Take a good look."

"Alright, thank you, Senior Brother." Yang Jing nodded, accepted the booklet, then walked to a stone bench by the wall and sat down, flipping through it in the morning light.

He had just finished practicing his fists, so this was a good chance to rest and sort through his thoughts.

His fingertips brushed over the pages as he silently assessed his own strength.

Though he had only just entered Hidden Strength, his foundation was far more solid than that of an ordinary martial artist who had just broken through.

This might have had something to do with the System Panel. Without any bottlenecks, every step he took had been steady and secure.

When he had sparred with Liu Maolin after his last breakthrough, he had relied only on his newly attained Hidden Strength to withstand an attack delivered with ninety percent of the other man's strength. At the time, Surging Wave Leg had yet to enter Bright Strength, and he had not even deliberately employed his movement technique or speed.

Had he gone all out then, relying on the swiftness of Surging Wave Leg, he was confident he could have fought Liu Maolin to a draw, perhaps even seized a measure of initiative.

But now, Surging Wave Leg had entered Bright Strength. His movement speed had greatly increased, and his Inner Force had become more condensed. If they fought again, he was confident he could defeat him.

Without realizing it, this newly advanced Hidden Strength practitioner had already surpassed the martial hall's veteran Hidden Strength disciples.

His second martial art, Surging Wave Leg, deserved much of the credit. The coordination of fists and legs had raised his practical combat ability by a whole notch.

Yet as he looked over the records in the booklet, Yang Jing's brows drew together slightly.

It stated clearly that the Parade Ground Trial tested actual combat.

In past years, those who passed were mostly martial artists at the peak of Hidden Strength, and most of them possessed exceptionally strong real-combat abilities.

There had even been years when several peak Hidden Strength martial artists were eliminated, showing just how stringent it was.

"In the entire martial hall, only Eldest Senior Brother Xu Hong has reached the peak of Hidden Strength," Yang Jing murmured to himself.

He had seen Xu Hong's strength before. Steady and seasoned, even after breaking through to Hidden Strength, he had continued devoting all his energy to martial arts, reaching the peak of Hidden Strength early on. Yet the bottleneck before Transforming Strength was like a heavenly chasm, firmly blocking his path.

But as far as Yang Jing knew, Eldest Senior Brother Xu Hong had participated in the Parade Ground Trial for the past several years, only to fail every time.

For this year's Parade Ground Trial, Xu Hong seemed to have specifically practiced a leg technique as well. However, it had yet to break through to Bright Strength, so its improvement to his combat power was limited. It was uncertain whether he could make the list this year.

Yang Jing continued reading the booklet, and what shocked him even more was the Parade Ground Trial's pass rate.

Nearly two hundred people registered every year, yet there were never more than six passing spots, and sometimes as few as three.

That meant the overwhelming majority of martial artists who took the Parade Ground Trial would be buried in the sand, their ambitions shattered—including Hidden Strength martial artists.

"This is fucking hard." Yang Jing closed the booklet, secretly clicking his tongue as his fingertips lightly tapped its cover.

To pass, his current strength was still far from enough.

Over these twenty-odd days, he had to improve himself as much as possible. At the very least, he needed to raise his Hidden Strength another step and refine the coordination between his fists and legs to a more exquisite level. Only then would he have a few chances of success.

He lifted his gaze toward the center of the front courtyard. The sunlight was perfect, and several disciples were diligently training.

Yang Jing rose to his feet and tucked the booklet into his clothes. The pressure was immense, but it also stirred the resilience deep in his bones.

The harder it was, the more he had to brave it.

He placed the booklet in his old cloth bag, then got up and walked back into the training ground to continue practicing his fists. With the difficult hurdle of the Parade Ground Trial ahead, he had no time to slack off.