The Most Cost-Effective Way to Train in Martial Arts

Gu Fei's good intentions were naturally clear to Lin Chen.

He was not the sort of person who put on airs or cared excessively about pride. He had refused before because he understood Gu Fei.

If he had accepted long ago, Gu Fei would definitely buy extra beef every time. He could not keep mooching off Gu Fei's beef.

Gu Fei was from the same village as him, and his family was not much better off.

This time, he accepted Gu Fei's kindness not because of Zhang Tao's mockery, but because he was preparing to start eating beef.

Though he did not have much money on him, beef at fifteen copper coins a jin was not so expensive that he could not afford even a single jin.

He had not eaten it before because the time had not yet come.

On his first day at the Martial Hall, he had remembered something Instructor Yu said.

"The more martial arts training pursues quick results, the more it costs."

For Lin Chen, who had lived two lives, this was not difficult to understand.

There was a limit to how much the human body could absorb and digest.

The more one pursued the limit of daily blood and qi growth, the higher the price one had to pay.

Suppose eating one jin of beef could increase blood and qi by 8 points. The second jin could still increase it by 8 points, but by the third, it might only provide 5 points, because the body's ability to absorb and digest had become saturated.

For students from wealthy families, naturally, they did not care about such waste. What they wanted was to max out the effect.

It was like enhancing equipment in a game. For ordinary players, enhancing something to +9 was enough, because getting it to +10 cost as much as all the previous enhancements combined, yet only added 1 point of attributes. There was no cost-effectiveness whatsoever. Only rich players who poured money into the game did not care about cost-effectiveness; what they wanted was the gap.

He did not have much money. During these five months at the Martial Hall, his elder brother had secretly sent him three hundred copper coins, and he had earned another two hundred doing odd jobs. Altogether, he only had five hundred copper coins on him.

He had to split every coin into two and spend it twice.

Without eating beef, relying on eating his fill and practicing the Warm Sun Fist, he could still gain 2 points of blood and qi a day.

The Martial Hall's half-year assessment required one to reach two hundred jin of strength.

There were no precise instruments in this world for measuring blood and qi, so students' blood and qi were assessed indirectly through their strength.

The target of the Martial Hall's half-year assessment was two hundred jin of strength.

When Lin Chen entered the Martial Hall, his blood and qi had been 500 points and his strength one hundred jin. From the changes in the blood and qi values and strength on the System Panel, he had worked out the numbers.

5 points of blood and qi = 1 jin of strength.

To meet the Martial Hall's assessment requirement, his blood and qi had to reach one thousand.

Five months had passed, and he was still two hundred points short of one thousand blood and qi.

The reason he had endured until now without eating beef was also because he had formulated a plan based on the growth in strength of Gu Fei and the other students.

Including him, Lakeside Village had sent four students in this class. When they entered the Martial Hall, everyone's strength had been around one hundred jin, so their blood and qi values could be said to have been fairly close.

Gu Fei had begun eating beef every day in the third month. The other two had begun a month earlier than Gu Fei, yet the amount of beef they consumed to reach two hundred jin was fifty jin more than Gu Fei's.

By delaying beef for one month, based on the natural growth of blood and qi at their age, they would gain an extra 60 points of blood and qi in that month, which was an increase of 12 jin of strength.

Fifty jin of beef in exchange for 12 jin of strength?

Lin Chen felt it was not that simple. After observing the other students, he came to another conclusion.

The higher one's natural blood and qi, the stronger one's organs' ability to digest food.

This was not hard to understand. High blood and qi meant a strong body. If he ate the same jin of beef, he could digest all of its nutrients, while someone with lower blood and qi had a slightly weaker body and might only absorb seventy or eighty percent of the nutrients from that jin of beef.

Therefore, the later one waited, the more blood and qi one would gain from eating beef.

It was precisely because of this deduction that he had endured until now without eating beef.

Lin Chen believed he could not have been the only one to figure this out. Students from previous classes must have discovered it too.

But discovering it was one thing. Could they truly wait?

At fifteen, how could one have no vanity? When they saw other students begin eating beef early, reach two hundred jin of strength early, and enjoy the envious gazes of the others—

How many could resist comparing themselves?

They might not compare themselves to those from wealthy families, but when facing people from the same village or dormitory, could they remain unmoved while watching them eat meat?

They even had to endure doubts and cold mockery.

Not everyone was like him, someone who had lived two lives and possessed a cheat, as well as a visible System Panel.

Early the next morning.

While Lin Chen and the others were practicing their fists on the Training Ground, cheers suddenly erupted from the neighboring class.

Lin Chen looked toward the sound and saw a student standing beside Instructor Chen with an expressionless face, though the slight upward curl of his lips revealed his inner emotions.

"Comparisons really make people furious. We're still striving to break three hundred jin, while he's already crossed the five-hundred-jin threshold."

Gu Fei's face was full of envy, and Lin Chen recognized the youth as well.

Lu Yongfeng!

The number one genius of their class.

More accurately, the number one in financial resources.

If Lin Chen was famously stingy, then Lu Yongfeng was famously rich.

On his first day at the Martial Hall, he had eaten beef every meal. By the time Gu Fei and the others began eating beef, he had already started drinking Qi Nourishing Soup.

If many students could still afford beef, then Qi Nourishing Soup was a true luxury.

One hundred copper coins per dose. Ordinary students' hearts trembled whenever they bought it.

"If you're going to die of anger, should I just drop dead right here and stop living?"

He had not even eaten beef once at the Martial Hall so far. Who could he reason with?

"True, we can't compare to people like him. He wants to cultivate Essence Energy within a year. If we can cultivate Essence Energy within two years, that'll already be pretty good." Gu Fei patted Lin Chen's shoulder. "Chenzi, luckily we have you."

"Get lost!"

Knowing what Gu Fei was about to say, Lin Chen slapped his hand away irritably. Wasn't he just saying that having Lin Chen, the one at the bottom, around gave them a little vanity to cling to?

Looking at Lu Yongfeng, Lin Chen felt somewhat puzzled. Was the other party truly only trying to cultivate Essence Energy within a year so he could enter the county martial academy for free and continue learning martial arts?

The county martial academy had a rule: if Martial Hall students cultivated Essence Energy within one year, their tuition would be waived. If they did so within two years, they could still enter the martial academy by paying ten taels of silver. If they cultivated Essence Energy in the third year, it would cost twenty taels. After three years, they would no longer have a chance to enter the martial academy.

Most Martial Hall students knew their own limits. What they aimed for was cultivating Essence Energy within two years.

The money Lu Yongfeng had wasted at the Martial Hall was already more than twenty taels. If he was doing it to save on tuition at the martial academy, that did not quite add up.

Perhaps he was simply rich, pursuing vanity and face at the Martial Hall without caring about spending more money.

While Lin Chen was lost in thought, Instructor Yu, standing at the front, spoke. "At the end of this month, there will be a Martial Hall evaluation. Those whose strength has not reached two hundred jin will leave the academy."

Yu Yongnian's words shifted the gazes of every youth in the class from Lu Yongfeng in the neighboring class to Lin Chen.

Lin Chen: ...

The Martial Hall had three instructors and was divided into three classes, with twenty students in each class.

There were only four people in Lin Chen's class whose strength had not reached two hundred jin. However, the other three were not far from two hundred jin; only Lin Chen was still forty jin short.

"Lin Chen, come with me."

Today, Yu Yongnian did not sit in the chair to one side and watch the students practice as usual. He directly called Lin Chen by name.

"Chenzi." Gu Fei looked at Lin Chen with concern. In his view, Instructor Yu was surely dissatisfied with Lin Chen. Calling him aside privately probably meant he was about to receive a scolding.

"It's fine."

Lin Chen gave Gu Fei a reassuring look. Ignoring the expressions of the other students, he quickly stepped forward and followed behind Instructor Yu.

Based on his observations of Instructor Yu over the past five months, Instructor Yu was definitely not calling him over to criticize him.

The Martial Hall's rear courtyard.

The small courtyard where Yu Yongnian lived.

"Five months after entering the Martial Hall, and you haven't eaten beef in the dining hall even once. You've eaten nothing but free meals... Lin Chen, even I'm a little surprised."

Yu Yongnian looked at Lin Chen. He was not planning to criticize him, but was simply curious about the most stingy student in the Martial Hall's history.

Logically speaking, youths from Lakeside Village did not need to pay tuition. Compared with other students, that saved them ten taels of silver. Surely Lin Chen had not come to the Martial Hall without bringing even a single coin?

That would not be coming to learn martial arts. That would be outright freeloading off the Martial Hall's meals.

But from what he had seen, Lin Chen had not come to mooch off food. Over these five months, he had watched which students were diligent and which were slack.

Lin Chen could not be considered the most diligent in the class, but he was absolutely among the top three.

"Instructor, apart from me, my family also has my eldest cousin studying martial arts, and he has already trained for over two years. My family does not have much money for me to practice martial arts. I was only allowed to come to the Martial Hall after fighting desperately for the opportunity..."

Facing his instructor, Lin Chen did not hide anything and directly explained his family's circumstances.

Yu Yongnian's expression did not change after hearing this. He had seen such situations many times at the Martial Hall.

Martial arts training was expensive, and ordinary families could not afford to have two children train. After hearing Lin Chen out, he understood what Lin Chen's Grandfather had in mind: waiting for Lin Chen to be eliminated from the Martial Hall after six months.

As for Lin Chen's elder brother, having trained for two and a half years without cultivating Essence Energy, he probably would not amount to much either.

"Since you and your Grandfather have an agreement, shouldn't you work even harder to reach two hundred jin as soon as possible? Have you given up?"

"I have not given up." Lin Chen shook his head. "Instructor, you said back then that the more martial arts training pursued quick results, the more it cost. So I was thinking of taking it slowly."

"Taking it slowly?"

Yu Yongnian's mouth twitched. He had said those words because he hoped students would not waste too much money trying to outdo one another, but he had never said to take it this slowly.

"This month, I will buy beef and speed up my blood and qi growth," Lin Chen promised.

"Mm."

Seeing that the instructor had no other instructions, Lin Chen spoke up to take his leave. Yu Yongnian nodded slightly. "Go on."

The dining hall!

When Lin Chen appeared at the beef counter, only a few students noticed at first. But as those students began discussing it, the eyes of every student in the dining hall turned toward him, including the group at Lu Yongfeng's table on the far left.

"What am I seeing? The stingiest person in Kaohe Town Martial Arts Academy history is actually willing to buy beef today?"

"My youth is over."

"What does that mean?"

"It means youth has come to an end. I don't know who said it, but it rolls right off the tongue, so I remembered it."

"What day is it today? Why would Lin Chen suddenly be willing to buy beef?"

"I heard Instructor Yu called Lin Chen into his courtyard. I think Lin Chen got scolded by Instructor Yu and only then came to buy beef."

"Senior Brother Lu, when you were the first to buy Qi Nourishing Soup, it didn't cause such a stir."

At Lu Yongfeng's table, one youth saw the scene and spoke with a smile.

"Just trying to grab attention."

Lu Yongfeng smiled. In his eyes, Lin Chen and he belonged to two different worlds. A person who could not bear to spend even a little money was destined not to go far on the martial path.

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