Title: Title: Black to the End

"Cough, cough!"

Kong Yinglei's expression returned to normal. Seeing Lin Chen standing there with his face shifting between a frown and excitement, she could not help coughing once.

"Thank you, Martial Hall, for bestowing this disciple an Aperture Opening Pill and allowing this disciple to enter the Aperture Opening Realm."

Awakened by the cough, Lin Chen immediately collected himself and solemnly saluted Kong Yinglei.

"Go back and practice diligently. Don't slack off just because you've entered the Aperture Opening Realm. After the New Year, come back to the Martial Hall and report in after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. You don't need to return to Clearwind Martial Arts Hall anymore. And don't announce to others that it took you half an hour to open your aperture."

After Kong Yinglei finished speaking, she saw the doubt in Lin Chen's eyes and explained, "Among the Martial Hall students of past generations—at least among those of Still Water Martial Arts Academy—the slowest all successfully opened their apertures within two quarters of an hour after taking the Aperture Opening Pill. You took half an hour. If word gets out, I'm afraid it could affect you."

Lin Chen suddenly understood. This Instructor Kong really was a good person.

He had originally planned to return to Clearwind Martial Arts Hall once more. Regardless of whether Instructor Zhao there liked him, it was only right to go back and inform them.

If the instructors at Clearwind Martial Arts Hall asked how long it had taken him to open his aperture, he really would have answered truthfully.

"This disciple will listen to you, Instructor."

Heeding good advice meant never going hungry.

Since the instructor had put it that way, Lin Chen naturally would not expose his own weakness.

"Mm, go back."

After watching Lin Chen leave, Kong Yinglei departed through the rear entrance of the Martial Arts Pavilion the next moment. She was eager to tell her senior sister about this.

"Senior Sister!"

At the innermost part of Still Water Martial Arts Academy, Kong Yinglei shouted from before the entrance to a courtyard. Soon, a woman's voice came from inside.

"Senior Sister Kong, stop shouting. Senior Sister Disciple went to Raozhou Prefecture. She just asked me to pass on a message: all the Martial Hall's affairs will be entrusted to you for the time being."

"Senior Sister went to Raozhou Prefecture at a time like this?" Kong Yinglei asked, her face full of confusion.

"Senior Sister Disciple left in a great hurry and didn't tell me anything." The courtyard gate opened, and a woman walked out. "My guess is that it has something to do with entering the ranks. Senior Sister Disciple has been stuck at the Organ Refining Great Completion Realm for two years."

Kong Yinglei was helpless. Since her senior sister had left, she could only wait until she returned before telling her about Lin Chen.

At the entrance of Still Water Martial Arts Academy.

After walking out, Lin Chen wore a smile on his face.

Although this trip to the county-seat Martial Hall had encountered some twists and turns, in the end, he had still obtained an Aperture Opening Pill and entered the Aperture Opening Realm.

By rights, he should have gone to see Instructor Yu. But when he thought of Inspector Shu's attitude toward his instructor, he decided it would be better not to go, lest he ruin Inspector Shu's plans.

After all, without Inspector Shu, he would not have obtained this Aperture Opening Pill.

He could not repay kindness with enmity!

He could simply go see his instructor at the Martial Hall after the instructor returned in a few days.

The county seat was bustling. Having succeeded in opening his aperture, the young man was filled with pride. However, when he recalled what Instructor Kong had just said—that his aperture-opening speed had been at the bottom—what little smugness remained in Lin Chen's heart vanished.

His Martial Arts path had only just begun. His family was poor, so he had to Seize Every Second to practice. He no longer had any interest in wandering around the county seat.

Lin Chen went straight to the city gate. He rented a horse from the horse station. The people there recognized him and did not charge him a deposit. After checking his identity token, they only took twenty copper coins in rent and told him to return the horse to the horse station in the town.

Once again, Lin Chen experienced the special status and treatment enjoyed by Martial Artists.

After returning home, Lin Chen briefly told his parents about entering the city and joining a Martial Hall.

He shared good news, not bad.

He did not mention being rejected by several Martial Halls, only saying that he had joined Still Water Martial Arts Academy.

Upon learning that their son had successfully entered a Martial Hall, Father Lin and Mother Lin were delighted. After dinner, Mother Lin hurried out of the house.

Seeing his mother rush out impatiently, Lin Chen smiled. He did not need to think to know that she had gone to the big tree in the village to gossip with the other village women again.

It was true that women were born loving gossip, but his mother had never been so eager before. Now that she went every day after dinner, it was because she enjoyed hearing the village women praise her.

As she listened to those women praise her in all sorts of ways, his mother still had to humbly deny it against her conscience. Only after the sky had grown completely dark would she return, still reluctant to leave.

Taking a walk after dinner had now become his mother's daily routine.

Lin Chen saw through it but did not expose her. In the end, his mother only had a little vanity. As her son, allowing his parents to have face before their neighbors was also a form of filial piety.

The next day, early in the morning, before dawn.

Lin Chen checked the System Panel immediately. To his delight, the System Panel had finished updating.

Name: Lin Chen

Occupation: Martial Artist

Realm: Aperture Opening Realm (1/24)

Clear Wind Palm: Not Started

Fate:[When the Water Flows, the Channel is Formed]: Martial Arts First Realm, perseverance, gradual progress, *Break Through Like Bamboo*, no bottleneck troubles.

Martial Arts Title: Black to the End

Black to the End: The world remains undecided; you and I are both dark horses. When this title is equipped, your Martial Arts Comprehension and perception are enhanced in the darkness.

After seeing the updated System Panel, Lin Chen's eyes lit up.

Instructor Yu had mentioned Martial Arts Comprehension to him before. Before a Martial Artist entered the ranks, Martial Arts Comprehension had little effect on realm advancement, but it was extremely useful for Martial Arts techniques.

Martial Arts techniques were also divided into several stages. In the later stages, relying on hard practice alone was useless.

After throwing a hundred punches, their meaning would reveal itself.

The principle was not wrong, but there was a limit to what repeated practice could achieve.

Later on, comprehension was needed.

Thinking of this, Lin Chen took the Clear Wind Palm manual from his robes.

The manual contained illustrations of Clear Wind Palm's moves and their formulas. He had memorized them and practiced them several times last night, yet he had not expected it still to remain at the Not Started stage.

While it was still dark, he wanted to test how effective the Black to the End title was.

Wearing his training clothes, Lin Chen pushed open the door.

"Chen'er, you're up so early? It's too cold. Sleeping a little longer is fine."

The creak of the door startled Mother Lin in the inner room.

"Mother, we Martial Artists don't need to sleep that long. With my body now, this little cold is nothing. Even if I jumped into Poyang Lake, I'd be fine."

After calling back toward the inner room, Lin Chen closed the door and stood in the courtyard.

Recalling the Clear Wind Palm moves in his mind, he began practicing.

Once, twice...

By the third time, Lin Chen had already immersed himself in Clear Wind Palm. He had not reached the state of forgetting both self and object, but compared with yesterday, he was far more focused, and his palm strikes flowed more smoothly.

The fifteenth time!

The thirtieth time.

Inside the house.

A light came on. Mother Lin lit the kerosene lamp and watched her son outside through the crack in the door, her face filled with heartache.

"Chen'er works far too hard at Martial Arts. He gets up earlier every day. Even Lin Ming never got up this early when he was home."

"What does a housewife know? Isn't practicing Martial Arts all about diligent practice?" Father Lin said grumpily. "Otherwise, how could Chen'er cultivate Essence Energy within a year? Can Lin Ming compare with him?"

"I don't understand, but you do? Then why don't you go practice Martial Arts?"

"I... forget it. I can't reason with you. In any case, we can't help Chen'er with his Martial Arts, but we can't hold him back either. We can't catch fish in this weather, so I'll go to Qingshan Village and see whether any hunters have caught mountain game. I'll buy some back to nourish Chen'er's body."

Half an hour passed before Lin Chen stopped and softly called, "System Panel."

Name: Lin Chen

Occupation: Martial Artist

Realm: Aperture Opening Realm (1/24)

Clear Wind Palm: Not Started (1/100)

Fate:[When the Water Flows, the Channel is Formed]: Martial Arts First Realm, perseverance, gradual progress, *Break Through Like Bamboo*, no bottleneck troubles.

Martial Arts Title: Black to the End

Black to the End: The world remains undecided; you and I are both dark horses. When this badge is equipped, Martial Arts Comprehension is enhanced in the darkness.

The progress of Clear Wind Palm had finally changed.

By now, the sky had already brightened.

But Lin Chen did not stop. His Martial Arts Comprehension was enhanced in the darkness, allowing him to practice faster, but that did not mean he could stop practicing during the day.

After opening his aperture, it became much rarer for his blood and qi to become depleted from diligent practice.

Half an hour later, Mother Lin finished making breakfast. Only then did Lin Chen stop. After eating breakfast, he continued practicing Martial Arts.

Clear Wind Palm: Not Started (2/100)

Clear Wind Palm: Not Started (3/100)

...

It was not until he heard footsteps that Lin Chen stopped. His gaze followed the courtyard fence outward, where he saw his elder brother and several villagers walking toward the house.

"Little Brother Chen, you can't leak the Martial Hall's techniques. Mother asked me to find people to repair the fence around the house. We can't let anyone secretly learn them."

When Elder Brother Lin Liang saw Lin Chen looking over, he explained.

Lin Chen smiled. Yesterday, when he returned home, he had told his parents about joining the Martial Hall and had also mentioned that the Martial Hall's techniques could not be leaked.

He had only brought it up in passing. Unless someone obtained the formulas from him, memorizing Clear Wind Palm's moves alone would be useless.

He had not expected his mother to take the matter so seriously and find villagers to help build the wall.

"Little Chen, keep practicing. Don't mind us." The villagers who had entered with Lin Liang smiled.

"It's the end of the year anyway, and we don't have much to do. We guarantee we'll build your family's wall solidly."

"Then I'll have to trouble all of you uncles."

Lin Chen nodded, but he understood in his heart that although it was the slack farming season at year's end, in such bitterly cold weather, the villagers were willing to help his family repair the wall because he had cultivated Essence Energy.

Once a person succeeded, everyone around him became a good person.

PS: Brothers, the new-book rankings have reached number eighty. I'm still asking for monthly votes and follow-up reading. Let's blast it into the top fifty—one extra chapter!