"Teacher Tang, sit. I'll make you some tea!"
"No need. Zhuang Jin, congratulations on breaking through to the Third Meridian... It's just, sigh, I gave too little." Tang Wentao felt somewhat ashamed, but family shame could not be aired in public, and it was inconvenient to explain. After delivering his congratulatory gift, he rose to leave.
"What are you saying, Teacher Tang? No matter how much it is, it's the thought that counts. Jin thanks you for it." Seeing that Tang Wentao insisted on not staying, Zhuang Jin got up and saw him out.
Before long, Lin Hong came as well. This month, he had likewise chosen the Shen Family Headquarters, and upon hearing that Zhuang Jin had broken through, he brought two taels of silver.
Zhuang Jin glanced at the silver and asked, "Lin Hong, you've broken through to the Second Meridian too, haven't you?"
"I broke through just two days ago," Lin Hong replied.
His aptitude was quite good, and his family circumstances were decent as well. His cultivation provisions were ample; his household even provided medicinal meals, along with Exotic Beast Meat occasionally purchased at high prices, to invigorate his blood and qi and hasten his cultivation.
Of course, those things could only speed up cultivation and were useless against bottlenecks. When one encountered a bottleneck, one would still be stuck. However, they could let one complete the accumulation for each Meridian Realm sooner, so breaking through more quickly was only natural.
Zhuang Jin pushed the silver back. "Lin Hong, congratulations."
Seeing this, Lin Hong sighed inwardly, secretly regretting that he had not grown closer to Zhuang Jin back in the dormitory. Still, he made one last attempt. "My family's circumstances are fairly good. Brother Zhuang has only recently broken through, so if you're short on funds