The Black Market.
Exotic Beast Meat.
Everything proved that for a Skin Grinding Realm martial artist, advancing further was no less difficult than an ordinary person learning martial arts and becoming a martial artist!
Without the support of a wealthy family,
what difference did it make that Jiang Shu had the profits from Zhou Family Restaurant?
He'd still be trapped in the Skin Grinding Realm for his whole life, just like Qi Yuan!
Qi Yuan sighed inwardly. Just then, Jiang Shu's voice drifted over on the wind, calm and faint. "Is it impossible?"
"Damn it. What kind of dream are you having?"
The words slipped out before he could think. As soon as they left his mouth, Qi Yuan clamped it shut, and the next moment fell silent.
It seemed that before he became a martial artist, he too had once imagined that one day he might become a Viscera Refining Realm expert.
The Skin Grinding Realm only trained the skin and membranes.
The Bone Forging Realm only trained the bone membranes.
In essence, people in those realms were still just like ordinary people, subject to birth, aging, sickness, and death.
Before a hundred years had passed, they would be nothing but dust.
But Viscera Refining Realm martial artists lived for more than a hundred and twenty years!
That was what it truly meant to have succeeded in martial arts!
His thoughts drifted far away, and Qi Yuan fell silent. After a long while, he finally said, "It'd be a shame not to drink such good wine..."
"What the hell is there to be ashamed of!" Jiang Shu spat. "If you can't take that step, then you'll spend your whole life drinking Pingling County wine and sleeping with Pingling County women. Don't you want to go out and see the world?"
Pointing toward the distant mountain range, Jiang Shu raised his voice. "Cross those mountains! Go drink the wine in Yongning Prefecture's capital! Go sleep with the women there!"
Qi Yuan followed the direction of Jiang Shu's finger. The mountains he'd once thought impossible to cross now seemed several notches lower.
"Is the wine in Yongning Prefecture really better?"
He couldn't help murmuring the words, but he was already beginning to doubt himself.
Doubting whether he should really spend every day immersed in fine wine.
"If it's not good, then go to the provincial capital! If a Bone Forging Realm martial artist can't make it, then go as a Viscera Refining Realm martial artist. If a Viscera Refining Realm martial artist can't make it, then go as something beyond Viscera Refining. We practice martial arts to let our thoughts flow freely. Senior Brother Qi, I don't think you even truly love wine."
"A real wine lover, upon realizing he'll never get to drink every fine wine under heaven in his lifetime, ought to weep bitterly, shouldn't he?"
"Bullshit!"
"Is Pingling County wine good?"
"It's horse piss!"
"Is the wine I brought good?"
"Excellent!"
"Yongning Prefecture's capital has even better wine. Are you going?"
"I'm going!"
Qi Yuan tossed his wine gourd aside. "See? I said I wouldn't drink, and I won't! Not a drop until I reach the Viscera Refining Realm! What about you, Junior Brother? When are you going to reach the Skin Grinding Realm?"
"It's been more than half a month since Master taught you Roaring Tiger Mountain Strength, and you still haven't grasped it. Do you know how long your senior brother took? I figured it out in just over twenty days! Your senior brother made it in just over twenty days!"
"Made what, made yourself a drunkard?"
Jiang Shu curled his lip. "Watch closely. If you don't make progress, one day you'll call me Senior Brother, and I'll spar with you."
???
Watching his increasingly cocky junior brother, Qi Yuan decided to stop indulging him. He punched the air, his Inner Strength cracking like an explosion. With his usual cool expression and chin slightly raised, he looked just as he had the day they first met.
"You've only seen me holding back my Inner Strength. If I went all out, you'd look at me like a frog at the bottom of a well gazing up at the moon."
He lowered his fist and stood straight, looking remarkably imposing for a moment.
"Senior Brother Qi."
"Hmm?"
Qi Yuan answered coolly, maintaining his image.
All he wanted now was to hear Jiang Shu praise him.
Only then could the gloom in his heart be lifted.
But Jiang Shu knew him too well to indulge him. He simply said, "The fox-bear meat you made tastes awful."
"I have a method called grilling. I'll make it tomorrow."
"I admit that, as things stand, you're far ahead of me in martial arts."
"But when it comes to cooking..." Jiang Shu shot Qi Yuan a sidelong glance. "You're like a mayfly looking up at the sky."
Jiang Shu—
Great Jing Dynasty Language/Writing: Minor Achievement (300/1000) Horse Stance: Complete (10/1000) Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance: Greater Mastery (600/1000) Hungry Tiger Breathing Method: Greater Mastery (600/1000) Tiger Form Three Styles: Complete (10/1000)
With Qi Yuan's sparring and the nourishment of fox-bear meat, Jiang Shu had made rapid progress in all three methods of training, nourishing, and striking. That very day, his Tiger Form Three Styles had reached completion.
Moonlight slanted into the small courtyard.
Jiang Shu moved like a tiger, while the scent of fox-bear meat wafted from the grill behind him.
Qi Yuan wasn't sitting in a chair. Having long since perfected the Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance, he crouched like a tiger and picked up a skewer of meat, its aroma rising to meet him.
He hadn't expected the grilled meat made by his junior brother to be so delicious.
A brush of sesame oil and a few spices sprinkled over the meat had transformed the fox-bear meat he'd once found almost impossible to swallow into a superb delicacy.
What kind of miserable life had he been living before?
Thank goodness for his junior brother.
It was just a shame that even the fox-bear meat he had wasn't quite enough for him to eat alone.
With Jiang Shu added to the mix, their daily consumption was even greater.
In just five days, the fox-bear meat he'd bought at the Black Market was already half gone.
"Junior Brother, your Tiger Form Three Styles have reached completion, but your ferocity still isn't strong enough!"
Qi Yuan narrowed his eyes and leapt up. After five days without wine, he'd been practicing martial arts about an hour longer each day than before.
His Inner Strength surged through his body as he punched.
"The martial arts taught by the schools in Pingling County are mostly based on observing birds and beasts. The Spinning Turtle Martial Arts School's techniques emphasize a steady temperament. The Antelope Martial Arts School's techniques prize alertness."
"So those with calm temperaments go to the Spinning Turtle Martial Arts School. Those of humble origins who are cautious by nature usually study at the Antelope Martial Arts School. Your temperament has to match your martial arts for you to make rapid progress."
"Our Hungry Tiger Martial Arts School is all about killing. The Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance is about building murderous intent. If your ferocity and killing intent aren't strong, you'll be at a disadvantage from the start when practicing Roaring Tiger Mountain Strength."
Qi Yuan gave Jiang Shu pointers as he fought, each punch radiating murderous intent. Ever since his all-night conversation with Jiang Shu, it was as though an invisible shackle around him had gradually fallen away.
He was a true son of Pingling County.
He'd lived there for twenty years and understood Pingling County better than Jiang Shu did!
The wealthy families.
The County Office.
They were more like barriers standing between him and the world than even that distant mountain, blocking his way and weighing on his heart.
In a world like this, in a county town like this,
what use was it to keep a calm temperament like a turtle?
What use was it to be as timid and cautious as an antelope?
If you were going to practice martial arts,
then you had to be like a tiger emerging from its cave!
Qi Yuan's movements grew smoother and smoother. Every so often, he let out a long roar, his Inner Strength surging without pause. Suddenly, it seemed to break through some barrier. The punch he threw could no longer be held back, and it slammed directly into a stone post in the courtyard.
"Bang!"
The stone post flew up.
Before you continue