Provocation and Endurance

Days passed, and Li Yuan's life at Blustering Wind Martial Hall settled into a fixed rhythm.

During the day, he practiced the basic stances of the Iron Body Technique with the other apprentices on the training grounds, stood in stances, and underwent tedious physical training. He deliberately restrained his qi and blood and strength, appearing lukewarm, even somewhat clumsy. His progress in Class C Room was at the bottom, perfectly blending into the ranks of the "mediocre" and "trash."

This naturally drew intensified taunts from Zhao Hu.

"Tsk tsk, look at that kid. He's been practicing for seven or eight days and still looks like a weakling!"

"He can't even hold the most basic Iron Bridge Stance steady. He's truly trash!"

"My belly's skin and muscle are almost feeling something, but he probably can't even find where his qi and blood are!"

Zhao Hu seemed to have made suppressing Li Yuan a form of entertainment amidst the monotonous training, his verbal provocations becoming more blatant. The skinny youth beside him, named Li Gou Er, would often chime in with a few words, looking at Li Yuan with a schadenfreude that came from attaching himself to a stronger person.

Even some Class C Room apprentices who hadn't paid attention before, under Zhao Hu's day-after-day propaganda, began to look at Li Yuan with a degree of disdain. A poor kid with no background, slow progress, and who didn't dare to resist was undoubtedly the lowest existence in this martial hall that adored strength.

To all of this, Li Yuan's response was only two words—silence.

He was like a reef on the shore repeatedly washed by the tide. No matter how Zhao Hu yelled and provoked, he remained expressionless. He trained when it was time to train, ate when it was time to eat, and returned to his room when it was time to return to his room, as if those harsh words were merely a passing breeze.

His endurance, in Zhao Hu's eyes, was a sign of cowardice and incompetence, further fueling his arrogance. But in the eyes of a very few interested people, it was not so.

Take Shi Feng, his roommate, who was always taciturn. He had, on several occasions when Li Yuan woke up early or stayed up late, caught a fleeting glimpse in the other's eyes of a calmness and sharpness like an abyssal pool. That was definitely not the look of someone truly cowardly or desperate. But he couldn't see through Li Yuan's details either, so he kept his distance and watched coldly.

Li Yuan was not without temper. Every insult from Zhao Hu was like a steel needle piercing the pride at the deepest part of his heart. But he knew better: impatience leads to big mistakes.

His strength was his greatest trump card, and it could never be easily exposed.

Night was when he truly transformed.

When the entire martial hall fell into slumber and snores filled Class C Room Seven, Li Yuan would quietly get up, or simply lie on the hard bed and enter a deep cultivation state.

Crimson Sun operated at full capacity, efficiently absorbing the meager essence from the daily medicinal bath and converting it into pure qi and blood. Then, using the unique Crimson Sun Tempering Method, he guided the qi and blood, like the most precise engraving knife, to temper his arms, and even the dermis that began to spread to his chest and back, over and over again.

He could clearly "see" that the dermis of his arms was undergoing a qualitative change in structure under the repeated penetration and nourishment of the Crimson Sun qi and blood. The fibers were as tightly woven as steel wire, and their toughness had reached an astonishing level. Ordinary wood thorns or gravel would barely leave a white mark. He had even secretly tried using the blunt surface of that iron rod to press forcefully, but it only left a shallow pit, which quickly recovered.

These were the signs of a minor accomplishment in the Iron Body Technique! Moreover, it was a tough dermis tempered by even purer Crimson Sun qi and blood, far exceeding the minor accomplishment of the ordinary Iron Body Technique!

However, outwardly, his arms looked no different from those of an ordinary person. Only his skin seemed a bit more delicate and taut, with no hint of the terrifying defensive power contained within.

That night, Zhao Hu, feeling he had made "rapid progress" during the day, was in a great mood. He bragged in the room for half an hour until Shi Feng gave him a cold glare, causing him to awkwardly shut up.

Before going to bed, Zhao Hu habitually turned his attention to Li Yuan, who was preparing to lie down.

"Hey, Li Yuan!" Zhao Hu said, crossing his arms and glancing sideways at him. "The half-monthly exam is in a few days. It'll be a real test of skin and muscle strength. With your cowardly appearance, you probably won't even meet the minimum standard! If you get expelled from the martial hall in public then, you'll truly lose face!"

Li Yuan paused his action of spreading the straw mat, without turning around.

Seeing that he remained silent, Zhao Hu felt like he was punching cotton. An unexplained anger flared up. He stepped forward and poked Li Yuan's back with his finger (though his touch felt unusually firm, making him slightly startled, but he didn't think deeply about it), and said viciously, "I'm talking to you! Are you deaf? Trash!"

Li Yuan slowly straightened up, turned his head, and calmly looked at Zhao Hu. His eyes were as calm as an old well, as if he were looking at an inanimate object.

That gaze made Zhao Hu shiver for no reason, and he subconsciously took half a step back. But immediately, he felt extremely angry at his momentary retreat, and roared with bluster, "What are you looking at? Unconvinced? Believe it or not, Fatty here will make you lie down right now!"

Li Gou Er, standing nearby, shrunk his neck in fear.

Even Shi Feng, who had been resting his eyes, slightly opened his eyes.

Li Yuan looked at Zhao Hu's face reddened with anger for a full three breaths. Then, he said nothing, just silently turned around, lay down on the hard bed board, faced the wall, and closed his eyes.

Complete, utter disregard.

"You...!" Zhao Hu was so angry that his whole body of fat trembled, and his fists creaked as he clenched them. But the martial arts school strictly prohibited private fights, and violators would be heavily penalized. He ultimately did not dare to make a move.

"Good! Good! You just wait!" Zhao Hu ground his teeth, his voice squeezed out from between them, "Half-monthly exam! We'll see how Fatty here makes you reveal your true colors in front of everyone and get out of the martial arts school!"

He hatefully stomped his foot, climbed back to his bed, and continued cursing uncleanly.

The room quieted down again.

Li Yuan, with his back facing everyone, opened his eyes in the darkness.

His gaze was icy cold, like ten thousand years of frozen ice.

He gently caressed the dermis of his arm, which seemingly ordinary, was actually far tougher than that of his peers.

The half-monthly exam, huh...

He was looking forward to it too.