Although there was plenty of meat at home and he had no worries about food or clothing, Su Mo knew his family had almost no money. He'd heard that joining a martial arts school run by an old martial artist required a hefty enrollment fee.
So he could only borrow an ox cart from someone in the village, then haul five Green Wolves to Qingshan Town to sell. In truth, Su Mo could have carried all five there with ease, but he used the villagers' cart so as not to draw too much attention.
"Su Mo, your uncle knows you want to join the martial arts school here in Qingshan Town. After all, Zhang Qian, Zhang Hai, Li Goudan, Chen Mazi, and the other young people in the village were all spotted by the Black Eagle Sect in Anyuan County Town and accepted as disciples. You surely don't want to fall behind."
"But I've heard the old martial artist who runs this school has a bit of a temper. Once you join, be careful."
Beside Su Mo stood a villager from Shuanglin Village. He owned the ox cart and usually brought villagers to Qingshan Town when they wanted to go to market, earning a little money for his hard work.
He also knew Qingshan Town very well.
Su Mo took out ten copper coins and paid the villager for the cart. Usually, a single passenger paid two coins, but this time Su Mo had hired the whole cart, with five Green Wolves and a dozen or so wild rabbits, so he paid ten coins. It was a very fair price.
Su Mo also thanked the villager for the warning. He really didn't know much about what went on inside the martial arts school.
After unloading the five Green Wolves and a dozen or so wild rabbits, Su Mo set them down by the roadside and began selling them.
Green Wolves were beasts, and their meat was tender and succulent, so plenty of people came to buy it. Most were wealthy families in Qingshan Town.
These wealthy households owned dozens or even hundreds of mu of fertile land, and ran the town's taverns and grain shops. They especially enjoyed rare game like Green Wolf meat.
"Hey, young hunter, how about thirty coins a jin? I'll take it all."
Before long, a wealthy buyer had snapped up all of Su Mo's Green Wolf meat and rabbit meat. Green Wolves were hard to hunt in the mountains, so they usually fetched a good price—twenty-eight coins a jin.
Su Mo had brought five Green Wolves and more than a dozen wild rabbits, and the wolves were quite large, with good-quality meat. The buyer offered thirty coins a jin for everything. He wanted it all because his son had joined the martial arts school run by that old martial artist in the Tendon Changing Realm. Training required meat, and Green Wolf meat was rare game from a beast.
Hunters seldom came to Qingshan Town to sell Green Wolf meat.
"Deal!"
Su Mo readily agreed. Each of the five Green Wolves weighed around a hundred and thirty jin, and there were twelve wild rabbits, averaging ten jin each. Rabbit meat couldn't actually fetch thirty coins a jin, but the wealthy buyer was mainly after the Green Wolf meat. Afraid Su Mo might refuse, he'd bought the whole lot.
In the end, the five Green Wolves and a dozen or so rabbits sold for a total of more than twenty-three strings and one hundred coins.
One string was worth a thousand coins, and a thousand coins equaled one silver tael, so Su Mo now had twenty-three taels of silver.
In Shuanglin Village, that much money would have made him a tycoon.
But to the wealthy families of Qingshan Town, it was merely what they spent on meat for their sons—not worth mentioning.
"Five Green Wolves and a dozen or so wild rabbits, and he made that much? That hunter's struck it rich."
"You can't put it that way. Rabbits are easy to hunt, but Green Wolves aren't. To take down five of them, this hunter must have some exceptional hunting skills. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten such a high price for the rabbit meat."
At the nearby stalls, some hunters watched Su Mo sell his game for more than twenty-three taels of silver and couldn't hide their envy.
But when they remembered he'd hunted Green Wolves, they thought the price was only natural.
After putting away the money, Su Mo followed the directions to a broad, imposing martial arts school. Many people had come to seek instruction, and the entrance was bustling. Four large characters were written on the signboard above the gate:
Guande Martial Arts School.
This was the school founded by the old martial artist in the Tendon Changing Realm after he returned to Qingshan Town.
It was the first martial arts school in Qingshan Town to have a Tendon Changing Realm expert in charge, and the only one.
A martial arts school wasn't something just anyone could open. Its master had to be powerful enough to withstand challenges from peers and rival schools before earning the right to run one.
Besides, Qingshan Town was merely a small town under Anyuan County Town. Reputable martial arts schools with real strength wouldn't open a branch here.
That was why Guande Martial Arts School was the first in Qingshan Town.
If you're enjoying this book and don't want to lose track of it, remember to add it to your bookshelf.
The old martial artist in the Tendon Changing Realm was named Yu Guande, and the school was named after him.
"The enrollment fee is fifteen taels. If you can't afford it, it's hard for us to believe you're determined to train and become a Martial Artist. Sorry, but our school won't accept anyone whose resolve isn't firm."
Beside the school's gate, a burly disciple dressed in a martial arts uniform spoke.
Su Mo stood outside Guande Martial Arts School, watching people come and go without pause. Clearly, many wanted to join. But when they heard the enrollment fee was a full fifteen taels, many began to lose heart.
For an ordinary family, ten taels of silver could cover nearly a whole year's expenses. But joining the school cost fifteen taels—a price many couldn't afford.
Though Qingshan Town had plenty of wealthy households, not everyone was rich.
The steep enrollment fee made many people who wanted to learn martial arts shake their heads and leave. Some planned to go home and scrape together the money, as if that alone would make them Martial Artists.
"So as long as you pay the full enrollment fee, you can become a disciple without even having your bone structure and aptitude tested?"
Su Mo stood quietly in the crowd, observing the school's enrollment process. It made him frown slightly. They barely tested anyone's aptitude or bone structure; as long as you paid the fee, you could join.
There didn't seem to be anything wrong with that—in fact, it suited Su Mo just fine. But he'd seen the Black Eagle Sect's disciple selection, and couldn't help wondering whether Guande Martial Arts School was a little too fixated on money, while caring far less about its disciples' aptitude and bone structure.
Su Mo had come for a body-tempering Cultivation Technique. As long as the school had one, everything else was secondary.
"Senior Brother, I'd like to join Guande Martial Arts School."
Su Mo stepped forward and spoke.
"Junior Brother, you look like a perfect fit for our school. But joining requires an enrollment fee of fifteen taels. Have you brought it all?"
The martial arts school senior in uniform asked him outside the gate.
Looking at Su Mo's clothes, he seemed a little surprised. He hadn't expected a hunter to want to join the school—but could he afford it?
"Senior Brother, I've brought the full enrollment fee," Su Mo replied.
"Excellent! I knew I could trust my judgment. Your unwavering determination to train and practice martial arts—I could sense it from a mile away. You're exactly the kind of person our school is looking for!"
The senior in the martial arts uniform beamed at his answer, then hurriedly ushered Su Mo inside Guande Martial Arts School.
As soon as Su Mo entered, he saw a vast, spacious training ground. Many disciples were practicing their martial arts there.
The disciples ranged in age from fourteen or fifteen to their twenties. Some over thirty were even training at the edge of the grounds. It was obvious that they'd all been recruited recently.
The punches and palm techniques they performed were crude and clumsy.
Su Mo was taken aback. Guande Martial Arts School's requirements for new disciples were... far too lax.
"Junior Brother, what's your name?" the senior who had led Su Mo inside asked.
"Senior Brother, my name is Su Mo," he replied.
"Su Mo—that's a good name. I'm Luo Lianbo. If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me!"
The senior, Luo Lianbo, said this. Perhaps noticing the confusion in Su Mo's eyes, he continued:
"Junior Brother, don't be fooled by how easy it is to get into our school. It's something Master intended. When he was young, he left Qingshan Town, but had no connections. He wandered and struggled for a long time before he finally got the chance to practice a Cultivation Technique."
"So now that Master has returned to Qingshan Town to open a school, retirement is only part of it. Most of all, he wants to open the gates wide so everyone can train and learn martial arts, and no one has to suffer the same lack of opportunity he did. When Master told us all this, I couldn't help crying. I just thought he was truly so great."
"Junior Brother Su Mo, do you think Master's actions are great?"
Seeing Luo Lianbo talk until he was about to rub his eyes, Su Mo hurriedly said, "Yes, Master's actions are truly great."
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