Sure enough, things went exactly as Jiang Tian had expected.
Zhou Mu's post standing was being taught to him personally by Yuan Long.
At lunchtime, Jiang Tian sat in a corner with his bowl and saw, from a distance, two big, glistening chicken legs lying in Zhou Mu's bowl.
One had been placed there by Yuan Long himself. The other had been taken from Li Batian's own food box.
There was also a petite young woman who kept circling around Zhou Mu, her eyes shining like a cat's at the sight of fish.
Whenever Zhou Mu practiced post standing by himself, she would hurry over, pull out a small handkerchief, and gently wipe his sweat, as though she were polishing a precious piece of porcelain.
Zhou Mu had never encountered anything like this. The back of his neck turned red, and he could barely get his words out.
The woman spoke in a sickly sweet voice. After listening to her for a while, Jiang Tian couldn't help mentally labeling her with a term from his previous life: a typical green tea bitch.
But Jiang Tian felt nothing about it.
No jealousy, no envy. He was perfectly calm.
His eyes were fixed only on the fist.
[Ding! Your Excellent Bone Structure and Innate Wisdom Root have increased your Five Animals Fist proficiency by 3!] [Ding! Your Excellent Bone Structure and Innate Wisdom Root have increased your Five Animals Fist proficiency by 3!] [Ding! Your Excellent Bone Structure and Innate Wisdom Root have increased your Five Animals Fist proficiency by 3!] [Martial Art: Five Animals Fist (Beginner) (53+/200)]
According to Zhang Ergou, once the Five Animals Fist reached the minor mastery stage, one could follow the momentum to temper the body and step into the first realm of the martial path—the Body Tempering Realm.
At Jiang Tian's current pace, it shouldn't take much longer.
By evening, it was time to leave the hall.
Li Batian hooked an arm around Zhou Mu's shoulders, a smile on his face. "Brother Zhou, come on. I'll take you out to see the world."
"Senior Brother Li..." Zhou Mu scratched his head and politely declined, blushing. "My mother's waiting at home for me to eat."
"Come on..." Li Batian scoffed. A trace of disdain flashed through his eyes, so quickly it was almost impossible to catch. "What's so good about the coarse meals at your home?"
He patted Zhou Mu on the shoulder, his tone leaving no room for refusal. "So, are you coming or not?"
The few lackeys around Li Batian crowded in too, chiming in one after another.
"Brother Zhou, come with us! We'll treat you to a feast, and you can get a taste of life in the city while you're at it."
"Brother Batian is a young master of one of Blackwater County's Three Great Families. If we weren't all in the same martial arts hall, we'd never get the chance to speak with him!"
"Exactly! Come on, let's go."
Surrounded by the group, Zhou Mu looked at a loss. His lips moved, but in the end, he nodded. "Then... then I'll go this once."
Jiang Tian stood not far away and took in the whole scene.
Whether it was the green tea from earlier that day or this "warm invitation" that evening, both were after Zhou Mu's talent, plain and simple.
The green tea wanted to climb up the social ladder. Li Batian seemed to want to make friends, but Jiang Tian could see clearly that the disdain in his eyes was impossible to hide. Even his tone carried an air of condescending authority.
Deep down, he still looked down on Zhou Mu, that poor country boy.
He was just... trying to raise himself a dog.
Jiang Tian shook his head, said goodbye to Zhang Ergou, and turned to leave the martial arts hall.
In the rear courtyard of the Five Animals Martial Hall, in the master's study.
"Master!"
Zhang Ergou clasped his fists in greeting, his expression solemn. "Your disciple has something important to report!"
"Oh?" Yuan Long raised his brows slightly, still wearing a faint smile.
He had taken in Zhou Mu, who had Grade A Bone Structure, that very day, and he was in an excellent mood.
Zhang Ergou drew a deep breath and recounted everything about Jiang Tian over the past two days, from mastering post standing in just two days, to learning the Five Animals Fist after watching it once, to the subtle changes in his Root Bone. He left nothing out.
When he finished, Yuan Long's eyes flickered a few times, and his hand unconsciously rubbed the armrest of his chair.
He began picturing Jiang Tian in his mind: that frail scholar with Grade C Bone Structure, whom he'd barely even looked at when he first arrived.
If what Zhang Ergou said was true...
Yuan Long narrowed his eyes slightly.
As for Zhang Ergou's claim that Jiang Tian's Root Bone had changed, he didn't believe it at all.
A person's Root Bone was set in the womb. How could it change just like that?
Unless...
He shook his head, casting the thought aside.
It was only a rumor.
Jiang Tian returned home, bolted the door, and summoned the panel with a thought.
[Trait Points: 1970]
He planned to upgrade Innate Wisdom Root first.
"Add points."
[Trait: Innate Wisdom Root (Blue) (27+/1000) → Superb Comprehension (Purple) (1+/5000)]
The instant the panel appeared—
Time seemed to freeze.
The wind outside the window stopped. Dust motes hung motionless in the air. It was as if someone had pressed pause on the entire world.
Then Jiang Tian's mind began to flash like a reel of film.
Memories from his previous life—his first cry as an infant, the plane trees on his university campus, the nights spent revising proposals until dawn while starting a business, and finally the empty rental apartment and the bottle of erguotou on the table—all flickered through his mind in frame after frame, clear as though he were watching someone else's life.
"Boom—"
A dull crash exploded in his mind, as if something sealed away for ages had just been smashed open.
Jiang Tian's eyes flew open.
A faint white light flickered in his eyes, then vanished.
The world had changed.
He looked up at the ceiling. Every grain in the wooden beams was as clear as if it had been carved with a knife; even the direction of the wood fibers stood out in perfect detail.
He looked down at the floor. The dust drifting through the air was startlingly clear to him. Each speck slowly spun and fell, its path distinct.
His hearing and sense of smell also seemed to have had their volume turned up.
He focused his attention, and the voices of his neighbors next door came through clearly.
The lingering aroma of tonight's dinner filled the air: pickled cabbage and tofu stew made by his sister-in-law, along with the fragrance of scallions sizzling in the wok. Every wisp was distinct.
More importantly, his understanding of the Five Animals Fist he'd learned that day had suddenly changed.
He hadn't merely "memorized" the moves. He truly "understood" the reasoning behind every technique.
Why the Tiger Style required sinking the shoulders and dropping the elbows, why the Bear Style's center of gravity had to be so low... The moves he had previously imitated mechanically now had clear causes and effects in his eyes.
Jiang Tian put on his shoes, got out of bed, and went into the courtyard. Without thinking, he assumed a fighting stance.
His fist shot out like the wind.
[Ding! Your Excellent Bone Structure and Superb Comprehension have increased your Five Animals Fist proficiency by 7!] [Ding! Your Excellent Bone Structure and Superb Comprehension have increased your Five Animals Fist proficiency by 7!]
"Hmm?"
Jiang Tian stopped his fist and paused in surprise.
The improvement brought by the trait's evolution was far greater than he'd imagined. His proficiency had jumped from three points per increase straight to seven.
He summoned the panel with a thought.
[Host: Jiang Tian] [Lifespan: 16/17] [Realm: None] [Martial Arts: Five Animals Fist (Beginner) (69+/200)] [Traits: Excellent Bone Structure (Blue) (500+/1000), Superb Comprehension (Purple) (1+/5000)] [Trait Points: 996]
"Let's see how far a purple-quality Root Bone can take me."
"Add points!"
[Trait: Excellent Bone Structure (Blue) → Innate Martial Bone (Purple) (446+/5000)]
The instant the panel appeared, Jiang Tian's feet seemed to give way.
It was as if he'd stepped through a sheet of thin ice. He suddenly plunged downward. An endless black abyss seemed to split open beneath his feet, and the sensation of free fall shot from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, enveloping his whole body.
Wind roared past his ears.
He didn't know how long he had been falling.
A second?
A day?
Then the sensation of free fall disappeared.
In its place came a gentle, enveloping warmth.
It was completely different from the excruciating pain of being cut by a thousand knives that had accompanied his previous Root Bone upgrade. This time, it didn't hurt at all. It felt wonderful.
It was as if a pair of soft, smooth hands were slowly caressing his body from head to toe. Wherever their fingertips passed, his bones, meridians, and sinews gradually changed.
This wasn't rough forging. It was delicate carving.
After an unknown length of time, Jiang Tian slowly opened his eyes.
The instant they opened, a flash of lightning seemed to streak through his pupils, bright enough to almost illuminate the entire courtyard.
He instinctively looked down at his body.
Then he froze.
This time, there was none of that black grime and no strange smell.
He was completely clean. Only a warm luster faintly shone across the surface of his skin, like jade that had been carefully polished.
"Could it be..." Jiang Tian thoughtfully rubbed his arm. Beneath his skin, his bones felt as solid as cast iron. "The last upgrade already purged all the impurities from my body, so this time it was just pure strengthening?"
He clenched his fist. His knuckles cracked, and his strength was another thirty percent greater than before.
His blood and qi surged inside him like a great river, and with every breath he could feel that warm power flowing through his limbs and bones.
He seemed to have grown a little taller, too.
The blood and qi he had developed through post standing had also grown much stronger.
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