The Second Entry?

White clouds drifted lazily across the sky.

Time came to one incense stick later.

Besides Dean Wang Fugui, four more people now stood before Shen Zhou.

Among them was the old man with a tobacco pipe, martial cultivator Ji Honggang.

A woman holding an embroidered fan, with a gentle and virtuous temperament, sword cultivator Li Taohua.

And a scruffy, melancholy-looking man, blade cultivator Ouyang Zhen.

Finally, there was a man in white robes, around twenty years old, with fair, handsome features who looked nothing like he belonged here—medical cultivator Bai Feizhan.

These five people together formed the entire faculty of White Deer Academy.

Looking at these five people whose temperaments and identities were completely mismatched, Shen Zhou's eyelids twitched repeatedly.

He had the feeling that Qin Mingyue had spent money to hire five actors to put on a show for him.

This was way too unprofessional!

On the other side, Qin Mingyue had already handed a pouch of silver to Dean Wang Fugui. The latter's face immediately bloomed into a smile at the sight of the money, and he assured her again, "Don't worry. As long as they come to our White Deer Academy, as long as they can stick with their studies here, I guarantee they'll learn something worthwhile!"

Qin Mingyue smiled. She didn't really care whether Shen Zhou learned anything worthwhile or not.

In fact, there was one thing she didn't quite understand: since he had already been acknowledged by the Taixuan Sword, why was he still looking for outsiders to train with?

"Could it be that he hasn't fully gained the sword spirit's recognition yet?"

A strange glint flashed in Qin Mingyue's eyes. Then she turned and walked over to Shen Zhou, explaining, "I've already paid half a year's tuition for you. Study for now. If you're not satisfied later, you can withdraw at any time. Your grand-aunt also said she can come personally to teach you cultivation whenever she wants—that's entirely up to you, Head of the Family."

Shen Zhou automatically ignored Qin Mingyue's address of "Head of the Family." He just stared at Ji Honggang and the others, a look of doubt on his face. "Can these people really teach us?"

He hadn't spoken loudly, but Wang Fugui still heard him.

Afraid of losing the business, Wang Fugui quickly shot Ji Honggang a look and called out, "Old Ji, come on, show the students what we've got. Don't let them think we're frauds."

Ji Honggang, however, took an impatient puff of his pipe and said, "If they want to learn, learn. If not, get lost. Who has time to be a monkey for them to gawk at?"

Wang Fugui panicked and hurried over to whisper persuasively, "Old Ji, we had a deal. I handle recruitment, you handle teaching. Don't you go undermining me and slacking off now.

See that pretty girl over there? She's from the Qin family. Rich.

If these few stay on long-term, won't your disciples finally have the money for body-tempering medicines in the future?

Even if you don't care about the academy, think about them."

A single coin can stump a hero.

Ji Honggang didn't want to bow to a peck of rice, but circumstances forced his hand.

Their White Deer Academy had never been famous, had no money, and body cultivation was the most expensive path of all. They only took in children from ordinary families, so over time, the academy had fallen to this state.

Listening to Wang Fugui's incessant chatter in his ear, Ji Honggang's face darkened. Finally, helplessly, he called out behind him, "Tan Tong, come out and show them."

As his voice fell, a sturdy young man immediately stepped out from the group of children who had been practicing martial arts earlier.

Tan Tong wasn't tall—sixteen or seventeen years old—with a square, honest face. His body didn't look particularly remarkable on the outside, but the muscles beneath his clothes were as solid as stone, and the blood and qi inside him were thick and abundant.

Even from a distance, Shen Zhou could feel a surging, vigorous life force radiating from him.

This was a sign of minor achievement in body cultivation.

After coming out, Tan Tong walked straight toward a large stone at the edge of the training ground.

The stone was about the size of a bucket, with a hard texture.

But Tan Tong didn't hesitate. He picked it up with both hands, then slammed his head straight into it.

The large stone cracked on impact.

Tan Tong's head also visibly swelled up red.

Seeing this, Shen Zhou, A Dai, and the others sucked in a sharp breath.

So this was body-tempering martial arts?

Too brutal!

Ji Honggang seemed not to have expected his disciple to demonstrate it that way. The corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily as he muttered under his breath, "This fool is too earnest. I told you to use your fist to show them, not your head..."

Shen Zhou looked at Tan Tong, whose face was flushed red from holding back, and couldn't help asking, "Does it hurt?"

Tan Tong paused, then answered honestly, "It hurts."

"Then why don't you yell?"

"I can take it!"

"..." Shen Zhou was stunned.

Had this kid gotten stupid from body cultivation?

Would he end up like this if he trained in body cultivation too?

That gave him something to think about—whether he really wanted to go down that path.

Li Taohua and Ouyang Zhen couldn't help but laugh, while Ji Honggang's old face flushed red as he couldn't help but bark, "You little brat, you still know pain? Pain means you haven't trained enough yet. Go on, get back to it. From now on, smash your head against that stone every day. When it stops hurting, then we'll move on to something else."

Tan Tong obediently acknowledged and withdrew.

Wang Fugui stepped in to smooth things over, laughing, "Haha... that little display just now was only a small taste of what our students can do, and it doesn't represent our teachers' true skills. Once you formally take them as masters, I believe you'll see what they're really capable of. Now, whoever wants to learn what, you can pick your own teacher."

Shen Zhou was still hesitating, but A Dai was the first to make up his mind. He said to the former, "Boss Zhou, since we're here, we might as well settle in. If Ancestor Qin sent us here to learn martial arts, then this place can't be bad. I'm willing to give it a try first. If it really doesn't work out, we can always leave later."

With that, he walked over to the blade cultivator Ouyang Zhen, then knelt down earnestly and respectfully, his attitude sincere.

Ouyang Zhen was a man of few words. He glanced at A Dai, saw his good attitude, and nodded simply. "Alright. From now on, you'll learn the blade from me."

After hearing A Dai's words, Shen Zhou also steadied his resolve. He figured Old Madam Qin wouldn't be so bored as to recommend a bunch of flashy frauds just to toy with him.

Then he said to Xi Mei, "Xi Mei, you go too. Didn't you want to learn the sword?"

Xi Mei nodded, then timidly walked over to the woman Li Taohua. Imitating A Dai's gesture, she bowed respectfully and called out, "Greetings, Teacher."

Li Taohua seemed to take a liking to Xi Mei. She bent down and gently patted the latter's head, then without a word, took Xi Mei's hand and led her into the manor.

Xi Mei kept looking back, reluctantly waving at Shen Zhou.

Next came San Mazi. His gaze swept over the remaining three—Dean Wang Fugui, Ji Honggang, and Bai Feizhan—before he scratched his head and said, "Boss, I don't even know what I want to learn. How about you pick for me?"

Before Shen Zhou could answer, the young Bai Feizhan stepped forward with a smile. "Since you don't know what to learn, why not start by studying medicine with me? I happen to need an apprentice. I'll take you around to learn about herbs, how to treat illnesses—think of it as picking up a trade. You'll never go hungry."

San Mazi heard that and figured he wouldn't have to train hard in martial arts, which didn't sound bad, so he agreed.

Finally, it was Shen Zhou's turn. He wanted to train his body, which left only the pipe-smoking old man, Ji Honggang, as an option.

Shen Zhou felt Old Ji wasn't very reliable, so he asked cautiously, "Old man, if I train with you, I won't have to smash my head against a stone too, will I?"

Who knew Ji Honggang also found Shen Zhou disagreeable? He snorted coldly and said, "Smash a stone? You wish. Smashing stones is advanced content. A beginner like you jumping straight to that—aren't you afraid of cracking your skull open? Starting tomorrow, you'll stand here with these kids and practice your punches and horse stance."

Shen Zhou was stunned.

What the hell? Smashing stones counts as advanced content now?

If I train under him, is there even any future in it?

"Good thing I snatched that Wild Desolate Art from the Xu family earlier. Once I've built a solid foundation, I'll give it a try. No matter what, it's got to be better than Old Ji's 'Stone-Smashing Technique.'"

Shen Zhou thought silently to himself.

The morning sun rose, its light faint and hazy.

In the still slightly damp air of early dawn, a group of youths was once again practicing punches on the yellow earth at the center of the manor.

The boys shouted with effort, their punches forceful, bringing vibrant life to this peaceful little village.

Shen Zhou stood at the back of the line, feet planted in a horse stance, fists clenched, following the group's shouts as he threw punch after punch.

At first, it felt easy, but after half an hour of this, his legs began to ache, and his arms could no longer stay straight.

But Shen Zhou had one virtue: once he set his mind on something, he would see it through to the end.

So he gritted his teeth, said nothing, and stubbornly kept up with the group's training.

This caught the attention of Old Ji, who had been quietly observing from the side.

Body training was the hardest path in martial arts. If one's nature wasn't tough enough to endure hardship, it was best not to take this road at all.

He had Shen Zhou start with horse stance and punches alongside these kids precisely to temper the boy's character, but he hadn't expected that the outwardly unreliable youth actually had the grit to endure.

"Hope it's not just a flash of passion. Let's see how long he can last."

Old Ji then closed his eyes and continued his feigned nap.

Outside the crowd, Qin Mingyue was also sitting cross-legged nearby, practicing. She had said she would always follow Shen Zhou, and it seemed that wasn't an empty promise.

As for why Qin Mingyue did this, no one knew except herself.

Shen Zhou also suspected that Qin Mingyue's motives for following him weren't pure, but without evidence for now, he could only let it be.

Time passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, over half a month had gone by.

That afternoon, on the yellow earth training ground.

While everyone else had dispersed to rest, a single figure remained on the field, throwing punches over and over again, training with remarkable diligence.

That person was none other than Shen Zhou.

Over this period, he had proven with his actions that he was someone who could endure hardship and persevere.

This should have been a heartening thing, but unfortunately...

"Diligent, yes, but a blockhead for all that."

Old Ji, watching Shen Zhou practice punches from afar, couldn't help but sigh.

In his words, for anyone practicing this set of punches, a genius could stimulate their blood energy in three days and smoothly step into the threshold of the Martial Blood Coagulation realm.

Those with slightly lesser talent took five days.

Ordinary talent took seven.

Poor talent took ten.

As for those who couldn't stimulate their blood energy even after half a month, that wasn't just 'bad'—that was a thousand-year iron tree that simply refused to bloom.

In that situation, even if Shen Zhou managed to enter the realm, his future cultivation would be riddled with difficulties.

He had even once advised Shen Zhou to give up martial arts and switch to studying medicine.

But Shen Zhou refused to accept fate and insisted on persevering.

In truth, he couldn't afford not to persist—because to withstand the eruption of the 'Trait,' he had to train his body. Even if he couldn't make progress, he still had to train. There was no other way.

He had even tried the stolen 'Wild Desolate Art,' but it turned out that the 'Wild Desolate Art' required blood coagulation before it could be cultivated. Shen Zhou nearly spat blood over that.

Wasn't this a damn Möbius strip?

To practice the technique, he first needed to condense blood energy; to condense blood energy, he first needed to practice the technique...

At the root of it all, the 'Trait' had increased the difficulty for him.

The 'Trait' had reforged his tendons and marrow, improving his bone structure and physique, but at the same time, it had raised the threshold for stimulating his blood energy.

Wasn't that the very reason he had failed the Flying Bird Academy test back then?

Shen Zhou gritted his teeth over this. "I refuse to believe I can never stimulate it!"

Thump, thump, thump...

On the yellow earth, Shen Zhou's punches grew heavier and heavier, over and over again.

As the sky darkened and he was about to stop and continue tomorrow—

Suddenly, a faint wisp of red mist seeped out from the surface of his body.

Seeing this, Shen Zhou froze, then burst into ecstasy. "Blood energy? I stimulated blood energy? I finally stimulated blood energy!"

Just as he was getting excited, a golden prompt box popped out above his head, displaying a line of text.

[Entry Reward: Daily Enlightenment (White).]

Shen Zhou's pupils trembled. "The... second Trait?"