After leaving the apothecary, Tan Tong took Shen Zhou to find the "eldest senior brother."
On the way, Shen Zhou asked curiously, "How many disciples does Old Man Ji have in total?"
Tan Tong replied, "Our teacher has taught five disciples in all. Eldest Senior Brother Tang Shan is the strongest, at the Transformation Realm Second Level; Second Senior Brother Meng Gang is at the Transformation Realm First Level; Third Senior Brother Chen Xu is at the Transformation Realm First Level; Fourth Senior Brother Cai Xiaoyan is at the Coagulation Ninth Realm; and Fifth Senior Brother Pei Dahai is at the Coagulation Ninth Realm.
"There were many other senior brothers and fellow disciples, but they all thought body cultivation was too difficult. In the end, they couldn't stick with it and gave up halfway."
Shen Zhou fell silent.
It seemed body cultivation really wasn't an easy path.
As they talked, they arrived at a place called Martial Hall Street.
It had that name because the street had more than twenty martial halls of all sizes, and even the Five Great Families had opened halls there.
As Shen Zhou walked along with Tan Tong, he suddenly noticed a martial hall up ahead with a very unusual name. "'Flying Bird First Martial Hall'? Whoa, which family opened this place? They've got some nerve. Aren't they afraid someone will come challenge them?"
Qin Mingyue had been walking on Shen Zhou's right. Hearing him, she instinctively glanced at Tan Tong on her left.
The latter's face instantly reddened, and he stammered, "It... it was opened by our White Deer Academy."
Shen Zhou said, "Huh?"
Tan Tong explained that the academy had opened the martial hall to give itself a source of income and ease its financial strain.
But the name had been chosen by Old Man Ji. As he put it, since they were opening a martial hall, Tang Shan and the others shouldn't just sit around. They could find people to help them hone their martial arts and perhaps even improve further.
But finding people to challenge them was too much trouble. It was better to let others come to challenge them, so they had come up with this name.
And sure enough, once the name went up, challengers came in an endless stream.
The martial halls on Martial Hall Street, in particular, had nearly all come by to challenge them.
Tang Shan and the others had won some challenges and lost others, so the sign came down when they lost, got reclaimed when they won it back, then went right back up.
The whole point was to open for business every single day.
Shen Zhou was left speechless. In the end, all he could say was, "That's insane!"
Flying Bird First Martial Hall had an imposing name, but the place itself was far more modest.
As soon as they entered, they saw a vast training ground. At that moment, a burly young man around twenty-one or twenty-two was teaching a chubby boy how to throw punches.
When Tan Tong entered and saw the man, he called out, "Fifth Senior Brother."
The man turned at the sound of his voice and smiled. "Tan Tong! Come on in, come on in... I've got just the thing for you."
Fifth Senior Brother Pei Dahai was at the Coagulation Ninth Realm. He was sturdy and well-built, with close-cropped hair, giving him a neat, brisk look and the air of a body-cultivation martial artist.
After Shen Zhou and Qin Mingyue followed them inside, Tan Tong introduced them to each other.
Pei Dahai was a little surprised to see Qin Mingyue with them, but when he heard that Shen Zhou was Old Man Ji's newest disciple, his smile widened. He patted Shen Zhou on the shoulder and encouraged him, "Train hard under our teacher. Don't lose heart, don't give up. If you keep at it, you'll surely accomplish something."
Shen Zhou fell silent for a moment, then thought it over and asked, "Fifth Senior Brother, you must be a great cook, right?"
Pei Dahai looked confused. "Huh?"
"You're pretty good at dishing out empty promises and serving up chicken soup."
Unfortunately, Pei Dahai didn't get the joke.
Pei Dahai laughed and waved his hands. "I don't know the first thing about cooking. Fourth Senior Brother Xiaoyan usually makes the meals. You've come at an unfortunate time, too. Eldest Senior Brother and the others are away on an escort job, so I'll have to introduce you another day. Come on, come on... You can meet my newest martial hall apprentice while you're here."
Then he suddenly lowered his voice and reminded Tan Tong and Shen Zhou, "By the way, you two, help me out in a bit. Make this kid feel like he's made a lot of progress, so he won't run off."
Tan Tong was astonished. "What, Senior Brother? You tricked him?"
Pei Dahai said, "What do you mean, tricked him? He saw our martial hall's sign and insisted on staying to learn martial arts. What was I supposed to do? Then I realized he seemed pretty rich. He paid a thousand taels in tuition all at once, enough for our junior brothers to enjoy a month of medicinal baths, so I took him in. I'll give you the money to take back later, but you have to find a way to help me keep this apprentice here!"
Tan Tong was speechless and at a loss.
He had no idea how to trick someone!
Shen Zhou thought it was pretty absurd.
Anyone lured in by a sign outside a martial hall had to be a chuunibyou. Someone like that probably wouldn't be hard to fool.
But when he moved closer, he thought, Huh... Why does that fatso look familiar?
Meanwhile, Pei Dahai had already walked up to the chubby boy. "Hongyu, you've been training at our martial hall for a while now. Today I've specially brought my junior brother over to test your progress."
"Sure! I feel like I've improved a lot lately. I've been looking for someone to spar with."
As the chubby boy spoke, he turned around. When he and Shen Zhou met eyes, he blurted, "Huh... Shen Zhou!"
Shen Zhou finally recognized the chubby boy, too. He was surprised. "Dongfang Hongyu?"
That's right. Pei Dahai's new martial hall apprentice was the little chubby Dongfang Hongyu, who had signed up for Flying Bird Academy alongside Shen Zhou and the others earlier. He had only just barely passed, but Flying Bird Academy had ultimately rejected him.
After being rejected by the academy, Dongfang Hongyu had been unwilling to accept it. He was determined to learn some real skills and then prove himself to the people at Flying Bird Academy, so he hadn't gone home with his father.
When he'd gone looking for a martial hall, he'd found them all over the city, but only "Flying Bird First Martial Hall" had struck a chord with his chuunibyou soul. The little chubby Dongfang had thought, If they dare call themselves the best in Flying Bird City, they must have real skills.
So he...
Pei Dahai was surprised by what he was seeing, too. He asked, "Junior Brother Shen Zhou, you two know each other?"
Shen Zhou nodded, then briefly explained what had happened at Flying Bird Academy.
As soon as he finished, the little chubby Dongfang noticed something was off. He asked Shen Zhou, "Wait... How did you become Fifth Hall Master's junior brother?"
Shen Zhou said irritably, "I'm practicing martial arts at White Deer Academy now, and Senior Brother Pei studied there too. Of course I'm his junior brother."
"White Deer Academy? Is it impressive?"
"...At least I think it's a lot more impressive than Flying Bird Academy!"
"More impressive than Flying Bird Academy? Then how long have you been studying there?"
"Just over half a month."
"Come on, come on... Let's spar. I want to see what White Deer Academy can do with a good-for-nothing like you in half a month. If it really is impressive, I'll go there too!"
"..."
Shen Zhou's face darkened. "How am I a good-for-nothing?"
The little chubby Dongfang looked at him with disdain. "At the Flying Bird Academy entrance test, you failed both tests. If that doesn't make you a good-for-nothing, what does?"
"I..."
Just as Shen Zhou was about to explain, a deafening commotion suddenly rose outside the martial hall's gate.
Tan Tong asked curiously, "Why is it so noisy outside? Did something happen?"
Pei Dahai had already figured it out. Smiling, he said, "Nothing much. The Xu Family Martial Hall and the Yang Family Martial Hall are at each other's throats again."
As soon as Dongfang Hongyu heard that, he darted for the door like a rabbit, shouting, "Quick, quick, quick... We'll miss all the excitement if we're late!"
"..."
Everyone laughed.
Pei Dahai then said with a smile, "In that case, let's go have a look, too."
By the time Pei Dahai and the others went outside, the street nearby was already packed with onlookers.
The Yang Family Martial Hall and the Xu Family Martial Hall were on the same street, not far from each other, so they were easy to see from outside.
At that moment, a crowd from the Xu Family had completely blocked the entrance to the Yang Family Martial Hall. They were still shouting, "People of the Yang Family, come out and entertain us!"
A group of martial artists came out of the Yang Family Martial Hall with grim faces. Their hall master was named Yang Ming, a man in his thirties with a short beard. When he saw the Xu Family, anger flickered in his eyes. "Xu Tianqiao, you lost to us just three days ago. Why are you back today? What exactly do you want?"
Xu Tianqiao was the hall master of the Xu Family Martial Hall. He was around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, clean-shaven and youthful-looking. He said, "Hall Master Yang, we made our demands perfectly clear more than half a month ago. Hand over that man surnamed Yang and make him personally apologize to our Xu Family. Otherwise, this matter isn't over!"
Yang Ming looked helpless. "I already told you, our Yang Family doesn't have the person you're looking for. Why won't you believe me?"
Xu Tianqiao snorted. "Don't try that with me. 'We don't have anyone like that'? Your Yang Family just doesn't dare own up to what you did. And you call yourselves one of the Five Great Families? Aren't you ashamed? If you don't dare own up, take down that title of yours as one of the Five Great Families. Otherwise, I'm embarrassed on your behalf."
The people from the Xu Family Martial Hall immediately joined in, jeering. For a moment, the people from the Yang Family Martial Hall were mortified.
Over at Flying Bird First Martial Hall,
Shen Zhou watched for a while, completely baffled, then asked Pei Dahai what was going on.
Pei Dahai explained, "Ah, it's nothing much. More than half a month ago, some Xu Family disciples got beaten up by people from the Yang Family outside the city, and a bunch of their belongings were stolen, too. The Xu Family was furious, so they went to the Yang Family to demand an explanation. But the Yang Family denied it and said there was no such person. They argued back and forth until tempers flared. After that, the Xu Family started causing trouble every few days, either challenging them or deliberately injuring people from the Yang Family Martial Hall. The Yang Family couldn't take it anymore, so they fought back.
"They've already fought seven or eight times in the past half-month alone, with each side winning some and losing some."
"Oh, I see..."
Shen Zhou found it interesting and was just about to keep happily watching the spectacle when, unexpectedly, someone spotted Qin Mingyue, the number one beauty in Flying Bird City, standing at the entrance to Flying Bird First Martial Hall and shouted excitedly, "Look, it's Qin Mingyue, the number one beauty in Flying Bird City!"
In an instant, countless people turned to look.
There would have been nothing wrong with that, but then a young man in the Xu Family crowd spotted Shen Zhou beside Qin Mingyue, and everything suddenly changed.
The young man rushed over, pointing at Shen Zhou and gritting his teeth. "Yang Guo, so you're here! I finally caught you!"
Shen Zhou: "???"
Before you continue