Nine Palace Living Stakes

"At eighteen, you serve in the military—three months of mandatory martial training!"

"Right now you're young, and you might think this is a hardship. But later you'll understand that the grand examination after three months might be the only chance in your lives to change your fate."

"Succeed, and you're a dragon; fail, and you're a worm. Dragon or worm—it all comes down to this one gamble!"

In the cramped, crude wooden hut, Lu Ming slowly woke up, listening to the rhythmic thump thump thump of strikes rising and falling outside. Recalling those words spoken by a martial instructor a few days ago, he shook his head.

It was barely dawn, and already many people had risen to train. Who here thought this was a hardship? The competition was fierce!

Still, after a moment's rest, Lu Ming suppressed his drowsiness and got up.

In his past life, he had gone through the college entrance exams and knew this game well. After awakening his past-life memories a few days ago, he had quickly adapted.

But this world was different from his previous one. Here, martial arts reigned supreme. A powerful martial artist could command heaven and earth, establish a legacy, and be worshipped by the masses!

He was born a commoner. His only chance to train in martial arts was the mandatory military service everyone had to undergo at eighteen!

The military service was overseen by the local Military Service Bureau, lasting three months, ending with a grand examination.

The final results would first eliminate half the participants, forcing them back to civilian status and forbidding them from further martial training. If their original household was farming, they farmed; if artisan, they worked as artisans—no defiance allowed.

Next, among those who reached the passing line, half would be eliminated again, only earning the status of martial artist. Martial artists could enter martial arts halls, escort agencies, and other martial professions, continuing their training.

The remaining few were the true martial arts prospects, qualified to join martial arts sects.

In short, the military service grand examination would likely decide their entire lives!

Once they entered a martial arts sect, it meant soaring to the heavens from then on, becoming someone above others.

Conversely, being eliminated and reduced to a commoner meant a lifetime of living under others' thumbs.

Lost in thought, he quickly washed up, filled his stomach with dry rations, and pushed open the door. The first thing he saw was a narrow courtyard enclosed by earthen walls.

All around, rows of such courtyards lined up. Four hundred disciples each had their own single-room courtyard, convenient for training!

In the middle of the courtyard stood a neatly arranged three-by-three set of Nine Palace Stakes, spaced about one meter and twenty centimeters apart.

At this moment, the sky had not yet fully brightened, and all around came the sounds of stepping on stakes and striking wooden posts, rising and falling without end.

This was the martial art the Military Service Bureau taught them—the Nine Palace Living Stakes!

It looked very much like the Nine Palace Stakes of Bagua Palm from his past life. The eight directions of the trigrams, plus the center, made up the nine palaces.

But the Military Service Bureau's Nine Palace Living Stakes were somewhat different. The upper half of each stake was shaped like a puppet, with a chest, abdomen, hands, and a head—not just a straight wooden post.

When disciples trained, besides stepping through the stakes, they also had to strike specific spots marked with red dots, producing a sound, for it to count as a success.

And not a single one could be missed—it had to be nine strikes in total.

But...

Lu Ming changed into his gray training uniform and approached the Nine Palace Stakes, his gaze flickering as he looked at the red dots marked on different parts of the nine wooden stakes.

Reborn into a new life, he naturally refused to become an ordinary person, at the mercy of those martial arts masters!

Even if he couldn't become a martial arts prospect and enter a sect, he at least had to earn the status of martial artist after three months, gaining the right to continue training.

However, that meant he had to at least rank in the top two hundred.

If it were purely a matter of talent, his martial arts aptitude wasn't weak.

The entry level for the Nine Palace Living Stakes was nine strikes in three breaths. One breath meant one inhale and exhale, roughly three seconds.

In just half a month, his Nine Palace Living Stakes had already reached the level of nine strikes in five breaths, only two breaths away from entry level.

This talent placed him in the upper-middle range among all the disciples!

But martial arts training wasn't just about talent.

He could train at most two hours a day, after which he had to rest, or he would definitely injure his hands, or even strain the muscles and joints of his legs and feet.

His parents had died early, and he had grown up alone, struggling to get by, with no spare money to buy injury medicine.

As for the other disciples, even setting aside the few dozen from wealthy families, most of the rest came from better-off households than his.

Many had ample supplies of injury medicine. Though medicine couldn't let them train endlessly, they could still practice at least one or two more hours a day than he could, doubling his training time.

Without a decisive gap in talent, his final results were far from optimistic.

"Unfair!" someone nearby said. "Chen Jinyang, Shen Jue, and those guys have been training since childhood—they're on a completely different level from us, yet we're all taking the same exam."

"It's always been this way—rare for a poor family to produce a noble son! Even if those people waited until now to train, their families have tons of injury medicine to supply them. We can't compare."

"How can our three months of hard work match their decades of accumulation? The Military Service Bureau says it's selecting geniuses, but they turn a blind eye to this kind of injustice!"

One person started, and the others around chimed in, their voices full of resentment.

Thump thump thump!

Just then, Lu Ming suddenly heard a knock at the door.

Puzzled, he opened it and his eyes lit up. The visitor was broad-shouldered and imposing, none other than Shen Jue, the young master of the Shen family in the city!

Shen Jue wore a white training uniform. Compared to Lu Ming's gray coarse-cloth outfit, the white uniform was silk, bright and glossy—the difference was obvious at a glance.

Seeing this, a flicker of heat rose in Lu Ming's heart. Only disciples who had trained the Nine Palace Living Stakes to the level of nine strikes in three breaths or better were awarded this white training uniform.

Now there were about two hundred disciples of the Military Service Bureau, all dressed in white training uniforms.

In other words, in just half a month, he had already fallen behind two hundred people, teetering on the edge of elimination.

So after awakening his memories, he had found ways to earn money to buy medicine, striving to train a little more each day. This Shen Jue was one of his clients.

Seeing him open the door, Shen Jue immediately said:

"Lu Ming, tell me about another top-tier luxury item, so I can open my friends' eyes, heh heh! See if I can swindle a few martial arts manuals out of them."

Shen Jue's tone was rather rude. Lu Ming grumbled inwardly but didn't say much, replying with a prepared line:

"Senior Brother Shen, that would be an ant nest."

Shen Jue frowned: "Ant nest? You mean those ant holes? What's so luxurious about that?"

Lu Ming smiled: "An ordinary ant nest is naturally nothing special.

"But if you pour molten gold into an ant nest, forming a golden ant nest, that would be extremely luxurious.

"The luster of gold, combined with the complex tunnels of the ant nest, would be an absolute top-tier luxury item.

"There's only one drawback—gold is too expensive, and it's heavy, making it hard to make an entire ant nest..."

Before he could finish, Shen Jue was already overjoyed:

"Not bad! Coming up with an idea like that, you've got it in you. I knew I wasn't wrong about you!

"I'm going to get one made right now.

"Lu Ming, you're a talent. If you don't pass the big exam, you can work by my side."

With that, Shen Jue shoved a bottle of ointment into his hands and turned to leave in a hurry.

Watching his back, Lu Ming's mouth twitched.

In his past life, steeped in five thousand years of Chinese civilization, he naturally knew of some extremely extravagant things, so he used these "creative ideas" to trade with Shen Jue.

He had originally thought the golden ant nest was too expensive and might not suit Shen Jue's taste, but the guy casually said he'd get one made.

The gold an ordinary person couldn't earn in a lifetime was just a plaything for Shen Jue.

Was this the disparity of the world?

As for working by Shen Jue's side? That was just a nice way of saying it—in truth, it meant being a servant. As a servant to a rich young master, it was the best outcome for someone who failed the big exam.

Lu Ming shook his head dismissively and turned back into the courtyard.

Clutching the medicine in his hand, a trace of joy rose in his heart. He didn't feel the big exam was all that unfair.

Luck and family background were sometimes part of one's strength—he had understood that principle in his past life.

By the same logic... his Divine Ability panel was also part of his strength!

Bam!

Closing the courtyard door, Lu Ming's eyes flickered. He opened the medicine bottle and smeared some of the brown ointment on his fingers, thighs, knees, and ankle joints.

The places where he applied the ointment first felt cool, then slightly warm. The pain from yesterday's excessive stake-walking quickly faded significantly.

Without hesitation, he took a step forward, began his stride, hands leading, body following, and started walking the Nine Palace Living Stakes.

His body circled the stakes in arcs, his eyes fixed on the red dots on each stake. As his gaze moved, his hands followed, striking the wooden stakes.

"Thud, thud, thud..."

After five breaths, the stakes rang nine times, and he emerged from the other end of the Nine Palace formation.

[Evolving Acupoint Divine Ability (99/100)...]