Stingy

The layout of the Military Service Bureau's utility room was different from elsewhere.

Its greatest difference lay in the person sitting behind the counter—Wei Jinlin.

Even though he already knew it was Wei Jinlin, a flicker of oddity still surfaced in Lu Ming's heart as he walked into the utility room.

Wei Jinlin, Director of the Military Service Bureau, concurrently a martial instructor, and concurrently the steward of the utility room.

Lu Ming suddenly realized that in the half-month since entering the Military Service Bureau, aside from the disciples, he had only ever seen Wei Jinlin in the entire sprawling bureau.

Could it be that the whole bureau... no, that shouldn't be. Though he hadn't seen anyone at the public kitchen, there had to be cooks there.

After all, with four hundred disciples to feed, Wei Jinlin couldn't possibly handle that alone. A martial arts master like him had no need to play chef.

"Take it." As Lu Ming approached the counter, Wei Jinlin shot him a glance and pushed over a bundle that had been sitting ready on the table.

Looking through the open mouth of the bundle, Lu Ming saw two sets of white training clothes and about nine wooden tablets. Aside from that, there seemed to be nothing else.

Lu Ming asked, "Master Wei, these wooden tablets might break during training. I wanted to ask—if they do break, can I come get more?"

Wei Jinlin said flatly, "These are specially made tablets. Training with them won't hurt your hands easily, but they're not cheap to produce. If you break all nine and still haven't broken through, you'll have to buy more with your own money."

Lu Ming: "..."

No need to say more.

It suddenly hit him—Wei Jinlin, a Director, doubling as a martial instructor was one thing, but he wouldn't even hire someone to watch the utility room and did it himself. Wasn't this just stinginess?

He wanted to pocket every bit of money himself.

When the training tablets ran out, the disciples had to buy more with their own money.

Hoping he'd reward some injury medicine? Impossible.

Still, Wei Jinlin had never promised anything, so Lu Ming held no resentment.

He just silently counted himself lucky that Li Youning had given him injury medicine. Otherwise, things would have been tricky. At least now he had ten doses as a safety net, enough for a month.

With that, he took his leave.

Back in his own small courtyard, he heard the steady "thump thump thump" of impacts all around, mixed with shouts and heavy breathing. Everyone was already hard at work, grinding away.

Lu Ming could no longer hold back either. That morning at the martial arts arena, everyone had to queue for practice, spending most of their time training footwork and forms alone, barely getting any real striking in.

Besides, he didn't want to expose the Heaven Leak Divine Ability. If he trained in the arena, he couldn't strike the black leakage points, which made things awkward.

Since his daily training time already added up to four hours, he had only practiced basic movements that morning without walking the stakes.

Now he took out the nine wooden tablets and hung them on the nine dummy stakes at the positions Wei Jinlin had specified.

The wind blew, and the tablets swayed gently, clacking against the wooden stakes.

In his vision, every tablet had a small wisp of black smoke at a different spot—those were the black leakage points!

Black leakage points meant flaws. He hadn't examined the tablets closely before, but now, studying them and comparing them in his hands, his eyes widened in surprise.

These tablets were brown all over, but they felt somewhat soft to the touch, unlike the usual hard, brittle wood.

Each tablet seemed to have a hollow section inside, but the location varied—some in the middle, some at the ends, and even on the sides.

These hollow spots were clearly the key to breaking the tablets.

But since the hollows were in different places on each tablet, and with the three-breath time limit, he had no chance to test them one by one.

So Wei Jinlin's goal, he figured, was for them to develop a technique that could shatter a tablet in one hit, no matter where the hollow was.

It didn't seem easy!

Lu Ming thought to himself, but at the same time, a thrill of challenge rose in him. This was what made it interesting.

He was eager to see what kind of power he would end up training into!

He let go of the tablets and stepped back outside the Nine Palace Stakes.

Without hesitation, he slid into the stakes with a Mud-Wading Step and reached out to strike a tablet using the same hand technique he'd practiced on the stakes before.

"Eh?" The tablet swayed away with the wind, and he missed. Lu Ming blinked. So that was a factor too—they were testing his perception and accuracy.

He casually pressed down on the red dot of that stake, where another black leakage point sat.

Thump!

The black leakage point scattered lightly under his strike, then quickly gathered back.

He paid it no mind, feeling the wind beneath his feet as he borrowed momentum from the black leakage point. His waist twisted, toes turned inward, and with a Swing-Buckle Step, he dashed to the next stake.

"Tap!" He struck the tablet on that stake with a palm-blade, and the tablet swung sharply upward.

Lu Ming's heart stirred. Hitting that tablet felt like striking cowhide. He had gone all out, yet it only sent the tablet swinging.

Becoming a martial artist truly wasn't easy—it required diligent, hard training!

He sighed inwardly, but his hands and feet didn't pause as he pressed on to the next stake.

Thump! Tap! Tap! Thump...

After one full round of the Wooden Tablet Nine Palace Stakes, Lu Ming had only hit four tablets, and his time had stretched to about five breaths!

"Haah... haah..."

Feeling the tightly coiled cotton within his body slowly loosen, sweat poured down as he breathed in deep satisfaction.

Lu Ming thought to himself, though his first attempt at the Wooden Tablet Nine Palace Stakes was mediocre, his skill was still improving!

And...

[Acupoint Divine Ability Evolving (12/1000)...]

Demonstrating a single round of stake-walking before Wei Jinlin had also added a point of acupoint experience. Now, practicing once more increased it again, reaching 12 points!

Every time he trained the Nine Palace Living Stakes, he not only grew his martial arts power but also gained experience for his Acupoint Divine Ability.

This double reward left him quite satisfied.

"Keep going!" He smeared some injury medicine on his hands and feet, rested for a moment, then turned and stepped back into the Nine Palace Stakes.

He wanted to first train until he could hit all nine wooden tablets within three breaths, then attempt to shatter them all in the same time.

Three Breaths Nine Breaks was the standard for passing the Wooden Tablet Nine Palace Stakes. He was still far from it.

"Tap! Tap! Thud! Tap..."

The small courtyard echoed with sounds of strikes hitting either the wooden stakes or the wooden tablets.

Pools of sweat dried and soaked again, leaving irregular marks on the ground under the gradually westward sun.

[Evolving...]

[Acupoint Divine Ability Evolving (40/1000)...]

"Haah~"

Lu Ming finished his last round of the Nine Palace Living Stakes, feeling his entire body aching fiercely, sweat streaming like a waterfall. He knew he had reached his limit and couldn't train anymore today.

But seeing the acupoint divine ability experience reach 40, a slight curve tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Now he had enough injury medicine to use. At this rate, in less than a month, he could evolve his Acupoint Divine Ability once more.

At the same time, during his last few runs of the Wooden Tablet Nine Palace Stakes, he had managed to hit all nine wooden tablets. However, the time was still only five breaths.

He felt this progress was decent. After all, he had just started; he would slowly improve from here.

He applied medicine, rested a while, then went inside to wash up.

When he came out, he had shed his gray training uniform and changed into a white silk one. Touching its smooth texture, he felt refreshed and invigorated.

He had never worn such fine clothes before.

With the Divine Ability Panel, he believed this white training uniform was just the beginning. In the future, he would enjoy even better clothes and houses.

He thought to himself.

Seeing that the sky was growing late and it was almost time for dinner, he opened the door and stepped out.

But since the Public Kitchen hadn't yet sounded the gong to call for the meal, few people were out. Many were still buried in their training within the small courtyards.

Lu Ming wandered around the courtyard area, making his way to a grove of trees behind it.

Suddenly, he spotted two disciples in gray training uniforms, one tall and one short, surrounding another disciple also in gray. Their expressions seemed unfriendly.

"Li Hu, I hear you're good at finding things?"

The tall one said to the surrounded disciple, "Young Master Shen told us to find an anthill, but we can't. We need your help."